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14th June 2010 Archive

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  • Ten Essential... iPad Accessories

    Product Round-up Add-ons for the top tablet

    The sleek, elegant design of the Apple iPad cries out for a protective case to keep it safe, and Reg Hardware has been absolutely inundated with cases and sleeves in the weeks since the 'magical' gadget's launch. However, there are a few other handy accessories coming along as well. Apple’s trying to corner the market with its …

    Top Ten 14 Jun 2010, 08:02

  • Ofcom sides with mobile operators on 0845

    BT asked to pay back fees

    Ofcom will ask BT to pay back termination fees for calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers, as basing them on what mobile operators charged punters isn't fair. Since November last year BT has been charging mobile operators a termination rate for 0845 and 0870 calls which was dependent on what that operator was charging its customers - …

    Mobile 14 Jun 2010, 08:02

  • Kinect - Microsoft's official name for Project Natal

    Future of gaming etc.

    Microsoft hired Cirque du Soleil to demo games running Project Natal yesterday in Los Angeles, the day before E3 opens. At the same time the company revealed the official name of the controller free gaming device: "Kinect for Xbox 360". Kinect is said by some to be the future of gaming. But what about the games? CNET's Dan …

    Games 14 Jun 2010, 08:03

  • MS names 'Natal'... Kinect

    Kinetic, connect - geddit??!??

    It's official: Microsoft's 'Project Natal' will come to market as the Kinect. Thought perhaps PS3 fanboys will now start to call it the 'kinell. Kinect's branding was unveiled last night at a glitzy do ahead of this week's E3 show, the games industry's chief knees-up - and, indeed, Kinect's formal launch this evening, UK …

    Games 14 Jun 2010, 08:54

  • Google responds to privacy probe

    Won't delete US data yet

    Google has responded to a letter from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which wrote asking what action the company had taken over its harvesting of private Wi-Fi data. The online advertising and search giant said it was unable to tell the committee how many networks it had stored payload data from, or how many US …

    Security 14 Jun 2010, 08:58

  • Trend Micro lays down bread for humyo cloud service

    Japanese sec firm likes taste of UK hosting startup

    Trend Micro has bought UK-based consumer and micro business cloud storage service provider humyo, with the target's file synchronisation technology apparently the cherry on the cake. This technology syncs files between a users' connected devices and humyo's cloud vault, meaning the humyo cloud is like Dropbox with added …

    Security 14 Jun 2010, 09:01

  • Hayabusa in fiery return to Earth

    Asteroid sample pod lands in Oz outback

    Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft last night ended its seven-year mission to asteroid Itokawa, burning up over the South Australian outback after releasing the sample return cannister, which survived the re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Airborne Australian, Japanese and NASA boffins were on hand to capture the action from a …

    Science 14 Jun 2010, 09:04

  • Dell customers count cost of battery back-up

    HOW much for a spare power pack?

    One Reg Hardware was stunned this weekend when he went to check how much an extra battery for the Dell Studio 15 laptop he was planning to buy would set him back. Little did reader Gerard Phelan realise that acquiring the six-cell, 56Whr power pack would necessitate taking out a mortgage. Or a Lotto win. The price: £1,174, …

    Laptops 14 Jun 2010, 09:22

  • Business leaders call for health cuts

    No more ring fences

    Small business leaders the British Chamber of Commerce is calling for an end to protecting health spending and overseas aid. The BCC has written to Chancellor George Osborne calling for an end to protecting NHS spending in next week's budget. It accepts the need for widespread cuts but warns against protecting certain areas …

    Small Biz 14 Jun 2010, 09:39

  • French judiciary makes transgender boob

    Ruddy Europe wants to standardise everything

    A peculiar obsession with breast size as the test of true womanhood popped up in a French court last week, as the Chief Prosecutor in Nancy ruled that a transgendered woman couldn’t possibly be a woman unless her breasts measured up to size. Argument is raging over the case of Delphine Ravisé-Giard, who first transitioned back …

    Law 14 Jun 2010, 09:40

  • TfL admits congestion charge autopay problems

    Fleet firms face overcharging and false fines

    Transport for London has said that it is 'aware of some problems' with the IBM-managed system used by fleet companies to pay the congestion charge. Customers have reported issues with the the autopay system, including being overcharged and receiving wrongly issued fines. The online service is used by companies that regularly …

