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22nd April 2008 Archive

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  • PETA offers $1m for test tube chicken

    Cock without the a-doodle-doo

    PETA, the US Animal rights organization, is challenging scientists to create test-tube meat for a cash reward, in a similar vein as X Prize Foundation. PETA announced today it will offer $1m to an organization that can successfully create and market "in vitro meat," i.e. muscle tissue grown without the pesky animal attached. …

    Science 22 Apr 2008, 01:07

  • Behind the scenes with Apple's media browser

    Mac Secrets Integrated advantage

    Welcome my second “peek behind the scenes” for Cocoa developers. I enjoyed the responses to the first installment, both for and against, and especially the lively email exchanges, some of which I plan to pick up on in the near future! For now, though, let me just emphasize a couple of important points. First, this column is …

    Applications 22 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Google (re-)branded world's greatest brand

    Better than pigs' feet

    At least one Strategy Boutique believes that Google is the most powerful brand on the planet. On Monday, Millward Brown released its annual list (PDF) of the world's top 100 brands, and for the second year running, it's convinced that Google is the best of the best. Millward Brown also says that brands are important. "This …

    Financial News 22 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Logica cuts 1,300 jobs

    UK services feel the pinch

    Logica will cut 1,300 jobs as part of a restructuring announced by chief executive Andy Green this morning. Green has been reviewing the firm since he took the top job in January. Some 500 posts will go in the UK. In Europe, where growth has been stronger, two per cent of jobs will go. The services company will take a one-off …

    The Channel 22 Apr 2008, 09:06

  • Soaraway security spending keeps breaches in check

    UK.biz yet to plug leaks

    The average spending by companies on information security defences has tripled over the last six years, resulting in the overall cost to UK business of reported security breaches dropping by a third. According to the latest edition of the UK government-sponsored Information Security Breaches Survey, the number of companies …

    Security 22 Apr 2008, 09:10

  • Samsung chairman quits in corruption scandal

    Dynasty beheaded

    The disgraced chairman of Samsung quit the firm today in a bid to save its reputation, after he and nine other senior executives were indicted on tax dodging charges. Lee Kun-Hee, until recently reckoned one of South Korea's most respected and powerful men, said his 20-year reign over the electronics conglomerate had come to …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 09:19

  • eBay slams UK.gov touting ban

    'Crown jewel' list to prevent on-selling

    The Government will create a list of "crown jewel" events whose tickets cannot be sold on once bought. If the ticketing industry will not sign up to the voluntary scheme the Government has threatened to legislate. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will ask event organisers, promoters, and ticket sales agencies …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 09:42

  • Intel takes chopper to chip prices

    Up to 50 per cent off desktop parts

    Intel has tweaked its processor price list, knocking up to 50 per cent off what it charges for desktop CPUs. The headline reduction came to the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700, which now costs $266, down from $530. The 2.4GHz Q6600 is also cheaper now: down 16 per cent to $224. The other big reduction was applied to the 3GHz Core 2 …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2008, 09:46

  • Atom-based Eee PC to hit UK in June

    Why buy a 900 now?

    Asus will release an Atom-based version of its Eee PC early in June, a number of company executives have said. The company's recently launched second-generation Eee, the 900, uses the same Celeron processor as its predecessor, albeit running at a higher, 900MHz clock speed. It's believed Asus stuck with the Celeron partly for …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2008, 10:05

  • Were the snatched Brit sailors in 'disputed waters'?

    Analysis Renewed Iran matelot-napping brouhaha dissected

    Last week, the Times obtained an MoD document relating to the Iran sailors seizure fracas last year. It was heavily redacted, but there was a paragraph left which referred to the well-known fact that part of the maritime boundary between Iraqi and Iranian waters has never been agreed by Iran. The Times ran this under the …

    Government 22 Apr 2008, 10:10

  • Evolution finds a home for recognition technology

    It's not a banana, it's a female aardvark

    Evolution Robotics has finally found a home for its generic product recognition technology. The firm will embed it in camera phones from Japan's Bandai Networks in the spring. The technology is impressive. You take a photograph of an item and send it off to Evolution's servers, which identify it and send back a suitable URL. …

    Mobile 22 Apr 2008, 10:14

  • Nokia pumps out XpressMusic duo

    Sunny and Cher handsets?

