The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

22nd December 2010 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Red Hat revenues in 20% climb

    Profits feel the pinch

    Commercial Linux and middleware distributor Red Hat revealed its financial results for its third quarter of fiscal 2011 today, and if revenues are any guide, then the company just keeps growing like there never was a recession. That said, Red Hat's profits are under a little pressure, thanks to product transitions, and Wall …

    Financial News 22 Dec 00:27

  • Feds please no one with first official net neut rules

    Battle of the ideologues enters eighteenth act

    The US Federal Communications Commission has officially approved rules meant to ensure "net neutrality". But it's unclear whether the commission has the legal authority to back them up. And whether it does or not, just about everyone thinks the new rules are crap, including net neutrality zealots. The rules demand that …

    Networks 22 Dec 00:39

  • Mozilla to unload Firefox 4 spit and polish beta

    Open source shine treatment

    Firefox is due to release an eighth Firefox 4 beta. Not to be confused with a fourth Firefox 8 beta. The latest test version of Firefox 4 – due for an official debut next year – was scheduled to go live on Tuesday. Mozilla hasn't added any new tools, but according to the release notes, the open sourcers have polished a few …

    Developer 22 Dec 01:14

  • Gifts for the Geeks

    Product Round-up Go go, gadget shoppers

    Christmas time is here and we all know what that means: family feuds, nativity plays, decorative trees and brussel sprouts. Such are the joys of commercialised religion. But while you worry about where the gift money will come from, there's no need to worry about what you're gonna get. We've put together a selection of what's …

    reghardware 22 Dec 07:00

  • National Identity Card holding chumps have buyer's remorse

    Can't use it, can't get their £30 back

    The horror that was the National Identity scheme may be dead - its end pronounced yesterday – but it is not altogether gone and now, zombie-like, supporters of the ID card are returning to haunt the Coalition. And while el Reg has not been known for its support of the scheme – or the NI register that under-pinned it – it is …

    Government 22 Dec 10:01

  • Morricone makes music for Android smartphone

    Diddly-diddly-dee, wee-wah-wah

    LG has hired famed movie music composer Ennio Morricone to write... er... ringtones for its upcoming dual-core smartphone. How the mighty have fallen. How can a man who penned such classic soundtracks as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Mission, The Untouchables, Cinema Paradiso and John Carpenter's remake of The Thing …

    reghardware 22 Dec 10:15

  • Microsoft has shifted 1.5 million Windows phones

    Boss lets secret number slip...

    Microsoft has been telling the world that it's shifted 1.5m Windows Phone 7 handsets, though what proportion have arrived into the sweaty palms of users we don't know. The number comes from Achim Berg, VP of marketing for the platform, who let it slip during a hard-hitting interview with his own PR department. But it's the …

    Mobile 22 Dec 10:17

  • Lindsay Lohan looks to CCTV saviour in hand to hand battery case

    I wasn't drunk, I was getting my hair done

    Lindsay Lohan's latest stint in rehab has hit an unseasonal bout of discomfort and joylessness after she was accused of attacking one of the workers at the Betty Ford Centre. Lohan has vehemently denied the reports on gossip website TMZ, saying that the facility's inhouse surveillance cameras will prove her innocence. The dry …

    Entertainment 22 Dec 10:43

  • Famous 'Silhouette' Flash illusion unravelled by trick-cyclist

    Twirling nude lady doesn't actually get inside your head

    The "silhouette illusion" used in many online quizzes to indicate things about a user's personality, whether he or she is left- or right-brained etc, is actually of no use for finding such things out. The illusion, in which a silhouetted woman is seen turning on the spot, arises from the fact that - from the information …

    Biology 22 Dec 10:44

  • iPhone case makes like a Moleskine

    Eng Lit fanboys, take note

    Time was when some of us would secrete a crafty packet of fags inside a book, but now it seems that the Apple iPhone 3GS and 4 has reached such a high level of public approbation that it needs to be hidden away in a similar fashion. Enter the Little Black Book for iPhone, a case cunningly disguised as the middle class journal …

    reghardware 22 Dec 10:51

  • Government to examine public procurement practices

    Pulls in OFT to fill in competition gaps

    Competition watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will investigate the way Government and local authorities buy services in a bid to ensure that competition law is being respected. The OFT has already studied the role of Government in markets and plans to spend the next year analysing the Government's role in buying, …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 10:54

