21st May 2008 Archive

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Napster flirts with Apple fanboys

'Get your MP3s here'

Napster has a message for all you iPod and iPhone owners: It's now selling DRM-free MP3s. Today, Napster unveiled a new version of its digital music service - for Americans only - offering its entire catalog for download in good old MP3 format, and as it was sure to point out in its press release, MP3s work just fine with …

Music and Media 21 May 2008, 00:11
Compuware too cool for quality tools?

"Appropriate" investment

Computware, the mainframe software house, appears to be narrowing its focus on development tools following a hip marketing makeover. President and chief operating officer Bob Paul used a carefully scripted video presentation that announced "Compuware 2.0" to say the company's Q&A tools face "sustained and fierce" competition …

Developer 21 May 2008, 00:14
Home Office backs e-crime overhaul

One-stop fraud busting shop

Home Office ministers are poised to give the green light for the establishment of a central e-crime reporting and investigation agency in the UK. But instead of creating a Policing Central E-Crime Unit (PCEU), as proposed by ACPO (the Association of Chief Police Officers) and the Metropolitan Police, government minsters want …

Policing 21 May 2008, 07:02
Mass SQL injection hits English language websites

Chinese hackers spread the silent love

Thousands of websites in China have been booby trapped with code written to download Trojan software onto visitors who run vulnerable Windows PCs. Unlike earlier rounds of SQL injection attacks the latest assaults mostly target English language sites (predominantly sites hosted in China but with a .com suffix) and purposefully …

Malware 21 May 2008, 07:02
World's first touch-sensitive e-reader touted

Force sensing technology

Taiwanese manufacturer Prime View International (PVI) claims to have developed the world’s first e-reader that integrates touch-sensitivity into an e-paper screen. PVI claims that none of the currently available e-book reader products, such as Sony’s PRS505, have combined touch technology with e-paper. But by doing so, PVI …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 07:33
Big news for small cells

Qualcomm invests in femtocells while Forum agrees standards

Qualcomm, the mobile phone technology firm, today announced a "significant" investment in ip.access, the Cambridge, UK-based femtocell specialist, on the same day the Femto Forum unveiled more members and an agreed standard process. ip.access already counts Cisco as an investor, but the arrival of Qualcomm marks a big step in …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 08:02
Medion charts a path for women drivers

Find your way, in pink

Satnav manufacturer Medion is targeting women drivers with its latest navigator: a pearlescent pink model with matching case. Medion's GoPal E3215 Glamour Edition: comes in - guess what - pink For girls on the go, the GoPal E3215 Glamour Edition comes pre-loaded with maps of Western Europe and a 3.5in touchscreen display …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 09:02
Temp workers to get equal rights after 12 weeks

Employers' groups and small biz world up in arms

An agreement inked by government, employers and unions yesterday means temporary British workers will be given the same employment rights as permanent staff after 12 weeks in the job. The move will prompt howls of protest from the IT staffing industry, which claims the move will hamstring smaller firms. The UK government’s …

Small Biz 21 May 2008, 09:06
Teapot backdoor probed by German telescope boffins

Spoons, spectacles, even eyeballs - all security risks

Just when you (may have) thought it was safe to log back onto your computer and do something private, German security boffins have come up with a new vulnerability. Being a security-aware type of person - and perhaps preferring a view - your monitor doubtless faces away from the window, meaning that evilly-inclined persons …

Enterprise Security 21 May 2008, 09:23
Intel plans Q3 Core 2 Quad, Duo line-up shuffle

Steady as she goes before 'Nehelam' launch quarter

What does Intel have on its near-term desktop processor roadmap? More of the same, it seems, in the period leading up to Q4's introduction of its next-gen CPU design, 'Nehalem'. The latest leaks coming out of Asia point to Q3 introductions of faster Core 2 Quads and Duos. The quarter will apparently see the debut of the 3GHz …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 09:41
Motorola dodges $4bn damages

Orbital sword of Damocles sheathed

Motorola has settled claims outstanding from the company's involvement in the ill-fated Iridium satellite phone system, ending up having to pay nothing despite creditors' attempts to squeeze $4bn out of the beleaguered technology company. Iridium was and is a mobile phone system based on connecting handsets direct to …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 09:57
Orange mobile broadband takes six-day break

Working to fix it...

