16th February 2009 Archive

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Adobe and Nokia pledge $10m for Flash and AIR apps

Mobile PDF rewritten

Adobe and Nokia are offering developers a Google-size pile of cash as incentive to write applications for Flash Player and AIR running across different types of devices. The companies today unveil a $10m fund to assist development and marketing of applications that further the Open Screen Project. They are making the …

Developer 16 Feb 05:02
Intel to put internet in your pants

Moorestown MIDs due by 2010

Intel and LG Electronics have joined forces to release a "next-generation" mobile internet device (MID) based on Intel's upcoming Moorestown hardware platform and running Moblin 2.0. In a joint statement released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said that the co- …

Mobile 16 Feb 05:02
Dear Obama: Please consider open-source a waste of your time

Ruby on Rails will not save the planet

Last week, several big names in open source tossed a letter at American President Barack Obama, urging him to mandate that no government IT purchase be made without someone scrutinizing the software license. "Dear President Obama," it read, "please consider open source." The letter contained all the classic elements of an open …

Operating Systems 16 Feb 05:29
Debian 'Lenny' arrives: bigger, longer, searchable

Linux distro gets medical injection

There's something different about Lenny, the latest release of Debian that finally went live this weekend. No, it's not that Lenny is the largest ever release of Debian with 23,000 binary packages (6,000 more than predecessor Etch). It's the fact Lenny will be the first version of Debian that will let you search for specific …

Operating Systems 16 Feb 06:56
Libra freezes out Welsh legalese

UK.gov pumps another £4m into computer system

The UK government is throwing an extra £4m at the upgrade of its new courts IT system because it currently can’t translate documents into Welsh. Magistrates courts in Wales and England waited nearly a decade to see their outdated records system overhauled. The Libra computer system was finally installed in December last year …

Law 16 Feb 08:02
HP iPaq Data Messenger Windows Mobile smartphone

Review Fugly

Windows Mobile smart phones have traditionally been the workhorses of the smartphone world – capable, versatile, but never likely to win any beauty contests. On the face of it, HP's brace of new iPaq handsets - the Voice Messenger, and this, the Data Messenger - would seem to fit all too neatly into that description. HP's …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 09:02
Ofcom snatches spectrum

Ubiquitous 3G in 2009?

Ofcom has published a consultation showing how it will create a fairer spread of 900MHz ownership, if the industry can't come up with something better before the end of April. Vodafone and O2 are going to have to hand over 5MHz of spectrum each, in the 900MHz band, which will be auctioned off in 2010 and will have to be …

Networks 16 Feb 09:13
UK.gov to tap BT as data harvester

Small ISP customers to be monitored upstream

The government will call on BT and other big communications firms to monitor small ISPs' customers and keep private information on them under European data retention rules, the Home Office has revealed. Officals fear the cost of paying every small ISP to retain every customers' communications data. Instead, they will fund BT …

Government 16 Feb 09:52
How to survive the crisis: Sell kiddies booze

Tesco shows the way forward

Those among you currently battling to survive the economic apocalypse ravaging the planet might perhaps take a lead from supermarket monolith Tesco, which has apparently decided on a controversial way to get extra wonga flowing into its tills: We're obliged to Ash Ward for providing the shock evidence of how Tesco's …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 09:53
2008 a top year for UK games sales

More than twice as many units bought last year than in 2003

Recession notwithstanding, the games software sales in the world's biggest markets grew 11 per cent last year. UK sales alone were up 26 per cent year on year - and more than double 2003's sales. The figures come from NPD in the US, GfK Chart-Track here and Enterbrain in Japan. Some 409.9m game packages were sold worldwide in …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 10:47
Sony Ericsson kicks off Barcelona love-in

MWC: Let us entertain you

It's the first morning of the mobile industry shindig in Barcelona, but Sony Ericsson couldn't resist jumping the gun by announcing a couple of new handsets last night - even if the interesting one isn't actually going to be available until Christmas. It's still too early to tell how the economy is affecting business here in …

Mobile 16 Feb 10:53
Missed flight woman goes absolutely mental

Mother of all tantrums proves YouTube hit

An anonymous woman who on 4 February demonstrated at Hong Kong airport exactly how not to deal with missing your flight has become a huge YouTube celeb after the mother of all tantrums was caught on camera: The drama queen in question was apparently en route, or not in this case, to San Francisco on Cathay Pacific. A …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 10:54
Man U fan pwned in Facebook honeypot

'Emma' actually Liverpudlian hoaxers

A Manchester United fan who drove 400 miles for an amorous rendevous with a woman he wooed on Facebook discovered he'd been well and truly stitched up by a couple of Liverpudlian pranksters. Stuart Slann, 39, met the pair on a holiday in Cancun, Mexico, last November. According to the Telegraph, the three soon started giving …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 11:17
Brit, French nuke subs collide - fail to 'see' each other

