4th September 2009 Archive

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Startup makes thin clients look chubby

VMworld The zero client

This week's VMworld conference in San Francisco was the coming-out party for the thinnest thin client we've ever encountered, a sub-pint-sized desktop appliance from Pano Logic of Menlo Park, California. Actually, according to the company's EVP of engineering Parmeet Chaddha, thin client - even emaciated client - isn't the …

PCs & Chips 4 Sep 03:16
Canonical rents out Ubuntu mavens

Karmic Koala Alpha 5 arrives

Canonical has announced a new type of support for enterprises running Ubuntu that need some extra hands-on help: the Premium Service Engineer (or PSE). A PSE Ubuntu expert would working as a single point of contact for Canonical's larger customers, becoming "virtual team members" with the company's IT staff. Canonical says …

Operating Systems 4 Sep 03:31
Apple security lags (again) with critical Java patches

Comment A month late, an OS short

Apple is once again playing security catch-up to the rest of the computing world, this time with an update for the Leopard version of its Mac operating system that patches critical holes in Java that were fixed on competing systems 29 days ago. The patch updates Leopard to Java versions 1.6.0_15, 1.5.0_20, and 1.4.2_22, which …

Security 4 Sep 04:04
Feds force Googlebooks privacy promise

Or at least part of it

Under pressure from the US Federal Trade Commission, Google has released a privacy policy specifically for Google Book Search, that digital library service poised on the brink of monopoly. Late Thursday afternoon, after an earlier conversion with the Mountain View web giant, the FTC posted an open letter urging Google to …

Music and Media 4 Sep 06:18
Virgin Media in 'which Whitchurch' whoopsie

Spoiler spoiled by stupidity

Map reading courses all round at the Virgin Media press office, after an attempted spoiler campaign served only to disappoint and anger the denizens of "the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire". The firm yesterday received a public dressing-down from the Whitchurch Herald, which had in good faith reported several …

Telecoms 4 Sep 07:02
IFA 2009: All the Stories

Complete Coverage Didn't get to the IFA show? Here are the key launches

All the key product introductions, all the new technologies, all the stories. HD TV, Blu-ray Disc and 3D LG promises 3D plasma telly LG parades 'first ever borderless' TV Toshiba unwraps Blu-ray player LG demos world's largest OLED TV Sharp launches ultra low power LCD TVs Philips cautious on 3D TV plans Blu-ray Disc …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 07:33
Month of Facebook flaws gets underway

Every day a different hole

A security researcher has vowed to reveal technical details of a series of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities involving Facebook applications during September. theharmonyguy plans to give developers 24 hours' advance notice about flaws involving their web applications before exposing them publicly. The project takes its cue …

Malware 4 Sep 07:39
Toshiba unwraps Blu-ray player

IFA Devil skates to work?

Toshiba has finally conceded and formally unveiled its first standalone Blu-ray Disc player. The BDX2000 delivers “high image quality and sophisticated design”, according to Toshiba, with full support for 1080p and 24fps playback. The player’s also set up to upscale DVDs to 1080p, Toshiba added. The BDX2000: Toshiba's first …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 07:51
LG parades 'first ever borderless' TV

IFA But not bezel-less...

LG has launched what it has labelled as the world’s first range of borderless LCD TVs. LG's SL9000: bezel-less? The firm unwrapped the range in Berlin yesterday, but - as journalists debated the benefits of a TV able to display images right to the very edge of the device - Register Hardware discovered that LG’s sets don't …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 08:13
Sale talks heat up at T-Mobile UK

Three way fight for UK's number four operator

Deutsche Telekom is in early talks with three companies to sell off its UK mobile business T-Mobile. The future of Britain's fourth placed mobile firm has been in doubt for some time. In the summer advisers JP Morgan were appointed to find buyers for the firm. Deutsche Telekom is talking to Vodafone, France Telecom and …

Mobile 4 Sep 08:14
Samsung intros Europe's first Nvidia Ion netbook

IFA Has an 11.6in, HD screen too

Samsung formally launched its Nvidia Ion-based netbook, the N510, at IFA this week - though the machine has been available to buy in Europe for a week or so, if you look hard enough. The N510 also sports an 11.6in, 1366 x 768 display, which will surely appeal to folk who find the netbook-standard 1024 x 600 too cramped. …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 08:37
Toshiba launches latest Satellite