Orange mobile broadband customers have been without internet access since Thursday, and the company cannot tell them when it will be restored. First to go was access to secure websites like Hotmail and Amazon on Thursday of last week. By Saturday there was no internet access at all. We were contacted by a frustrated business …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 10:00
Amazon.com: Now with 50% less cockfighting

The Gamecock pulled from the shelves

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is claiming partial victory in its legal battle to have cockfighting magazines The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior removed from Amazon after the publisher of the former agreed to "ask Amazon.com to stop selling its publication online". The HSUS filed suit against Amazon back in …

Law 21 May 2008, 10:04
Intel nudges Centrino 2 debut back

Still in public H1 2008 launch window - just

Intel's next major Centrino revamp - dubbed 'Centrino 2' - isn't coming until the end of June, and not this month, as the company's executives have stated in the past. According to whispers coming out of Taiwan's notebook manufacturers, the chip giant will release the X9100, T9600, T9400, P9500, P8600 and P8400 'Montevina'- …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 10:05
Stone catches fallen Rock

Notebook reseller saved from administration

Stone Group, reseller to the public sector, has bought high-end laptop maker Rock Group which went into administration earlier this month. Staffs-based Stone will keep the Rock brand and its focus on high-end laptops and games machines. Stone will hope to sell more of these machines to its traditional public sector customers. …

Channel Register 21 May 2008, 10:20
HP's Hurd points out flat and spotty US in Q3

Shows Wall Street its best face

HP boss Mark Hurd sketched out a "flattish" picture of the US market, but confirmed the company was seeing worldwide growth as he aired third quarter earnings yesterday. Hurd also offered a couple of crumbs of detail on his ambitions for EDS – once the services giant has been borged by HP – and gave Wall Street analysts a …

Channel Register 21 May 2008, 10:25
Hello Kitty gets claws into UK electronics

Branded gear and mobile content on the way

Brand developer Comment Retail Services has signed a deal to bring Hello Kitty into the hands of UK punters by way of mobile phone content and branded electronics, reports licensing.biz. Hello Kitty is Japanese in origin, but has always been popular in the USA. In the UK the brand already adorns clothing and toys, but not much …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 10:26
Sikorsky X2 superwhirlybird enters ground spin-up phase

Revolutionary in more ways than two

Those like us on the Vulture flying-car desk, who chafe at the limitations of present-day hovering aircraft, like to keep an eye on Sikorsky's X2 prototype. The helicopter firm announced today that the X2 made its first ground runs with blades fitted last week, and everything went swimmingly. "We continue to move our …

Science 21 May 2008, 11:35
Open source code crawling with fewer bugs

Audit gives thumbs up

The quality of open source code has improved over the last two years, according to an audit sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security. The security and quality of more than 250 open source projects - including Apache, Linux, Firefox and PHP - was assessed using code analysis tools from Coverity as part of the federal …

Enterprise Security 21 May 2008, 11:50
Nokia says no plan to switch phones to Linux

What is a mobile phone, exactly?

Despite reports to the contrary, Nokia is not embracing Linux as a platform for its mobile phones. The Finnish giant insists that comments reported by Reuters and others were quoted out of context and that nothing has changed. Speculation started when comments from Rick Simonson, Nokia's Financial Director, that the mobile …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 11:58
SF's green mayor dreams of electric car heaven

Analysis Socket to me, Shai...

