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21st August 2007 Archive

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  • Canon bulks out compact cam range

    Point, shoot, zoom, etc

    Canon has spent all its ammo in a single burst and launched not one, but five new compact digital cameras. The selection seems to offer something for almost every amateur snapper, with models ranging from a 12.1-megapixel job with scratch-resistant LCD screens to an eight-megapixel camera for less-advanced users. Canon's …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 00:02

  • Paramount, Dreamworks go all out for HD DVD

    Spielberg movies excepted

    HD DVD gained fresh ammunition for its battle with rival next-gen optical disc format Blu-ray Disc today when Paramount said it would support the format exclusively on a global basis. And since Paramount distributes Dreamworks' movies, they too will be HD DVD only going forward. Well, almost... The spin doctors admitted: " …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 00:02

  • Apple puts refurbished iPhones on sale

    $100 off

    Want a cheaper iPhone? Apple has begun offering refurbished handsets for $100 less than it charges for freshly made models. So a refurbished 4GB iPhone costs $399, while the pre-owned 8GB model costs $499. Apple said both come with a one-year warranty, extendible to two years with a $69 payment. They are tested and certified …

    Phones 21 Aug 2007, 00:08

  • Ion drives USB deck to digitise cassettes

    USB LP decks are well known, but they can't help you digitise all those old cassettes you've got stuck in a box in the loft - or even on your living-room shelves. This gizmo can, though: a USB-connected tape deck. Ion's Tape2PC: tune in to your old tapes Made by Ion, the company behind the USB turntables, the Tape2PC is a …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 01:18

  • QuickTek Base Station upgrade promises 802.11n range boost

    Does 130 bucks seem a right amount to pay to boost your 802.11n Wi-Fi router's range? That's what US company QuickTek is charging for an add-on three-aerial high-gain antenna for Apple's latest AirPort Extreme Base Station. QuickTek's Base Station booster: extra range for 802.11n? The update involves hooking the antenna …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 01:41

  • Monster Trojan monsters job seekers' records

    Mommy, there's a horse under my bed

    Monster.com suffered a major data breach at the weekend, with a Trojan horse stealing more than 1.6 million records from the job search site's database. Symantec's Security Response blog reports the Trojan, called Infostealer.Monstres, can steal sensitive information from Monster.com by using employer accounts which have …

    Security 21 Aug 2007, 02:33

  • El Reg protests North Korean internet domain

    Nuts to KP

    The Register isn't too happy about last week's news that North Korea is poised to register its own Internet domain. No, we don't have a problem with the communist stronghold joining our nothing-less-than-capitalistic worldwide party, first reported by The Associated Press. But we do take issue with its choice of domain name. …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 02:38

  • Dell's iSCSI assault revealed

    Exclusive Virtual attack on SMB market

    Dell will host a major storage product unveiling in September, and we've got our money on an iSCSI storage device the company has been hinting at for months as part of the show. The Register has learned that Dell is set to unveil a new iSCSI system called MD3000i. The unit will reportedly run on the same physical platform as …

    Storage 21 Aug 2007, 06:40

  • Microsoft vs. Google – the open source shame

    Comment Does anyone care when hippies get cancer?

    Somebody toss me a Che Guevara T-shirt. Google and Microsoft have gone to war over open source software. On Aug. 10, Redmond submitted the Microsoft Permissive License to the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Should the license be approved, Microsoft would receive the "open source" seal of approval that only the OSI – by self- …

    Applications 21 Aug 2007, 06:55

  • Girls prefer pink: official

    While boys get the blues

    Two Newcastle Uni researchers appear to have confirmed what the manufacturers of "My Little Pony" have known all along: that girls have a natural preference for pink while boys demonstrate a penchant for blue. Anya C Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling of the seat of learning's Institute of Neuroscience and School of Biology and Psychology …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 08:44

  • Cadbury bows to 'bring back Wispa' net campaign

    Victory for choc bar fanatics

    Cadbury has agreed to resurrect the Wispa bar it consigned to history in 2003 after a concerted net campaign in which choc fans mobilised on Facebook and YouTube to demand satisfaction: Admittedly, the above's not the most energetic call-to-arms ever to grace cyberspace, but it does form part of a critical activist mass - …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 08:45

