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4th June 2009 Archive

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  • At long last, internet's root zone to be secured

    VeriSign and ICANN to share DNSSEC duties

    The US government said Wednesday it plans to digitally sign the internet's root zone by the end of the year, a move that would end years of inaction securing the internet's most important asset. The US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said it was turning to ICANN, or …

    Security 4 Jun 2009, 00:27

  • Apple confirms $1bn data center

    Reverse manifest destiny

    Apple will build its first data center on America's east coast now that North Carolina agreed to massive tax breaks designed to lure the company. The same day NC governor Beverly Perdue signed a lucrative corporate incentives deal into law, Apple confirmed it is browsing locations within the state for a new $1bn data center …

    Financial News 4 Jun 2009, 00:30

  • Flexible displays bend towards reality

    PHOLED meets polyethylene naphthalate

    A team of American engineers has developed a process that moves flexible self-illuminated displays a step closer to mass-manufacturing marketability. Researchers at Arizona State's Flexible Display Center (FDC) have combined a flexible polyethylene naphthalate substrate from DuPont Teijin Films with a PHOLED (phosphorescent …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 00:36

  • Oracle's Ellison gambles with OpenOffice's future

    Dazzled by JavaFX?

    Oracle was the first top-tier IT vendor to announce it was putting its key product - the database - on Linux. The logic was simple: Linux freed Oracle from depending on a single company for operating system - that company was Microsoft. Taking the baton from Sun Microsystems' co-founder and chairman Scott McNealy at JavaOne …

    Applications 4 Jun 2009, 00:38

  • Teens rate top tech brands

    'Apple... no, yeah, but... Sony, right... no, like, Nokia' etc, etc.

    Teenagers are often berated for their pimply faces, indolence and bolshiness, but they’re tomorrow’s gadget buyers. And according to a recently published survey, they’re no longer so bovvered by Nokia mobile phones. The Global Yoof Survey – an annual listing of what’s hot and what’s not among today's Kevins and Perrys – …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 04:02

  • Microsoft's Bing feeds you, tries to keep you captive

    Review Fully featured Google inertia beater?

    Considering the amount of time, money and effort that's gone into Bing, Microsoft's made some truly odd decisions in connection with its new search engine. Never mind the odd name. Did Microsoft really not foresee that Bing could be used as a handy way to side-step porn filters? And was it really necessary to bolster Wikipedia …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 04:51

  • Airport ID cards only for the newbies

    All in the fine print, apparently

    The trial of ID cards for airside workers at City of London and Manchester airports will be a slightly slower process than we imagined. The cards will only be mandatory for new staff, not for all pilots and staff working at the airports. The Home Office reckon this was always the case and we remembered wrongly - we bow to …

    Government 4 Jun 2009, 07:02

  • DSGi pays off HMRC in transfer pricing dispute

    Shareholders flock to rights issue

    Dixons Store Group International, Europe’s second biggest electronics retailer, has paid HMRC £52.7m to settle a lengthy dispute with Britains tax collector over transfer pricing. The settlement was lower than many had expected. According to one source cited by the UK trade paper Accountancy Age, "HMRC was seeking as much as …

    The Channel 4 Jun 2009, 07:56

  • Acer Aspire One D250

    Review Inch-thick successor to the popular AA1

    Acer made a significant impact on the netbook market last year with its hugely popular Aspire One A110. It recently released a selection of new netbooks in its Aspire One range, and the D250 we have here is bizarrely similar to the D150, which was only launched a couple of months ago. Acer's Aspire One D250: only an inch …

    Laptops 4 Jun 2009, 08:02

  • Capita forced to dismember benefits software biz

    Competition Commission cracks knuckles

    Capita must sell off a chunk of IBM OPENSystems (IBS), a recent acquisition, on competition grounds. If it can't get a sale it must flog the entire IBS business, bought last year for £78m. Today the British BPO and computer services group issued this statement, on receipt of the Competition Commission's final ruling. "The …

