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18th January 2011 Archive

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  • Prisoners cannibalise mice for mobile power

    USB cables hacked to charge phones

    Convicts at a hi-tech Scottish prison are swiping computer mice from IT classes. It turns out the mice's USB cable can be used to charge up lags' covert mobile phones. Rip the cord out of the mouse, plug it into a PlayStation and, with a bit of re-wiring, you have a power source for your handset. PlayStations? It seems the …

    reghardware 18 Jan 06:00

  • Ubuntu - yes, Ubuntu - poised for mobile melee

    Open...and Shut A wide open post-Wintel world

    The enterprise world may increasingly be infatuated with Red Hat, but the mobile and desktop worlds are very much in play, with Canonical's Ubuntu gaining ground in areas most Western observers will not have noticed. In short, there's never been a more exciting, disruptive time to own an operating system. This is most evident …

    Operating Systems 18 Jan 06:30

  • LG Optimus 7 smartphone

    Review WinPho 7 handset with a DLNA difference

    One of the problems with the recent raft of Windows Phone 7 handsets has been trying to tell them apart. Microsoft has kept such a tight rein on the specification for each handset running its reborn operating system that there isn’t really a great deal of room for manufacturers to manœuvre. They’ve all got a minimum of 8GB of …

    reghardware 18 Jan 07:00

  • EMC VMAX gets software brain transplant

    FAST 2 finally arrives, doubles performance

    EMC has given its high-end VMAX array a software upgrade that doubles performance, enabling five million virtual machines to be supported. It's claimed to support twice as many OLTP transactions and DSS (Decision Support System) queries as the previous version. The finding of such efficiencies in software alone is impressive …

    Storage 18 Jan 09:40

  • MS Dynamics CRM Online trumps server release, says Ballmer

    Cloudy biz model shake-up continues

    Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer cut the ribbon yesterday on the company's latest effort to pump more of its software estate into the cloud – the launch of its Dynamics CRM Online product. Until Ballmer's relatively recent proclamation that Microsoft was "all-in" on the cloud, the vendor had concentrated much more heavily on its …

    Channel Register 18 Jan 09:44

  • Case cut-outs connote iPad 2 SD, HDMI connectivity

    Accessory after the fact?

    Circumstantial evidence that the iPad 2 will sport not only its customary array of portage but also an SD card slot and a HD TV connector come from pics of a plastic case that have popped up online. The snaps, posted by website MIC Gadget, show a small space on the top of the case and another on the left-hand side. You can see …

    reghardware 18 Jan 09:48

  • Carphone Warehouse has peachy Christmas quarter

    Ends 2010 on a high

    Those happy chaps at Carphone Warehouse are reporting the last three months of 2010 were top, with earnings at the high end of expectations and US expansion going well. An interim statement from the group reports UK sales rising more than two per cent compared to the Christmas period 2009, contributing to a more modest 0.7 per …

    Mobile 18 Jan 10:14

  • Orange wins PlayStation phone exclusive?

    Everything Everywhere nabs Xperia Play

    Orange and T-Mobile owner Everything Everywhere has got its mitts on Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play - aka the PlayStation Phone - it has been claimed. The Play will be initially offered on Orange, a "well placed" industry source told website Mobile this week. Source: ePrice If the Xperia Play is, as many observers expect, …

    reghardware 18 Jan 10:37

  • Susan Boyle joins Lads from Lagos

    Nigeria's Got Talent offers £1m booty

    It's a hearty round of applause today for the Lads from Lagos for an anarchic, highly-entertaining return to our email inboxes. We're obliged to reader Danny Caldwell for forwarding a missive suggestively entitled "Good News kindly download the Attachment from yahoo awards center", complete with a 419 first – a lovingly- …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 11:01

  • Data Domain gets new boss array

    Nehalem booster rocket

    Data Domain has a new high-end array, the DD 890, which is paired up to give a speed boost to Data Domain's Global Deduplication Array. It has also introduced a DD 860 system, IBM i server support and an archive version of its technology. Data Domain is EMC's business unit providing deduplicating storage arrays for backup data …

    Storage 18 Jan 11:08

  • Facebook suspends personal data-sharing feature

    Developers kicked back out of your undie drawer

    Facebook has "temporarily disabled" a controversial feature that allowed developers to access the home address and mobile numbers of users. The social network suspended the feature, introduced on Friday, after only three days. The decision follows feedback from users that the sharing of data process wasn't clearly explained …

    ID 18 Jan 11:12

  • Pirate Party seizes Tunisian ministry

    Sports and Youth emancipated, yaaaaaar!