  • Paper calls for local ID cards

    'More practical' than national ones

    A think tank has argued that local authority "entitlement cards" could be more practical than the National Identity Card New Local Government Network (NLGN) has published a pamphlet (pdf) on the subject, entitlesLocal Identity: The role of local entitlement cards in public service delivery. It says local cards could prove to …

    Security 21 Aug 2007, 08:50

  • Info office to monitor blogs

    Will brief UK.gov on major online debates

    The Central Office of Information is developing a media briefings service to inform government about major online debates. The COI's Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) is working on an online monitoring product to track public debates from blogs. It aims to highlight those that generate significant debate on government policy and …

    Policy 21 Aug 2007, 09:07

  • Garmin tops mobile navigation market

    Sales up 116%

    The mobile navigation device market has a new king with a new report revealing that Garmin is the top seller in the field. Research from Canalys shows Garmin has claimed the top spot for the second quarter of 2007 after rival TomTom had led the way for the past two years. In total, 7.4 million mobile navigation devices were …

    Mobile 21 Aug 2007, 09:14

  • Little bear harbouring isolated neutron star

    Weirdo stellar remnant spotted

    A group of American and Canadian astronomers have spotted what appears to be an isolated neutron star relatively near to Earth, the BBC reports. It is very rare for neutron stars to be found in singles: usually they have a companion supernova remnant for company. If it is confirmed, it will be only the eighth known lone neutron …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 09:36

  • Robber held up bookies with vibrator

    Jail for Rampant Rabbit blagger

    A robber who held up a Leicester bookmaker's with his girlfriend's vibrator has been jailed for five years, the BBC reports. Nicki Jex, 27, of Braunstone, Leicester, concealed the Rampant Rabbit in a carrier bag and, pretending it was a gun, held up Ladbrokes in Narborough Road on 27 December 2006. The manageress handed over £ …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 09:39

  • UK ecommerce breaks £4bn a month

    Report shows 80% more sales

    July saw a massive jump in online retail, with sales rising 80 per cent on last year to a new all-time high, according to e-tail industry body IMRG. The organisation's research indicates that UK online retail sales exceeded £4bn in a month for the first time. IMRG reports that online sales for July totalled £4.2bn, £1.86bn …

    Financial News 21 Aug 2007, 09:45

  • Real time location systems are the new buzz in RFID

    Look after your assets

    A new acronym is being banded around the RFID world - that of RTLS. What is a real time location system (RTLS)? The simplest definition I have come across is that it is a system of finding the position of assets using active RFID tags. The tags broadcast a signal, which is received by three reader antennas. The time each signal …

    Broadband 21 Aug 2007, 09:54

  • Doctor Who to meet self in Children in Need special

    Peter Davison to guest, insider claims

    Doctor Who will meet himself in a one-off special for the BBC's Children In Need, the Sun reports. Peter Davison, who occupied the Tardis from 1982-4 as Doc number five, will appear in the Stephen Moffat-penned episode on 16 November. An insider told the Sun: "The Doctor is forever travelling though time so there's no reason …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 09:56

  • The difficulty of validating systems and users

    How to do it accurately?

    One of the issues plaguing identity management and online authentication systems is how to accurately validate the identity of the system or user connecting to a service. One possible means for identification that has attracted attention recently is finding and identifying a "MachineID", some form of unique identifier that is …

    Security 21 Aug 2007, 10:27

  • Naomi Campbell piles into Vogue

    WSA 'Black models sidelined', claims battling Streatham clotheshorse

    Battling Streatham clotheshorse Naomi Campell has fired a broadside against "glossy magazines" which she claims have "sidelined" black models in favour of their fair-skinned counterparts. According to the Times, Campbell last weekend took time from a beach holiday in Kenya to finger Vogue as a prime example, decrying: "Black …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 10:27

  • High street music retailer ChoicesUK goes titsup

    And then there were two

    The long death march of Britain's bricks and mortar entertainment chains moved a step closer to oblivion today, with the announcement that ChoicesUK is headed into administration. The Peterborough-based music, film, and gaming group has over 160 stores nationwide and employs 1,650 staff. A spokesman said it has been taking …

    Media 21 Aug 2007, 10:58

  • Slide towards IP gathers pace

    But fixed line telephony not dead yet

    The drift towards IP technologies is accelerating faster than anticipated, at the cost of security and stability, according to survey from Dimension Data. The survey suggests companies are failing to unify their IP-technology policies. Thirty-seven per cent of the 390 companies surveyed are already using VoIP, with 34 per cent …

