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5th January 2010 Archive

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  • Google delivers Java 'convenience' APIs

    Prepare for Guava juice

    Google has published code for Java to reduce the amount of hand coding needed for commonly occurring or popular features in applications. The search giant has slipped out its Google Collections Library 1.0, extending Sun Microsystems' existing Java Collection Framework. The code has already been tested in Google's GMail, …

    Developer 5 Jan 2010, 00:49

  • Microsoft's muscle-interface patent gets under your skin

    Computers get really personal

    Microsoft boffins have applied for patents that could let you control computer-based devices using electronic impulses from your muscles rather than fiddling with your fingers. The company's research division has devised what it called a "Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller" that reads and understands electrical signals …

    Games 5 Jan 2010, 04:30

  • Record-fine Napsterer wants retrial with RIAA

    Blames Apple DRM

    A Boston University graduate student ordered to pay record labels $675,000 for illegally sharing 30 songs on Napster and Kazaa is asking a judge to grant him a new trial or reduce damages, which he claims are "grossly excessive" and unconstitutional. Joel Tenenbaum and his copyright-shunning techno-Utopian attorney Charles …

    Media 5 Jan 2010, 04:35

  • Korean bank dumps Unix boxen for mainframes

    Seoul of a new machine

    BC Card, the largest credit card processor in South Korea, is dumping its Unix servers, made by Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, and moving its processing applications to mainframes made by IBM. No, time is not moving backwards on the Korean Peninsula. But BC Card, which is a coalition of 11 South Korean banks that …

    Servers 5 Jan 2010, 06:02

  • Mr Bean ousts PM from Spain's official website

    This coup brought to you by XSS

    Spain's prime minister was briefly ousted from that country's official website after hackers replaced his likeness with that of bumbling slapstick character Mr. Bean. Representatives for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero confirmed the defacement of www.eu2010.es but insisted data on the site was never compromised, …

    Security 5 Jan 2010, 06:02

  • Starting positions for next decade's external storage race

    Comment EMC rises as Sun sets

    EMC enjoys nearly 24 per cent of the external disk storage market, and has almost twice the revenue share of IBM, its nearest competitor. After HP, every other supplier is trailing EMC with single digit percentage shares. The chart below shows the 2010 starting positions for the top seven suppliers. It shows EMC gaining share …

    Storage 5 Jan 2010, 07:02

  • Chip sales grew (for real) in November

    SIA says recession is MIA

    If the statistics collected and massaged by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) are any guide, it looks like the recession is over. Today, the SIA released its report for chip sales in November and said that revenues hit $22.6bn for the month, which is 8.5 per cent more than the sales level set a year ago ($20.9bn). …

    The Channel 5 Jan 2010, 07:02

  • NASA's Kepler telescope finds 5 new planets

    ...and one hot mystery

    NASA's Kepler space telescope has already uncovered new astronomical oddities and five large planets in its first six weeks of searching for Earth-like bodies outside our solar system. Although the quintet revealed by Kepler are all much larger than Earth and far too hot to harbor any life known to science, NASA said the …

    Science 5 Jan 2010, 07:02

  • Mintpass Mintpad

    Review Small screen stick notes, anyone?

    Do you really need an electronic notepad and portable media player, but have tiny pockets in all your clothes? If so, the Mintpad could be the answer. This compact device majors on its touchscreen notepad, but also has multimedia features and Wi-Fi Internet connectivity, in a player less than 80 x 65mm. Small wonder: the …

    Tablets 5 Jan 2010, 08:02

  • 2016 bug hits Windows phones

    Y 2.01K spreads

    The date bug which is interfering with Aussie point of sale transactions has spread to some Windows mobile phones. The glitch means that text messages received since New Year's Eve will appear with a 2016 date. Card scanners in thousands of Australian shops have also been hit, as we reported yesterday. Bank of Queensland …

    Phones 5 Jan 2010, 09:26

  • Paid-for Pre apps coming to Europe

    600 apps and growing

    Paid-for applications will finally be available to Europe’s Pre smartphone owners within two months, Palm has confirmed. The Pre’s “e-commerce program” – which already allows US-based Pre owners to download both free and paid-for applications – goes live across Europe in March. The announcement means users will be able to …

    Phones 5 Jan 2010, 10:35

  • OmniVision flashes 14.6Mp image sensor

    Cameraphone addicts rejoice

    The megapixel glass ceiling has risen once more thanks to OmniVision, which has launched a range of 14.6Mp image sensors for compact cameras and cameraphones. Capable of delivering high-resolution still photography and full 1080p video at speeds of up to 60fps, the OV14810 sensor has been design for integration into compact …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 10:37

