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2nd September 2010 Archive

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  • New iPod crew: 'Phoney, futuristic, retro, doomed'

    Apple admits error shock

    Apple has revamped three quarters of its iPod line. Or, more accurately, it upgraded one quarter, redesigned another, took a step back in time with a third, and left the final, not-even-mentioned quarter alone. iPod touch The flagship of the iPod line, the iPod touch, is often derided as being merely an iPhone without the …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 00:37

  • MokaFive outs bare-metal PC hypervisor

    Somewhere between VMware and Citrix

    Disappointed with the ridiculously skinny PC coverage offered by the XenClient bare-metal hypervisor just announced by Citrix Systems? Annoyed that VMware took its Client Virtualization Platform, also a so-called type 1 hypervisor for PCs, out behind the barn and gave it the Old Yeller? Then MokaFive is cooking up something you …

    Virtualization 2 Sep 06:00

  • D-Link DHP-306AV powerline Ethernet adaptor

    Review Network your mains cabling

    I use a couple of Devolo dLAN AVplus powerline Ethernet adaptors at home, to hook up my wired-only Sony Bravia connected telly to my router. They're great adaptors, but with a pass-through three-pin power socket, they're bulky. D-Link's latest adaptor, the DHP-306AV, offers a more compact alternative. D-Link's DHP-306AV: …

    reghardware 2 Sep 07:01

  • Large companies ignore data centre advice - survey

    Feel the need for it though

    Large companies across the UK increasingly turn to independent consultants when they want advice on the design and specification of a data centre. Almost all of them then ignore some or all of that advice, according to research released today. One hundred interviews were conducted among senior IT professionals at UK …

    Servers 2 Sep 07:01

  • Boffins explain greatest ever free kick

    Roberto Carlos and his amazing exponential spiral

    Scientists have agreeably concluded that Roberto Carlos's 1997 free kick against France - a seemingly impossible blast into the back of the net from 115ft - was not the fluke some have claimed. While hapless French keeper Fabien Barthez might have taken solace from the thought that perhaps a gust of wind had accounted for …

    Physics 2 Sep 07:50

  • Dixons sales ain't all that

    iPads and World Cup should've been a bigger boost

    DSGi shares fell very slightly this morning after the company said trading had held steady in the three months ended 24 July. The retailer grew sales by three per cent thanks to strong sales of big tellies in the run up to the football World Cup and an exclusive deal on early iPad sales. It said market share grew in the UK and …

    Channel Register 2 Sep 07:55

  • Cyber-jihadists deface home of teddy bears' picnic

    Get their Belvoirs mixed up

    Geographically mixed-up Algerian hackers made themselves look rather silly by defacing the website of an English stately home instead of Belvoir Fortress in Israel, their intended target. Cyber-jihadis from a previously unknown group called Dz-SeC commandeered the website of Belvoir Castle to post an anti-Zionist rant along …

    Enterprise Security 2 Sep 08:08

  • How much aircraft fatigue is too much?

    HPC eases the strain

    Here’s another “How HPC saves your worthless hide” type of story - our pals at InsideHPC publicized a collaboration between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) that should increase air safety for people riding on planes and for the people standing around underneath them. Briefly, …

    HPC Blog 2 Sep 09:01

  • UK.gov fishes for ID ideas

    Turns to IT suppliers, says 'Er, what do you think?'

