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15th July 2008 Archive

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  • Intel bets millions on speedy DNA sequencing chips

    Bio-silicon start-up gets $100m

    Intel is among several investors pumping $100m into a biotech start-up that wants to make mapping an individual's genome as routine as taking an X-ray. Pacific Biosciences of Menlo Park, California anticipates that by 2013 it will be able to sell a DNA sequencer that can tackle a person's entire hereditary information in as …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2008, 00:10

  • Netflix will stream movies on Xbox 360

    Microsoft stretches, puts arm around distributor

    Microsoft is now flirting with making its Xbox 360 movie download service very nearly interesting thank to a new deal announced today with Netflix. The software giant has scored a pact to stream a portion of Netflix's movie library on its game console online network. About 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available to …

    Media 15 Jul 2008, 00:38

  • Sky beams TV onto PSP

    Go!View test service now available

    Sony and broadcaster Sky have finally televised details of their joint subscription TV-on-PSP service, which is now available to the portable console's punters. Go!View has all sorts of TV content available, including Alan Partridge Dubbed Go!View, the service enables gamers to access a variety of telly content through Sky …

    Games 15 Jul 2008, 07:02

  • Price drops on Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 and 280

    Free market economics

    High-end gamers owning a bit of patience can thank the free market. Or at least offer a courteous nod to AMD for supplying sufficient heat under Nvidia's tender bits. Not a month has passed since Nvidia pushed out its new generation of GPUs, and it's already slashing the price of the GTX 260 and 280. The GTX 280 is now sold …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2008, 07:55

  • Soccer star scores uni degree with Wii

    Back o' the net!

    Gamers have argued about the Wii’s ability to aid weight loss since the console’s launch. But now we've got an answer, thanks to a professional footballer. Conall Murtagh, 23, plays football for Wrexham and is also a student. He’s just picked up a degree in physiology from Manchester University for studying the health benefits …

    Science 15 Jul 2008, 08:01

  • Want a new career as a contract killer?

    Google is probably not your friend…

    A bizarre case was reported in the Times last week of a woman who used a website - www.hitman.us.com - to hire a contract killer to “rub out” her multi-millionaire partner. Sharon Collins, 45 and a divorced mother-of-two, hired Tony Luciano – actually an Egyptian poker player called Essam Eid - to kill property tycoon P J Howard …

    Security 15 Jul 2008, 08:02

  • BT updates Home Hub Wi-Fi box with 802.11n

    Better security too?

    BT has updated its hacker-vulnerable Home Hub wireless box, introducing support for 802.11n Wi-Fi and - perhaps more importantly - the WPA security technology enabled out of the box. Designed to link in to BT's Total Broadband service, the new Home Hub doubles up as wireless router and DECT phone cradle. Nothing out of the …

    Broadband 15 Jul 2008, 08:29

  • Court advisor says poem list infringed database right

    But how much copying is OK?

    Europe's highest court could strengthen the rights of database creators to protect their work. One of the European Court of Justice's Advocates General has issued an opinion backing a German University's right to stop others using information it compiled. A European Union Directive protects the content of databases even when …

    Software 15 Jul 2008, 09:01

  • Oz censor, gamers fall out over Fallout 3 ban

    Medicinal morphine drug reward controversy

    Australia's censor has effectively banned Fallout 3 from sale by refusing to grant it a certificate. The reason: it believes the game rewards drug-taking. The chemical in question is morphine, which the player can inject during the game to reduce the impact of damage taken during the violent post-apocalypse shoot-'em-up. And …

    Games 15 Jul 2008, 09:05

  • BT opens wallet to send fibre to the home

    Faster internet, go, go

    BT will spend some £1.5bn on fibre optic cables to bring decent broadband to British homes and offices, provided Ofcom acts to protect its juicy margins. Regulator Ofcom made noises earlier this month suggesting it would move to protect BT if the telco did invest in a fibre network. A couple of weeks on, and hey presto, BT is …

    Broadband 15 Jul 2008, 09:52

  • Be the first millionaire on your block to go Tiltrotor

    Farnborough Civilian Osprey for sale - as ordered by Greg Norman

    Everyone knows about the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor - the remarkable plane/copter combo craft around which the US Marines have based so many of their future plans, and which is at last in operational service after long a painful teething troubles. Relatively few, however, have been following the development of the Osprey's civilian …

    Science 15 Jul 2008, 09:59

  • Intel rolls out Centrino 2, compares it to 2006's 'Napa'

