7th June 2010 Archive

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Oracle rolls more Sun heads

Cuts in Europe and Asia

Oracle has laid off additional Sun workers in Europe and Asia, according to a company SEC filing. Back in January, when it ate Sun Microsystems, Oracle bragged that it was hiring 2,000 people to boost its Sparc hardware and Soladfris Unix business, but it looks like a lot more people will be going from the Sun unit than newbies …

Financial News 7 Jun 2010, 04:14
HP's Nehalem-EX iron set for June arrival

Beastie boxes

HP will launch its first wave of "beastie boxes" based on Intel's "Nehalem-EX" Xeon 7500 processors later this month, according to sources familiar with HP's plans. There are three months when server makers typically launch products: March, June, and September. And it looks like June is shaping up to be a very busy month for …

Servers 7 Jun 2010, 04:38
IPS spent £38m on consultancy last year

£275m on non-capital purchases

The Treasury's publication of its Coins database of government finance has revealed details of the Identity and Passport Service's cashflow. The agency, which is responsible for issuing passports and identity cards – although the latter are about to be scrapped – spent £38m on consultancy and £275m on other non-capital …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 07:54
Permabit's killer dedupe technology

Component dedupe for primary data storage OEMs

Fast primary data deduplication, a Holy Grail of storage vendors, is set to be a practical reality with Permabit's Albireo product, a software library that can be integrated as a component by storage and application OEMs. Primary data deduplication has been seen as a CPU-cycle sucking monster that slows down application …

Storage 7 Jun 2010, 08:09
Facebook back in Bangladesh

Excises 'blasphemous' page and anti-gov pics

Facebook is back in Bangladesh after blocking access to pages depicting the prophet Mohammed and apologising to country's telecoms authorities. The site also excised what Bangladeshi authorities described as "obnoxious" images of the country's government and opposition leaders. The social networking site was locked out of the …

ID 7 Jun 2010, 08:10
South African Bill to block all porn

Tier-one filtering on internet and mobile smut

As South Africa prepares to welcome the World Cup to its shores, plans by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba to block all porn from entering the country suggest that soon the only ball control that its citizens will legally be allowed to watch will be taking place on a football pitch – in front of a crowd of thousands. In …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 08:12
Aussie police probe Google

Check out Street View network sniffing

Robert McClelland, Australia's Attorney General, has asked the police to investigate the collection of network information by Google's StreetView cars. The Australian Federal Police High Tech Crime Centre confirmed to iTnews that it was considering a full probe. McClelland said his department had received many complaints but …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 08:38
WiMAX Forum shuts up shop in Portland

The ~~outlook~~ weather is so much better in San Diego

The head office of the WiMAX Forum has disappeared from the web site and is reportedly closed, as the centre of operations relocates to San Diego. Around 40 staff were employed at the Beaverton offices, WiMAX Forum headquarters prior to the opening of the San Diego premises in April. At that time there was no mention of …

Wireless 7 Jun 2010, 08:48
Low power Wi-Fi fan Ozmo loads up another $10m

Still no sign of any products

Having burned through its first $30m, Ozmo Devices has raised another $10m by promising to have low-powered Wi-Fi devices breeding like flies by the end of 2010. While raising the latest $10.8m, Ozmo has added Atlantic Bridge as an investor. The company also acquired a new CEO, Bill McLean, who has chucked in some of his own …

Wireless 7 Jun 2010, 09:04
Bletchley Park archives to be digitised, put online

Rich WWII secret triv-trove expected

Lost secrets of World War II are expected to be unearthed soon by a project aimed at digitising large amounts of hardcopy data held in files at 1940s codebreaking centre Bletchley Park. The BBC reports on the archive-scanning plans now underway, which are expected to take around three years to complete. "We've been wanting to …

Bootnotes 7 Jun 2010, 09:05
Adobe warns over unpatched PDF peril

Happy zero-day. Again

Hackers are exploiting critical, unpatched vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player. The zero-day vulnerabilities are platform independent and can affect users of Adobe products regardless of whether they run Windows, Mac or Linux systems, Adobe warns. The software developer reckons that Adobe Reader and …

Enterprise Security 7 Jun 2010, 09:18
Yahoo! hooks up to Facebook blabberstream

Let's! Share! Bitch!

