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11th January 2010 Archive

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  • IBM software: big, blue and boring in the 2010s

    Comment Where's the next Wladawsky-Berger?

    IBM's vision for software ain't what it used to be. Biggie Blue's venerable software biz will doubtlessly roll right along into the new decade - make no mistake - but where's the drive and risk taking that made the company actually cool back 10 years ago? One can't help but feel IBM software is settling back into the legendary …

    Software 11 Jan 03:43

  • Embedded developments

    What’s needed to push things further?

    Is anyone still developing software anymore, particularly in smaller-scale, “embedded” systems running on platform-specific operating systems? Despite the best efforts of packaged software vendors, software development never went away – indeed, the annual barometer studies that Freeform Dynamics undertakes with readers of The …

    Applications 11 Jan 06:37

  • Ion handycam is back to front (and back again)

    CES 2010 Two lenses = double the fun?

    Gadget manufacturer Ion has unleashed “the world’s first video recorder with front and back lenses”. Ion's Twin Video has dual lenses, ideal for video blogging Called Twin Video, this somewhat odd take on the handheld camcorder captures your facial expressions as you record events around you. Pointless? Not so, says Ion. …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 06:42

  • Flexiant flexes muscle in face of web hosting crowd

    Exclusive Amazon-like Flexiscale gets new backers

    A SaaS company with its eye firmly fixed on the web hosting market and backed by investors including the co-founders of Nominet UK and Pipex Communications will launch later today. London-based Flexiant, which was incorporated in November last year, raised around £1m in an "over-subscribed" funding round. It has splashed the …

    Applications 11 Jan 07:02

  • Plastic Logic shows executive e-book reader

    CES 2010 on Video Join the Que

      Watch in HD at Reg Hardware's YouTube channel Can't see the video? Download FlashPlayer from Adobe.com

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 08:02

  • Demo'd: how to turn an iPhone into a universal remote

    CES 2010 on Video Customisable controller for your home entertainment stack

      Watch in HD at Reg Hardware's YouTube channel Can't see the video? Download FlashPlayer from Adobe.com

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 10:02

  • Tax department targets IT downtime

    HMRC to cut something, for once

    HM Revenue and Customs is stepping up efforts to cut the down time of its IT systems. The department's latest performance report says that improvements in IT availability this year should provide 32,000 extra business hours. The figure is based on a predicted improvement of 2% on the hours lost due to IT not working in 2008- …

    Government 11 Jan 10:18

  • Acer recalls 22,000 over microphone flame out fear

    You're speaking too close to the fire

    Acer has issued a voluntary product recall notice for 22,000 Acer Aspire notebooks in the US, after it emerged that they could overheat and burn their owners. Or maybe not. The voluntary recall, kicked off in association with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, follows a similar European recall back in October. …

    PCs & Chips 11 Jan 10:20

  • Italians take the 'p' to fight back against Big Brother

    Panopticon to Anopticon: Opposing the surveillance state

    Italians are fighting back against the surveillance society with a grass roots project designed to publicise the location of CCTV cameras – and to "out" those that have been set up contrary to Italian Law. The "Anopticon" project, which was launched earlier this year, is a deliberate parody of the "panopticon" – an ideal …

    Policing 11 Jan 10:33

  • Taser offers obsessive parents total mobe intrusion package

    'Text message blocked due to Silly Spelling'

    Famed cattleprod-launcher firm Taser International has diversified out of its core business in electric stun weapons. The firm has announced that it will soon release a "family safety platform" allowing parents to monitor their children's mobile phone use, location and driving. The parental spy/control tech is called " …

    Mobile 11 Jan 10:47

  • Database updates star in Oracle quarterly patch batch

    A light sprinkling of security fixes

    Oracle is preparing 24 patches for its latest quarterly patch update. The patch batch, due on the same day as Microsoft's monthly update on 12 January, covers 10 database flaws, two of which might lend themselves to remote exploit without the need to know a user name and password. A trio of flaws in Oracle Application Server …

    Applications 11 Jan 10:49

  • Google preps business-grade Nexus One

    BlackBerry rival?