On a trip to Israel two weeks ago San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom heard more about the plan to switch the country from petrol vehicles to electric, and was so impressed he bought the project. Now Newsom wants his city to be the first in the US to adopt electric cars wholesale, and claims that with the will, "you can be off oil …

Environment 21 May 2008, 12:02
Roll-your-own SugarCRM targets partners and enterprises

Build big

SugarCRM today announced a new edition of its on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software service. Most noteworthy are the tools for partners and customers to roll out and manage their own versions of the software. Pencilled for a summer launch, SugarCRM Data Center Edition (DCE) is in beta testing today with …

Applications 21 May 2008, 12:02
Asus Eee PC 901 spied on web... in black

Once again, way cooler than the white one

We saw leaked piccies of the white Atom-powered Eee PC 901 t'other week, but now it's the turn of the black version to find pictures of itself slip out of Asus and appear on the web. Once again, the shots come from French-language fansite Blogeee.net, which clearly has a mole inside Asus' art department. Here's just a taster …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 12:19
SOCA defends e-crime record as minister admits gap

Analysis NHTCU 'nostalgia' misplaced, says UK's FBI

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has defended its record in tackling cybercrime, arguing that it has more resources at its disposal in fighting e-crime than the more specialist police agency it replaced. But the defence comes as a Home Office minister acknowledged gaps in UK e-crime strategy and announced plans to …

Policing 21 May 2008, 12:24
UK censor launches online content classification drive

Age verification to become the norm?

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has launched its online classification system for downloadable movies and games. The voluntary scheme asks online retailers to display the BBFC’s age-suitability classification prominently on each title's download page. Additional BBFC certification information, including what …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 12:34
Ofcom pulls plug on wholesale broadband regulation

For most of the UK

Communications regulator Ofcom is ending regulation for the majority of UK wholesale broadband. Some 70 per cent of exchanges, about 10,000 premises, which have four or more providers of wholesale internet access will be freed from regulation. Areas with less than four providers such as Hull will continue to be regulated - BT …

Government 21 May 2008, 13:00
Cornish lingo gets standard written form

Factions get their orthographic act together

Supporters of the Cornish language have, following "more than two years of passionate negotiations", agreed on an essential for official recognition of and funding for their tongue - a "Standard Written Form" (SWF) designed to unify the disparate versions of the revived lingo. According to the Telegraph, the last native …

Bootnotes 21 May 2008, 13:03
Samsung Adidas F110 miCoach personal trainer phone

Review Pint-sized Mr Motivator

Many of us spend a fortune on gym membership only to join the gang of guilty no-shows after just a few weeks. So is a mobile phone capable of putting you on the fast track to personal fitness? Samsung and Adidas think so. They’ve teamed up to produce the miCoach mobile phone and integrated personal coaching system. It’s a …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 13:04
Official: no Gunmetal Grey PS3 for UK

US gamers to get it though

While US Metal Gear Solid 4 fans eagerly await the delivery of limited edition Gunmetal Grey PlayStation 3 bundle packs next month, Sony has confirmed that the fancy bundle won't be offered to British gamers. Sony's Gunmetal Grey PS3: not coming to the UK Last month, Register Hardware reported that the sexy gunmetal grey …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 13:15
Latest 'designer handset' touted by Christian Dior

Anything you can do, i can do better

Watch out Nokia Vertu, because there’s now another ridiculously priced handset on the market. Designer Christian Dior is to launch a line of bling-encrusted phones priced at up to $5000 (£2541/€3179). Christian Dior's phone range: set to be exclusive... and expensive The designer’s phones, like many designer phones to date …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 13:18
Oz carrier Primus blitzed by DDoS attack

International links 'trashed'

Australian telco Primus said it came under an intense denial of service attack on Wednesday. The botnet-powered assault, aimed at its core routers, limited connectivity for Primus customers to sites outside Australia, according to a status message on its support page. The source or motive for the attack - which started around …

Telecoms 21 May 2008, 14:06
Japan gets cryptic timepiece

Looks great, but does it tell the time?

