17th August 2010 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

US fanbois await freedom from Big Phone

Over a third on hold

If, as is rumored, Verizon will end AT&T's exclusive US hold on Apple's iPhone beginning in January, it may mean big trouble for Big Phone. That's the conclusion reached by a survey released Monday by the market-research firm Morpace, which found that 34 per cent of current US iPhone users are waiting for the überpopular …

Wireless 17 Aug 00:28
DARPA funds Mr Spock on a Chip

Lyric's probability processor

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency financed the basic research necessary to create a processor that thinks in terms of probabilities instead of the certainties of ones and zeros. And now Lyric Semiconductor, the spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the work was done, is going to spend the …

PCs & Chips 17 Aug 04:02
Chair maker punts $6,000 iPad recliner

The Lazyfanboi™

What might an obscenely rich, profoundly indolent fanboi choose as the ultimate iPad accessory? Might we suggest the six-thousand dollar Elite Home Theater Seating iPad Chair? That'd be the Premium Package version of the leather-upholstered recliner, the upgrade that adds butt-shaking sound enhancers, an adjustable headrest, …

Music and Media 17 Aug 05:02
MS to Kinect up UK in November

Motion control and more

Microsoft's Kinect will come to Blighty on 10 November, the Xbox maker revealed this morning. The announcement, made at the Gamescon show, says it all - you know the rest: Wii-style motion control for Xbox 360 with added webcam-filmed put-you-in-the-game and player tracking elements. You get voice and gesture control too. …

reghardware 17 Aug 05:47
Fujifilm readies revamped 'true' 3D camera

Dual sensor, lens compact

Fujifilm has taken the wraps off its latest two-lens, two-sensor 3D-capable compact camera. The FinePix Real 3D W3 comes a year after the debut of Fuji's first 3D shooter - reviewed here - and, like that model, sports a pair of 10Mp sensors behind 3x optical zoom lenses placed 75mm apart. Fuji's pitch is that the W3 delivers …

reghardware 17 Aug 06:02
iPod meltdown strands Tokyo commuters

'Truly regrettable' Apple response

Apple's iPod flame-out woes continue. The latest victims: Tokyo commuters. On Friday, Reuters reports, smoke from what turned out to be a self-immolating iPod caused passengers to alert transit officials on a commuter-train line, who quickly shut down the system. "When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train," …

Mobile 17 Aug 06:02
Nikon revamps projector cam

Let your pics shine

Nikon has updated its projector-equipped compact camera with a new look and a higher resolution sensor. The Coolpix S1100pj improves on its predecessor, the S1000pj, by upping the image grabber from 12Mp to 14Mp, though the 5x optical zoom lens remains the same. The S1000pj's 2.7in, 230,000-dot LCD is topped by the S1100pj's …

reghardware 17 Aug 06:59
Acer Liquid E Android smartphone

Review Dripping with features?

Acer has been a bit of a late starter in the smartphone game but has been working hard to catch up and gain a similar reputation to what it has with computers – decent quality machines that deliver the specs without excessive prices. Flooding the market? Acer's Liquid E Among Acer’s most advanced handsets yet is the Liquid …

reghardware 17 Aug 07:02
Disney sued for spying on kids with 'zombie cookies'

Snooping with 'little available redress for users'

Walt Disney's internet subsidiary and several of its partners have been sued for allegedly using cookies based on Adobe's Flash Player to track highly personal information about their users, many of whom were minors. The LSOs, or locally shared objects are better known as Flash Cookies, and their ability to gather detailed user …

