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3rd February 2009 Archive

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  • Global chip sales shriveled in 2008

    First shrinkage since bursting bubble

    Last year was the first since 2001 that saw a year-on-year drop in chip sales, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). 2001 was the year that the dot com bubble burst. 2008 was the year the Meltdown began - and the SIA's numbers indicate the melting accelerated as the year wore on. Worldwide semiconductor …

    Channel Register 3 Feb 00:41

  • Irish ISP Eircom in 'three strike' filesharer crackdown

    Music labels score with settlement deal

    Irish internet provider Eircom has bowed to litigious pressure from four major music labels to implement a French-style "three strikes" regime where customers repeatedly accused of illegal filesharing have their internet access cut off. The decision comes as part of a lawsuit settlement with EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner, …

    Music and Media 3 Feb 01:10

  • Russian rides Phantom to OS immortality

    The iPhone that never dies

    It's nine degrees Fahrenheit in Moscow right now. That's the kind of cold that makes a man concentrate on his work so he can keep from remembering that the tears the wind blows out of his eyes will freeze on the side of his face before they hit the ground. In the middle of this icebox, Dmitry Zavalishin is cooking up a new …

    Operating Systems 3 Feb 04:39

  • Dell pairs with Xsigo on virtual I/O

    Parries IBM, HP

    Xsigo Systems - which back in September 2007 launched an in-band I/O virtualization appliance that cuts the hard-coded links between servers, storage, and networks and completely virtualizes those connections - has landed its first tier one server partner and distributor: Dell. Dell is particularly excited by its partnership …

    Virtualization 3 Feb 06:07

  • What's next for Microsoft's Flight Sim partners?

    Redmond clips ACES wings

    Flight Simulator developers have called on Microsoft to clarify quickly its plans for the massive flight franchise that's found its way into the defense sector. Failure to act could see Microsoft lose a familiar and successful operation to open-source and cross-platform competitors as partners drift away in search of …

    Developer 3 Feb 06:23

  • Investigators claim UK's largest 'illegal game copying device' haul

    50,000 units found

    A raid on a London-based business has resulted in the discovery of what's claimed to be the UK’s largest ever haul of illegal game-copying devices. Seized Around 50,000 devices and counterfeit games console peripherals for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were allegedly found at the unnamed business premises in Camden, …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 08:02

  • Kyocera Mita FS-C5200DN colour laser printer

    Review Impressive running cost

    Kyocera Mita isn't perhaps one of the first names to trip off your tongue when considering a new laser printer, but it deserves to be. The company has sold lots of its big-business printers to corporates for many years and its range of smaller mono and colour lasers includes the newly released FS-C5200DN. Kyocera Mita's FS- …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 09:02

  • French court fines Google over trade marked keywords

    Search giant says Non, appeals case

    A French court has fined search engine giant Google €350,000 and said that its search advertising business has infringed on two companies' trade marks. Google allows anyone to pay to have their adverts appear beside certain words. Trade mark holders have argued that allowing other people to buy an association with their brands …

    Law 3 Feb 09:29

  • Iranian rocket puts satellite into orbit

    UK soon to be left behind

    Iran says it has successfully launched its first satellite into orbit using domestic technology. The launch, while expected, will be seen by some in the West as confirming the view that Iran could have nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles relatively soon. Well done, Doctor! (Aside) Dismiss the firing squad. The …

    Government 3 Feb 09:34

  • Xbox 360 NXE audio patch posted

    Gamers given hearing back

    A fix for the HDMI audio issue experienced by downloaders of the New Xbox Experience (NXE) has been released ahead of the predicted launch date. The Dashboard update’s a mandatory patch, according to Microsoft, and is designed to fix the loss of audio that some gamers have complained about since installing the NXE interface. …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 10:15

  • How do notebook PC brands stack up?