Wrist watches that display the time using LED arrangements are nothing new, but this latest version from Japanese manufacturer Tokyoflash is so bonkers that even Stephen Hawking would have trouble working out how many minutes past four it is. LED colour groupings indicate the time. Apparently According to Tokyoflash, the …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 14:30
Revealed! The new face of the Eee PC

Model plan

The sun may be about to set on Asus' famous Eee-assessing blonde beach babe. She's apparently been supplanted by another woman, one with a taste for the finer things in life - and Small, Cheap Computers™. The new face of the Eee is known only by the alias 'The Housewife', and was spotted this week appearing in an Asus Eee PC …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 14:30
Time Warner and Time Warner Cable split

Breaking up is hard to do...

Time Warner Cable Inc has agreed to completely sever ties with its parent company Time Warner Inc, which will receive a tasty payout from the spin-off. A one-time dividend, payable immediately prior to the separation, will be paid to Time Warner Cable stockholders of $10.27 a share for a total of about $10.9bn. Time Warner will …

Telecoms 21 May 2008, 14:46
3 told to cut rates

No special treatment

3 is getting too long in the tooth to play in the kids' pool. The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday ruled that the mobe co, not being such a new player any more, is going to have to cut its termination rates to be more in line with other operators. Termination rates are paid to the called party's operator, and are capped …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 14:49
Moody's computer 'bug' caused over-optimistic credit ratings

Computer says yes!

Moody's saw its shares slide on opening this morning, after reports that the institutional rating firm had blamed bugs in its computer model for leading it to grade several debt parcels as almost without risk for investors. The ratings firm announced a review of the way it changed its ratings methodology when the FT reported …

Financial News 21 May 2008, 14:53
US Reapers get satnav bombs, deploy on Canadian border

Cloudy-weather killbot weapons a coincidence, no doubt

The General Atomics Predator-B drone aircraft - better known under its US Air Force name, the "Reaper" - has just dropped its first satnav-guided weapons. In a doubtless unrelated development, the roboplane also seems set to deploy along the US-Canadian border. Mowing down humans like corn regardless of weather. The US Air …

Government 21 May 2008, 14:56
Register Books brings you Dorset House

Pick up the classics here

Following our previous promotions (Programming Classics and Programming Classics – The Sequel) we heard that you, the user, wanted the reputable Dorset House titles – so we went and got them for you! You can now purchase from their extensive back catalogue right here on Register Books. But that's not all. We are also offering 40 …

Developer 21 May 2008, 14:59
Acer Predator packs powerful specs, lacks skull cleaning capability

Will eat the competition?

Acer wants to take a big bite out of the gaming PC business with its new system, Predator, part of its Aspire line. Actually, it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie too. But the spec's right down to Earth, with a choice of Intel Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Quad processors, Nvidia's nForce 780i chipset, up to 8GB of …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 15:01
Microsoft loses Alcatel-Lucent patent legal spat

Intellectual property infringement claims thrown out

Microsoft lost a lawsuit yesterday in which it alleged that Alcatel-Lucent had violated software patents used in business telephone networks. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said on Tuesday that the French-American networking group Alcatel-Lucent was not guilty of infringing four patents for software used in a …

Software 21 May 2008, 15:24
'F**k the Country Channel', says the Country Channel

Web TV outfit in email newsletter shocker

We're very much obliged to the shocked reader who forwarded us an email newsletter from online TV outfit The Country Channel, which appears to dedicate its time to dancing with horses, tractor-pulling and sniffing out British cheeseries. Well, there will be a few indignant letters to the Telegraph winging their way from …

Music and Media 21 May 2008, 15:29
Christian Bale signs for Terminator trilogy

On board for the whole shooting match

Christian Bale, who's already strutting his stuff before the cameras for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, will play John Connor in a further two cinematic outings for the Skynet versus humanity saga. The fourth Terminator film - the first of planned trilogy which will "reinvent" the franchise - is currently shooting at …

Entertainment 21 May 2008, 15:46
Whither Google's new CFO?

