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23rd January 2008 Archive

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  • Apple's record Q1 no match for pessimism over economy

    Someone activate the reality distortion field

    Apple reported its best quarter ever, as sales of iPods, Macs and iPhones lifted profit by a staggering 57 per cent. But unexpectedly low guidance for the current quarter, combined with flattening iPod sales in the US, sparked analyst concerns that a flagging US economy might dampen Apple's future. For its current quarter, …

    Financial News 23 Jan 2008, 00:47

  • Phone with foldable e-paper display to get summer roll-out

    Paperbacks out-evolved?

    Manufacturer Polymer Vision has announced that its Readius e-reader, which features a foldable, roll-out 5in screen, will finally hit stores later this year. Polymer Vision's Readius: has a 5in display and makes calls A prototype Readius has been around for some time, but this is the first time Polymer, which was created by …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 06:02

  • IT tackles benefit cheats

    You've been Fraimed

    Technology is helping catch benefits cheats but there are doubts about a key case management system, according to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) In Progress in tackling benefit fraud, the NAO praises the government's record in reducing fraud from an estimated £2bn in 2000-01 to £800m in 2006-07. The …

    Public Sector 23 Jan 2008, 09:37

  • Spotted in the wild: Home router attack serves up counterfeit pages

    Drive-by pharming

    A security researcher says he has observed criminals using a new form of attack that causes victims to visit spoofed banking pages by secretly making changes to their high-speed home routers. According to Symantec researcher Zulfikar Ramzan, the attack changes a router's settings controlling the domain name system server that …

    Data Networking 23 Jan 2008, 10:13

  • Two in court on Motorola insider dealing charges

    Regulator plays rough

    The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has taken two men to court over allegations of insider dealing during Motorola's takeover of TTP Communications. Christopher McQuoid, 39, of Royston, Hertfordshire, formerly general counsel of TTP Communications, and James William Melbourne, 74, of Ripley, Derbyshire, are accused of …

    Law 23 Jan 2008, 10:22

  • Drive-by download menace spreading fast

    Marks host malware

    Booby-trapped web pages are growing at an alarming rate with unsuspecting firms acting for nurseries for botnet farmers, according to a new study. Security watchers at Sophos are discovering 6,000 new infected webpages every day, the equivalent of one every 14 seconds. Four in five (83 per cent) of these webpages actually …

    Security 23 Jan 2008, 10:23

  • AMD rolls out Hybrid Graphics on budget DX10.1 GPUs

    Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 series launched

    AMD has rolled out its anticipated ATI Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 graphics chip families, pitching the DirectX 10.1 parts right at the budget end of the business. AMD's Radeon HD 3650: one GPU, many SKUs The 3600 series comprises just the 3650, but expect it to be available in a wide range of versions differentiated by memory …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 10:37

  • Nintendo sells 5m Wiis in Japan

    Hit target faster than PS2 did

    Nintendo has now sold more than 5m Wii consoles in its home territory, reaching that point six weeks sooner than Sony's PS2 took, but not as quickly as Nintendo's own DS handheld. The DS passed 5m mark in 56 weeks. The Wii took 60 weeks and the PS2 66 weeks. From the Wii's launch on 2 December 2006 to 20 January 2008, 5,019, …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 11:03

  • Dwarves hidden in sports bags target Swedish coaches

    Police probe audacious cargo-hold robberies

    Swedish police are quizzing "people of limited stature" with criminal records following a spate of robberies from the cargo holds of coaches - possibly carried out by dwarves smuggled onboard in sports bags. According to the Sun, the gang responsible pack their vertically-challenged accomplices into bags and stick them in with …

    Bootnotes 23 Jan 2008, 11:20

  • Cisco draws up certification for design wannabes

    Nitty-gritty testing

    Cisco has beefed up its reseller certification programme to give customers the opportunity to get involved with the firm's network architecture strategy. The network giant said yesterday that individuals with the right credentials can now sit an exam which focuses on multi-vendor design principles, theory, and analysis. The …

    Channel Register 23 Jan 2008, 11:43

  • HD DVD player sales share slumps

    Warner move has stronger pull than Toshiba price cuts?

