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21st April 2010 Archive

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  • Apple leaves profits on table for 'huge' iPad future

    Can't think of single thing netbook does well

    Apple has great faith in the "very large" market opportunity for the iPad - so much so that it's allowing "very aggressive" pricing of the magical and revolutionary device to slice into its profit margins. Speaking to reporters and analysts on a conference call announcing Cupertino's financial results for the quarter that …

    Mobile 21 Apr 2010, 04:10

  • Revo Heritage DAB/FM radio and iPod dock

    Review Retro styling meets state-of-the-art tech

    Most of us have music all over the place - on PCs or Macs, phones, PMPs and USB sticks. If you also like to spend time listening to the radio - FM, DAB or internet - things can get complicated. With this in mind, Scottish audio specialist Revo has concocted a one-box-does-it-all player that promises to tie all those musical …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 07:02

  • Luxury brands welcome EU law to restrict online sales

    Manufacturers get bigger say in distribution

    Manufacturers will be allowed to require their distributors to have 'brick and mortar' shops as well as an online presence under a Regulation published today that will change competition law across the EU from next month. Current laws have been criticised for lacking clarity over what manufacturers can and cannot do to control …

    Law 21 Apr 2010, 07:34

  • Ruby giant rolls hosted Memcached service

    Heroku to simplify EC2 'complexity'

    Ruby hosting giant Heroku is letting developers roll Memcached into their web-based applications for fast performance and internet-size scale. Heroku has released a Memcached add-on to its core hosting platform that runs atop Amazon's EC2, using start-up NotrthScale's Memcached Server. The Ruby host picked NorthScale having …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 08:02

  • Provisioning - how do you approach it?

    Workshop Has virtualisation changed expectations unfairly?

    Buying new physical servers has always taken time and effort. Unfortunately virtualisation has managed to create the perception that the provisioning of virtual machines is quick, easy and - very unfairly - free of charge. How has this expectation changed the necessary processes when new physical servers have to be acquired? …

    Server Management 21 Apr 2010, 08:21

  • Google seeks $1bn flight search engine

    Another buy for Chocolate Factory

    Google is going shopping again - it's in talks to buy travel search specialist ITA Software for more than $1bn. ITA, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts was founded in the mid-90s by boffins from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its flight search and shopping software is used by Orbitz, several US airlines and Microsoft. …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 08:25

  • Seagate neck and neck with WD in Q3

    Record hard drive shipments

    Seagate made more money than expected in its third fiscal 2010 quarter, due to record hard drive shipments of 50.3 million units and tight inventory controls. Eyes are now on rival Western Digital, which reports tomorrow, to see if it has beaten Seagate's production figures. In the latest quarter Seagate had revenues of $3. …

    Channel Register 21 Apr 2010, 08:44

  • Brain training games don't work, stupid

    BBC kills another market

    A BBC TV pop science programme has debunked the notion that brain training games make you smarter - with the help of thousands of viewers. Brain Test Britain was launched by Bang goes the Theory on BBC Lab UK last September, to find out if brain training has knock-on benefits for memory, planning and problem-solving. Some 67, …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 09:13

  • Dell EqualLogic engineering boss leaves

    Comment 'I'm taking a break'

    Paula Long, the driving force of EqualLogic engineering, has left Dell. She was VP of Storage for the Product Group focused on EqualLogic, and came to Dell with the EqualLogic acquisition. Its development centre stayed at Nashua, New Hampshire, separated from Dell HQ in Round Rock, Austin, Texas. Her LinkedIn entry reads: " …

    Storage 21 Apr 2010, 09:18

  • HP teases with smartbook spec

    AirLife's Arm chippery confirmed

    HP's first Android-based netbook, the Compaq AirLife 100, is now confirmed to use an Arm chip, the manufacturer's website reveals.. The AirLife 100, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress show two months ago, incorporates a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor - the QSD8250 - plus 512MB of memory, 512MB of Flash Rom …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 09:24

  • Space station sphere-sats to collect rocks from Mars

    Star Wars balldroids in chase above red planet

    It's all go this week in the field of tiny, spherical robots that float inside the International Space Station (ISS) on their own independent orbits about the Earth. Not only are the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) units to be upgraded by DARPA with various radical new …

