24th August 2010 Archive

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Microsoft confirms code-execution bug in Windows apps

'Cannot directly be addressed in Windows'

Microsoft on Monday warned of a vulnerability in Windows applications made by third-party developers that allows remote attackers to execute malicious code on end-user PCs. The company's security team is still investigating whether any Microsoft programs are susceptible to the so-called binary planting or DLL preloading attacks …

Security 24 Aug 00:34
Tools and rules buffed for Microsoft's iPhone challenger

No porn, no fat apps, just fill our music store

Microsoft is prepping Windows mobile developers for October's debut of Windows Phone 7. The final set of developer tools for Windows Phone 7 will drop on September 16 withp> what the company on Monday called "minor" breaking changes from the beta tools available now. This includes several "highly requested" Silverlight …

Developer 24 Aug 00:41
AMD: 'Bobcat' smaller, faster than Intel's Atom

Netbooks. Not servers. For now

AMD says that its upcoming "Bobcat" core for netbooks and notebooks is smaller than a single-core Intel Atom chip – and faster. According to the company, this low-power architecture could eventually follow Atom into the server market, but at the moment, that territory is still reserved for the "Bulldozer." The annual Hot Chips …

PCs & Chips 24 Aug 04:02
Cloud.com bear hugs VMware vSphere

Next up: Smooches for Oracle, Microsoft

Cloud.com – the outfit that offers a platform for transforming your existing data center setup into a so-called infrastructure cloud – has introduced support for VMware's vSphere 4.1 hypervisor and its accompanying vCenter management console. The CloudStack platform already dovetails with other hypervisors, including open source …

Virtualization 24 Aug 04:02
IBM slips automatic tranny into Power7

Hot Chips Self-aware chippery

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them," said mathematician Alfred Lord Whitehead, in his 1911 tome, An Introduction to Mathematics. And with its Autonomic Computing effort, IBM believes it's advancing civilization. On Monday in Palo Alto, …

PCs & Chips 24 Aug 05:38
Mobile 3D planned for MeeGo Linux

Like Second Life, only successful

Intel and Nokia are reviving the spirit of Second Life with plans for 3D interfaces on mobile devices running their MeeGo Linux distro. The companies have announced their first joint innovation center at Finland's Oulu University, and it will specialize in the development of 3D interfaces and environments for MeeGo. Intel and …

Mobile 24 Aug 06:02
Verbatim MediaShare 1TB Nas

Review Home and away

Verbatim is best known for its range of straightforward and affordable hard disks, memory sticks and other storage devices. However, its new MediaShare drive is a little more ambitious. The low-profile aluminium chassis bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac Mini or AppleTV, but it’s essentially a good-looking Nas …

reghardware 24 Aug 07:02
Data protection and surveillance: Swapping the speed camera for ANPR?

The great LibCon privacy test

When on holiday in the Dordogne two weeks ago (feels like two months now!), I picked up a Sunday Times newspaper which stated that the government was reducing grant-funding for speed cameras. This was given the thumbs-up by the paper which reported that many motorists see such cameras as a tax first and a life-saver second. …

Policing 24 Aug 08:18
Apple demonstrates how to do touchscreen desktops

Patent application shows smarts

Here's a sign that Apple is not only thinking seriously about touchscreen iMacs, but that it has a rather smarter view of the technology than its rivals. A just-discovered patent application - kudos to Patently Apple - shows not a touchscreen machine per se but a clever stand designed to make using a touchscreen desktop all-in …

reghardware 24 Aug 08:19
Sony intros latest mid-range DSLR pair

'Unparalleled levels of imaging refinement', apparently

Sony has taken the wraps off a fresh pair of Alpha digital SLR cameras, these ones with a 1080p video capture capability. The A580 and the A560 incorporate, respectively, 16Mp and 14Mp new-generation APS sensors linked to the latest Sony image processor chip. Other features are common to both cameras: 12,800 maximum ISO - 25 …

