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21st June 2010 Archive

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  • Solaris, OpenSolaris, and the Oracle wall of secrecy

    Has anyone seen an update?

    Sometimes, Google's search engine does a better job of telling us about IT vendors than the vendors' own public relations and marketing machines, which are often there mostly to deflect questions rather than answer them. So it is with the next commercial and development iterations of Oracle's Solaris Unix operating system. The …

    Operating Systems 21 Jun 05:01

  • FSA: Of course customers don't read contracts

    Silly to expect otherwise

    Companies should not reject customer complaints because they ticked a box saying they had read and understood an unfair contract, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said. The FSA said that companies should not even ask consumers to assert that they had read and understood a contract or a set of terms and conditions …

    Law 21 Jun 07:55

  • Ten Essential... iPad Games

    Product Round-up Play tablet

    It’s hard to pick out a ‘top ten’ list of iPad games as new titles are being released on a daily basis. Not surprisingly, most of these first-generation games are straightforward conversions of existing iPhone games, with long-lasting chart-toppers such as Angry Birds and Plants Vs Zombies featuring strongly. One thing to bear …

    reghardware 21 Jun 08:02

  • WIN! a Panasonic DMP-BD65EB Blu-Ray Disc Player

    Competition Top-notch movie enjoyment could be yours

    Top marks to Panasonic: the purveyor of fine plasma TVs has kindly provided Reg Hardware with an example of its rather nice DMP-BD65EB Blu-ray Disc player so we can help one lucky reader get the Full HD experience for free. You'll need to bring your own HD TV capable of full 1080p playback to the party, of course - if you don' …

    reghardware 21 Jun 08:02

  • Government delays ContactPoint closure

    Basic child records maintained

    The Department for Education (DfE) has said it will temporarily maintain the controversial children's database but scale back its use. Tom Jeffery, director general of the department, has sent out a letter to directors of children's services in England telling them that ContactPoint will remain in use but that its operations …

    Law 21 Jun 08:05

  • ICO spanks Kent Police for data loss

    Nicked from car boot

    Kent Police has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner's Office and has promised to improve policies following the loss of private data from the back of a car. Adrian Leppard, temporary Chief Constable of Kent Police, has signed an undertaking to improve policies. The data was left in the boot of an officer's car …

    Law 21 Jun 08:31

  • A Rumba with a Roomba

    Stob Verity puts her feet up

    Don't tell me. I've heard it already. You've got the iPadFever. Or Obsession for iPhone 4. Or iMac Mini Madness. Apparently nearly everyone is contemplating dropping hundreds of not-as-big-as-they-were-once ones on an Apple product, and joining in the chorus of boring bores who bore on in boring detail about how lovely the …

    Verity Stob 21 Jun 08:32

  • Ocarina courts OEMs for embedded dedupe software

    File optimisation for entire data lifecycle

    Specialised data reduction software startup Ocarina wants OEMs to embed its software in their products. Ocarina's software provides general file deduplication and more efficient coding of many image file formats, such as TIFFs and JPEGs, that reduce file size without any loss of image quality. Files to be optimised are read in …

    Storage 21 Jun 08:50

  • Making sense of the new business of IT

    Lab Time to get your hands dirty

    You may be heartily sick of hearing that ‘change is the only constant’, ‘everything’s getting faster’ and ‘business is more competitive than ever’. However, a direct consequence of what’s happening today is that the expectations placed on IT to help the business thrive in the midst of all this ‘change’ has never been greater. …

    Platform Evolution 21 Jun 08:52

  • Toshiba intros dual-screen, keyboard-less netbook

    Hands On Mini laptop meets Nintendo DS

    Toshiba thinks it has trumped the Apple iPad with a compact micro laptop that comes across as the mutant offspring of a netbook and a Nintendo DS. The launch also sees the revival of Toshiba's long ignored palmtop PC brand: Libretto. So, we have the Libretto W100, a clamshell mini machine sporting not one 7in, 1024 x 600 …

    reghardware 21 Jun 09:05

  • Toshiba unveils ARM, Nvidia-based smartbook

    Hands On The way netbooks should be?