Security 17 Aug 07:02
MS lists Windows Phone 7 gaming launch line-up

Xbox Live on the go

Microsoft has listed the Xbox Live games that will run on Windows Phone 7 handsets when the smartphone platform launches later this year. Among them, some well known titles. MS hopes Windows Phone 7 will beat the iPhone and Android platforms at their own app-centric game, and entertainment titles is only part of that programme …

reghardware 17 Aug 07:41
Alleged bad Appler pleads not guilty

Suppliers cough to consultancy fees

Paul Shim Devine, a 37-year old Apple manager, has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges related to accusations that he took a series of bribes from suppliers to help them win work from the computer and phone maker. Devine, paid over $100,000 plus options by Apple, denied taking $2.5m from six companies since …

PCs & Chips 17 Aug 08:21
Dell, 3PAR and legal parasites

Hard to stomach lawyers

The simple clarity and straightforwardness of the 3PAR and Dell deal is being muddied by the activities of US law firms that are as beneficial in many people's eyes as an HIV infection. We read that the Kendall Law Group, "a national securities firm led by a former federal judge with attorneys that include a former U.S. …

Blocks and Files 17 Aug 08:22
Paris jub-flash mugger busted

Cashpoint breast bandit makes final withdrawal

Police have busted the Paris jub-flash mugger who, along with an accomplice, earlier this month relieved a man of €300 after distracting him with her chesticles. The pair targeted their victim at a cashpoint on 7 August. One of them exposed her chest and grabbed the poor chap's wedding tackle, while the other snatched the cash …

Bootnotes 17 Aug 08:27
Cynicism, grumpiness cause heart attacks, strokes

Old Git syndrome 'may not be confined to Italy'

Irascible, grumpy cynics have a significantly higher risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes compared to mellow, amiable, trusting people, according to a new study. Researchers carrying out a survey found that "antagonistic" subjects - that is, those who were assessed as competitive, aggressive, manipulative or "quick to …

Biology 17 Aug 09:02
Nokia intros keypad, touchscreen combo candybar

X3 revamped

Nokia has revamped its X3 sliderphone as... a candybar. Yet like previous X3 - reviewed here - the new "Touch and Type" version has a touchscreen - the first time the Finnish phone giant has placed touchscreen and keys on the same part of a phone, the company claimed. "We've designed the Nokia X3 to be a touch and type …

reghardware 17 Aug 09:24
India puts threatened BlackBerry ban on paper

RIM promises to explain how hard things are

RIM will be talking to the Indian government this week - trying to explain just how difficult it is to intercept encrypted communications, while promising to do just that. The Indian government has already said that if it can't intercept BlackBerry messages by the end of the month it will ask network operators to cut off the …

Mobile 17 Aug 09:30
Network Solutions pulls widget that tainted up to 5m websites

Parked domains borked by long running security fail

Network Solutions has admitted that a software widget designed to help small business to build websites was contaminated with malware. The domain name registration and hosting firm has pulled the offending widget and published an advisory on its blog that provides some guidance to customers but fails to explain either how the …

Malware 17 Aug 09:34
Symantec knits VMware safety net

Virtualise biz-crit apps with confidence

Symantec says you will be able to virtualise the most critical business applications with confidence because it's providing the necessary safety net, Application HA. It's also sorted the virtual desktop image provisioning and storage problem with VirtualStore. The pitch is that there is a last mile problem in virtualising …

Virtualization 17 Aug 10:05
Oracle dumping HPC: Genius or foolhardy?

Blog What are the long-term costs?

Quietly - very quietly – Oracle has been dropping out of the HPC market. We’re finally seeing some outward reaction to the company's internal moves with news stories (The Reg here and HPCwire here) discussing Oracle’s retreat from HPC. No comments from Oracle either confirm or deny the move, of course. I’ve been hearing …

HPC Blog 17 Aug 10:15
Vodafone tunes Wi-Fi hotspot dongle

Share your 3G connection

It's got a Micro SDHC slot and the ability to share an HSDPA 3G connection with up to five devices over 802.11b/g Wi-Fi - yes, it's Vodafone's Wi-Fi R201 mobile hotspot. The R201 is the carrier's answer to the likes of Three's MiFi - aka the Huawei E5, reviewed here - though it's not the first time Vodafone has offered kit …

reghardware 17 Aug 10:33
STEC's magic MLC sauce

No details released though

STEC, IBM and EMC's favourite enterprise flash drive supplier, says it has cracked the multi-level cell (MLC) flash conundrum, making it a viable enterprise choice by dealing with its poor write endurance and reliability. STEC made its name with its single-level cell (SLC) flash technology, which, with one data bit per cell, …