  • Partners, kids force iPad owners to take more tablets

    Get you effin' hands off my gadget

    Tablets breed tablets, it seems, with 17 per cent of iPad owners having more than one in their home. A similar percentage of punters expect to purchase a second tablet too. Ditto e-book readers. According to UK pollster YouGov, 15 per cent of Kindle owners have one or more extra units. For Sony's Reader, 13 per cent of owners …

    reghardware 22 Dec 11:15

  • 2010: The Year's Best Tech

    The gadgets that rocked our world

    As the year nears its close, it's time to look back to the technology products that most excited the Reg Hardware team during 2010. Don't forget you'll soon be able to vote for your choices too, in the Reg Hardware Reader Awards. The shortlists are in, and we'll be posting the voting form shortly. Here's your chance to …

    reghardware 22 Dec 11:39

  • MS withdraws misfiring Outlook update

    Ouch

    Microsoft has withdrawn a recently issued patch for Outlook 2007 following the emergence of conflicts with third-part email accounts. Users who installed the Outlook update (KB2412171), which was published on 14 December, also complained of problems and general sluggishness in moving between email folders or following Calendar …

    Applications 22 Dec 11:45

  • Amazon wraps up Kindle crashes

    Unlit case bedevils electronic book

    Kindle users delighting in Amazon's leather case are finding the addition of a wrapper sends the e-reader into a tailspin, though thankfully not a terminal one. The problem is with the "Kindle Leather Cover, Black" for the latest model of Amazon's keyboard-touting e-book reader. Buyers are reporting that the cover causes their …

    Mobile 22 Dec 11:48

  • Enormous 1km ice-cube machine fashioned at South Pole

    Boffins in magnificent Futurama style feat

    International boffins have created an enormous particle detector by instrumenting up a kilometre-on-a-side cube of the utterly pure and transparent ice found thousands of metres beneath the surface at the South Pole. Sensibly enough the boffins left the giant ice cube in place rather than trying to move it to somewhere more …

    Science 22 Dec 12:09

  • Make your iPhone patriotic - for free

    Deputise your iOS device with the PatriotApp

    If it's the $1.99 price that has been preventing you from being properly patriotic then hold back no more - until Christmas you can download the PatroitApp for free. The application simplifies reporting suspicious activity, instantly sending photograph-supported e-mails to federal bodies who need to know whether your neighbour …

    Mobile 22 Dec 12:14

  • Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 - what's in it for you?

    Review Not quite all-in for the cloud

    “We’re all in for the cloud” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this year; but the company’s new Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 is only half-in at best, even though smaller organisations are among the most obvious candidates for online services because they generally lack specialist IT staff. The strategy behind SBS …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 12:18

  • The unceasing storage rush

    Flash floods

    A flood doesn't even begin to describe the unceasing rush of storage news. In recent days Dell has inked a closer deal with CommVault and bought Compellent; Bocada has introduced Prism Lite to provide backup reporting for SMBs; BlueArc is partnering with WAN accelerating Aspera to get files to and from BlueArc's hardware- …

    Blocks and Files 22 Dec 12:39

  • Sony streams music subscriptions to TVs, Blu-ray boxes

    All you can eat for a monthly fee

    Sony is now offering owners of its Bravia internet tellies, its Blu-ray Disc players, PS3 consoles and Vaio PCs all-you-can eat monthly music subscriptions. You cough up either £4 or £10 a month, and you can select and stream songs to your set-top or TV. Sony said the service, which will launch under its irritating Qriocity …

    reghardware 22 Dec 13:13

  • School caretaker harassed after Islamists hack EDL

    Duped by hooligans' fake 'support the troops' button

    A school received hatemail targeting its caretaker after he was wrongly identified as a fascist by opponents of the English Defence League, based on data stolen by an Islamist hacking group. The headmaster of the comprehensive school in Dorset, which The Register has agreed not to name, summoned the caretaker to his office …

    ID 22 Dec 13:21

  • WiMAX and LTE grab 4G moniker

    Talkin' 'bout MY generation

    The ITU has decided that both LTE and WiMAX may be known as "4G" technologies, despite neither properly qualifying as part of the fourth generation of mobile technologies. The International Telecommunications Union decided in November that only LTE-Advanced and its WiMAX equivalent (WirelessMAN-Advanced2) offered enough speed …

    Mobile 22 Dec 13:30

  • Ingram Micro or Ireland - who would you bet on?