    Networks 21 Aug 2007, 11:04

  • Climate change: looking for a haystack, not a needle

    Column Micro versus macro

    Weather forecasting. It's the archetypal "science doesn't know jack!" cop-out for mystics who think climatology isn't a science. Amuse yourself. Google for "climate change" and "weather forecasts" together. Among the many rants with LOTS OF CAPITALS and many exclamation marks, you'll find over 1,000 comments to Heidi Cullen's …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 11:24

  • Samsung plugs tiny Bluetooth earpiece

    Ohhhhh, love to lobe you baby

    Samsung has launched an impossibly tiny Bluetooth earpiece that’s more like a hearing aid than a wireless connectivity gadget. The WEP500 is likely to appeal to users searching for supremely minimalist Bluetooth kit, with the only drawback being the ever-present danger of it falling out and going the way of stray contact lenses …

    Phones 21 Aug 2007, 12:07

  • Adobe exec updates open source group think

    Innovation has its limits

    Sun Microsystems' former software chief has curbed his enthusiasm for free and open source software, drawing a line between the needs of communities and users. John Loiacono, now senior vice president of Adobe's Creative Business has claimed FOSS is not suited to environments where users want an integrated suite with common …

    Applications 21 Aug 2007, 12:16

  • Dolphins abandon Bay of Biscay

    Marine boffins very concerned

    Most of the dolphins usually spotted in the Bay of Biscay are missing this year, according to researchers at the wildlife conservation charity Marinelife. The group has been monitoring the whale, dolphin and seabird populations for the last 13 years as part of its Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP), using the P&O ferry …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 12:17

  • Researcher crosses swords with Google over XSS 'flaw'

    Bug or feature?

    Google has crossed swords with an independent security researcher who claims that the domain used by Google module applications provides a potential "safe haven" for phishing fraudsters. Google modules are small web apps (widgets) designed for functions such as displaying weather forecasts or sports scores on a third-party …

    Security 21 Aug 2007, 12:27

  • US boffins demo steampunk artificial arm

    Only a slight chance of explosion or toxic armpit cloud

    American researchers may have revolutionised the field of artificial limbs by adopting a new power source formerly used mainly in torpedoes and rockets. Prosthetic robot arms have been on something of a technological plateau for a while. Myo-electrics - in which functions can be controlled by muscle movement in the remaining …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 13:35

  • Time marches on to Nokia's latest handset

    The big hand is on the 6555

    Nokia has unveiled its latest clamshell handset, which is supposed to mirror a high-end luxury phone without the matching high-end luxury price tag. The 6555 is a 3G handset with a large analogue clock on its front fascia. The WCDMA and quad-band GSM handset has an internal screen of 240 x 320 pixels, that’s also capable of …

    Phones 21 Aug 2007, 13:45

  • Adobe improves Flash video

    More quality, less bandwidth

    The next version of Flash Player will support the H.264 video codec - allowing much better quality footage, for less bandwidth. H.264, also known as MPEG4 Part 10, is a video standard offering much greater compression than its predecessors, as well as working over a huge range of bandwidths and resolutions. Such is the …

    Software 21 Aug 2007, 13:58

  • Doctor faces High Court battle with GMC over weblink

    Exclusive Investigation into 'confidential' PDF

    A mental health doctor is headed for a showdown with the General Medical Council (GMC) in the High Court because she is accused of breaking confidentiality by posting a link on her blog. Dr Rita Pal's link led to an American site called Furious Seasons, which had published a PDF of the minutes of a July 2006 fitness to practice …

    Law 21 Aug 2007, 14:05

  • Evesham releases first product since administration

    Embattled computer maker turns on the telly

    Evesham Technology has announced its first product launch since axing 150 jobs and declaring a pre-pack administration deal earlier this month. The DTR250 box is a 250Gb digital video recorder and digital terrestrial Freeview receiver with a £169.99 price tag for all those customers still bravely queuing to buy Evesham kit. …

    The Channel 21 Aug 2007, 14:06

  • Amazon punts grot flicks to hardcore Natalie Portman fans

    Knows her audience

    It's often been suggested in these pages that the gifted actress Natalie "microphone head" Portman is apt to attract a certain breed of internet fan. See here and here for examples of our chronicling of this onanistic band of netizens. Final confirmation of the thesis comes to us today via international compact disc …

