28th July 2009 Archive

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Google tosses Android a Donut

Version 2 it ain't

Three months after Google released an "early look" at version 1.5 of its Android mobile operating system, a newer version has made its way into the eager hands of developers. Dubbed Donut, the new alpha version brings a raft of new features to 'Droiders. As demoed at the Google I/O conference back in May, when Donut is fully …

Developer 28 Jul 00:27
Microsoft's mobile marketplace opens for submissions

Updated 'Better' experience for all promised

Microsoft has thrown open the door on its Windows mobile marketplace, betting it can tempt customers and developers with a better service than the one offered by Apple's iPhone App Store. On Monday, the software giant began accepting application submissions for apps that target devices running Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, and 6.5 …

Developer 28 Jul 03:25
Open source API dreams of The Meta Cloud

Calling the cloud of clouds

The Meta Cloud is one step closer to meta-reality. Last week, at OSCON, a San Jose startup known as Cloudkick unveiled an open source project that hopes to provide a single programming interface for a host of so-called infrastructure clouds, including Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Slicehost, and GoGrid. Dubbed libcloud …

Developer 28 Jul 04:03
Seagate forced to think about the next small big thing

Comment Where next after WD's 1TB SFF little monster?

Western Digital has pipped Seagate in the small form factor (SFF) areal density hard disk drive stakes with today's 1TB Scorpio Blue, which, in My Passport Essential SE form, compares to Seagate's 640GB FreeAgent Go. However the Seagate product is a two-platter one, meaning 320GB/platter, whereas WD's has three. That means …

Storage 28 Jul 07:02
EU releases 2G GSM-reserved spectrum into wild

Washes hands of 900MHz

The EU has officially released the 900MHz spectrum formerly reserved for 2G GSM services, allowing other technologies into the space assuming that local regulators can sort out the historical mess. The Council of Ministers has approved the Commission's proposal to allow other technologies into the slices of 900MHz where 2G GSM …

Mobile 28 Jul 07:06
Sage clears the quarter

Challenging and unchanged

Small business and accountancy software provider Sage has hit targets for the quarter, but warned that trading remains tough. Unaudited figures for the nine months to 30 June 2009 show the company hit management expectations for the period. Audited figures for the six months ended 31 March showed sales of £748.4m, up 17 per …

Small Biz 28 Jul 07:52
BBC bids to control next-gen Telly UI

Google, Virgin, Sky all unhappy

The BBC has hoisted the bathrobe on its secretive and ambitious Project Canvas set top box project, via the BBC Trust. Canvas has been nicknamed "Freeview on Steroids" or "The iPlayer in hardware", which gives you some idea of its ambitions. It's intended to create a single hardware and software reference standard for future …

Music and Media 28 Jul 08:02
D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685

Review Another stab at router convergence

Ah, convergence, that buzzword of the 1990s – so often promising a lot, but delivering little. Evidently, D-Link is toying with the convergence concept with the neatly packaged Xtreme N DIR-685. This four-port Gigabit router features 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 3.2in LCD panel – billed as a digital photo frame – and Nas functionality too. …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 08:02
Average UK broadband just over half advertised speed

Half empty?

The average downstream speed received by UK households is just 57 per cent of the average advertised rate, according to Ofcom research. Data from the regulator's hardware-based performance monitoring network shows that while the average broadband package is sold as "up to" 7.1Mbit/s, it actually delivers 4.1Mbit/s. The UK …

Telecoms 28 Jul 08:27
Endeavour crew wrap final ISS spacewalk

Shuttle undocks today

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn yesterday completed the fifth and final spacewalk of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. During the a four hour, 54 minute excursion, the pair (pictured) polished work on the Exposed Section of Japan's Kibo lab, installing a pair of …

Space 28 Jul 08:58
SHA-3 hash contest enters second round

Crypto Olympiad hots up

The competition for the next generation of cryptographic hash algorithms has moved on to its second stage. Fourteen candidates have been selected by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is running the contest, to progress onto the next round in the competition to define the algorithm that will …