Hardware 17 Aug 10:42
Microsoft's volume licensing site goes titsup - again

Weekend 'update' spirals into bloody Monday

Microsoft’s volume licensing site once again went titsup on Friday and was out for several days with very little explanation from the software vendor about what had gone wrong. Frustrated customers were simply greeted with a page that read: “The Volume Licensing Service Center is currently unavailable because we are making …

Channel Register 17 Aug 10:50
WiMAX forum touts version 2. Again

If we build it someone will come. Won't they?

The WiMAX forum has again announced that its version 2 specification will be available later this year, as it seems no-one was listening last time around. The fact that the standard, technically 802.16m, would be finished this year was announced in January, and in April the WiMAX Forum said the specification would be ready on …

Mobile 17 Aug 11:09
America's top model fights off 'pervert' at Star Wars convention

Imperial Stormtroopers and Sith Lords subdue non-fan

America's ex next top model Adrianne Curry has taken to the social networks to detail her alleged molestation at a Star Wars convention in Miami over the weekend. The 28 year old, who won the first series of America's Next Top Model and has since appeared in Playboy, had visited the show wearing a Princess Leia "slave" outfit …

Bootnotes 17 Aug 11:14
Hacked Axl Rose Twitter account spreads false tour news

GNR frontman relaxed about hack

Axl Rose's Twitter account was hacked on Sunday to spread false rumours that Guns N' Roses was cancelling an upcoming European tour. Fans retweeted the message, which remains as the most recent post in the verified but little used axlrose Twitter feed. However a spokesman for the group confirmed that the autumn tour remains …

Crime 17 Aug 11:23
Google seeks UK privacy lobbyist

Large Californian, 12, WLTM flexible London lawyer

Are you a privacy lawyer? Would you take pride in working for a company with "a real soul"? Is your brain impervious to cognitive dissonance? Could you grow a brass neck? If you answered "yes!" to all of the above questions then Google has the job for you. "Google's innovative services raise challenging legal questions that …

Law 17 Aug 11:30
Electric mass-driver catapults to beat Royal Navy cuts?

New tech could save Blighty's carrier force

Hints are emerging that the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers may be equipped with innovative electromagnetic catapults in order to operate cheaper aircraft as part of the ongoing, behind-closed-doors UK defence and security review/cuts process. Soon it won't be steam but lightning coming out of the cat In particular, …

Science 17 Aug 11:53
Microsoft goes double bubble with server beta releases

One for the cloud, and one for home

Microsoft slung out a brace of server betas yesterday for its home and cloud biz customers. A preview of the company’s small business server, codenamed Aurora, was made available for testers to download on Monday. Redmond described the cloud-based Aurora as “a significant departure” from its “traditional on premises version” …

Operating Systems 17 Aug 12:03
Pink Floyd wipe albums from web

Wish you weren't here

Long-playing records by Pink Floyd have vanished from the iTunes and Amazon stores, the result of a dispute with record label EMI. The group's first albums, for which EMI owns a license, remain on sale for digital download - up to and including the most popular, Dark Side of the Moon. Subsequent releases have been pulled. …

Music and Media 17 Aug 12:09
BT mulls upping apprentice numbers

More popular than university

BT is considering increasing the number of apprentices it employs after receiving over 100 applications for each place. The telco offers 221 places for trainees but this year had 24,000 applications. Apprenticeships are not just for engineers - there are three categories: customer service, information technology and …