    This month hasn't just seen a relative decline in US HD DVD software sales - purchases of players appear to be down to, the latest figures from market watcher NPD suggest. The numbers, relayed by website The Digital Bits, cover weekly sales of dedicated players - so the PS3 and the Xbox 360 add-on are not included - from the …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 11:43

  • Tiscali chief plots sell-off

    Succumbing to cheapskate fatigue

    Tiscali customers and employees can look forward to more turmoil in the next two years. The Italian-owned group's boss Tommaso Pompei says he's expecting to sell up to rivals as it struggles to compete with richer players in the broadband market. Up until now, Tiscali has been a predator in the ISP consolidation game, snapping …

    Telecoms 23 Jan 2008, 11:46

  • Sony denies Euro, US white PS3 plan despite FCC filing

    Sony talks down white console

    Sony has talked down rumours that the white PlayStation 3 is on its way to North America and/or Europe, despite the company filing suggestive documents with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sony's white PS3: already available in Japan The documents were filed with the FCC by Sony Computer Entertainment …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 11:54

  • Civil servants still sticking unencrypted data in the post

    Groundhog Data Court case CDs go missing

    Today's story of a cretinous government data giveaway is brought to you by... the Ministry of Justice. On the scale of government ineptitude this hardly ranks alongside the loss of 25 million child benefit details last year, nor the loss of a laptop containing unencrypted details of members of the armed forces - but it is …

    Government 23 Jan 2008, 12:01

  • Dell XPS M1330 laptop

    Review Polished, portable powerhouse

    Dell’s XPS range has been synonymous with high-performance gaming computers. However, once it acquired gaming manufacturer Alienware, a subtle shift in branding saw some less focused multimedia-based machines being pushed out under the XPS banner. The XPS M1330 follows in the footsteps of the XPS M1210, a 12.1in machine that …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 12:17

  • ID cards delayed until 2012

    Just in time for the Olympics

    The British government is delaying the roll out of the national ID card scheme to UK citizens, according to leaked documents obtained by the Tory party. According to the documents, "Borders phase II" (UK citizens) will now roll out in 2012 instead of 2010. The document on the "roll out strategy for the National Identity …

    Government 23 Jan 2008, 12:41

  • Ferrari-totalling ex-Gizmondo boss out of jail

    Look out, Fat Steffe's back

    Stefan 'Fat Steffe' Eriksson, the former boss of bankrupt videogame gadget outfit Gizmondo, is set to be booted out of the US having served his time in the Big House. Swedish newspapers say Eriksson has been released early and is waiting at a deportation centre outside Los Angeles to be put on a flight home. The US Swedish …

    Bootnotes 23 Jan 2008, 12:55

  • Google and eBay thwart phishing redirection ruse

    Clean up campaign bears fruit

    High-profile websites have cleaned up their act after a small team of security researchers documented how they were unwittingly helping phishing fraudsters. Phishing scams often use "open redirector" exploits on major sites to make their attack URL look more legitimate. The trick also makes it more likely that fraudulent …

    Crime 23 Jan 2008, 12:58

  • Illegal immigrants spared the gamma-ray scanner

    French ban Calais lorry probes

    The French have banned Brit border guards at Calais from deploying immigrant-hunting gamma-ray scanners, claiming they breach EU health and safety regulations and can only be used with the intended targets' written permission. According to the Evening Standard, the scanners have proved somewhat successful in cutting the …

    Science 23 Jan 2008, 13:03

  • IBM bags fleet of global comms resellers

    Cuddles Cisco, moons Microsoft

    Big Blue has enlisted the likes of Cisco, NEC and Nortel as it reaches out for a larger chunk of the unified communications market. IBM said in a statement yesterday that it has scooped up a number of major original equipment manufacturer (OEM) embedded software and reseller deals, in the expectation it will help plump up …