    Bootnotes 21 Aug 2007, 14:12

  • Northrop enters US Army monster raygun lorry race

    If it flies, it fries ... maybe

    Northrop Grumman has won a $8m US Army contract to develop a beam control system demonstrator for a laser energy weapon which can be mounted on an enormous truck. The Grumman demo kit will be in competition with a rival design to be developed by Boeing under a recent $7m contract. The US Army's High Energy Laser Tactical …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 14:35

  • Virgin Media boss in shock exit

    Burch falls

    Steve Burch, the chief executive of troubled UK cable monopoly Virgin Media, surprised industry watchers today by quitting the firm for "family and personal reasons". The company said it would soon begin a search for a permanent replacement. In the meantime chief operating officer Neil Berkett will take the reins. Burch …

    Business 21 Aug 2007, 14:35

  • Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop

    Review A laptop to replace your desktop

    Dell has hit refresh on its Inspiron range of notebooks and added the desktop replacement 1720, using the latest Intel Santa Rosa technology. This addition is one in a line of constant improvements to the Inspiron range, which appeals to both business and home users. Six different flavours are available... With the 1720, …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 14:59

  • Shuttle launches Glamour range of PCs

    Performance meets bling

    PC manufacturer Shuttle has blinged-up the casing for its two latest small form factor (SFF) PCs. The SG31G2 and SG31G5 take the Glamour Series name and sport some clean lines and stylish looks, whilst still managing to pack a powerful punch into a miniscule chassis. Shuttle said the office-orientated SG31G2 is based on the …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 15:03

  • Toshiba crams 320GB onto 2.5in HDD

    Capacity up, size down

    Toshiba has created the world’s largest capacity 2.5in hard disk drive, packing a stonking 320GB into the device. The storage monster is just one of nine-strong range of 2.5in drives destined for a selection of devices, including high-end notebook PCs. The manufacturer said that the MK3252GSX 320GB boasts an improved read- …

    Hardware 21 Aug 2007, 15:46

  • Solar waves make Earth ring like a bell

    Ding-dong

    Sounds generated deep in the fiery depths of the Sun make Earth, its atmosphere, and even its magnetic field ring like many cosmic bells. SOHO image of the Sun and an artist's impression of Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: NASA/ESA According to researchers on the Ulysses mission, there are distinct tones that are thought to …

    Science 21 Aug 2007, 15:48

  • BEA avoids NASDAQ drop - again

    So much for SOA

    BEA Systems continues to dice with fate, having evaded yet another attempt by US regulators to deprive the company of its NASDAQ listing. Regulators have granted the middleware company the latest in a series of stays of execution, pending a further review. BEA was due to be delisted on 23 August. The company has not filed a …

    Applications 21 Aug 2007, 15:53

  • Google pinches fewer pennies in video shutdown

    Takes the sting out of stingy

    After a nudge from The Reg - and what would seem to be thousands of angry emails - Google will now provide full refunds to anyone who purchased clips from the now defunct Google Video store. On August 10, the world's largest search engine quietly slipped an email to Google Video customers, saying it would soon shutdown the site …

    Applications 21 Aug 2007, 18:48

  • Sun data center goes less power-crazy

    Company eats its own greens

    After 12 months of planning and construction, Sun Microsystems is opening the doors on its newly consolidated data center - and ready to pass the green Kool-Aid along to its customers. Sun has reduced the area used by its hometown Santa Clara, California data center by half, from 254,000 sq. ft. to 127,000 sq. ft. The company …

    Servers 21 Aug 2007, 19:45

  • Storm Worm of a thousand faces

    Mutating malware hits cat lovers, music freaks

    Authors of a particularly nasty piece of malware known as Storm Worm have yet again shifted their tactics. They are creating a flood of email hoaxes that try to install a bogus "applet" so victims can redeem membership benefits to clubs related to music, online dating and other interests. The new emails bear subject headings …

    Security 21 Aug 2007, 20:59

  • Sun slots transactional memory into Rock

    Hot Chips Prays for code revolution

    Hoping to improve the state of server software, Sun Microsystems has confirmed that it will include support for transactional memory with the first generation of its Rock processors due out in the second half of next year. Sun's research and development teams have spent years working on a type of transactional memory that …

    Servers 21 Aug 2007, 21:21