reghardware 24 Aug 08:45
Nokia intros budget touchscreen talker

Free music, Guitar Hero bundled

Nokia has taken the wraps off its latest talker: the 5250, a low-end - Symbian 1, no 3G, 2Mp camera - touchscreen job aimed at yoof. Which means it's cheap - €115 (£95) before taxes and carrier subsidies, Nokia says - comes with the newly renamed Ovi Music Unlimited - aka Comes With Music - has a stack of social networking …

reghardware 24 Aug 09:18
Gmail pushes onto the iPhone

Google calendar elbows in too

Google has enabled push email on the iPhone, so now received Gmail can interrupt iPhone users just as irritatingly as the native app supplied by Apple. Gmail users have long been able to receive pushed notifications in the iPhone mail application, just by telling the iPhone it was a Microsoft Exchange account. But now the …

Mobile 24 Aug 09:19
Take-Two Interactive loses fight for Bioshock.com

Game over, man

Games giant Take-Two Interactive has lost an attempt to obtain the domain name Bioshock.com through arbitration proceedings from a company that owns hundreds of thousands of domain names. Take-Two is the developer behind the successful BioShock video game series. The first-person shooter game was announced in October 2004, two …

Law 24 Aug 09:21
Australian cave tour guide offered in Klingon

Boldly go where no alien tourist has gone before

An Australian cave system has become the world's first attraction to offer self-guided tours in Klingon. Launched at OzTrek3 in Sydney this past weekend, the tour takes visitors into deep space, sort of, in the language of those whose foreheads resemble the attraction itself. The Jenolan Caves are a National Park and tourist …

reghardware 24 Aug 09:43
Microsoft Windows glider crashes

Insert flying OS luser gag here

Those of you who've been following our Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme are invited to spare a thought today for Microsoft's Phoenix glider, which failed to demonstrate the Right Stuff over the weekend at Red Bull's Flugtag competition in Long Beach, California. Flugtag "challenges teams of everyday people …

Bootnotes 24 Aug 09:54
EMC exec flags up FAST 2 and FCoE

More CLARiiON/Celerra VMware integration

EMC's eagerly-awaited FAST 2 automated data movement is coming to CLARiiON and Celerra arrays today, together with FCoE and improved VMware vCenter integration. CMO Jeremy Burton mentioned these things at Everything Channel's XChange Conference yesterday, also saying CLARiiON and Celerra arrays had more than 60 integration …

Storage 24 Aug 09:58
LucasFilm sets lawyers on Jedi nameswipers

Your favourite quote adapted for the occasion goes here

LucasFilm has filed a $5m trademark suit against "Jedi Mind Inc", claiming that the company has failed to phase out its use of the word 'Jedi'. The lawsuit is actually quite restrained for LucasFilm, a company famously proactive in defence of its brands. Reuters reports that Jedi Mind was sent a cease and desist letter last …

Bootnotes 24 Aug 10:00
Smiths publishes Samsung Slide e-book reader

Snazzy gadget arrives in UK

Samsung's E60 e-book reader has arrived on UK shelves courtesy of newsagent WHSmith. And its offering the device for £200 - down from £300. If that seems pricey for an e-book reader, it's because the 6in Samsung reader - the E Ink display has a 600 x 800 resolution - has a slide-out control pad. It also has built-in 802.11b/ …

reghardware 24 Aug 10:16
Boffins learn to adjust body clocks

Ideal for jetlag, bipolar, interstellar colonists

Good news today for sufferers from jet lag, bipolar depression, interstellar or interplanetary colonists and others plagued by disorders relating to the circadian rhythm - or body clock. Top boffins have announced today that they have developed a method of restarting stopped body clocks and perhaps of regulating the rate at …

Biology 24 Aug 10:18
McAfee re-issues fake visa waiver virus warning

As Symantec haunted by dead celebs

Proving there's not much new under the sun, McAfee is warning travellers to the US to be aware of the danger of fake visa waiver websites. Travellers from 36 countries now need to apply online for a visa waiver when travelling to the US. Because this is not something anyone will do often - the free pass lasts for two years - …