    Management 14 Jun 2010, 09:51

  • Queen gives IP boss a bath in Honours List

    Letters after names all round

    Science and technology got a respectable shout out in the Queens Birthday Honours List, amid the usual celebs, civil servants and lollipop ladies. Top of the heap, for their contribution to the cultural fabric of Britain, are the MBEs for Dr Frank Duckworth and Dr Tony Lewis - the statisticians who invented the Duckworth-Lewis …

    Government 14 Jun 2010, 10:00

  • Dell's latest celebrity endorser - Kim Jong Il

    Dude you've got a dictator

    Dell has snagged a seriously high profile celebrity endorser whose name is whispered in the corridors of powers and who has millions of people hanging on his every word. The bad news is that it's North Korea's tiny terror Kim Jong Il. North Korea's much-beloved autocrat is well known for his love of the finer things in life …

    Hardware 14 Jun 2010, 10:02

  • Excel revolutionary needed to crush web-forms anarchy

    PowerBuilder to the people

    In the 1990's Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and Lotus Notes were popular, powerful and made the development of database-backed forms accessible. The web disrupted this cozy market increasing the number of forms, formats and requirements. The result was HTML with a text editor became a common - if partial - replacement and while …

    Developer 14 Jun 2010, 10:02

  • Free open source satnav comes to UK iPhones

    Skobbler arrives

    Skobbler, the no-cost open source satnav app, is now available to UK iPhone owners. In its native Germany, the app has been the most downloaded program of its kind for the last six months, the developer - also called Skobbler - claimed. Skobbler's pitch is providing turn-by-turn navigation based on maps sourced from …

    Phones 14 Jun 2010, 10:06

  • Buffalo and Western Digital get into TV

    Goggle box gets drive and media player

    Two new products are showing how the storage world is starting to flirt with TV. Buffalo's DriveStation AV and Western Digital's WD TV Live Plus HD media player are respectively friendly with and completely dependent on a TV. The DriveStation AV is a single 3.5-inch SATA drive offering 1TB, 1.5TB or 2TB capacity, in a very …

    Storage 14 Jun 2010, 10:10

  • IBM sniffs around Storwize

    $140m on the table for compression appliance maker

    IBM is reportedly looking to buy Storwize, which makes real-time compression appliances for primary data. Storwize makes products such as the STN-6000. This sits in-band in front of a network-attached storage (NAS) array and compresses/decompresses data in real time with no loss of I/O performance. The company says customers …

    Servers 14 Jun 2010, 10:26

  • Cheeky Chinese punt mini Android-based iPad

    'NEW Touch 7 Inch Mini Notebook Tablet Laptop PC MID Google Android OS Map Notebook Like Mini Ipad!!'

    Personally, I like my iPad, but I can well see why rather a lot of folk would prefer something that's more compact, can take phone calls and runs Android. Enter Chinese knock-off merchants who this morning emailed Reg Hardware with the following tasty item. It's a 7in, Android 1.5-based "Mini notebook tablet laptop MID" that …

    Tablets 14 Jun 2010, 10:34

  • Satnav pensioner smashes into 1953 Rolls

    Owner has heart attack

    An 85 year-old who blindly obeyed his satnav and performed a U-turn on a motorway slip road in Bavaria, crashed into a prized Rolls Royce. The owner of the 1953 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn - one of only two in the world - promptly had a heart attack. Josef Rossfeld, 57, has recovered - but his car is a write-off, the German paper …

    Science 14 Jun 2010, 11:01

  • Balinese lad seduced by bovine temptress

    Shotgun wedding follows rice paddy cow sex session

    A Balinese teenager caught in flagrante delicto having sex with a cow claimed he was the victim of a bovine temptress who'd wooed him with sweet words, the Jakarta Globe reports. Unemployed youth Ngurah Alit, 18, was nailed "stark naked positioned behind the cow in a rice paddy field" in the coastal village of Yeh Embang in …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2010, 11:18

  • Kaminario climbs performance mountain

    K2 DRAM grid-in-a-box

    A start-up called Kaminario has a new spin on in-memory datasets with its K2 DRAM-based grid of storage nodes having no single point of failure, unlike Texas Memory Systems, it says, and being cheaper than flash-based million-IOPS products. The idea is an old one: hold application data sets in externally-attached, solid-state …

