30th December 2010 Archive

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Moviestorm virtual movie studio

Review Create your own animated productions – very, very, slowly.

Moviestorm is a virtual studio that takes the DIY attitude of Machinima one step further. Machinima is centred around the concept of recording in-game footage from your favourite title, editing it to tell your particular story, and adding your own soundtrack. Ahead of its time? Moviestorm relies on Internet connectivity for …

reghardware 30 Dec 07:00
Diary of a Not-spot: The readers speak

A wooden horse, a pole and a whip just for show

Our coverage of the struggle to connect a not-spot attracted a lot of feedback, some of it very useful, though it seems not everyone bothered to read the piece before chipping in. The story concerned an on-going attempt to get broadband connectivity to a rural house, culminating in a microwave link of dubious construction and …

Data Networking 30 Dec 10:04
WordPress update tackles critical blogging bug

In between days security fix

Bloggers who rely on WordPress would be well advised to take a break from seasonal festivities in order to plug a serious security flaw in the software. WordPress 3.0.4 tackles a serious vulnerability which, left unfixed, creates a handy mechanism for malicious hackers to break into installations of the widely used blogging …

Malware 30 Dec 10:47
Facebook bigger than Jesus online in 2010

US securities watchdog crashes party with prelim stock trading probe

The first rule of Facebook is that you always talk about Facebook, at least that is according to stats released by Experian Hitwise that show that Mark Zuckerberg's social network was the most searched for term online in 2010. "This is the second year that the social networking website has been the top search term overall, …

Applications 30 Dec 11:02
Skype offers iPhone video calls over 3G

FaceTime shame-faced

Skype has today updated its iPhone app to offer video calling over both 3G and Wi-Fi, trumping Apple's own FaceTime software. Owners of the latest iPod Touch will also be able to make Skype-to-Skype video calls over Wi-Fi. The iPad and older iPods, which both lack a camera, will be able to receive video. The app and the calls …

Mobile 30 Dec 11:10
Quotes of the Year 2010

Our annual collection of the dippy, inane, and occasionally brilliant

Now a firm Reg tradition, Quotes of the Year is where we round up the stupidest things we've heard all year – mix them up with the cleverest bon mots we've come across – and leave you to decide which is which. It's a shame all can't have prizes – especially repeat offenders such as Jeff Jarvis, Stephen Fry, Cory Doctorow and …

Music and Media 30 Dec 12:02
The SMS of DEATH - Can it crash your phone?

Bog standard mobes menaced by evil txt

Many mainstream mobiles can be crashed after opening a maliciously constructed SMS message. The so-called 'SMS of death' attacks affects mobiles from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG, among others. Details of the attack, a variant of earlier attacks along the same lines, were outlined by security researchers Collin …

Mobile 30 Dec 12:12
ACPO exec wants 'ugly mugs' database to protect sex workers

All part of 'rational debate' on prostitution

Society needs to be having a radical debate about the laws on prostitution – and the answer, according to Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne, ACPO's lead on prostitution and sexual exploitation, involves funding a national database of "ugly mugs". That is, a database of dodgy punters – or men suspected of attacking sex workers …

Policing 30 Dec 12:46
SAP to hand over multi-million dollar interest to IP victor Oracle

Coulda been worse

Oracle must be paid interest on the $1.3bn payout it received from German software maker SAP in a jury verdict in November over stolen intellectual property. US District Judge Phyllis J Hamilton in Oakland, California ordered SAP to cough up the interest earlier this week, according to Bloomberg. The judge didn't offer up an …

Financial News 30 Dec 12:54
Feds raid server farms in bid to root out PayPal DDoS perps

On the trail of Anonymous

Federal investigators have seized servers allegedly abused to launch a denial of service attack against PayPal earlier this month. An affidavit obtained by the Smoking Gun contains testimony by federal agents convinced that systems at Texan hosting firm Tailor Made Services are likely to contain clues in the hunt for …

Servers 30 Dec 14:43
Labour moots using speed cameras to reward law-abiding drivers

Like having Nanny in the car with you. Permanently

The new shadow transport minister has suggested that the country's network of average speed cameras could be used to monitor and reward careful drivers with prizes, cheaper car tax, or by deducting penalty points from their licence. Conscious that her party was perceived as anti-motorist when in government, Angela Eagle …

Policing 30 Dec 15:06
In-flight fight for stubborn iPhone-loving teen

Fondle slab involved in a different kind of battery charge

A teenager who refused to turn off his iPhone during the landing of a plane got a punch from a fellow passenger for his trouble. Police in Boise, Idaho, the flight's desination, arrested the alleged assailant, 68-year-old Russell Miller. Miller reportedly became angry when the 15-year-old, who was listening to music and …

Mobile 30 Dec 15:37
PlayStation 3 code signing cracked

Dongle-less jailbreaking

Hardware hackers claim to have uncovered the private key used by Sony to authorise code to run on PlayStation 3 systems. The hackers uncovered the hack in order to run Linux or PS3 consoles, irrespective of the version of firmware the games console was running. By knowing the private key used by Sony the hackers are able to …

PCs & Chips 30 Dec 15:51
Boney M frontman checks out at 61

Disco star Bobby Farrell found dead in Russian hotel

Boney M frontman, Bobby Farrell, has died while on tour in Russia. The BBC reports that the 70s disco star was found dead in a hotel room in St Petersburg, Russia, where he had been performing. His agent, John Seine, confirmed that Farrell, 61, had complained of breathing problems before and after a gig on Wednesday. But the …

Bootnotes 30 Dec 16:04
From Antennagate to WikiLeaks: the year in tech lunacy

Jobs, Schmidt, Ellison, and other high comedy

In the tech world, 2010 was a year to forget. And that makes it all the more fun to remember. Once again, The Reg gives you its annual list of the year's biggest stories. And by biggest, we mean the stories most likely to make you sit up, take notice, and spew coffee all over your keyboard. Or chuck a laptop across the room. Or …

Odds and Sods 30 Dec 17:39
Skype adds video calls to iPhone app

One-upping Apple's FaceTime

Skype has released version 3.0 of its iPhone app, which adds video-calling capabilities to its internet-telephony tricks. Two-way video calls using Skype for the iPhone can be made over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections using an iOS 4.x-equipped iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and fourth-generation iPod touch – although the iPhone 3GS's …

Mobile 30 Dec 19:40