    Reg Tech Panel Give us your views

    Notebook PCs have now been an integral part of the business IT mix for long enough to be a routine procurement item. As the new needs arise and the relentless equipment refresh cycle spirals on, many organisations spend significant amounts of money on this kind of kit, not to mention a lot of man hours supporting and maintaining …

    Tech Panel 3 Feb 11:02

  • Nikon jazzes up Coolpix range

    Refined ergonimic shooting

    Nikon has broadened its Coolpix range with an "ergonomically designed" bridge camera. Nikon's Coolpix P90: The 12.1Mp P90 boasts “refined ergonomics” that ensure its controls are always right at your fingertips. But if you care more about features than form, then you’ll be well cared for by the P90 because it sports an …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 11:02

  • Weak pound helps Vodafone dial up profit

    Currency balances books

    Vodafone Group grew revenues by 14.3 per cent to £10.47bn for the quarter ended 31 December 2008, helped by the weak pound and has jacked up its outlook for the full year Stripping out the benefits of currency movements and the benefits of an Indian acquistion Vodafone's revenue actually fell one per cent while service revenue …

    Mobile 3 Feb 11:20

  • Dimension Data scoops up Teksys

    Goes for Gold Microsoft reseller

    Dimension Data Holdings Plc has bought a UK-based Microsoft infrastructure and licensing services company for an undisclosed sum. The IT services giant said today it had acquired Teksys, which is an MS “gold certified” partner and has clients that include the Bank of England and Watson Wyatt. Teksys, which currently employs …

    Channel Register 3 Feb 11:24

  • Don’t let Microsoft timescales dictate your Windows migration

    Move at a pace that is comfortable for you

    There is a lot of talk at the moment about desktop migration schedules. With the majority of enterprises still managing XP estates, the big question is whether to make a short term move to Vista, hang on and wait for Windows 7, or dig in and not think about it until you really have to. A minority - typically represented by …

    IT Director 3 Feb 11:29

  • Ofcom woos theatricals and delays digital dividend

    Bows to EU, shuffles Digi TV, buys off luvvies

    UK regulator Ofcom has published a consultation on the harmonisation of 800MHz across Europe, and proposes shuffling the digital TV bands already in operation and finding a permanent home for wireless mics at channel 38, by paying off the luvvies. Europe is hoping to make a chunk of spectrum at 800MHz available across the …

    Mobile 3 Feb 11:31

  • Sun beefs up modular arrays

    To 448TB but no SAS or SSD

    Sun has upgraded its StorageTek modular array line with two new products using tried and tested ingredients to take capacity up to 448TB. After launching its Sun-branded 7000 unified storage line last November the company has now refreshed its comparatively bare modular arrays with the StorageTek 6580 and 6780. The 7000 line …

    Storage 3 Feb 11:40

  • Asus unwraps 10in Eee with 9.5-hour battery life

    Intel's new N280 CPU too

    Asus has introduced its latest Eee PC, a 10in model that will incorporate the latest Atom CPU - the N280 - and a nine-and-a-half hour runtime. Asus' Eee PC 1000HE: shades of Aspire One? The battery life is Asus' claim, of course, and numbers quoted by vendors are rarely achieved in real-world usage. Asus said the Eee 1000HE …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 11:44

  • Kurdish spyware suspect faces espionage charges

    Traces of guilt

    A suspect who allegedly used spyware to snoop on Turkish government computers on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) faces charges punishable by up to ten years behind bars in Turkey. The supposed perp, identified only by his initials "R Ç", allegedly planted the malicious code on x-rated websites. He succeeded in …

    Crime 3 Feb 11:44

  • Father of Playmobil dies at 79

    Hans Beck, we salute you

    Hans Beck, the man who invented Playmobil, died last Friday at the age of 79 following a "serious illness", Deutsche Welle reports. Trained furnituremaker Beck worked for manufacturer Geobra Brandstaetter from 1958 to 1998, and in the 1970s responded to his employers' request to design a "collectible toy" by creating the …

    Bootnotes 3 Feb 11:46

  • Seagate sets Constellation above Barracuda

    Matches Western Digital

    Seagate has launched its much-expected 2TB drive under the Constellation brand, which includes 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF) drives, for nearline storage needs. The Constellation ES 3.5-inch drive replaces the Barracuda ES and comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities with 500GB platters and SATA and SAS interfaces. It spins …