    Toshiba's dual-screen Libretto palmtop may be a gimmick, but its AC100 smartbook, also announced today, is the business. Described as a "Mobile Internet Device", the AC100 is really a netbook - Toshiba is simply avoiding the word because its new, skinny boy is based on ARM chippery rather than Intel's Atom platform. The ARM …

    reghardware 21 Jun 09:10

  • Humax to re-transmit firmware update for older DVRs

    Freeview retune fix repeated

    Set-top box maker Humax is to rebroadcast the long-anticipated firmware updates for its Freeview DVRs this week. Owners of Humax's PVR-9150T, PVR-9200T and PVR-9300T will get a second stab at downloading the software from 28 June. The revised firmware is claimed to fix UI and system slowdown woes that have hit all three boxes …

    reghardware 21 Jun 09:39

  • Sealed drive storage firm preps for emergency 'rebirth'

    Tricky when you've cut 25% of staff

    Atrato, the startup selling Velocity arrays based on sealed drive canisters, is facing revenue problems with layoffs, a new strategy, and a quest for more funding. The Velocity arrays uses disk enclosures filled with up to 160 2.5-inch hard drives, and 1U solid state drive (SSD) enclosures with up to ten drives, plus …

    Storage 21 Jun 09:44

  • Apple iOS 4 update due today

    Will Apple's servers creak under the weight - again?

    Apple is set to release the newly named iOS 4 for some existing iPhones and iPod Touches today. The company claimed earlier this month that the software update will bring to these devices "more than 100" new features, most notably a way to allow multiple apps to run simultaneously - multitasking. iOS4 essentially freezes …

    reghardware 21 Jun 10:01

  • Son of Transputer powers new Amiga box

    Programmable logic

    There was only one place to be for Amiga enthusiasts this weekend: a tent at Bletchley Park. Saturday saw the unveiling of the first dedicated Amiga box for some time, in the shape an unusual and technically advanced system that maintains the Amiga's bleeding edge reputation. The AmigaOne X1000 is a custom dual core PowerPC …

    Virtualization 21 Jun 10:02

  • Striking workers will curb network upgrades, claims BT

    Also drown puppies, kittens and bunnies

    The summer of strikes threatened by BT staff over pay could hamper the firm's efforts to improve its aged network, according to the man in charge of the work. Openreach boss Steve Robertson told the Financial Times that industrial action may mean BT misses its self-imposed upgrade target of four million premises by the end of …

    Telecoms 21 Jun 10:04

  • iPhone 4 fever takes hold. Again

    First shipments, O2's restrictions and a cunning plan from Best Buy

    The first pre-ordered iPhone 4s are shipping, ahead of the launch on Thursday which will see O2 holding back stock for customers while Best Buy pitches pre-sales to the queue. The first devices are being shipped to those who managed to pre-order the iPhone 4, to be in their sweaty palms by Thursday's launch. Best Buy's plans …

    Mobile 21 Jun 10:08

  • 'Toothed' condom hits rapists where it hurts

    NSFW South African assault victims bite back

    A South African doctor unveiled an anti-rape device designed to hit assailants where it hurts - the Rape-aXe biting condom. As a 20-year-old medical researcher, Dr Sonnet Ehlers (pictured with the Rape-aXe) met a rape victim who told her: "If only I had teeth down down there." Ehlers explained to CNN: "I promised her I'd do …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 10:13

  • Antarctic glacier melt maybe 'not due to climate change'

    Brit D-cell robot torpedo probes massive icy bottom

    British and international boffins, having probed an Antarctic glacier which is thought to be a major cause of rising sea levels worldwide, report that increased polar ice melting may not be driven by climate change. The latest in scientific bottom-probing battery powered devices. The massive ice river in question is the …

    Environment 21 Jun 10:39

  • Australian firewall wobbles under pressure from all sides

    Conroy running out of time

    The future of the great Australian firewall is beginning to look decidedly shaky, as electoral calculations and widespread condemnation from politicians and industry alike begin to take their toll. That's the analysis from Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam, who believes the proposed internet filter is now on the …

    Enterprise Security 21 Jun 11:07

  • Apple accused of hushing up security update

    Fails to 'fess up to Trojan vuln

    Apple has been accused of secretly adding a security update to its operating system without telling users, or anyone else. The update released last week included protection against a Trojan that could allow a hacker to take control of your machine. The HellRTS Trojan has been added to the Mac's list of signatures used to …

    Malware 21 Jun 11:21

  • iPhone mag-stripe reader stalled

    $10m not enough to change world

    Square, the breakthrough business launched by twitter-founder Jack Dorsey, won't be shipping as scheduled. It seems that taking credit card payments is more complicated than anticipated. Square was launched last December and scheduled to be in users' hands by “early 2010”, but the company has admitted that it “released parts …

    Mobile 21 Jun 11:32

  • Getting women's phone numbers a matter of mood music

    Romantic ballads break down French resistance

    It's official: if you want to extract a woman's phone number, then picking the right soundtrack for the attempt will significantly increase your chances of scoring. That's according to French psychologists, who found that an "average-looking man" doubled his chances of success when the object of his desire had been softened up …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 11:43

  • Security firms taking days to block malware

    Can you hold on till Friday?

