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22nd July 2008 Archive

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  • Even without 3-Jesus Phone, Apple busts revenue records

    And Wall Street is peeved

    During its last fiscal quarter, Apple shipped a record 2.49 million Macs, and even if you ignore a decent chunk of its Jesus Phone sales, it nabbed a record $7.46bn in revenues. But in typically coy fashion, the company says it has low expectations for the quarter to come. Naturally, those who play the Wall Street game sent …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2008, 00:16

  • Brocade buys Foundry Networks for $3bn

    Playing with the big boys now

    Brocade is to acquire Foundry Networks for $3bn in cash and stock. The storage networking vendor has secured a $1.5bn debt facility from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to grease the purchase. The company says the acquisition will be accretive to Brocade's non GAAP earnings in fiscal 2009. In other words, there are cost …

    Data Networking 22 Jul 2008, 06:55

  • Operation Sprogwatch: Keeping tabs on the kids

    No snoop for you, buddi?

    It's every parent's dream - reliable and easy-accessed information on what your offspring are up to. Electronics systems such as Spyphone II 8210 actually allow you to dial into your child's mobile, and eavesdrop on their conversations. And now, there's the "buddi", which will track wherever the brats go, showing a GPS path …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2008, 07:02

  • Vultures circle over IT jobs

    Large suppliers make hay from greater pricing pressure

    Big IT firms are likely to do better from the credit crunch than smaller suppliers, as greater economies of scale allow them to offer cheaper prices. Overall IT budgets are stabilising after recording big falls in December and April. Goldman Sachs, which surveyed 100 CIOs at Fortune 1000 firms, warned that there is a risk of …

    IT Director 22 Jul 2008, 07:02

  • Vodafone shares tumble on interims

    Economic weakness

    Vodafone, the world's largest cellco, grew revenues to £9.1bn, up by nearly 20 per cent, or 1.7 per cent organic growth, in the three months ended 30 June 2008. The company now has 269m mobile customers, an increase of 8.5m on last quarter. Data revenues grew 29.4 per cent to £664m. But Vodafone expects revenue for the year …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2008, 08:01

  • Home Office classes openness review a secret

    Silly Season opens here

    It may be a little early for the silly season, but if last week’s antics by the Home Office and the Daily Mail are anything to go by, it is already upon us. On Tuesday, the Home Office pioneered an interesting new approach to public information, by making a series of review documents available on their website – and leaving …

    Government 22 Jul 2008, 08:31

  • Police told: Delete old criminal records

    Dump innocents' DNA while you're at it

    The Information Tribunal has told five police forces to remove old, minor criminal records from their databases. Some of the cases date back 30 years. They include a person under 18 who was fined £15 for stealing a 99p packet of meat in 1984; a girl under 14 cautioned for a minor assault who was told her record would not be …

    Policing 22 Jul 2008, 09:20

  • If your SSD sucks, blame Vista, says SSD vendor

    SanDisk pledges next-gen Flash disks will be better

    It's Windows Vista's fault that solid-state storage isn't performing as well as its proponents predicted. So said SanDisk CEO Eli Harari, but at least he didn't go as far as saying it's Microsoft's problem to fix. SSDs are viewed as the heir apparent to the hard disk, particularly for laptops and other mobile computers. SSDs …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 09:36

  • Divorce for shouty YouTube wife

    Belligerent blonde Broadway banshee blasted by beak

    Broadway mogul Philip Smith has been granted a divorce from the actress whose dull video rants inexplicably clocked up over 3m hits on YouTube. Tricia Walsh-Smith attained the kind of internet infamy previously only afforded to dramatic prairie dogs with her petulant marriage mitherings, in which she stomps around the couple's …

    Law 22 Jul 2008, 09:50

  • Watching the security landscape

    RegCast Stay safe with Vulture Vision

    It's a proud day here at El Reg - behold our first live video webcast, now snugly fitted into the archives and available for your delectation. We took an unflinching look into the evolving security landscape, and we'd like to invite you to take a good hard stare too. Headed up and moderated by our man Tim Phillips, the event …

    Security 22 Jul 2008, 09:52

  • The Guardian's excellent Web 2.0 blog-up

    Comment If we build it, they'll shrug

    Late last month The Guardian quietly put to sleep its exercise in fighting climate change via the power of blogs, Tread Lightly. Nine months of weekly personal CO2 reduction pledges by Guardian readers had shown, Carolyn Fry wrote bravely, "that even relatively small weekly carbon savings can add up to significant amounts if …

    Business 22 Jul 2008, 10:02

  • RM buddies up with Tesco on new voucher scheme

    Egg and spoon race

    UK schools computer supplier RM has bagged a partnership deal with Tesco for the retail giant’s forthcoming voucher collection scheme which kicks off in 2009. Tesco has merged into one catalogue its two voucher schemes - Computers for Schools and Sport for Schools and Clubs - that were previously supported by RM. Under the …

    Channel Register 22 Jul 2008, 10:09

  • Blighty's electro-supercar 2.0 uncloaked today

    Updated Fast-charge Lightning to bitchslap Tesla?