    It’s been a while since we heard anything from Nokia’s XpressMusic department, but the Finnish phone giant is keeping the beat going with two additions to the music-focused range. The 5320 is the daddy of the two phones, offering 3G connectivity and voice-activated song selecion triggered by the user speaking either a track’s …

    Phones 22 Apr 2008, 10:14

  • South Koreans clone sniffer dog

    Canadian labrador retriever x 7

    South Korea has begun training seven puppies cloned from a Canadian labrador retriever named Chase, reckoned by the country's customs officials to be their best sniffer dog, the BBC reports. The mutts were produced by an unnamed biotech outfit at a cost of about 300m won (£150,000, $300,000) using the somatic nuclear cell …

    Science 22 Apr 2008, 10:15

  • Canon Digital Ixus 970 IS compact camera

    Review Could be your dad's camera

    How do you improve on an existing product? Well, you can change the colour, you can add new features... or you can do what Canon has done with the Ixus 970 and give it a radical new redesign. The Ixus 970 isn’t ugly, but it’s not as good looking as previous Canon cameras we’ve seen. The left-hand side of the body has a …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • Sony delays PS3 virtual world Home - again

    Open beta test this autumn?

    Sony has pushed back the release of Home, the PlayStation 3's answer to Second Life, yet again, pending 'refinements' it believes it needs to make to the service. Gamers have been patiently awaiting Home’s arrival since May 2007, when Sony said a public beta testing programme would be launched in the summer of that year. In …

    Games 22 Apr 2008, 11:06

  • Microsoft and Novell to push SuSE Linux sales in China

    You're either with us or against us

    Microsoft and Novell yesterday announced plans to extend their interoperability alliance by tapping into the increasingly lucrative Chinese market. The software companies said in a joint statement that they were placing "particular emphasis" on the People's Republic to jointly market and sell Novell's SuSE Linux distribution in …

    Software 22 Apr 2008, 11:19

  • Palm 'innovative Wi-FI device' invite points to Foleo revamp?

    Forgotten Tech Launched and killed before the Eee PC proved the concept correct

    Is Palm about to put its once-canned Foleo notebook-alternative back on the agenda? That's one possible conclusion to draw from a claim the company's currently seeking testers for an "innovative new product". The invitation, sent out to a number of customers in the US, states that successful candidates must be heavy smartphone …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2008, 11:24

  • OSC spurns queries on London charge zone data export

    'Not appropriate to answer your questions...'

    Pictures of cars and number plates from London's congestion charge zone, even outside of its operating hours, can now be exported wholesale to the US authorities, it was claimed yesterday - but regulators refuse to answer questions about it. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced last July that the Metropolitan Police would be …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 11:55

  • 'Virtual strip search' arrives at JFK and LAX

    Public exposed to electronic heavy patting

    The US Transport Security Administration (TSA) has celebrated the successful trial of 'see through clothes' scanners by ordering 30 more of the millimeter wave devices for Los Angeles and JFK International airports this spring. The scanners, which produce a whole, naked, body image, have been in use at Phoenix Sky Harbor …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 11:56

  • DARPA looking at 'Z-Wing' stratocruiser

    Solar wingship triad will dock together 17 miles up

    Last week, news broke that the Pentagon had selected three design teams to contend for its "Vulture" project, in which enormous yet frail unmanned flying wings will cruise for years on end in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Details of the plans are expected later this month, but some intriguing information has already …

    Government 22 Apr 2008, 11:57

  • Data pimping catches ISP on the hop

    Who ate all the cookies?

    What's the story with Phorm, NebuAd, and other behavioral targeting firms that track user data from inside the world's ISPs? In some cases, even the ISP can't tell you. In February, the Silicon Valley-based NebuAd deployed its deep-packet inspection technology on a Middle America ISP known as WOW!, formerly WideOpenWest. The …

    Broadband 22 Apr 2008, 12:02

  • Six months on from HMRC, data losses still rising, says ICO

    Disappointed by apparent learning failure

    Information Commissioner Richard Thomas is again telling UK companies to sort out their data protection systems as the number of reported losses of private information keeps on growing. Since Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs lost a copy of the entire child benefit database six months ago the regulator has been told about …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 12:10

  • UK Office of Government Commerce cracks one off

    LogoWatch exclusive Five-knuckle shuffle rebrand outrage

    In April last year, London design outfit FHD proudly announced it would be rebranding the UK's Office of Government Commerce (OGC) - the HM Treasury tentacle "responsible for improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement". FHD's MD Adrian Day trumpeted to the sound of whalesong: “We are seeing …

