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6th September 2010 Archive

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  • HP Pavilion dv6-3085ea 15.6in notebook

    Review Family favourite?

    Those who want their notebook PCs to play music and video while managing a burgeoning digital image collection should cast an eye at the HP Pavilion dv6-3085ea. It's an attractively slim computer with a design outline that's generally reminiscent of Apple's MacBook Pro. The clamshell even stays closed thanks to Apple-style …

    reghardware 6 Sep 07:01

  • HP's Hurd set to join Oracle

    And he's back in the room

    Mark Hurd, pushed from the top job at HP after allegations of sexual harassment and misfiling of expenses, is about to get a board post at Oracle. Although neither the company nor its founder Larry Ellison would comment on the record a vote is expected within the next few days, according to both the FT and the Wall Street …

    Servers 6 Sep 07:43

  • USB stick with anti-terror training found outside police station

    Keychain cops

    A memory stick containing anti-terror training manuals and other sensitive material was reportedly found on a street outside a Manchester police station. The Greater Manchester Police-branded stick, which also held personnel files, was found by an unnamed businessman outside a cop shop in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, the …

    Enterprise Security 6 Sep 09:07

  • Hitachi GST: Sale or IPO?

    Opinion 'Ere... wanna buy a high-ranking disk drive operation?

    Hitachi is reported to be considering an IPO or sale of Hitachi GST, its disk drive operation, ranked third in the industry behind Seagate and Western Digital. How much is it worth? Who would want to buy it? IPO Hitach GST had revenues of $4.8bn in 2009. We can look at the annual revenues of Seagate and Western Digital and …

    Storage 6 Sep 09:18

  • Google: Shopping means more to UK plc than culture

    Don't call it creative

    If Google is trying to shake off its reputation for a pathological hostility to creative businesses, then at least one senior policy hasn't got the memo. Google's UK policy chief called for Government to give creative industries the bum's rush last week - arguing that Britain's retailers were just as important. "We've got to …

    Music and Media 6 Sep 09:20

  • Judge extends Oz PS3 mod dongle ban

    Gadget's manufacturer identified

    The Australian Federal Court has maintained the injunction banning four local retailers from importing and selling the PSJailbreak USB dongle that allows PS3s to play pirated games. Two of the defendants, OzModChips and Ryan Emmanuel Caruana, both stated their intention at a hearing this past Friday to tell the supplier of the …

    reghardware 6 Sep 09:26

  • Orange and T-Mobile splice customers

    Inter-network roaming imminent

    Orange and T-Mobile customers will be able to roam freely between the two networks from 5 October, as the companies consolidate their morph into Everything Everywhere. Customers will keep their existing tariffs and contracts, but by signing up with their respective operator they'll be able to roam between the networks, …

    Mobile 6 Sep 10:05

  • O2 upgrades Dell Streak to Android 2.1

    Gentlemen, start your downloads

    O2 has updated its version of the Dell Streak 5in internet tablet - reviewed here - to Android 2.1. The operator said that the release will appear as a notification on Streak screens, but users can also go into the device's Settings, select About Phone and then System Updates. It added that the update will wipe the machine, …

    reghardware 6 Sep 10:20

  • Death by iPod: beware the zombie trance

    Mind how you go

    A 46 year-old woman wearing headphones was run over and killed by an ambulance in Sydney, Australia at the weekend. Police think she may not have heard the sirens. If so, the victim is a case of Death by iPod - a bugbear of NSW Police who blame careless music playing, headphone wearing walkers for a 25 per cent rise in …

    reghardware 6 Sep 10:22

  • Virtual security: Even better than the real thing?

    VMworld The jury's still out

    VMware is taking some big steps in the security and network management arena with its vShield product set. I sat in on a deepish dive into the somewhat new security products being offered by VMware to deliver on the ‘secure’ part of their “Secure Hybrid Cloud” initiative. The speakers went through each of the three offerings, …

    Virtualization 6 Sep 10:24

  • German kiddies punted porn-projecting pens

    Commies unleash filth on primary school innocents

    Kids at the Adolf Reichwein School in Essen got an unexpected treat on the first day at primary school: porn-projecting pens provided by the German Communist Party. Reuters explains that six-year-old nippers normally get a cardboard cone packed with sweets to "sweeten" their induction, but were instead punted the pens which " …

    Bootnotes 6 Sep 10:28

  • Samsung: demand for Windows Phone 7 'specialised'

    Demand for Symbian is 'invisible'

    Samsung is to focus on Android and Bada for its smartphones after claiming there is no demand for Symbian phones and only "specialised" demand for Windows Phone 7. Speaking to Reuters, Y H Lee, the marketing chief at Samsung's mobile phone division, said Samsung will introduce a Windows handset later this year to tap into the …

    reghardware 6 Sep 10:35

  • Judge Dredd returns to the silver screen

    'Futuristic neo-noir' action flick promised

    Those of you still recovering from Sylvester Stallone's 1995 interpretation of Judge Dredd will have to wait until 2012 to see if Karl Urban can make a better hash of bringing the classic 2000 AD character to the silver screen. Shooting on IM Global's $45m Dredd is set to kick off in South Africa later this year, and the …

    Entertainment 6 Sep 10:41

  • Browser security warning lookalike pushes malware

    Zeven deadly sins

    Scareware peddlers have developed a new ruse that relies on mimicking browser warning pages. The malicious code - dubbed Zeven - auto-detects a user's browser before serving up a warning page that poses as the genuine pages generated by IE, Firefox or Chrome. Prospective marks are warned that their systems are riddled with …

    Malware 6 Sep 10:42

  • Air mouse targets TV - Apple to follow?