    Directgov has asked IT suppliers to come up with new thinking on identity verification. The team, which is now within the Cabinet Office, has issued a pre-tender notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union, saying that it wants feedback on potential requirements for the public sector on all aspects of …

    Government 2 Sep 09:14

  • Sony updates e-book readers

    Touchscreens across the range

    Sony has updated its line of E Ink e-book readers, adding brighter screens, touch technology and reducing the devices' physical sizes. The Reader Touch Edition PRS-650 has, like its predecessor, the PRS-600, a 6in screen, but this one's the 800 x 600, 16-grey E Ink Pearl, which offers a higher contrast than the old model could …

    reghardware 2 Sep 09:17

  • Symantec and Snoop Dogg launch cybercrime rap contest

    Now thass geekster

    Symantec has teamed up with rapper Snoop Dogg to launch a cybercrime rap contest. Participants are invited to bust some rhymes on the subject of malware, hacking and botnets for the chance to win an all expenses paid trip to LA to attend a Snoop gig and meet his people, if not the rapper himself. Winners get a Toshiba laptop …

    Enterprise Security 2 Sep 09:24

  • Nokia blows Ovi Files out of the sky

    Get off our cloud

    Nokia has pulled the plug on Ovi Files, its cloud-based storage system, and told users they've got a month before the the system gets wiped. Not that users risk losing files - Ovi Files is a synchronisation system, so the data will be replicated on a desktop computer. Nokia suggests that users of Ovi Files might like to use …

    Mobile 2 Sep 09:52

  • Samsung specs up 7in Android tablet

    Vodafone to sell it

    Samsung has posted the spec for its upcoming Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab. And Vodafone has announced availability. What we have behind its shiny, 190 x 121 x 12mm, 380g shell is a 1GHz ARM A8 processor with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core - rather similar to Apple's A4 chip, in other words. It has 512MB of Ram to play with …

    reghardware 2 Sep 10:04

  • If HP gets 3PAR, does Donatelli get HP?

    Opinion HP, Dell, everyone schtum on 3PAR bids

    3Par has not issued a statement recommending HP's $2bn bid for the company, despite the ending of a three-day period for Dell to mount a counter-offer. Up until midnight yesterday the 3PAR position was that it recommended its shareholders to accept a Dell offer for the company valued at $27 per share, the same as HP's 26 …

    Storage 2 Sep 10:06

  • Hands on with Motorola's Milestone 2 and Defy

    Video Latest Android handsets shot in the wild

    Tom Satchwell, Director of Marketing, Motorola Europe demonstrates the company's latest Android offerings, the Milestone 2 and the Defy. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com

    reghardware 2 Sep 10:18

  • NASA seeks inflatable popup roof for camper vans on Mars

    Space 'lofts' to feature two-ply 'bummer shielding'

    NASA says it has selected finalists in an engineering competition to design an "inflatable loft", reminiscent of the extending roofs often fitted to camper vans, but in this case intended to deploy from the roof of a "hard-shell prototype habitat" for use by astronauts on the Moon or Mars. Mobile home for the trailer parks of …

    Space 2 Sep 10:32

  • Philips unwraps cinemascope-ratio 3D TV

    58 inches of film fan joy?

    Philips has introduced a 3D version of its Cinema 21:9 movie theatre aspect ratio telly. Cinema 21:9 Platinum Series has a 58in screen presents pictures in a 2.3:1 cinemascope aspect ratio and illuminated with a 1500-LED array backlight. It has 400Hz frame interpolation. And it also features Philips' Ambilight technology: …

    reghardware 2 Sep 10:33

  • My Exchange conversion

    Sysadmin blog Exchange Server 2010 heals 2007 release trauma

    Recently I had the opportunity to walk through complete installs of Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2010. Although I have used Exchange Server 2007 for the past two years, as with Vista, I prefer to pretend it never happened. Installing Exchange 2003 on my personal server was like spending time with an old friend: you …

    Desktop Mgmt Blog 2 Sep 10:45

  • Punters still puzzled by broadband ads

    Thanks for that Sherlock

    It will come as no surprise to regular readers that 90 per cent of UK consumers are confused by broadband advertising - we'd have to assume the missing ten per cent are marketing bods for ISPs. Virgin Media is to publish "typical" speeds for customers on its different packages, having found that 90 per cent of those it …