    Government 22 Apr 2008, 12:46

  • The American way of bioterror - an A-Z of ricin crackpots

    Homebrew poison of choice to the hard of thinking

    It takes a special kind of American to be fascinated by ricin, and last week the latest, Roger Von Bergendorff, was indicted in the District Court of Nevada. Bergendorff possibly qualifies for an award in failed Darwinism, being the only person in recent times to have seemingly accidentally poisoned himself with the protein …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 13:09

  • Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs

    Cough up some criticism

    The President of videogame developer Epic Games has compared Nintendo's Wii console to a “virus”, despite having caught bought one himself. Mike Capps recently told gaming website IGN that the Wii is like a virus: you catch the bug, have it for a couple of weeks then you get over it. After that, you're immune to its charms. …

    Games 22 Apr 2008, 13:14

  • AVG revamps free security scanner

    Cost free scanner goes multi-lingual

    AVG Technologies plans to release a revamped version of its popular, free anti-malware scanner on Thursday. Version 8.0 of the software will add anti-spyware and safe search features to its core anti-virus engine. Safe surfing features, that give users warnings about visiting insecure websites all the time not just when they …

    Security 22 Apr 2008, 14:15

  • I wouldn't park there, mate - Honda adds sat nav warnings

    'There's been four cars stolen here in five days'

    Honda's latest innovation lets Japanese drivers know if they should be rolling up the windows and locking their doors, or if they've found the ideal spot to abandon their vehicle, by downloading local crime figures to their GPS unit. Overlaying crime data into a mapping application isn't technically difficult. Japanese sat nav …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 14:18

  • Dubai mobe cracking demo barred by Heathrow boffin bust

    Authorities impound open source radio gear

    A mobile phone security researcher has been left baffled by UK government airport authorities, who impounded basic equipment while claiming that he could be illegally exporting high-end code breaking technology. The action meant he had to cancel a demonstration of a groundbreaking exploit of GSM encryption in the Middle East …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 14:32

  • Office 2007 fails OXML test

    The dog ate Microsoft's homework

    Microsoft's Office 2007 Word documents do not conform to the newly-approved Open XML (OXML) international standard. Alex Brown, who heads up the group responsible for maintaining the OXML standard at the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO), revealed the less-than-pretty findings in a blog post late last week. He …

    Software 22 Apr 2008, 14:57

  • Teradata puts feisty start-ups on notice with appliance charge

    Grand kit refresh and free 12.0 tester

    Teradata, the big daddy of data warehousing, has finally responded to the appliance challenge by rolling out a new family of systems that cater to customers with various budgets. Rather than shipping a single, beefy system, Teradata will now sell a range of gear that starts with the 550 SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) on the …

    Storage 22 Apr 2008, 15:24

  • Microsoft's 'Vista Capable' appeal thrown out

    Class action lawsuit gets go ahead

    Microsoft’s has lost its attempt to overturn a key ruling in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit. The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the decision in a court order yesterday. US district judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle, who originally approved the case, had halted proceedings while waiting for a decision from the …

    The Channel 22 Apr 2008, 15:46

  • Hitachi 35mm-thick LCD TV to come to Europe next month

    Will it mean less packaging?

    Retailer Comet has announced that it’ll soon start selling a Hitachi super-thin LCD TV to European telly addicts. The Wooo UT range will be available in 32in, 37in or 42in display sizes, but each model only measures 35mm from front to back – excluding the stand, of course. Hitachi has previously described the range as “thinner …

    Hardware 22 Apr 2008, 15:53

  • PS3 to get movie downloads this summer?