A mere two weeks after criticism of its attitude to privacy forced Facebook to make major changes, it's back to encouraging users to publish more about themselves to more people for the dominant social network. It has implemented a deal with Yahoo! to cross-publish updates across both networks. "This means you can see your …

Applications 7 Jun 2010, 09:32
Toshiba unwraps 'first' 3D BD notebook

Updated Will play 3D Blu-ray Discs

If you want a laptop capable of playing 3D Blu-ray Discs, Toshiba has the notebook for you. Launched this morning in the Land of the Rising Sun, the Dynabook TX/98MBL actually goes on sale at the end of July - time enough for one or more of Toshiba's rivals to sneak in a machine of their own. The TX/98MBL is coming to the UK …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 09:58
Phoenix revenues dip but profits stay aloft

Thanks the cloud for sunny outlook

Phoenix IT Group is surviving the recession - underlying profit is up four per cent and it has maintained margin at 14 per cent. For the year ended 31 March Phoenix saw revenues shrink, as expected, 2.9 per cent to £245.8m. But underlying profit before tax grew 4.2 per cent to £34.4m. As result it will increase share …

Channel Register 7 Jun 2010, 10:25
Bebo rave becalmed by waves

Be gain by nicht faa if ye ken what's guid fur ye

A party on a Scottish island organised on social networking also-ran Bebo ended badly when two hundred partygoers became stranded by the tide. The majority of the 500 attending the party in the middle of the Firth of Forth made it back before the causeway was flooded, and reportedly had a good time despite the rain. But as The …

Bootnotes 7 Jun 2010, 10:26
$11m jackpot just a 'reset' message, says casino

Incontinent one-armed bandit ruins couple's retirement

An American couple were left pondering the nature of fate and fruit machine electronics last week when a "reset" slashed their jackpot from $11m to a more manageable $1627.82. MaryAnn and Jim McMahon had been shovelling their shrapnel into the fruit machine at the the Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek, Colorado when they hit …

Bootnotes 7 Jun 2010, 10:27
HTC pushes out Android 2.1 update for Hero

Long-awaited upgrade not quite here at last

HTC has got European Hero owners hopes up by launching the long awaited Android 2.1 update for the smartphone... in Taiwan. The release - firmware version 2.73.751.13 - was pushed out to Asian Hero handsets late last week, though has yet to appear on European update servers. Originally expected in February this year, the …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 10:32
Sneaky bin chipping still in the bag for UK.gov

No rubbish tax, but something smells a bit off

A government announcement today that it is scrapping plans to penalise householders for not recycling scores eight out of ten for effort – but it may not go far enough to appease the civil liberties lobby. Your bins will still be microchipped, and - whether you like it or not - your household waste habits will still be …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 10:42
Nokia prices up Twitbook phone

C3 roll-out detailed

Nokia will begin selling its Qwerty keyboard equipped C3 phone on 18 June, the handset giant said today. The C3 was made, Nokia said, with social networking in mind, so it's ready for Twitbook users to scrawl on their walls when they're on the move. The C3 sports Wi-Fi, a 2.4in colour screen and a 2Mp camera. There's no 3G …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 10:43
Managing tech budgets and services

Webcast In the 'virtualised' and 'cloudy' world

A virtualised server runs applications for every department, so which one pays for it, and how? You can purchase your IT outright, finance it, outsource it or pay as you go, but which offers the best return on investment? Does the cheapest licensing strategy always make the best financial sense? As your employer looks to stay …

Platform Evolution 7 Jun 2010, 10:56
Unarmed Royal Navy destroyers: French missiles blamed

'Proud day for Blighty', insists £1bn gunboat skipper

Ceremonies and celebrations took place in Portsmouth last week as the Royal Navy's second billion-pound-plus Type 45 destroyer, HMS Dauntless, was formally commissioned into the Service. Both Dauntless and her predecessor HMS Daring remain almost totally unarmed at the moment, following test failures which have meant that their …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 11:02
NHS supplier sorry for misleading comments

'Opinion not fact'

Key NHS software supplier iSOFT has apologised for a market update released last week which it now says was a matter of opinion, not fact. Explaining shortfalls in revenue to the stock market last week iSOFT said "uncertainty associated with the change in UK government" and a weak European economy were reasons for "the …

Channel Register 7 Jun 2010, 11:21
Thousands of 'sexsomniacs' suffering in silence, say profs

Was your partner actually awake, or sleep-shagging?

