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11th March 2008 Archive

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  • LSI buys Infineon's disk biz

    Serves Hitachi with second-hand platter

    LSI is pushing Germany's Infineon Technologies out of its market by acquiring the company's hard drive business for an undisclosed sum. Under the agreement, Infineon will transfer its complete HDD activities to LSI, including equipment, software, customer relations and intellectual property. Today's announced purchase plays …

    Storage 11 Mar 2008, 00:58

  • EMC buys web services startup Infra

    Washes down Iomega tears

    EMC is showing the world today that it's a brave little guy about the rejection of a hostile $178m takeover bid from Iomega. The company is publicly devouring someone else instead. EMC said it will acquire the privately held software company Infra Corp. for an undisclosed amount. Infra vends web-hosted software designed to …

    The Channel 11 Mar 2008, 01:01

  • EU investigates DOJ internet gambling tactics

    WTO case against the US on the way?

    The European Union launched an investigation today into discriminatory trade practices by the United States in the internet gambling industry, according to a press release from the European Commission. The move could pave the way for a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization. "The U.S. has the right to address …

    Government 11 Mar 2008, 01:49

  • A better way to build OS X preferences

    Mac Secrets Behind the interface

    Welcome to Dave Jewell’s new Mac Secrets column, focused at Apple Mac developers — particularly those using Cocoa. Here, on a regular basis, Dave will introduce you to unknown and undocumented aspects of the Foundation and AppKit class libraries that Apple has, er, neglected to tell you about… In my opinion, there’s no sense in …

    Software 11 Mar 2008, 06:02

  • Space Shuttle Endeavour on its way

    Next stop, the ISS

    Space Shuttle Endeavour this morning blasted off at 02:28 EDT (06:28 GMT) from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the 25th mission to the ISS, carrying the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo lab and the Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or "Dextre". The 16-day mission, …

    Science 11 Mar 2008, 06:50

  • 'Magnet boy' freezes Xbox

    Hair-raising gameplay

    Most kids dream of having a superpower, but we've never heard of any who actually had one. Until now. One 12-year-old boy claims to be magnetised and can zap games consoles and PCs. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Although he styled himself 'Magneto Man', Joe Falciatano from New York appears to be …

    Games 11 Mar 2008, 09:08

  • Equifax typo derails digital cert

    Minor glitch narks business customers

    Equifax has followed HSBC in making a hash of renewing one of its digital certificates. Consumers logging onto Equifax's UK website last week were greeted with a notice that the site couldn't be verified because its certificate had expired. That's the same problem HSBC banking business customers also experienced last week …

    Security 11 Mar 2008, 09:51

  • Cassini to surf Enceladus's icy plumes

    'In your face' flyby of Saturnian moon

    NASA's Cassini spacecraft will tomorrow do an "in your face" flyby of diminutive Saturnian moon Enceladus, passing as close as 50km (30 miles) above the surface in an attempt to gain valuable data on geysers spewing water vapour and other matter from giant fractures at the body's south pole. Cassini discovered the geysers on …

    Science 11 Mar 2008, 09:52

  • Siemens kicked off UK government contract

    Man bites dog

    Siemens has lost a contract with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) which was due to run until 2010. It is rare for any government department to sack its IT supplier, no matter how bad relations get. In 2003 the Inland Revenue did end its contract with EDS and Accenture but the contract had run for 10 years and then had …

    Government 11 Mar 2008, 09:55

  • Jodrell Bank offloaded on eBay

    RIP UK radio astronomy

    Following the recent news that the government's popular Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has decided to pretty well destroy UK radio astronomy, we're saddened to note that Jodrell Bank observatory is up for sale on eBay: The blurb elaborates: "Despite the fact that $8 million has already been spent on …

    Bootnotes 11 Mar 2008, 10:02

  • Nvidia dual-GPU graphics card due next week

    GeForce 9800 GX2 first; 9800 GTX a week later

    Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GX2 multi-GPU graphics card will apparently be launched on a not-entirely-unexpecting gaming community on 18 March, if piccies snapped around CeBIT are anything to go by. They usually are, and in this case the vendor mentioning the GX2's non-disclosure agreement (NDA) expiry date was MSI. It put the date …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 10:31