    Space 21 Apr 2010, 09:36

  • Official: Apple iPhone is a chick magnet

    Update Forget speed dating, you need a Jesus Phone

    Guys, want to get girls? Then buy yourself an iPhone. According to a survey of 1500 women carried out on behalf of Phones4U*, men who own an iPhone are more attrative than those who don't. The retailer said today that 54 per cent of respondents said they would more likely date a fellow if he owns an iPhone. Just over a third …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 09:44

  • American teens love texting

    Catching up with world+dog

    For years, Americans were bemused by the rest of the world's obsession with texting. After all, they had free local calls on their landlines, unlike elsewhere, and sucky cell phone calling plans. These days, SMS messages cost no more than anywhere else - and America's teenagers are fast catching up with their overseas …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 09:56

  • Supporting the teleworkers: Redux

    Workshop ‘At Home, No One Can Tell If You Have Your Pants On’

    The issue of providing IT support to home-based users always attracts a lot of responses from the IT pro readership on El Reg, as illustrated by Jon Collins’ recent article. The bottom line is that most of you who expressed an opinion think that supporting teleworkers is not actually that big of a deal, as long as some sensible …

    Desktop Management 21 Apr 2010, 10:05

  • Intel Classmate PC comes to UK

    Tough enough to take 'Shazza 4 Bazza' scrawls?

    Intel has launched the latest incarnation of its Classmate PC - announced earlier this year - in the UK ahead of the gadget's arrival next month. Intel's latest Classmate PC: from clamsell... The Atom-based convertible sports a largely standard netbook spec - Atom CPU, 10.1in, 1024 x 600 display and integrated Wi-Fi - but …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 10:08

  • UK almost tops international Google-snoop league

    Woo! Number 1!

    British authorities demand more data on Google users per capita than almost any other major democracy, newly-published figures have revealed. The dominant search engine received 1,166 requests for private user data from British government organisations - the vast majority very likely from police and the intelligence agencies …

    Government 21 Apr 2010, 10:16

  • The road to high availability systems

    Webcast Broadcasting live and direct

    While the vision of IT might be rows of gleaming systems running standardised applications, the truth is that many organisations struggle with their IT environments as wave after wave of new IT projects have had to work alongside older kit and software. The end result is felt most keenly in terms of service delivery meaning IT …

    Platform Evolution 21 Apr 2010, 10:27

  • PARIS hacked Canon: 108 minutes, 1,298 stills

    Better batteries resolve PowerShot power-down

    The El Reg Paper Aircraft Released into Space (PARIS) team reckons it's fingered the reason for the Canon A560 power-down, and yes, it's a matter of the batteries, as many of you pointed out. To recap, our main space payload will be packed with goodies including video camera, GPS tracking unit, mobile phone and the …

    PARIS 21 Apr 2010, 10:30

  • Facebook sinks Lite

    Not enough fluff

    Facebook has shelved its "lite" version for the bandwidth challenged, saying that the service was a learning experience but one that's no longer needed. Facebook Lite was launched last summer, aimed at developing markets where bandwidth isn't such a ubiquitous commodity, but despite locking some users into it the service was …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 10:34

  • Lenovo intros eco-friendly ThinkPads

    Partly made from old pop bottles

    Lenovo has introduced its latest line in ThinkPad laptops, touting the new machines' affordability, eco-friendliness and "military grade durability". On offer, the 14in L412 and 15in L512. Both series come in versions equipped with Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors. Some models use the graphics cores integrated into the …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 10:36

  • Mozilla blocks Firefox Java plugin

    Plug out, baby

    Mozilla has begun blocking an unsecured Java plugin for its Firefox browser. The move, applied through the open source outfit's Plugin Check feature, is intended to protect Firefox fans from a recently discovered security flaw affecting the Java Deployment Toolkit on multiple flavours of Firefox. Discussions on Bugzilla show …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 10:54

  • HP offers gaming PC buyers free game

    Read the small print

    HP is giving away one of its a laser gaming mouse, a digital headset and copies of Battlefield Bad Company 2 to anyone who buys one of its Pavilion Elite Desktop 150 or 180 PCs. There's always a catch of course, and here there are several. First, you have to buy the PC and the named peripherals - HP Laser Gaming Mouse (model …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 11:08