    Storage 3 Feb 12:00

  • Finland fingerprints all Finns and foreigns

    Overkill from icy minnow of the north

    The Finnish government is pushing ahead with plans to collect all citizens' fingerprints for passports and to give police access to fingerprints for crime detection. The bill is expected to go before the Finnish parliament this week and is likely to come into force in spring. Part of the justification is the EU requirement to …

    Government 3 Feb 12:06

  • Swiss EV coupé gets Berlin runabout

    'Leccy Tech Driver's verdict: not full of holes

    We reported on the unveiling of the Swiss Mindset leccy coupé back in December 2008. The world of new electric car announcements being what it is, we perhaps wouldn't have been massively surprised if we had never heard another peep out of the company again. But it's nice to be proved wrong, and even nicer to see that the …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 12:16

  • NetApp virtualises third-party SSD

    Speeds up PAM too

    NetApp's V-Series controller has added support for Texas Memory Systems' RamSan 500 SSD product, in an unexpected twist on storage array sold state drive use. The RamSan-500 is a high-capacity flash memory-based SSD aimed at applications such as in-memory databases and others requiring every high speed access to large data …

    Storage 3 Feb 12:22

  • Apple patent points to tablet PC

    With light-up Apple logo

    A recently filed Apple patent application has revealed the firm’s idea for a tablet-style Mac. The concept computing device from Apple's patent application The “Display Housing for Computing Device” application – which specifically mentions a portable computer - was filed last month. It describes how such a device would be …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 12:25

  • Sony cuts ties for 3G real-time video streaming

    A new concept in on-demand video?

    Sony has launched a portable device – and we use that term loosely – for wirelessly streaming live camcorder-captured video to, say, your TV. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Essentially, the user hangs one LocationPorter over their shoulder and then plugs it into their camcorder. The unit will then …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 12:27

  • Oz man collared with pigeons down trousers

    Wings fall off cunning smuggling plan

    An Oz man faces up to ten years' jail and "substantial fines" after Melbourne customs operatives discovered he'd flown in from Dubai with two live pigeons down his trousers. According to AAP, the unnamed 23-year-old was rumbled on Sunday when officers found two bird's eggs in his pocket, and a search quickly revealed "he was …

    Bootnotes 3 Feb 12:51

  • Sony Ericsson J132 vs LG KP100

    Review Ultra-budget handset head-to-head

    While there's nothing like an economic downturn to focus the mind on affordable technology, it gets beaten every time by a pretty girl walking into Reg Hardware's office and asking which is the best bargain mobile phone to buy as a holiday handset. One embarrassing silence, several blank stares and some muttering later we …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 13:02

  • India could change takeover law to save Satyam

    As founder faces further inquisition

    Regulators from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have won the right to question the Raju brothers and other Satyam staff. Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama and the firm's CFO are all still in custody. Ramalinga wrote an explosive letter admitting a $1bn fraud, although he insisted he did not benefit …

    Channel Register 3 Feb 13:03

  • X2 triplex supercopter gets tail-drive hooked up

    3 eggbeaters = 1 worldbeater?

    US helicopter firm Sikorsky has announced successful ground testing of its "X2" twin-rotor, tail-prop high speed helicopter prototype with the tail propulsor fitted and working. The firm says the X2 is on track to achieve 250-knot speeds this year - beating normal helicopters by two thirds again. Faster than a good hoverer: …

    Science 3 Feb 13:10

  • EU security agency draws 'privacy baseline' for ID cards

    Waits for measures

    Europe urgently needs to develop a strategy for protecting the privacy of data held through national ID card schemes, a European security agency warns. ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) argues that the "vast disparity between privacy features in electronic ID cards across Europe" is creating a recipe …

