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3rd September 2009 Archive

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  • Xbox 360 'least reliable' console

    Failure rate at 23.7 per cent

    Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the "least reliable" game console on the market, according to electronics warranty firm SquareTrade. In the first two years of ownership, 23.7 per cent of Xbox 360 owners covered by a SquareTrade warranty have reported a fatal system error. By comparison, 10 per cent of Playstation 3 consoles broke down …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 00:23

  • Amazon files Googlebooks pact with the monopolies

    'Cartel' cross-reference

    Amazon has filed an official objection to Google's $125m book scanning settlement with US authors and publishers, saying the deal is anti-competitive and in violation of anti-trust laws. In October, Google settled a longstanding lawsuit from the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over its Google Book …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 00:33

  • VMware lures SMBs with free treats

    VMworld The fastest growing virt market

    Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are aflocking to virtualization in droves, according to Joe Andrews, VMware's group manager of product marketing for, yes, SMBs. Acording to Andrews, who sat down with The Reg on Wednesday at the VMworld conference in San Francisco, VMware defines SMBs in the Americas and Europe as having 1, …

    Virtualization 3 Sep 2009, 04:25

  • OnLive game beta enters public stream

    Is your rig good enough? Is OnLive's?

    OnLive, the streaming game service that seeks to answer if the all-powerful cloud can run Crysis, is letting PC and Mac users test the system for themselves. The company has opened a public beta for the service today, seeking a wide range hardware configurations and broadband situations to apply. Those signing up are prompted …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 04:26

  • Nokia's £500 netbook: What were they thinking?

    Booklet™ comes at a Pricelet™

    Nokia's netbook is beautifully designed and beautifully finished, and the battery lasts all day. It's "more aspirational*, more thin, and more stylish" than the average netbook, according to its European marketing manager. But at £500 it's also twice as expensive as many other netbooks - and heavier. What were they thinking? …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 09:02

  • Yorkshire start-up aims to shake up telecoms security

    Syphan leaps funding gap for Silicon Dale

    UK-based security appliance firm Syphan aims to shake up telecoms security from an unlikely base in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Syphan is developing a range of 10G (Gigabit) deep packet inspection security appliances, capable of allowing telecoms firms and managed security providers to offer functions such as intrusion …

    Enterprise Security 3 Sep 2009, 09:32

  • Sony shows off triple-tuner HD TV

    IFA First Freesat-friendly telly too

    Sony has introduced a stack of Bravia HD TVs - including its first telly with a built-in Freesat tuner and another that can handle feeds from satellite, terrestrial and cable sources. Sony's Bravia W5810: Freesat tuner built-in The Bravia W5810 is the Freesat-specific models, packing a DVB-S2 tuner and Full HD resolution …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 09:41

  • Mountain speculation on EMC/Cisco joint venture

    Taking a peak at Alpine plans

    EMC and Cisco are discussing a joint venture centred on Alpine, a one stop enterprise VAR shop focussed on selling and installing integrated Cisco servers and networking, with EMC storage. These details come from a Wall Street Journal report and help confirm an earlier tip. Cisco needs a new outlet for its UCS servers, as …

    Channel Register 3 Sep 2009, 09:48

  • Database billionaire trampled by elephant

    Serious injuries for Siebel

    Tom Siebel has been seriously injured after being trampled by an elephant. Siebel was on a photo safari in Tanzania with a guide watching a group of elephants when one animal charged. The guide fired at the elephant but missed. The animal attacked the guide before going for Siebel, breaking his ribs, trampling one leg and …

    Biology 3 Sep 2009, 09:48

  • LG, Sony Ericsson Windows Mobile 6.5 phones outed

    IFA New handsets break cover

    LG and Sony Ericsson have joined the Windows Mobile 6.5 bandwagon, both launching 3G-capable handsets based on Microsoft’s latest phone OS. SE has formally unveiled its latest update to the Xperia smartphone range, the X2, while LG has taken the wraps off a “next generation smartphone” called the GM750. LG's GM750: WinMob UI …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 09:58

  • YouTube UK welcomes back the music

    While Google says I love you, if you pay my rent

    YouTube has signed an agreement with the PRS to bring back music videos to UK users, while the US arm is busy talking to movie companies about setting up a movie rental business. UK users of YouTube will get the music back in their lives over the next month or two as tens of thousands of videos are brought back onto the site. …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 10:04