  • Mozilla to cordon off plugin crashes with Firefox 3.6.4 beta

    Hopes to cure Adobe, Microsoft, Apple headaches

    Mozilla released a public beta of Firefox 3.6.4 yesterday, which also debuted “Lorentz” - a project that the open source outfit is hoping will stablise browsing for Windows and Linux users when Adobe’s Flash, Apple’s Quicktime and Microsoft’s Silverlight plugins crash. The browser maker currently claims that 400 million people …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 11:09

  • Bluetooth 4 comes out punching, takes aims at elderly

    Low power, big demand?

    The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is trying to drum up interest in the next version of the standard, before Zigbee, Z-Wave and NFC steal the march on short-range radios. Bluetooth version 4 was announced in December, and the new edict from the SIG contains few details beyond speculation about a range of 200 feet, lots of …

    Mobile 21 Apr 2010, 11:26

  • Astra satellite to beam in free 3D TV content

    Something to watch at last?

    SES Astra, the company that owns the Astra satellite used to beam Sky and Freesat to the UK, will next month begin transmitting free 3D content. However, 3D TV buffs needn't get their hopes up too far. The channel, which begins broadcasting on 4 May, will initially be aimed at retailers and installers, and will feature "demo" …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 11:30

  • Lucky Lib Dem punter could clear £800k on Clegg victory

    Political betting has never looked more profitable

    If the Lib Dems achieve the unexpected and romp home on May 6, it is not just the political pundits who are likely to be put out – but the bookies too, with one canny punter possibly clearing the best part of a million pounds. There may even be occasion for The Reg to eat a small portion of humble pie, as our last words on …

    Government 21 Apr 2010, 11:39

  • Microsoft rejigs enterprise end point security management

    Updated Redmond retires Forefront Protection Manager

    Microsoft has decided to drop a standalone anti-malware management product in order to concentrate on server-based security and management software and hosted services. The management component of Stirling, the already delayed next generation of the Microsoft Forefront Protection Suite for end points (business PC anti-virus), …

    Enterprise Security 21 Apr 2010, 11:52

  • Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 smartphone

    Review Windows Mobile out, Android in – hurrah!

    Sony Ericsson hasn't had a great deal of luck with its premium Xperia smartphone series. The original X1 was an ill-conceived mangle of style and smartphone that didn't really succeed at doing anything very well. More recently, the hotly hyped Xperia 2 was unceremoniously pulled from UK release after Vodafone announced that it …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 12:02

  • Lizard People drop ACTA draft from Black Helicopter

    A giant scaly footprint in the face of humanity?

    Emerging briefly from their underground volcano lair, the shadowy A.C.T.A. organisation has released their latest list of demands. It's another relentless march towards global New World Order governance. Actually, that's how a few bloggers and even professional hacks have portrayed it. But what's wrong with this picture? …

    Law 21 Apr 2010, 12:11

  • Johnson: ID cards will pay for themselves

    'Absolute nonsense' - Huhne

    The home secretary has said that the identity scheme's budget will be recouped through charging the public for the cards. Speaking during a crime debate on BBC Daily Politics programme on 20 April 2010, Alan Johnson said scrapping the identity card scheme at this stage would be counterproductive and a "waste". "The money all …

    Government 21 Apr 2010, 12:14

  • Cybercrooks befuddled by Icelandic volcano name

    How do you spell that, again?

    Scareware slingers have balked at using the name of the Icelandic volcano that this week has prevented planes flying across much of Europe as a theme for search engine manipulation campaigns because its name is simply too complicated. Distributors of rogue security software can normally be relied upon to latch onto any item of …

    Crime 21 Apr 2010, 13:12

  • Google Maps Navigation comes to UK

    The Marauder's Map

    Google has released free, turn-by-turn, GPS navigation software for the UK. OK, it's in Beta and it's available for Android phones only, and Google Maps invariably sends you the wrong way the last mile or two. But it's free, free, I tell you. Google Maps Navigation (Beta) requires internet connectivity, which means it probably …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 13:13

  • EU appoints 'reflection group' to put euro culture online

    A Frenchman, a German and a Belgian walk into a library...

