2nd December 2009 Archive

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Windows 7 soars while Mac OS X trips online

Down, the new up for Apple

Windows 7 saw healthy growth in web-tracked usage in its first full month of release while Mac OS X found itself moving in a direction Cupertino is not used to: downward. The web-watchers at NetApplications report that when tracked on a daily basis, Windows 7 now accounts for five per cent of operating systems using the web. …

Operating Systems 2 Dec 00:05
Google: We avoid hiring too many smart people...

Supernova ...to keep everyone else in line

Google vice president Bradley Horowitz has indicated the web giant avoids hiring too many talented minds in an effort to keep the rest of the tech world from going to ruin. The setting was the annual Supernova tech pow-wow in San Francisco, California, where Harvard professor and Berkman Center for Internet & Society co- …

Music and Media 2 Dec 01:37
Midrange, big iron take the Q3 hits

x64 boxes up off the mat

The server market has been declining sharply for the past five quarters, and everyone is looking for a little good news since spending on iron is a bellwether of sorts for the IT industry as a whole. Echoing comments from rival Gartner earlier this week, the box counters at IDC want you to know that the glass is stabilizing …

Servers 2 Dec 05:02
Stealth: Dell's other server business

OEM sales beat hyperscale boxes

How could server and PC maker Dell see its revenue decline less than those of its rivals in x64 servers in the third quarter? While Dell is not talking specifics, the company has a number of stealth server units that could be smoothing over some of the rough spots and that it's worth looking at. As El Reg reported Monday, …

Servers 2 Dec 06:02
Beeb iPlayer blocked by Xbox velvet rope

Microsoft contract limbo

Xbox 360 owners in the UK must wait "indefinitely" for the BBC iPlayer on their game consoles because Microsoft insists that only paying subscribers can have access to online extras. According to the Telegraph, citing sources "close to the BBC's Future Media and Technology" unit, negotiations to adapt the iPlayer for the Xbox …

Music and Media 2 Dec 06:02
UK mulls extension of McKinnon judicial review period

Refusal to step in branded 'spineless'

Alan Johnson said he may grant Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon extra time to apply for judicial review of his US extradition case, but the home secretary insisted he was powerless to stop the forced transfer. "As I have said at every stage of these proceedings, we will not commence extradition proceedings until all legal avenues …

Security 2 Dec 07:02
Malicious PDFs can commandeer BlackBerry Servers, RIM warns

Patch available

Attackers can commandeer your BlackBerry servers by attaching maliciously formed PDF files to emails, Research in Motion warned Tuesday. The manufacturer of the smartphone advised users to install an update that patches multiple flaws in the BlackBerry's PDF distiller. The vulnerabilities are present on a variety of servers …

Security 2 Dec 07:02
Q-Waves Wireless USB AV Kit

Review Cable-free TV from your PC

It’s often useful to be able to connect your PC to an HDTV, perhaps to play the latest Call of Duty epic on a large screen or give a presentation at work. It’s not that difficult either, as long as you’ve got a suitable cable or adaptor. But if you’re the sort of leading-edge gadget fiend who prefers to do away with wires …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 08:02
LHC knocked out by ANOTHER power failure

Exclusive 'Birdy bread-bomber from the future' involved?

The Large Hadron Collider - most puissant particle-punisher ever assembled by the human race - has suffered another major power failure, knocking not only the atomsmasher itself but even its associated websites offline. The machine remains unserviceable at present. However its crucial cryogenics seem to have been unaffected, and …

Physics 2 Dec 10:00
Server Virtualisation for Hard-Nosed People

Webcast What’s the Real ROI on Virtualisation?

The cost-benefits of virtualisation for discrete workloads is reasonably clear and straightforward to articulate. But where can organisations look, and how do the economics stack up, once virtualisation takes more of a centre-stage role in the data centre? On 9 December at 2pm we’ll be asking just this question and many more …

Virtualisation Lab 2 Dec 10:20
Sony Ericsson ships Satio patch

Back on sale soon?

