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24th December 2010 Archive

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  • 2011: The year open source (really) goes capitalist

    Open...and Shut Anyone can play guitar. Or open source

    If 2010 was the year that taught open source "how to disappear completely," 2011 will be the year we're reminded that "anyone can play guitar"…or open source. At present, open source is de rigueur with the underdog class, those vendors seeking to challenge incumbents like Apple and Oracle. But open source will take center …

    Developer 24 Dec 2010, 00:00

  • Mind your own: Scotland unveils privacy principles

    5 new rules intended to help keep Scots' personal data private

    The Scottish Government has published new guidance on achieving privacy-friendly public services. The five principles should encourage good practice and ensure personal data is always handled with respect, according to the the Scottish Government. The principles have been devised by an expert group - including the Assistant …

    Government 24 Dec 2010, 09:46

  • Restaurant held up with iPhone, not gun

    Daylight robbery - there's an app for that (tm)

    New London, Connecticut ne'er-do-well Jerome Taylor thought his iPhone to be a suitable facsimile for a handgun in his failed attempt to hold up a local restaurant. Not that the restaurant staff weren't fooled, but they make cooks tough in Connecticut, and rather than meekly handing over the cash, they grabbed knives and stood …

    Bootnotes 24 Dec 2010, 09:49

  • O2 promises to tap-up customers in 2011

    Location-based marketing, not ticketing

    O2's location-based advertising arm, O2 More, has been successfully hooking in the punters, and the operator expects NFC to increasingly contribute to that revenue next year. O2's business development director, Tim Sefton, told Marketing Magazine that the location-based advertising appended to O2 More in October has been going …

    Mobile 24 Dec 2010, 10:35

  • Skype makes wobbly return, offers compo to paying punters

    It wasn't malicious, just a total FAIL

    Skype is slowly coming back to life after suffering a major outage over the past few days and, in an effort to say sorry, the firm is offering to compensate its paying customers. Users of the VoIP service were unable to log into Skype on Wednesday, and the trouble has continued for many over the past 48 hours. The company's …

    Servers 24 Dec 2010, 10:53

  • Sony buys PS3 chip plant back off Toshiba

    Cell! Cell! Cell!

    Sony is to buy back the Cell processor plant it sold to Toshiba in 2008. Back then, Toshiba paid ¥90bn for the facility. That was worth $835m at the time. How much today's deal - which is subject to due diligence - will cost Sony wasn't stated, though the figure of ¥50bn ($603m/£390m) has been bandied about in the press. The …

    reghardware 24 Dec 2010, 10:58

  • Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010

    Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010 Vote now - and see if you'll win an Xbox

    Back in November we asked you to make your suggestions for the products most worthy of a Reg Hardware Readers Award. We got hundreds of nominations from which we drew up shortlists of the most popular - and least popular in the case of the Rusty Dodo Award - gadgets released this year. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time …

    reghardware 24 Dec 2010, 11:32

  • Which storage technologies and vendors will fly in 2011?

    Questions Someone's gonna crash and burn

    At this turning point of the year, as Dell wraps up Compellent and InSite One, and Atrato slides under the waves, it's timely to look ahead at the storage world in 2011 and ask que sera? Data growth and storage demand is seemingly unstoppable, and new storage tech has advanced quite a bit in 2010. Things are looking good for …

    Storage 24 Dec 2010, 11:43

  • Android Marketplace gets AT&T billing

    Get your apps without paying Google... directly

    Google's Android Marketplace has added AT&T to the short list of network operators who'll collect your money on behalf of developers. In the US, T-Mobile has been offering operator billing for a while, but now that option is also available to AT&T customers who don't want to sign up to Google Checkout just to get an app or two …

    Mobile 24 Dec 2010, 11:53

  • Coca-Cola fizzes over pornforacoke.com

    Bargain offer turned down

    Coca-Cola has filed a trademark infringement case against the operators of pornforacoke.com, which offers "tons of porn for the price of a daily glass of coke". In full Coca-Cola livery, the very NSFW site boasts "more than 10,000 gigabytes of porn". The case would seem to be an easy win for Coca-Cola, then. The drinks giant …

    Music and Media 24 Dec 2010, 11:58

  • Pirate Bay mouthpiece disses Assange's legal wrangles

    Media profile hurts WikiLeaks cause, grumbles BrokeP

    Julian Assange needs to turn himself in to the Swedish authorities and stop “dragging WikiLeaks down with him”, according to The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde. TPB’s mouthpiece told The Times (paid subscription) yesterday that the alleged sexual offences against Assange were shifting focus away from the WikiLeaks cause. …

    Government 24 Dec 2010, 12:18

  • Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

    Festive Greetings

    The headline says it all. Reg Hardware is packing up for the festive period, but we'll be back after the break before heading off to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), from which we'll be bringing you all the hot stories and cool products demo'd at the event. Meantime, please don't forget to cast your vote in …

    reghardware 24 Dec 2010, 12:21

  • Mobile operators handed content billing blueprint

    YouTube at 50 cents a month, Skype for €3

    An allegedly leaked presentation from Allot Communications suggests that mobile customers might end up paying €3 a month for Skype, and 2 cents per MB for Facebook. The leaked presentation isn't an operator plan, despite how DailyTech describes it - it's just what infrastructure providers Allot and Openet think would be …

    Mobile 24 Dec 2010, 12:31

  • IBM races bits along a nanowire track

    Precisely-placed bit pitstops

    IBM scientists have found out how to move bits precisely at an atomic scale along a nanowire, bringing racetrack memory closer to reality. It's glamming up this project by saying a portable racetrack memory box could store a year's worth of movies. Racetrack memory involves the setting of the magnetisation direction of …

    Storage 24 Dec 2010, 12:51

  • Mozilla takes on web data miners with privacy icon release

    Now, how to convince websites to adopt the damn things?

    Mozilla has pushed out a series of privacy icons that tell web surfers how their online data might be used depending on what site they've visited. The open source browser maker's user interface design guru, Aza Raskin, who announced just last week that he was leaving Mozilla in January, released an alpha version of the icons …

    Applications 24 Dec 2010, 12:55

  • Masked Santas disarm Swedish royal guard

    Soldier declines to shoot St Nick

    Two masked men dressed in Santa hats robbed a royal guard of his automatic weapon in Stockholm last night. The pair mounted a successful surprise attack on the guard, The Local reports. "This is serious. I have a hard time believing it is a prank. It might be premeditated," said appropriately-named local police commander …

    Bootnotes 24 Dec 2010, 13:06

  • Vulture falls asleep in front of Christmas TV

    Season's greetings everyone

    Well, that's your lot this side of Christmas. The Register is taking its festive break as of about now. We'll be back next week, with full service being restored sometime after Boxing Day. In the meantime, we wish you all the best and hope you enjoy the festive period to the full, however you're spending it.®

    Site News 24 Dec 2010, 13:16