    Vendors follow with identikit laptop launches

    Intel has formally launched Centrino 2 - actually the fifth incarnation of its laptop platform technology - and the world's notebook makers will be rolling out 'Montevina'-based machines throughout the week. They'll all contain essentially the same technology, give or take processor speeds, memory complements, drive capacities …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2008, 10:03

  • Nintendo bring real-time interactivity to Wii

    Nintendo is to bring "an unmatched level of precision" to the Wii's ability to work out where a player's flinging the Wii Remote. Nintendo's Wii Motion Plus: super-sensitive add-on Due to be announced later today at the E3 games industry show, the Wii MotionPlus is a small unit that plugs onto the end of the Remote in the …

    Games 15 Jul 2008, 10:35

  • School chases truants by text

    Get ur ass bk n class

    A school in Bedford has become the latest outpost of the public sector to turn to text messages as the answer to all its problems. Newnham Middle School in Bedford is buying Truancycall, an automated system that will notify parents by text and email if their kids forget to turn up at school. The system is pitched not just as …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2008, 10:59

  • Motorola ROKR E8 music phone

    Review Can it revive the fortunes of the ROKR family

    Motorola’s ROKR music mobiles hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, the let-down of its E1 setting the par for the rest. With the E8 however, Motorola has approached the music mobile arena afresh. This model introduces some new design thinking to the range, not least Motorola’s own take on the current vogue for context- …

    Phones 15 Jul 2008, 11:10

  • Barclays to scrap 1,800 UK tech jobs

    Follows the money offshore

    Barclays is to axe 1,800 IT jobs in the UK as part of a major business overhaul to set up technology centres in key offshore locations around the world, with 700 workers being forced out by September. The bank first told staff about its outsourcing plans in January this year. In a canned statement Barclays said it hoped to “ …

    Management 15 Jul 2008, 11:41

  • Unpatched Windows PCs own3d in less than four minutes

    Gone in 240 seconds

    An unpatched PC is likely to last just four minutes on the internet before being attacked and compromised. The time it takes for a PC to get itself owned varies by operating system and what activities a user engages in - but even allowing for this, putting an unpatched Windows PC directly onto the net in the hope that it …

    Security 15 Jul 2008, 11:45

  • Reding vows Autumn assault on EU data roaming charges

    Operators ordered to facilitate ski-texting

    Vivian Reding has pledged to get legislation to slash text and data roaming charges on the legislative agenda by October, after an investigation found that roaming charges were still up to ten times more expensive than home network charges. In a statement today, the commission said it had hoped that following its cap on voice …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2008, 11:48

  • World fails to end as Palm ships Treo smartphone with Wi-Fi

    GPS too

    Palm's smartphone family has finally joined the Wi-Fi era. The company last night introduced the Windows Mobile 6.1-based Treo 800w, which has EV-DO Rev. A 3G on board too. Initially shipping on US carrier Sprint's network, the 800w sports a Centro-like look, complete with a 320 x 320, 65,536-colour screen. Round the back is a …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2008, 11:49

  • Bagel brownin' Cylon toaster now frakkin' available

    No really - it is a toaster

    Sitting somewhere in between Red Dwarf's Talkie Toaster and the 7ft tall Cylon Centurion we covered a few weeks back, comes the Comic-Con limited edition Battlestar Galactica Cylon Toaster. Oh yes. "By your comm-" crunch, crunch, crunch According to NBC Universal Store, these are one-of-a-kind made specifically for the San …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2008, 11:57

  • Google: the mother of antitrust battles?

    Comment The internet, and how to own it

    The US Senate today embarks on what could become years of antitrust investigations into Google by the IT, telecoms and media industries. The hearing today is just that - a piece of political showboating ordered by antitrust subcommittee chairman Herb Kohl. It's not a formal investigation, let alone a lawsuit. Yet with the …

    Broadband 15 Jul 2008, 12:34

  • Kiwi botmaster escapes conviction despite guilty plea

    Police think skills could be handy

    An NZ teenager who became notorious for masterminding the creation of one of the largest cybercrime networks has escaped conviction, despite admitting computer hacking and fraud offences. Owen Thor Walker (AKA AKILL), 18 and from Whitianga, pleaded guilty to six cybercime offences in late March, but Justice Judith Potter …

    Security 15 Jul 2008, 12:34

  • UK's future super-stealth jumpjet 'rock solid' - Brit test pilot

    Farnborough Air Marshal less willing to go firm

    One of the most avidly-followed aircraft now under development - the F-35B supersonic stealth jumpjet - is naturally on show here at Farnborough this week, and lead maker Lockheed has just given a press conference studded with air marshals and generals from the various armed forces around the world who hope soon to be operating …