IFA Flagship notebook with Blu-ray trimmings

Toshiba has announced a flagship notebook that, along with all the usual bells and whistles, also features a re-writable Blu-ray drive. Toshiba's Satellite P500 features an integrated Blu-ray drive The Satellite P500 has an 18.4in, 16:9 aspect LCD and comes equipped with either a Nvidia GeForce G210M - with 512 MB VRam - or …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 08:53
EU Oracle/Sun investigation could cause rift with US

Pernickety Europeans could delay deal until 2010

The European Commission's decision to investigate Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems under competition rules could lead to a major rift with US authorities, a competition law expert has warned. Alan Davis, a competition law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, has warned of a repeat of a clash between …

Law 4 Sep 09:01
McAfee false alert snares innocent JavaScript files

I didn't do it

Faulty virus definition updates from McAfee that flagged legitimate JavaScript files as potentially malign caused a headache for some sysadmins earlier this week. The false alarm, which meant benign content was flagged as infected by Exploit-Packed-c-gen, was corrected promptly by a set of revised definition updates from …

Malware 4 Sep 09:28
LG promises 3D plasma telly

IFA 2010 launch for 60in screen?

Three-dimensional viewing is the name of the game at IFA this year. Not to be outdone by the likes of Panasonic, LG has demoed its own 3D-capable set. And it's a plasma. LG's 3D plasma: may be out next year LG’s Plasma Display Panel (PDP) is, as is the case with Philips’ 3D Cinema telly, still just a proof of concept. …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 10:01
Swedish bloke attempts lactation

Milkman massages moobs

A Swedish dad who hopes he might in future be able to help out his missus in the breastfeeding department has embarked on a rigorous programme of moob-pumping to entice vital nourishment from his chest. Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun "stimulating his breasts with a pump" at three-hour intervals, and will continue to do so …

Bootnotes 4 Sep 10:09
MS fuels up five critical Windows fixes

Black Tuesday likely to skip relief for IIS zero-day

Microsoft plans to release five critical update bulletins next Tuesday, all critical, in the September edition of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle. As usual, not much information on the contents of the planned patches is available. All supported versions of Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008) will need …

Enterprise Security 4 Sep 10:15
iPhone rescue girl gets head stuck down bog

'Poo Girl' in music festival portaloo ordeal

An 18-year-old Sunderland lass who got her head stuck down a music festival toilet while attempting to retrieve her cash and iPhone from the malodorous pit has become a Facebook celeb, the Sun reports. Charlotte Taylor, dubbed "Poo Girl" following the "grim ordeal" at last weekend's Leeds Festival, dropped her handbag into the …

Bootnotes 4 Sep 10:22
HTC readies radical Touch HD revamp

IFA New CPU, new OS

HTC has drawn up plans for a significant upgrade to its Touch HD smartphone, Register Hardware has learned. So long Windows - the follow-up to the Touch HD (pictured) will run on Android The original Touch HD – launched late last year – runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. But the phone firm told us that the updated …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 10:32
Microsoft can still sell Word

Appeals court calls off XML reaper - for now

Microsoft has been granted a stay on a court injunction that would have stopped the software giant selling its Word application. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed Redmond the temporary reprieve yesterday, after it ruled MS had done enough to deserve a stay of the injunction. Microsoft applied for a speedy …

Applications 4 Sep 10:38
Man arrested for £1m online tax fraud

London cybercrime network under investigation

Police investigating a complex online fraud which scammed more than a million pounds from taxpayers have arrested a man in London. The 32-year-old's home in Poplar, east London was raided in the early hours of Thursday. He was taken to Bethnal Green police station on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. The arrest follows …

Crime 4 Sep 10:50
Mobile hack shows need for security upgrade

How cracked is mobile encryption?

Last week the Chaos Computer Club announced it had cracked GSM, but by Friday the GSMA was saying the attack was completely impractical - so should you be worried? The attack proposed by the CCC is based on a Rainbow table: an enormous list of known results to which an encoded message can be compared to look up the key, rather …

Mobile 4 Sep 10:51
Samsung YP-Q2 v. Sony E-series deathmatch

Head-to-head Sounding out two top 8GB media players

With the market for mid-range MP3 players never having been more competitive, seeing Sony and Samsung fight it our for advantage is like watching two wannabe WAGs scrap over a premiership footballer who is rumoured to be hung like a horse and has a Manchester City transfer cheque in his pocket. Sony's Walkman E444: the better …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 11:02
NASA orbiter snaps Apollo 12 landing site

