1st October 2009 Archive

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Red Bull to become mobile virtual network operator?

Energy drink gives you ~~wings~~ coverage

Red Bull, as everyone knows, gives you wings. But the energy drink could soon give you minutes and network coverage too, because the company has launched a mobile phone network. Details are still sketchy at this stage, but a website, Red Bull Mobile, has cropped up online. It promises “the latest handsets, competitive tariffs …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 00:02
RIM syncs Macs with BlackBerries

Dear Palm: that includes iTunes

Beginning this Friday, BlackBerry-using Mac owners will be able to sync their contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes - plus iTunes music - to their Research In Motion smartphones. RIM's announcement notes that the Mac-specific BlackBerry Desktop Manager software will sync with Apple iCal and Address Book, Microsoft Entourage, …

Mobile 1 Oct 00:07
SSL spoof bug still haunts IE, Safari, Chrome

Thanks to Microsoft

Nine weeks after a hacker demonstrated how to spoof authentication certificates for virtually any website on the internet, users of Internet Explorer and many other applications remain susceptible because Microsoft hasn't patched the underlying vulnerability. The bug, which resides in an application programming interface known …

Security 1 Oct 02:19
Study: US web users reject behavioural advertising

Citizens unexpectedly renounce spying and subterfuge

Americans do not want to be given tailored advertising based on monitoring of their online behaviour, according to what its authors call the first independent, academically rigorous survey of consumers' views. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and the Berkeley Centre for Law and Technology has found that 66 …

Music and Media 1 Oct 05:02
iPod nano busted for upskirting

One perv's furtive footwork

The new camera-equipped iPod nano has opened up an entirely new target market for Apple: music-loving degenerates. Word comes from the gracefully named fuckedgaijin.com of the arrest of a man in Kobe, Japan, who used the mini media player to surreptitiously video an 18-year-old schoolgirl in a bookstore. And, no, he didn't …

Odds and Sods 1 Oct 06:02
O2 Showdown hands out gongs

Nifty innovations. No but really

O2's prize for the most innovative application has been awarded to a book about the iPhone, with a calendar and a voting application taking second and third place respectively. The O2 Showdown was organised by O2's development effort Litmus, and was judged by O2 customers who volunteered to review shortlisted apps and vote for …

Mobile 1 Oct 07:02
Palestine mobile operator struggles for room to breathe

Israel inexplicably hanging on to 1MHz of spectrum

Palestinians signing up to their new network, Wataniya, will be disappointed come the October 15 launch date, as there won't be a network unless Israel hands over another 1MHz of spectrum. The frequency deal was brokered by our own Tony Blair, in his role as envoy to the Middle East, and was supposed to see Wataniya holding at …

Mobile 1 Oct 07:02
OMG US states to ban txting + driving

'Distracted Driving Summit'

The US government wants to crack down on teens texting their BFF Jill from behind the wheel through federal action and public education. The Department of Transportation today convened a two-day "Distracted Driving Summit," gathering lawmakers, experts, advocates, and automakers to mull plans and recommendations on the dangers …

Government 1 Oct 07:02
Sagem DSI86HD

Review Freesat HD for the casual observer

“Just because you have an HD Ready TV, it does not mean you are watching HD TV.” Well whaddya know? Still, that’s the advice that Sagem gives in the manual for its new DSI86HD Freesat HD receiver. Sagem's DSI86HD: the antidote to satellite subscription services Sure it sounds obvious to technophile Register readers, yet …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 08:02
Botnet buries commands in image files

Stego backdoor hub

Security researchers have identified a botnet that borrows an idea from steganography by burying commands in jpg images. The DlKhora botnet, which is primarily geared towards downloading other strains of malware, encodes instructions so that the command and control server appears to be serving up image files, SecureWorks …

Crime 1 Oct 09:12
Swedish parents win right to name sprog 'Q'

Emerge triumphant from Supreme Administrative Court

The parents of a Jämtland boy have emerged triumphant from the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court, aka Regeringsrätten, and may henceforth legally refer to the sprog as "Q". The powers that be didn't much like the couple's choice of name, and both the county administrative court (Länsrätten) administrative court of appeal ( …

Bootnotes 1 Oct 09:13
Besa predicts £9.8m drop in schools' ICT spending

Back to the slate for you

The British Educational Suppliers Association says that ICT spending in primary and secondary schools will fall this year. In its annual report on ICT trends in UK state schools, the association estimates that primary school ICT budgets will decrease by 2.2 per cent in 2009-10, while those of secondary schools are likely to …

Channel Register 1 Oct 09:17
Holy hatchbacks! Batmobile spied in Sweden

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na...

