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13th May 2010 Archive

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  • HTC slaps back at Apple patent slap

    'I'll see your tit and raise you a tat'

    HTC has fought back against Apple's patent suit with - you guessed it - a patent suit. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones," Jason Mackenzie, the company's VP for North America, said on Wednesday in a …

    Phones 13 May 2010, 00:21

  • Drifting zombiesat could disrupt TV programming

    Containing Galaxy 15

    Technicians are scrambling to keep an out-of-control satellite from interfering with US television programming as it drifts into the orbit of another satellite. Galaxy 15, operated by Luxembourg-based Intelsat, stopped responding to ground controllers last month and has gradually been drifting about a tenth of a degree per day …

    Science 13 May 2010, 00:22

  • WhipTail whips VDI's ass

    Cheaper than disk

    WhipTail claims that its flashy solid state XLR8r appliance is more cost-effective than EMC and NetApp disk drive arrays for hosting virtual desktop images (VDIs). The device is known as the Racerunner Virtual Desktop XLR8r. Accelerator. Geddit? WhipTail's pitch is that it's cheaper to host thousands of VDIs on this than on …

    Storage 13 May 2010, 06:02

  • Ten free apps to install on every new Mac

    Product Round-up Freeware to fill in the gaps

    Apple provides plenty of free software to get you started with a new Mac. But there are some gaps, and a number of the firm's own freebies have been improved upon by some equally inexpensive alternatives. Here, then, is our selection of the ten apps you should download onto every new Mac you buy. Adium Adium is the multi- …

    Top Ten 13 May 2010, 07:02

  • SAP lays down $5.8bn for Sybase

    Will integrate mobile platform with all products

    German giant SAP has bought Sybase for $5.8bn - a big premium for the database and mobile firm. The deal gives Sybase shareholders $65 per share - 44 per cent more than the shares have been worth, on average, over the last three months. SAP is using its own cash and a $2.75bn loan from Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital to …

    Servers 13 May 2010, 08:19

  • But is that really cloud computing?

    Conclusions from recent reader poll

    Some have accused me of being a cloud computing sceptic, and it’s true that I have not been one for pulling punches in some of my previous articles on the topic (see here, here, here and here, for example). Let’s be absolutely clear, though - my criticisms have largely been around the language and messaging used by vendors, …

    Servers 13 May 2010, 08:27

  • Obama to promote RIAA's favourite lawyer

    'He's in danger of losing the Internet!'

    The prosecutor who spanked the World's Dumbest File Sharer, Jammie Thomas, is set to be the US' next Solicitor General. The Solicitor General represents the US Government in Supreme Court cases, and there's a vacancy after the current incumbent Elena Kagan became the latest Court appointment. Don Verrilli also led the …

    Media 13 May 2010, 08:49

  • LimeWire induces infringement, Judge rules

    Shown to profit from illegal file sharing

    A US District Court has has ruled that the company behind the LimeWire P2P software is responsible for inducing copyright infringement, even though the software theoretically has quite legitimate, non-infringing uses. It's likely to be the end for the company, which markets the most popular file sharing client worldwide. The …

    Broadband 13 May 2010, 09:02

  • Neil Armstrong renews attack on Obama space vision

    Prez 'poorly advised', insists Moon vet

    Neil Armstrong has renewed his criticism of Barack Obama's space vision, insisting that the president's decision to scrap Constellation and head off to Mars was "poorly advised". Speaking yesterday to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Armstrong said: "I have yet to find a person in NASA, the Defense …

    Science 13 May 2010, 09:09

  • Norks 'have answer to humanity's greatest problem'

    Insane dictator's amazing claim

    The North Korean regime says that its scientists have solved most of humanity's problems by developing controlled nuclear fusion. Unfortunately this is almost certainly a lie. Nork state media reports that North Korean researchers have developed a "unique thermo-nuclear reaction device" with potential to end the human race's …

    Science 13 May 2010, 09:25

  • BT expands fibre rollout

    Cuts bring profits

    BT has pledged it will invest a further £1bn in its expanding fibre optic network, and is now aiming to cover about two-thirds of the country by 2015. The plan brings the total value of the programme to £2.5bn. BT had previously committed £1.5bn to lay fibre-to-the-cabinet or fibre-to-the-premises to about 40 per cent of homes …