    Telecoms 2 Sep 10:53

  • Virgin claims broadband speeds 92% of 'up to' peak

    Honest, guv

    Virgin Media is attempting to gain the moral high ground by publishing what it claims are the real speeds its broadband customers experience. It has posted an "speed honesty" page on its website listing the "typical" speeds subscribers of its 10, 20 and 50Mb/s broadband packages - sold as L, XL and XXL, respectively - reached …

    reghardware 2 Sep 11:11

  • RFID patent pool prices up wireless

    0.08 cents per tag

    The RFID Consortium has opened for business after five years of negotiations, providing a one-stop shop for all the patents needed to manufacture RFID tags and readers. The negotiations were drawn out by the large number of patents involved and concerns that a single pool might attract attention from anti-trust regulators. But …

    Wireless 2 Sep 11:25

  • StreetView passed by Kiwi cops

    Google's data slurp legal in New Zealand

    Police in New Zealand have bounced a complaint about Google's StreetView service back to the country's Privacy Commissioner. The Privacy Commissioner formally referred StreetView's unauthorised collection of Wi-Fi data to the police in June so cops could decide whether a crime had been committed. Police said there was no …

    Law 2 Sep 11:28

  • Verbatim InSight 500GB external hard drive

    Review Coming clean on capacity

    Verbatim's InSight external hard drive is an unusual-looking offering, but that odd wave-like curve at the front is home to the unit's status readout screen. Verbatim's InSight 500GB: tells you how much space you have left Unlike rival drive maker Western Digital, which also puts a status display on some of its drives, …

    reghardware 2 Sep 12:01

  • General Motors bitchslaps Tesla with Range Anxiety™

    Fixed grins at cheeks-aflame 'leccycar firm

    As US motor mammoth GM gears up for the launch of its plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, it has applied to trademark the term "range anxiety" - meaning the fear suffered by battery-car owners regarding their ability to get home again after a given journey. Upstart battery car maker Tesla Motors has issued a panicky and unconvincing …

    Science 2 Sep 12:11

  • Apple inks Ping trademark deal with golf gear maker

    Orange Ping sticks to sweet stuff

    Apple cleared the use of the word Ping with golf company PING before using the name for its new Web2.0 music look-up feature in iTunes. PING’s parent company, Karsten Manufacturing Corp, released an opportunistic statement yesterday, after Apple boss Steve Jobs announced the arrival of Ping. Apple inked a trademark agreement …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 12:29

  • Jobs takes swing at Google over Android activations

    Who's got the bigger count?

    Google and Apple's bush war flared up again as Steve Jobs apparently cast aspersions over Android's activation numbers as he unveiled Apple's latest iPod and TV scrub-up yesterday. During his discourse, Jobs said that the iPhone OS was seeing around 230,000 activations a day. Crucially he said these were all new activations, …

    Mobile 2 Sep 12:41

  • Apple states tax take on UK iPod pricing

    You pay this, we take that, George Osborne gets the other, Eurocrats get the rest

    Apple has made it explicitly clear how much more its charging UK consumers for its kit than US-based buyers. The UK online Apple Store now states how much of a gadget's price goes to "VAT, duty and levies". VAT is obvious - it's our sales tax, overseas readers, billed at 17.5 per cent - and duty is the amount the European …

    reghardware 2 Sep 13:04

  • TomTom unveils 'super' satnav

    Capacitive touchscreens at last

    TomTom has launched what it claims are the first of the "super satnavs". The Go Live 1000 and 1005 both sport capacitive touchscreens allowing drivers to pinch-to-zoom in and out of maps, and scroll through lists with finger swipes. The 1005 has a 5in screen, the 1000 a 4.3in job. TomTom didn't detail the satnavs' other …

    reghardware 2 Sep 13:24

  • HP bids $2.4bn for 3PAR

    Dell's new offer given drubbing

    HP has raised its bid for 3PAR to $33 a share, around $2.4bn, beating a revised Dell offer made earlier today. Dell had come back with $32/share bid, beating for HP's bid last Friday (27 August)of $30/share, and increased its bid termination fee to $92m. The 3PAR board has deemed the revised HP bid a superior proposal, again …