Enterprise Security 28 Jul 09:11
Novell punts tools to make software appliances

SUSE Linux breaking out everywhere

Since earlier this year, commercial Linux distributor Novell has been working to get a set of online tools together, which it hopes will make it the force behind virtual machine server appliances. It also has a matching partner program that will see key Linux software vendors deploy appliances based on customized - yet supported …

Applications 28 Jul 09:16
Truck drivers! Don't go texting now

Shock risk findings are shocking

Fresh from the department of the bleeding obvious comes the news that truck drivers sending text messages are more likely to have accidents than those paying attention to the road ahead. To be fair to the boffins at Virginia Tech, they did do proper research - fitting video cameras into more than 100 trucks and collecting …

Mobile 28 Jul 09:32
iTablet suppliers named

Further proof of Apple's inbound 10in tablet PC?

Some of the firms tasked with supplying parts for Apple’s rumoured tablet PC have been named. Industry sources reportedly told Taiwanese website Apple Daily that Wintek Corp will supply the tablet’s touch-sensitive display, which it’s widely believed will measure 10in. The Dynapack International Technology Corp will provide …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 09:56
Satire website survives domain name challenge

Free speech protects political parody, rules WIPO

A website that parodied the site of a political lobbying organisation has survived a domain name challenge from the target of its satire because there was no commercial exploitation of the name, even though it was deliberately confusing. The Sutherland Institute in the US is a right wing think tank based in Utah that seeks to …

Law 28 Jul 10:27
NHS Direct wrongly emailed patients' data

But only to itself, so that's OK

An email sent by the NHS advice service mistakenly disclosed personal information about patients, although it did not leave the health service. The organisation's annual report for 2008-09 reveals that the information, including the names, addresses, NHS numbers, dates of birth and clinical data of about 100 patients, was …

Government 28 Jul 10:29
Fujitsu ships SuperSpeed USB

To arrive in gadgets by Christmas 2009

Fujitsu Microelectronics America (FMA) has started shipping its first USB 3.0 SATA bridge IC, which the firm said will start appearing in gadgets by the end of this year. The MB86C30A supports data-transfer rates of up to 5Gb/s - the maximum speed available over a USB 3.0 connection, FMA claimed. The SuperSpeed bridge IC …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 10:30
Fusion-io flush with flash success after demo

Only beaten by expensive, exotic and dedicated kit

A recent test has shown that decision support queries are faster and cheaper with Fusion-io and Dell, but only up to a point. The pair produced a top three database query benchmark result against the TPC-H standard. We're used to flashy and eye-catching million IOPS demos from Fusion-io and the likes of HP and IBM, to show off …

Storage 28 Jul 10:54
Facebook slaps faces on ads

Rogue ad network to blame for photo privacy violation, apparently

The appearance of Facebook users' photos in ads that crop up on their friends' pages has once again raised questions about the social networking website's privacy policies. Presenting images of a surfer's friends alongside ads makes an online pitch stand out and makes it far more likely that surfers will check out the goods on …

ID 28 Jul 10:57
Time Warner swallows Google's AOL stake

Spin off one step nearer

Time Warner has bought back the five per cent stake in AOL which Google bought for $1bn back in 2003 - only having to cough up $283m for the stake. Google wrote the investment down by $726m in February. The buyback is a necessary step in Time Warner's long-stated ambition to spin AOL off as an independent company. It hired …

Financial News 28 Jul 11:00
Nissan unveils high-tech e-car prototype

Leccy Tech Test mule for upcoming electic vehicle

Nissan has whipped the dust sheets off of a prototype electric car, which the company used as a test-bed for the creation of its upcoming leccy vehicle. Nissan's EV-11: a test car for another upcoming e-car design Based on the firm’s Tiida hatchback, the front-wheel drive EV-11 prototype was used to test the leccy running …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 11:16
Japan joins Qualcomm finger-pointers

