15th January 2008 Archive

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HP punts four new ProLiant servers at SMBs

Mixes-up mid-market merchandise

Hewlett-Packard is pushing four new ProLiant servers destined for the wiring closets of mid-sized businesses. According to HP's Proliant marketing director John Gromala, the new systems will revamp the company's SMB gear with more compact systems and lower prices. The new systems are listed below. We will divide the unit specs …

Servers 15 Jan 00:21
EMC finally puts Symmetrix line on thin provisioning diet

Distracts truancy with a FLASH!

Any magician worth his salt knows about distraction. A grand movement with the left hand while the right hand lifts your wallet and keys is Hocus-Pocus 101. EMC issued a pair of announcements today, employing marketing shenanigans along the way. The company barked about flash-based storage for its Symmetrix hardware line - …

Storage 15 Jan 01:52
Most home routers 'vulnerable to remote take-over'

Universal plug and prey

Security mavens have uncovered a design flaw in most home routers that allows attackers to remotely control the devices by luring an attached computer to a booby-trapped website. The weakness could allow attackers to redirect victims to fraudulent destinations that masquerade as trusted sites belonging to banks, ecommerce …

Channel Register 15 Jan 04:13
Brighton professor bans Google

And don't even think about Wikipedia

The professor of media studies at the University of Brighton has had enough of students turning in "banal and mediocre work" and decided that Google and Wikipedia must go. Tara Brabazon provides her students with a reading list, of books, and expects their work to reference those works, rather than a rehash of a Wikipedia …

Bootnotes 15 Jan 08:42
Bill Gates lives inside of Facebook CEO

And Ninthly The second coming

I'm so very disappointed in all of you. The classic line paraded in the mainstream press is that Microsoft has missed out on the Web 2.0 Experience. Google, MySpace, CredNodge and all the rest have beat the great giant - the last bastion of pure, honest capitalism. Even worse, you're sure that Bill Gates has given up on …

Bootnotes 15 Jan 09:05
Price war looms in corporate 100Mb market

Hundreds of megabits for hundreds of pounds

A corporate Ethernet price war could be on the cards, with a newcomer using Next Generation Network (NGN) technology to offer 100 megabit Ethernet for £800 a month. Commercial Internet and other services have been, traditionally, based on legacy systems and up to six months ago the bulk of customers were asking for managed …

Data Networking 15 Jan 10:22
Register Books' online courses still up for grabs

Site offer Get started in minutes

With the introduction last week of our brand new Online Learning Courses, Register Books can now consider itself to have global appeal, overcoming the many physical problems of delivery to our overseas friends. We have a huge range of courses covering many different topics, and access privileges for all of them can be delivered …

Site News 15 Jan 10:23
Second-hand cars still top customer complaints list

But mobile phones and ISPs are gaining fast

Figures from Complaints Direct put second-hand cars as the most complained about product in 2007, though mobile phone contracts came a close second, and mobile phone handsets managed a notable number four. Overall, complaints to the government-run service were up 18 per cent on 2006, with more than 800,000 lodged. Almost 42, …

Mobile 15 Jan 10:25
Messenger skims past Mercury

Beams back images of first approach

NASA's Messenger yesterday successfully completed its first fly-by of Mercury, passing roughly 124 miles (200km) above the surface of the planet. En route to this initial encounter, Messenger's Narrow Angle Camera took the opportunity to snap the approach, as seen in this image taken on 13 January when the spacecraft was …

Space 15 Jan 10:29
PS3 component cost halved in 12 months, analyst claims

Console's parts now cost $400, apparently

Sony's PlayStation 3 costs just $400 (£200) to make these days - about half of what the console cost to produce when it was launched in November 2006. So claims Nikko Citigroup analyst Kota Ezawa, BusinessWeek reports. Ezawa puts the reduction down to increased volumes, cheaper components but most particularly much-reduced …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 10:55
UK faces big jump in renewable targets

Sevenfold increase by 2020

Brussels will next week tell Britain to massively increase use of renewable energy in order to hit increased targets by 2020. The European Union is setting different targets for different member states. The target is for the average EU country to get 20 per cent of its energy from renewable resources compared to an average of …

Environment 15 Jan 11:06
Intel readies 15 CPUs for Centrino revamp

Count 'em...