    Anti-malware vendors can take up to 92.48 hours to block malicious sites, potentially leaving clients in blissful ignorance of threats to their systems in the meantime. Security researchers NSS Labs reviewed a range of endpoint security products from ten big-name security vendors and their response to "socially engineered or …

    Malware 21 Jun 11:54

  • Creative ZiiSound D5 wireless speakers

    Review iOS-friendly Bluetooth music box

    The performance of Bluetooth stereo headphones has improved noticeably over the last couple of years and can now give ordinary wired headphones a good run for their money. However, Bluetooth hasn’t achieved the same rate of progress when used in standalone speaker systems. Wireless world: Creative's ZiiSound D5 That could …

    reghardware 21 Jun 12:13

  • Kim Jong-Il in radish inspection shocker

    Military experts analyse Nork nutter vegetable encounter

    The Telegraph has today answered those most pressing questions of the age: just what does Kim Jong-Il inspecting a radish look like, and when he inspects a radish, what conclusion can be drawn from the encounter? That conclusion, the paper explains, is that experts have suggested that North Korea's entire military machine is …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 12:39

  • The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro

    Who's top of the table and who's going home

    One of the common complaints about Linux is that there are too many different editions (or “distributions”) to choose from, and only a hardcore nerd can tell them apart. Well, it's true, but you can safely ignore 99 per cent of them. Welcome to The Register's guaranteed impartiality-free guide. Tomorrow, we'll tell you how to …

    Operating Systems 21 Jun 12:55

  • Palm still designing new phones, despite HP's doubts,

    Bosses' priority is webOS

    Since the announcement that it would be acquired by Hewlett-Packard, Palm has scarcely figured in any discussions of the smartphone landscape. HP wants the operating system, but is mainly focused on emerging device formats such as web-enabled printers and tablets, is the message from within the larger firm. But until the deal …

    Developer 21 Jun 13:30

  • Giving poor kids computers, internet makes them stupider

    'Digital divide' efforts counter-productive, say profs

    Hundreds of efforts to reduce the so-called "digital divide" could be in trouble today, as new research has revealed that giving children universal home computers and internet access actually widens achievement gaps in maths and reading between rich and poor - and causes an overall skills decline across society to boot. The …

    Government 21 Jun 13:33

  • Supporting multinationals – are mobile operators really up to the job?

    Tech Panel It’s a good question

    Historically, the perception of mobile operators in the eye of large multinationals has been variable, to say the least. Ad hoc feedback from some multinational corporations (MNCs), along with situations where requirements were fairly one-dimensional, might have pointed to adequate service, for example for simple voice …

    Tech Panel 21 Jun 13:41

  • iPhone app fridge magnets spied on web

    Sticking 'em up to coolness

    Oh 'appy days, the iPhone has inspired popular culture yet again. These are the App Magnets from Jailbreak Toys. Designed to make your fridge look like a giant iPhone, with magnets coming in 18 different icons, Apple fanboys will no doubt be left with the impression their cooler just got a whole lot cooler. "HEELLLLO?!?! No …

    reghardware 21 Jun 14:09

  • BCS trustee threatens rebels with libel action

    Model railway enthusiasts or professionals?

    Rebel members of the BCS have been threatened with libel action unless they withdraw claims that appear to question the probity of the organisation's Trustees. The BCS is the midst of £5m 'transformation' programme that includes re-branding to "BCS: the Chartered Institute for IT". Such moves have not gone down well with some …

    IT Director 21 Jun 14:29

  • dotMobi to win you over with hosted web service

    You do remember .mobi don't you?

    dotMobi, owner of the underutilised .mobi top-level domain, has launched a we'll-do-everything service, hoping someone will rent space in its dusty corner of the internet. The new initiative, dubbed “goMobi”, is a hosted web service with menu-driven tools for creating device-aware content, providing companies with somewhere to …