Telecoms 17 Aug 12:12
Ikea forecasts fluffy, fully teched kitchen of the future

Fish'n'chipboard

Thirty years from now, your kitchen will be "almost alive" and "respond actively" to your culinary needs "like only a mother could". That's the fearsome prediction made today by that noted purveyor of plywood, Ikea, in the latest press release to make its contribution to the Silly Season in the hope of drumming up some column …

reghardware 17 Aug 12:26
Storage big three to define HDD way ahead

Comment Suppliers can't go it alone

Is the future of hard disk drive (HDD) technology bit-patterning or heat-assist? That's what Hitachi GST, Seagate and Western Digital are going to get together to decide, fearing to go it alone because that would be far too expensive and risky. Making the wrong multi-billion dollar bet could ruin a supplier, and the HDD …

Storage 17 Aug 12:40
iPad hits Asus Eee PC sales

Netbook popularity plunges

Still not convinced that Apple's iPad is eating into sales of netbooks? Just ask netbook supremo Asus. Last week, it revealed its netbook sales during Q2 were lower than those it recorded in Q1, and that it anticipates Q3 sales - which includes the back-to-school sales period, traditionally a good time for purveyors of low- …

reghardware 17 Aug 13:02
Spurs soothsayer predicts Young Boys thrashing on Twitter

Unofficial tweet caught offside

Spurs has apologised over a misguided update to the club's Twitter account that predicted the North London club would thrash Euro opponents Young Boys on Tuesday night. The bullish prediction from the club's official Twitter account (@SpursOnSide) that "6-2 Our boys thrash Young Boys! http://bit.ly/db0mCl" was swiftly deleted …

Enterprise Security 17 Aug 14:01
Americans demand Twitter-watching police

But almost half assume they don't

Americans expect their emergency services to respond to postings on their web sites and Twittered messages, but more than half would give them a call just to make sure. A study carried out by the American Red Cross (pdf), and picked up by Daily Wireless, found that in an emergency Americans are increasingly willing to use …

Mobile 17 Aug 14:15
Best Buy slaps 'God Squad' priest with cease-and-desist order

...father, son, and holy ~~ghost~~ Geek

Best Buy is pursuing an American god botherer who ripped off the company’s Geek Squad logo. Father Luke Strand at the Holy Family Parish in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, had his collar felt after he slapped a sticker carrying the name “God Squad” on his black Volkswagen Beetle. Best Buy sent a cease-and-desist letter to Strand …

Bootnotes 17 Aug 14:24
Local councils will carry on splurging on IT

Outsourcing by local.gov to grow

Despite the recession Kable believes UK local government ICT budgets will rise to nearly £4bn by 2016. Research by the publisher of GC News says that growth in technology spending will be driven by transformational outsourcing projects, online channels and mobile working. Its Local Government Forecast: Opportunities in …

Channel Register 17 Aug 15:17
HP slurps up security software firm

Fortify strengthens security

HP has bought Fortify Software, strengthening its application security software portfolio. The software security assurance firm essentially offers products which check the security of your software, help organise vulnerabilities so the most dangerous are fixed first and help manage the process of fixing them. Fortify offers …

Enterprise Security 17 Aug 15:19
Apple fans drool over Liquidmetal widget

Amazing material put to mundane use

It should come as no surprise that Apple fanboys are moistened by their favourite vendor's use of novel materials, and you can understand that excitement when a device uses a clever new compound in its construction. But it's downright scary when the discovery that a tiny, often overlooked iPhone accessory is formed from a …

reghardware 17 Aug 15:29
Intel and Micron expose 3-bit flash

Targets SD with MLC

No sooner has a leaked Intel flash roadmap shown enterprise-grade multi-level cell (MLC) flash than Intel and Micron announce they are sampling 3-bit MLC product. The two are sampling a 64Gb product built using their 25nm process technology and aimed at the Secure Digital flash card market. The die, measuring 131mm2, is 20 per …