    Gesticulating at the telly will actually make things happen!

    Movea, the company behind the Gyration Air Mouse, is pushing into television with a module for adding gesture control to the humble zapper. Waving the remote at the TV might not work right now, but Movea intends to change that with its Motion Pod - enabling remote control manufacturers to add gestures to their repertoire. …

    PCs & Chips 6 Sep 10:44

  • HPC goes mainstream

    Workshop Marrying IT to HPC

    Many people tend to associate High Performance Computing (HPC) with exotic supercomputers with esoteric CPUs, high-end networking and storage fabrics, and custom applications simulating nuclear explosions, virtually crash-testing cars or designing the aerodynamics of the latest jetliner. This vision is true for the high end of …

    Server Management 6 Sep 11:02

  • iPad scammers hack Kirstie Allsopp's Twitter

    Posh property presenter pwned

    iPad scammers managed to reach a huge potential audience last weekend after they took over a Twitter profile maintained by British TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp. Allsopp, who fronts Channel 4 property programmes Location, Location and Kirstie's Homemade Home, was tipped off about the hack by her followers after the account …

    Malware 6 Sep 11:06

  • Angry Birds take wing on Android

    Fight or flight?

    Angry Birds, the insanely popular iPhone game, made its debut on Android phones on Friday. Rovio, the developer, is making the game available as a beta "lite" version on Android Market. In a blog post, the company says that it is presented on an "as is" basis and that it can't guarantee functionality on every Android device …

    reghardware 6 Sep 11:15

  • Craigslist blocks US escort ads

    Save our sensitive souls

    Craigslist has bowed to pressure and stopped access to erotic services ads for its sensitive US customers. Even though the site gives profits from the section to charity and employed lawyers to pre-check every ad it still faced accusations that it was profiting from child prostitution. The site simply replaced the "erotic …

    Law 6 Sep 11:24

  • Russia's Cold War raygun air fleet back in operation - reports

    Monster laser-planes ready to blind US satellites?

    Reports suggest that Russia has re-started work on a Cold War project intended to produce a laser cannon mounted on an enormous military transport aircraft in the style of the USA's Airborne Laser Testbed 747. Ha ha, imperialists - it is not only you who can build expensive crazy rayguns in giant aeroplanes! Erratic …

    Science 6 Sep 11:33

  • Don't get mad, get even

    World of Reg My crappy component inferno: our first reader audio blog

    If you're mad as hell and you're not going to take this any more, if you're blissfully happy and can't wait to tell the world, or if you're just tired of listening to product marketing managers who don't know what it's like to get your hands dirty, now's your chance. Don't rant in the pub: share it with millions of Reg readers …

    Tech Panel 6 Sep 11:52

  • Children's rights group threatens ICO with judicial review

    Action over inaction against Youth Justice Board

    Children's Rights Group ARCH has threatened to take the Information Commissioner to a judicial review after the data regulator declined to take enforcement action the Youth Justice Board for unlawfully collecting and distributing data. According to Terri Dowty, Director of ARCH, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) is continuing to …

    Law 6 Sep 12:03

  • Homade Sucker Stand

    Txt Take New! Product evaluations in 140 characters

    Homade Sucker Stand Pics Thanks to Totally Funky for the review sample. Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here. ®

    reghardware 6 Sep 12:20

  • Symantec finally secures HackIsWack

    It's such a bungle, sometimes, it makes you wonder...

    Symantec has belatedly secured its laughable HackIsWack competition website. The site - a collaboration between the security software firm and rapper Snoop Dogg - is designed to raise awareness about malware and identity theft by providing a forum for a user-generated cybercrime-themed rap competition. The site had a slow …

    Enterprise Security 6 Sep 12:41

  • Just Mobile UpStand

    Txt Take New! Product evaluations in 140 characters

    Just Mobile UpStand Pics Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here.

    reghardware 6 Sep 12:53

  • ICO chides TalkTalk over sneaky StalkStalk trials

    Malware monitoring tech draws official ire

    Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, has rebuked TalkTalk for following its 4.2 million customers around the web without telling them. He also told the firm he was disappointed it kept the trials of its forthcoming anti-malware system quiet at a recent meeting, citing the controversy when BT's similarly …

    Law 6 Sep 12:53

  • Two and a half days in hell

    Sysadmin blog Part one of Doomsday Weekend: who can you trust?