    The European Commission has appointed a Frenchman, a Belgian and a German to "reflect" on how best to drag Europe's cultural heritage online. The appointment of Publicis CEO Maurive Lecy, German national library boss Elisabeth Niggemann and writer Jacques de Drecker is the EU's latest move in its lightning campaign to keep …

    Music and Media 21 Apr 2010, 13:27

  • Adobe gives up on the iPhone

    Ain't gonna work with Steve no more

    Adobe has said it won't be developing any more versions of its packager, which allowed Flash applications to be recompiled for the iPhone. Instead Android will be its focus in the future. Apple doesn't want Flash on the iPhone, so Adobe fitted its development platform with "Packager for iPhone" which compiles Flash apps into …

    Mobile 21 Apr 2010, 13:41

  • Blizzard zaps 320,000 WoW and Diablo users

    Take that, you varmints

    Blizzard Entertainment is warning users of the Battle.net online gaming service to play by the rules or else… In a statement yesterday on the Battlenet forums, the company said it recently banned more than 320,00 Warcraft III and Diablo II accounts for violating Battle.net Ts&Cs. First time offenders have the the CD key …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 13:44

  • Microsoft kicks SQL Server 2008 R2 out the door

    Manufacturers handed code

    Microsoft released code for SQL Server 2008 R2 to manufacturers today. The company is expected to officially announce that the software has been shipped later this afternoon, UK time. Softpedia reported earlier today that SQL Server 2008 R2 had hit manufacturers after spotting that Microsoft had prematurely let slip RTM tags …

    Developer 21 Apr 2010, 14:01

  • WD intros Nas-linked iPhone app

    View your pics over the network

    Western Digital has rolled out an app to allow iPhone users to view pictures placed on its Nas boxes. The WD Photos taps into WD's MioNet online file access service, so users will need to set up a MioNet account - registration is free, WD said. Photos placed in the Nas boxes' Shared Pictures folder can then be searched, …

    reghardware 21 Apr 2010, 14:14

  • US X-37B robot minishuttle: 'Secret space warplane'?

    No, but it could do some naughty orbital stuff

    Tomorrow, the US Air Force will finally launch the long-delayed X-37B unmanned mini space shuttle, dubbed by the Iranian government a "secret space warplane". But what is it actually for? Probably nothing hostile, most of the time, is the answer. But it could do some quite naughty and interesting things if required - and what' …

    Space 21 Apr 2010, 14:21

  • Cameron promises yet more Avatar

    Cinematic re-release plus oceanic sequel

    Those of you who simply haven't had enough Avatar will be pleased to learn that James Cameron has revealed he's planning a sequel in which he'll be "focusing on the ocean on Pandora". Speaking to the LA Times, the helmsman described this new environment as "equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative" as Avatar's …

    Entertainment 21 Apr 2010, 14:25

  • PC sales jump in Europe

    Eastern Europe buoys up rest of continent

    PC sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are up 22 per cent on the same period last year pushed higher by a big boom in sales in eastern Europe. Shipments overall were up 22 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2009. This growth was mainly pushed by what IDC describes as "Central Eastern Europe", which admittedly …

    Channel Register 21 Apr 2010, 14:32

  • C language inventor spurns Google's language exam

    So Mr Thompson, you say you have some programming skills...

    Google won't allow the co-inventor of Unix and the C language to check-in code, because he won't take the mandatory language test. Between 1969 and 1973, Ken Thompson created Unix with Dennis Ritchie. At the same time he also developed the C language. The speed and simplicity of C helped Unix spread widely. Both have …

    Developer 21 Apr 2010, 15:12

  • RHEL 6 gets its first beta

    Massive scale, less virty overhead

    The bit twiddlers at Red Hat have been hard at work for the past four years, laying the groundwork in the upstream Linux kernel for what will become Enterprise Linux 6, says Tim Burke, vice president of Linux engineering development at the company. And with RHEL 6, which just entered its first beta today, the company wants to …