  • NASA works on robo-podcab scheme

    Robosaurus inventor gets backing for Mag-lev personal transporter

    NASA software boffins have partnered with a Californian firm to work on a "personal rapid transit" system which would operate using a system of automated two- or three-person taxi-style "pods" travelling on overhead magnetic rail networks. Someone's had a little accident in this pod, I'm getting in the next one The so- …

    Physics 3 Sep 2009, 10:19

  • HMV buys half of music download startup

    7Digital for £7.7m

    HMV has bought half the equity in the music download firm 7Digital to boost its attempts to flog entertainment online. The high street stalwart paid £7.7m to 7Digital's venture capital backers, Balderton Capital and Sutton Place Managers, and to company bosses. Despite pioneering legal DRM-free digital music and partnership …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 10:21

  • Musical chairs at ST Ericsson

    Chief exec moves after seven months

    Alain Dugheil, who's been running ST-Ericsson since its creation in February, has been shuffled back into his COO role to make space for ex-TI-VP Gilles Delfassy. Gilles Delfassy retired from Texas Instruments in 2007, having attained the position of Senior Vice President, but come November he'll be back behind a desk running …

    PCs & Chips 3 Sep 2009, 10:26

  • Linutop upgrades Linux micro-PC line

    Beefier CPU for version 3

    French Linux hardware specialist Linutop has added a new member to its family of wee desktop computers based on the open source operating system. Simply dubbed the Linutop 3, the new machine incorporates a VIA C7 processor running at 1GHz. It has 1GB of DDR 2 memory, expandable to 2GB, and 2GB of solid-state storage. Not …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 10:30

  • Panasonic reveals 3D Blu-ray player plan

    IFA A 3D TV's perfect pal?

    Panasonic today announced plans to launch a 3D-capable Blu-ray Disc player. Panasonic will launch 3D-capable TVs and Blu-ray players in 2010 The firm has already stated its intention to launch a range of 3D-capable TVs, but added that 3D Blu-ray players will “perfectly complement” its upcoming three-dimensional sets – of …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 10:40

  • Texan confronts the legendary chupacabras

    Sinister goat sucker or mangy coyote?

    A Texan taxidermist has earned himself some nice publicity for parading what he claims may be a chupacabras - the legendary goat-sucking hell beast first spotted in Puerto Rico in 1995 and which has since spooked fearful citizens across Central America: Well, it didn't take sceptics long to point out the similarity between …

    Biology 3 Sep 2009, 10:42

  • Samsung readies 'space saving' 2TB external HDD

    IFA Capacity boost

    Samsung is to ramp its Story Station external hard drive to 2TB early next year, part of the South Korean giant's plan to become a major name in the storage biz. Revealing its plan at the IFA show in Berlin today, Samsung said it will first up the capacity of its stylish S2 2.5in external hard drive to 640GB later this month …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 11:01

  • Beware evangelists

    Understanding the nature of the beast

    Evangelists. Plenty of them hang out in the sustainability and collaboration fields where I work. Some irritate while others are acceptable. And this isn't because they necessarily reflect my views. (In case you were wondering.) The trick is to spot, early on, which variety you're faced with and make your excuses and leave if …

    CIO 3 Sep 2009, 11:11

  • Home Office foot-dragging exposes ACPO to criticism

    But talk of a rift is premature

    Relations between the Home Office and one of their favourite police organisations, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) may not be quite as tickety-boo as they should be. Both sides strenuously deny any rift: but as senior politicians raise questions about the role of ACPO in setting public policy, any suggestion …

    Policing 3 Sep 2009, 11:14

  • Snow Leopard forces silent Flash downgrade

    Bundled insecurity bungle

    Apple has bundled a vulnerable version of Flash with Snow Leopard. As a result, Mac users who upgrade their operating system will be left exposed to Adobe Flash-based attacks - even if they had previously kept up to date with patches. The latest version of Flash Player for Mac is version 10.0.32.18. Applying Snow Leopard loads …

    Malware 3 Sep 2009, 11:17

  • Aussie firewall nears death

    What's that Skippy? It smells funny?

    The Australian Senate Opposition leader Nick Minchin has joined the growing chorus of voices against Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's plans for mandatory ISP-level filtering. The project may not yet be deceased, but it is without doubt on the critical list. Senator Minchin said the government had not only failed to …

    Government 3 Sep 2009, 11:37

  • Blu-ray Disc players: Sony adds Wi-Fi...

