13th May 2009 Archive

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Intel's Otellini plots little growth path

Bigs bucks from small stuff

The current state of Intel’s business is “a little better than we expected” according to its chief executive and president, whose promised to keep things moving by thinking small - Atom small to be specific. Speaking at Intel's Investor Meeting 2009, in Santa Clara, California, Paul Otellini described what he called the …

Business 13 May 01:22
Google crossbreeds search with spreadsheet

Searchology Semantic squares

Google is breeding a newfangled search tool that automatically organizes web data into the familiar rows and columns of an ordinary spreadsheet. That may sound trivial. But in Googleland, it’s close to walking on water. Dubbed Google Squared, this experimental tool will make its public debut as a Google Labs offering "later …

Music and Media 13 May 04:51
LaCie's xbig products get bigger

Bulked-up to 10TB

External drive supplier LaCie has upgraded its NAS products with RAID-protected capacities up to 10TB and multimedia streaming, increasing viability for both home users and small businesses. The Ethernet-connected 2big Network model has two disk bays supporting up to 4TB of RAID-0 and -1 protected capacity. It has Active …

Storage 13 May 06:02
Nvidia punts 3D into Europe

The GeForce 3D Vision kit for games, films and photos

Nvidia has finally made its 3D PC kit available to gamers, film fans and photo fanatics across northern Europe. Nvidia's kit turns games, films and photos 3D The firm’s promised that its GeForce 3D Vision kit – first seen at CES back in January – will automatically transform 2D content into a “crystal-clear... flicker-free …

Reg Hardware 13 May 07:02
iRiver P7 8GB portable media player

Review Playing to win?

Here at Reg Hardware, we’ve been given to wonder if iRiver has rather lost the plot of late. Sure, the Lplayer was a decent enough bit of kit, but the E100 and Spinn? Writing, “could do better” on their end of term report cards would have been polite in the extreme. However, some of the devices on the iRiver booth at the 2009 …

Reg Hardware 13 May 08:02
Intel cuts ribbon on research lab

Graphic depiction of the future

Intel is spending $12m on a graphics research lab in Germany. The five-year investment will look at how multiple core processors can produce more realistic graphics and better user interfaces. The Intel Visual Computing Institute is at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany and opens today. By the end of the year it …

PCs & Chips 13 May 08:48
Gov 'smart meter' plans: Sky box in charge of your house

Analysis Smart for energy companies, crippled for users

The UK government has unveiled its plans for so-called "smart" energy meters, to be compulsory throughout Blighty in future. The proposed technology appears like excellent news for energy companies, offering them many options to cut costs and perhaps carbon emissions. Chances for consumers to be truly "smart", however, aren't …

Environment 13 May 09:02
Google faces trade mark class action over AdWords

Firepond looks for help melting Chocolate Factory

Google is facing an attempt to file a class action lawsuit over its US policy of allowing companies to use trade marks they don't own to trigger their internet adverts. If it gathers enough participants, the suit could be costly for the search giant. Class action law suits are US legal cases in which many companies or people …

IT Director 13 May 09:04
ICO voices concern over creaking data protection law

Data Protection Directive approaching 15th birthday

The Data Protection Directive is old-fashioned and out of date, a report published by the UK's privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said. Commissioner Richard Thomas said that the European Union must change its legislation. The ICO commissioned RAND Europe to investigate whether or not 1995's EU …

Law 13 May 09:17
Herschel and Planck off to meet Lagrange

European twin 'scope launch tomorrow

The European Space Agency's Herschel and Planck space telescopes look good to go tomorrow (Thursday 14 May) at 13:12 GMT from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana. Sitting atop an Ariane 5 ECA (see graphic), the two vehicles are ultimately destined for "L2", the second Lagrangian point lying around 1.5m km from Earth "where all …

Space 13 May 09:35
Apple releases OS X 10.5.7 update

Squeezes Leopard's spots

Apple released an update to its Leopard operating system yesterday that comes loaded with a host of security and bug fixes as well as added hardware support. The Cupertino-based firm said OS X 10.5.7 patches several security loopholes related to PHP, CoreGraphics, Apache Web server and the company’s browser Safari. Three …

Operating Systems 13 May 09:37
Raygun 747 to fight 'one-off' tag with twin '09 missile fryings

Energy cannon reload fills two cargo planes

Embattled raygun executives, in charge of America's jumbo jet mounted nuclear-missile-nobbling laser cannon, are fighting back against cuts which have largely sidelined the project. It has been announced that not only will the energy-weapon 747 shoot down a test missile imminently, but a second test will follow the first as …

Science 13 May 09:44
Kanye West doesn't have a f***ing Twitter, OK?

