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4th January 2010 Archive

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  • Market tempts Micronyx to get in the ring

    Comment Ringmaster Intel could whip up Micron/Numonyx merger

    There are renewed suggestions coming into El Reg that flash suppliers Micron and Numonyx could join up later this month. The possibility surfaced in September, as it became clear how weak Numonyx was in terms of NAND flash sales. In December Micron recorded its first profitable quarter after several loss-making ones, while …

    Storage 4 Jan 10:17

  • Freescale to show ARM-based net tablet design

    Android or Linux? Your choice

    Chip maker Freescale has launched a reference design from which ARM-based handheld internet tablet can be forged. The basic spec incorporates a 7in, 1024 x 600 touchscreen, Flash storage, SD card expansion, Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity. Freescale - formerly part of Motorola - has put in a battery that, when …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 10:53

  • Samsung launches hybrid NX10

    DSLR styling, compact size

    Samsung has taken the wraps off its NX10 DSLR-style camera. Samsung's NX10: looks like a DSLR but lacks a mirror box The NX10 incorporates an "ultra-fast" and "decisive" autofocus, 14.6Mp APS-C size CMOS sensor and a 3in 10,000:1 contrast ratio OLED screen, which Samsung claimed provides a clear picture even in bright …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 11:13

  • Texas cops cuff 176 at illegal cockfight

    100 cocks taken to shelter

    Texas cops arrested 176 people on Saturday at an illegal cockfight around 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth, the Dallas Morning News reports. Police backed by a helicopter swooped on the property of Roy Dale Saxton, 46, who allegedly charged $20 a head for admission to the event in Poolville. As well as the arrests, around a …

    Crime 4 Jan 11:14

  • China pinches thousands for pron

    Vows more action in 2010

    Chinese authorities have arrested over five thousand people in a continuing crackdown on internet pornography. The news came at the end of a year of action against online smut which saw a volunteer army recruited to monitor naughtiness on the net. But 2009 also saw China shelve plans for compulsory net filters for all its …

    Policing 4 Jan 11:39

  • 25kg of cocaine hits Spanish supermarket shelves

    Banana boxes pack narcotic surprise

    Drug smugglers in Spain are at least 25 kilos of cocaine short after boxes of bananas in which they'd hidden the Bolivian marching powder ended up on supermarket shelves. The alarm was raised on Saturday morning when several one kilo packets were found in a box of "enormous green tropical bananas" in a Madrid branch of …

    Bootnotes 4 Jan 11:49

  • Boys in blue caught breaking IT rules

    Transgressions mainly related to smut and snooping

    Over 400 police officers and support staff were caught and disciplined for misuse of IT systems last year. The real figure could be higher because some forces declined to provide information. Apart from using work computers to access Facebook and smut sites, some officers and civilian workers were disciplined for …

    Policing 4 Jan 12:12

  • Monty's 'Save MySQL' mudsling gets 15,000 backers

    Widenius wails while competitors gleefully rub hands

    A petition to stop Oracle taking over MySQL has garnered support from more than 15,000 people, after Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius launched his last gasp web campaign in December. The MySQL co-creator, who walked away from the database just seven months after Sun Microsystems bought it in September 2008 for $1bn, cobbled together a …

    Applications 4 Jan 12:37

  • In-depth probe fails to hit the G-spot

    May be imaginary, researchers conclude

    UK researchers have concluded that the legendary G-spot - the earth-moving button allegedly sited in the front wall of the vagina - "may be a figment of women's imagination, encouraged by magazines and sex therapists". That's according to a King's College London team who probed 1,800 women for the benefit of readers of the …

    Biology 4 Jan 12:53

  • Oz bank thinks it's 2016

    Y2.01K bug invalidates cards

    A new year bug has scuppered card transactions at thousands of Australian shops for four days so far, because systems at the Bank of Queensland say it is now 2016. The glitch has meant most debit cards have effectively expired. In the ensuing chaos, shops served by Bank of Queensland have been forced to introduce temporary …

    Applications 4 Jan 13:01

  • Asus Lamborghini VX5

    Review Quad-core motoring with a touch of style

    It’s hard to see who Asus’s supercar laptop tie-ups are aimed at. If you have the money to buy a Ferrari, a Porsche or, in this case, a Lamborghini, will you really be going for a £1,700 portable to remind you what’s in the garage. If you drive a lowered Golf with blue neons underneath, wouldn’t you want a VW laptop? We guess …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 13:02

  • BeautifulPeople ejects post-Xmas fatties

    Begone, turkey-stuffed lardarses

    BeautifulPeople.com's beautiful users have turned on those unwise enough to admit they've overdone it on the turkey and pud over Xmas, and as a result 5,000 newly-lardy members of the "sexiest website in the world today" have been given their marching orders. According to the BBC, the victims were "singled out after posting …

    Bootnotes 4 Jan 13:21

  • Lenovo takes Thinkpads to the Edge

    Three new models

    Lenovo has kicked off 2010 with a fresh, three-machine ThinkPad laptop line-up. The PC maker is, for now, keeping mum about the specific technical details of its 13in, 14in and 15in ThinkPad Edge machines. However, Lenovo hints that the small-size system will carry an AMD dual-core processor and the larger machines either an …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 13:23