Intrepid Descent Stage poses for the camera

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has snapped the Apollo 12 landing site where, on 14 November 1969, astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad touched down to begin their 32-hour stay on the lunar surface: The Intrepid spacecraft touched down within 200 metres of the unmanned Surveyor 3 lander - launched two years earlier …

Space 4 Sep 11:11
Samsung pledges X-series laptops 'will not explode'

IFA Batteries sport blast-proof ceramic baffles

Samsung has launched a notebook range featuring batteries that it has claimed won’t explode, ever. Samsung's X series notebook: Incidents of laptop batteries suddenlt catching fire or exploding have generated lots of negative PR for many manufacturers over the past few years, Sony especially. However, Patrick Povel, a …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 11:14
MSI brings ultra-skinny laptop to Blighty

X600 takes on Air

MSI has formally launched its MacBook Air-alike X600 skinny laptop in the UK, releasing two models: one with an optical drive and one without. Actually, neither has a built-in DVD burner, it's just that one model, the X600-055UK, comes bundled with an external unit. Priced at £799, it's £200 more than the X600-067UK. MSI's …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 11:25
Newport Networks goes titsup

Welsh tech billionaire sheds tear for failed VoIP venture

The VoIP outfit founded by Welsh tech entrepreneur Terry Matthews has gone into voluntary liquidation. Newport Networks Ltd went titsup on 17 August when Begbies Traynor was appointed, according to Companies House documents. The company moved into voluntary liquidation following a meeting with its creditors and directors …

Channel Register 4 Sep 11:52
German boffins invent steel Velcro

Good for sticking on building facades, apparently

German boffins have developed a new version of Velcro, made of steel for improved strength. They say that their "Metaklett" metallic hook-&-loop material could be used to hold together buildings, or to tape car parts to one another. When it absolutely mustn't come undone. “The unbeatable advantage of a hook and loop …

Physics 4 Sep 11:54
YouTube Lad from Lagos gets a bite

NSFW Prince Obi prepares to reel in video respondee

We're delighted to report that our fave YouTube Lad from Lagos, Prince Obi, has got a positive response to his orginal appeal for assistance: James Alexander Smith, come on down: His Highness Prince Obi is, of course, delighted: However, enter stage left Bouncy Helen, who's got a couple of (NSFW) words of warning …

Bootnotes 4 Sep 11:58
Could Micron buy Numonyx?

Intel's flash children could be reunited

NAND flash chip manufacturer and Intel partner Micron could be looking to buy Intel offspring and NOR flash manufacturer Numonyx, according to an EE Times report. This would enable Intel to get out of Numonyx, Micron to get into the NOR flash business, and get its hands on Numonyx's phase-change memory technology. Numonyx is …

Storage 4 Sep 12:02
Conficker borks London council

Updated Dirty USB shuts systems for days

An Ealing council employee infected the UK local authority's IT systems with the Conficker-D worm after he plugged an infected USB into a work computer, causing tens of thousands of pounds in damages in the process. The May incident took several days to clean-up and landed the west London council with a bill of £500,000 in …

Enterprise Security 4 Sep 12:23
Man remanded for extreme porn offences

Time to dust off those disk scrubbers?

An arrest – and remand time – for being suspected of possessing extreme porn may act as wake-up call for those who thought that the new law on extreme porn would just quietly fade away. Nathan Porter, of Jones Street, Pendleton, has been charged with seven counts of possession of extreme pornographic images and appeared for a …

Law 4 Sep 12:28
Microsoft adds Ping to Bing, leaves Windows Live in dark

What a bing-a-ling-a-ding-dong

Microsoft is adding a Web 2.0-stylie sharing feature to its Bing search engine. Bing & Ping will allow web surfers to share some of their Bing searches with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However, Microsoft isn't making the service available to its own piddly Web 2.0 effort - Windows Live - at least not …

Applications 4 Sep 13:31
Touchscreen Vaios delayed

IFA Launch put back to 'early 2010'

Further details about Sony’s plans for Windows 7-based touchscreen Vaio PCs have emerged. And it seems the Japanese electronics giant has suffered a set-back. Sony's VGC-LV Vaio's will be the first blessed with touch, come 2010 Mike Abary, Senior VP of Sony’s information technology products division, said back in July that …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 13:56
Samsung 'submarine' speaker system surfaces

IFA Kelp helps make better sound. Apparently

We’re all for eco-friendly products here at Register Hardware, but hope Samsung isn’t taking the proverbial with its latest speaker system, which, the company claims, uses materials sourced from the sea. Samsung's eco-friendly speaker - with Bio Kelp diaphragm Each speaker features a new diaphragm material called “Bio Kelp …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 13:59
Comes With Music aims for Spotify

Why pay?

