3rd June 2010 Archive

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Intel answers Microsoft's Linux 'noise' with MeeGo show

Wintel partners vie to be next Apple

Microsoft and Intel are fighting for the affections of hardware makers as the PC industry tries to answer Apple's iPad. The world's biggest software company used the annual Computex show in Taiwan to release a preview of Windows Embedded Compact 7 — the latest rebranded version of Windows CE, which has been promised on tablets …

Operating Systems 3 Jun 2010, 04:53
Boffins use Solaris to store the real Sun

Satellite image bank

Space watchers at the University of Central Lancashire are using Solaris ZFS and Sun Fire storage to hold a burgeoning stack of close-up pics of the real Sun. UCLan became a university in 1992, previously being the Lancashire Polytechnic. It was founded as the Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1828 by Joseph …

Storage 3 Jun 2010, 06:02
Ten Essential... BlackBerry Apps

Product Round-up For business and pleasure

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones are a staple communications tool in the business world, but also have a growing consumer base too. With mobile apps enhancing the capabilities of these phones in both sectors, some pickings from the company’s App World seemed in order, to see what extra juice you can squeeze out of …

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 07:02
Council lost unencrypted children's health info

Data policy checks 'inadequate' - ICO

A local authority has lost an unencrypted memory stick with details of children's and young people's mental and physical health as well as their ethnicity, privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said. The details, said to be of 'a handful' of children, would be available to anyone finding the memory …

Government 3 Jun 2010, 07:43
Guardian says dating site rivals violated database rights

Issues writ against content scrapers

The Guardian newspaper has sued two online dating sites in the High Court, claiming that the companies have violated its database rights by using profiles taken from its own dating service. Guardian News and Media (GNM) operates the Guardian Soulmates dating service and has claimed that Dating Network Limited and Xfactor …

CIO 3 Jun 2010, 07:59
Britain's bank slashes tech jobs

Keeping taxpayers' money safe by sacking taxpayers

Royal Bank of Scotland - which is mostly owned by us - is slashing back office and technology jobs in its wealth management division. The bank stressed it would try to avoid compulsory redundancies and said that less than a quarter of the previous 2,600 redundancies in its insurance business were compulsory. The bank said: " …

CIO 3 Jun 2010, 08:06
FTC slaps down ~~commercial~~ keylogger firm

No more sneaky stuff, mister

CyberSpy Software, which markets the controversial RemoteSpy commercial keylogging application, has agreed to rewrite the software and clean up its business practices to settle a case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission. RemoteSpy was marketed as a “100 per cent undetectable” app that might be used to “Spy on Anyone. …

Malware 3 Jun 2010, 08:48
Reader offer: Crucial Solid State Drives

Discount code

Readers can buy Crucial SSDs at a 15 per cent discount - check out our review here. Go to the Crucial UK store and quote this exclusive discount code: REG10SSD. The offer runs from June 3-June 9.

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 08:50
Drinking coffee offers no real benefit, say eggheads

Refuse to acknowledge superiority of Homo caffeinus

Deluded trick-cyclists in the UK and Germany have produced "research" purporting to show that coffee drinkers receive no tangible benefit from their morning cup of beautiful, life-giving beany caffeine goodness. The foolishness was presided over by Peter Rogers of Bristol Uni's experimental psycho department. He and his allied …

Biology 3 Jun 2010, 09:06
Google readies 'late fall' Chrome OS release

Just how late is late?

Google is planning to spin out its browser-based Chrome OS "operating system" in the "late fall" of 2010, according to a Mountain View wonk. Sundar Pichai, who was speaking at the Computex show yesterday, said the company's Windows rival would arrive later this year. However, Google's product management veep didn't nail a …

Operating Systems 3 Jun 2010, 09:29
Samsung warns over malwarey Wave smartphones in Germany

Pre-packaged Bada badness

Early users of Samsung S8500 Wave smartphones could be in for a nasty surprise, following the discovery that some of the devices shipped with malware pre-installed on memory cards. The 1GB microSD card that shipped with the Bada platform-based "iPhone killer" came installed with Windows-based malware that attempted to infect …