    Science 15 Jul 2008, 12:55

  • BT breaks up families

    Broken Home Hub shocker

    BT customers affected by the dog-and-bone merchants' recent unconnecty unpleasantness will no doubt be pleased to know that it could be worse - the company is responsible for the traumatic break-up of at least one previously happy family. According to a breathless press release the Reg has been handed, the ongoing ad campaign …

    Bootnotes 15 Jul 2008, 13:49

  • British drivers face jail for causing death by dangerous driving

    Tough sentencing guidelines target mobiles

    The Sentencing Guidelines Council has released its definitive guidelines (pdf) for sentencing in cases of dangerous driving which result in death, describing them as "serious" and worthy of "appropriate sentences". The guidelines tackle four offences: causing death by dangerous driving; causing death by careless driving under …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2008, 13:52

  • Farmers face subsidy error fall-out

    Report finds processing costs out of control

    The cost of processing each single farm payment has often exceeded the claim's value, according to the Public Accounts Committee. In a report published on 15 July 2008, the House of Commons committee says that continuing problems with the Single Payment Scheme IT system have racked up high processing costs, as well as damaging …

    Government 15 Jul 2008, 13:53

  • El Reg nails Street View spycars to Google Maps

    Counter-Orwellian mashup in a Web 0.2 stylee

    Well, we at El Reg have decided we've had quite enough of Google's Orwellian Street View fleet - coming over here, invading our privacy, burning our petrol, and so forth - so we decided to nail the blighters to the search monolith's own Google Maps. Yup, it's uninhibited Web 0.2, and no messing: View the Map (opens in a new …

    Bootnotes 15 Jul 2008, 13:55

  • Home Office unveils tagtastic immigrant control plans

    Again, and again, and again...

    Detained illegal immigrants are the latest to fall victim to the Home Office's bizarre love affair with electronic tagging. The draft immigration and citizenship bill, published this week, puts forwards proposals for "large" but unspecified bail bonds along with tagging as an alternative to detention. The proposed "immigration …

    Government 15 Jul 2008, 14:16

  • RIM BlackBerry 9500 'Thunder' spied on web

    Specs too

    RIM's iPhone-wannabe touchscreen BlackBerry, the 9500, has made an early appearance on the web, complete with specs. The new handset - which is still down as "not announced" on Expansys' website - is described as possessing a "stunning touch screen display, rapid 3G connectivity coupled with the popular BlackBerry instant …

    Phones 15 Jul 2008, 14:43

  • Street-savvy Microsoft tries to pop the pimply face of piracy

    Giving file-sharing schoolkids a spanking

    Microsoft has tagged schoolkids as the UK's worst culprits for illegally downloading files from the net. The company, in its latest swoop on software piracy, today put out the results of a new study - dubbed Real Thing - which was based on a survey of just 270 children and 1,200 adults aged 16 and above. It found that 54 per …

    The Channel 15 Jul 2008, 14:46

  • Info commissioner says comms database is leap too far

    Thomas demands proper debate

    Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said today that government plans for a communications database are a step too far and need proper public debate. Speaking at the launch of the regulator's annual report Thomas said: "I am absolutely clear that the targeted, and duly authorised, interception of the communications of …

    Government 15 Jul 2008, 15:00

  • Acer pitches Aspire One at Euro cellcos

    Talking to T-Mobile, Orange and Vodafone

    Acer is said to be talking to T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange in a bid to persuade them to bundle its Aspire One Small, Cheap Computer with a USB 3G modem and subsidise the price through airtime subscription. So claims an unnamed Acer representative cited by IDG. The talks appear preliminary and exploratory, so it would be …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2008, 15:05

  • Irate sysadmin locks San Francisco officials out of network

    City 'doing everything necessary'

    Hapless municipal bosses in San Francisco have been locked out of their network by a disgruntled sysadmin charged with computer sabotage. Terry Childs, 43 and of Pittsburg, California, was held on remand over the weekend pending the outcome of committal proceedings (an arraignment) on Tuesday where he faces four counts of …

    Management 15 Jul 2008, 15:15

  • SanDisk touts read-only SD cards for sensitive data

    Something even easier for civil servants to mislay

    Flash-fancier SanDisk's mission to eradicate all recording media and replace them with solid-state storage continued today with the release of an SD card you can only write to once. Dubbed the SD WORM (Write Once Read Many) card, the 128MB device is primarily being pitched at agencies that need to keep data forever and keep it …