Sony Ericsson's Satio 12Mp cameraphone has received a firmware update that appears to fix the touchscreen issues that prompted the company to pull the handset from shop shelves. The update, version R1CA037, certainly seems to improve the handset's responsiveness, early feedback suggests, but it's not yet known whether the new …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 10:26
Acer to be 'first' with Chrome OS netbook

Sometime in H2 2010, apparently

Not satisfied with Android - added to its Aspire One D250 netbook last month - Acer is to roll out a mini-laptop based on Google's Chrome OS in less than a year's time. Not that Acer itself has said so - the claim comes from an unnamed industry insider cited by DigiTimes, though the site notes Acer chairman JT Wang has said …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 10:40
Twitter founder signs up to iPhone mag-stripe reader

Square gives other card readers the finger

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, has launched a mag-stripe reader for the iPhone, proving you don't need a good idea to garner VC dollars. Dorsey's "Square" service comprises a magnetic strip reader balanced precariously on the bottom of an iPod Touch, or iPhone, along with an application which processes the transaction and …

Mobile 2 Dec 10:54
Hacked climate Prof stands aside

Taking the heat off

Professor Phil Jones - the man at the centre of the "climategate" controversy over emails and other sensitive data published by hackers - has agreed to stand aside as director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). He will not run the University of East Anglia's influential climate change centre until an "independent review" …

Environment 2 Dec 10:57
Centrino logo a no show for next-gen Intel-based laptops

Brand to go as chip giant focuses on CPU not Wi-Fi

Intel said in June 2009 that it was going to reposition its hugely successful Centrino brand from laptops to its wireless add-in cards. It now seems that next year this will actually happen. In June, the company pledged to "clear away the confusion of evaluating and comparing different processor brands" by stating that this " …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 11:01
Universal to bond Blu-ray Discs to DVDs

Glue-ray disc concept returns

Nearly three years after Warner proposed combo HD DVD/Blu-ray Discs as a way to end the format war, Universal Studios is trying out the notion, this time bonding Blu-ray with DVD. Warner's scheme was called Total HD and involved sticking an HD DVD and BD together, back to back. It allowed the one platter to be played in either …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 11:26
Sage strikes subdued note in near term forecast

Figures get boost from currency movements

Sage software issued a subdued forecast this morning, as it unveiled full year results which showed underlying revenues slipped 4 per cent in the year to September 30. The accounting software firm turned in revenues of £1.44bn for the year, up 11 per cent on the year. Pretax profits were £267.4m, also up 11 per cent. However …

Channel Register 2 Dec 11:28
High Court: Software dev agreement did not transfer copyright

Empty-handed plaintiffs rue woolly contract terms

A company has failed in its attempt to declare itself the owner of software that it paid another company to develop. The High Court has refused to declare that copyright in the software passed to Infection Control Enterprises Ltd (ICEL). A complicated agreement was reached between ICEL and Virrage Industries to develop …

Channel Register 2 Dec 11:28
2009's Top Android Smartphones

Kit of the Year The real iPhone killers?

From one handset in 2008, Google's Android has become one of 2009's fastest-growing smartphone platforms. HTC continued to support Android with some good new handsets, and Samsung made a good start, but we were particularly taken with offerings from the newer entrants, Motorola and Huawei. Motorola Dext MB200 The Dext has a …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 11:34
PrevX U-turn on Windows update Black screen of Death claim

Updated Paint IT black

PrevX has backtracked on earlier claims that a Windows update caused Windows machines to lock up with a so-called "Black Screen of Death". An updated blog post from the UK-based software security firm withdraws earlier claims that a recent Microsoft update caused a glitch that resulted in affected PCs displaying only the My …

Malware 2 Dec 11:43
Sex with Taoist truck driver leaves woman fully satisfied

Ritual leg-over prompts career leg-up, HK court hears

The Hong Kong truck driver who persuaded an aspiring model he was a Taoist Mao Shan master, with the power to grant her career success in return for sex, really was able to boost his clients' careers, according to a satisfied customer. Au Yeung Kwok-fu, 55, is in court on nine counts of "procuring unlawful sexual acts by false …

Bootnotes 2 Dec 11:48
Samsung shines up Omnia HD camphone

Gold Edition unveiled

We can't say this blingy item is coming to the UK, so anyone who take a shine to the gold-inlayed special edition Samsung Omnia HD will have to travel to Germany, Singapore or the Middle East to get one. What you'll get is a version of the existing i8190 Omnia HD - reviewed here - that comes in "two fashionable colours: …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 11:49
Jobs jumps in to free private APIs

Video streaming on iPhone opens appgates

Steve Jobs personally intervened to approve a video streaming application for the iPhone, leading to approval for other applications that also make use of private APIs. P2P video-streaming application Knocking Video was rejected by Apple on the grounds that it uses an undocumented "private" API to scrape the screen, which is …

Mobile 2 Dec 12:13
Google shrinks its door to free WSJ stories, slightly

Small, possibly meaningless concession to Murdoch?