    Sony exec gets gamers talking

    The web’s currently rife with speculation that Sony might launch a PlayStation 3 movie downloads service this summer. According to a story by the LA Times, unnamed film studio executives have alleged that Sony’s currently negotiating licensing deal to get the rights to distribute movies over the net to the PS3. Peter Dille, …

    Games 22 Apr 2008, 16:09

  • Americans love wireless - and AT&T too

    Profits up $.7bn on last year

    AT&T's Q1'08 results show the telco, along with the American public, is becoming ever more reliant on wireless. The company generated profits of $3.5bn in the first three months of 2008, compared to the paltry $2.85bn in the same period last year, on sales up 6.1 per cent to $30.7bn. Wireless is driving that growth, as the …

    Broadband 22 Apr 2008, 16:18

  • US court waves through border laptop searches

    Your laptop ain't your home and it ain't your mind, either

    Contrary to what some of you may believe, one cannot live in a laptop, according to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the US. In a recent ruling, a three-judge panel of that court determined that border agents could examine the contents of a laptop without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. As part of that …

    Law 22 Apr 2008, 18:13

  • Violin tunes SSD memory appliance

    Ready to string up Flash job

    Violin Memory sells a solid state disk (SSD) appliance, using DRAM and not flash memory, and FalconStor is supporting this to make its latest software perform very much faster. Blocks and Files was able to talk with Morgan Littlewood, VP of Marketing at Violin Memory, and ask him some questions about solid state disks. B&F: …

    Storage 22 Apr 2008, 18:24

  • Futurist's music widget goes titsup 2.0

    Didn't see that coming...

    Music's best-known "futurist" has admitted his latest business idea has flopped and the service will close. Gerd Leonard of "Music 2.0" fame, who popularised the phrase "music flows like water", has discovered that on the internet, revenue flows like set cement. His company Sonific, which allows bloggers to embed a widget that …

    Media 22 Apr 2008, 18:50

  • EU may be lubricating IBM anti-trust probe

    Mainframe scuffle primed, yet muffled

    European Union regulators may be preparing for an anti-trust review of IBM, following on the complaints of start-up mainframe challenger, Platform Solutions (PSI). Bloomberg reports today that the EU is gathering information on IBM's mainframe business, citing two anonymous sources close to the case. The request for such data …

    Servers 22 Apr 2008, 19:26

  • Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

    Interview Will bird's flight usher in Linux peace?

    On Thursday, the Ubuntu 8.04 magic happens. The operating system - called Hardy Heron at playgrounds around Silicon Valley - goes up for download in its various forms, most notably Server and Desktop. Like most open source jobs, these Ubuntu OS releases are protracted affairs. Canonical, the corporate body behind Ubuntu, has …

    Servers 22 Apr 2008, 20:55

  • US court beats up FTC over Rambus 'patent ambush' ruling

    Back to the Monopoly board for new game

    Rambus, the fast memory designer, has won its appeal to overturn a 2004 Federal Trade Commission anti-trust ruling. The DC Court of Appeals today decided that the FTC had not established that Rambus had harmed the competition and "therefore that the Commission failed to demonstrate that Rambus' conduct was exclusionary and …

    Storage 22 Apr 2008, 20:58

  • Yahoo! pulls Alibaba out of hat, posts big Q1 profit jump

    Enough to fend off Microsoft?

    Jerry Yang today hailed Yahoo!'s "extraordinary" Q1 results, citing the besieged firm's ability to execute, against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and Microsoft's unwelcome bid to buy the company. And extraordinary they were, as the Yahoo! CEO claims, with net income jumping massively to $542m, or 37 cents a share (Net …

    Financial News 22 Apr 2008, 21:45

  • Nokia predicts IBM 360 of mobile phones

    SOFCON 2008 'I've seen that movie too'

    Nokia's chief technology officer believes the mobile phone industry will soon have a standard platform. Speaking at SOFCON, a Silicon Valley conference dedicated to "The Mobile Future," Nokia Research Center head Bob Iannucci argued that the mobile world will follow the same pattern as the mainframe business of the 1960s, the …

    Mobile 22 Apr 2008, 22:01

  • Hitachi reveals greenest data center dream

    Gives planet an IOU for Earth Day

    Hitachi Data Systems is celebrating Earth Day by announcing the most eco-friendly and power-efficient enterprise-class data center ever constructed — that is, ignoring the slight complication that it hasn't actually been constructed yet. No, this year Mother Earth receives only a well-meaning promise from HDS, which intends to …

    Storage 22 Apr 2008, 22:37

  • VMware placates Wall Street with 70 per cent Q1 revenue surge

    Is there a Ginsu with that growth?

    The frenzied folks on Wall Street have come to terms with the realities of a slower growing VMware. The virtualization software maker today reported first quarter results that showed revenue rising 69 per cent year-over-year to $438m. For the same period, VMware's net income rose a bit from $41m in 2007 to $43m. VMware's …

    Virtualization 22 Apr 2008, 23:43