    IFA ...while Samsung throws in YouTube and MKV support

    Samsung is to add YouTube video viewing to its Blu-ray Disc player line. Sony, on the other hand, is adding Wi-Fi to its new players. At the IFA show in Berlin today, Samsung showed off players running the new service, which goes live today and is accessible from Samsung players connected to the internet. Samsung said "all …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 11:39

  • Samsung lasers to print out web pages

    IFA Range gains 'Print website' feature

    Web pages are one of the most frequently printed documents, at least according to Samsung. So the firm’s launched printer range that's specifically intended to be web friendly. The seven monochrome laser printers were designed to make printing web pages extremely easy, mainly by incorporating a “unique” one-touch ‘Print Screen …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 11:39

  • Bletchley Park to restore 112-byte* '50s Brit nuke computer

    'Computing equivalent of raising the Mary Rose'

    In a project described as "the computing equivalent of the raising of the Mary Rose", engineers at Bletchley Park intend to restore a 1950s-era computer - featuring a magnificent 112.5 bytes of memory* - to working order. The machine in question was built at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in Oxfordshire. …

    Servers 3 Sep 2009, 11:45

  • Street View applies extra blur to Swiss

    Complaints force Mountain View to revisit mountain views

    Google has agreed to apply extra blurring to faces and number plates on Street View in Switzerland, following some privacy sabre-rattling from the country's head of federal data protection. Soon after the service went live in Switzerland earlier this month, Hans-Peter Thür ordered it to be shut down on the grounds that "many …

    Government 3 Sep 2009, 11:50

  • Japan's first lady visits Venus

    Green planet 'a very beautiful place' says PM's extraterrestrial missus

    The wife of Japan's next prime minister claims to have clocked up a diplomatic first by visiting Venus, Reuters reports. Miyuki Hatoyama, who's hitched to soon-to-be PM Yukio Hatoyama, wrote last year in a book not unreasonably entitled Very Strange Things I've Encountered: "While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a …

    Bootnotes 3 Sep 2009, 11:52

  • Viewsonic launches slimline netbook

    IFA And a slightly cheaper, chunkier one too

    Viewsonic, best known for its monitors, has formally announced its entry into the netbook arena. It will offer two models: the skinny VNB101 and the more basic VNB100. Viewsonic's VNB100: cheaper but chunkier than... The latter delivers a stock netbook spec - 10in, 1024 x 600 display, 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB Ram, …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 12:08

  • Gov wants £120k web monkey, not junior Twittercrat

    Tweets an own-goal

    Touchy Cabinet Office spin doctors are upset about reports of a Deputy Twittercrat this week. They're so upset, they've tweeted about it. Unfortunately, in putting out a rather peevish and petty press release, they've merely reminded everyone of the high public sector salaries and self-importance of new media people. It's worth …

    Government 3 Sep 2009, 12:31

  • Nokia intros X series

    New name, look for XpressMusic line

    Nokia didn't just unveil the N97 Mini this week, it also introduced its first X-series phones, the successors to its XpressMusic line. Nokia's X6: a new look for Comes With Music phones The top-of-line model is the X6 and sports a 3.2in, 16:9 touchscreen and 32GB of storage capacity - there's no memory card slot - all in a …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 12:40

  • BMW offers e-Mini tryouts to UK drivers

    Leccy Tech No such thing as a free lunch

    Fancy an electric Mini for six months? Well, now's your chance because BMW is taking applications to be one of the 20 lucky folk who will make up Round One of its UK leccy Mini field trials. Applicants must reside within the rough triangle formed by Andover, Oxford and West London and must have a private garage, car port or …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 12:51

  • Anti-spam smackdown finds best junk filter

    McAfee spanks all comers in early tests

    McAfee has claimed the crown in a run-off of anti-spam products organised by Virus Bulletin, the independent security certification body. A total of 12 products took part in the anti-spam comparative review, which rated the effectiveness of the products against each other rather than against a fixed standard. The latest …

    Spam 3 Sep 2009, 13:02

  • Philips cautious on 3D TV plans

    IFA Prototype on show, but undecided on 3D system

    That stalwart of the screenplay, William Goldman, summarises Hollywood in one brief statement: “Nobody knows anything.” This appears to be apt to describe the state of 3D TV at present, if Philips’ stance is anything to go by. Philips keeps its options open: this 3D prototype relies on a polarising system and glasses While …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 13:12

  • Your analyst guide to The Register Agile Data Center Summit

    Collins' theory of evolution

    El Reg has bagged European Analyst of the Year, Freeform Dynamics' Jon Collins, to drive the keynote presentation for The Register’s Agile Data Center Summit on Tuesday, 15 September at 9.30am PST, 12.30pm EST, 5.30pm BST. The line-up also includes speakers from Dell, Intel and VMware. You can get more info an register for …