Short-fused hip hop star in all-caps microblog bitchslap

American rapper and record producer Kanye West has issued a shouty missive against Twitter for allowing a bogus account carrying his name to amass more than one million followers on the microblogging site. The star, who is not known for his zen-like calm or restraint, ranted on his blog yesterday in which he accused Twitter of …

Bootnotes 13 May 10:02
Intel hit with largest ever EU fine

Millions harmed by chip giant's behaviour

The European Commission has found Intel guilty of anti-competitive behaviour and fined it over a billion euros. The Commission has ordered the chip giant to refrain from any equivalent practises in the future. It ruled the firm damaged competition by excluding rival AMD from markets. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said …

PCs & Chips 13 May 10:10
Patches bring zero-day relief from PDF and PowerPoint flaws

Phew

Microsoft has released a solitary bulletin that covers 14 vulnerabilities in PowerPoint, including a zero-day bug that has been the target of hacker exploitation over recent weeks, as part of its May Patch Tuesday update. All versions of PowerPoint will need patching with the cumulative update, which earns Redmond's highest …

Enterprise Security 13 May 10:13
Apple prepping 32GB iPhone 3.0?

Alleged specs indicate 3.2Mp camera and 600MHz CPU

As Apple addicts gear-up for the its Worldwide Developers Conference next month, specifications have appeared online suggesting that Apple may have upped the iPhone’s storage capacity to 32GB. Will the next iPhone come with 32GB of storage? The info comes from a Chinese website’s publication of an iPhone ‘About’ screenshot …

Reg Hardware 13 May 10:19
Electric racer hits the track

Leccy Tech Solar cells and lithium-ion battery packs

Swiss outfit Green GT whipped the dust sheets off its leccy racer at the recent Swiss Show of Renewable Energy and New Technologies. Green GT's leccy racer: will do 170mph Called GreenGT, the FIA-specification track car has a carbon fibre chassis and fibreglass body that’s home to two water-cooled 100kW electric motors. …

Reg Hardware 13 May 10:42
Sign up for The Register Agile Data Centre Summit

Power to the people

Clear some space in your diary and join us for The Register Agile Data Centre Summit at 4pm BST / 11am EST, 24 June. This fully interactive event features experts and analysts from The Register, Freeform Dynamics and leading vendors, who will describe, demonstrate and debate strategies and solutions that help IT departments …

Servers 13 May 10:44
HBA duopoly blown away by 10gigE

Comment Emulex, Mellanox get converged networking pot bubbling

The temperature in the 10GbitE networking technology pot is rising as vendors sprinkle 10gigE magic into their products. InfiniBand developer Mellanox and Fibre Channel HBA supplier Emulex are both becoming 10gigE enthusiasts. The cosy HBA duopoly of Emulex and QLogic is being blown wide open as InfiniBand and Ethernet switch …

Storage 13 May 10:46
Qualcomm ponies up half mill prize cash

May the best business model win

Qualcomm Ventures has put up $550,000 in prize money, to be invested in the best business model it can find, in a process which is surely what it should be doing anyway. Like many technology companies, Qualcomm maintains an investment arm. This one has the stated aim of "fostering 3G CDMA and wireless internet markets", so …

Mobile 13 May 10:51
Zune phone specs spied

Nailed down data - or Microsoft wish list?

Zune phone rumours have been doing the rounds for years, but now an accurate rundown of the gadget’s hardware may finally have been uncovered. A “trustworthy source who requested anonymity” told ZDNet that the phone – known by several names, including 'Zune Phone' and 'Pink' – will run Windows Mobile 7 and feature an ARM v6+ …

Reg Hardware 13 May 10:55
Intel to appeal EU fine

They don't like it up 'em

Intel said it will appeal the record €1.06bn ($1.5bn) fine imposed on it by the European Competition Commission. In a strongly worded statement, Intel's chief executive Paul Otellini said: “Intel takes strong exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive …

PCs & Chips 13 May 10:57
New service seeks to monetise microwaffling

Twittery profit? Say it isn't so!

Question-answering service AQA has expanded its offering to a Twitter-like service, with the added benefit of paying users for posting their thoughts by charging those receiving them. The premise of "AQA2U" is pretty simple: you set up a feed, then try to get people to follow it - they get charged 98 pence for signing up and …

Mobile 13 May 11:18
Virgin Media to add 500k homes to cable network

Because it's worth it

Virgin Media plans to connect about half a million more premises to its network in the next few years in the first significant expansion of cable coverage since the 1990s. The firm hopes if it targets the expansion carefully it will get a good return for a relatively small investment. The first 50,000 homes and businesses are …

Telecoms 13 May 11:32
Could Sadville break the internet with nakedness?