    Mobile 21 Jun 14:31

  • Zuckerberg advises UK.gov on using Facebook

    Engage with me, bitch

    The culture secretary Jeremy Hunt today met Facebook's main node Mark Zuckerberg. The young CEO is in London for a developer conference, and took the opportunity to press the government to use Facebook more in its decision-making. "Really smart guy with some good ideas on improvement [sic] digital engagement in policy making …

    Government 21 Jun 14:42

  • Third of all nicked laptops stolen from homes

    Lock it or lose it

    Lock away your laptop when you go on holiday this summer, or you could find yourself among the 32 per cent of British notebook computer owners who've had their machines swiped from their homes. According to research conducted by pollster YouGov, that's the proportion of recent laptop thefts that took place in homes. The …

    reghardware 21 Jun 14:44

  • Copyright wally of the week

    Andrew's Mailbag 'Mind if I pinch this then change the name?'

    At El Reg we're happy to license our copy, and if you ask nicely, you might even get use of it for free. But this is the most unusual request I've ever received. Subject: Sunny Spain article use for local US newspaper Andrew, Thanks for the hard hitting and brief article on solar power. I would like to submit it to our local …

    Music and Media 21 Jun 15:06

  • Voltaire kicks out top-of-rack 10-Gig Ethernet switch

    Flattening networks for financial services

    If you're starting up a hedge fund, Voltaire has a new 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch that you probably want to take a look at as you set up your gear in a co-location facility near the New York, London or Tokyo stock exchanges. The Vantage 6024 Layer 2/3 top-of-rack 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch announced today is the workhorse …

    Data Networking 21 Jun 15:07

  • Twitter on a ZX Spectrum

    Photo Diary And other wonders from the Vintage Computing Fair

    Britain's first Vintage Computing Festival took place over the weekend at Bletchley Park, which was the perfect excuse to visit the National Museum of Computing, a recent addition to the Park site. All three are a tribute to the passion of volunteers – the state has only very recently saw fit to give any money to the historic …

    Music and Media 21 Jun 16:40

  • Facebook in 'solid net profit' shocker

    2009 revenues topped $700m, says report

    Facebook pulled in a $700 to $800 million in revenue during 2009, according to a report citing two sources familiar with the situation. Reuters reports that last year, the social networking site made actually made a "solid" net profit — somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars. These figures are higher than expected for …

    Financial News 21 Jun 18:54

  • Cloudera plugs Oracle into Google's bastard grid child

    Hadoop, there it is

    Cloudera — the commercial Hadoop outfit — has teamed with Oracle-tools shop Quest Software to offer an Oracle connector for its stuffed-elephant distro. The connector — which moves data between Oracle and Hadoop — will be available from both the Cloudera and Quest websites. As part of the new partnership between the two …

    HPC 21 Jun 21:07

  • Apple's iOS 4 beams into unprepared world

    First Look Folders? Fine. Multitasking? Meh

    Apple's much-vaunted iOS 4 arrived Monday morning a few minutes after 10am Pacific time, and nearly an hour and a half later, we were finally able to complete downloading and installing Cupertino's latest and greatest mobile OS onto our iPhone 3GS. Were its marquee features worth the wait — meaning both the 10-plus weeks since …

    Mobile 21 Jun 21:13

  • 30 states may join probe of Google Wi-Fi snoop

    'As many questions as answers'

    As many as 30 states may investigate Google for surreptitiously sniffing traffic traveling over open Wi-Fi networks over a three-year span, Connecticut's top law-enforcement official said on Monday. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office will lead the multi-state investigation into the unauthorized …

    Security 21 Jun 22:18

  • Amazon slashes Kindle price to $189

    Nook at that

    Amazon dropped the price of the smaller of its two Kindle ebook readers to $189, just hours after primary competitor Barnes & Noble lowered its Nook reader to $199. Before today, the Kindle and Nook were both priced at $259. The Kindle is a Linux-based handheld that lets you download and read ebooks from Amazon's online …

    Music and Media 21 Jun 22:51

  • Mobile group drops Java price against Apple and Android

    Java classic

    Mobile phone providers are fighting back against Apple and Google by cutting the cost of doing business using Java on mobile. The Unified Test Initiative, a body comprising handset and service providers, has slashed the price it charges Java Mobile Edition (Java ME) developers to test and verify their work properly on …

    Developer 21 Jun 23:06