Malware 24 Aug 10:27
CISx plans scrapped

DWP slams brakes on gov data sharing system

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that it has halted the development of a central data sharing system for government. A spokesperson for the department told GC News on 23 August 2010 that the work has been terminated, attributing it to the government's decision to close the National Identity Scheme (NIS …

Government 24 Aug 10:47
AOL loses senior flack Marty Moe for personal reasons

'New challenges', family time

AOL’s senior communications veep Marty Moe has quit the company. Moe first joined the now-struggling internet firm back in 2001. He headed up AOL’s news and information group for its content unit before handing in his resignation yesterday. Ex-Googler David Eun, who recently joined AOL as the company’s content strategy boss, …

Financial News 24 Aug 10:55
Ball player gets Beaver ban after drunken naked tasering

Nude trespassing was 'icing on the cake'

An up and coming football player has been kicked off the Oregon State University team after local cops were forced to tase him after he was found "naked and intoxicated" in a stranger's home. Tyler Patrick Thomas, a 19-year-old lineman for the Beavers, as the OSU team is known, was found by cops responding to reports of "a …

Bootnotes 24 Aug 10:55
Inmate-frying microwave pain blaster turret installed in US jail

'They just go "Yow",' enthuses raygun sheriff

A microwave "pain ray" energy weapon, deemed too controversial for US military use in Iraq, has nonetheless gone into service. A trial installation is in use at a prison in Los Angeles for the purpose of quelling fights among the inmates. "We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or …

Science 24 Aug 11:02
Government calls for intellectual property evidence

'We need a competitive, innovative IP system'

The Intellectual Property Office is asking for evidence which might influence future policy. The IPO said it wanted to answer some basic questions like how much British businesses spend on protecting their intellectual property, how much patents help push research spending, which firms make money out of intellectual property …

Government 24 Aug 11:08
Lexmark files patent gripe against 24 cartridge makers

Much ink, much beef

Printer maker Lexmark has probably run out of ink today after firing off 24 patent lawsuits to cartridge vendors on Monday. The Lexington, Kentucky-based company said in a statement yesterday that it had filed a patent infringement complaint with the US International Trade Commission against 24 firms. "The complaint alleges …

Channel Register 24 Aug 11:19
Sony shows continuous autofocus DSLRs

Alpha 33, 55 unveiled

Sony's second blast of digital SLR-age this morning involves a pair of low-end Alphas - A33 and A55 - that use what appears to be a half-silvered mirror in place of the usual DSLR moving mirror to improve the way the cameras can autofocus moving objects. It also makes the camera smaller, said Sony, since a full mirror box isn' …

reghardware 24 Aug 11:24
Google Marketplace DRM broken

Androids can be pirates too

Android applications secured by Google's Library aren't as secure as they should be, with only a byte or two preventing applications being copied freely. The bytes in question are contained within the selected application but clearly identifiable once the app has been disassembled, as demonstrated by Justin Case, whose write …

Mobile 24 Aug 11:29
UK insurer hit with biggest ever data loss fine

£2.3m for losing customer records

Zurich Insurance must pay an enormous £2.3m fine for losing thousands of British people's personal data. The fine was imposed not by the Information Commissioner's Office but by the Financial Services Authority. Zurich Insurance lost 46,000 customer records including some bank details when a tape back-up went missing between …

Law 24 Aug 11:34
Sky rolls out Sports News app

Stats and more

Sky has launched a Sky Sports News app that'll run on the iPad as well as the iPhone. iDevice owners will get as much sports news, results, fixture lists and so on as they can handle, all subdivided into handy sections: Football, Cricket, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Golf, Tennis, F1 and Boxing. Sky Sports News radio is …

reghardware 24 Aug 11:36
Richard Desmond joins Project Canvas

Five's back in

Richard Desmond, new owner of Channel 5, has thrust the channel back into Project Canvas, the BBC-led next-generation set-top box. Five left the project just six weeks ago, citing the expense of its £16m share of the £115m start-up costs for the Project. Since then it has new owners - Desmond's Northern and Shell paid £103 at …

Music and Media 24 Aug 11:51
Toshiba no-glasses 3D TV out by Xmas?