Comment Look out - it's the virtual moral majority

Second Life's introduction of adult zoning and age verification highlights an uncomfortable truth about the future of the web - as network function increases, so the anarchic free-for-all we are used to will be eroded further, and possibly abolished forever. There is much frothing on Sadville forums over Linden Labs’ proposals …

Telecoms 13 May 11:32
Mio tunes into TV satnavs

A world's first, apparently

Mio has showcased a two satnavs that are bound to brighten up boring motorway journeys, because they can also receive TV signals. Mio's 4.7in and 7in Spirit satnavs: pick up TV channels The 4.7in and 7in devices are part of the firm’s Spirit range and can pick up DVB-T signals, in addition to getting you from A to B. …

Reg Hardware 13 May 11:56
VeriChip shaves 3mm off human RFID chips

No doubt allaying users' fears at a stroke

Luddites still objecting to having an 11mm chip implanted in an arm will no doubt be relieved to hear that VeriChip has developed an even-smaller implantable RFID tag, measuring a diminutive 8mm by 1mm. Not that this new chip is designed for tagging people as such. It's been developed for use with "vascular access catheters" …

Wireless 13 May 12:00
Intel Xeon W5580 ~~workstation~~ desktop processor

Review Worth sticking in your PC?

While we were reviewing the Intel Xeon W5580 it was hard to ignore the similarity between the new Xeon and Intel’s desktop Core i7. After a fair amount of testing, it became apparent that the Xeon W5580 is identical to the Core i7 965 Extreme, except that you can run two Xeons on a workstation motherboard and the price is …

Reg Hardware 13 May 12:02
EU case relies on dodgy evidence: says Intel

War of words heats up

Intel's general counsel has made a spirited defence of the company and accused the European Competition Commission of relying on dodgy evidence and ignoring documents which contradicted its case, after receiving a record fine for anti-competitive practices. Bruce Sewell, Intel's general counsel, said in a statement: "We take …

Channel Register 13 May 12:30
Netbook demand dropped 26% in Q1

But decline matched industry average

Demand for netbooks was indeed down in Q1 - as yesterday's Atom processor shipment figures suggested - but by the industry average, figures form market watcher DisplaySearch show. According to the researcher, 5.9m netbooks were shipped worldwide in Q1, down 26 per cent from the 8m shipped in Q4 2008. In Q1, netbooks accounted …

Reg Hardware 13 May 12:46
Jail for Hong Kong techie who exposed stars' sex snaps

Eight months hard time

The Hong Kong techie who exposed over 1,000 compromising pics of film star Edison Chen and a parade of starlets has been sentenced to eight and a half months in jail. Sze Ho-chun, 24, swiped the snaps when Chen dropped his laptop in for repairs back in 2006. The pics showed Chen cavorting with a string of women including …

Bootnotes 13 May 12:47
US airforce looking at winged-rocket booster 'X-plane'

'VTHL': Cheaper than disposables, proper spaceplanes

The US Air Force has announced that it is interested in a "Reusable Booster System" (RBS) - a combination of rocket and aeroplane which could replace the first stage of existing orbital launch stacks. After the upper stages separated and carried on into space, the winged RBS would glide down to a winged landing for refuelling …

Science 13 May 12:48
Microsoft slings out Office 2010 technical preview

Testy fingers at the ready

Microsoft will ship a technical preview of Office 2010 to invite-only users in July, the company has confirmed. The Office 2010 beta is expected to land at some point in the second half of 2009 and will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. It can run on Windows XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7. Additionally it will also work on any …

Applications 13 May 13:15
HDS adds CommVault dedupe

Heading towards unified storage arrays

Hitachi Data Systems is oem'ing CommVault's Simpana to provide deduplicated data protection services, and Simpana has passed the 10,000 customer mark. HDS has announced its Data Protection Suite 8.0 and said it's powered by CommVault. The product uses Simpana 8.0 technology and is the latest event in the HDS CommVault OEM …

Storage 13 May 13:40
Pirate Win 7 ruse used to build botnet

Zombie torrent

A Trojan buried within counterfeit copies of Windows 7 RC was used to build a botnet of compromised PCs. The tactic emerged after researchers from security firm Damballa shut down the command and control servers used to control the system, reckoned to have drafted thousands of Windows PCs into its compromised ranks. Damballa …