    Servers 3 Sep 2009, 13:17

  • Oracle-Sun merger faces full monopoly probe

    Updated Open-source concern, lawyer embarrassed

    The proposed $7.4bn dollar merger takeover of Sun by Oracle is facing a full competition investigation by the European Commission. Competition Commissioner 'Steelie' Neelie Kroes said: The Commission has to examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world's leading proprietary database company …

    Systems 3 Sep 2009, 13:32

  • Hitachi Data Systems reselling InMage recovery software

    After Scout-ing around for best partner

    Hitachi Data Systems is co-branding and reselling InMage Scout software, used for application replication and recovery across wide area networks. InMage Scout is a continuous data protection, replication and application failover product. All disk writes in protected servers are captured by agent software, called a data tap, …

    Storage 3 Sep 2009, 13:47

  • FCC calls for more frequencies

    Electromagnetic spectrum just not wide enough

    The FCC has noticed there just aren't enough radio frequencies, and if the USA wants national broadband it's going to have to find more space in which to put it. If the USA is going to have a National Broadband plan, then it's going to have to speed up the audit of radio spectrum usage, in the hope of discovering large swathes …

    Wireless 3 Sep 2009, 14:00

  • Shuttle offers Linux-loaded all-in-one Atom desktop

    IFA Dual-core touchscreen machine

    Shuttle has introduced a version of its X500 "ultra-thin" all-in-one desktop PC that now comes pre-loaded with Linux - openSUSE 11.1, to be precise. The X500V is based on a dual-core Atom 330 processor running at 1.6GHz. The base spec includes 1GB of DDR 2 memory - a second Dimm slot lets you up that to 2GB - and a 160GB hard …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 14:19

  • Logitech updates network music player with touchscreen

    IFA Squeezebox 3 reborn as Touch

    The old - and much loved - Squeezebox 3 - has been revamped by new (ish) owner Logitech. Now called the Squeezebox Touch, it sports a touchscreen. Logitech's Squeezebox Touch: press to play The network music player now gets a USB port and an SDHC card slot allowing you to enjoy content that's not on the network. Presumably …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 14:49

  • German inventor gushes over portable women's weebag

    Guaranteed to discreetly take the piss

    A German firm hitherto dedicated to taking the piss out of men has now turned its attention to women, with the urine-sucking Ladybag. Yup, what we have here is allegedly the "world's first pocket urinal for women", which will put an end to cross-legged queuing up at lavatories, "squirming on disgusting toilets" or indeed " …

    Bootnotes 3 Sep 2009, 14:52

  • Sharp launches ultra low power LCD TVs

    IFA Less than 89 Watts

    Sharp has launched what it has claimed are the world’s least power-hungry LCD TVs. Sharp's 46in Aquos is a low power user, apparently Many telly manufacturers, such as Samsung, are currently switching their focus to LED backlighting technology, and Sharp is no exception. The firm’s LE700E and LE600E Aquos TVs feature “ …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 14:55

  • Sun squirrels away flash drive array

    Not opening the overcoat just yet

    A service manual (pdf) for a F5100 Flash Array can be found through Sun's website - it's a product which doesn't appear on the site's product pages and hasn't been announced yet. The squirrelling-away is probably due to pre-Oracle purchase disruption. According to the manual the array, pictured below, is a rack shelf unit …

    Storage 3 Sep 2009, 14:59

  • Israelis offer unmanned robo smart-missile 8-pack

    Tanks? Artillery? Airstrikes? So 20th century

    Israel appears to have stolen a march on America in the matter of multipack unmanned cruise missile-in-a-box packages. An Israeli maker is exhibiting its "Jumper" robo missile pack as ready for sale, while the rival US "Netfires" system is still in development. Gunners? Mortars? Close Air? How quaint The idea of such …

    Physics 3 Sep 2009, 15:11

  • Toshiba: Window Mobile 6.5 will make TG01 a 'new' phone

    IFA Existing owners to get free ugrade

    Toshiba is revamping its TG01 Windows Mobile smartphone. Well, sort of. The hardware's staying the same so far as we can judge - it's just getting a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade. Still, that's enough for Toshiba to claim the update as a "new" model: the TG01 Windows Phone. Toshiba's TG01: will get Windows Mobile 6.5 …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 15:11

  • Gartner confirms crap Q2 server sales

    Big boxes, EMEA hit hard

    Everyone expected the server market to collapse in the second quarter, but the decline is a little worse than anticipated - at least in some segments and geographies. According to the latest figures coming out of Gartner, global server revenues fell 29.4 per cent to $9.69bn and shipments fell by an equally bad 28 per cent to 1 …