    The Channel 4 Jun 2009, 08:26

  • Huawei stymied by India security fears

    Huawei is a danger, no kit from the reds

    Chinese telecoms equipment providers are suffering because of fears that their kit contains backdoors for the Chinese government to listen in Huawei is currently bidding to provide mobile network equipment in southern India. In fact, after a court case ruled out a bid from Nokia-Siemens, it is the only firm still in the …

    Broadband 4 Jun 2009, 08:51

  • AMD previews DirectX 11 GPU

    Computex Tech demo'd six months ahead of availability

    AMD has shown off what it claims is the "world's first" GPU capable of supporting the new graphics technologies implemented by Microsoft's DirectX 11 framework. We're sure Nvidia has one of these in its lab too, and the real test of the two arch-rivals will be who gets the darn thing into the hands of gamers first. AMD's …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 08:59

  • Sony Ericsson to drop M2 for Micro SD

    Proprietary out, standard in

    A Sony Ericsson executive has hinted that the firm will drop the Memory Stick Micro - aka M2 - storage card format from its future phones. The firm recently unveiled two new phones - Yari and Aino - both of which support the Micro SD memory card format instead of Sony's proprietary M2 format, which it’s been pushing since …

    Phones 4 Jun 2009, 09:05

  • Crew preps for ISS spacewalk

    Quick docking antenna installation job

    Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Barratt will tomorrow venture outside the International Space Station to prep the Pirs docking module for the arrival of the Russian Mini-Research Module 2. The pair are tasked with installing a docking antenna to guide the module into place when it finally arrives aboard an …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 09:07

  • HP shows off colour display 'skin' for gadgets

    Animated laptop-lid logos, anyone?

    HP has created a wacky flexible display technology that it’s pitching as a way of customising gadgets. Although HP’s remaining somewhat coy about eSkins’ specific uses, it described the technology as a “flexible reflective colour film” that gives gadgets “an electronically controlled colour surface”. Sounds bizarre, doesn’t …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 09:13

  • Beware 'mobile elbow', sawbones warn

    I'll call you back - my ulnar nerve's playing up

    Doctors have warned that excessive yacking on the mobile can result in "cubital tunnel syndrome", aka "mobile elbow", which could leave you too feeble open a jar of Marmite. That's because if you have your phone glued to your ear for extended periods, keeping your elbow bent can overstretch and damage the arm's ulnar nerve. …

    Mobile 4 Jun 2009, 09:18

  • Poor management hampers gov IT

    Info management improved by better info management

    The UK government is failing to achieve the full potential of the £16bn it spends on ICT each year, according to a Kable report. In a report on information management in the UK public sector, Kable found that transformation projects using technology often did not achieve their full potential for efficiency gains. When …

    Government 4 Jun 2009, 09:21

  • Nintendo displays re-hued Wii

    The kuro model

    Nintendo has rocked the gaming world by unveiling a brand new Wii model. Nintendo's kuro Wii was unveiled in Japan But don’t expect more interactive games, new-fangled controllers or holographic storage, because the updated Wii’s innards are identical to that of its predecessor’s – the latest model just has a black body. …

    Games 4 Jun 2009, 09:35

  • US raygun jumbo jet now firing live blasts in flight

    Nuke-nobbler plane starts 'three strikes' test match

    The US Missile Defence Agency's long awaited blaster-cannon-in-a-jumbo-jet, the Airborne Laser (ABL), is now carrying out inflight test zappings. Reports suggest that the actual laser is doing well so far, but that the carrying 747 is suffering technical problems having been grounded for a lengthy period while its energy weapon …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 09:52

  • Tories, LibDems under election day cyberattack?