Large numbers of people may be suffering in silence from the terrible condition of "sexsomnia" - somewhat like sleepwalking, but instead of wandering around the sufferer attempts to have sex with people. According to results announced at a recent conference for sleep scientists, some 7.6 per cent of patients being treated for …

Biology 7 Jun 2010, 11:22
Moto claims Android cameraphone first

Talks up XT720's USP

Motorola has introduced the first Android 2.1 smartphone... with a xenon flash. A boon to mobile phone photography fans, to be sure, but a clear sign it's getting harder for phone firms to come up with USPs for their products. Still, the XT720 has an impressive spec: a 8Mp camera, 480p video capture capability, 8GB Micro SD …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 11:36
Toshiba intros skinny Core i3 laptop

Ultra-low voltage goodness

Toshiba, busy today, has introduced the latest incarnation of its thin'n'light Satellite T notebook: a model sporting the ultra-low voltage version of Intel's Core i3-330 processor. The 1.2GHz i3-300UM contains two cores and HyperThreading to make them appear as four to the host OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, in the case …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 11:43
Asus EeeTop PC ET2203T 21in touchscreen all-in-one

Review Full HD and finger friendly

Testing touchscreen PCs is always a pleasure but it’s especially satisfying when a manufacturer gives you lots of display surface to tickle. In the case of the ET2203 model of Asus’ EeeTop (named by a Yorkshireman, perhaps?) all-in-one PC, you get a rather splendid 21.6in, supporting 1920 x 1080. That’s full 1080p HD resolution …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 12:02
Prisoner of iTunes - the iPad file transfer horror

The conflict between consumption and productivity

First the good news - it's light, compact, reasonably capable for typing, and it has enough battery life for you not to be forever worrying about where your next power socket's coming from. These advantages alone are sufficient for me to take the iPad seriously for note-taking and for document viewing and manipulation, and to …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 12:07
Mail my printer - I'm busy!

HP goes all Print 2.0

Take a picture on your phone, email it to your printer and Hey Presto!, it's waiting for you when go home. This is what HP has in mind with its launch today a bunch of printers that all come with their very own email addresses. The company has already spilled the guts of the announcement to The NY Times' Ashlee Vance (once of …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 12:21
Arctic microbes 'could survive on Mars'

Methane-gobbling Canadian life suited to red planet

Canadian boffins say they have discovered a strange form of microbe living in remote Arctic springs which would, if taken to some parts of Mars, be able to survive there. You're not going to believe it, but I've actually lost my bastard hammer The weird lifeforms were found in a sub-freezing but extremely salty spring …

Biology 7 Jun 2010, 13:05
Can Windows Phone 7 gain momentum with all eyes on Apple?

iPhone 4G overshadows TechEd

Today will see the long-awaited start of the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), and the expected announcement of the fourth iPhone. Amid all the hype that is sure to surround the event and the keynote of CEO Steve Jobs, it will be difficult for Microsoft to gain much attention for its own annual developer event, …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 13:14
Getting your business mobile

Workshop More difficult than you think?

Everyone knows that mobility is pretty important to most businesses today, with needs having moved way beyond simple phone voice connectivity. We have seen a dramatic shift in requirements as the IT and business aspects of mobility have become much more closely intertwined. The challenges faced by the business have multiplied, …

Mobile Workshop 7 Jun 2010, 13:48
Final Fantasy XIII ate my Playstation

Bricking it

A California man who says his Playstation 3 turned into a useless brick after playing Final Fantasy XIII - is the lead plaintiff in a $5m class action suit fired at Sony and Square Enix. In a court filing (republished by IGN), Daniel Wolf, 26, of San Diego, says the Internet is "awash with consumer complaints arising from the… …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 13:58
Wikileaks' US army 'leaker' arrested

Intelligence specialist held over Baghdad video

US military authorities have arrested an intelligence analyst who allegedly passed classified material to Wikileaks following a tip-off from a former hacker. Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, has reportedly been held in Kuwait for almost two weeks on suspicion of leaking a video of a helicopter attack in …

Government 7 Jun 2010, 14:45
T-Mobile Pulse mobes still don't do 3G

Cheapo Android handset out in the cold

T-Mobile's UK customers using the network's own Pulse Mini handset are finding 3G is an impossibility, despite a week of complaints. The Pulse Mini is a diminutive Android handset made by Huawei and available for a hundred nicker on pay-as-you-go. But some buyers attracted to the cut-price smartphone have been disappointed to …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 14:49
Dodgy Doctor Who games may be malwarey

terminate.exe

Security experts are warning that "unauthorised copies" of a Doctor Who game released last weekend that have begun circulating on P2P networks are likely to pack a nasty surprise. The BBC released the licence-payer-funded game City of the Daleks last Friday, free of charge to UK residents (official site here). Fans of the Time …

Malware 7 Jun 2010, 15:19
Download your software and save the planet

Says software download firm

You'd think Deutsche Telekom had better things to do than take on CNET for the software downloads market: big volumes, low margins and lots of bad people trying to smuggle malware onto your site. But no, it has its very own software download business, called Softwareload - the UK branch is here. And it has commissioned …

reghardware 7 Jun 2010, 15:31
Canonical rejigs Ubuntu support services

Tiered support gets tiered pricing

Canonical, the commercial presence behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution for servers and desktops, is in business to make money as well as to put out the best free operating system it can. Some businesses won't pay for support, some want basic support, and others (particularly companies making big investments in Linux for the …

