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16th August 2010 Archive

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  • Archos 7 Android tablet

    Review The poor man's iPad?

    Despite the iPad being upon us and plenty of Windows 7 and Android tablets on the horizon – not to mention whatever HP's tablet plans are for webOS – the question: "What's a tablet for?" remains a question without a definitive answer. A touch of PC and PMP: Archos' 7 Home Tablet Archos presumably thinks basic home web …

    Tablets 16 Aug 2010, 07:02

  • Hurd snubbed HP board to settle claims

    Spinners get busy on CEO exit

    The board of HP felt snubbed by Mark Hurd's solo efforts to settle a sexual harassment case brought by contractor Jodie Fisher. Hurd and Fisher reached agreement on 4 August without the knowledge or support of the board of directors at HP. The next day there was meant to be a mediation meeting between the two and their lawyers …

    Servers 16 Aug 2010, 08:30

  • George Lucas names Star Wars Blu-ray release date

    A long, long time to wait

    All six Star Wars movies will be released on Blu-ray, George Lucas has confirmed, but not until October... 2011. The release will bundle all six films into a single box set, the Skywalker Supremo said this weekend at a gathering of fanboys in Florida. Why wait? Lucas doesn't appear to have said, but the wait gives him plenty …

    Media 16 Aug 2010, 08:52

  • Intel's SSD roadmap leaked

    Smaller process and larger capacities

    A leaked slide of Intel's nine-month solid state drive (SSD) roadmap shows a 400GB multi-level cell (MLC) enterprise solid state drive due in the first quarter of next year. A French Mac website posted the apparently real slide on Sunday and it shows a transition to 25nm MLC process technology but not single level cell (SLC) …

    Storage 16 Aug 2010, 09:16

  • Apple staff allegedly sold secrets worth $1m

    Selling the upper hand

    Asian companies negotiating contracts with Apple allegedly paid more than $1m in kickbacks to an Apple manager in exchange for confidential information about what Cupertino would be buying. That's according to a suit filed by Apple against Paul Shin Devine, until now a global supply manager at Apple. The suit follows his …

    Hardware 16 Aug 2010, 09:42

  • Underground credit card clearing house hacked

    Lay down with dogs - caught fleas

    An underground credit card clearing house has itself been hacked, an investigation by Trend Micro has confirmed. The operation - a holding firm for anonymous payment service Fethard - processes credit card payments for a rogue's gallery of fake anti-virus (scareware) suppliers, spam-promoted unlicensed pharmaceutical and …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 09:44

  • Toshiba preps profusion of ports punted via Wireless USB

    Congratulations, owners of laptops with under-utilised Wireless USB radios - thanks to Toshiba, you'll soon be able to make use of the technology. Coming in September, the Dynadock Wireless W20 turns your WUSB link into four USB 2.0 ports, a 1080p capable DVI port - it can drive up to three screens, says Toshiba - and analogue …

    Hardware 16 Aug 2010, 10:11

  • Buxom buttocks bolster Beemer bonnet

    NSFW eBay car part auction with added va-va-voom

    Let's face it, carbon fibre car bonnets aren't the most visually stimulating items, so if you're attempting to punt one down at the world's fave tat bazaar, why not give your auction a bit of added va-va-voom? Since we have no doubt whatsoever that this provocative marketing ploy will shortly fall foul of the eBay arse …

    Bootnotes 16 Aug 2010, 10:31

  • Survey scammers exploit Facebook dislike lure

    D. Odgybloke likes this

    Chancers are punting a survey scam on Facebook that poses as a curmudgeonly response to the social network's 'Like' button. Offers for the "Dislike" button use the same basic attention-seeking ruse as previous come-ons including "Justin Bieber trying to flirt" and (unrelated, you mucky minded lot)) "the biggest and scariest …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 10:35

  • Apple waves NFC veteran into Mobile Commerce role

    Cupertino targets bankers

    Apple has appointed an NFC expert as its head of Mobile Commerce, underlining Cupertino's commitment to making proximity payments part of the iPhone architecture. Apple has been busy filing patents on iPay, iBuy and iCoupons, not to mention using NFC to trigger communication between devices. Now NFC Communication World has …

    Mobile 16 Aug 2010, 10:50

  • BT Tower to open for first time in 29 years

    Great unhosed offered tickets to 34th floor

    The BT Tower will open to the public next month for the first time in almost thirty years as part of an architecture festival. The West End landmark will be the star of the Open House weekend, when buildings across the capital open their doors to visitors for free. The 19 September open day is billed by BT as "absolutely a …

    Broadband 16 Aug 2010, 11:10

  • Google drops cash on virtual currency firm Jambool

    Yet another wink at Web2.0 wench

    Google has bought a virtual currency software firm as part of its latest effort to build a Web 2.0 empire by scooping up social networking outfits. Jambool confirmed on Friday that it had joined “the Google family”. However, financial terms of the deal were kept quiet. The company started life as a social collaboration …

    Applications 16 Aug 2010, 11:14

  • Craigslist 'killer' kills himself

    Suspected prison suicide

    Philip Markoff, the man accused of using Craigslist to hire sex workers who he then attacked, has been found dead in his cell where he was awaiting trial. Markoff was accused of the murder of Julissa Brisman at the Copley Marriott Hotel back in April 2009. He was also charged with the armed robbery of another woman who he also …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 11:14

  • Virgin Media to warn malware-infected customers

    Lines up letters

    Virgin Media subscribers whose computers are part of a botnet can expect a letter warning them to tighten up their security, under a new initiative based on data collected by independent malware trackers. The UK's third-largest ISP will match lists of compromised IP addresses collected by the Shadowserver Foundation, among …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 11:49