  • Yorkshire Ripper loves Wii Bowling

    Nintendo consoles installed in Broadmoor

    Even multiple murderers aren’t immune to the Wii bug: nearly two dozen of the Nintendo consoles have been installed at Blighty’s high-security psychiatric Broadmoor Hospital and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe is a fan. UK taxpayers have coughed up £5000 so that the facility’s inmates can while away their sentences with a …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 13:29

  • Samsung updates netbook line ahead of CES

    More 'Pine Trail' products

    Samsung has announced its has updated its netbooks with Intel's new N450 Atom processor and will be shipping them to buyers this month. The new line-up comprises the N210, N220, N150 and NB30, each offering up to 12, 12, 8.5 and 11 hours' runtime time on a single charge of their batteries, the manufacturer claimed, thanks to …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 14:29

  • Bono accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy

    Learn from China, track content abuse

    U2 frontman and save-the-world mouthpiece Bono has hit out at internet service providers for failing to clamp down on illegal file sharing over their networks. The rockstar attacked ISPs in a New York Times op ed piece yesterday. Bono warned the film industry to beware of the rise of illegal file sharers online, whom he …

    Music and Media 4 Jan 14:32

  • LG drops inches with Extreme Slim

    Designs world's slimmest LCD

    We are only four days into 2010 and LG is already shedding the inches, unveiling what it has claimed is the world’s slimmest LCD TV so far. Gone are the days when ‘portly’ LCDs, such as Samsung’s Needle, measured a ‘chubby’ 3mm from front to back. LG’s aptly named Extreme Slim is just 2.6mm deep and weighs in at under 4000g …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 14:33

  • Indie download site eMusic 'up for sale'

    Refuses to follow broken biz plan

    Pioneering indie music download site eMusic will listen to acquisition offers, according to its chief executive. "If an offer was made that created value for our shareholders, we'd listen to it," Danny Stein told the New York Post. In its original dot.com incarnation, the site offered unlimited MP3 downloads. Since relaunch …

    Music and Media 4 Jan 14:41

  • Please shut up about the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash

    Analysis RAF Chinook fleet is actually a rare MoD success story

    New information is said to have emerged in the case of the 1994 RAF Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre. Internal MoD documents, casting doubt on the safety of the engine-control software in the wrecked Chinook, have been leaked to the media. According to the BBC and venerable IT mag Computer Weekly - which has …

    Government 4 Jan 14:42

  • Google to outline smartphone strategy tomorrow

    Don't be evil and don't be Apple

    All eyes are on Google, which is holding a briefing about its smartphone strategy tomorrow to coincide with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It is likely to focus on its own branded phone, the Nexus One, which is made by HTC but will showcase the newest features of Android and the Google user experience. Although Google …

    Mobile 4 Jan 14:57

  • Dubai cuts ribbon on world's tallest building

    $1.5 billion, 800m+ tower opens

    Dubai is trumpeting the completion of the Burj Dubai - the world's tallest building, whose 800-plus metres took five years, 12,000 labourers and an estimated $1.5bn to construct. The exact height of the structure will not be revealed until an official ceremony, when the emirate's ruler Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum will …

    Science 4 Jan 15:08

  • Magic Mice cast energy-sapping spell

    Apple's rodent drains keyboard batteries

    Apple's wireless mouse stands accused of draining the energy from Apple's wireless keyboards, forcing daily battery replacements on some, and free keyboards on others. The problem has been knocking around the Apple forums for a few weeks, but with Magic Mice under many a tree this Christmas, the quantity of complaints has been …

    PCs & Chips 4 Jan 15:26

  • Samsung jumps onto 3D bandwagon

    3D glasses maker tells all

    Samsung looks set to wade into the 3D TV market, if an announcement by 3D technology firm RealD is anything to go by. Real3D, which provides 3D plastic specs to cinema chains, has said that its 3D technology will be integrated into Samsung's as-yet-unannounced line-up of 3D TVs. Sony, LG and Panasonic are each chomping at the …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 15:46

  • O2 and Be Broadband speeds dip

    Network providers invent new concept of 'Less's Law'

    O2 and Be Broadband customers suffered a slowdown in the last year, against the market trend of improving speeds, it has been found. Downstream for the two home broadband providers, who use the same network, dropped on average by 13 per cent to 5.1Mbit/s, according to web-based speed tests. Against ADSL competitors - who …

    Telecoms 4 Jan 16:10

  • Kingston coughs to security flaw in 'Secure' flash drive

    That's gotta hurt

    Kingston Technology is instructing customers to return certain models of its memory sticks, after the firm discovered a glitch in its DataTraveler Secure flash drives. The company said in a security notice that the models affected were "privacy" editions of the DataTraveler Secure, DataTraveler Elite and DataTraveler Blackbox …