Mobile 3 Jun 2010, 09:43
HP's Palm buy was all about WebOS

Not a mobile phone play

HP's CEO has been explaining that the company didn't buy Palm for its mobile phones, but for access to WebOS with a view to spreading the platform far and wide. Mark Hurd, CEO of HP, was speaking at a technology conference hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as reported by ZDNet. He explained that spending $1.2bn on Palm …

Mobile 3 Jun 2010, 10:07
Zuckerberg sweats privacy criticism

I'm perspiring, bitch

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has again defended his company's privacy policies, this time with added sweat. The perspiring boy-droid took to the stage at the D8 conference yesterday, where observers said he looked ill at ease facing questions about Facebook's latest PR wobble. According to the New York Times, Zuckerberg …

ID 3 Jun 2010, 10:47
Microsoft presses refresh on Windows Live again

No new OS this year means finding spare change under web sofa

Microsoft is once again tweaking its Windows Live estate, this time with a view to improving photo and video management both online and offline. According to CNet's Ina Fried, Redmond is updating its Windows Live photo gallery, movie maker, mail and sync features with betas expected to arrive in the next few months. "We're …

Applications 3 Jun 2010, 11:01
iPad apps may need to be disabled-accessible

Possible legal duty, says BSI

A draft British Standard on web accessibility warns organisations to consider how easily disabled users can access their websites on mobile phones, tablets and TVs. Ignoring their needs could breach BS 8878 and the Equality Act, it says. Standards body BSI has launched a second consultation on 'BS 8878 Web Accessibility – Code …

Mobile 3 Jun 2010, 11:10
Artificial 'black hole' generator fashioned out of circuit boards

Radar-invisible stealth shed on horizon?

Chinese scientists have stunned the world of boffinry by fashioning an artificial "black hole" generator out of copper-coated circuit boards. Disappointingly this is not a black hole in the normal sense of a universe-wrackingly dense lump of hypercompressed matter, exerting a gravitational pull so fearsome that not even light …

Physics 3 Jun 2010, 11:18
Google sniffs along app store shelves

Android Marketplace and iTunes to start with

Google has expanded its mobile search to encompass online application stores including iTunes and the Android Marketplace, slipping itself between iTunes and the customer. Right now it's only those two app stores, and only if Google.com is accessed using an iPhone or Android handset from within the USA. But the trend is easy …

Mobile 3 Jun 2010, 11:27
Judges back Holland against Ladbrokes on online gaming

Dutch say schtop

Ladbrokes has lost a long-running restriction of trade case against the De Lotto - the Dutch lottery and sports betting site - which objected to the company taking bets from Dutch citizens. The European Court of Justice has ruled that national authorities may restrict internet gaming if they so wish because laws on this issue …

Law 3 Jun 2010, 11:30
Vulture 1 GPS test: It did work, honest

Broadband glitch kills live map

Yesterday's test of the Vulture 1 GPS/radio board didn't quite run according to plan, due to a dodgy broadband connection which scuppered the live map here on El Reg. To recap, we arranged an airborne jaunt for the GPS unit (details here) which will allow us to track and recover our amazing space paper plane. The unit …

PARIS 3 Jun 2010, 11:35
PARIS pops down to QinetiQ

Vital hypobaric chamber test proves... interesting

Tuesday saw the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team down at QinetiQ's hypobaric chamber in Farnborough, testing the crucial Vulture 1 aircraft release mechanism. As we've previously explained, just how to get the Vulture 1 to separate from the main payload at a more-or-less predetermined height has given us plenty …

PARIS 3 Jun 2010, 12:17
New Facebook developer regs not rogue-proof

Verify this

Facebook app developers will need to verify their account with the social network before they are allowed to create applications under a new scheme, but experts are nonplussed by the proposals. The scheme relies on authentication via either confirming ownership of a particular mobile phone number or submitting credit card …

Developer 3 Jun 2010, 12:29
Pacific islands growing not shrinking, says old study

This time, somebody's noticed

Huge compensation claims filed by Pacific states including Tuvalu have been hit by a three-year old study, dramatically "rediscovered" by New Scientist magazine today. The study concluded that many Micronesian islands are growing, not shrinking. “It has been thought that as the sea level goes up, islands will sit there and …