Market-abuse accusations span the globe

The Japanese Fair Trade Commission has sent a draft order to Qualcomm accusing the chip supplier of abusing its market dominance, accusations with which the company must be getting quite familiar. Qualcomm hasn't responded in detail to the latest accusation, claiming that it's having trouble translating the draft and that the …

Mobile 28 Jul 11:21
Firefox 4.0 flashes lusty leg at Windows lovers

Hunted with only her cunning to protect her

Just a few days on from teasing us about how Firefox 3.7 might eventually look, Mozilla has spun out another set of mockups – this time capturing Firefox 4.0 in the headlights. The open source browser maker has splashed colour over 4.0's location bar. It will turn green when a user starts typing, will blend with the bar when …

Applications 28 Jul 11:34
Oz Firewall still standing after inconclusive filter trial

Government happy to fit results to policy

Inconclusive news from the internet filtering trials might turn out to be bad news for the anti-censorship lobby in Australia. The Australian Government’s refusal to explain what exactly would count as a bad result for internet filtering adds to the sense that it will be ploughing on with this regardless. First the bad news. …

Government 28 Jul 11:40
O2 data network falls over again

You just can't get the servers these days

Reports are pouring in that O2's data network is again on the fritz, with users complaining that data connectivity on the mobile network has been down for an hour. The company's website isn't any help as that's down too. The latest outage follows a failure of the data network last week, and the disconnection of roaming …

Mobile 28 Jul 11:55
P2P Judge: File sharing ain't fair use

Slams Merry Pranksters for spongy defence

In a damning indictment of the competence of Harvard Law School's Berkman Centre, a Judge has thrown out the main defence argument of P2P file sharer Joel Tenenbaum before the trial has even begun. What's noteworthy here is that Judge Nancy Gertner is an activist liberal judge and blogger who is openly hostile to record …

Music and Media 28 Jul 11:58
Gov geek publishes 5000-word Twitter guide

It only takes an hour a day to present a human face

The world was given an insight into how both Twitter and the UK's e-government work today when the national media discovered one of Whitehall's in-house self-proclaimed web geek's guide to using Twitter. Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, quietly posted his …

Government 28 Jul 12:01
Panasonic puts camera's lens on a diet

Compact features world’s first 0.3mm aspherical lens

Panasonic has launched a super-slim compact camera, which it’s claimed features the world’s thinnest aspherical lens. Panasonic's Lumix ZR1 owes its dimensions to the super-slim lens inside And because the Lumix DMC-ZR1’s lens is just 0.3mm thick, Panasonic’s been able to get the camera’s body measurements down to a “truly …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 12:19
Micron barges into PCIe SSD business

Partners up with IDT

Fusion-io is going to face competition from Micron for PCI-e-connected solid state drives. Micron makes flash devices but is a relative nobody in the supply of server and storage array flash. Storage array flash involves replacing hard drives and is dominated by STEC and Intel, with virtually 100 per cent takeup of their SSDs …

Storage 28 Jul 12:51
Aussie woman's toilet trauma prompts lav-overhaul call

67-year-old wedged in dunny for seven days

An Australian doctor has called for a fundamental redesign of the nation's lavatories after a severely dehydrated Queensland woman was freed from a seven-day imprisonment in her dunny. Doreen Noonan, 67, was trapped in her toilet for a week, with her "feet wedged on either side of the toilet and her body against the inward …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 12:59
Oracle hits Qtrax with $2m sueball

Emotions run high at P2P outfit

Database giant Oracle has filed a $2m copyright infringement and breach of contract lawsuit against P2P outfit Qtrax. The company accused Qtrax of failing to pay a hefty bill owed to Oracle. It took legal action against the P2P site in the US District Court of the Northern District of California on 21 July. Oracle claimed …

Applications 28 Jul 13:02
Dutch spam suspect fined €250K

Clogged interwebs with 21m junk mails

Dutch telecoms regulators have fined a junk email spammer €250,000. Reinier Schenkhuizen was ordered to pay €250,000 by local regulator OPTA. Of this, €150,000 was for distributing junk emails and €100,000 for failing to create a means for recipients to unsubscribe to unwanted messages, according to local reports. OPTA alleges …

Spam 28 Jul 13:03
Toshiba TG01 smartphone

Review A load of Tosh?