Japanese newspaper thinks so

Toshiba's keeping mum, but Japanese daily paper the Yomiuri Shimbun has claimed the manufacturer is about to launch a 3D TV that doesn't require viewers wear special glasses. There's nothing new here - various vendors, LG and Philips to name but two, have shown off specs-free 3D screens at trade shows for some years now - but …

reghardware 24 Aug 11:52
Windows Phone 7 SDK coming 16 Sept

Microsoft machine lumbers into motion

The final version of the Windows Phone 7 developer tools will be available from September 16, while handset information isn't leaking so much as flooding ahead of the official launch. Microsoft reckons that more than 300,000 people have downloaded the beta version of its Windows Phone 7 development kit, and based on feedback …

Mobile 24 Aug 12:20
Secret X-37B space plane lost by sat-spotters for 2 weeks

Roboshuttle relocated - for now

The United States' X-37B robot mini-shuttle spaceplane, which was launched into orbit on a classified mission in April, has changed its orbit. However the "secret space warplane" - as the X-37B has been dubbed by the Iranian government - has now been re-acquired by alert amateur skywatchers. Security by obscurity. The new …

Space 24 Aug 12:43
Microsoft hit by cloudy downtime in US

Two-hour outage for some hosted services

Microsoft suffered a two-hour long outage of some of its hosted software services in North America yesterday. According to an IDG report, the company was hit by a performance issue at one of its data centres on Monday. The downtime led to customers being unable to access some of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite …

Servers 24 Aug 13:51
Scareware solicitors sent to regulator

Lawyers to defend P2P porn pensioner pestering

Consumer group Which? has welcomed a decision by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to send Andrew Crossley of ACS:Law to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Which? received over 150 complaints from members who had received the threatening letters from ACS:Law promising legal action unless an immediate payment, usually of …

Law 24 Aug 14:14
Danes work up head of steam over manga exhibition

Scribblesmut scorned by censorious Scandinavians

A manga exhibition in a Danish museum is attracting protestors concerned that material on display depicts fictional children in a sexual manner. The exhibition opened on Sunday in the Kunsthallen Brandts' media museum in the city of Odense, and is due to run through to late October. According to museum curator Christian Hviid …

Law 24 Aug 14:16
FalconStor speeds VDI by playing Violin

NSS SAN Accelerator VDI style

FalconStor has tweaked its flash-accelerated NSS SAN Accelerator to make virtual desktop provisioning and protection faster. The SAN Accelerator involves FalconStor's NSS (Network Storage Server) running in an X86 server to use a Violin Memory flash cache to speed I/O to/from a SAN. The tweaked version has VMware virtual …

Virtualization 24 Aug 14:40
Sun-like star HD10180 thought to have Earth-sized world

Seven-planet system orbits spaced much like ours

Astroboffins probing the skies with a crafty instrument attached to a mighty telescope high in the Andes have found a sun very like our own - which they believe has a planet of similar size to Earth. “We have found what is most likely the system with the most planets yet discovered,” says top sky-boffin Christophe Lovis. “We …

Space 24 Aug 15:04
Oracle forms new 'axis of evil' against open source, claims Adobe

Larry effect turns FOSS into 'cash cow'

Oracle has replaced Microsoft as the FOSS community’s number one enemy, according to Adobe System’s open source boss. David McAllister, the Flash and Photoshop maker’s open source and standards director, said in a blog post yesterday that the implosion of the OpenSolaris Governing Board highlighted how “the axis of evil has …

Operating Systems 24 Aug 15:27
Makara layers DIY platform cloud atop EC2

Automatic transmission for AWS

This spring, a startup called Makara came out of stealth mode with a beta of a product called Cloud Application Platform, which as the name suggests allowed companies to set up private platform clouds like Microsoft Azure, Google App Engine, or Engine Yard internally on their own iron. Today, Makara is doing something that will …