Nokia is expanding Comes With Music, and seemed to welcome the comparison with the tenner-a-month Spotify option this week. CWM is a fascinating experiment that bundles a year's unlimited downloads in the price of the handset. Get another Nokia handset, and you can keep using the service. For a number of obvious reasons - it's …

Music and Media 4 Sep 14:11
Ofcom fails to sweep away power-line networking

Radio Society notices bump in carpet

Ofcom's latest update on power-line networking is "dismissive", "inaccurate" and "fails to respond to complaints" according to the Radio Society, who just won't let the matter lie. Ofcom recently updated its position on power-line networking, an update that focuses on how much the regulator is doing to address a tiny problem …

Data Networking 4 Sep 14:15
US jobless rate climbs again in August

IT job stats lost in the murk

The unemployment rate continues to edge up in the United States, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that over 14.9 million people who want to work can't find it. The unemployment rate is now at 9.7 per cent as of the end of August, the highest since 1983, and it is very likely that the number of unemployed will …

Financial News 4 Sep 14:28
Gear4 launches first CD-capable kit

IFA LP-compatible docking stations on the horizon?

Gear4 has gone back to audio basics, launching its first ever products incorporating CD players. The HP-400 is one of four CD Micro systems launched by Gear4 Until now, the company has only offered audio extras designed for Apple’s iPods. Until today, none could play the good old compact disc. Gear4 has launched four CD …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 14:29
Police drop case against admin over animal rights comments

Probe of judge's exposure on Indymedia UK continues

Police have dropped their controversial six-month investigation of a Sheffield IT worker who had a minor role administering the activist website Indymedia UK. The man was arrested at his home in February as part of an probe by Kent Police's domestic extremism unit. Officers were seeking the identity of an Indymedia UK user …

Policing 4 Sep 14:32
Amazon red cards 'offensive' Man Utd chant CD

Gunners cry foul over Wenger jibe

Offensive chants on a Manchester United CD aimed at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger have prompted online e-tailer Amazon.co.uk to withdraw it from sale. The London club complained that the lyrics of a song on the Manchester United Chants CD were defamatory, prompting Amazon.co.uk to pull its sale, the BBC reports. The Beeb omits to …

Music and Media 4 Sep 14:44
Axeman cometh: Microsoft lays off 27 staff

Washed up in Washington

Microsoft plans to axe 27 jobs at its Redmond and Bellevue sites. The latest cull in Microsoft’s Washington offices is expected to hit workers on 1 November, according to the Seattle Times. The software giant had notified the Washington State Employment Security Department about the job cuts. "I can confirm that part of our …

Financial News 4 Sep 14:46
Coming soon - LSI: Filer

A case of ONStor integration

LSI's customers will soon be able to buy a filer from the company as a result of its ONStor acquisition. According to LSI's product marketing director Steve Gardner, the integration of ONStor into LSI is going well. Fifty ONStor staff out of the overall headcount of around eighty have joined LSI: "We got 100 per cent of who we …

Storage 4 Sep 14:52
'Exomoonologist': NASA can detect forest moon of Endor

Possible multi-civilisation star systems too

One of Blighty's top exomoonologists has said that NASA's new "Kepler" space telescope - in addition to its hotly-anticipated ability to discover habitable planets orbiting other stars - will also be able to detect habitable moons orbiting the gas giants of far-flung solar systems. David Kipping, an astronomer at University …

Space 4 Sep 15:29
Nokia: Castration as Motivation

And other surgical specialities

Here's a roundup of odds and ends I found at Nokia World Stuttgart this week. Starting with a very odd one... Ball breaker The first speaker on the morning after the Nokia Party, addressing 2,000 very hungover attendees, was an aggressive motivational speaker called Chris Moon. He's an ex-Army guy who was a Khmer Rouge …

Bootnotes 4 Sep 15:45
Mercedes moves e-car concept closer to the forecourt

Leccy Tech BlueZero E-Cell Plus design tweaked

Like BMW, Mercedes-Benz just couldn't wait until the opening of the Frankfurt Motors Show to reveal its latest thinking on the leccy car front. The E-Cell Plus is a range-extended plug-in hybrid cobbled together from the current Mercedes-Benz A and B Series parts bin, and the Smart. Mercedes' E-Cell Plus: A Class meets B …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 16:02
Amazon offers restitution for Orwellian Kindle moment