Energy 3 Jun 2010, 12:56
Gartner expects big jump in chip sales

2010 looking rosy

Analyst group Gartner reckons chip sales will grow 27 per cent this year compared to 2009. The total market will be worth $290bn, up from $228bn last year. In the first quarter the group was predicting growth of 19 per cent for the full year but it is now seeing faster growth thanks to a quicker, and broader, recovery than …

PCs & Chips 3 Jun 2010, 13:03
Skype through your TV

Ready set, phone

Panasonic today debuted Skype functionality for a range of HDTVs. Originally announced in January, Skype is now incorporated into Panasonic's VIERA CAST, a feature allowing users to access online content. To use the Skype function, consumers must first purchase a separate proprietary HD camera. Spend £130 and you too can make …

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 13:35
Nintendo UK cuts DSi price

Down with the old, in with the new

Nintendo is reducing the UK trade price of the DSi gaming handheld on 18 June. But it is not saying by how much. The company is merely telling a tame magazine: "The ultimate price to consumers is, of course, determined by the retailers." Prices diced Since Nintendo let this be known, several retailers have dropped the …

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 13:46
Intel delays USB 3.0 chipset until 2012

Put up with slowness for a while longer

Intel is holding up USB 3.0 adoption by delaying its motherboard chipset until 2012. The near-universally used USB 2.0 bus is lagging behind externally-attached storage devices, mobile internet devices, digital cameras and camcorders and the simple multi-GB USB sticks because it is too slow. USB 3.0 increases USB speed to 4. …

PCs & Chips 3 Jun 2010, 13:59
Nokia rides you hard for power

The faster you go the longer you talk

Nokia will shortly launch a bicycle-powered recharging kit for its phones, providing free power as long as you can pedal at eight miles per hour. Not entirely free of course, you'll pay for it in food energy and tired leg muscles. The kit will be available around the world later this year, and consists of the familiar "bottle …

Mobile 3 Jun 2010, 14:15
EU Parliament plans Google-powered paedo detector

Mixed messages on data retention

Google looks set to gain a surprising ally in its battle against the European Commission to retain its search logs - the European Parliament. The dominant search firm has been under pressure from Brussels to erase personally identifiable information from its logs after six months. So far Google has agreed to some anonymisation …

Law 3 Jun 2010, 14:44
Nokia peddles pedal-powered charger

Bike power

Nokia may be losing the smartphone battle but it continues to make the running in developing countries. And maybe for tree huggers too. The handset maker has devised the Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit – a charger and dynamo and a holder to secure the phone to the bike. Get pedalling and the dynamo uses the movement of the wheels …

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 15:00
Skype founders unveil Spotify clone

Streaming music. iPhone app. Recommendations. Zzzz

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have unveiled their latest venture, Rdio, for specially invited beta testers. It ticks most of the boxes for a generic 'access model' music service: streaming music, a buy option, a 'cloud' locker service for your songs, mobile clients for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, and …

Music and Media 3 Jun 2010, 15:02
HP whips out winsome threesome

Atom-powered NAS ahoy

HP has announced an Atom-powered entry-level NAS box for small business. The X300 Data Vault is a network-attached storage (NAS) product in a small tower form factor, and has a 2-core Atom 1.6GHz processor and holds up to four, "not-quite-hot-swap", 3.5-inch SATA drives offering 1TB - 7TB of capacity, 17TB if external storage …

Storage 3 Jun 2010, 15:28
Could Red Hat be Novell's spouse?

Jim Whitehurst says his firm will 'look at anything'

Red Hat's CEO Jim Whitehurst declined to dismiss the possibility of buying out his company's Linux rival Novell in a meeting with reporters in London today. Whitehurst said the open source software vendor was eyeing up possible virtualisation and cloud acquisitions but added nothing was on the horizon yet. On the subject of …

Operating Systems 3 Jun 2010, 16:24
Project Mojo – the server rack that packs petaflops

SGI promises the impossible by year's end

Putting a petaflops into a single server rack isn't as difficult as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had thought. Back in March, DARPA — the research arm of the US military that brought you the Internet — put out a call to all nerds in the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing program to come up with an …

HPC 3 Jun 2010, 17:03
Sky TV gets even more demanding

Swimming with the streams

Sky is talking up its new video on demand service, Sky Anytime Plus. Anytime+ gives users access to around 1000 hours of content from channels such a Sky1, Sky Sports, ESPN and National Geographic. There is added focus on film, offering approximately 500 movies on its launch. The service hits all Sky HD boxes via an Over The …

reghardware 3 Jun 2010, 18:08
Verizon leads race for (the real) iPhone 4G

Big Phone set for the boot?