Operating Systems 7 Jun 2010, 16:04
Windows 7 eclipsed by Server 2008 in debut service pack

Microsoft TechEd Moving pictures and virtual machines

Microsoft has unveiled a debut service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Typically, it's Windows 7 that gets the most marketing love, but this time around, it's the server workhorse that's getting the attention. Microsoft has opened its annual TechEd conference, in New Orleans, Louisiana, saying that SP 1 will hit …

Channel Register 7 Jun 2010, 16:48
Battleship of an Android phone sets Sprint sales record

4G, 4.3-inch display, no Steve Jobs

As Steve Jobs prepares to unveil the latest Jesus Phone, Sprint says that its mega Android phone set a single-day sales record for the company when it debuted on Friday. According to a statement from Sprint, Friday sales of the HTC EVO 4G topped the single day sales of any other phone in the company's history — though the …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 18:05
Auction opens for rare single letter net domain

e.co the bellwether

The auction of a rare single-letter domain – e.co – has just hit the interwebs, with bids reaching $16,500 in the first 90 minutes. The sale is advertised on the domain itself, with the name pitched as the potential “home to your e-commerce site, education site, entertainment site” or even “to showcase your company's plan to …

Networks 7 Jun 2010, 18:20
Top cops worldwide grill Google over Wi-Fi snoop

'Possibly illegal'

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Monday became the latest law enforcement official to order Google to give a detailed accounting of the information its Street View cars surreptitiously sniffed from unsecured Wi-Fi networks over a three-year period. In a letter to Google officials, Blumenthal demanded they …

Security 7 Jun 2010, 18:30
Google still the word on iPhone search box

Microsoft talks Apple into Bing option

Google is still the default search engine on the iPhone, though Apple has added Microsoft Bing as an alternative. As Steve Jobs unveiled the latest iPhone at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco this morning, he confirmed that despite the growing rivalry between Apple and Google – and rumors that Microsoft …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 19:00
Steve Jobs unveils iPhone 4

Gyro phone hits five countries June 24

Steve Jobs has introduced the next-generation iPhone, prosaically known as the iPhone 4. This wasn't unexpected, but the Apple chief did reveal a number of features not mentioned in pre-release leaks. Jobs unveiled the handset at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, and since the man won't actually …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 19:09
Microsoft beyond Ballmer, Windows, and Office

Radio Reg Boy genius needed, black attire vital

Is Joe Belifore the new face of Microsoft cool? If not, Microsoft could try poaching Steve Jobs. He's got some good ideas - and he dresses in the requisite black. Or there's Tony Hawk, for the teens, tweens, and X-gamer crowd. Wherever it turns, Microsoft needs an infusion of hip. Its new ideas man – "call me J" Allard – has …

Microbite 7 Jun 2010, 19:44
Crooks siphon $644,000 from school district's bank account

Unlimited e-transfers made simple

New York City's Department of Education was defrauded out of more than $644,000 by hackers who targeted an electronic bank account used to manage petty cash expenditures, investigators said. The DOE's small item payment process account at JPMorgan Chase was supposed to be limited to purchases of less than $500, but an oversight …

Crime 7 Jun 2010, 20:21
Jobs woos devs with ~~iPhone OS~~ iOS 4

'Let's you and me get rich'

The iPhone OS has changed its name, and when it's released for the iPhone and iPod touch this June 21 (free), it will be juiced with expanded money-making opportunities for developers. Today, at his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Steve Jobs let his 5,000-or-so most ardent admirers know that iPhone OS 4.0, announced …

Developer 7 Jun 2010, 20:44
Supercomputer oil slick sims predict greasy Atlantic

Deepwater doo-doo

Supercomputers are good for more than just designing nuclear weapons or making doomsday predictions about climate change. They can depress us in other ways, like showing us the extent of the damage that could be done by BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore rig spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The National Center for Atmospheric …

HPC 7 Jun 2010, 21:21
From iPhone to iOS – Apple nabs (another) Cisco handle

Jobs i am

Steve Jobs has borrowed another iName from Cisco. But this time, he got permission. Today, at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, Jobs announced that the Cupertino cult had renamed the iPhone OS. From here on out, it will be known as, yes, iOS. The mobile operating system, you see, also runs on the iPod …

Mobile 7 Jun 2010, 22:43