    Storage 15 Jul 2008, 15:54

  • HP and Sony double team better storage tape format

    DAT 320 gets fat

    Hewlett-Packard and Sony are putting their heads together again to make a denser breed of Digital Audio Tape drives and cassettes. Even they worked together on the technology, both companies intend to roll out separate flavors of the new DAT 320 format in the first half of 2009. DAT 320 will have backup speeds of up to 86GB …

    Storage 15 Jul 2008, 17:27

  • Court cheers warrantless snooping of e-mail

    Civil rights? We're not familiar

    Your e-mail is at risk again thanks to a recent ruling that backs no-notice, warrantless digs through e-mail accounts held by service providers. A US appeals court issued a ruling (PDF) on Friday that overturned a previous decision by one of its panels preventing government searches of private email accounts without prior …

    Law 15 Jul 2008, 17:51

  • Google will anonymize YouTube data before sharing with Viacom

    Time to outsource some scrubbing

    Sanity has prevailed in the Google-Viacom case. At least for the moment. Two weeks ago, wackadoo federal judge Louis L. Stanton ordered Google to share over 12TB of YouTube viewing records with Viacom, including account names and IP addresses. But yesterday, the two companies agreed that all personally identifiable info should …

    Law 15 Jul 2008, 18:21

  • Hackintosh maker gets legal greeting from Apple

    Psystar sued for ruining perfection

    As was inevitable, hackintosh vendor Psystar has found itself on Apple's legal to-do list. Apple has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the open hardware manufacturer, which began raising eyebrows by offering a $400 computer capable of running copies of Mac OS X. Psystar Open Computer The legal grievances were …

    The Channel 15 Jul 2008, 19:00

  • And so we begin the tech sector's journey into the Heart of Darkness

    Comment Can the nerds save the economy?

    Does anyone else remember when technology companies were propping up this economy? Yeah, that's right. Oil prices were surging. Housing prices were plummeting. But there was the resilient technology sector, making us think things might be okay. No companies missing earnings. No layoffs. Hope at the end of the fab. Um, well, I …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2008, 19:30

  • IBM one-ups Sun with terabyte tape drive

    Ha-ha. Ours is faster than yours

    IBM has launched its 1 terabyte tape drive the day after Sun launched the T10000B, and its is 33 percent faster than the Sun product. The IBM System Storage TS1130 is the latest generation of the company's 3592 tape format. The previous TS1120 drive stored up to 700GB of raw data on a 3592 tape. The TS1130 has an I/O …

    Storage 15 Jul 2008, 19:37

  • Sun calms investors with early Q4 dish

    Not as bad as you might have thought

    Sun Microsystems has issued an early take on its fourth quarter financial results, showing sales figures that have declined from the same period last year. The company, which is due to report finalized Q4 figures on Aug. 1, expects revenue to come in between $3.73bn and $3.8bn. During last year's fourth quarter, Sun pulled in …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2008, 20:38

  • Google taunts 'losers' with secret Android code

    'You want it? You can't have it'

    Google isn't just hiding the Android SDK from the world's developers. It's teasing them with it. Yesterday, just as we finished detailing the search giant's shabby treatment of mobile-minded coders, it treated them even worse, dangling its secret software developer's kit just under their proverbial noses. The Mountain View …

    Developer 15 Jul 2008, 21:03

  • Intel at ease with economic chaos

    Q2 a grower

    The economy looks bleak as can be, but Intel doesn't care. The chip maker today reported a record second quarter haul and expects the good times to keep on rolling throughout the year. Intel's Q2 revenue notched in at $9.5bn, which is a healthy 9 per cent rise over last year's revenue total for the same period. Net income of $ …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2008, 23:11

  • Microsoft questions Google's plan to save the world through ads

    Mr. Smith's boo-hoo over Goo-Hoo

    Yes, Microsoft turned up at today's dueling Congressional hearings on the Google ad pact with Yahoo!. Redmond senior vice president and general counsel Brad Smith told both the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust and the House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force that Goo-Hoo! is one bad idea. "The effect …

    Government 15 Jul 2008, 23:14

  • Citrix's 'Kensho' tools shed earthly hypervisor restraints

    Seeks application workload Nirvana

    Citrix Systems is developing a set of Open Virtual Machine (OVM) format tools that will let virtualized applications jump across different hypervisors. Dubbed Project Kensho, the tools will be released as a technical preview for download by the end of this quarter. The code allows pre-configured virtual applications (viz. …

    Virtualization 15 Jul 2008, 23:49