  • Prototype semi-hovership delivered to Commandos

    Aluminium air-riding catamarans for Royal Marines

    Blighty's elite Royal Marine Commandos have just taken delivery of a prototype semi-aircushion hover assault craft, intended to speed up the amphibious landings of the future. The Royal Marines already operate normal boats and air-cushion hovercraft, but the new vessel is a Partial Air Cushion Supported CATamaran or …

    Science 16 Aug 2010, 11:56

  • Dell shakes up storage array game with 3PAR buy

    Complements EqualLogic

    Dell is changing the enterprise storage array supplier landscape by buying 3PAR for $1.15bn, adding an enterprise block storage array to its storage product roster and complementing the iSCSI EqualLogic storage arrays it bought in 2007. Dell paid $1.4bn for EqualLogic, and it's turned out to be an astute and successful …

    Storage 16 Aug 2010, 12:27

  • UK.gov awards managed services deal to lucky dozen

    12 suppliers hi-five

    Buying Solutions has announced that it has awarded a two-year IT managed services framework agreement to 12 suppliers. The government procurement agency said the contract, which includes the management of servers, PCs and laptops, is now live at public sector and associated organisations. "This framework agreement caters for …

    The Channel 16 Aug 2010, 12:49

  • Schmidt: Erase your identity to escape Google shame

    Tired of thinking? Click here

    Increasingly bonkers Google governor Eric Schmidt has seen the future, and you might have to change your name to be a part of it. According to the man in charge of the company de facto in charge of the web, young people's tendency to post embarrassing personal information and photographs to Googleable social networks means …

    Applications 16 Aug 2010, 13:25

  • Google's Inventor gets short shrift

    Creating mobile apps isn't Lego, you know

    Veteran tech watcher David Pogue has taken a look at Google's new building-block based development environment for Android, and he's not impressed. The Android App Inventor follows a long line of breakthrough environments that promise to simplify application development to a series of mouse clicks. Unfortunately it seems that …

    Mobile 16 Aug 2010, 14:04

  • Short passwords 'hopelessly inadequate', say boffins

    Modern processors smash puny defences

    The availability of password-cracking tools based on increasingly powerful graphics processors means that even carefully chosen short passwords are liable to crack under a brute-force attack. A password of less than seven characters will soon be "hopelessly inadequate" even if it contains symbols as well as alphanumerical …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 14:19

  • ARM server chip startup gets big backers

    Sling-shotting a smooth stone at Intel's Xeon profits

    There are a number of ways to create a power-efficient server chip for hyperscale applications like those that run at Google, eBay, Facebook, and so on. One is to rip damned near all of the guts out of a Xeon processor and make an Atom chip, which Intel has done. Another is to beef up a MIPS or ARM RISC processor aimed at …

    Servers 16 Aug 2010, 15:11

  • 'Free' laptop deals compared

    Are carrier-sold ultra-cheap PCs worth the wad?

    Following last week's claims that 'free' laptop deals were still popular with British consumers, we thought we'd dig deep and find out just how much customers are really forking out. With most networks offering similar dongle-only deals, surely the gulf between bundles couldn't be that excessive, could it? Based on the best …

    Laptops 16 Aug 2010, 15:46

  • Hackers: 'ColdFusion bug more serious than Adobe says'

    'It works, and it's scary'

    A recently patched vulnerability in Adobe's ColdFusion application server may be more serious than previously thought following the public release of exploit code and blog posts claiming it can be used to take full control of systems running the software. In a bulletin published last week, Adobe rated the directory traversal …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 17:47

  • Chipzilla borgs TI cable-modem group

    Intel Inside™ (your living room)

    In an effort to enhance its position in the burgeoning consumer electronics market, Intel today announced that it will acquire Texas Instruments' cable-modem group. "Adding the talents of the Texas Instruments' cable team to Intel's efforts to bring its advanced technology to consumer electronics makes for a compelling …

    Financial News 16 Aug 2010, 18:22

  • NASA 'nauts wrap ISS pump job

    'Healthy' new cooling unit in place

    Spacewalkers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock have successfully installed a new ammonia pump module to replace the one which failed on 31 July, taking out half of the International Space Stations's cooling system. Caldwell Dyson (seen left in pic) and Wheelock's EVA officially began at 10:20 GMT. They moved the spare …

    Science 16 Aug 2010, 18:41

  • Wikileaks double dares Pentagon hawks

    'More explosive' documents just weeks away

    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said his whistle-blower site won't be silenced by the Pentagon or any other group seeking to prevent it from airing more than 15,000 secret documents relating to the war in Afghanistan. "This organization will not be threatened by the Pentagon or any other group," Assange told reporters this …

    Government 16 Aug 2010, 20:08

  • Android app secretly uploads GPS data, warns Symantec

    Like a Tapsnake in the grass

    Researchers from anti-virus provider Symantec have outted a gaming application in Google's Android Market that tracks users' whereabouts so they can be secretly monitored in real-time. The free app is known as Tapsnake, which bills itself as an Android variation of a video game that has been around for three decades. What the …

    Security 16 Aug 2010, 21:30

  • Canonical reveals next Ubuntu's touchy side

    Meerkat's gesture APIs and engine released

    Touchy tablets are hogging the headlines and giving Steve Ballmer sleepless nights, but Linux netbooks are the focus of Canonical's latest push. Ubuntu's chief sponsor has released uTouch 1.0, a multi-touch and gesture stack for the Maverick Meekat release of the Linux distro coming in October. The stack comprises an open- …

    Operating Systems 16 Aug 2010, 21:31

  • Google dubs Oracle suit 'attack on Java community'

    Java daddy backs, er, Microsoft

    Google has called Oracle's Android lawsuit an attack not only on Google but also on the open-source Java community. "We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit," a company spokesman said in a statement to USA Today. "The open-source Java community …

    Developer 16 Aug 2010, 22:01