    Channel Register 23 Jan 2008, 13:11

  • Linux-less Eee PC launched in Japan

    Windows XP Home and free 4GB SDHC card instead

    Asus has formally launched its bonsai laptop, the Eee PC, in Japan, pre-installing the machine with Windows XP Home Edition rather than Linux. The machine's specifications proved to be those of the standard 4GB solid-state disc model - the Eee PC 701, aka the 4G, though in Japan it's called the 4G-X. In addition to 4GB of …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 13:19

  • Plantronics talks up Bluetooth headsetage

    Music, chatter and PC connectivity

    Audio accessory maker Plantronics has showcased two of its latest headsets, each able to simultaneously connect to multiple phones. Plantronics' Voyager 855: morphs into a pair of cans The Voyager 855 and .Audio 920 feature multipoint technology, which the manufacturer said lets both connect to two mobile phones at the same …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 13:32

  • AMD's 3870X2 GPU slips out despite last-minute delay

    Whoops

    AMD's twin-GPU ATI Radeon HD 3870X2 isn't supposed to be announced until next week, but some graphics card suppliers have accidentally unveiled products based upon it. Asus Japan, for example, today announced its EAH3870X2/HTDI/1G, a board with 1GB of GDDR 3 memory clocked at 1.8GHz effective and sitting on a 256-bit bus. The …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 14:18

  • Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early?

    Curtains for Vista in 'H2 2009'

    Redmond has refused to spike speculation that it is racing to pump out its successor to Vista – Windows 7 – earlier than originally expected. Windows 7 (AKA Blackcomb then Vienna) had initially been rumoured to hit the market in 2010, but expectations are rising that it will make a crash landing in the second half of 2009. …

    Operating Systems 23 Jan 2008, 14:22

  • Hull disappears off t'internet

    Karoo boo boo

    Karoo, Hull's monopoly ADSL provider, has been hit by a major outage today that has forced much of the city's population offline. The firm sent us this statement: There is currently a major fault affecting a key part of our infrastructure which means that a large number of Karoo and KC Broadband customers are experiencing …

    Telecoms 23 Jan 2008, 14:32

  • Moto phones in a billion dollar loss

    Woes continue

    Despite a new CEO, there are no signs yet of a turnaround for Motorola. The company's mobile phone division recorded a shocking quarter, with the unit's revenues down 38 per cent year-on-year, losing $388m along the way. Motorola's mobile division recorded a $1.2bn loss in 2007. The mobile phone business netted $4.8bn, …

    Mobile 23 Jan 2008, 15:33

  • EU president sets green plans in stone

    Saving the planet on just €3 a week

    The president of the European Union has outlined specific, binding national targets for European countries to reduce carbon emissions and use more renewable sources of power. But the targets might also put Europe on a collision course with the US and emerging economies that are less than committed to reducing their emissions …

    Environment 23 Jan 2008, 15:52

  • Three Little Pigs book deemed offensive to Muslims

    And builders, bless 'em

    A digital book based on the story of the Three Little Pigs has been rejected by judges presiding over the annual BETT awards of the government's educational technology tentacle, Becta, because the literary deployment of porkers "raises cultural issues". The CD-Rom - produced by Newcastle-based Shoo-fly - is aimed at primary …

    Bootnotes 23 Jan 2008, 15:59

  • Japanese delay won't stop Euro PSP Skype launch, says Sony

    VoIP on your console

    The launch of a version of Skype running on Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) will still go ahead in Europe and the US later this month, despite a delay affecting the software's Japanese roll-out. Only Sony's Slim and Light PSP will get Skype PSP slim'n'light owners will get to use Skype’s VoIP application after they …

    Reg Hardware 23 Jan 2008, 16:02

  • Cisco buys into Cambridge pico firm

    Femtocells are the new black

    Networking giant Cisco is investing an undisclosed amount in ip.access - the Cambridge company which makes femtocells and picocells. Stephen Mallison, CEO of ip.access, welcomed the investment and said Cisco's IP skills and experience would complement ip's business. The cells provide better mobile access inside buildings - …