    Google executive Andy Rubin has confirmed that a business-grade version of the Nexus One smartphone is in development. Rubin said during a recent interview session hosted by the Wall Street Journal that the next version of the Nexus One smartphone will be targeted at enterprise users. The handset will also feature a physical …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 11:06

  • Google too powerful, warns German minister

    You can have too much of a non-evil thing

    Google is in danger of becoming a monopoly like Microsoft and governments will soon have to act as regulators, the German minister of Justice has warned. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger believes Google is fast collecting too much information on individuals and needs to be more transparent. If this doesn't happen, …

    Government 11 Jan 11:11

  • Mozilla teases surfers with near-final version of Firefox 3.6

    Show'n'tell Release Candidate hits intertubes

    Mozilla spun out a near-ready version of Firefox 3.6 over the weekend, all of which suggests that the final build of the next iteration of the open source browser could be imminent. The outfit said on Sunday that over 75 per cent of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons had now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with …

    Applications 11 Jan 11:17

  • 'Google' crowned word of the decade

    Epic linguistic fail

    The American Dialect Society has crowned the verb "google" as its Word of the Decade, while honouring "tweet" as its 2009 Word of the Year. Mercifully, the "linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, authors, editors, professors, university students and independent scholars" who …

    Bootnotes 11 Jan 11:19

  • Oz firm seeks talented IT developer

    'SQL server experience, DD cup breasts'

    One of Oz's "leading privately owned Transport companies" last Friday posted an ad on the country's "#1 job site" looking for an IT operative. However, some ne'er-do-well quickly jumped in and added a pretty specific range of talents: Border Express told El Reg: "The original IT Developer advertisement, containing none of …

    Bootnotes 11 Jan 11:57

  • Zuckerberg: 'I am a prophet'

    Facebook genius foresaw today's no privacy 'norm'

    Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that he is a prophet, declaring that he had foreseen that people will soon have no qualms about displaying every minute detail of their private lives on the internet. Zuckerberg revealed his gift during a staged interview with Michael Arrington at the TechCrunch awards this weekend. Critics have …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 12:07

  • Peugeot designs Hybrid4 concept coupé

    Leccy Tech To debut at Geneva Motor Show

    Pictures of a concept e-car set to be unveiled by Peugeot at the Geneva Motor Show this March has revealed that the French car firm doesn’t regard high-performance and hybrid drive trains as mutually exclusive. Peugeot's SR1 uses the firm's Hybrid4 drive system The two-door SR1 coupé would employ Peugeot's Hybrid4 drive …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 12:28

  • Rogue phishing app smuggled onto Android Marketplace

    Ghost in the machine

    A phisher hoping to harvest bank login details managed to smuggle his app onto the Android app store. Malicious apps posted by Droid09 were quickly identified, prompting a warning to legitimate users and a ban for the VXer. The incident raises questions about whether a tighter vetting process is needed for the Android …

    Crime 11 Jan 12:36

  • CBI kills off the recovery before it's begun

    We're all doomed

    The Confederation of British Industry is not convinced the economy is over the worst, despite its latest survey showing a continued growth in confidence. The CBI quarterly survey found a small rise in business volume in the three months ended in December, along with a small rise in profitability. But most firms do not expect …

    Small Biz 11 Jan 12:46

  • Yank walks plank over Liverpool fan email

    Director suggests to supporter: 'Blow me'

    Supporters of Liverpool FC have succeeded in getting Tom Hicks Jr to quit his post as club director after he fired an email broadside at a fan's "polite enquiry about the funding challenge facing Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez during this transfer window". Hicks Jr, the son of Liverpool's co-owner Tom Hicks, impolitely …

    Bootnotes 11 Jan 12:59

  • Samsung Omnia II Windows Mobile smartphone

    Review Dazzling display?

    Samsung's original Omnia created a bit of a stir amid its accompanying hype when it first appeared a year or so ago. While the general consensus was that it was clever and different, it didn't quite have the X-factor to take on the very best of the touch screen smartphone brigade, which still has the iPhone as its enduring Joe …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 13:02

  • Mozilla tries to silence add-on developers' scream

    'Major technology changes, some sacrifices'

    Mozilla has been forced to justify its decision to herd third party coders, whose add-ons sometimes break the Firefox user interface, away form the browser's components directory. In a meaty blog post on Saturday, the open source browser maker’s development boss, Mike Connor, explained the rationale behind Mozilla’s move to …

    Developer 11 Jan 13:10

  • AWOL SDK kicks off Nexus One backlash

    'Welcome to direct sales Google!'