    Here at the British Motor Show in London, there are lots and lots of cars to see. Quite a few of them have electric or part-electric power trains. A few of these use or plan to use advanced battery technologies such as lithium-ion. Only one has moved on further still, to a technology which promises genuinely usable electric cars …

    Environment 22 Jul 2008, 10:19

  • Vendor touts PC's Mac OS X compatibility

    But won't sell it with Apple's OS.

    Apple Legal, we laugh in your face! Brassy computer company Open Tech is cocking just such snook Jobs-wards, though we note it's not brave enough to publish an address on its website... Undeterred by Mac clone maker Psystar's recent run-in with Apple's lawyers, Open Tech has announced Open Tech Computer 1.0, a $620 bog …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 10:20

  • Sony Ericsson unwraps Walkman duo

    Latest music phones

    With the summer festival season upon us, Sony Ericsson hopes that rockers, moshers and all music lovers will start dancing to the beat of its two latest Walkman phones. When they finally go on sale... Sony Ericsson's W90:2 gig-proof, scratch-resistant screen Headlining the duo is the W902, which sports supposedly “retro” …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 10:41

  • Ten Tech Toys for Travellers

    Round-up Handy gadgets for great outdoors

    It may be hard to believe what the Met Office tells us, that we’re about to get an entire month’s rainfall in a single day, but the summer holidays are well and truly upon us. So it’s time to start packing the bags and stocking up on the latest tech toys that you can take on holiday with you. If you stay here in the soggy old …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 10:43

  • NASA: The Moon is not enough

    Scientists argue for a return to the lunar surface

    NASA and its international aeronautical cohorts have some serious explaining to do before they start rocketing folks to the Moon again. They better convince the public why it's so important for our species to invest hand-over-fist just to root around some boring gray orbital dust ball - a dust ball we already stuck a flag in a …

    Space 22 Jul 2008, 11:02

  • Lenovo stock falls as IBM retreats

    Falling market share

    Lenovo saw shares fall more than five per cent today following a sale of the PC maker's shares. JP Morgan analysts downgraded the company to neutral from overweight, citing sluggish revenue growth from weak customer demand in China and the US. The downgrade came after IBM yesterday sold off 116.19 million shares worth $77.3m …

    PCs & Chips 22 Jul 2008, 11:14

  • 419ers crank up the menaces

    'Your friend has paid us to kill you...'

    You know how it is - things are a bit quiet in the internet cafes of Lagos, people have sussed MARIAM ABACHA doesn't really have $30,000,000 (THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS) in gold bullion looted from Saddam Hussein's personal vault, and so it looks like it's time to up the email scam ante. Well, what about trying a line of attack …

    Spam 22 Jul 2008, 11:41

  • Who do you think you are, knitting Mr Hitler?

    Crocheted Fuhrer bothers woolly thinkers

    There's no easy way to lead into this so we'll just come right out with it - according to The Sun one can now obtain knitting patterns to create one's very own cuddly Hitler. Everyone's favourite inflammatory informo-rag has a lovely picture of the "grotesque" yarn-based Fuhrer, who looks snug and stylish in his army-green …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2008, 11:45

  • RSA domain glitch derails UK online retailers

    Unverified by Visa

    RSA has apologised for a domain name registration glitch, which left clients of its securesuite.co.uk payment processing service unable to process payment as normal last Thursday. Pizza purveyor Domino's, Dabs and others were hit by the snafu, which meant transactions either timed out or failed. In response to the problems, …

    Small Biz 22 Jul 2008, 11:54

  • Morgan shows 'light & slippery' fuel-cell car concept

    Wood, leather and hydrogen - a fiery combo?

    Here at the Reg we aren't motoring hacks, we're technology hacks. So to us, most of the cars here at the British Motor Show are a bit boring. Internal-combustion engine? Come on. Battery car? Needs to be special. Hydrogen fuel cell? Even Nigel Tufnel has one (shared with his less famous wife, Jamie Lee Curtis). Anyway, fuel-cell …

    Science 22 Jul 2008, 12:00

  • Asus P750 Windows Mobile smartphone

    Review If a workhorse wore a suit, it would look like this

    Function over form is the name of the game with Asus' P750. No clever styling, no flash graphic user interface, just robust design, a reasonable specification and decent value for money. The P750 is a bit of a chunky monkey. It weighs 130g and measures 113 x 58 x 17.4mm, but it feels very robust and solid, and we reckon it …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 12:09

  • Sat nav blunder places The Rock in Skegness

    But which one has more apes?