    DDoS crosses boxes

    The website of the Conservative Party was hit by a denial of service attack early on Thursday morning, just as Britons went to the polls for the most closely-watched European elections for years. The assault made the site largely unavailable between 7.23 and 8.20 on Thursday, after which service was restored more or less to …

    Security 4 Jun 2009, 09:58

  • BT slammed for 'importing' cheap Indian contractors

    On-site offshoring

    BT has been accused of laying off expensive UK contractors and replacing them with Indian staff. Workers brought in using intra-company transfers are replacing contractors for about half the price, a contractor told BBC Radio 4. According to a contractor working for BT Global Services on the National Programme for IT - the …

    Management 4 Jun 2009, 10:11

  • Miles EV unveils first e-car

    Leccy Tech Built in China, sold in America

    North American e-car firm Miles Electric Vehicles has finally unveiled its first motor - the Coda EV saloon. Or, to be exact, it's rebranded itself Coda Automotive and named its first car after itself. Miles EV's Coda Automotive's first EV - the Coda The Coda EV saloon is to be built in China by Hafai Motors and based …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 10:15

  • The return of the diskless PC

    1TB SSDs to free desktops from slow HDD strangulation

    The diskless PC is to return - not as a thin client, but packing a 1TB solid state drive instead. OCZ is showing Colossus, a prototype of this, at Computex in Taiwan. Unlike OCZ's Z-Drive, a PCIe-connected 1TB SSD shown at this year's CeBIT, Colossus comes in a standard 3.5-inch drive bay form factor. This format is generally …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 10:26

  • Boffins boil down witch-repelling brew

    Take one bottle of urine, insert iron nails, navel fluff, sulphur...

    A raft of modern scientific tests has revealed the contents of the first "witch bottle" discovered with its cork intact - a late 17th-century vessel buried by the owner's front door and designed to thwart the evil intentions of ill-wishers. According to the Times, the salt-glazed stoneware bottle was unearthed in Greenwich. It …

    Bootnotes 4 Jun 2009, 10:31

  • Sony Ericsson shows its GreenHeart

    Unveils eco-phones alongside eco-pledges

    Cynics have long argued that multinational companies lack heart. But Sony Ericsson (SE) has one, and apparently it’s green. Sony Ericsson's C901 GreenHeart: the C901, but greener GreenHeart’s SE’s latest attempt to become a greener company and encompasses the launch of more eco-friendly products and creation of various eco- …

    Phones 4 Jun 2009, 11:18

  • Mountain View gets boxed in with Google Squared

    All just a question of semantics

    Google has released an experimental tool allowing users to test out search results that are automatically arranged into the familiar rows and columns of an ordinary spreadsheet. The search prototype, which is dubbed Google Squared, made its public debut as a Google Labs offering on Wednesday. The semantics-based tool was …

    Applications 4 Jun 2009, 11:20

  • UK jobs market: Bad but getting worse more slowly

    More demand for IT staff

    The UK jobs market, for both permanent and temporary positions, is in a bad way - but it is getting worse more slowly than it has for months. KPMG's monthly check on the jobs market found that the decline in temporary and permanent positions slowed in May, with demand for IT rising up the chart. The fall was the slowest in …

    Management 4 Jun 2009, 11:25

  • Nintendo admits to rival DSi handheld

    Mystery console already designed

    Nintendo has revealed that it’s already designed an alternative handheld console to the DSi. The handheld was conceived at some point during the previous three years, but the gaming giant’s Global President, Satoru Iwata, told CNBC that it’s since decided not to release the mystery device. He didn’t disclose any technical …

    Games 4 Jun 2009, 11:45

  • O2 XDA Guide satnav phone

    Review All roads lead to roam

    Taiwan's HTC is currently doing very well with its Touch series handsets and it's been no secret that O2's very similar XDA range of Windows Mobile phones are actually made by the same company. Indeed, the O2 XDA Guide is very similar to the Touch Cruise, with the focus firmly on satnav and A-GPS, but also incorporating a 2.8in …