    Servers 3 Sep 2009, 16:19

  • LG demos world's largest OLED TV

    IFA Don't throw out your 32in LCD just yet

    LG has, as promised, demoed the world’s largest OLED TV at this year’s ongoing IFA event in Berlin. LG's 15in OLED is the world's largest, for now Despite only measuring 15in, the screen jumps on the super-thin screen bandwagon kicked off by Sony last year when it launched the 11in XEL-1. Sony’s OLED display is just 3mm …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 16:33

  • Toshiba multimedia touchscreen tablet out by Christmas

    IFA Only if you can swallow Windows CE

    While world + dog holds its breath for Apple to pop out the tablets, Toshiba has let out a gasp with its announcement of the JournE touch. This 7in, 16:9 aspect, LED touchscreen, wireless multimedia tablet features an ARM-based processor and runs Windows CE 6.0 Pro. Toshiba’s JournE touchscreen tablet is based on an ARM …

    reghardware 3 Sep 2009, 17:23

  • Apple Store pillaged in 31 seconds

    Five fanboi filchfest

    On Tuesday, around 2 o'clock in the morning, a team of well-choreographed gadget-rustlers needed no more than 31 seconds to clear out an Apple Store in Marlton, New Jersey. Taking only one second longer than it does for Justin Long to humiliate John Hodgman in a "Get a Mac" ad, five masked miscreants tossed a brick through the …

    Odds and Sods 3 Sep 2009, 18:10

  • Breaching Fort Apache.org - What went wrong?

    Open-sourcers put locks on keys

    Administrators at the Apache Software Foundation have pledged to restrict the use of Secure Shell keys for accessing servers over their network following a security breach on Monday that briefly forced the closure the popular open-source website. In an detailed postmortem describing how hackers penetrated several heavily …

    Security 3 Sep 2009, 18:23

  • Hackers strike OneWebDay idealists

    Celebrating the web

    A campaign to celebrate and defend the web has fallen victim to one of the internet's inherent sub cultures - hackers. The OneWebDay web site was this week hacked, defaced, and temporarily taken off-line as part of a global assault on servers. The hackers succeeded in breaking the site by exploiting a known vulnerability in …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 18:42

  • iPhone taught to edit Office 2007 docs, sheets

    Quickoffice welcomes Xs

    You can now edit Office 2007 docs and spreadsheets on your iPhone. Today, Quickoffice rolled out a new version of its iPhone office app suite that handles .docx and .xlsx files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac. "We said it was coming, and now it's here," Gregg Fiddes, the company's vp of …

    Mobile 3 Sep 2009, 19:57

  • Googlephone set for second US carrier

    Android trains for October Sprint

    Sprint will be the second US mobile carrier to dream of electric sheep this October when it begins selling the HTC Hero running Google's Android operating system. While most wireless carriers have pledged support for the Android camp, T-Mobile's G1 and myTouch 3G (also manufactured by HTC) are the only phones currently …

    Mobile 3 Sep 2009, 20:29

  • iPhone MMS hits US on September 25

    AT&T re-clogs arteries

    AT&T has announced that on September 25th it will begin offering MMS service to its iPhone customers, solving one image problem and exacerbating another. In a brief announcement about the MMS debut, Big Phone says that it's "working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to …

    Mobile 3 Sep 2009, 21:13

  • Umpteen tools to fight VM sprawl

    VMworld There's a virtual machine born every minute

    There were 12,500 attendees at the VMworld virtualization fest in San Francisco this week, and apparently half of them were peddling software to help companies cope with virtual machine sprawl or otherwise manage virtualization in the data center or on the desktops. The other half were presumably being sold these tools. No …

    Servers 3 Sep 2009, 21:57

  • Google patents (2004) home page

    We own practically nothing

    Google has patented its home page, a digital rectangle famous for including almost nothing. On Tuesday, the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded Mountain View a patent for "the ornamental design for a graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal." That graphical user interface is, yes, the …

    Music and Media 3 Sep 2009, 23:00

  • IBM puts virtual desktops in the sky

    Solitaire served from far, far away

    IBM's web services cloud is rolling into the virtual desktop biz this October. The company unfurled plans this week for its IBM Smart Business Desktop, a new subscription service aimed at large and mid-sized companies that hosts employee desktops from an IBM data center in either North Carolina or Germany. IBM's idea behind …

    Servers 3 Sep 2009, 23:03