It seems like it's been a long time coming, but the TG01 is finally here. Toshiba's latest venture into the smart phone market is a Windows Mobile device but, in terms of size, looks unlike anything we've ever seen. Toshiba's TG01 It’s bigger, thinner and, according to Toshiba, faster any other phone out there, thanks to …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 13:10
Unions demands better conditions for temps

Whinging, workshy contractors

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling for better protection for the rights of temporary staff in the UK. The TUC got YouGov to poll 2,700 people who have worked via an agency in the last year. The unions said the survey was likely to be skewed to better paid and higher skilled workers, and that lower paid agency staff …

Small Biz 28 Jul 13:31
Big Blue blows a billion on predictive software seller

Didn't see that one coming

IBM is paying $1.2bn for SPSS, which sells business intelligence and predictive analysis software. Making better use of historical company information is nothing new, but SPSS claims to be able to use this information to create "actionable foresight". The firm started life in 1968 and currently employs 1,200 people in 60 …

Applications 28 Jul 14:06
Intel delay impacting netbook launches?

Pine Trail-M setback rumoured

Intel has decided to delay the launch of its entry-level products, it’s been reported, forcing major netbook manufacturers to push back the first shipments of their upcoming netbooks. A next-generation Atom processor for netbooks – codenamed ‘Pine Trail’ – is expected to launch during Q4 of this year – a timeframe later …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 14:36
RIM tries to grab some Nortel pie

Hunts for crumbs from Ericsson's table

RIM is in negotiations to buy up some of Nortel's patents that slipped through Ericsson's fingers, in an attempt get themselves some IP collateral in preparation for the domination of LTE. The news comes from Reuters, who quote the ubiquitous "source familiar with the situation" as saying the BlackBerry manufacturer has been …

Mobile 28 Jul 14:58
Linux Foundation urges fans to sign up to Visa credit card

Tux becomes capitalist cover star

The Linux Foundation hopes to raise cash by branding a Visa card with its cutesy Tux mascot. Executive director of the org, Jim Zemlin, said people can carry "Tux in their pocket" to show their support for Linux. The foundation has buddied up with CardPartner to offer the Platinum credit card through UMB Bank. It is only …

Operating Systems 28 Jul 15:07
Managing Desktop Software for fun and profit

Regcast Reduce complexity, save cash

Last week Egan Christensen of Dell joined Gabriel Consulting’s Dan Olds in the Reg studio, to discuss Managing Desktop Software both for fun and profit. This 30-minute audio exclusive, with accompanying slides, is now available to watch on-demand and free of charge from the Reg Archives. The Register's research has shown that …

Tech Panel 28 Jul 15:23
Greenpeace unleashes Captain Kirk on HP

PAAAAAAAACKAAAAARD!!!

Greenpeace today claimed the support of TJ Hooker himself, William Shatner, in its battle with IT giants over their use and disposal of toxic chemicals. In a guerilla action against HP's global headquarters in Palo Alto, activists daubed "HP = Hazardous Products" in paint ("non-toxic finger paint") on the roof this morning. At …

PCs & Chips 28 Jul 15:31
Sprint pays $483m for a bit of Virgin territory

End of road for pay-as-you-go MVNO

Sprint has snapped up Virgin Mobile USA, folding the brand into its own in exchange for stock that values the operation at $483m. Not that Sprint will have to raise quite that much: the operator already holds 13.1 per cent of Virgin Mobile USA, as well as being the network on which the MVNO* is hosted. Sprint also runs the …

Mobile 28 Jul 15:53
Online 'godfather games' banned in China

Country makes websites offer they can't refuse

China has taken steps to ensure that its inhabitants can’t access violent videogames online. The country’s Ministry of Culture has banned websites from “running, publishing or offering links to online games featuring mafia-like gangs”, threatening “severe punishment” against those that dare violate the ban, the country’s …

Reg Hardware 28 Jul 17:02
ARM doesn't lose self and leg

But Q2 profits slump 26%

Chip designer ARM Holdings has posted declining profits and revenues for the second quarter of 2009. But its outlook for the coming year is, yes, cautiously optimistic. The Cambridge company - whose chip blueprints are used in Apple's iPhone - saw an 18 per cent year-on-year drop in revenues and a 26 per cent profit drop. …

Financial News 28 Jul 17:36
Apple bars Google's Voice from iPhone

AT&T handiwork?