    Broadband 13 May 2010, 09:34

  • BT preps games-on-demand online service

    Strikes deal with OnLive

    BT will bring online games-on-demand sales and play to its broadband customers later this year. The telco telco today said it has agreed to bring US-based OnLive Game Service to the UK. OnLive feeds "the latest games from many of the world’s leading publishers" to PCs, Mac and even internet-connected TVs - with a suitable …

    Games 13 May 2010, 09:52

  • Woman loses Bebo privacy case against lad mag

    'Questionable tastefulness'

    A magazine did not intrude into a young woman's privacy when it published photos that she had uploaded to social networking site Bebo when she was 15 because the images had already been widely circulated online. The woman complained to press self-regulatory body the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). She said that an article …

    Law 13 May 2010, 10:05

  • Toshiba mulls hybrid flash and spinning drive

    SSD + HDD = SSHD

    Toshiba is considering building a hybrid solid state hard drive containing flash memory and a spinning disk. Tech-On reports that the company announced its NAND flash strategies in Japan on May 11. Toshiba said: "The hybrid of HDD and SSD enables to save energy. It enables to save energy by about 80 per cent compared with a …

    Storage 13 May 2010, 10:08

  • UK iPad ship date slips

    First UK units now all allocated?

    Looking forward to picking up an Apple iPad when it goes on sale here at the end of this month? If you're planning to put in an advance order, you may have a little longer to wait. Apple's UK online store is now saying the "magical" gadget may not ship to pre-order punters for more than a week after the iPad goes on sale. Due …

    Tablets 13 May 2010, 10:10

  • Sony to stream World Cup footage to internet tellies

    On-demand archive material

    Football fans who own a Sony Bravia internet-connected TV - such as the rather fine 32in KDL-EX703, reviewed here - or a Blu-ray Disc player will be able to take a gander at a host of Fifa-filmed content. According to Sony, the video material on offer will include: 20 Fifa World Cup Moments - highlights from 18 tournaments …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 10:35

  • McKinnon campaign urges coalition to block extradition

    New ministers prodded to honour promises in opposition

    Family and supporters of accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon are hopeful that the new Lib-Con government will honour promises made in opposition and bring a halt to controversial extradition proceedings. Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg supported the campaign against the extradition of the Asperger's sufferer to the US to …

    Law 13 May 2010, 10:36

  • Bill Gates backs ball-busting ultrasound

    Grant to probe male contraceptive method

    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has stumped up $100,000 to fund University of North Carolina research into using ultrasound as a male contraceptive method. The promising technique simply blasts a chaps' 'nads with ultrasound, stopping sperm production. Once the available supply is exhausted, the man is infertile for up …

    Science 13 May 2010, 10:41

  • Toshiba mulls merged hard and Flash drives

    SSD + HDD = SSHD?

    Toshiba is considering the creation of a hybrid solid-state hard drive containing Flash storage and a spinning disk. Japanese newssite Tech-On reports that the company announced that combining HDD and SSD technology makes for an 80 per cent power saving over old-style HDDs. Getting data stored in the Flash wouldn't require …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 10:44

  • IWF: Good on child abuse...

    ...obscenity, racism, not so much

    The Internet Watch Foundation is coming of age. Over the last few years it has transformed from an organisation apparently focused on takedown figures and URL hit rates into something altogether more strategic and sophisticated, in line with the nature and scale of the problem it sees itself as dealing with. The headline …

    Law 13 May 2010, 10:56

  • Mighty hard-sums special function toolset goes online

    Keys to the universe offered free by US gov

    US federal boffins are chuffed as ninepence to announce that they have transformed their "most widely cited publication of all time" - a huge handbook/toolkit of hard sums - into an online service. The work in question is the mighty Handbook of Mathematical Functions from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology ( …

    Science 13 May 2010, 11:07

  • Google sets sights on the dashboard

    General Motors in Android pitch

    Google is reportedly in talks with General Motors about putting Android into cars, allowing remote unlocking and startup while rendering GM's OnStar product redundant. Motor Trend, reporting the talks, reckons that last part might prove a sticking point for the companies, as OnStar has been quite a success for GM. But the …

    Applications 13 May 2010, 11:19

  • Samsung shows surround sound 3D home theatre set

    WOOT?

    Samsung has shown off what it claims is the "ultimate experience in 3D stereoscopic images and 3D sound". Well, it would, wouldn't it? But there's an undeniable WOOT quality to the HT-C6930W, described by Samsung as the "world’s first 3D home theatre" rig. The 1330W HT-C6930W comprises seven speakers - four floor-standing …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 11:30

  • Facebook convenes privacy 'crisis' meeting

    What are they planning?