  • BAE Saudi 'corruption' case could go to US Supremes

    British, US governments flip hot potato back and forth

    A corruption lawsuit in the USA against UK-headquartered but nowadays primarily US-based arms globocorp BAE Systems may move to the Supreme Court, according to reports. Reuters quotes lawyer Patrick Coughlin, representing the city employees' pension fund of Harper Woods, Michigan, as saying that he and his clients "will …

    Government 5 Jan 2010, 11:02

  • Western Digital goes cartoon crazy

    Ladies seemingly in short supply in the storage world

    Meet Brent, Gus and Blake - WD's cartoon personifications of its blue, green and black disk drives. We're told by WD's media partner, MediaFreaks, a Singapore-based animation agency, that Brent represents the Blue hard drive which is built for reliability and steadiness for everyday computing. Gus represents the Green hard …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 11:04

  • Taoist truck driver guilty of unlawful sex

    Victim 'stupid and ignorant' aspiring model

    The Hong Kong truck driver who persuaded a 19-year-old model he was a Taoist Mao Shan master, with the power to grant her career success in return for sex, has been found guilty of nine counts of "unlawful sexual intercourse under false pretences". Between April and December 2007, Au Yeung Kwok-fu, 55, indulged in nine …

    Bootnotes 5 Jan 2010, 11:06

  • Y2.01K bug trips up Symantec

    Schoolboy error causes red faces

    Symantec's Endpoint Protection Manager has been hit by a classic date bug and fell over at the end of the year, accepting no definition updates dated since then. Symantec have issued a statement, which states that: "An issue has been identified in the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) server whereby all types of SEP …

    Security 5 Jan 2010, 11:09

  • Newspaper e-reader launched

    Evolution of the printed word?

    Forget reading novels on your e-book viewer, because the first e-reader supposedly optimised for newspaper and magazine content has been unveiled. Skiff is optimised for reading newspapers and magazines on The Skiff Reader has an 11.5in touchscreen with 1200 x 1600 resolution, allowing users to interact with newspapers, …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 11:17

  • Apple to splurge $275m on mobile ad broker

    Quids thrown at Quattro

    Apple is reportedly about to buy ad broker Quattro Wireless for $275m - a third of what Google hopes the regulator will let it pay for competing service AdMob. The details come from All Things Digital, which reports that an announcement could come later today on Apple's coughing up for the ad broker. The deal will include the …

    Mobile 5 Jan 2010, 11:24

  • Mouse nest found in London copper's paperwork

    'A little embarrassed' by untidy desk

    A South London copper has been described as "a little embarrassed" after discovering mice had taken up residence in paperwork on his Kennington desk. The rodent hideaway was exposed when pest control operatives were called in after staff "came across a number of mice at a police building", as an internal police report explains …

    Bootnotes 5 Jan 2010, 11:26

  • The case for storage virtualisation

    Lab Has its time come?

    ‘Virtualisation’ is acknowledged by IT professionals as being a pretty good thing. But when we dig a bit deeper into the results of our surveys, it very quickly becomes clear that much of the recognition is centred on x86 server virtualisation technologies and solutions. Other areas, notably desktop and storage virtualisation …

    Virtualisation Lab 5 Jan 2010, 11:29

  • HDS hails new high-end storage

    Box fresh USP-V

    Hitachi Data Systems has confirmed it has a next-generation high-end storage product coming. The current high-end storage array is the USP-V, standing for Universal Storage Processor-Virtual. Hu Yoshida, HDS' high profile blogger and chief technology officer (CTO), mentions it in his latest blog, saying: "The USP V can start …

    Storage 5 Jan 2010, 11:38

  • Watchdog smacks Times for bogus climate claim

    Inaccurate advert hits iceberg in Russian waters

    An advertising campaign touting the depth and quality of the Times newspaper's environment coverage has been slapped by an industry watchdog for inaccuracy. The paper has agreed to modify the advertisements, which are based on a false climate change claim. The Times ads claimed that global warming had caused the North East …

    Science 5 Jan 2010, 11:40

  • Paramount prepares to scale Dune

    New movie adaptation of Frank Herbert classic

    Paramount Pictures has appointed Taken helmsman Pierre Morel to tackle a new cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel Dune, Variety reports. The movie will be based on a draft put together by producer Peter Berg - who quit the project to work on Universal's forthcoming Hasbro board game interpretation …