Ministry of Truth in $30 apology

Kindle customers who saw George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four disappear from their screens have received an apology from Amazon's CEO, along with a copy of the book or $30 of restitution. Amazon sent out the apology, signed by CEO Jeff Bezos, saying the way they handled the situation was "stupid, thoughtless and painfully out …

Music and Media 4 Sep 16:20
Faux Facebook 'friend' takes US woman for $4,000

Crooks impersonate UK Immigration

A US woman has been stung for $4,000 via a fraudulent Facebook "friend in peril" scam. Jayne Scherrman, a paediatric dentist from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, wired the money via Western Union to her friend Grace Parry in response to requests for help via Facebook. The messages claimed that Grace and her husband had lost …

Crime 4 Sep 16:23
New IIS attacks (greatly) expand number of vulnerable servers

Microsoft's webserver even easier to exploit

Attackers have begun actively targeting an unpatched hole in Microsoft's Internet Information Services webserver using new exploit code that greatly expands the number of systems that are vulnerable to the bug. In an updated advisory published Friday, Microsoft researchers said they are seeing "limited attacks" exploiting the …

Security 4 Sep 17:49
Windows Mobile 7 feature details mined

iPhone beating beta now?

Microsoft's answer to the touchy-feely iPhone will hit handsets next month. But it's only a partial answer. Windows Mobile 6.5 will see limited touch-based input and motion controls, meaning its Windows Mobile 7.0 that Microsoft is really banking on against Apple's phone. Microsoft's refused to discuss details of Windows …

Mobile 4 Sep 19:04
Net watchdog inserts self in Googlebooks pact

What good is a privacy policy?

Warning that Google's $125m digital library settlement with American authors and publishers provides exactly zero privacy protection for the world's readers, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the hotly-debated Google Book Search case. In October, Google settled …

Music and Media 4 Sep 19:08
iPhones get sun, leg power

When batteries aren't enough

Two new alternative power sources for digital gadgets such as the iPhone and iPod touch have just surfaced - one powered by the sun and one powered by you (and your bicycle). Novothink of Oakland, Califoria has announced its new Solar Surge line of cases, one for the iPhone 3G and 3GS and one for the iPod touch. The company …

Mobile 4 Sep 19:45
'Special' Red Hat project joins search for The Meta Cloud

You call it 'special.' I call it 'not that interesting'

Following in the slipstream of the open-source lidcloud project, Red Hat has unveiled its own effort to create a single programming interface for a wide range of so-called infrastructure clouds, including Amazon's EC2 and the Rackspace Cloud. Yesterday, the commercial Linux outfit unveiled a new open-source project dubbed …

Servers 4 Sep 21:24
Firefox to warn users of insecure Adobe Flash

By popular demand

Upcoming versions of Mozilla's Firefox browser will automatically warn users running versions of Adobe's Flash Media Player that contain known security bugs, according to a published report. The check will be invoked each time the popular open-source browser is updated, according to the report which was published Thursday by …

Security 4 Sep 21:37
Music industry cooks UK government's piracy stats

'7 million' Brit pirates? Who says?

The government's dizzying statistic that over seven million Brits are involved in online piracy comes from dubious research commissioned by the music industry itself. When the UK government advisory body, the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property, released an 85-page report in May pronouncing billions of pounds …

Music and Media 4 Sep 21:52
Oracle should relax Sun's Java Community control grip

'No-brainer' open-source vote winner

If Oracle ends up owning Sun Microsystems, it's got a one-off opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past when it comes to working with open source on Java. The database giant should relax Sun's tight control over the Java Community Process (JCP), the body responsible for stewarding Java. And as part of this, Oracle should …

Developer 4 Sep 22:10
Microsoft pimps bogus Windows 7 'launch parties'

Free napkins and balloons!

Microsoft is offering to bribe you into throwing a launch party for Windows 7. Just as Redmond regains credibility after the debacle that was Windows Vista by garnering positive reviews for its upcoming Windows 7, its marketing geniuses have decided to embarrass the company by promoting bogus bashes in honor of that operating …

Odds and Sods 4 Sep 22:14
EchoStar ordered to pay TiVo (another) $200m

Five years, $400m in fines. And counting

Dish Network and its sister company EchoStar must cough up an extra $200 million to TiVo for continuing to offer DVR functionality in their set-top boxes after being slapped with a court injunction. The award comes after TiVo successfully argued to a Texas judge in June that EchoStar was in contempt of an order to disable its …

Music and Media 4 Sep 22:29