    Storage 14 Jun 2010, 11:21

  • Spain objects to Street View Wi-Fi snooping

    Google takes another legal hit

    Google may face a Spanish court over the legality of the Wi-Fi snooping activities of its Street View fleet, El País reports. The snappily-titled Asociación para la Prevención y Estudio de Delitos, Abusos y Negligencias en Informática y Comunicaciones Avanzadas (Association for the Prevention and Investigation of Crime, Abuse …

    Government 14 Jun 2010, 11:24

  • Spicing up desktop management with social networking

    Sysadmin Blog Bringing it all together

    Social networking, at least that which involves computers, has evolved greatly over the past few decades. The internet has allowed many new forms of self expression and interpersonal communication to flourish. By today’s modern standards of social networking, I’m positively a luddite. I simply don’t do social networking. I …

    Servers 14 Jun 2010, 11:30

  • Palin puts paid to Boob-gate

    Sarah spills all to cosmetically-enhanced news anchor

    Sarah Palin has put paid to rampant web speculation that she had sought to enhance her political profile by augmenting her physical profile. The former VP candidate and erstwhile governor of Alaska triggered a blogosphere earthquake last week when she appeared at a horse racing meet with what some claimed to be a suspiciously …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2010, 11:32

  • Home Office passport fraud sweep flops

    Security upgrade strike rate effing pathetic

    The Home Office security upgrade scheme to catch passport fraudsters through face-to-face interviews has bagged just eight potential 'Jackals'. The project, requiring first-time passport applicants to attend interviews with officials from the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), launched in 2007 and has resulted in no …

    Government 14 Jun 2010, 11:41

  • Legionnaire's Disease linked to driving, screenwash

    Killer pneumonia hiding in your car

    The Health Protection Agency is calling for more research to see if Legionnaire's Disease is connected to not using screenwash in your windscreen water reservoir. An HPA spokeswoman said: "This preliminary HPA study suggests a strong association between a lack of screen wash in wiper fluid and the incidence of Legionnaires' …

    Science 14 Jun 2010, 11:54

  • Revamped Xbox 360 spied on Italian web

    Kinetic colour scheme?

    Is this the next Xbox 360? Italian website Console Tribe certainly seems to think so after spotting the image on local retail sites, writing about it and then noting that said sites all took the banner down. Xbox 360 mk 2 - as shown by Console Tribe Confirmation, the site says, surely? Possibly. We'd just note that it …

    Games 14 Jun 2010, 12:00

  • US trade body decides Apple has case to answer

    But would it really ban the iPhone?

    The US International Trade Commission has decided to investigate HTC's allegations that Apple is infringing its patents. Its answer could see the iPhone banned from American stores. The ITC's investigation is in response to HTC's complaint, filed on May 12th, that Apple is in breach of various patents owned by HTC. The …

    Mobile 14 Jun 2010, 12:02

  • Google lets puny humans choose the news

    So much for brave new world

    Google News has introduced human editors - a step away from the site's supposed superior news-sniffing algorithms. The news aggregation site last week introduced an "Editor's Picks" section. This allows editors from a small number of selected sites choose their own favourite news stories. Google said the change was a small …

    Applications 14 Jun 2010, 12:16

  • Ubuntu tablet threat to iPad? Nah

    Apple mops sweat from brow, puts down smelling salts

    The founder of Linux Ubuntu has laid to rest stories of a tablet version, no doubt causing widespread relief in Cupertino. Rumours of an Ubuntu tablet circulated over the weekend, based on an interview with Canonical's VP of Alliances and OEM Services. But those rumours have now been scotched by the man in charge, Mark …

    Operating Systems 14 Jun 2010, 12:42

  • Ubuntu 'more secure' than Windows, says Dell

    PC maker posts top-10 Linux list

    Dell reckons Ubuntu offers more protection than Windows online as it convinces consumer PC shoppers they shouldn't be scared of Linux. In a statement flagged here by TheVarGuy.com, Dell picked on security as one of ten reasons why people should buy PCs running Canonical's Linux rather than Microsoft's operating system. …

    Security 14 Jun 2010, 12:47

  • Hacker charged with threatening US VP using neighbour's PC

    Frame-up alleged

    A hacker tried to frame his neighbour by tapping into his Wi-Fi and sending threatening emails to US vice president Joe Biden, according to search warrant affidavits unsealed last week. Computer expert Barry Ardolf, 45, is charged with using someone else's computer to send a threatening email to Biden. However, the affidavits …

    Security 14 Jun 2010, 13:07

  • BBC wins go-ahead for Freeview HD content controls

    No need for panic?