Updated Expensive undetectable machines undetected - shock

British and French nuclear missile submarines collided earlier this month beneath the Atlantic, according to reports. Much is being made of the fact that the two subs "failed to see each other", but this is actually quite normal. The story appears to have first broken with a report in the Sun, stating that HMS Vanguard has …

Government 16 Feb 11:26
Pilots boycott gov ID cards

Security claims don't fly

Airline pilots have warned the government that they will not take part in their security theatre trial of ID cards at Manchester and City of London airports. The Home Office wants to trial the cards for airside workers at the two airports. Several UK airlines have already pointed out the dumbness of the dumb idea. The British …

Government 16 Feb 11:29
Italian crooks use Skype to frustrate wiretaps

Bitter P2P pill

Italian crooks are making greater use of internet telephony because of the widespread use of wiretaps in the country. Customs and tax police in Milan are complaining that drug dealers and other organised criminals are using tools such as Skype in an effort to frustrate investigations, the BBC reports. Investigators cite the …

Crime 16 Feb 11:59
Michelin strikes key 'e-wheel' deal

'Leccy Tech The future de la 'leccy moteur

If the future of the 'leccy car is going to be built on in-wheel motors, it's looking more likely to be a case of Vive le France than Rule Britannia. French auto engineering group Valeo and equally French tyre manufacturer Michelin have announced an agreement to “co-ordinate the development of electric and rechargeable hybrid …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 12:14
Landmark copyright trial against Pirate Bay gets underway

'They won't get a cent'

The copyright infringement trial against the four men behind The Pirate Bay kicked off in Stockholm this morning. Charges were brought against the defendants (Carl Lundström, Peter Sunde, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg), who are behind the operations of the infamous website, in January 2008. The four are accused of …

Law 16 Feb 12:19
HTC launches updated Touch Diamond and Pro

MWC Both pretty similar

HTC today announced updates to two of its flagship touchscreen mobile phones, unveiling the Touch Diamond 2 and the Touch Pro 2. HTC's Touch Diamond 2: Distinguishing between the two is actuallu pretty difficult, since both handsets mirror one another on features at almost every turn. Only looks truly separate them. HTC’s …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 12:20
Mobile operators combine to flog customer data

GSMA woos advertisers

The UK's mobile operators have agreed to pool and sell customer data in an attempt to stimulate the mobile advertising sector. Announcing the move at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSM Association, whose members include 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, said it had created a "measurement process for mobile …

Mobile 16 Feb 12:21
Intel MID men sign LG

MWC Vapourware until 'Moorestown' ships

LG will offer a handheld internet access terminal based on Intel's upcoming 'Moorestown' Atom chip and the Linux software platform the chip giant is sponsoring. LG has shown off prototype MIDs (mobile Internet devices) at consumer electronics shows around the globe, so it's statement is no great surprise perhaps. Indeed, …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 12:40
Samsung's Omnia touchphone goes HD

Shoot movies at 720p

Samsung has updated its Omnia mobile phone to create what it has claimed is the world’s first handset capable of HD video capture. Samsung's Omnia HD: captures 720p video The unimaginatively named Omnia HD is, admittedly, at the lower end of HD – 720p, to be specific. But users can nonetheless shoot 24f/s HD video and then …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 12:51
Samsung NC10 netbook

Review The new mini-laptop champion

The NC10 is Samsung's take on the Small, Cheap Computer but unlike many 'me too' netbook competitors, the South Korean giant has clearly put a bit of thought into differentiating its offering from the other Eee-alternatives out there. Samsung's NC10: not a bad looker Perhaps the most distinctive thing about the NC10 is its …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 13:02
Huawei shows iPhone-style Android handset

MWC From CGI to reality by Q3, says vendor

Modem maker Huawei has, as expected, taken the wraps off the Android phone it hopes to bring to market in Q3. Huawei's Android iPhone phone Well, sort of - the pictures it's put out fall more in the 'concept mock-up' category than the 'in someone's hands' section. And they're clearly inspired by a certain famous fruity …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 14:20
Woman sues over Vista to XP 'downgrade' charge

Accused of abusing 'market power'

A woman is suing Microsoft for allegedly charging her extra to downgrade from Windows Vista to XP. Emma Alvarado bought a laptop pre-loaded with the Vista Business edition of the operating system from Lenovo on 20 June 2008. However, she didn’t want to keep Vista on the machine so she paid the computer vendor an additional $ …

Operating Systems 16 Feb 14:29
Police arrest first Heartland suspects

$100K gift card scam unpicked

Three Florida-based men have been charged with credit card fraud following the first arrests connected with the hacking attack against payment processor Heartland Payment Systems. The trio - Tony Acreus, Jeremy Frazier, both 20, and Timothy John, 21 - are accused of using stolen card details to "electronically encode Visa Gift …

Security 16 Feb 14:31
70s Disco inspires latest Samsung music phones

MWC 'Touch the Lights' UI, oh aye?