  • Minister wants more mashups

    'Wiki thinking is the way of the future'

    The new minister for transformation has advocated the cause of user generated content on public websites. Tom Watson said one of his priorities for the transformation of government is that data mashups, in which users can take and combine data to meet their own preferences, becomes embedded in the thinking of all departments …

    Government 11 Mar 2008, 10:47

  • Google red cards Privila for gaming search engine

    Articles of bad faith?

    Google has removed Privila sites from its index after the firm was caught attempting to hoodwink the search engine giant. Chicago-based Privila has built "portals" designed to have relatively high search engine ranking scores while presenting nothing but ads. The firm's modus operandi involves buying sites after the original …

    Security 11 Mar 2008, 11:03

  • Wal-Mart stores drop cheap-as-chips Linux PC

    A glimpse of restocking? Only online...

    Wal-Mart has stopped selling cheap PCs pre-loaded with Linux at its stores because consumer just weren't interested enough, the retail colossus said yesterday. "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for," a company spokeswoman told the Associated Press newsagency. Wal-Mart's experiment started in October 2007. …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 11:07

  • Portsmouth student peeled in potato laptop scam

    £600 for a bag of spuds

    A student in Portsmouth has fallen victim to the classic potato PC scam, parting with £600 for nothing more than a bag full of spuds, the Portsmouth News reports. The unnamed 27-year-old was shown a bagged Sony laptop by a "man in the back of a car" parked at the rear of Debenhams in Slindon Street, Portsmouth, on 6 March. He …

    Bootnotes 11 Mar 2008, 11:13

  • Intel to launch 160GB Flash laptop drives in Q2

    Taking the fight to Samsung, SanDisk et al

    Intel will ramp up its solid-state drive operation next quarter with the introduction of a range of notebook-oriented units running to 160GB of storage capacity. According to Troy Winslow, Intel's NAND Products Group Marketing Manager, interviewed by News.com, Q2 will see the chip giant roll-out 1.8in and 2.5in SSDs with …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 11:47

  • Capita buys way into ComputerLand

    Two become one

    Capita is offering £28.9m to buy independent services firm ComputerLand. The deal looks set to go ahead because Capita has already received irrevocable undertakings to accept the deal from 43.9 per cent of ComputerLand's shareholders. Capita is best known for its public sector contracts like that for London's congestion …

    The Channel 11 Mar 2008, 11:58

  • Archos TV+ 250GB streaming media player

    Review Very, very disappointing

    On paper, Archos' TV+ looks like a very exciting product, combining a media streamer, a digital video recorder and the ability to display content from the internet on your TV. In theory, it's everything you could want from a set-top box. The reality, however, is somewhat different. The first and perhaps biggest problem with …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 12:02

  • Computacenter plumps up revs, pre-tax profit

    Credit crisis? What credit crisis?

    Computacenter today said its customers are yet to feel the pinch from the credit crunch as it reported its first revenue growth in five years. It saw adjusted pre-tax profit of £47.2m for the year ended 31 December 2007, an increase of nearly 28 per cent. The Hatfield, Hertfordshire-based company said total revenues grew for …

    The Channel 11 Mar 2008, 12:44

  • Virgin lags in scumjumbo race, bins airliner drag-start plans

    Clean green sheen less seen at beard-biz empire

    Beardy biz kingpin Richard Branson's green image lost some of its sheen yesterday, as his Virgin airline revealed that a widely-touted carbon saving scheme to tow airliners during ground taxiing operations would not proceed. Meanwhile, the company has also admitted that it may not, in fact, be involved in the first airliner …

    Science 11 Mar 2008, 12:44

  • Sexy touchscreen MP4 player for under a ton, anyone?