    Mobile 4 Jun 2009, 12:02

  • LG announces European watchphone launch

    Coming to wrists next month

    The GD910 wristphone will be released across Europe next month, LG has announced. LG's GD910 watchphone Available, as expected, through network operator Orange, the watch-cum-phone’s price will vary from region to region. But it’s previously been speculated that the device will cost about £1000 ($1458/€1140). The GD910 has …

    Phones 4 Jun 2009, 12:11

  • Archbishop says Catholics confusing confessionals with couches

    See, it really does make you go blind

    A top Catholic Bishop has taken a pop at the not-quite-faithful-enough, who are treating the confessional as little more than a cheaper, albeit darker, version of the psychologist's couch. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza went on Vatican radio to bemoan the "deep crisis" that has overtaken the sacrament of penance, aka the sacrament …

    Bootnotes 4 Jun 2009, 12:24

  • Twitter Trends exploited to promote scareware

    Malign micro-blogging madness

    Hackers are manipulating a hot topics feature of Twitter to promote malware-infected websites. The gaming of the Twitter Trends feature recalls the manipulation of Google search results using black-hat search engine optimisation techniques. In the case of the Twitter attack, cyber-criminals created hundreds of accounts and …

    Security 4 Jun 2009, 12:34

  • Transition flying car into 'beta test': Deliveries from 2011

    In this case 'beta test' = new prototype

    The makers of the Terrafugia Transition - the closest thing to a flying car yet built - say that flight testing of the initial "proof of concept" vehicle is now complete, and that the Transition has been shown to be a viable proposition. Terrafugia will now build a "beta test prototype", incorporating lessons learned by the …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 12:42

  • New Labour: Chainsaws out, maybe Contactpoint, too

    Comment Who will survive and what will be left of them?

    There aren't any fresh similes left to describe what's happening to New Labour, but it's safe to say it's looking more than a little peaky. A crucial few days lie ahead, and in a week the political landscape is going to look very different. Two days ago, the overriding issue for UK political commentators was the forthcoming …

    Government 4 Jun 2009, 12:46

  • US gov ordered to play ball in state secrets case

    As Obama DOJ just says no

    "This is a lawsuit, not a career, Mr. Coppolino," a rather exasperated Judge Vaughn Walker explained in court today, chiding the lead counsel for the Justice Department, Anthony Coppolino, as Mr. Coppolino's stony-faced counterpart from the National Security Agency, Timothy Stinson, sat silently at his side. Why obey court …

    Government 4 Jun 2009, 13:02

  • Broadcom to Emulex stockholders: Let's get these guys

    Heroic rescue effort involves ruthless board-clobbering

    Broadcom is appealing directly to Emulex stockholders to consent to proposals to call a special meeting that could toss the Emulex board out on its collective ear. Emulex has painted Broadcom as a marauding (and drug-addled) beast, but Broadcom casts itself in quite a different light; its mission is to rescue the struggling …

    Storage 4 Jun 2009, 13:24

  • Intel spends $884m to straddle Wind River

    Embedded systems are go

    Intel is paying $884m for embedded software firm Wind River to pump up its efforts to push beyond its core PC markets. The chip giant is offering $11.50 a share for the firm - its shares were changing hands yesterday for $8. Wind River will become a subsidiary of Intel and continue selling embedded software. The idea is that …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 13:28

  • Plug pulled on ISP over unpaid bills

    Wave Rider wipes out

    The ISP peering cooperative LONAP has disconnected one of its members, Wave Rider, over an invoice dispute. LONAP took the action yesterday, and warned other members to shut down peering with the firm, which describes itself as "one of the longest established internet providers in the Midlands", to avoid network problems. The …

    Broadband 4 Jun 2009, 13:35

  • LG intros stylish Freeview DVD recorder

    With integrated 160GB HDD

    If you’re yet to make the jump to Blu-ray then LG has got a stylish treat in store: a DVD recorder with integrated hard disk drive and Freeview+ support. LG's RHT497H: records Freeview telly onto its 160GB HDD The RHT497H can receive over 40 digital Freeview channels - each of which you’ll be able to pause, play and rewind …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 14:01

  • David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

    'Close your eyes, what do you hear?'