Samsung harked back to an earlier musical epoque today by launching a handset dubbed the Disc, one of two new musicphones that'll go out under Samsung's Beat brand. Samsung's Beat DJ: play that funky music, young man of caucasian origin The Beat Disc and the Beat DJ both sport touch-sensitive screens with a trippy "touch …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 15:01
ITV 'could dump' Friends Reunited

Unfashionably profitable social network on the block

ITV is reportedly considering selling off Friends Reunited, the social networking site it paid £175m for in 2006. It's unlikely a sale now would achieve even half that. The broadcaster is implementing a series of cost-cutting measures as it attempts to shore up its struggling TV business and cope with massive debt and pension …

Financial News 16 Feb 15:14
Nvidia touts Tegra with $99 handheld net tablet notion

MWC Pitches new chips too

Want an internet handheld for under $100? That's what Nvidia is promising, courtesy of its ARM-based system-on-a-chip family, Tegra. Nvidia also used Mobile World Congress today to tell all that Google's Android runs on its new Tegra APX 2600 SoC - a possible basis for the next iPhone, it's said - thanks to "close work" …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 15:33
Tesco email is broked

DNS?

Tesco's internet subscribers are without email access right now, even if the grocer's status page claims all is well. We've been contacted by subscribers and called Tesco's "internet service announcement line" which apologises for the problem and assures us: "At present we are experiencing issues with email access. Tesco …

Telecoms 16 Feb 15:42
Beta-blocker 'erases' unpleasant memories

Possible cure for emotional disorders, Dutch team claims

Dutch scientists claim to have shown that the beta-blocker propranolol can "erase" unpleasant memories - a discovery which "opens up new avenues for providing a long-term cure for patients with emotional disorders". Professor Merel Kindt and her team from the University of Amsterdam first subjected human volunteers to a "fear …

Biology 16 Feb 15:53
Royal Navy to be first running-jump-jet force

~~VTOL~~ ~~V/STOL~~ ~~STOVL~~ STORVL? Arrgh

Senior Royal Navy aviators have said that the successor plane to the famous Harrier jumpjet will probably not land vertically on British aircraft carriers. Rather, the F-35B "Lightning II" will employ the "Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing" (SRVL) technique as routine: it will be a running-jump jet, as it were. Man, now we …

Government 16 Feb 16:21
ISP music for 'older than iPod gen' users

Sky first to sign?

British ISP Sky is believed to be the first network to sign with Omnifone as the media giant revamps its music plans, reports suggest. Sources confirm the reports are accurate, and a deal has been signed, but Omnifone Rob Lewis could only say they're in "advanced negotiations" today. Last year, Sky announced a streaming …

Networks 16 Feb 16:28
Obama's BlackBerry still hackable, warns Mitnick

You'd be a nut to try and crack it

President Obama's 'bullet-proof' BlackBerry might still be cracked, according to uber-hacker Kevin Mitnick. The social engineering pioneer and ex-con turned security consultant said that although breaking into the supposedly super-secure device would be difficult, it wouldn't be impossible. "It's a long shot, but it's possible …

Security 16 Feb 16:56
LG lauds world’s first transparent phone

MWC We see through your marketing

LG’s recently unveiled Arena was the first handset to introduce the Korean company's new S-Class 3D UI, but the firm’s since unveiled two more sexy touchscreen devices running the cube-based menu system - including one with a transparent touchpad. LG's GD900: has a see-through keypad If you can see through the marketing …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 17:07
Windows goes Mobile 6.5

MWC Baller and chums launch latest OS

Phone rivals HTC and LG today joined Microsoft at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to launch the world’s first handsets set to run the latest incarnation of Windows Mobile. How Windows Mobile 6.5 will look on your mobile Peter Chou, HTC's Chief Executive, kicked things off by promising buyers of its new Touch Pro 2 and …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 17:12
Terabit Ethernet possibilities

Breakthrough switching speed

Researchers think they have opened the door to terabit per second Ethernet links using multiplexed 10Gbit/s data streams and small chalcogenide demux chips to demultiplex the 10 gig streams. An optical network cable can have lasers pumping multiple 10Gbit/s into different colours of the light spectrum and squirting them in …

Data Networking 16 Feb 17:21
'Lenny': Debian for the masses?