    In an epic, multinational sat nav cock-up, a Syrian lorry driver aiming for Gibraltar left Turkey and ended up in Skegness. Only as Necdet Bakimci inched his 32-ton car transporter down a narrow Lincolnshire lane leading to Gibraltar Point nature reserve did he twig that he might have taken a wrong turn, but by this point the …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2008, 12:24

  • MoD budget fiddles under fire

    Moving budgets not the same as saving money

    The Public Accounts Committee has accused the Ministry of Defence of a "culture of optimism" and of creative accountancy to make it look like it's saving money when often it's not. The MoD has moved over £1bn into different projects or budget lines in the last two years. The Committee said: "Such transfers mean that the …

    Government 22 Jul 2008, 12:25

  • Tesco causes couple condom catastrophe

    Johnny? We're sorry

    The pitfalls of online shopping at the Evil Empire were revealed in their full horror to a monogamous South Yorkshire couple, who found 12 Mates condoms added to their Tesco.com shopping list. Lynn Newby discovered the illicit prophylactics in the Favourites list after logging on to the shopping account she shared with …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2008, 13:13

  • New Symbian launches mobile free-for-all

    OSCON Cleans room, cleans house, cleans culture

    The Symbian Foundation is gagging to gain acceptance as a free and neutral mobile alternative to Windows, Linux and Apple. Symbian's John Forsyth - he's vice president of strategy - said the rapidly forming group needs a "clean-room culture" with its own offices, and populated by technical experts from handset- and service- …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2008, 13:48

  • Panasonic punts thee-sensor primary colour capturing camcorder

    Not 1MOS, not 2MOS but 3MOS

    Panasonic has launched two new camcorders that it claims are the world’s first HD models to incorporate a specialist sensor for exceptionally high light sensitivity. Panasonic's HS100: has a 60GB hard drive The HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100 camcorders feature a 1920 x 1080 video capture resolution and Panasonic’s own 3MOS sensor …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 13:57

  • Set sail with Garmin's seafaring satnav

    Ahoy there, matey

    If you’re lucky enough to own a white Lotus Esprit like the one from 1970s Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me, then Garmin’s latest satnav will be perfect for you. Garmin's Nüvi 500: features nautical mapping That’s because the Nüvi 500 includes – in addition to bog-standard car navigation – directional capabilities for …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 14:04

  • Sky preps broadband music downloads with Universal

    Is it too little, too late?

    Sky is launching a new music retail company in partnership with the world's biggest record company, Universal. BSkyB and Vivendi will create a joint venture to operate the scheme; Universal will acquire equity in the company while Sky holds the majority stake. The pair said today that they hope to attract partners. The music …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2008, 14:50

  • Pwnie Awards celebrate best and worst of security

    Showcasing the maddest skillz

    Organisers of the security world's Oscars, the Pwnie Awards, have announced the nominees for the second annual awards. The Pwnies celebrate both the achievements and failures in security research and the wider IT security scene, so they are best thought of as a mixture of the Razzies, which recognise the worst in Hollywood, …

    Security 22 Jul 2008, 14:57

  • Batman cuffed over alleged assault

    Updated Christian Bale questioned following hotel incident

    Christian Bale was arrested earlier today over an alleged assault on two family members in his suite at London's Dorchester Hotel on Sunday, the BBC reports. Welsh-born Bale, in London for last night's premiere of The Dark Knight, is "alleged to have lashed out at his mother and sister". The incident was later reported to …

    Entertainment 22 Jul 2008, 15:04

  • Asus Eee Box UK desktop debut delayed?

    Updated Even as 10in Eee 1000 lands in Blighty

    The UK debut of Asus' Eee Box desktop PC appears to have been put back a month. Originally scheduled for an August arrival, it's now showing up on retail websites with a late September release date. Meanwhile, Asus said stocks of the Eee PC 1000 10in laptop have been taken off a ship and are speeding toward stockists even as …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 15:29

  • Sony Ericsson preps low-cost Walkman phone

    Not worthy of an encore

    Sony Ericsson has already announced two feature-rich Walkman music phones today, but it's also trying its luck with a third model that really scrapes the functionality barrel by comparison. Sony Ericsson's W302: has a 2Mp camera Buy a W302 and you won’t, sadly, find the five-megapixel camera or HSDPA connectivity integrated …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 15:39

  • Spaniards show off touchscreen moto-computer tech

    Fully hackable iSupercar concept unveiled

    Further fuel for the touchscreen versus buttons debate was offered today at the British Motor Show, as Spanish car-tech newcomer IFR Automotive showed off its new, one-size-fits-all motocomputer kit. One of the most notable features of this, as far as the driver is concerned, is that it replaces almost all hardware controls …

    Science 22 Jul 2008, 16:00

  • Drivers finger satnavs for motoring mishaps

    But the computer told me to, officer...