    Facebook has called a general meeting on privacy amid widespread user discontent over a succession of privacy-eroding changes by the social network. The "all hands meeting" of Facebook staffers is due to take place at 4pm PDT on Thursday. It follows a critically panned attempt by Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president for …

    Security 13 May 2010, 11:37

  • Debenhams wows shoppers with free delivery offer

    Redefining the online shopping paradigm

    Those of you wishing to take advantage of Debenhams' Summer Spectacular 25 per cent off e-commerce consumer frenzy will be delighted to learn that the store is offering an added incentive for punters to flash the plastic on the interwebs: Nice one. Debenhams explains that its "new collect from store delivery option means you …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 11:39

  • Avatar discs in 'hugely popular' shock

    Navi-tards, rejoice

    Almost 20m copies of Avatar have left 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's warehouses, the video distributor claimed yesterday. That total comprises both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases. The latter totalled 6.2m - almost a third of the total 19.7m disc shipments. Not all of them are over-the-counter sales, mind, as a trip …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 11:52

  • Google search piles on pounds of facts to score fat dollar

    Hopes to keep users on Chocolate Factory web pages for longer

    Google has tweaked how its results are displayed in its recently overhauled search engine in a move to keep users on its web pages for longer. Exactly a year since the company launched Google Squared, which is the Mountain View Chocolate Factory’s attempt at structured data search, Google has rolled out new features to take …

    Applications 13 May 2010, 11:58

  • Robot cars can now do a Rockford into a parking space

    Vids Blagger/spec-ops J-turn tactic automated

    At last robot-car boffins have achieved something useful: they have developed a vehicle which is capable of carrying out a J-turn of the sort favoured by stunt drivers, criminals and undercover operatives - precisely into a parking space. Here's a vid* uploaded by J Zico Kolter, PhD student at Stanford university's Computer …

    Science 13 May 2010, 12:25

  • Competitors vie to provide earthquake-proof radios

    Can you hear me now?

    The Wireless Innovation Forum has announced the winners of its competition to find a radio technology suitable for use following a 15 gigaton earthquake. Skipping over the huge loss of life and general destruction wreaked by a magnitude 10 earthquake - more than 10 times the size of the Indian Ocean quake of 2004 - the Forum …

    Broadband 13 May 2010, 12:53

  • ConLibs to outlaw kiddyprinting without permission

    Dabs grab confab blab

    The new government plans to ban the controversial practice in schools of taking children's fingerprints without their permission. The decision is likely to mean a change in the law. According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), as it stands the Data Protection Act allows schools to take pupil fingerprints without …

    Law 13 May 2010, 12:56

  • Cideko Air Keyboard motion controller

    Review Wii 'mote, meet keypad

    Imagine the result of a quick bunk-up between a wireless keyboard, a regular games controller and a Wii Remote, and you will be close to understanding what the Air Keyboard controller is all about. Cideko's Air Keyboard: Back and dongle The Air consists of two units: a two-handed controller about the same size and weight as …

    Hardware 13 May 2010, 13:02

  • Whitehall's new IT minister, who's it gonna be?

    Francis Maude gets top Cabinet Office job

    David Cameron has taken on Francis Maude as minister for the Cabinet Office, but the MP set to be handed the ConLib coalition government’s IT brief is yet to be announced. Oliver Letwin, meanwhile, has become the minister of state in the Cabinet Office, where he will act as the new Prime Minister’s policy advisor. Maude has …

    Government 13 May 2010, 14:26

  • Mystery fungus smacks Afghan opium poppies

    Yields down, prices up

    Afghanistan's opium farmers are facing a lean harvest due to a mystery fungus which has seriously affected half of Papaver somniferum poppies in the country's Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The infection "attacks the root of the plant, climbs up the stem and makes the opium capsule wither away", the BBC outlines. Some farmers …

    Science 13 May 2010, 14:30

  • German Wi-Fi networks liable for 3rd party piracy

    Leave connection open, risk fine

    German surfers risk fines of €100 if their open Wi-Fi connection gets used to download copyright-infringing material. The regulation follows a ruling in Germany's top criminal court on Wednesday, AP reports. The Karlsruhe court ruled that Wi-Fi owners are liable for abuse by a third party in cases where they fail to password- …

    Broadband 13 May 2010, 14:46

  • Net Neutrality panic based on student MBA project

    The new Red Scare

    Net Neutrality, the web-era equivalent of the McCarthyite Red Scare, is a political creation that feeds on paranoia, technical ignorance and gullibility. How fortunate we are that these are so abundant on the internet. This week the scare claimed several more victims, including the popular blog Boing Boing. Yesterday the Soros …

    Broadband 13 May 2010, 14:55

  • E3 outing for second-gen PSP?