Virtualization 24 Aug 16:06
3PAR had three suitors

Comment It approached a fourth

It's been the 3PAR bid shuffle; the company has been seeking to sell itself since early May and three potential acquirers were involved: Dell; HP and one other. SEC filings by both 3PAR and Dell outline a timeline of events leading up to the agreed offer by Dell to buy 3PAR. First of all, Dell and 3PAR had discussions around a …

Blocks and Files 24 Aug 16:13
Samsung gives sneak peak of iPad basher

Galaxy Tab fizzes in

It's official: Samsung will unveil its would-be iPad beater, now called the Galaxy Tab - sounds like a fizzy drink - just ahead of the IFA consumer electronics show early next month. According to a vid just posted on the Samsung website, the 7in Tab will run Android 2.2, do video calls - though the only apparent camera is on …

reghardware 24 Aug 16:56
Alleged bad Appler stashed $150,000 in shoeboxes

Safe deposit boxes still a mystery

The Apple manager accused of accepting kickbacks in exchange for company secrets had $150,000 stashed in shoeboxes when authorities searched his home, according to news reports. Paul Devine, who faces federal charges and a private lawsuit alleging he was paid $1m to provide confidential data to suppliers of iPhone and iPod …

Crime 24 Aug 17:03
Microsoft ID guru slams 'duplicitous' Apple

Jobs' non-personal data claim 'hogwash'

Microsoft chief architect of identity Kim Cameron has insisted that the "non-personal information" collected by Apple can be used to personally identify you – despite angry counterarguments from at least one Jobsian fanboi. At a privacy conference in Seattle, Washington, Cameron last week gave a talk that touched on Apple's …

ID 24 Aug 17:44
Yahoo! search Bingified in US and Canada

Microsoft back-ends it

Yahoo! has completed its transition from an in-house search infrastructure to Microsoft Bing platform in the US and Canada. Last week, the company said that it had begun moving its search back-end to Bing, and today, with a blog post, the company announced that the move is finished. "I am proud to announce that the transition …

Music and Media 24 Aug 18:25
Firefox 4 beta gets Sync and ~~Tab Candy~~ Tab Panorama

Four to the fourth

Mozilla has released a fourth Firefox 4 beta, adding in its seasoned bookmark-syncing service, Firefox Sync, and its new tab-sorting interface, originally dubbed Tab Candy and now known as Tab Panorama. "This release lets you own and control your personal Web experience by syncing your data across devices, and by helping you …

Applications 24 Aug 19:27
Skeletal scanner would ID terrorists from 50 meters

And maybe non-terrorists too

Scientists are developing an identity verification system that would spot terrorists and pedophiles by scanning their skeletal features and comparing them against a database of stored images. The system could be deployed in airports, sporting events, and other settings vulnerable to criminals and ideally will be able to …

ID 24 Aug 19:51
Firefox, uTorrent, and PowerPoint hit by Windows DLL bug

Plenty more where that came from

A day after Microsoft confirmed a vulnerability in Windows applications that executes malicious code on end-user PCs, the first exploits have been released targeting programs including the Firefox browser, uTorrent BitTorrent client, and Microsoft PowerPoint. The attack code was posted on Tuesday to the Exploit Database. It …

Malware 24 Aug 22:03
Embotics plays nanny for VMware virtual machines

Making Hyper-V mind its manners by year's end

Another VMworld event is coming down the pike from VMware with everyone riding its virtualization wake, and containing VM sprawl is still a problem. Which is why Embotics is kicking up its V-Commander server virtualization management system for VMware hypervisors to the 3.6 release level. Embotics launched V-Commander 3.6 …

Virtualization 24 Aug 22:47
Microsoft punts 'significant' Office for Facebook update

Tag and search

Microsoft claims to have significantly reworked the Office applications for Facebook adjunct to its main, $14bn Office applications business. The company Tuesday unveiled changes to Docs it said addressed two key shortcomings following feedback from users. Those shortcomings? The inability for users to organize their own …

Applications 24 Aug 23:39