A near-perfect replica of the Batmobile has been caught on video, while parked on a street in Stockholm. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The car is rumoured to have taken over 20,000 hours to build and to have cost around $1m (£621,000/€683,000), with the black Batmobile shell thought to be welded …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 09:23
Cosmic rays hit Space Age high

Deflector shields activated, Mr Sulu?

The level of cosmic rays bombarding our solar system has hit a 50-year high - a "signficant" increase which could impact on future space missions. The surge in cosmic rays - "subatomic particles, mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei", Space.com explains - was detected by NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) …

Space 1 Oct 09:25
Cisco buys into video conferencing

$3bn? For video conferencing??

Cisco is paying $3bn for Norwegian video conferencing specialist Tandberg. The cash offer of 153.5 Norwegian Kroner for each Tandberg share represents a 25 per cent premium on the three month average share price. It has been unanimously accepted by Tandberg's board and is expected to close in the first half of next year. …

Data Networking 1 Oct 09:28
Flying car & roboplane-worthy air traffic digi-net go for 2025

Radar, voice to be replaced by satnav and data

Moves to replace conventional air-traffic infrastructure - at present reliant on slow and inaccurate radar and voice comms - with modern satnav and digital networking tech are reportedly "on the right track". Present-day air traffic is handled primarily by ground controllers using radar, either primary (where the pulse from …

Government 1 Oct 10:02
Ads watchdog underclocks reseller's 9.2GHz AMD CPU claim

Four cores at 2.3GHz != 9.2GHz

PC supplier Valatech - operator of website pconestopshop.com - has had its wrist slapped for claiming in an advertisement that a 2.3GHz quad-core processor runs at an overall speed fo 9.2GHz. The ad drew a single complaint which maintained that a running speed of 9.2GHz was not technically possible to achieve with a 2.3GHz …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 10:15
PSP Go Bluetooth tethering inbound

Firmware update "available soon"

Bluetooth tethering is winging its way to the PlayStation Portable Go, Sony has confirmed. PSP firmware update version 6.10 will bring new features to existing PSPs and to the new PSP Go – set to be released in the UK tomorrow. But its Sony’s mention of tethering that has really got gamers excited. Only applicable to the Go, …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 10:19
Reldata goes mix and match with refreshed storage box

Adds high-availability and business continuity

Reldata has released a new version of its RELvos virtualised operating system to coincide with the debut of its lates unified storage box, the 9240i. Reldata's unique proposition has been the presentation of either file or block storage access from the one pool of virtualised storage - it's been doing this since before NetApp …

Storage 1 Oct 10:24
Montblanc punts £14k Mahatma Gandhi pen

Coming soon: the Mother Teresa diamond pencil sharpener

Luxury pen maker Montblanc has caused a bit of a stir in India by releasing a commemorative Mahatma Gandhi fountain pen priced at a modest £14,400. The luxury writing implement celebrates the independence leader's "ideas of radical egalitarianism and simple living" with an 18-carat solid gold, rhodium-plated nib and "a saffron …

Bootnotes 1 Oct 10:25
Unified Communications: Tell us what you think

Calling all Reg readers

We have a Reg Tech Panel survey that needs filling in. This time we swoop on Unified Communications, which has been the next big thing for as long as we can remember. The research will form the basis of an upcoming Regcast and will publish the survey's findings on this site and in The Reg Library. The more of you who participate …

Tech Panel 1 Oct 10:32
One thumb up for MS Security Essentials in early tests

Detection fair but clean-up lacking, reports AV-Test.org

Independent testing lab AV-Test.org has published one of the first reviews of Microsoft Security Essentials, Redmond's freebie anti-virus package. The software earned favourable comparison with other free packages, such as AVG and Avast. Detection rates were respectable and the product scored plaudits in avoiding false …

Malware 1 Oct 11:00
Data watchdog jacks up charges

Privacy costs after all

From today large companies that collect or process personal data must pay £500 to register with the Information Commissioner's Office. The heavily increased annual charge applies to firms with a turnover of more than £25.9m and 250 or more employees. Public sector organisations with 250 or more staff must also pay. Smaller …

IT Director 1 Oct 11:08
Hands off our boffins!

Updated Drayson moves to use the science budget as a subsidy

The UK's main sci/tech research funding body, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), has sent out clear signals that Blighty's science budget is being refocused in large part as an industrial subsidy. Government biznovation minister Lord Drayson appears to be behind the moves. Signs of a shift in emphasis have …

Government 1 Oct 11:09
Nvidia fires off Fermi, pledges radical new GPUs

Three billion-transistor HPC chip, anyone?