    Notes at the ready

    If your funds don’t quite stretch to an Apple iPod Touch or Archos but you still crave a touch-sensitive widescreen video player then find yourself 70 quid and get online. Energy Sistem's Inngenio 6000: possessor of a 2.8in touchscreen and a sexy bod Just such a device, dubbed the Inngenio 6000, has cropped up on a Spanish …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 12:46

  • Pitcairn Island relays most spam per person

    South Sea junk mail mutiny

    Pitcairn Island, the final South Sea island refuge of the Bounty mutineers, relays more spam per capita than any other nation. But with an estimated population of 48, perhaps it's not that surprising. Small localities including Tokelau, The Faroe Islands, and The Falkland Islands also witnessed a disproportionate amount of …

    Security 11 Mar 2008, 12:52

  • Mobe software firm Picsel prunes 10% of workforce

    IPO off the agenda

    File-viewing specialist Picsel last week laid off about 10 per cent of its workforce as it shelved plans for an IPO and refocused its business. Picsel has done well getting its file-viewing application embedded into handsets, including LG's Viewty, but having decided the market isn't ready for an IPO the company is going to …

    Mobile 11 Mar 2008, 12:58

  • CPW builds wall between customers and Phorm

    As US prepares 'welcome' party

    Carphone Warehouse has become the first of the three UK ISPs who have agreed to pimp data to ad targeting outfit Phorm to announce a major rethink of how it will use the technology. Company representatives have told users in forums that they are working on a way to ensure that traffic from people who opt out will never enter …

    Broadband 11 Mar 2008, 13:13

  • Texas Instruments sounds alarm on 3G

    Someone's cutting back

    Texas Instruments, one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, is sounding the alarm over the demand for 3G phones. The company said one of its major clients had sharply cut back on its orders. Though TI declined to name the customer, analysts are speculating it is Nokia, TI's largest customer for mobile chipsets …

    Mobile 11 Mar 2008, 13:17

  • Nokia turns to TV to push music service

    You are entering the Green Room

    In a desperate attempt to drum up interest in its music service, Nokia is to launch its own TV show. The Nokia Green Room is to be shown on Channel 4 with exclusive extra bits only available through the online service. The show will run from April this year, and will feature live music as well as "reality-style" bits filmed …

    Mobile 11 Mar 2008, 13:47

  • Microsoft admits big delay on Home Server bug fix

    Alert! Data corruption causes domestics

    Microsoft has admitted that it will not deliver a fix to a Windows Home Server data corruption bug it first discovered late last year until June at the earliest. The firm confessed to the massive delay on a Technet blog post yesterday. It claimed that only a “small percentage” of people have been affected by the bug. …

    Operating Systems 11 Mar 2008, 13:54

  • Pay lip service to loved ones with the KissPhone

    Gene Simmons' favourite blower?

    One Register Hardware staffer has admitted giving their beloved iPhone a peck now and then, but puckering up with a mobile phone in order to convey your love to another person is another thing altogether. Koussouros' KissPhone: makes and receives cellular kisses However, self-styled "freelance inventor" Georges Koussouros …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 13:58

  • O2 unveils XDA Atmos

    Second own-brand smartphone in two months

    Network operator O2 has launched its latest XDA-brand smartphone just a couple of months after it released the second generation XDA Orbit onto the market. O2's XDA Atmos: HSDPA accelerated O2's new XDA is the quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge Atmos, which also is also capable UMTS 3G connections and HSDPA high-speed downloads. O2 …

    Mobile 11 Mar 2008, 14:38

  • DARPA releases 'Blackswift' hyperplane details

    Runway roboplane will do porkbarrel roll at Mach 6

    DARPA, the Pentagon deathboffin office, has thrown its new "Blackswift" hypersonic-aircraft programme open to all (US) comers, and confirmed outline details of how the new unmanned hyperplane prototype will work. In a government pdf released last week, the federal boffinry bureau (motto: "Making tomorrow's war-winning …