    Storage 2 Sep 13:48

  • Boris bikes for tourists delayed till year end

    Systems not robust enough

    Visitors to London, and anyone else without a full account, will not be able to hire Boris bikes until the end of the year. The bicycle hire scheme was meant to be opening to all comers at the end of July. But problems with systems mean you will need to have a UK address and credit card, register for an account and wait for an …

    Government 2 Sep 14:07

  • iTunes update plugs WebKit flaw

    Ping-pong

    The latest version of iTunes for Windows addresses 13 security vulnerabilities, as well as adding much-publicised social networking functionality. iTunes 10 for Windows addresses flaws in the media player's WebKit browser that were fixed in Safari late last month with version 5.0.1 and 4.1.1 of Apple's browser software. Apple …

    Malware 2 Sep 14:16

  • AOL goes soul-searching with Google in 5-year deal

    Gets into mobile search (result), agrees to provide content to YouTube (not so much)

    AOL has signed a deal with Google to make it the sole provider for paid text-based search and contextual ads on the company's US websites for the next five years. In effect the two internet companies renewed and expanded their vows today to include the all-important mobile search and the (to date) non-revenue generator YouTube …

    Applications 2 Sep 14:19

  • US loses last chance for free wireless

    Never a flyer, but finally grounded for good

    An audacious plan to provide free wireless internet access across the US has finally been killed off by the FCC, much to the delight of the cellular industry. Last Friday the FCC officially notified M2Z Networks that the AWS-3 spectrum would be auctioned off towards the middle of next year, along with a load of other spectrum …

    Mobile 2 Sep 14:44

  • R-Type blasts onto iDevices

    EA uploads arcade classic to iPhone

    EA has released 1980s arcade classic R-Type on the iPhone. The side-scrolling shooter has been recreated complete with old-school graphics and all the features of the original, EA said. The game comprises eight levels and eight bosses, and you can play with a selection of control modes: tilt, touch and virtual D-pad. One …

    reghardware 2 Sep 14:56

  • Toshiba touts £329 Folio Android tablet

    'Failio' spec?

    Do computer companies never learn from history? Clearly not, if Toshiba is anything to go by. Today, it launched its Android tablet, revealing the gadget is called Folio. Does Toshiba not recall the Palm Foleo, quickly re-christened the Faileo by pundits? Still, the Tosh offering has an impressive non-fail spec: Nvidia Tegra …

    reghardware 2 Sep 15:07

  • HMRC issues CD-rom alert to employers

    Quaint system to be replaced in 2011

    HM Revenue and Customs has warned employers who use its Employer CD-rom to update it immediately to avoid miscalculations. The department said it is important for employers to carry out the free update as it will ensure that they have the most recent guidance and calculators. "I encourage all employers who use our CD-rom to …

    Small Biz 2 Sep 15:17

  • Toshiba launches telly-connected media drive

    Why wasn't the new Apple TV like this?

    Toshiba has at long last launched the TV-connected hard drive it showed us in a backroom way back in February. Then, the StorE TV+ had a specification sheet with rather a lot of 'to be determined' labels on it. Now, it's all sorted: 2TB of hard drive storage; HDMI and component-video ports; SD memory card slot' two USB 2.0 …

    reghardware 2 Sep 15:23

  • Dell throws in 3PAR towel

    HP pumps fist

    Dell has admitted defeat in its attempt to buy 3PAR. The latest bids for the suddenly most-desired cloud storage product company in the world, 3PAR, were $32/share from Dell, trumped in hours by a $33/share bid from HP. This is more than twice Dell's original bid of $15/share and makes 3PAR worth more than Data Domain when EMC …