    Local media report that veteran actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room - apparently having hung himself in a closet using a curtain cord. The 73-year-old actor was in the city to shoot his latest movie, Stretch. His personal manager Chuck Binder described the news as "shocking". The Bangkok Nation …

    Bootnotes 4 Jun 2009, 14:21

  • Ballmer clashes with Obama over US tax rules

    Threatens to ship MS drones overseas

    Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has threatened to move more US jobs overseas if President Barack Obama refuses to change his stance on ending tax breaks on foreign earnings. Big Steve told Bloomberg yesterday that US tax rates made jobs “more expensive.” "We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the US as …

    Financial News 4 Jun 2009, 14:25

  • 'Breathalyser for the hands' fights hospital superbugs

    Wireless warning for unwashed plague-laden medics

    Medics in Florida are trying out a so-called "breathalyser for the hands" system which sounds the alarm if they try to approach a patient without having washed recently enough. The HyGreen technology is intended to block the spread of so-called "superbugs", commonly found in hospitals. According to Dr Lennox Archibald, a prof …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 14:26

  • Man creates third-gen iPhone rumours picture

    Catalogues every rumour ever made, pretty much

    Rumours about which features may be added to the third-generation iPhone appear on an almost daily basis, making them very hard to remember. So one iPhone fanatic’s put them all together into a single image. Click for full-resolution image Image courtesy of The Green Room Blogger Remy’s taken front and back shots of the …

    Phones 4 Jun 2009, 15:45

  • Intel paying $884m for Wind River?

    Comment IBM should make a counter offer

    Financially struggling chip maker Intel is paying $884m to take over embedded operating system supplier Wind River Systems. Why would it do that, you may ask. Well, the best answer, of course, is because it can. Intel's launching and continuing support of the Moblin variant of Linux for netbooks shows that the chip maker knows …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 15:46

  • Who will win the epic battle for the kitchen OS?

    The who now?

    Like to sing along to something as you cook dinner? Know this - the humble kitchen radio is about to be obliterated by the mighty Media Phone, with embedded specialist Arc bidding to become its default platform. While the OS platforms for mobile phones and small cheap computers are the subject of fierce debate, the choice of …

    Operating Systems 4 Jun 2009, 15:55

  • Core i7 bumped to 3.33GHz

    Still too slow? Overclock it

    Intel has speed-bumped its top-of-the-line Core i7 Extreme Edition processor, increasing its lead as the fastest desktop chip that the company has ever offered. The new 45nm Core i7 975, based on the company's Nehalem architecture, clocks in at 3.33GHz. It includes 8MB of L3 Smart Cache running at its four cores' clock speed …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 17:54

  • Stilt-walking Cirque du Soleil founder turns space tourist

    Quebec fire-breather blasts off in September

    The stilt-walking, fire-breathing founder of Cirque du Soleil is set to become Canada's first space tourist later this year. Quebec-born billionaire Guy Laliberté will make a 12 day visit to the International Space Station in September courtesy the Russian space agency, in a flight estimated to cost at least $30m (£18.6m). …

    Science 4 Jun 2009, 18:00

  • Games group demands industry tax credits, again

    Uses HSBC pro-gaming report as crutch

    Videogames development trade organisation Tiga has renewed its call for the UK government to support the industry with tax credits, following an HSBC report which identified several UK “gaming hotspots”. HSBC's map revealed three 'Pacman' gaming spots in Scotland Click for full-resolution image “HSBC is right to identify …

    Games 4 Jun 2009, 19:02

  • Microsoft pledges Java love in Sun-less world

    JavaOne Sample our code

    Microsoft will keep the flame of interoperability between .NET and Java burning in the future world without Sun - currently Java's chief steward. Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president for strategic and emerging business development, told what's looking like the last JavaOne that Microsoft's "intent and ongoing commitment" is …