    Science 11 Mar 2008, 15:30

  • Belkin preps five-port music player-sharing widget

    The days when people sat around a campfire singing songs together are long gone, and if Belkin's latest gizmo is anything to go by, listening to music looks set to become even less of a social experience. Belkin's RockStar: one music player to five sets of ears The Belkin RockStar may look like something a Ninja would chuck …

    Hardware 11 Mar 2008, 15:31

  • Intel's Otellini faces Brussels court

    Two-day hearing kicks off

    Intel's boss Paul Otellini is giving evidence in Brussels today as part of a two-day hearing into monopoly charges against the chip giant. Intel is accused of offering rebates to computer makers which favoured its chips over those from rival AMD. The two-day hearing is being held in closed session in front of Karen Williams, …

    The Channel 11 Mar 2008, 15:52

  • Germany to Nokia: Give us back our subsidies

    €41m plus €18m interest, thanks

    Germany's western state of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has told Nokia to repay all its subsidies plus interest by 31 March or face legal action. The German state paid €41m in aid for Nokia's mobile phone factory in Bochum, under the condition that at least 2,800 jobs would be created. However, the Finnish mobile giant is to …

    Financial News 11 Mar 2008, 15:58

  • Euro regulators give Google-Doubleclick buy thumbs up

    Say deal won't stymie competition

    Google's multi-billion dollar acquisition of online ad network DoubleClick has been given the go-ahead by European regulators. The European Commission (EC) said today the $3.1bn deal won't impede competition, despite the complaints of Microsoft and Yahoo!. "The Commission found that the merged entity would not have the …

    Financial News 11 Mar 2008, 16:01

  • Anti-trust committee checks out Windows 7

    As Microsoft wants 'Vista Capable' row put on ice

    The US court-mandated technical committee (TC) responsible for pulling Microsoft into line over a 2002 federal anti-trust settlement is reviewing Windows 7. It said in a joint status report filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia last week that it had received a build of Microsoft’s next big operating system and is …

    Applications 11 Mar 2008, 16:52

  • Nokia N96 to land in August

    Carphone Warehouse leaks info

    Nokia’s upcoming flagship handset, the 16GB N96, will arrive in the UK in August, according to retailer Carphone Warehouse. Nokia's N96: release window narrowed down Carphone Warehouse’s website has been updated to reveal that the successor to the popular N95 will arrive in the summer. Until now, Nokia fans had been waiting …

    Mobile 11 Mar 2008, 17:22

  • IBM shadow looms over next Eclipse

    Visibility, independence concerns on e4

    The question of whether IBM wields too much influence over Eclipse is again in the air, with Foundation members critical of the first steps towards the platform's next release. Eclipse executive director Mike Milinkovich has responded to concerns over an apparent lack of diversity and of a railroading of technical decisions …

    Applications 11 Mar 2008, 19:33

  • Mozilla reaches stage 4 of Firefox 3 beta endurance test

    Speed up, leaks plugged

    The fourth beta release of Firefox 3 is available for download today from Mozilla. Grab it here if you're feeling adventurous. Remember it's a beta, so beware of rushing to code where angels fear to thread. The browser's latest build boasts several improvements over previous beta releases, including a speed boost, full-page …

    Applications 11 Mar 2008, 19:49

  • Fire extinguishes debate over historic IBM shop

    Disk and campus heritage disappear

    IBM's historic Building 25 in San Jose, California — formerly at the center of a dispute between preservationists and a home repair chain — was destroyed by a fire over the weekend. The three-alarm blaze substantially damaged the abandoned complex, leaving little in the ruins. IBM staff once worked on a precursor to the hard …

    Storage 11 Mar 2008, 23:36

  • FCC chair unfazed by Comcast wall of nonsense

    'If you hide it, is it reasonable?'

    Score one for Kevin Martin, the chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission. Clearly, he realizes that Comcast deserves a slap. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported , Martin said he was "troubled" that the big-name American ISP "initially denied it was slowing or blocking its broadband Internet customers' …

    Broadband 11 Mar 2008, 23:58