Nvidia last night introduced the new GPU design that will feed into its next-generation GeForce graphics chips and Tesla GPGPU offerings but which the company also hopes will drive it ever deeper into general number crunching. While the new chip is dubbed 'Fermi', so is the architecture that connects a multitude of what Nvidia …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 11:18
UK.gov appeals for developers to mashup 1,000 datasets

Your country needs GNU

UK.gov is calling on developers to consult the Cabinet Office on its prototype website that will open some government datasets to the public. It wants the developer community to get involved in shaping what apps, data sources and features the website should contain. “With over 1,000 existing data sets, from seven departments …

Developer 1 Oct 11:24
Pictures point to new HTC, Motorola smartphones

HTC's HD2 and Moto's Tao

Leaked images have revealed two high-end smartphones which, although from rival manufacturers, could both command centre stage very soon. HTC's HD2 was spied in O2's October magazine Credit: Engadget HTC’s device is a successor to its established Touch HD smartphone - reviewed here - called, rather unimaginatively, HD2. …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 11:32
Autodesk goes after eBay seller - again

You bought it, but you don't own it

The case of Timothy Vernor, the man Autodesk tried to stop selling their software on eBay, has had another day in court. Vernor is a full-time eBay seller, usually of comic books. But in 2005 he found a copy of AutoCAD design software at a garage sale - software which usually sells for about $4,000. Shortly after he put the …

Channel Register 1 Oct 11:49
Inside Intel's 'Moorestown'

Can Atom 2.0 get into smartphones?

The next major version of Intel's Atom is expected to debut early next year. It's part of the 'Pine Trail' platform, the chip giant's offering for netbooks, which typically use Atom N-series CPUs. But it's not the only Atom upgrade due next year. Six months or so later, Intel will release 'Moorestown', its new platform for …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 12:02
Radio Society to Ofcom: ~~Hear~~ See you in court

Powerlines problem leads to legal lashing

The Radio Society of Great Britian will see Ofcom in court over the regulator's failure to properly investigate powerline networking kit that the society reckons is being supplied illegally. The Radio Society has kicked up a fuss about powerline kit before: it generates interference that mucks about with amateurs' usage, but ( …

Data Networking 1 Oct 12:06
Next-gen Trojan rewrites bank statements

Crooks loot $440K using uber-subtle stealth malware

Black hat hackers have created a new strain of Trojan that rewrites online bank statements to disguise fraud. Victims of the URLZone Trojan would only realise their bank account has been looted after they check their balance with a bank branch or via an ATM. Cybercriminals distribute the malware by booby-trapping websites ( …

Crime 1 Oct 12:17
German firm fails to trademark !

Exclamation mark saved for future generations!!!

A German clothing manufacturer has failed in its bid to register ! as a trade mark, the Telegraph reports. Joop! pitched two versions of the excitable punctuation mark for consideration - one on its own and another with an ! "inside a rectangular frame". The Court of First Instance in Luxembourg backed a ruling by the Office …

Bootnotes 1 Oct 12:30
Nokia carves out Qt future

So long Symbian

Nokia has been mapping out how Qt will take over the application layer on Symbian devices, among others, reducing Symbian development to under-the-hood core programming at best. In a presentation at the Over the Air developers meet, Nokia admitted things were not going well, with developers reporting that "developing for Nokia …

Mobile 1 Oct 12:46
The Sun sales guy shines on HP

Seidl gets Palo Alto VP North America sales slot

A Sun North America sales SVP has been poached by HP to do the same job for the Palo Alto company, signalling that it wants to switch Sun resellers (and customers) to HP ones. Randy Seidl becomes the boss of HP's Enterprise Storage, Servers (ESS) and Networking operation in the USA and Canada, and will report to ex-EMC storage …

Channel Register 1 Oct 13:02
Madmen cling to jet-powered merry-go-round

Ignore warning that 'this may kill you'

Popular Mechanics hack Seth Porges last week risked life and limb when he became one of the first two humans to experience a quite remarkable jet-powered merry-go-round: The magazine explains that the decidedly dodgy-looking contraption was unveiled at the Gadgetoff festival in New York. It's the work of NY arts collective …

Bootnotes 1 Oct 13:34
Fujitsu unveils 'stress busting' laptop

World's first?