    Enterprise Security 4 Jan 16:12

  • All US Army combat units now to include robots

    Automated tanks, gunships, even generals on the way

    The march of the droids continues, with news emerging over the festive season that ordinary US Army line units - not special forces or temporary trial formations - will now consist partly of war robots and other digitally networked automated killware. The revelations come with the announcement last week that the US Army's " …

    Physics 4 Jan 16:40

  • Synaptics offers trackpad gesture tech for (almost) all

    Swipe and stroke your way to computing harmony

    Touchpad maker Synaptics has released an early draft of software it has developed to bring gesture recognition to laptops that don't already provide it. Dubbed Scrybe, the tech is part of the upcoming Synaptics Gesture Suite 9.4 software, which Synaptics has posted - Windows only, alas - in pre-release preview form. Says …

    Reg Hardware 4 Jan 16:41

  • Seagate may face noise reduction patent payout

    But it's not shouting about it

    Just as Seagate is getting back to health after a year of recovery, it has been accused of destroying evidence pertinent to a 10-year old noise reduction technology lawsuit instigated against it by Convolve and MIT. In the 1990s, MIT academics developed "input shaping" vibration and noise reduction technology that steadied a …

    Storage 4 Jan 16:44

  • Apple misses self-imposed Windows 7 boot camp deadline

    Where's my update, Stevie boy?

    Apple has missed its own deadline for Windows 7 support, after the Jobsian outfit failed to release a "Boot Camp" version allowing users to dual install the latest Microsoft operating system with Snow Leopard on their Macs. The company was supposed to confirm support by 31 December 2009. As we reported in October, Apple said …

    Operating Systems 4 Jan 16:49

  • US companies look to add jobs in 2010

    Don't call it a comeback

    The US economy stopped haemorrhaging jobs in November. The unemployment rate actually went down a smidgen and could do it again when the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out its jobs report for December later this week. Let's start generally and work our way into the IT part of the jobs market. If you look …

    Financial News 4 Jan 17:30

  • Google chisels Chrome OS tablet, rumors say

    Be like Apple

    Google and HTC, its bosom buddy hardware manufacturer, have spent the last 18 months developing touch-screen tablets, according to a report out of Australia. The Mountain View-based world power and the Taiwan-based hardware maker have produced "several working models" of a touch tablet, sources tell the Aussie publication …

    Hardware 4 Jan 18:40

  • Microsoft tosses Windows, Office discounts at XP holdouts

    The timeless art of bending over backwards

    Microsoft has kicked off 2010 with steep discounts on copies of Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010 Professional for businesses still clinging to Windows XP and Office XP. Last week, the company announced that it has extended an existing half-off volume discount offer to small-and-medium-sized organizations running Windows …

    Channel Register 4 Jan 19:22

  • Cisco, IBM tackle home video conferencing

    The war for consumer telepresence

    Cisco and IBM are expected to introduce home video conferencing services this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Monday, IBM and Polycom said they have expanded their partnership from selling pricey corporate video conferencing wares to introducing new services targeting consumers. The service will rival …

    Hardware 4 Jan 19:30

  • Nokia sues Apple (again)

    Finns to match Apple 'by 2011'

    Nokia has beefed up its legal challenge to Apple, filing a second patent-infringement lawsuit against Cupertino in US District Court in Delaware. This time around, the Finnish outfit says that Apple stole patents that make Nokia unique, including patents for a camera phone and a touch-screen display. The suit comes on the …

    Mobile 4 Jan 19:54

  • Adobe Reader vuln hit with unusually advanced attack

    Eight more days to go

    With more than a week until Adobe is scheduled to patch a critical vulnerability in its Reader and Acrobat applications, online thugs are targeting it with an unusually sophisticated attack. The PDF file uses what's known as egg-hunting shellcode to compress the first phase of the malicious payload into 38 bytes, a tiny size …

    Malware 4 Jan 20:47

  • Acer uncloaks next-gen Atom netbook

    'Up to 10 hours' of battery life

    Acer has released its first netbook based on Intel's latest Atom processor and Pine Trail platform, but as with Samsung's new next-gen lineup also announced today, don't expect to get your hands on one until later this month. The Aspire One AO532h was first spotted on Acer's support site back in mid-December, and it has now …

    PCs & Chips 4 Jan 22:12

  • Yahoo! to offload Zimbra on...VMware?

    Up the stack

    Yahoo! is on the verge of selling its Microsoft Exchange–battling Zimbra unit to VMware, according to a report citing multiple sources "close to the situation." AllThingsDigital reports that Yahoo! and VMware will announced a Zimbra deal "soon," but it says the Zimbra price tag is "unclear." A Yahoo! spokesman declined to …

    Business 4 Jan 22:26

  • EMC slides Archer Technologies into security quiver

    Aims at IT risk portfolio

    Storage behemoth EMC started down the 2010 acquisition trail on Monday by announcing an agreement to purchase Archer Technologies, a privately-held maker of IT governance, risk management, and compliance software. The vendor did not disclose the acquisition's price tag, but said the transaction is not expected to have a …

    Enterprise Security 4 Jan 23:07