    Developer 4 Jun 2009, 19:53

  • Man accused of arranging wife's rape on Craigslist

    Attacker still at large

    A North Carolina man is accused of arranging to have his wife raped through the personal ads section of Craigslist. The victim, whose name has not been released, called 911 emergency services early Sunday morning and reported a knife-wielding assailant had sexually assaulted her in the bedroom of her Kannapolis home. Police …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 19:55

  • US Federal Trade Commission shuts down ISP

    Provider accused of harboring malware, child porn

    Federal authorities have shut down what they said was the worst US-based web hosting provider after convincing a judge it actively participated in the distribution of child pornography, spam, malware, and other net-based menaces. The US Federal Trade Commission obtained the court order against 3FN.net, a service provider with …

    Security 4 Jun 2009, 20:02

  • Google tracking cookie spans AdSense, DoubleClick

    Um, but it keeps the data separate?

    Yes, Google is using the same tracking cookie across both its AdSense and DoubleClick online ad contraptions. This allows the Mountain View ad giant to collect your surfing habits as you move from AdSense partner sites to sites using DoubleClick's ad management platform - although the company indicates that at least in some …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 20:28

  • Qualcomm joins Microsoft in smartbook fantasy

    JavaOne Blows Java bubbles

    Qualcomm's conversion from Java competitor to paid-up club member seems complete, thanks to its new-found interest in "smartbooks." The company, which once cooked up the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) to try and challenge Sun Microsystems' Java, has announced the early access release of Java Platform Standard …

    Hardware 4 Jun 2009, 20:36

  • iPod poised for multitouch scroll wheel

    More pinching, more swiping

    Apple's scroll wheel-equipped iPods may soon inherit the multitouch swipe and pinch gestural controls currently available in the iPod touch, iPhone, and MacBooks. That is, if they take advantage of the technologies discussed in an Apple patent filing entitled Multi-Dimensional Scroll Wheel, published Thursday by the US Patent …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 20:44

  • Cisco promises gold in California rush

    Pumping up the channel, building the pipeline

    Servers, and especially volume x64 machines, are by and large sold not by the companies whose brands are on the boxes, but by a handful of master distributors who in turn sell them to legions of resellers that actually do the peddling to IT shops. And if Cisco Systems wants to get into the x64 server racket, it is going to need …

    The Channel 4 Jun 2009, 20:59

  • Data Domain promises EMC response

    In twelve days or less

    Data Domain's board has told its stockholders to postpone any decision on EMC's $1.8bn, $30/share tender offer until it makes a formal recommendation on or before June 16th. The board desires to be taken over by NetApp to fight common enemy EMC, but finds itself being hotly pursued by said EMC. It has already accepted and …

    Storage 4 Jun 2009, 21:02

  • US mega retailer settles spyware charges

    Sears promises to spy no more

    One of the biggest US retailers has agreed to settle charges brought by federal authorities that it snuck privacy-stealing software from ComScore onto customers' machines. Sears Holding Corporation, owner of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart, has agreed to delete all the information harvested by the software, which pried into …

    Security 4 Jun 2009, 23:47

  • Microsoft ends real-time video kerfuffle

    Pals with Paltalk

    Microsoft and Paltalk - self-described as "the leading real-time, video-based community" - have settled their patent dispute, with Microsoft entering into a licensing agreement with Paltalk for the patents in question. Paltalk had filed suit against Microsoft in September 2006 for what it alleged were violations of a patent …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 23:51

  • Microsoft Bing rides open source to semantic search

    Powerset on the side

    As it turns out, Powerset's open-source-happy semantic talents are only a small part of Bing, Microsoft's freshly-minted decision engine search engine. Microsoft acquired Powerset last July in a reported $100m deal, and after a conspicuous Tweet from Powerset co-founder Barney Pell, many assumed that the semantic search outfit …

    Media 4 Jun 2009, 23:59