Malware 13 May 13:43
Government appoints Twittercrat

Fresh old face for PR 2.0

Meet the fresh young face of Government 2.0. It's Andrew Stott, and he's our new "Twittercrat"* - or the new Director of Digital Engagement, to give him his official title. Young professional and peer group leader: Stott The £160,000-a-year post has been condemned by opposition MPs as "a grotesque amount of public money to …

Government 13 May 13:55
Google inks biggest ever apps deal

It's a giant cloud, as big as a cloud

Cap Gemini has sold what it believes is the largest ever contract for Google's online suite of software products. French industrial group Valeo operates in 27 countries from 192 offices and other buildings. About 30,000 Valeo staff will get access to Google Apps. The phased programme will start this year by giving staff …

Applications 13 May 13:58
Debbie Gibson battles Mega Shark and Giant Octopus

Sci-fi romp trailer flashes big teeth and tentacles

Stuff Terminator Salvation and Star Trek, this is what true sci-fi movie buffs have been waiting for: A titanic struggle for control of the world's oceans between a Mega Shark and a Giant Octopus, witnessed by the decorative Debbie Gibson: Terrific. In case you were wondering, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is helmed by Jack …

Entertainment 13 May 14:17
Intel's record fine will lead to civil suits, says expert

€1.06bn fine could just be the start

The European Commission has issued its biggest ever competition law fine to computer chip maker Intel. One competition law expert said that the billion euro fine will "open the floodgates" for civil actions that could cost the company further. Intel has been fined €1.06bn over secret payments and rebates to retailers who …

PCs & Chips 13 May 14:41
Watchdog bans Natasha Richardson ski helmet ad

Email punt 'insensitive', ASA rules

The Advertising Standards Authority has taken a dim view of an email announcing the death of actress Natasha Richardson which went on to offer great deals on ski helmets. The offending missive, sent by skiwear4less.com, began: "We regret to inform you that British actress Natasha Richardson has died in hospital this morning, …

Bootnotes 13 May 14:47
MSI pushes skinny MacBook Air-like laptops

One a notebook, the other a netbook

MSI has made lots of noise about its all-in-one ‘glassy’ PC and various netbook models of late. But in an effort to prove that it hasn’t forgotten about notebooks, the firm’s announced a Centrino Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) model. MSI's launched the X340 and X320 13.4in notebooks That's the X340 - its sibling, the X320, is …

Reg Hardware 13 May 14:56
Atlantis creeps up on Hubble

Engineers examine images of 'minor' shuttle damage

Space shuttle Atlantis is poised to rendevous with the Hubble Space Telescope on its final servicing mission to the venerable eye in the sky. Shortly before 15:00 GMT, NASA reported: "Orbiting nearly 50,000 feet (9 1/2 statute miles) behind the telescope, Atlantis' crew performed a precisely-targeted thruster firing called the …

Space 13 May 15:25
Seagate slashes more jobs

1,100 sacrifices for $125m annual savings

Seagate is cutting a further 1,100 jobs with a view to reaching break-even point, aiming to save $125m a year. Seagate is the world's largest supplier of hard disk drives and the cuts represent 2.5 percent of its global headcount. They will get Seagate's cost down to less than $300m a quarter and, hopefully, make the firm …

Storage 13 May 15:26
Oracle buys Virtual Iron

Pocket change for some Xen experts

Software giant Oracle has announced its purchase of server virtualization wannabe Virtual Iron, confirming months of rumor. Having already grabbed the open source Xen hypervisor as the basis of its free-standing Oracle VM hypervisor, Oracle did not need Virtual Iron for its own VT and AMD-V dependent implementation of Xen. But …

Virtualization 13 May 15:56
Lombardi re-thinks the cloud model

Bugs trapped in time

A re-engineered workflow build and management system for cloud-based systems has been delivered after four years' work by Lombardi Software. The business-process-management specialist has released a version of its Teamwork BPM suite that lets you re-create historical events in systems based on open source and Java. Also added …

Developer 13 May 17:31
Cyber attack could bring US military response

No options removed from table

The United States' top commanding officer for the space and cyber domains told reporters last week that a cyber attack could merit a more conventional military response. During a press briefing on Thursday, US Air Force General Kevin Chilton, who heads the US Strategic Command, said that top Pentagon advisors would not rule …

Security 13 May 17:54
Craigslist shutters 'erotic services' section

Pressure gets to Buckmaster

Craigslist is shuttering its "erotic services" section after months of resisting demands by state and local law enforcement officials in the US. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told the AP on Wednesday that the site's current erotic services section will close in seven days and be replaced with a new adult category …

Music and Media 13 May 18:40
Otellini questions EU logic

'No consumers harmed'

In hitting Intel with a record 1.06 billion euro fine, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes argued that the company has "used illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude its only competitor and reduce consumers’ choice." Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, she said "the whole story is about the consumer." But …

PCs & Chips 13 May 18:48
Snow Leopard, Jobs to miss Apple geekfest

What'd you expect?