    Near misses and wrong turns are part of everyday driving, but new research has revealed that some drivers have taken to blaming satnavs for their motoring mishaps. 'It was the satnav, officer - it made me do it' Insurance firm Direct Line recently surveyed 2010 UK drivers, which it claims is a big enough sample size to …

    Reg Hardware 22 Jul 2008, 16:09

  • New York threatens Comcast with anti-porn suit

    'Back my empty rhetoric - or else'

    New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has threatened Comcast with legal action if it doesn't fall in line with his quixotic campaign against online child pornography. And the American ISP is set to do exactly what he wants. Over the past several weeks, Cuomo strong-armed five stateside ISPs into signing his very own anti- …

    Telecoms 22 Jul 2008, 18:18

  • E-Gold cops to e-money laundering

    Knowingly served child predators, feds say

    Online payment service E-Gold and three of its principals have pleaded guilty to criminal money-laundering charges following accusations they knowingly allowed child pornographers, investment scammers and other internet-based criminals to transfer funds related to their misdeeds. In an indictment handed down in April 2007, …

    Law 22 Jul 2008, 18:32

  • Texas Memory Systems makes mighty big RAM SSD

    RamSan, thank you 'mam

    Texas Memory Systems has introduced its RamSan-440 DRAM-based solid state drive (SSD), with half again as much I/O bandwidth as its predecessor and a quadrupled capacity. The previous and now entry-level RamSan-400 delivers more than 400,000 I/Os per second (IOPS) and offers 128GB capacity in a 3U chassis. The RamSan-440 …

    Storage 22 Jul 2008, 18:36

  • Canonical hippies spread Ubuntu Launchpad love

    OSCON Join the herd

    Canonical, Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, next week plans a major update to its massive code hosting and project management platform Launchpad. Version 2.0 will introduce improved support for third-party application lifecycle tools used to find, report and fix bugs in Ubuntu - plus the applications and 6,000 projects in the …

    Developer 22 Jul 2008, 18:38

  • Banking Trojan hides in fake Alonso F1 crash story

    Crash test dummies

    Fabricated news of a supposed car accident involving Formula One star Fernando Alonso is being used to distribute a new banking Trojan. The fake news story, supposedly from Spanish daily El Pais, has two-time motor racing champion seriously injured on Tuesday in an accident in the norther city of Bilbao. The bogus story, …

    Malware 22 Jul 2008, 18:45

  • EMC management suite gets 'Web 2.0' makeover

    That leaves us and The Drudge Report...

    EMC's suite of enterprise content management tools are getting a massive 'Web 2.0' refresh over the next year. Version 6.5 of Documentum will include four new add-ons that introduce that well-run track of beveled interfaces, social networking, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and so on. The storage giant reckons it's found a healthy …

    Storage 22 Jul 2008, 20:02

  • Climate protestor claims glued self to UK Prime Minister

    At least one voter still attached to Gordon?

    Downing Street today denied claims that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is currently super-glued to a climate action campaigner. Dan Glass, says the anti Heathrow expansion group Plane Stupid, infiltrated the State Dining Room of 10 Downing Street on Tuesday evening, then under cover of haranguing him about the third runway at …

    Government 22 Jul 2008, 22:17

  • Intel juices parallel programming for the masses

    OSCON Affinity for threads

    A year after open sourcing its cross-platform Threaded Building Blocks (TBB), Intel has released what it called a "significant" upgrade to is parallel programming template library. Intel used the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) to announce TBB 2.1, with improvements for building - among other things - graphical user …

    Developer 22 Jul 2008, 22:25

  • Convicted spammer goes AWOL from federal prison

    Prolific pump-and-dump conman walks away

    A convicted spammer who who generated millions of dollars blasting out pump-and-dump messages has gone AWOL from the federal prison camp where he was serving a 21-month sentence. Edward "Eddie" Davidson, 35, walked away from a minimum security prison camp in Colorado on Sunday, according to news reports citing Justice …

    Crime 22 Jul 2008, 23:05

  • Yahoo! profits! drop! 19! per! cent!

    Yang still smiling

    Yahoo!'s profits took a significant tumble during its last fiscal quarter, falling 19 per cent from the same quarter last year. But CEO Jerry Yang says the company's health is pretty darn good considering the turmoil that's surrounded it since Ballmer came calling back in February. "The indicators of Yahoo!'s progress are …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2008, 23:17

  • RIM issues patch for serious BlackBerry flaw

    Business users: apply now

    Research in Motion has issued a patch for a serious security flaw that puts businesses using the ubiquitous BlackBerry at risk. The vulnerability affects the BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions 4.1.3 through 4.1.5 and BlackBerry Professional Software 4.1.4. It resides in a component that processes PDF files. Attackers could …

    Enterprise Security 22 Jul 2008, 23:40