    After the hype comes the backlash - and in the fast moving world of smartphones, the whole cycle only takes a day. So on Thursday the new Google Nexus One smartphone was going to turn the mobile business model on its head, and some ardent Google fans even thought it was a groundbreaking handset design. By Friday, there was …

    Mobile 11 Jan 13:20

  • New mega offshore windfarms could supply 2% of UK energy

    Likely to be offshored in more senses than one, though

    Licences have been awarded to develop nine massive new offshore wind farms which could - if fully exploited - deliver as much as two per cent of the UK's present day energy requirements. Developers have been encouraged to move ahead with expensive offshore wind projects by the government's promise to double the Renewables …

    Environment 11 Jan 13:51

  • Celebrity goat declines Britain's Got Talent gig

    Caprine YouTube star to stay on the farm

    A "gifted" goat elevated to YouTube stardom by a short vid of his ability to greet schoolkids down on the farm will not appear on Britain's Got Talent, despite producers' desperate attempts to lure him before the cameras. Anglo-Nubian goat Darren has sadly "waved goodbye to a chance to become the next Susan Boyle" after …

    Entertainment 11 Jan 13:59

  • Seagate foresees monster 2011

    To follow big ol' 2010

    Seagate CEO Stephen Luczo thinks there could be monster hard disk drive sales in 2011 following better than 15 per cent growth this year. As reported in Barrons, Luczo's pitch is that recovery from the recession started for the hard disk drive (HDD) industry in 2009 but outside the USA. He sees demand in the USA accelerating …

    Storage 11 Jan 14:24

  • Integrated tube tickets not on the Olympic menu

    The world is not your Oyster

    With two and a half years to go, the Olympic Committee has started locking down the technology for the 2012 games, with Oyster-enabled tickets the first to go as the £500m budget gets allocated. Technology For The Olympic Games (pdf) explains that the London games, July-September 2012, will use more than one hundred thousand …

    Policing 11 Jan 15:17

  • US CIOs say the work is piling up

    They're ready to start hiring

    Robert Half Technology, an IT compensation and headhunting consultancy, says that chief information officers are seeing IT work pile up and are gearing up to do some hiring this year. RHT did a survey of 1,400 CIOs in December, at companies located in the United States with 100 employees or more. 10 per cent of them said they …

    Small Biz 11 Jan 15:19

  • False Facebook charge group used to spread malware

    Malware pokes outraged users

    A false rumour suggesting that Facebook is to start charging is being used to bait malware traps. Thousands of disgruntled punters, angry at the $4.99 a month charge for using the social networking site that will supposedly kick in from June (or July, according to other false reports) have been induced to visit "protest group …

    Crime 11 Jan 15:22

  • Microsoft recruits Halo jobsworths

    New edition in development?

    A new Halo instalment may be in the works, if Microsoft job ads are anything to go buy. Roughly 18 Halo-related positions are available at 343 Industries – an internal Microsoft division that serves as stewards for the Halo franchise. Jobs include Halo software development engineers, a senior concept artist, animation …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 15:56

  • Beeb reporter breaks Sonim's 'unbreakable' phone with fishtank

    All in a day's work

    A BBC reporter covering this year’s CES broke Sonim’s…ahem…“unbreakable” mobile phone during a video demonstration of its toughness. BBC Reporter Dan Simmons (left) tests and breaks a Sonim handset After dunking the handset into a fishtank, Reporter Dan Simmons repeatedly smashed the device onto the tank’s corner. On his …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 15:59

  • The charge of the alternative gadget chargers

    CES 2010 Hydrogen and Wi-Fi used to power tech

    Multipurpose gadget power packs provided some welcome light relief at this year's CES. Let's take a look at some of the contenders, real and possibly imaginary. Horizon's Hydrofill converts water into hydrogen Hydrofill Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies unveiled an in-home hydrogen refuelling system at the show, enabling …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 16:00

  • IT workers told, 'Put down the biscuits, fat boy'

    BCS orders physical jerks

    The BCS is urging tech workers to get fit for the New Year and has set up a website to help them shift the extra pounds. A survey last year put IT workers at the bottom of the league for fitness. In fact the only thing tech workers came out on top for was drinking coffee - with an average of ten cups a day. Only 14 per cent …

    IT Director 11 Jan 16:04

  • Compellent extends tiering to SAS

    SANs up, this is a RAID

    Compellent is adding SAS disk tiers to its SAN and protecting against double drive failures with RAID 6. Storage Center 5.0 is a major evolutionary release of Compellent's array software. It adds facilities to work better with virtual servers, short-cut the initiation of a replicated disaster recovery site, simplify data …