Storage 17 Aug 15:57
New US swarmsats will scatter to avoid space-war strikes

F6 Bomb-burst manoeuvre will avoid actual bomb bursts

The USA's new "fractionated" swarm satellites - in which groups of small wirelessly-linked modules in orbit will replace today's large spacecraft - will be able to scatter to avoid enemy attacks and then reform into operational clusters. Trying to knock this down will be like punching clouds. Federal documents released …

Space 17 Aug 16:01
IBM completes Power7 server arsenal

Shooting low and high

The roll-out of the Power7-based rack, blade, and tower servers finishes up today with the debut of five Power Systems machines. Big Blue is launching four itty bitty boxes and one behemoth. Now we get to find out just how much pent-up demand there is - or isn't, as the case may be - for IBM's entry and high-end Power-based …

Servers 17 Aug 16:39
Verizon demos 1Gbps over existing fiber network

Another poke in the eye for AT&T

Verizon has conducted a demo in which it pumped nearly a gigabit per second to a remote customer over its existing fiber infrastructure. "This trial demonstrated that the current architecture has sufficient headroom to allow for a progressive increase in capacity as needed by our residential and business customers on our …

Networks 17 Aug 18:24
SGI previews Q4 financials

On Intel's team in DARPA's HPC challenge

Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics is implementing a new revenue-accounting method in the fourth quarter, and the changes to the way it keeps its books have forced it to push out its financial results for two more weeks. SGI had been expected to report its numbers after Wall Street closed Tuesday. Despite pushing out the …

Financial News 17 Aug 18:46
Mozilla eases fears over phishy URL alert

User confusion unlikely

Mozilla developers have eased concerns about the severity of a security feature in Firefox that often fails to warn users when they've encountered obfuscated URLs that might lead to malicious websites. Developers of the open-source browser have known of the URL warning bypass since at least June, when it was reported here. …

Security 17 Aug 19:10
Java daddy says Sun engineers ran 'goofiest patent' contest

Just how 'laughable' is Oracle's Google suit?

Sun engineers once ran an unofficial competition to see who could get the "goofiest" invention past the US patent office, according to former Sun man and Java founder James Gosling. In suing Google over its use of Java on Android, Oracle is waving seven Sun patents, and one of them carries Gosling's name. In a blog post …

Developer 17 Aug 20:37
Apple.com hit in latest mass hack attack

Cupertino succumbs to Jedi server trick

A hack attack that can expose users to malware exploits has infected more than 1 million webpages, at least two of which belong to Apple. The SQL injection attacks bombard the websites of legitimate companies with database commands that attempt to add hidden links that lead to malware exploits. While most of the sites that fell …

Enterprise Security 17 Aug 22:52
Top lawmakers slam Google-Verizon 'net neut' scheme

Freetards v greedheads

The "suggested legislative framework" for internet regulation proposed last week by Google and Verizon has run into a buzz saw of opposition from four well-connected US Congressfolks. "The recent proposal by Google and Verizon of an industry-centered net neutrality policy framework reinforces the need for resolution of the …

Networks 17 Aug 23:41
Yahoo! begins Bingification in North America

Murders Search Monkey

Later this week in the US and Canada, Yahoo! will begin moving its back-end search infrastructure to Microsoft's Bing platform. When using Yahoo! search, North American netizens will soon see a “Powered by Bing” logo at bottom of results pages. Last month, Yahoo! began some limited testing with Bingified search results, and …

Music and Media 17 Aug 23:44
Oracle, Google, and the survival of the fittest Java

Ellison believes in ~~open~~ ~~closed~~ number one

Sun Microsystems regularly boasted that Java ran on the most ubiquitous and the fastest growing of computing platforms: two billion cell phones. But behind these boasts lay a chronic contradiction: the market was hopelessly fragmented, killing cross-platform application development, and Sun could do noting. We had Java ME, …

Mobile 17 Aug 23:46