    Ofcom, the UK’s TV regulator, has today given the go-ahead for the implementation of content controls on Freeview’s HD service. The controls are designed to prevent HD content being copied, controls without which, broadcasters have argued, some programmes might not be able to be shown. The proposals mean that, while there won’ …

    Media 14 Jun 2010, 13:12

  • All hail the Facebook Like button stamp

    Branding iron

    This is The Facebook Like Button Stamp from a London design studio called We are Nation. Look, a like. If you too express your likes with as little emotion as humanly possible, then contact the designers to register your interest - by email. If enough of you sign up the firm may take the stamp out of concept and into …

    Hardware 14 Jun 2010, 13:28

  • Mystery startup uncloaks 512-core server

    Atom bomb, network included

    The mystery behind secretive server startup SeaMicro is dispelled today as the venture-backed maker of what it has been calling "data center appliances" unveils its first product: the SM10000, a server cluster comprised of 512 of Intel's Atom processors with a built-in, virtualized network fabric for the servers. The SM10000 …

    Servers 14 Jun 2010, 13:38

  • Philips SHQ3000 washable earphones

    Review Workout-proof?

    The SHQ3000s sit in the middle of a new range of earphones from Philips aimed at the active user who is likely to expose his or her 'phones to the mud, sweat and possibly tears of strenuous outdoor activity - and the resultant clean up. Philips' SHQ3000: ear, ear I'm not generally a fan of ear-clip headphones but I found …

    Hardware 14 Jun 2010, 14:02

  • Hands on with Nokia's flagship N8

    The high-end fight back begins

    How often do you see somebody in town with a high-end Nokia phone these days? Is there even such a thing? Nokia's flagships have gone missing, of late, along with half the fleet. Well, all that should change come early autumn, as Nokia starts to fight back against the pummelling it's been taking from Apple and RIM over the past …

    Phones 14 Jun 2010, 14:30

  • BT readies marathon fibre optic roll-out

    Olympics-ready über broadband for the capital

    BT is to upgrade 114 Greater London telephone exchanges to host fibre-optic broadband in time for the Olympic Games. The move will allow 87 per cent of London homes and businesses to have access to broadband over fibre with download speeds of up to 40Mb/s. The telco said it would have the upgrade scheme done and dusted by …

    Broadband 14 Jun 2010, 14:33

  • Linux IRC server leaves backdoor open

    Security - not just for Windoze

    A warning today that Linux users are not as immune to security threats as many of them like to believe - anyone who has downloaded the Linux version of IRC server Unreal since November 2009 should check for a trojan. An Unreal admin said the Unreal3.2.8.1.tar.gz file on its mirrors had been replaced back in 2009 with a version …

    Security 14 Jun 2010, 14:48

  • Aussies rage at 'strings attached' iPad sales

    Electronics chain denies illegal bundling

    Aussie iPad buyers are raging at an electronics chain they claimed refused to sell them the fondle slabs unless they bought a bag load of superfluous accessories too. JB Hi-Fi has had to publicly affirm it had no such policy, and has offered refunds to any buyers who feel they have been stuck with redundant kit. iPad coveters …

    Hardware 14 Jun 2010, 15:30

  • Open source webAndroidiPhoneiPad kit betas for BlackBerry

    Awaits Jobsian benediction

    As developers await word from Steve Jobs that applications coded with Appcelerator's Titanium kit are still welcome in the iPhone App Store, the company is testing a new version of the kit for RIM BlackBerries. The open-source Titanium is a means of building native desktop and mobile applications using traditional web- …

    Developer 14 Jun 2010, 17:02

  • China, India steady on server sales

    IBM still tops in the East and Down Under

    While the server racket recovered somewhat in the first quarter of the year, the still fast-growing economies in India and China were not doing much to help, oddly enough. According to statistics compiled by box-counter Gartner, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for $1.76bn in revenues in the first quarter of 2010, up 8.8 per …