    Government 3 Feb 13:27

  • Kurzweil to found 'Singularity Uni' in Silicon Valley

    In the sense of technogasm, not matter-implosion

    Renowned futurologist Ray Kurzweil has teamed up with space promoter Peter Diamandis and Google to set up annual techno/zeitgeist workshops at the famous NASA Ames research centre in Silicon Valley. The discussions will be known as "Singularity University", and will offer courses of varying length to paying customers. The …

    Science 3 Feb 13:46

  • Toshiba wows crowds with sexy touch smartphone

    TG01 hits headlines

    As if from nowhere, Toshiba has unveiled a supremely sexy touchscreen mobile phone. Toshiba's TG01: slim design, 800 x 480 display The firm’s claimed to have taken all of its TV know-how and crammed it into the TG01’s 4.1in, 800 x 480 touchscreen, resulting in a smartphone that’ll “revolutionise the mobile entertainment …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 14:17

  • Blizzard of smut cuts off Council websites

    From Wittering to ogling, and beyond

    If you’re seeking smut, you only need go as far at present as the leafy green home pages of West Wittering Parish Council. Or there's Worcestershire County Council’s Healthy Schools Forum which, in an area dedicated to "internet safety", advises visitors on where to find "sexy escorts", before inviting them into a chat room to …

    Government 3 Feb 14:17

  • Dell expands XPS all-in-one line with 24in boy

    Full HD display

    Dell has revamped its XPS One all-in-one desktop PC, packing in a 24in "edge-to-edge" display capable of full 1080p HD playback. Dell's XPS One 24: full HD display The XPS One 24 comes with an Intel 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E7200 or a 2.33GHz Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor, 2GB of 800MHz DDR 2 memory and a 320GB SATA hard drive. …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 14:35

  • Seagate kisses Maxtor goodwill goodbye

    $2.3bn down in ink, up in smoke

    In a telling move, Seagate is writing off $2.3bn goodwill from its Maxtor acquisition and other intangible items. Maxtor was purchased for $1.9bn in May, 2006, so Seagate is writing the entire acquisition value off and a bit more besides. There will be a $2.3bn non-cash charge for the second quarter results this financial year …

    Channel Register 3 Feb 14:43

  • Intel plucks power from TV signals

    At last, a use for Paris Hilton's British Best Friend

    Researchers at Intel have demonstrated low-power electronics running on nothing more than power harvested from a normal TV aerial, or an RFID reader if there happens to be one nearby. The project, presented in this paper at TechOnline (free registration required) describes two projects: the first to draw power from an RFID …

    Physics 3 Feb 14:46

  • Harry Potter Lexicon published after judgment-guided edit

    Rowling over on legally iffy material

    A new version of the Harry Potter companion book at the centre of a US intellectual property court case has been published. Author Steve Vander Ark has stripped the book of the material a US judge objected to in order to make it publishable. Harry Potter author JK Rowling's representatives have welcomed the publication, saying …

    Law 3 Feb 14:57

  • Facebook turns pollster in search for cash

    What do you look for in a washing powder... bitch?

    Facebook's top brass have been at the World Economic Forum in Davos, punting another way to try to turn their enormous database of personal information and trivia profitable. Like last year's disastrous "Beacon" advertising scheme, which aimed to turn members into Tupperware-style product endorsers, Facebook's latest wheeze …

    Financial News 3 Feb 15:02

  • App promises superior suntan from iPhone, PC screens

    Tech-tastic tanning

    Maintaining your post-holiday tan is time consuming. So a tech firm’s launched a revolutionary application for the PC and iPhone that’ll toast your skin a healthy brown - just by looking at the screen. Computer Tan toasts your skin using your PC's display By exploiting the usual backlighting capabilities of an LCD screen, …

    Reg Hardware 3 Feb 15:45

  • Gimme some (more) money, demand Spinal Tap

    Legendary rockers back in the studio

    Legendary rockers Spinal Tap are back in the studio after an extended musical hiatus broken only by their breathtaking performance at 2007's Live Earth spectacular in London. Speaking to BBC 5 Live, actor and Simpsons voiceover artist Harry Shearer - aka Tap bassist Derek Smalls - said: "We've never recorded the song we did at …

