28th December 2009 Archive

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Speculative Googlenetbook specs surface

'A Ferrari for the price of a Mini Cooper'

Mere days after the first rumors of an impending Google-built netbook hit the web, purported details of its innards have surfaced. Rumors of a Googlebook mirror the speculation that preceded the emergence earlier this month of Mountain View's HTC-manufactured, Android-powered Googlephone Nexus One smartphone. Those …

PCs & Chips 28 Dec 18:45
Secret code protecting cellphone calls set loose

Universal phone snooping moves forward

Cryptographers have moved closer to their goal of eavesdropping on cellphone conversations after cracking the secret code used to prevent the interception of radio signals as they travel between handsets and mobile operators' base stations. The code is designed to prevent the interception of phone calls by forcing mobile phones …

Security 28 Dec 18:57
Oracle sniffing around Citrix, HP around Rambus

Egg nog-induced stalking

According to the Briefing.com rumor mongering financial news site, software giant Oracle - not even finished with its $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems - is sniffing around middleware and virtualization maker Citrix Systems and may be interested in acquiring the company. In the same report, you'll find that Briefing.com …

Business 28 Dec 19:55
SGI inks deal for Tasmanian cluster

'Cluster-what' is up to you

Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics has inked a deal to build the Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing - which has the rap name TPAC - at the University of Tasmania on the eponymous Australian island state. The gig: creating a new x64-Linux cluster for climate research. The TPAC facility is a partnership between the …

HPC 28 Dec 20:28
Bad glass delayed Apple tablet?

But it's coming, dear fanbois, it's coming

While here in the States Apple-tablet rumors are churning the waters as turbulently as a pool of piranhas into which has been dumped a truckload of honey-dipped hamsters, over in the Far East the iWhatever's impending release is being treated as a fait accompli. Even though, as reports suggest, Apple's device is months late. …

PCs & Chips 28 Dec 21:45
3PAR bounces on takeover chatter

Rumor du slow news jour

The cost of acquiring exotic disk-array maker 3PAR Data went up by nearly 12 per cent today on a slow holiday news day when a report in Barron's, the weekend stock-rag companion to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that 3PAR was ripe for the picking. 3PAR, which was founded by two server engineers from Sun Microsystems back …

Business 28 Dec 22:04
The best (of the worst) patent claims of 2009

Apple iGlove, IBM noise maker, and more

Two thousand nine Anno Domini was a magical year for US technology patent applications. For each spin around old Sol we're consistently stunned by what major companies claim to have invented - but we dare say the bounty from this year will forever hold a special place in our hearts. (For another week or two, anyway. We've got …

Odds and Sods 28 Dec 22:37