    Bootnotes 5 Jan 2010, 11:56

  • News Corp tosses Rotten Tomatoes

    Flixster to enjoy fruits of their labours

    Film review site Rotten Tomatoes has been sold to Flixster, which collects user reviews for its site and mobile applications. Rotten Tomatoes was an early dot-com darling and was sold to News Corp, as part of IGN, in 2005 for $650m. IGN runs several sites aimed at young men like, GameSpy and TeamXbox. Financial terms were not …

    Media 5 Jan 2010, 12:04

  • Opera co-founder and CEO quits

    Lars Boilesen handed baton by Jon von Tetzchner

    Opera's CEO and co-founder, Jon von Tetzchner, has stepped down from his role at the company. The Norwegian browser maker said yesterday that von Tetzchner will be replaced by Lars Boilesen as Opera's new boss. Plain-speaking von Tetzchner co-founded Opera in 1995, since when he has served as the firm's CEO. Boilesen had …

    Applications 5 Jan 2010, 12:07

  • Lenovo joins the smartbook gang

    ARM-based smartphone/netbook launched

    Lenovo has unwrapped its first smartbook– an ARM-based PC with 10.1in display. Skylight is Lenovo's first smartbook Called Skylight, the machine has been created to fill a gadget gap that supposedly exists between smartphones and netbooks. As such Skylight combines “the long battery life and connectivity of a smartphone …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 12:25

  • Roboplane tech can deal with air-traffic control directly

    Good news for flying cars, bad for fleshy flyboys

    Flying cars - or personal aircraft anyway - have moved a step nearer, as ongoing trials using robot aeroplanes and next-gen air traffic equipment in America are said to offer the option of "reduced crews" on commercial cargo flights. US aerospace firm GE Aviation has been participating in joint trials with the Federal Aviation …

    Science 5 Jan 2010, 12:58

  • U2 frontman bitchslapped by TalkTalk

    Bono bloody Bono

    TalkTalk has branded U2 windbag Bono's intervention in the debate over illegal filesharing "outrageous", after he said efforts to block child pornography showed ISPs should be doing more to protect intellectual property. As part of his latest execrable, relentlessly pretentious sermon* for the New York Times' op-ed section, …

    Media 5 Jan 2010, 13:01

  • LG GM750

    Review Jack of all trades?

    LG has produced a slew of good-looking handsets recently, not least with its sleek 'n' smooth Chocolate series. With its S-class UI it's also got a snappy icon-based interface which gets a little bit of an update with the LG GM750. LG's GM750: all the trimmings, but lacks finesse The phone is exclusive to Vodafone and …

    Phones 5 Jan 2010, 13:02

  • Masses marvel at 'Most Useless Machine'

    You turn it on, it turns itself off...

    A YouTube video of "The Most Useless Machine EVER!" is proving popular among those who'd like to have a robotic box whose only purpose is to turn itself off: This entertaining device is a version of the "Ultimate Machine" built by US electronic engineer Claude Shannon, based on an idea by Marvin Minsky, the co-founder of …

    Bootnotes 5 Jan 2010, 13:03

  • Google tries to quietly trample on Apple's toes

    Comment The Mountain View way lacks Apple's bullishness

    This afternoon Google will finally announce its mobile offering. But while Google may make a better job of trumpeting its entry into the branded phone market, the Nexus One will never be as successful as the iPhone. Three years ago, your correspondent wrote that the iPhone, which didn’t even have a name at the time, would fail …

    Phones 5 Jan 2010, 13:04

  • World's first camera-cum-ski goggle developed

    Piste perfection?

    With the ski season now firmly upon us, gadget-crazed powder lovers should be thankful that the world’s first snow goggle with an integrated digital camera is en-route to the slopes. Liquid Image's snow goggle: capture snowy memories with pictures and video The Summit Series 335 Snow Camera Goggle features a 5Mp lens inside …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 14:02

  • Sony slims Walkman's girth

    Thinnest model yet

    If your New Year’s resolution is to pound the treadmill more frequently then a bulky MP3 player won’t help. Sony knows this and so has launched its thinnest ever Walkman. Sony's A845 Walkman: super-slim Despite sounding like it was named an English road, Sony’s A845 Walkman measures just 7.2mm from front to back and, when …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 15:17

  • Facebook offs social suicide service

    Don't be poking me

    Facebook is blocking IP addresses relating to companies which offer a social network deletion service. Once you give the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine your log-in details for social networking services, it automates the rigamarole of unfriending people and leaving groups. It then changes your passwords on the social networking so …

    Applications 5 Jan 2010, 15:25

  • National Rail website buried ahead of snow storm

    Desperate commuters look to sky and see red

    Commuters desperate to avoid spending the night in a railway station or being eaten by their snow-bound fellow commuters were left none the wiser if they went to the National Rail website this afternoon. The site, operated by the Association of Train Operating Companies, is a clearing house for train service information in the …

    Science 5 Jan 2010, 15:38

  • Sony to co-launch 3D TV channel?