    Entertainment 3 Feb 15:47

  • Unpatched web vulns turn internet into drive-by warzone

    Can't patch, won't patch

    The compromise of corporate websites with malicious code and browser exploits became the preferred method for distributing malware last year, according to the annual security report from IBM's ISS security tools division. Cybercriminals are turning businesses against their own customers in the ongoing effort to steal data, the …

    Enterprise Security 3 Feb 16:25

  • Immortal Dr Who jellyfish poised to rule Earth

    Self-mothering clone blobominations amok

    The worldwide jellyfish-threat trouser state was officially raised from "damp" to "brown" last week, as reports emerged of a dreadful new oceanic menace: that of immortal rebirthing ocean-prowler hydrozoan clone swarms, described by top jelly boffins as "silent invaders". Joining such well-known scourges as the famous quarter- …

    Biology 3 Feb 17:00

  • Uncle Sam buys 20 petaflops BlueGene super

    Packed with 1.6 million Power cores

    The American government's appetite for ever-bigger gobs of supercomputing power has been a blessing for IBM and Cray, and this morning it was Big Blue's turn to brag about two big deals it has scored with Uncle Sam. The first and smallest of the two machines, nicknamed Dawn, will be installed in the second half of this year at …

    Servers 3 Feb 17:11

  • Intel shows Visual Studio multi-threaded way

    Parallel beta

    Intel today released the long-awaited beta version of its Parallel Studio development tools, available as a free download. This set of plug-ins to Microsoft's Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) promises to help ease developers into the now-standard world of multi-threaded applications running on multi-core …

    Developer 3 Feb 18:09

  • Exploding mobile phone kills Chinese man

    For whom the cell tolls

    A Chinese man was reportedly killed at a computer shop last Friday after the cell phone in his chest pocket exploded, severing a major artery in his neck and leading to massive blood loss. According to local news reports, the man worked as a shop assistant at the store. An employee at a neighboring 7-11 convenience store told …

    Mobile 3 Feb 18:30

  • Hitachi takes losses, chops jobs

    Conglomerate hit on 910 fronts

    Japanese conglomerate Hitachi reported its financial results for its 2008 fiscal third quarter today and swapped some execs in its Americas unit and disk array and disk drive businesses. Because Hitachi's shares are traded on Wall Street, the company reports its financials in both Japanese yen and U.S. dollars. Sales across …

    Channel Register 3 Feb 19:21

  • Motorola handset profits still MIA

    Posts $3.6bn loss in Q4

    The fact that nobody seems to want a Motorola phone these days wasn't terrific for the handset maker's bottom line in 2008. Motorola reported today that it shipped 19.2 million handsets in the fourth quarter last year. That's 6.2 million units fewer than it did the previous quarter and 16.3 million fewer than the same quarter …

    Financial News 3 Feb 21:35

  • Sun angles cloud-on-credit-card play

    Just like open source, right?

    Cloud computing is the new open-source for Sun Microsystems, which has promised to reveal more next month about a cloud platform it's building. Sun's chief executive Jonathan Schwartz and cloud computing chief technology officer Lew Tucker Tuesday painted a vision of the future, where developers in big companies purchase cloud …

    Developer 3 Feb 21:44

  • ASProx botnet dials into Conficker domains

    Collusion or collision?

    The zombie network created by the Conficker worm is yet to go "live", but it's displaying curious behaviour that yields potential clues to its origins and purpose. Variants of the Conficker (Downadup) worm spread by exploiting a vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows server service patched by Redmond in October. It spreads …

    Security 3 Feb 23:10

  • Ask.com preps Google-like* malware warnings

    * Internet-breakage not included

    Ask.com is prepping Google-like malware warnings - though it hopes to leave out the bit where the Oompa Loompa accidentally blocks access to the entire internet. Early Saturday morning Pacific time, someone inside the Mountain View Chocolate Factory accidentally added a wildcard to the search engine's master list of …

    Applications 3 Feb 23:16