Constant travelling, multi-tasking and the always-on connectivity of modern life can take its toll, according to Fujitsu. So the firm’s launched an... er... "stress dissipating" notebook. Fujitsu's P8110: a better way to unwind than ten beers? The P8110 won’t, sadly, dissolve all your stresses when you place your hand onto …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 13:37
Early tech goes under hammer in London

LEO II/3 says time to close your deal

The going rate for bits of hardware and paperwork from the first commercially sold computer has been set at £8,400. This is what LEO II/3, the 1958 Lyons Electronic Office electronic programmable storage computer sold for at auction in London yesterday. For comparison, a job lot of an Osborne 'suitcase' computer and a …

Hardware 1 Oct 13:37
UK already 'major world power' in cyberwar

But ultra-nerds required

The UK government already has a "considerable" number of attackers and defenders that make it a "major world power" in cyberwarfare, according to a leading US expert. Scott Borg of the Washington DC-based US Cyber Consequences Unit, a well-connected research group, told The Register that the British military and security …

Government 1 Oct 13:39
SFO kicks BAE corruption charges upstairs

Will Brown agree to prosecute the Labour Party? Err ...

BAE Systems, the largely overseas-based but UK-headquartered arms firm, has refused a peace deal with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). British politicians will now have to decide whether to take the company to court for corrupt deals in Africa and Eastern Europe. But BAE wields colossal political influence in the UK; there's …

Government 1 Oct 13:55
TomTom HQ raided in insider trading investigation

No board members involved says firm

Dutch financial services regulator AFM raided the Amsterdam offices of TomTom on Tuesday, to investigate allegations of insider trading by a senior financial executive. A team of 20 investigators were involved with the raid at Rembrandt Square. The prosecutor has stated that TomTom as a whole is not under criminal …

Financial News 1 Oct 14:39
Google Wave search poisoned by scareware scammers

Security Essentials results also rigged

Scareware slingers have poisoned search results for Google Wave in a bid to expose users seeking the communication software to a fake anti-virus scan instead. Ironically, Google searches for terms related to Google Wave return results that point to sites hosting rogue antivirus, net security firm Websense warns. Google invited …

Crime 1 Oct 14:42
Qualcomm rejects Japanese contract demand

Demands full hearing

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has told Qualcomm to rewrite its contracts for Japanese customers, but in response the company is asking for that order to be suspended pending a full hearing. The complaint against Qualcomm accuses the company of requiring cross-licensing provisions including clauses to prevent Qualcomm customers …

PCs & Chips 1 Oct 15:02
Brooke Shields pic exposes real/online rift

Will the Internet Watch Foundation act?

Police advice to the Tate Modern Art Gallery, that one of the pictures in their current "Pop Life" exhibition may be child porn, and therefore illegal to display, highlights yet again the difficulty of policing this sort of material in an internet age. The picture in question is Spiritual America, by reputable photographer …

Law 1 Oct 15:09
Rent-a-car-by-iPhone app launched

Reserve cars remotely - or just honk the horn

If you’re stuck in a strange city and need to rent a car, then there’s an app for that. Vehicle rental firm Zipcar has launched an iPhone application for locating, reserving and even unlocking hire cars using the Apple smartphone. Zipcar's iPhone app: handy The app – which is also compatible with the iPod Touch – plots the …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 15:10
Amazon Kindle to burn into to UK next week?

Moles signal arrival of e-book viewer

Amazon will finally launch its Kindle e-book viewer in Blighty next week, multiple sources have claimed. “The rumours I’ve heard are all saying next week,” one source told trade bible The Bookseller. E-book publishers have reportedly signed non-disclosure agreements with Amazon, another source said. He or she also claimed to …

Reg Hardware 1 Oct 15:16
Oracle cuts database tags for Sparc T2+ servers

No longer rotten to the Sun core

As something of an engagement present for server maker Sun Microsystems, Oracle, the company's looming $7.4bn suitor, this week cut the prices it charges for key database software on the Sun Fire rack and blade servers using the company's "Victoria Falls" Sparc T2+ processors. Under Oracle's software pricing regime for its …

Applications 1 Oct 15:26
Reg Agile Data Center Summit: keynote at your demand

Analysis in spades

The Register's recent online Agile Data Center Summit kicked off with European Analyst of the Year, Freeform Dynamics’ Jon Collins, delivering the keynote speech. You can now watch the recorded version at your leisure. Jon considers today’s data centers in all their diversity, and the techniques for balancing conflicting …

Servers 1 Oct 16:02
Yahoofrastructure swells in face of Microsoft pact

Yes, we're a technology company

Though it will eventually offload search to Steve Ballmer and Microsoft, Yahoo! has no intention of shrinking the new back-end infrastructure now driving its search technologies. "What impact does the Microsoft search deal have on the Yahoo! cloud? It has no impact," Shelton Shugar, Yahoo!'s senior vp of cloud computing, tells …