    Take that, ESPN

    Sony may partner with two leading video entertainment giants to launch a dedicated 3D TV channel, it has emerged, just hours after sports broadcaster ESPN confirmed plans for its own 3D telly service. The Walt Disney Company that owns ESPN announced earlier today that a 3D version of the channel will go live in June this year …

    Hardware 5 Jan 2010, 16:35

  • Outrageous new means of megastar demise spotted

    Antimatter death blast sock-knocking phenomenon

    Most big old stars at the end of their lives tend to go out in a fairly mundane way - either exploding with incredible violence as supernovae, or collapsing into ultradense universe-warping unfeasiblo-gunge as a black hole. But now astronomers say they have seen evidence of a long-hypothesised third path for a large star; that …

    Science 5 Jan 2010, 16:51

  • IBM joyfully outs Core i3 chips in entry servers

    Can't help spreading the good news

    As the chip maker said it would back in mid-December, Intel will shortly round out its Core i3, i5, and i7 lines of mobile and desktop processors. To this end, the 32 nanometer "Arrandale" laptop and "Clarkdale" desktop processors make their debut this Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in Las Vegas. But some PC …

    Servers 5 Jan 2010, 17:16

  • Google (still) pocketing dollars for free clicks

    10 months of 'conversion inflation syndication fraud'

    Ten months after the behavior was first spotlighted, Google continues to charge its advertisers for "free clicks," thanks to a partnership that sees its ads served onto a well-known example of online pop-up-ware. According to new research from Harvard professor and noted Google critic Ben Edelman, the web giant is still …

    Media 5 Jan 2010, 17:20

  • Google uncloaks the Nexus One

    Updated Googlestore sells Googlephone

    Google has surprised no one by unveiling the Google-branded and Google-sold Nexus One phone at a press event in Mountain View. Manufactured by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, the phone will be sold through an online store operated by Google at www.google.com/phone. The phone can be purchased unlocked for $529 or in tandem with …

    Phones 5 Jan 2010, 18:40

  • Hacker pilfers browser GPS location via router attack

    'Scary how accurate it is'

    If you're surfing the web from a wireless router supplied by some of the biggest device makers, there's a chance Samy Kamkar can identify your geographic location. That's because WiFi access points made by Westell and others are vulnerable to XSS, or cross-site scripting, attacks that can siphon a device's media access control …

    Security 5 Jan 2010, 20:04

  • Oracle gobbles last firm for the decade

    Silver Creek Systems down the pipe

    Oracle gobbled its last company for the past decade with the acquisition of Silver Creek Systems, a company that makes software for simplifying and standardizing product descriptions across supply chains. Over the past four years, Oracle's appetite for firms both large and small has grown immensely. At the turn of the ' …

    Software 5 Jan 2010, 20:11

  • Microsoft undercuts planned Office 2010 retail price

    Updated Click/install beats shop/unwrap

    Activating a pre-installed copy of Office 2010 on a new PC will save you almost a third off the price of buying an off-the-shelf copy of the planned suite. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced pricing for a set of planned key cards, announced in October, that will be between 20 per cent and 30 per cent cheaper than the company's …

    The Channel 5 Jan 2010, 20:29

  • Ex-server maker Verari auctions what's left of self

    'Excellent business opportunity'

    If you always wanted to own your own server company and compete against the tier one players who will want to crush you like a mosquito feasting on a tiny drop of their blood, here's your chance. Ex-server maker Verari Systems, which had a layoff and restructuring on December 11 is selling off its assets in an auction. If you …

    Servers 5 Jan 2010, 21:05

  • Feds investigate theft of $3m from NY school

    An epidemic continues

    The FBI and New York state police are investigating the online theft of more than $3m from a small school district in the western part of the state. All but $497,200 was eventually recovered after an employee at Norwich, New York-based NBT Bank alerted officials at Duanesburg Central School District to the unusually large …

    Security 5 Jan 2010, 22:42

  • Italians threaten suit over Windows pre-install

    Want money back after Microsoft force-feed

    An Italian consumer rights group plans to slap Microsoft with a class-action lawsuit this week seeking compensation on behalf of people forced to buy Windows pre-installed on new computers. The ADUC, which specializes in public interests related to TV, internet, and telephone, said it would file the lawsuit at a court in …

    The Channel 5 Jan 2010, 22:51