    As sysadmins, we have to test before we deploy. We need to test before even upgrading a driver. We should test absolutely everything before a major deployment. It seems obvious. It is obvious. You should certainly need to test everything before doing what I did: throwing ten times the normal I/O and processing load at your …

    Desktop Mgmt Blog 6 Sep 13:10

  • 'Jetpack' inventors: US military showing interest. Honest

    No jets involved, nor is it a pack. 'Blower-throne'?

    A New Zealand company founded by a garage inventor says it is in talks to sell its so-called "Jetpack" - actually a personal ducted-fan aircraft too heavy to be lifted by its user - to the US military. Stupid background projection out of focus again. The New Zealand Herald reported at the weekend that inventor Glenn Martin …

    Science 6 Sep 13:20

  • Blighty suffers 'real shortage of serviceable conkers'

    Bad weather hits supplies hard

    There's some grim news today for those kids who are still allowed to play conkers, albeit in full body armour with helmet and visor: the crap summer weather has caused a "real shortage of serviceable conkers". Keith Flett of the Campaign For Real Conkers has warned that conkers are dropping before they've had a chance to ripen …

    Biology 6 Sep 13:30

  • Sonic Screwdriver controller coming to Wii

    More fun than a Stattenheim Remote Control?

    Good news for budding Doctors: there will be a sonic screwdriver-style remote out in time for upcoming Wii title Doctor Who: Return to Earth. The gadget is coming from Blue Ocean Accessories, the hardware wing of games publisher Koch Media, which it the firm behind the Doctor Who game and the DS-based Doctor Who: Evacuation …

    reghardware 6 Sep 13:50

  • Pamela Anderson gets her kit off for Nokia

    And you can too...

    What a brilliant idea for a competition! Nokia has hired Pamela Anderson and Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick to appear in The Commuter a short film short shot entirely on the not-quite-launched Nokia N8 - and you can appear in it too. Two roles are up for grabs - one, we guess a guy, who shares bedroom with Pamela and the other …

    reghardware 6 Sep 14:17

  • Vodafone announces 4G roll-out for Germany

    But US gets first handset

    Vodafone has announced its 4G roll-out for Germany, though it seems it'll be Americans making the first 4G phone call. Vodafone Germany will have LTE coverage in 1,000 municipalities by Christmas, and Vodafone promises a national network by the end of 2011. That will be a data network using dongles for connecting laptops, in …

    Mobile 6 Sep 14:20

  • Drummers: Looking for a throbbing BumChum?

    Click here for hot ass action

    It's only September, but we feel pretty confident that the El Reg 2010 Product Name of the Year will be awarded to the spectacularly-titled BumChum - a silent bass drum monitoring system which promises lively "bottom-end thump". Yes indeed, for just £1199, you too can have a BumChum of your very own, which "which turns the …

    Bootnotes 6 Sep 14:26

  • East Midland Trains passengers get Wi-Fi

    On-board internet access service goes live

    East Midlands Trains has rolled out wireless internet access to its rolling stock. Six of its 27 Meridian trains currently contain Wi-Fi hotspots, and EMT pledged that all the rest will get wireless internet "in the coming months", as will the operator's 11 Mk III High-Speed Trains. All the trains service EMT's London- …

    reghardware 6 Sep 15:06

  • MS probes mystery IE bug

    URL shortening shenanigans

    Microsoft is investigating reports of a new bug in Internet Explorer. Redmond's Security Response Team (MSRT) said on Friday that it was aware of a "publicly disclosed issue involving Internet Explorer", and promised an investigation, without going into details. Circumstantial evidence suggests Microsoft is referring to a …

    Applications 6 Sep 15:28

  • GlobalFoundries says Intel process squeezes chip devs

    GTC 2010 Future chips: extreme, ultraviolet & metal

    According to AMD-spinoff GlobalFoundries, chip-baking is about to hit a wall — but they're ready for it. They also claim that their way of handling the latest advance in chip materials is superior to that used by Intel and soon to be introduced by their ginormous competitor, TSMC. On Wednesday at its first annual Global …

    PCs & Chips 6 Sep 17:00

  • 119 iPad apps for admins, coders, and geeks

    Part three Stuff for web monkeys, iPad junkies, EE flunkies

    This – the third installment of apps for admins, coders and geeks – is our final foray into demonstrably useful apps for Apple's "magical and revolutionary" tablet. Our first installment focused on iPad apps for sysadmins. Our second offered coders a collection of training tools, text editors, and other tasty bits. This time …

    Mobile 6 Sep 18:00

  • Mozilla 'cloud' code editor breaks with Lando Calrissian

    Skywriter goes Javascript

    Mozilla's Bespin project – an open source effort to build a web-based code editor – has been rechristened Skywriter, and its official repository has been moved to GitHub so that developers can more easily fork the project. As the project approaches its 1.0 release, Mozilla is also working to move its entire architecture to …

    Developer 6 Sep 19:00