Servers 1 Oct 16:02
Manned 'Surrogate Predators' fill in for robot assassins

Humans go into simulations, but not into real world

Robot aircraft are in such demand for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that the US military - in a mildly disorienting move - is using manned aeroplanes to stand in for them during military training exercises. It seems that high demand for the services of Predator and Reaper surveillance/assassination droids overseas has meant …

Science 1 Oct 16:12
Ubuntu's Karmic Koala opens its eyes

Review Let me be the One

Nothing quite says Autumn like the arrival of a fresh crop of Linux distros. Well, for Linux fans anyway. As usual, both Fedora and Ubuntu are gearing up for new releases, with the Ubuntu crew already pushing out the first betas of Ubuntu 9.10, dubbed Karmic Koala. Although Ubuntu 9.10 is only a beta release and still needs a …

Operating Systems 1 Oct 17:02
Google wriggles in open voice and browser debates

Mountain View pushes open source, but only so far

Google's run-ins with the Apple/AT&T double ac over its Voice application are becoming symbols of the whole broad debates over open web models and net neutrality, and igniting debate over how carriers can survive amidst the rise of open browser-based services and mobile VoIP. Google may be a flag waver for browser usage versus …

Telecoms 1 Oct 17:02
Automated attacks push malware on Facebook

More captcha busting suspected

Hackers have figured out how to create computer-generated Facebook profiles and are using them to trick unsuspecting users into installing malware, a security researcher warned Thursday. The fraudulent profiles display the same picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman, but with slightly different names and birthdates, said …

Malware 1 Oct 19:18
Game censorship crusader sues Facebook for $120m

Claims emotional distress from user group threats

Anti-video game gadfly Jack Thompson is suing Facebook for $120 million, accusing the social website of causing him emotional distress by not removing threatening comments posted by gamers. Thompson is best known for his frenzied attempts to sue game makers over claims adult content in video games is directly responsible for …

Music and Media 1 Oct 19:45
Microsoft's web world shrinks

Bing slips, IE slides

The latest reports are in from the search engine and browser battlefields, and the news isn't good for Microsoft, with both Bing and Internet Explorer continuing to lose market share. According to the web analysts at StatCounter, Microsoft's Bing search engine continued its worldwide decline in September, down to 2.59 per cent …

Applications 1 Oct 19:49
Microsoft rubberstamps Windows XP Mode

Virtual XP arrives Windows 7 Day

Microsoft has put the finishing touches on Windows XP Mode, the virtual version of XP for those looking to run legacy applications after the switch to Windows 7. The final bits were released to manufacturing today, and the company says the tool will be available from Microsoft.com on October 22, the day Windows 7 officially …

Operating Systems 1 Oct 20:49
4 in 10 Brits feel lonely without a daily texting

Rarely actually 'laugh out loud'

Britons' self esteem is ruled by their mobile phones, according to a survey commissioned by a UK mobile phone comparison website. Right Mobile Phone said 3,138 people were recently polled across the nation about how mobile phones affect their emotions. Eighty per cent in the survey responded that not receiving a reply to a …

Mobile 1 Oct 21:54
Oak Ridge goes gaga for Nvidia GPUs

Fermi chases Cell for HPC dough

Oak Ridge National Laboratories may not be the first customer that Nvidia will have for its new "Fermi" graphics processor, which was announced yesterday, but it will very likely be one of the largest customers. Oak Ridge, one of the giant supercomputing centers managed and funded by the US Department of Energy to do all kinds …

HPC 1 Oct 22:06
Twitter tests Tweet nests

Lets users sort accounts into custom categories

Avian-themed navel-micro-gazing website Twitter is experimenting with a new feature designed to let users organize the accounts they follow into custom categories. "The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts," wrote project lead Nick Kallen in a blog post Wednesday evening. "For example, you could create a …

Music and Media 1 Oct 23:08
Google results flog millions of compromised webpages

Top billing

Two ongoing scams are tricking Google and other search engines into prominently displaying millions of compromised webpages that attempt to hijack end users' computers or steal their credit card numbers, researchers said. One of the attacks is being used to direct people searching the web to an online store hawking pirated …

Malware 1 Oct 23:21
Report: Apple snagged Google Maps rival

Replacement, enhancement, or both?

Apple reportedly - and quietly - purchased a Google Maps competitor two months ago, and has absorbed its founder into the mothership at One Infinite Loop. Or so deduces Seth Weintraub over at Computerworld, who turned a July Tweet and a current LinkedIn profile into convincing evidence that Apple has acquired map-tech maker …

Applications 1 Oct 23:24