How many new and updated 45nm mobile microprocessors is Intel planning to launch alongside 'Montevina', the next generation of its Centrino laptop platform? It's going to launch 15, industry insiders claim. Count 'em... Core 2 Extreme X9300 - 12MB of L2, core speed unknown, FSB 1066MHz, TDP 45W Core 2 Extreme X9100 - 6MB of …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 11:20
Plague: The new Black Death

Threat to humanity ignored, researchers warn

Scientists have warned that plague, scourge of the medieval world, poses a "a growing but overlooked threat" as it spreads slowly into hitherto unaffected territories. According to a team including Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool, while plague has "only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the …

Biology 15 Jan 11:34
Military industrial complex aims to revamp email

Trust but verify

A consortium of British and US military agencies and defense and aerospace firms have agreed a new standard for secure email. Security experts are watching the developments closely, but are unsure how much of the specification will make it into public use or commercial email security products. The secure email specification …

Enterprise Security 15 Jan 11:34
AMD rewrites four-core Phenom roll-out timetable

9700 and 9900 delay confirmed

AMD has confirmed that the release of two of its Phenom processors, the 9700 and the 9900, has slipped from this quarter to the next. It claimed the move had been made for marketing reasons not manufacturing issues. The 9700 and 9900 clock at, respectively, 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz. They're based on the same core as the troubled ' …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 11:36
Microsoft develops 'intelligent' shopping trolley

Does it yell out when it's been nicked?

Supermarket trolleys have always been pretty basic - until now. Microsoft is co-developing a new one featuring an integrated display that tells you what to buy, what aisle it’s in and how much you’ve spent. MediaCart's shopping trolley features a colour display Dubbed MediaCart, hungry shoppers swipe their loyalty card …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 11:46
Terrifying farm mechanoid plan for Japan

No other way to cope with monster vegetable menace

In a further outre twist, the budding Japanese robot'n' exoskeleton industry plans to move into a new sector. Researchers in the land of the Rising Sun have exhibited a mighty powered suit which could see increasingly elderly farmers - lifespans prolonged indefinitely perhaps, by advancing medical technology - striding across …

Science 15 Jan 12:00
Toshiba pitches HD DVD players as... DVD machines

So why buy HD DVD discs then?

A week after the battle with Blu-ray Disc swung further toward that rival format, Toshiba said it will promote its players on their ability to upscale standard-definition content for HDTVs. "Major initiatives... are designed to spotlight the superior benefits of HD DVD as well as the benefits HD DVD brings to a consumer’s …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 12:07
SAP dodges bullet in Q4

Software sales lead the show

SAP shares were up more than four per cent yesterday as the software company released prelimary figures showing a 10 per cent growth in revenues. For the three months ended 31 December, 2007, SAP brought in €3.25bn compared to €2.95bn for the same period of 2006 - an increase of about 10 per cent or 14 per cent using constant …

Channel Register 15 Jan 12:11
Sony talks up MP3 dictation gadgets

Memo: buy milk

Sony is literally talking up its latest MP3 player, because the gadget's also a handy dictation unit. Sony's ICDUX70 and ICDUX80 units come as 1GB or 2GB units respectively The 1GB ICDUX70 and 2GB ICDUX80 each have built-in microphones for recording up to 290 hours and 581 hours of chatter, respectively, which is definitely …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 12:11
Samsung's F700V to be all-white on the night?

Vodafone shows off new handset colour

Samsung has stayed true to its word and created a white-edged version of its F700 smartphone. Samsung's F700V: now with white trim When the original black-edged handset was released late last year, the Korean giant said it also planned to create several different colour versions of the handset. Until now, consumers had seen …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 12:25
Motorola swings axe at TTPCom

Lays off half the staff

Motorola is pruning its Cambridgeshire presence by laying off 155 people at TTPCom, the technology firm snapped up by the American phone manufacturer in March 2006. TTPCom, not to be confused with former sibling The Technology Partnership which is still headquartered nearby, specialised in providing a modular platform for …

Mobile 15 Jan 12:40
Beeb confirms iPlayer streaming dominance

P2P outnumbered 8 to 1

The BBC has revealed that eight times as many people are using its Flash-based streaming iPlayer than the desktop P2P version. The first publicly available official figures since the Christmas launch say 3.5 million iPlayer programmes were watched by more than one million viewers between 25 December and 7 January. More good …

Applications 15 Jan 12:52
Netgear EVA8000 network media player

Review Now with Matroska support

The EVA8000 was a high-end product when it was announced, bundling HDMI with 1080P HD playback. But the video encoding world moves quickly. It may have been suitable when HD standards were emerging, but a few months later the situation looks decidedly different. H.264 has emerged as the HD codec of choice, although you'll also …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 13:07
eBay in sensational Back to the Future coupon deal

Time travellers click here for free cash

We're delighted to announce today that the world's favourite tat bazaar is offering members of its eBay Extra programme free cash to spend on purchases in the form of a "coupon", although the offer is evidently open to those in possession of a fully functioning time machine or lucky enough to live near a time-shifting wormhole …

Bootnotes 15 Jan 13:13
Polaroid pops out ink-less photo printer

No ink? No problem!