In a possibly meaningless response to Rupert Murdoch's War on Free, Google is to allow publishers to limit the number of free pages users of Google News can read on their sites. Up to now Google News has provided a mechanism for users to get access to content that is otherwise subscription-only (in, say, the Wall Street Journal …

Music and Media 2 Dec 12:14
HDS wants to be the Toyota of storage

Comment Claims that IBM double-counts SVC sales

Hitachi has claimed that it is number one in storage virtualisation and has voiced its intent to be the leading shogun in the storage world. That was the view expressed by Michael Vath, HDS' SVP and EMEA general manager, at the announcement in Milan on December 2 of the strengthened Acer-Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) partnership …

Storage 2 Dec 12:34
Wireless widget gadget comes to Blighty's bedsides

Chumby tumbles in

Would anyone here pay £140 for a bedside alarm clock? What if it were linked to your Wi-Fi network and able to pull down useful info and display it through a set of on-screen widgets? OK, your smartphone probably does all of these things already, but if you are in the market for just such a net-savvy clock, the Chumby may be a …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 12:36
Cameroon leapfrogs Hong Kong in malware hosting blocklist

One in three .cm domains booby-trapped, warns McAfee

Cameroon (.cm) web domains supplanted those in Hong Kong as most likely to harbour malware, with more than one in three (36.7 per cent) of domains registered in the West African country hosting viruses or malicious code. The .cm used by Cameroon is a common typo for .com, a factor that security firm McAfee speculates may …

Malware 2 Dec 12:55
EMC aggregates Centera clusters

Virtual archive is go

EMC will announce the federation of separate Centera archive store clusters to form a single virtual archive later today. Customers will be able to federate up to 512 Centera nodes giving a 2.04PB raw capacity maximum. The capacity should jump to 4.08TB when 2TB SATA drives get supported, which they presumably will. For …

Storage 2 Dec 13:00
Blackberry Storm 2 9520 touchscreen smartphone

Review RIM gets finger friendly again?

The original BlackBerry Storm launched around this time last year as Research-in-Motion’s premier handset and quickly lost no time in dividing opinion along Marmite-style lines. Mostly, people either loved or hated its innovative SurePress 'floating' touch screen, which made crystal clear the distinction between a brush a press …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 13:01
Internet and journos fertilise scrotum-ripping drug panic

Comment Meow madness really is a load of b*ll*cks

Durham police are finding out the hard way about the power of the internet to mislead, distort and amplify, as a relatively measured warning about a legal high gallops towards Snopesian urban myth status as the tale of a drug that makes you rip your bollocks off with your bare hands. Acting Sergeant Michael Urwin, from Barnard …

Music and Media 2 Dec 13:02
Squeezing more out of ERP and CRM

Mini Poll How might you get better ROI?

One of the most common complaints at board level to do with IT is the amount of money thrown at ERP and CRM application deployments over the years. Some question the perceived returns that have been delivered in terms of value to the business. With this in mind, we would be interested in whether you think packaged applications …

Evolving Apps 2 Dec 13:07
Nokia maps out next 12 months

Better UIs, downmarket Symbian and flat growth

Nokia has laid out its plans for the next year, expecting to maintain its market share in handsets and infrastructure while the industry grows slightly. Handset volumes, across the industry, will apparently rise by about ten percent over the next twelve months. Nokia reckons it can maintain its 38 per cent market share with a …

Mobile 2 Dec 13:31
Facebook goes live with privacy revamp

Is there an 'enemy of my enemy' setting?

Facebook has revamped and simplified its privacy controls. Users of the social networking website can now designate content they post as being viewable to just friends, or friends of their friends, or everyone. "We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of …

ID 2 Dec 14:33
Muswell Hillbillies force BT to move broadband boxes

Paint it black, NIMBYs chant

BT has been ordered to move 20 of the bulkier new streetside cabinets planned to power its trial of faster broadband, after they offended aesthetic sensibilities in leafy Muswell Hill, north London. The local council, Haringey, is also arranging for all the boxes to be repainted black rather than their current green, to "blend …

Telecoms 2 Dec 14:38
Navy's £1bn+ destroyers set to remain unarmed for years

Ex-British miracle missiles in new test FAIL

The "Sea Viper" missile system for the Royal Navy's new Type 45 destroyers looks set to suffer further setbacks following a reported failure during test firings. The weapons are already so late that the first £1bn+ Type 45 has been in naval service for nearly a year - almost completely unarmed. Might as well park her up for a …

Science 2 Dec 14:46
Virgin Media smites TV software patents

Rovi loses in High Court

A little-reported High Court decision last week has reaffirmed the difficulty of defending software programs. Virgin Media was sued by Gemstar, now owned by Rovi, for breaching user interface intellectual property it had successfully licensed to other TV operators. Last week the Court sided with Virgin, declaring the patents …