    IT disty almost as good a risk as an entire country

    Credit ratings Fitch has affirmed Ingram Micro's credit rating at BBB- stable putting it just a notch or two behind that of Ireland. Which raises the question of whether you'd choose to invest in an entity that will be existing on thin air and emigration for the foreseeable future, or a computer distributor with a presence in …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 14:04

  • World+Dog says 'no thanks' to 3D TV

    Europeans and North Americans, particularly

    It doesn't matter where in the world you go, one thing is certain: we don't want 3D TV. That's the only conclusion we can draw from 3D TV demand stats posted by North American nabob of numbers, Nielsen. In September, it conducted a survey of approximately 27,000 online consumers in 53 countries. As you can see from the …

    reghardware 22 Dec 14:14

  • Wi-Fi hack threat man pleads guilty

    US neighbourhood feud turns nasty

    A US man has pleaded guilty to hacking into his neighbour's wireless network before setting up counterfeit webmail accounts in the innocent man's name and sending death threats against the Vice President, Joe Biden. Barry Vincent Ardolf of Blaine, Minnesota, 45, admitted the crimes two days into his trial. As part of a plea …

    Crime 22 Dec 15:09

  • Putting the SaaS into security management

    Hosted apps Or at least put it in the contract

    In all areas of business, security and privacy are built on good policy, properly applied. If you think moving to hosted services or software as a service (SaaS) changes this, then think again. While some aspects of security may be simplified, the cloud raises challenges in other areas. From the perspective of systems …

    Hosted Apps 22 Dec 15:20

  • Qualcomm turns a pretty penny on FLO spectrum

    AT&T throws $2bn at unwanted spectrum

    AT&T has paid almost $2bn for the frequencies Qualcomm has been using to broadcast its MediaFLO service. Qualcomm paid $683m for the two 6MHz bands, which used to carry analogue TV transmissions and cover 300 million people. For the last few years Qualcomm has been broadcasting TV-to-mobiles under the MediaFLO brand. …

    Mobile 22 Dec 15:21

  • Teradata eats Aprimo for $550m

    Attack of the web marketers

    Data warehousing specialist Teradata has acquired Aprimo, an outfit peddles Web-based marketing software. Teradata is paying $525m in cash and assuming $25m of the company's debt. The move follows IBM's acquisition of Unica, which offers similar enterprise marketing management (EMM) solutions. Big Blue shelled out $480m to buy …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 17:05

  • Ubuntu Wayland: Shuttleworth's post-Mac makeover

    Life beyond Unity

    Ubuntu Linux spent the last few months of 2010 dropping bombshells on the Linux world. Founder Mark Shuttleworth is clearly intent on shaking the foundations of his popular Linux distro and pushing it, and Linux at large, in new directions. Shuttleworth is fast becoming the Steve Jobs of Linux - one man, one vision, one …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 17:23

  • Opera beefs Android with 'open' widget platform

    Norwegian-browser lovers storm Opera 11 extension hoard

    Opera has rolled out a widget platform for Google's Android operating system that supports the WAC specification, a multi-mobile-giant effort to create a common set of application APIs across handheld devices. On Wednesday, the Norwegian browser maker introduced an alpha version of its Android widget runtime, hoping to jump …

    Developer 22 Dec 18:39

  • Skype goes titsup across globe

    Mass supernode death

    Skype users across the globe are unable to access the popular peer-to-peer VoIP service. According to a mountain of Twitter posts and myriad emails from Register readers, the service is experiencing a worldwide outage. Skype acknowledged the outage in a blog post, saying its engineers are working to restore the service. The …

    VoIP 22 Dec 19:31

  • Mozilla lands fresh Firefox 4 beta on Android, Maemo

    Spit and polish desktop beta goes live

    Mozilla has released a new Firefox 4 beta for Android and Maemo, hot on the heels of its latest desktop beta. The new mobile beta adds copy and paste tools to the browser's URL bar. It lets you save websites as PDFs for offline viewing. And it fixes some keyboard issues that plagued the previous beta. Mozilla says it has also …

    Developer 22 Dec 20:28

  • Oracle revs Sun's VirtualBox hypervisor

    Great McNealy's Ghost! It's still free!

    It has been only three weeks since Oracle kicked out the 3.2.12 maintenance release of its Oracle VM VirtualBox hypervisor for x86 and x64 PCs and servers, and today, the company is launching a new VirtualBox 4.0 version that supports more hardware, has more features, and comes with a new packaging of the hypervisor. Not …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 21:16

  • Google 'open' nonsense brainwashes US gov

    'Android is so open, it can save net neutrality!'

    Google has reached new heights in its effort to fool the world into believing that Android is so "open" it can singlehandedly deliver us from any and all forms of mobile tyranny. In its first official "net neutrality" rules, the US Federal Communications Commission says it doesn't prohibit wireless providers from blocking or …

    Mobile 22 Dec 23:07

  • Storage startup Atrato shuts doors

    Cash tank empty

    Storage startup Atrato has closed down because it ran out of cash. Atrato supplied Velocity storage systems based on SAID (Self-maintaining Array of Identical Disks) technology. These sealed canisters of 2.5-inch hard disk drives offered a 3-year maintenance free period – similar to Xiotech's ISE but sharing no technology …

    Channel Register 22 Dec 23:17