Polaroid has unveiled a handheld printer which it hopes will have us all printing out copies of our terrible New Year’s Eve snaps directly from digital cameras and mobile phones. Polaroid's Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer: inkless Dubbed the Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer, or PDIMPP for short, the unit …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 13:14
Scareware scammers target Mac users

False security

Scareware scammers are trying to hoodwink Mac users into buying ineffective security software. MacSweeper is the first rogue cleaning tool for Macs, net security firm F-Secure reports. MacSweeper claims to clean evidence of surfing for porn and other potentially embarrassing material from Macs. The tool turns up items to be …

Security 15 Jan 13:33
SMBs grasp Vista nettle

US reseller urges 'case-by-case' approach

Windows Vista appears to be gaining ground among organisations, with small businesses (SMBs) proving particularly keen to adopt the software giant's latest operating system, according to a new report. US reseller CDW Corp tracked Vista adoption from 31 October to 7 November 2007 and found that 53 per cent of those firms that …

Channel Register 15 Jan 13:36
China Mobile walks away from the iPhone

Sharing revenues just isn't communist

China Mobile has confirmed that negotiations with Apple, regarding a China launch for the iPhone, have broken down with no sign of resuscitation. The sticking point, according to the Chinese news site Sina, was the revenue share that Apple wanted. This was purportedly 30 per cent, something that China Mobile was unlikely to …

Mobile 15 Jan 13:41
Nokia shutters German handset factory

2,300 layoffs

Nokia is shut down its Bochum plant in Germany by mid 2008. The closure will affect at least 2,300 Nokia employees, the company said today. Veli Sundbäck, executive vice president of Nokia and chairman of the supervisory board of Nokia GmbH, says production of mobile devices in Germany is no longer feasible due to market …

Mobile 15 Jan 13:46
US boffins create GM 'supercarrot'

Need a calcium boost? Click here

US scientists have created a genetically-modified carrot which delivers a much higher dose of calcium than the bog-standard carrot and may help "ward off conditions such as brittle bone disease and osteoporosis", the BBC reports. The team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas claims in the Proceedings of the National …

Biology 15 Jan 13:49
FBI to get UK biometric database hookup?

1776 continues to cost money

The list of police and security forces which can gain automated access to UK law-enforcement biometric databases may be set to widen, according to reports. The national databases of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand could be interlinked, under the so-called "Server in the Sky" initiative, the Times and the Guardian …

Law 15 Jan 13:54
Computacenter launches software distie division

Beefs up interest in everyone's favourite V-word

Computacenter Distribution (CCD) has poached Phil King from rival SCH to run its new software division. The firm's biz unit director Lee Perkins told The Register that CCD decided to step into the burgeoning software marketplace following demands from its customers. He said CCD hoped to plump up market share in virtualisation …

Channel Register 15 Jan 13:56
Satellite sea launch successful

Promise of improved comms in Asia Pacific

The Thuraya-3 mobile voice and data services satellite has been successfully entered geosynchronous transfer orbit after having launched from the Oydessy Pacific Ocean rocket platform. A Zenit-3SL rocket carrying the 5,173kg, Boeing-built satellite took off at 3:49am PST from a location on the equator on a mission to put a …

Space 15 Jan 15:14
3 gives up (Super)drugs

Cuts down to 20 stores

3 is pulling concessions out of 107 Superdrug stores in the UK, leaving only 20 in place, citing the increase in their own stores as the reason behind the cuts. 3 moved into Superdrug back in 2003, thanks to them becoming siblings when the high-street drug dealer was bought by Hutchinson Whampoa in 2002. That put 3 into 60 …

Mobile 15 Jan 15:15
Japanese whalers lash protesters to mast

Alleged assault during boarding

Two campaigners from anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd are "in custody" aboard Japanese whaling vessel the Yushin Maru 2 after boarding the ship in the Antarctic, the BBC reports. The pair were allegedly assaulted and tied to a radar mast during the action, Sea Shepherd claims. The pair - Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton …

Biology 15 Jan 15:30
Parliament ponders the weight of e-petitions

Westminster goes all Web 2.0

A House of Commons committee meets tomorrow to gather evidence on the wisdom of giving electronic petitions the same status as paper petitions. The House of Commons Procedure Committee will gather to hear evidence tomorrow afternoon from Tom Steinberg, founder of mySociety and the man behind the Prime Minister's e-petitions …

Government 15 Jan 15:48
ISPs nominate UK record industry as top internet villain

Put your handbags down ladies

The behind-the-scenes row between broadband providers and the record industry over filesharing has turned public, with internet trade association ISPA nominating the BPI for its "Villain of the Year" gong today. BPI boss Geoff Taylor. Caption suggestions in the comments please. The ISPs are under pressure to make a …

Music and Media 15 Jan 15:50
Android struggles to life

New platform, old handset

Linux specialists a la Mobile has demonstrated Google's Android platform running on a mobile phone handset, an HTC Qtek 9090, and explained how a development house might make money from Android. Getting the Android code to execute on a handset is technically challenging. Even though Boston-based a la Mobile was beaten to the …

Mobile 15 Jan 16:00
MWg touts Atom handset duo

Based on CPUs, not particle accelerators

The Mobile and Wireless Group (MWg) has created two new smrtphones: the Atom Life and the Atom V. MWg's Atom Life... MWg was created last year when Telefonica O2 ditched its device business in Asia, leaving it to be run by the existing Asian management team and UK online retailer Expansys, which came on board as a private …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 16:02
US chief spook pushes electronic dragnet policy

Not paranoia, just awareness

US cyber-security policies may give US intelligence agencies access to any email, file transfer or web search. The proposals from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, which have entered into a draft of US Cyber-Security Policy, would legitimise data trawling on a scale that would make the current controversy about …

Government 15 Jan 16:02
Rebranding the RIAA

Competition Results Lobby group gets the Strategy Boutique treatment

Last week, we reported the possibility that the lobby group that represents America's sound recording owners (RIAA) might merge with the global sound recording owners lobby group (IFPI). This raised the awful possibility that the Recording Industry Ass. of America would disappear - making all those "Boycott the RIAA"-type …

Music and Media 15 Jan 16:07
BT Vision inks Disney-ABC deal

Desperate Housewives on demand

BT Vision has signed a content deal with Disney-ABC Intl. Television which will see subscribers able to enjoy over 650 episodes of hits such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. According to Variety, the roster of shows also includes Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy and Ghost Whisperer, all of which can be had on a pay-per-view …

Telecoms 15 Jan 16:10
Storage is still sexy, claims Iomega

Catwalk capacity

Iomega has updated its svelte range of designer 2.5in portable hard drives with a larger capacity model and a better connected interface. Provided you have the eGo to match. Iomega's eGo drive, in sexy, supermodel silver The eGo range, which first hit the catwalks high-street back in June, already offered a hip flask-esque …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 16:31
NASA embosses space images for the blind

'Touch the Invisible Sky'

NASA today released Touch the Invisible Sky, a 60-page book using 28 embossed images from its Great Observatories, coupled with large-print and braille text to bring the "majestic images" to the visually-impaired and blind. The tome's pictures - from the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space …

Space 15 Jan 16:46
Boffins: Antimatter comes from black holes, neutron stars

'No one could have expected so much unexpectedness'

Topflight astrophysics boffins believe they may have cracked the tricky problem of how to make antimatter, which would be useful for many purposes: for instance powering relatively practical starships, or - of course - blowing up an entire planet in one go. However, it appears that making antimatter requires the possession of a …

Physics 15 Jan 16:55
Azlan rejigs senior European team

Goes after tasty SMB biz

IT disty Azlan confirmed today that it has restructured its European management team. It said in a statement that Uwe Stein has taken on the newly-created role of director for the firm's European marketing division, while Ruediger Gunther steps into Stein's previous position as director of Azlan's European midrange systems and …

Channel Register 15 Jan 17:06
Google tidies up iPhone apps for Macworld

Showing what's possible online

As the Macworld show starts in San Francisco Google has speeded up its iPhone applications, as well as improving its customised homepages and providing quick links to users' favourite Google applications. Google has long endorsed the idea of online applications, and until the iPhone SDK becomes available (due in February) the …