The stars are beginning to align for an iPhone that rides on Verizon's upcoming 4G LTE next-gen wireless broadband to appear next year. But until then, don't expect an iPhone to be offered by Verizon. Verizon has "no plans to carry the iPhone in the immediate future," Verizon spokesman John Johnson told Beet.tv at the D: All …

Wireless 3 Jun 2010, 18:08
Salacious smut soaks 12% of web

'The internet is for porn'

It brought 8mm film projectors into the home. It launched the VHS revolution. And it has contributed mightily to the success of the internet. What else could we be referrring to but porn? And now Online MBA has provided a staggering set of stats that show exactly how pervasive the ever-evolving effluence of erotica is on the …

Music and Media 3 Jun 2010, 19:51
Ballmer says Windows will shame iPad

Big Steve pats Jobs for 'doing best'

The race between Microsoft and Apple to dominate tablet computing is "on", according to chief executive Steve Ballmer. Today, Ballmer poo-pooed the iPad, saying that although Steve Jobs delivered some good work, the iPad is general-purpose, while Windows tablets will adapt to particular uses. We're in an iPad "bubble," …

Music and Media 3 Jun 2010, 20:47
ARM chippies cooperate on Linux

Big Blue backs Linaro

Does the Linux operating system need yet another distro? No. But a bunch of people interested in the ARM RISC processors used in mobile computers and netbooks — and hopefully someday soon inside of servers just to scare the hell out of Intel — are ganging up to create a unified foundation for ARM-based distros called Linaro. …

Operating Systems 3 Jun 2010, 21:29
Google tries to patent tech that snoops Wi-Fi networks

Updated Wardriving patent app tells all

Google is attempting to patent the very same wardriving technology the search giant says it used by mistake to snoop on Wi-Fi users in more than 30 countries, attorneys said Wednesday. A patent application published in January describes a method devised by Google for gathering and analyzing data sent via wireless access points …

Security 3 Jun 2010, 21:41
Steve Jobs – Apple's not business, it's personal

When mood swings write terms of service

For Steve Jobs, it's not business. It's personal. This week, during a rare public chat at a conference in Southern California, the Apple boss let slip that a sweeping change to the iPhone SDK terms of service was made in a very personal fit of anger — a fit that lingers, more than four months on. The change was made in …

Developer 3 Jun 2010, 21:49
Yahoo! cloud man rises to CTO

Yes! this! is! a! tech! company!

Yahoo! has tapped cloud computing guru Raymie Stata to fill its CTO post. Stata was formerly Yahoo!'s chief architect, playing an instrumental role in the company's move to a common distributed infrastructure. "As Chief Architect, Raymie led transformative efforts to rewire Yahoo!, moving from a set of vertical silos to a …

Business 3 Jun 2010, 23:00
IBM freshens cut-rate blade server

Single socket for savings

It may be hard to imagine why, but some customers who buy blade servers don't want the fastest x64 processors they can get their hands on. They may not be virtualizing the blades, and they may only be running simple print, file, and Web infrastructure workloads. Therefore don't need lots of memory or even two processor sockets. …

Servers 3 Jun 2010, 23:05
Rash of Facebook 'likejacks' still flaring

On Facebook, no one knows you're a bot

Facebook attacks that force users to unwittingly endorse scam pages keep spreading, researchers say. When the exploits surfaced on Tuesday, they resulted in hundreds of thousands of users giving their thumbs up to links with titles including: "LOL This girl gets OWNED after a POLICE OFFICER reads her STATUS MESSAGE." Since then …

Malware 3 Jun 2010, 23:11