    Sony will unveil a new PlayStation Portable at next month's games industry shindig, E3, it has been claimed. Games industry mag MCV is doing the claiming, based on information it received indicating that two "key" publishers are significantly upping their marketing budget for Q4. We're not sure why that points the near-term …

    Games 13 May 2010, 15:44

  • Twitter-controlled botnets come to the unwashed masses

    'Script kiddies everywhere are salivating'

    A security researcher has unearthed a tool that simplifies the process of building bot armies that take their marching orders from specially created Twitter accounts. TwitterNet Builder offers script kiddies a point-type-and-click interface that forces infected PCs to take commands from a Twitter account under the control of …

    Security 13 May 2010, 18:11

  • Novell preps service pack for SUSE Linux 11

    Keeping up with the Red Hatters

    Novell is close to launching Service Pack 1 for SUSE Linux 11 on the desktop and server. Which stands to reason. With all the new server iron being injected into the market, (and more to come later this year) and an impending release of Enterprise Linux 6 from Red Hat and the just-released Ubuntu 10.04 from Canonical, …

    Operating Systems 13 May 2010, 18:33

  • Symantec says get HEP to the cloud

    Throw your security servers onto the fire

    Symantec is telling small and medium enterprises to remove their security servers and let its HEP cloud service do the job instead. SMEs will often have dedicated hardware or a server to look after site IT security. They could run Symantec's Endpoint Protection product in such a server to protect their notebooks, desktops, and …

    Security 13 May 2010, 18:39

  • Adobe declares 'LOVE' for Apple

    Love means never having to say you're 100% proprietary

    Adobe now says it loves Apple. But that's just a way of getting your attention so it can point out that it doesn't love Steve Jobs' pathological efforts to control the world's developers. On Thursday morning, Adobe launched a new ad campaign in newspapers across the globe that catches the eye with an apparent change in …

    Developer 13 May 2010, 18:54

  • Ellison slams former Sun CEO for blogginess

    No way to run a business

    Blogs are no substitute for smart business strategy, according to new Sun Microsystems owner Larry Ellison. Oracle's billionaire chief executive has laid into Sun's famously blog-tastic former chief executive Jonathan Schwartz, criticizing his management style and accusing him of a catalogue of poor decisions and business …

    Servers 13 May 2010, 19:06

  • Rumor mill repromises CDMA iPhone

    El Reg foresees Chinese touchdown

    It's time to launch a swarm Verizon iPhone rumors again - then swat them down. The market-watchers at DigiTimes report that orders for 10 million CDMA iPhones have been received by Pegatron, a prominent Taiwanese design and manufacturing company. According to DigiTimes, "sources from component makers" say that Pegatron has …

    Mobile 13 May 2010, 19:32

  • Ubuntu open to greater touch

    Canonical gets physical

    You'll want to touch Ubuntu in personal places - like in your kitchen or in your car. At least that's what Canonical hopes, as it works on architectural changes and business deals to put the Linux distro on more embedded systems. But smartphones, the industry's current fixation, are out of the picture. Canonical is looking at …

    Software 13 May 2010, 20:25

  • Single group did 66% of world's phishing

    Avalanche of attacks

    A single criminal operation was responsible for two-thirds of all phishing attacks in the second half of 2009 and is responsible for a two-fold increase in the crime, a report published this week said. The Avalanche gang is believed to have risen out of the ashes of the Rock Phish outfit, which by some estimates was responsible …

    Security 13 May 2010, 22:02

  • Google heats up native code for Chrome OS

    Salt, Pepper, and a whole lotta plug-in

    Google has released a preliminary software development kit for Native Client, its native-code browser plug-in. The company unveiled its Native Client SDK "developer preview" with a blog post on Wednesday, calling it "an important first step in making Native Client more accessible as a tool for developing real web applications …

    Developer 13 May 2010, 23:54