Review Ubuntu without the straitjacket

The venerable Debian Linux distribution has experienced a significant new release with its latest update, dubbed Lenny. While Debian is still not the easiest Linux distro to install and use, Lenny makes significant leaps forward and remains one of the most powerful Linux options. Many Linux newcomers stick with popular distros …

Operating Systems 16 Feb 17:33
Nokia opens ~~app~~ everything store

Sell those dancing cat videos through Ovi

To the surprise of no-one at all, Nokia has launched their application store on Ovi, announcing a 70/30 split with content owners. But Ovi won't be limited to applications, and supposedly, it will know what's of interest to you before you do. Ovi has been listing applications, particularly games, for the last few months, Nokia …

Mobile 16 Feb 17:43
Samsung gets own models confused

MWC Tocco Ultra Edition becomes Ultra Touch

Keeping track with the latest mobile phones is tricky, especially when several new devices launch each day. But Samsung appears to have gotten slightly confused with its own mobile models. Samsung's Ultra Touch: looks identical to the "flasghip" Tocco Ultra Edition Last week, the firm announced that the Tocco Ultra Edition …

Reg Hardware 16 Feb 17:47
Red Hat and Microsoft ink virt interoperability deal

No patent protection or license payola

Operating system suppliers Red Hat, which is the leading commercial Linux distro by some measures, and Microsoft, the only maker of Windows, today announced a cross-platform support agreement that will allow operating systems from one to run on the hypervisors of the other. The interoperability agreement has been forced on the …

Virtualization 16 Feb 18:13
Microsoft just wants to be touched

Windows no longer mobile

Microsoft has been showing press the next version of their mobile operating system, with lots of finger control, integration with the cloud, and an application store. A bit like the iPhone. Only not as good. Microsoft would like the public to call their new version "Windows," though internally they'll still refer to it as …

Mobile 16 Feb 18:31
Hackers: BitDefender site exposes private data (yet again)

Updated Second time in seven days

Romanian hackers have discovered a security flaw in the website of anti-virus provider BitDefender. They said it was the second time in a week the company has inadvertently exposed a database that is supposed to remain private. According to an item posted to HackersBlog, BitDefender's main website can be tricked into …

Security 16 Feb 18:53
Apple sued over iPhone smooth scrolling

Scots claim first zoom

A Scottish IP firm is suing Apple over the smooth zooming and scrolling featured on the iPhone. Glasgow-based patent licenser Picsel Technologies says the Cupertino iDevice maker illegally uses display technologies it developed. The firm sued Apple on Friday in Delaware District Court. Picsel claims Apple infringes on its US …

Law 16 Feb 19:42
Google's Android Market accepts price tags

Anglo-American coders get license to sell

US and and UK developers can now include price tags when uploading mobile apps to Google's Android Market, the Chocolate Factory's answer to the iPhone App Store. Google says that priced apps will go on-sale sometime this week - but only in the US. On Friday, with a post to the official Android Developers blog, Googler Eric …

Mobile 16 Feb 19:47
Yahoo! cuts! web! bookmarking! fat!

Three services? Too many. Two? Just right

Yahoo! has cut off another useless appendage. On Friday, the struggling ad broker told the world that MyWeb, its four-year-old web bookmarking service, will be severed on March 18. That means Yahoo! will now offer only two bookmarking services: Yahoo! Bookmarks and Delicious. "As we have continued to innovate with the 2.0 …

Music and Media 16 Feb 22:00
iPhone and iPod Touch dominate handheld web traffic race

RAZR V3 a distant third

The iPhone and iPod Touch each generate more web traffic than any other handheld device. That's according to new figures by the advertising firm Admob, which measures online traffic based on ad requests. Its January metrics place Apple's iPhone and its derivative non-Phone device in the first and second spots for internet …

Mobile 16 Feb 22:16
'You're Goths, and you can't serialise my next book'

FoTW Social Media spinola from deepest Shoreditch

George Orwell called advertising "the rattling of a stick inside a swill pail". What would he call the business of writing advertorials about Twitter, and other Web 2.0 hypes, then? Answers on an email, please. But we're honoured to have D-list Shoreditch New Media celeb and serial-Twitterer Paul Carr for this FoTW.* This one …

Letters 16 Feb 23:31
Apple's Mac OS X update breaks Perl

Never trust a vendor

Apple's latest Mac OS X security update has a knack for breaking Perl, according to Mac users across the web. "I've just done the update using Software update and just about everything I look at is working, except that perl seems to have gone almost AWOL," says one Mac OS X user, with a post to Apple's support forum. "I seen …

Operating Systems 16 Feb 23:54