Apple has barred the official Google Voice application from the iPhone App Store while dumping two third-party apps that tap into Google's invite-only service. Yesterday, the Google Voice-enabled app GV Mobile and VoiceCentral apps disappeared from the App Store, and today, word arrives that Google's own app has been summarily …

Mobile 28 Jul 19:14
Foxconn pays suicidal iPhone engineer family for life

Increased, um, compensation

The life of the Foxconn engineer who committed suicide after misplacing an iPhone 4G prototype was apparently worth more than previously thought. On Monday, The New York times reported that the family of 25-year-old Sun Danyong, who jumped from his 12th-floor apartment window after being questioned by Foxconn security about …

Mobile 28 Jul 19:32
Microsoft emergency fix kills bugs in IE, Visual Studio

Just in time

Microsoft issued two emergency updates on Tuesday to fix critical security bugs that leave users of Internet Explorer and an untold number of third-party applications vulnerable to remote attacks that completely commandeer their computers. Most of the vulnerabilities are located in Microsoft's ATL, or Active Template Library, …

Security 28 Jul 19:42
Landlord sues tenant over moldy Tweet

20 followers. $50k suit

Pop quiz. You find a disparaging post about your company on Twitter that's written by a client who's followed by a mere 20 people. You fear the offhand remark about the poor quality of your service could harm your company's reputation. What's the absolute worst way to make it go away? Do you: A) ignore it. B) remedy the …

Odds and Sods 28 Jul 20:25
Comcast trials ~~Domain Helper service~~ DNS hijacker

Here to stay

The DNS hijacker is here to stay. When Denver-based developer Brent Gartner returned home from vacation this week, he discovered that Comcast, his home ISP, was redirecting his mistyped urls to its very own ad-laden search pages. Earlier this month, the cable giant resurrected this age-old land-grab scheme in several US …

Networks 28 Jul 20:26
ATI FirePro plays leapfrog with Nvidia

Let the driver kvetching begin

AMD has made its latest move in the game of workstation-class graphics leapfrog it's playing with competitor Nvidia. On Tuesday, the company announced its ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator, designed - as explained by AMD - for "CAD, Digital Content Creation (DCC) and oil and gas professionals." In other …

Hardware 28 Jul 21:10
IBM iron predicts the future

BAO boxes combine warehousing, analytics

Back in May, at its annual day to preach to IT and Wall Street analysts, IBM laid out is vision for providing real-time, predictive analytic systems that will allow managers to take longer lunches and take credit for ideas that are not their own. Well, something like that. IBM wants to take control over the business analytics …

Servers 28 Jul 22:01
Hackintosher aims 'blazin' guns' at Apple

Psystar calls in 'the cavalry'

Psystar, the pesky Hackintosher that has been giving Apple fits for well over a year, has switched legal representation and is preparing to go to trial with, as the company puts it, "guns blazin'". In a posting on the Florida company's newly launched Psystar Community blog entitled, "In comes the cavalry", the Hackintosher …

PCs & Chips 28 Jul 23:41
Hollywood demands shuttering of Pirate Bay

Site sails on despite conviction

Hollywood is asking a Swedish court to deliver the killing blow against the The Pirate Bay now that its four co-founders have been found guilty of facilitating copyright infringement. Although the owners of the notorious BitTorrent tracker face prison time and hefty fines, the sentence handed out in April did not include an …

Music and Media 28 Jul 23:46