Mobile 15 Jan 17:13
Apple to charge $20 for iPod Touch update

Macworld Expo But latest iPhone firmware will be free

Apple has sold more than 4m iPhones since the handset was launched in June 2007, CEO Steve Jobs said today - an average of 20,000 a day, he said. That was a prelude to the announcement of the phone's latest firmware - and one for the iPod Touch that comes at a price Unfortunately, the Macworld keynote was short on up-to-date …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 17:42
Apple looks to movie rentals to revive Apple TV box

Macworld Expo Price cut, new system software coming

Apple is to re-launch its Apple TV set-top box as a movie rental system, offering HD content for $4.99 a pop as a direct download. The hardware's getting cheaper too. Regular, DVD-quality programming will be on offer to, CEO Steve Jobs said, at a lower price: $3.99 for new titles, $2.99 for old ones. Viewers will have just 24 …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 18:05
It was the MacBook Air sub-notebook

Macworld Expo The world's thinnest notebook, Apple claims

For once the rumour mill was right. "There's something in the air," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. And then he hit us with the MacBook Air. It’s aluminium, has black keys, is super, super thin, and Steve held it easily with his fingertips. Thinnovation “It’s the world’s thinnest notebook,” he went on. It has a 13.3in widescreen …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 18:36
Apple NAS box ties in to Leopard's Time Machine

Macworld Expo Time Capsule launched

Apple today renewed its AirPort Extreme BaseSation Wi-Fi router, adding in a "server grade" hard drive to convert it into a network-attached storage box dubbed the Time Capsule. Apple's Time Capsule: 500GB or 1TB NAS box As the name suggests, it's designed to work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's Time Machine automatic …

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 19:17
Dreamhost billing cock-up shocks customer bank accounts

What a difference an '8' makes

Customers of the Los Angeles-based web hosting provider Dreamhost awoke to an unwelcome pang in their wallets today. A late-night accounting cock-up caused every customer to be charged a year's worth of truant payments when the wrong date was slipped in its automated billing program. On Dreamhost's blog, the provider pinned …

Telecoms 15 Jan 19:58
Red Hat flips CEO, as Microsoft 'goes' astroturfing

Radio Reg Adobe and MuleSource tune open source assault

MacWorld, MacWorld, MacWorld. Let those proprietary clowns play with their toys and false idols. We'll stick with open source decency - thank you very much - and dish out Episode 9 of Open Season. As always, we had Alfresco's Matt Asay and Mulesource's Dave Rosenberg on the show. They're bloggers, but we'll forgive them. I was …

Open Season 15 Jan 20:25
British software pirate faces up to 10 years in jail

Flogs software on eBay

A British man who was selling £12,000 software for £12 on eBay faces up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to copyright infringement and will be sentenced in February. Michael Walton broke an encryption code in the software which allowed him to make copies of it. He sold the copies on eBay, where he reportedly had 80 …

Channel Register 15 Jan 20:42
VMware buys application virtualization joint

Thinstall hops into fat wallet

All the investor capital jingling in VMware's pockets has given the virtualization giant a healthy appetite for acquisitions. VMware said today it's planning to buy Thinstall, an application virtualization software firm based in San Francisco for an undisclosed sum. Thinstall makes a software suite for application …

Virtualization 15 Jan 22:29
Qualcomm and Intel go head-to-head in mobile internet devices

Killer phones or kill-a-phone?

The convergence of PC and cellphone architectures has brought Intel and Qualcomm increasingly into conflict, and at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, both showed prototypes of their platforms for next generation mobile devices. Both silicon giants, along with device makers like Nokia, see the current …

Wireless 15 Jan 22:33
Caught on camera: the Downfall of HD DVD

NSFW Art imitates life...

Act 3. Scene 1. The enemy forces are moving ever closer. Trapped within the bunker, the minds behind a daring attempt to win world domination ponder their final downfall... Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Hilarious. YouTube poster Sacolton, we salute you.

Reg Hardware 15 Jan 22:42
Mojo-free Jobs delivers Macworld goods

Macworld 2008 One more thing: nothing

Is Steve Jobs losing his mojo? Almost speechless by the end of his Macworld keynote, the Apple chief executive's "to-do-list" left little by way of the surprises or thrills legions of Jobs-loving fanboys have come to expect. Especially as the two most eagerly awaited announcements there were pretty much public knowledge before …

Hardware 15 Jan 23:29