Massageland loses its luster

Back in August, Google told the world that CFO George Reyes would retire from the company once someone could be found to replace him. Well, almost nine months have passed, and there's no replacement. In the official press release that announced Reyes' retirement plans, the company said that it expected to find a replacement by …

Applications 21 May 2008, 15:58
Phlashing attack thrashes embedded systems

Router bricking risk

A security attack that damages embedded systems beyond repair was demonstrated for the first time in London on Wednesday. The cyber-assault thrashes systems by abusing firmware update mechanisms. If successful, the so-called phlashing attack would force victims to replace systems. The attack was demonstrated by Rich Smith, …

Spam 21 May 2008, 16:16
Tory proposes street-legal Segway legalisation

MP calls for 'personal transporters' to allowed on UK roads

The Segway personal transporter should be allowed to be ridden on UK roads, a Conservative transport spokesman has said. Should Segways be allowed onto UK roads? According to a report by the BBC, Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, has urged ministers to rethink the vehicle’s classification. Currently, the …

Reg Hardware 21 May 2008, 16:23
Microsoft pays people to use its search engine

Chicktionary not enough

Microsoft will do almost anything to shrink the Google gap. It will even pay people to use its search engine. Today, as first leaked by Todd Bishop's ultra-famous Microsoft blog, Redmond unveiled a new site called "Live Search Cashback." If you use its Live Search engine to find and purchase certain products, Microsoft will …

Software 21 May 2008, 18:47
After Debian's epic SSL blunder, a world of hurt for security pros

Admins: Heal thy certificates

It's been more than a week since Debian patched a massive security hole in the library the operating system uses to create cryptographic keys for securing email, websites and administrative servers. Now the hard work begins, as legions of admins are saddled with the odious task of regenerating keys too numerous for anyone to …

Servers 21 May 2008, 18:47
Bush tests Castro with mobile phone gift barrage

Let freedom ring — oh hey, it's polyphonic

Americans will soon be able to send cell phones to Cubans, President Bush announced today. Does this bother you? I'm not touching you. The move is apparently meant to be an experimental prod at Cuba's President Raul Castro, who has relaxed a number of restrictions on consumer electronics since replacing his brother Fidel in …

Networks 21 May 2008, 18:49
Microsoft to ODF, PDF - let's get it on together

ODF champion says 'put your tongue away'

A Microsoft pledge to support current and future versions of Open Document Format (ODF) in Office has been greeted with skepticism by the industry group leading ODF. Microsoft said Tuesday its planned Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will add support for ODF 1.1 - the industry backed document format Microsoft has challenged with …

Applications 21 May 2008, 20:51
Red Hat Enterprise Linux thinks big

New drivers for old

Red Hat has updated its enterprise Linux distro with hardware and driver refinements targeting desktops and big servers. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, released today and available through a Red Hat Network subscription, features virtualization for very large systems with up to 64 CPUs and 512Gb of memory. Also, Red Hat has …

Servers 21 May 2008, 21:22
Man barred from posting crimes on YouTube

Interim ASBO for 'Leeds’s dumbest criminal'

An Englishman has been ordered to stop bragging about his criminal behavior on the internet after an extensive video library of his misdemeanors was spotted on YouTube by local authorities. Andrew Kellett, 23, was served yesterday with an interim anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) at Leeds Magistrates' Court that bans him …

Crime 21 May 2008, 22:27
Vista on your iPhone - almost 'perfection'

When Apple met Microsoft

Sitting at the perfect, if somewhat niche, intersection of Windows Vista and Apple iPhone fandom is this: VistaPerfection 2.0. Independent developer Spec-Works has released VistaPerfection 2.0 to ModifyMyPhone, an iPhone site covering hacked and unlocked devices, that lets you give your iPhone that unmistakable Vista-look-and- …

Mobile 21 May 2008, 22:30