    Operating Systems 21 Apr 2010, 15:20

  • Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 R2 aims high (and low)

    Software giant lines up desktop, cloud, data centre battle ships

    Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available for download for the company's TechNet and MSDN subscribers from 3 May, while customers worldwide will get their hands on the database software from 13 May. The release itself was 20 months in the making and is, in effect, a fairly minor upgrade to SQL Server 2008. The company' …

    Developer 21 Apr 2010, 16:05

  • VMware sales up smartly in Q1

    Eight-figure Euro deal

    VMware may be the juggernaut of the server virtualization racket right now, but its bottom line is showing the signs of intense competition from Microsoft, Citrix Systems, Red Hat, and Oracle. In the first quarter ended in March, VMware posted sales of $633.5m, up a sweet 34.7 per cent from last year's first quarter, when …

    Financial News 21 Apr 2010, 16:59

  • McAfee false positive bricks enterprise PCs worldwide

    World of hurt

    Enterprise customers of a widely used McAfee anti-virus product were in a world of hurt on Wednesday after an update caused large swaths of their machines to become completely inoperable. The problem started around 2 pm GMT when McAfee pushed out DAT 5958 to users of VirusScan Enterprise. The virus definition falsely identifies …

    Malware 21 Apr 2010, 18:43

  • Nokia: digital SLRs are doomed

    Hail the conquering cameraphone!

    One of the web's "25 most influential people" says that camera phones will soon make digital SLRs obsolete. "There will be no need to carry around those heavy lenses," Nokia's marketing EVP Anssi Vanjoki told a gathering in Helsinki, according to Reuters. Citing continuing improvements in cameraphone technology, Vanjoki said …

    Mobile 21 Apr 2010, 19:27

  • Google borgs Steve Jobs refugees for 'tablet' smarts

    From PA Semi to Apple to the GPad

    Google has acquired a chip maker staffed by former Apple engineers, with an apparent interest in using their chip smarts to move the Chrome and Android OSes onto things like iPad-chasing tablets and TV set-top boxes. The chip maker is known as Agnilux, and it was co-founded by Mark Hayter, one of the leading system architects …

    Mobile 21 Apr 2010, 20:18

  • Tomcat for Ubuntu and Debian gets Mule kick

    Linux love for open-source Java

    After a kicking from a mule, Java sites and applications on servers running the next versions of Ubuntu and Debian should be more reliable . The packages for Apache Software Foundation's Tomcat in Ubuntu 10.04 and Debian 6.0 have been updated to avoid sudden shut downs and unreliable re-starts. The mule in question is …

    Developer 21 Apr 2010, 21:05

  • 'Gossips' say Apple will acquire ARM

    Financial people will talk

    London's financial district is "aflame" with rumors of a possible takeover of ARM by a company that only yesterday announced that it was sitting on a cash reserve of $41.7bn: Apple. With that amount of liquidity sloshing around, such a takeover would be by no means unrealistic for Jobs & Co. According to Wednesday's Evening …

    Business 21 Apr 2010, 21:30

  • HP preps Tukwila servers for April 27

    Bearing witness for Itanium

    We've all been wondering where Hewlett-Packard's high-end servers using Intel's latest Itanium and Xeon processors have been hiding. Well, it looks like the Itanium boxes will be announced on April 27. The company is being tight-lipped about exactly what it has planned for the April 27 event, but it appears to involve …

    Servers 21 Apr 2010, 21:50

  • Obama open sources custom White House code

    DrupalCon A long way from Dubya

    The Obama White House has contributed code back to the Drupal community, six months after it made headlines by adopting the open source CMS. Dave Cole, a senior advisor to the CIO of the Executive Office of the President, announced the code release this afternoon during a keynote at the DrupalCon trade show in downtown San …

    Developer 21 Apr 2010, 23:13

  • Microsoft tests Facebook Office docs against Google

    Productivity comes to FarmVille

    Facebook has become a new front end to Office 2010 and Microsoft's latest shot back at Google's free and hosted Docs suite. The company has unveiled a beta of something called simply Docs that for the first time will let Facebookers create and share documents authored in Office 2010. Docs is based on Office Web apps, the …

    Applications 21 Apr 2010, 23:50