    Storage 11 Jan 16:20

  • DARPA to build 'needle-in-haystack' detector goggles

    Not a figure of speech: That's the actual spec

    Radical Pentagon boffins have decided to build super high-tech binoculars or goggles which would - according to the government specifications - be able to identify and pick out "a needle moving along the surface of a haystack". The planned technology has been dubbed Fine Detail Optical Surveillance (FDOS), and regular readers …

    Science 11 Jan 16:21

  • NuLab's fave boffin claims phallocentric conspiracy

    Baronness Greenfield discovered to be redundant

    New Labour's favourite boffin has lost her job - for a very New Labour reason - and has responded with a classically New Labour riposte. Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield was made redundant from her post as the Director of the Royal Institution after failing to balance the books. The full-time post itself is being …

    Science 11 Jan 16:24

  • Santa Fe man demands half a mill for being near iPhone

    Apple a day evidently not keeping the doctor away

    Arthur Firstenberg is suing his neighbour for $530,000 for refusing to switch off her iPhone, claiming that the electromagnetic fields generated are destroying his health. Not only does Mr. Firstenberg want the iPhone switched off, but he also reckons that leaving the iPhone and a laptop charging overnight is denying him the …

    Mobile 11 Jan 16:30

  • Seagate builds cloud on-ramp for ISVs

    Data protection is a cirrus business

    Seagate has added a smooth on-ramp to its i365 cloud by offering an API and connector service to ISVs like CA and C2C. Typically, Seagate's own on-premises EVault product would suck up data from a customer's servers and storage and whiz it up to the i365 cloud storage vault-in-the-sky. Now Seagate has, in effect, extracted …

    Storage 11 Jan 17:04

  • Progress moves forward with Savvion BPM buy

    Sales upswing in 2010. Profits? Not so much

    The collection of database, application development and integration tools peddled by Progress Software - many of which came to the company through acquisitions - was broadened again today as the company announced it was acquiring Savvion, which makes business process management (BPM) tools. Progress is shelling out $49m (net …

    Applications 11 Jan 17:29

  • Orange exec busts opens iSlate kimono

    Definitely maybe

    Apple’s long rumoured iSlate will launch within days, an Orange France exec says. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com In an interview with Europe 1 Stephane Richard, deputy CEO at Orange France, suggests he knows a fair bit about the gadget’s features and due date. Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, the "French …

    Reg Hardware 11 Jan 17:32

  • IBM sues ex-customer over unpaid $1.7m tab

    Transaction software not transacted

    IBM claims a New York-based brokerage firm downloaded $1.7 million worth of its online transaction software without bothering to settle a bill. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Big Blue says that the Euro Partners unit of BGC Partners downloaded extra copies of Informix software without paying for licensing fees between 2003 and …

    Applications 11 Jan 20:48

  • Google suggests Islam is nothing

    The metaphysics of search

    Google's search Suggest function treats Islam a bit differently from the other major religions of the world. It's willing to suggest "Christianity is bullshit" or "Judaism is false," but if you begin to ask what Islam is, it won't suggest a thing. Google says that this search oddity is a bug - and that its search gurus are …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 21:09

  • Judge awards Dish Network $51m from satellite pirate

    'Substantial and unquantifiable harm'

    A federal judge has slapped a $51m judgment on a Florida man for distributing software that allowed people to receive television programming from Dish Network without paying for it. The ruling, issued Monday by US District Judge James S. Moody Jr. of Tampa, found that Robert Ward violated both the Digital Millennium Copyright …

    Crime 11 Jan 22:16

  • Dell rolls out rugged OptiPlex PC for retailers

    OEMs, please form a line

    Dell has rolled out a ruggedized, OEM variant of its OptiPlex business-class PCs during the opening of National Retail Federation show in New York city. As part of our free-ranging discussion of the OEM and embedded systems business that helps Dell make its numbers each quarter, the computer maker let slip that it had the …

    PCs & Chips 11 Jan 23:01

  • Google book scanners apologize to Chinese scribes

    Sorry for the poor communication - not the scanning

    Google has publicly apologized to the Chinese Writers Association for inadequate communication with local writers over its Google Book Search project, an effort to digitize millions of texts inside various research libraries. But contrary to multiple press reports from the likes of Bloomberg and IDG News Service, the web giant …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 23:53