    Servers 14 Jun 2010, 17:25

  • Apple reels as Steve Jobs Flashturbates

    Comment Inside the HTML5 traveling roadshow

    There was a time when Steve Jobs and Apple were cool. Jobs built a genius-like persona that was founded on his rare appearances and statements, and this was bolstered by his ability to deliver products that looked good, worked well, and forced others to follow. But 2010 is turning into the year Steve Jobs and Apple lost that …

    Developer 14 Jun 2010, 18:02

  • World Cup in your pocket: iPhone vuvuzelas

    Live your WAG fantasies

    With the World Cup now underway, iPhone owners can download a plethora of apps that can turn their Jobsian handhelds into simulacra of that ear-splittingly infuriating noisemaker, the vuvuzela. Should you choose the convenience of a pocketable vuvuzela rather than branding yourself as an obnoxious doofus by carrying the actual …

    Software 14 Jun 2010, 18:06

  • Apple slapped with lawsuit over 'iAds' monicker

    'Trampling the rights of others.' Again

    Another day, another lawsuit for Apple. This time Jobs & Company are being taken to task for naming the iPhone's new mobile-advertising platform "iAds" when that service mark is already owned by a Southern California media company. Online ad firm Innovate Media Group of Costa Mesa, California, has filed suit in the US District …

    Law 14 Jun 2010, 19:37

  • Ubuntu-based Windows XP looker freshens up

    Luna landing page

    An Ubuntu-based Linux distro identical in look and feel to Microsoft's Windows XP's been updated. Ylmf OS 3.0 has been released from a Chinese software maker with the familiar Luna theme found in Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows Vista predecessor. The Linux distro has been updated to Ubuntu 10.04, released in April, and …

    Operating Systems 14 Jun 2010, 20:11

  • Jamcracker herds SaaS, private cloud users

    We're all service providers

    Service providers have been wrestling with the issues of provisioning, managing, and billing physical and virtual servers for more than a decade, and everyone who supplied them with tools is now rushing to tweak their wares and reposition them as ideal for managing private clouds. Jamcracker, which has been around since the dot- …

    Virtualization 14 Jun 2010, 21:15

  • Ubuntu fights iPad fever with netbook shot

    Shuttleworth: hits and misses for Windows and Linux

    Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth is bullish on PCs exposing millions of consumers to Linux – despite the industry succumbing to Jobsian tablet fever. Shuttleworth reckons that Ubuntu is approaching a tipping point among the ordinary PC-buying public, with the distro shipping on a record (for Ubuntu) five million machines this …

    Operating Systems 14 Jun 2010, 21:16

  • Microsoft trumps Kinect with 'sleek, silent, sexy' Xbox

    Xbox this week, Kinect 'thereafter'

    Microsoft has unveiled the latest and greatest Xbox 360, along with its new no-controller-required controller, Kinect (née Project Natal). Earlier today The Reg — in our hardware incarnation — caught a rumor from the Italian website Console Tribe about a new Xbox. We doubted it, but we're now happy to say that we were overly …

    Games 14 Jun 2010, 21:37

  • Google to Commies: We’ll make censorship illegal

    Leave the data law breaking to us

    Google is working with the US government to try to make it illegal for countries to censor the Internet by using international trade rules. The ad broker’s communications head, Robert Boorstin, told a Media Access Project audience in DC that Google “believes very strongly, as do other companies, that censorship is a trade …

    Media 14 Jun 2010, 21:51

  • New Interwebs extensions edge ever closer to reality

    Dot-xxx porn on the brink

    A new generation of dot-coms will edge closer to reality next week in Brussels, with one – dot-xxx – possibly being approved on the Friday. The tri-annual meeting of Internet overseeing body ICANN in Brussels will focus on the fourth version of an “applicant guidebook” for those who want to start up and run new Internet …

    Networks 14 Jun 2010, 22:51

  • Vodafone UK iPhone tariffs leaked

    Read em' and weep, Yanks

    Apple's iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on Tuesday, and today Vodafone UK let slip its pricing policies — and US iPhoners have reason to be jealous. Although Vodafone UK's pricing was only up on its site briefly, an Engadget Mobile reader had the presence of mind to grab some …

    Mobile 14 Jun 2010, 23:31