    Storage 2 Sep 15:35

  • HyTrust takes auditing, monitoring to the clouds

    VMworld Safe SOX for your virtual box

    Virtual security appliance maker HyTrust is revving up its wares with a new 2.1 release and positioning itself as the go-to partner for auditing and compliance for VMware's new vCloud Director. vCloud Director, announced this week at the VMworld virtualization and cloud extravaganza in San Francisco, is the heart of VMware's …

    Virtualization 2 Sep 15:54

  • LaCie catches ultra-small USB Flash drive bug

    MosKeyto flies in

    Ordinary USB Flash drives too darn big for you? LaCie's new MosKeyto protrudes a mere 6mm from the USB port it's connected to. Picture one of those micro Bluetooth adaptors and you've got the idea. But while the drive is small, the price isn't. LaCie wants 20 quid for the 4GB MosKeyto, and £30 for the 8GB model. There's a …

    reghardware 2 Sep 16:06

  • Microsoft slings mud in VMware living room

    VMworld Taunts estranged son

    Microsoft's assault on VMware knows no bounds. On Tuesday, as VMware opened its annual VMworld conference in San Francisco, Microsoft dropped an open letter into national McPaper USA Today that accused the company of trying to lock customers into a technology platform incapable of building a "complete cloud computing …

    Virtualization 2 Sep 17:11

  • Wikileaks founder blasts reopening of rape probe

    New 'unrelated' case filed in US

    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has blasted Sweden's investigation into allegations against him for sexual misconduct after prosecutors reopened a probe into charges he raped a woman last month. "It appears to be highly irregular and some kind of legal circus," Assange told the TV service of newspaper Expressen on Thursday. “ …

    Government 2 Sep 18:28

  • Twitter tightens grip on own firehose

    Microbloggy thing tracks all links clicked

    Twitter is on a mission to regain control of its own firehose. On Wednesday evening, the ballyhooed microblogging operation struck not one but two blows against third parties hoping to feed off its endless stream of self-serving mini-messages: The company said it's moving all users to its own url shortening service, and it …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 19:18

  • Microsoft buffs Silverlight for HTML5 video contest

    'We're more consistent. And we're here'

    Microsoft has tried to justify its Silverlight media player in the age of HTML5. Brad Becker, Microsoft director of product management, says that Silverlight is not designed to replace HTML5. The closed-source player, he contends, lets you build "premium" experiences. Also, Becker says, Silverlight delivers "consistency" and …

    Developer 2 Sep 20:01

  • Jobs moves to the heavens with Apple TV

    Analysis You rent from his cloud

    With its Apple TV revamp announced Wednesday, Apple dipped its toes into the entertainment cloud — if you'll forgive a muddled metaphor. It's a tentative baby step, but expect more cloudy offerings from Cupertino if the experiment is a success. Although iTunes has allowed you to either rent or buy movies for some years now, …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 20:58

  • Microsoft freshens retro code lock-down tool

    Teaching old apps new tricks

    Microsoft has released a new version of a software tool that developers and administrators can use to harden older applications against common vulnerabilities. Short for Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, EMET version 2.0 brings several new protections to operating systems and applications such as Windows XP or Internet …

    Security 2 Sep 21:01

  • Semi biz starts to cool off

    Mobile chips warming up as PC chips chill

    While chip makers are not white-knuckled with fear as they were during the economic meltdown of late 2008 and early 2009, they were hoping that the recent boom in chip sales would hold for a couple of quarters — and it probably won't. The latest projections from IT market researcher Gartner are pointing in two directions at …

    Business 2 Sep 21:11

  • Chrome celebrates second b-day with sixth release

    Remember the Googasm

    Google is celebrating Chrome's second birthday by releasing a new stable version of its rapidly evolving browser, offering a slightly simpler user interface, an automatic form filler, and the ability to synchronize extensions and form data across machines. The first public version of Chrome arrived on September 2, 2008, …

    Applications 2 Sep 22:05