Applications 2 Dec 15:50
McKinnon team granted extra week to file extradition appeal

One more one more time

Government solicitors have granted an extra week for solicitors acting for Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon, to lodge a judicial review on the Home Secretary's recent decision to allow extradition proceedings against Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon to proceed. Alan Johnson re-started the clock on McKinnon's extradition last week …

Law 2 Dec 15:52
Use Web 2.0 magic to sprinkle democracy on science

Climategate Mike Hulme: Apply the Truthiness patch

In response to the Climategate scandal, one of Britain's most senior climate officials has called for science to be made more "democratic". Mike Hulme has repeated his earlier calls for what he calls "post-normal", postmodern science - but has dusted the appeal with the magic pixie dust of Web 2.0. Hulme was head of the …

Environment 2 Dec 16:08
Govt promises unemployed free laptops, net access, websites

Virtual Jobcentres for virtual jobs?

The government will give jobless workers PCs and personalised websites as part of an overhaul of its unemployment strategy that will make being out of work a more virtual experience. The plans will also see an overhaul of the Jobcentre network as the government struggles to cope with a different type of unemployed worker and …

Government 2 Dec 16:18
~~EDS~~ HP staff vote to strike

Break out the braziers

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at the division of HP formerly known as EDS have voted by a more than three-quarters majority to go on strike over jobs and pay. Some 78 per cent voted for a walkout, with 92 per cent supporting action short of a strike including refusing to work overtime. PCS said its …

Government 2 Dec 16:25
Nissan super-battery to 'double' e-car range

Leccy Tech Better cathode, bigger capacity

Nissan is only five years away from the commercial launch of an e-car battery with twice the energy storage capacity per unit weight of current batteries, the company has claimed. According to Nissan, that means that, by 2015, its Leaf e-car will have a range of nearly 200 miles on a full charge. The new batteries are …

Reg Hardware 2 Dec 16:27
ESRB unloads US game ratings iPhone app

Game database of dirty parts

Want to know if Ace Hooker Blood Bath Baby Shaker III is the right game for an eight-year-old nephew while you're making a mad dash to the mall? US video-game regulatory folks may help prevent the Christmas-morning riot act reading for your oblivious gift-giving with a new iPhone app. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board …

Mobile 2 Dec 17:24
Wikisupremes eject UK Wikispokesman from inner circle

Then pretend it never happened

The world's greatest online comedy has returned for an encore performance. This week, the Wikipedia supreme court saw fit to retract certain admin privileges from one of the site's most recognizable figures, UK press officer David Gerard, accusing him of disseminating private user data and "failing to maintain proper decorum in …

Music and Media 2 Dec 17:36
HP shows smallest pod in the world, talks HPC

Top500 wins - or losses?

Now that every vendor has a shipping container (pod) computing solution, how do you differentiate your offering? You can’t go bigger and stick to the form factor. But wait a minute: you can go smaller… hmmm... Stalking the floor at SC09, we believed we found Hewlett-Packard pursuing this strategy with its new pod. The …

HPC Blog 2 Dec 18:02
Yahoo! to juice Facebook fusion

Deeper integration with Facebook Connect

Yahoo! will begin sucking down more Facebook user data across its stable of websites in a bid to keep overlapping audiences clicking on its pages longer. The search firm said that sometime in the first half of 2010, it will begin "deeply" integrating with the Facebook Connect service across Yahoo! websites such as Mail, News, …

Music and Media 2 Dec 20:05
Sequoia opens kimono with e-voting code handout

'Completely reversed'

Sequoia Voting Systems has become the first electronic voting machine maker to publish the source code used in one of its systems, a move that computer scientists have praised. On Monday, the Denver, Colorado company released the first batch of code for Frontier, an end-to-end e-voting system that it plans to begin selling in …

Security 2 Dec 20:36
Why probe Google for antitrust? It 'does no evil'

Supernova Prof: Google ads aren't ads

For Eric Clemons, Google's oft-echoed claim that it doesn't believe in doing evil is reason enough to investigate the web-dominating search giant for antitrust violations. Clemons is a professor of operations and information management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - a computer-science mind employed …

Music and Media 2 Dec 21:29
Intel puts cloud on single megachip

One die, 48 cores

Intel's research team has unveiled a 48-core processor that it claims will usher in a new era of "immersive, social, and perceptive" computing by putting datacenter-style integration on a single chip. And, no, it's not the long-awaited CPU-GPU mashup, Larrabee. This processor, formerly code-named Rock Creek and now known by …

HPC 2 Dec 23:08