    Mobile 23 Jan 2008, 16:09

  • Brocade's Backbone wants control of the data center

    Big switch has got some nerve

    Brocade has released the first product in its new data center platform aimed at extending the company's reach beyond the traditional SAN (storage area network) market. Back in October, Brocade announced it was working on a loosely, and we mean that in the loosest sense of the word, defined new hardware architecture called DFC …

    Storage 23 Jan 2008, 16:27

  • Hogging the Trough: The EFF Strikes Back

    The art of voodoo network management

    The FCC is to investigate Comcast's network management practices. Last month here I gave an expert view on how the EFF, and other campaigners who called for an inquiry, don't understand the problems. Now Peter Eckserley, a copyright academic at the EFF, has responded to my article. Let's recap the story first. To avoid …

    Telecoms 23 Jan 2008, 17:15

  • Domain name gaffe launches Clearswift clients into e-mail panic

    Mission critical app in critical condition

    A domain name snafu at Clearswift, a company that filters email and web pages for objectionable content, wreaked havoc on some of its business customers when admins awoke to find their organizations were unable to send or receive email. The outage was caused when mimesweeper.biz, the domain where customers' email is routed …

    Enterprise Security 23 Jan 2008, 20:09

  • Last.fm unveils 'free global jukebox'

    Three plays, then subscribe

    London-based music site Last.fm announced today that it has convinced all four major record labels to let its users listen to their catalogues on demand and for free, worldwide. There's a catch, though - listeners are limited to three plays of a particular song. Last.fm will offer a new subscription package for what it calls " …

    Music and Media 23 Jan 2008, 20:31

  • VMware employs Stage Manager

    Turn that SAP upgrade into a virtual headache

    VMware this week let loose yet another management product, which pushes the virtualization specialist deeper into the data center. Say 'hello' to the beta of VMware Stage Manager. The Stage Manager code puts a virtual spin on the lengthy, often complicated process of installing, testing and rolling out new applications. …

    Virtualization 23 Jan 2008, 20:32

  • IBM hits back against over-timers with pay cut

    'These people' get what they deserve

    IBM's technical support grunts may have won the battle for overtime pay, but the company has cooked a major catch to its peace agreement. Big Blue is now conceding that about 7,600 IT specialists and tech support workers (about 6 per cent of its US workforce) need to be reclassified as being eligible for overtime wages. But …

    Financial News 23 Jan 2008, 21:20

  • Hacked embassy websites found pushing malware

    Visit our glorious malware!

    Add embassy websites to the growing list of hacked internet destinations trying to infect visitor PCs with malware. Earlier this week, the site for the Netherlands Embassy in Russia was caught serving a script that tried to dupe people into installing software that made their machines part of a botnet, according to Ofer Elzam, …

    Security 23 Jan 2008, 21:46

  • Designs for SpaceShipTwo displayed in New York

    Astronomical price gets you astronautical experience

    New designs for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and the WhiteKnightTwo mothership were unveiled in New York today, supposedly bringing commercial space travel once step nearer. Richard Branson, the man behind Virgin Galactic, hopes that with this design he will be the first to offer paying passengers a trip into …

    Space 23 Jan 2008, 23:11

  • DDR2 chip prices rebound

    Keeping spotty head above US$1 water

    The DRAM industry has seen DDR2 spot prices spike by 15-20 per cent in the past month, with eTT chips outpacing branded equivalents. DRAMeXchange, the memory biz market watcher, said the rise in sales of non-branded chips (in both 512Mb and 1Gb densities) suggest either an excess of eTT chips flooding the market, or that eTT …

    PCs & Chips 23 Jan 2008, 23:14

  • Polyglot worm spreads over MSN

    Mind your language

    A namedropping MSN Trojan is doing the rounds through MSN Messenger. The IRCBOT-RB Trojan poses as messages containing links to pictures on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Typical come-ons involve messages such as "Wanna see my pictures before i send em to facebook?". Clicking on a link takes users to …

    Channel Register 23 Jan 2008, 23:15