Apple's new version of Mac OS X - 10.5.7, released on Wednesday - may have a longer life than previously thought. Cupertino has also announced that the next version, Snow Leopard, won't debut at the company's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) as many observers had hoped. Instead, Apple will distribute to the June …

Operating Systems 13 May 18:48
P2P study: Music crackdown is bad for business

Music biz throwing away cash

A study of P2P music exchanges to be revealed this week suggests that the ailing music business is shunning a lucrative lifeline by refusing to license the activity for money. Entitled "The Long Tail of P2P", the study by Will Page of performing rights society PRS For Music and Eric Garland of P2P research outfit Big …

Music and Media 13 May 19:09
Ubuntu fluffs web file-synchronization service

Battles Microsoft off desktop

Ubuntu's commercial backer won't fluff its own cloud, but Canonical isn't eschewing online services in the battle against Microsoft. Canonical has begun beta tests of a web-based service that'll let you store and synchronize files on your Jaunty Jackalope PC with other Jackalope-powered machines. Called Ubuntu One, it's …

Operating Systems 13 May 20:00
Russia raises fare for NASA's Soyuz rocket rides

ISS round trip rates skyrocke...

Bumming a ride on Russian rockets will soon be a few million dollars more expensive. Inflation y'know. Russia will charge US astronauts $51m for a round trip to the International Space Station beginning in 2012, a Russian space official said on Wednesday. NASA said earlier it plans to reserve up to 24 seats aboard the Russian …

Space 13 May 20:36
Fanbois squeal over Mac OS X upgrade

Per usual

Apple's recently released 10.5.7 update to Mac OS X is bringing grief to a goodly number of unfortunate souls. MacInTouch readers have contributed multiple posts about multiple problems, some with suggested fixes, some without. MacFixIt has published three separate articles about installation woes - one describing download …

Operating Systems 13 May 20:42
AMD: 'The dog didn't eat Otellini's homework'

Moore's Red Herring

AMD finds it amusing that on a day when the EU dropped a record €1.06 billion fine on Intel, Intel is still calling the shots. "Obviously, we've done more than a few interviews today, and most of the interviews that we've done have involved us responding to what [Intel CEO] Paul Otellini had to say," AMD spokesman John Taylor …

PCs & Chips 13 May 22:25
IBM puts future profits in the bag

2009 and 2010 a done deal, thanks

IBM is hosting its annual investor conference today, and the top brass of Big Blue's numerous business groups spent many hours walking the assembled Wall Street analysts through the models that show the company did the right things over the past few years. Those smart moves, according to IBM, included divesting commodity IT …

Financial News 13 May 22:37
Nokia cuts Ovi fluff

Media package put out to pasture

Nokia's rationalisation of its sprawling, me-too services is gradually becoming clearer. Late last month, the world's biggest phone manufacturer said it was taking 450 staff out of its operation, "to open up deeper and greater opportunities for third parties." Yesterday Nokia confirmed that Ovi Share would not be further …

Music and Media 13 May 22:43
Google openness is a closed door

Comment Open source versus an open mind

When Google meets with Congressional staffers, hoping to convince US lawmakers that it's nothing but good for the world, the web giant likes to say that it believes in openness. "Open is better than closed," the company says. Open "enhances competition" and "encourages innovation." But if you ask the company to discuss its …

Music and Media 13 May 22:50
Microsoft slapped for Windows-only Office patch

Mac patch on the way

Microsoft has defended its decision to release a Windows-only security patch for its Office program after a researcher warned it put Mac users of the software at risk. Swa Frantzen, in a blog item posted to the SANS Institute's Daily Handler's Diary, said a bulletin Microsoft issued Tuesday violated the company's own position …

Security 13 May 23:02
Fujitsu takes trip to Venus

The octocore Sparc64

With Sun Microsystems and Oracle hogging all of the debate about the Sparc architecture these days, you can't blame Fujitsu for wanting to get a word in edgewise. So today, somewhere in Japan, Fujitsu reminded everyone that even though it's getting out of the chip manufacturing racket, it does have an eight-core Sparc64 chip in …

Servers 13 May 23:15