    The Pirate Party has reportedly gained a foothold in the new Tunisian government following the downfall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's regime. Among the new faces named in the transitional government under prime minister Mohammed Ghannouchi is Slim Amamou, a blogging activist and Pirate Party member who will be Secretary of …

    Government 18 Jan 11:19

  • Prosecutors opt for 'malfeasance' over DPA to charge officials

    New crimes, old law

    If you are employed in the public sector, you can forget about offences under the Data Protection Act if there is deliberate misuse of personal data. In the absence of a custodial sentence, in more serious cases, prosecutors are increasingly opting for the blunt instrument that is the common law offence of "malfeasance in …

    Government 18 Jan 12:00

  • Illegal cyber-hunting rig spied

    Call in the shots

    A homemade shotgun-and-webcam combo designed to be fired remotely over the internet has been discovered next to a wild boar feeding area in Georgia. This illegal setup was stumbled upon last year by a utility contractor, who snapped a pic and sent it to the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. The US Office of Homeland …

    reghardware 18 Jan 12:17

  • Sony Ericsson sues over Clearwire swirl

    Knickers in twist over similar spinny logos

    Sony Ericsson is suing Clearwire over its allegedly confusingly similar logo, trying to get it stopped before the US network operator launches mobile phones bearing the branding. Sony Ericsson reckons Clearwire only decided on its logo in October 2009, and that it contacted the company in January 2010 to protest the similarity …

    Mobile 18 Jan 12:19

  • Third party developers blamed for Windows security woes

    Users just don't apply security patches from non-MS applications...

    Failure to apply third-party patches rather than updates from Microsoft is "almost exclusively" responsible for the growing exposure of Windows machines to security threats, according to Secunia. Stats from users of Secunia's patch management scanning tool report that, on average, less than 2 per cent of Microsoft programs are …

    Enterprise Security 18 Jan 12:20

  • Sky to rejig EPG to push HD

    Pay TV channels lifted up too

    Sky subscribers will soon see all the satellite broadcasters HD channels first when they take a look at its electronic programme guide (EPG), which is due to be redesigned on 1 February. The EPG revamp also sees pay-TV channels placed closer to the start, the better to encourage punters to cough up. Rob Webster, Sky’s …

    reghardware 18 Jan 12:27

  • Galileo euro-satnav 'driven by French military', says sacked CEO

    German sat kingpin fired over bleedin'-obvious Wikileak

    The classified US diplomatic cables allegedly leaked to the world by American private soldier Bradley Manning have caused ructions in Europe this week: the CEO of a German firm building satellites for the Galileo satnav project has been fired for apparently telling US diplomats that Galileo is a waste of taxpayers money and …

    Government 18 Jan 12:33

  • No cuts made on UK police national database

    Cop agency says budget slash only applied to an interim index

    The National Police Improvement Agency has branded reports of a £3.1m cut in the Police National Database as "inaccurate". The agency said that the figure was actually related to the removal of "a contingency" which it put in place to extend the life of the Impact Nominal Index. The index is an interim database that holds …

    Policing 18 Jan 12:35

  • Acer: tablets will replace netbooks

    Mini laptops to be phased out

    So farewell then, netbooks, at from Acer. The PC giant is to phase them out as it transitions to tablets. So said Taiwan-based sales manager Lu Bing-Hsian yesterday. He was quoted by IDG. It's not clear when Acer will stop selling netbooks - it launched its latest one just two weeks ago at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES …

    reghardware 18 Jan 12:44

  • Stephen Fry explains how GPS and the Internet work

    It needs a great big clock

    Writer, broadcaster and National Treasure™ Stephen Fry has struck again. The ubiquitous luvvie revealed the depths of his technical understanding on the the panel show QI XL, the self-styled "home of highbrow know-how". First, GPS. How does that work, Stephen? "You send a signal from your GPS device," he explained. "You've …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 12:49

  • Razer StarCraft II peripherals set

    Review You sure got a purty mouse

    Well aware of the enduring appeal of the StarCraft for its myriad of fans, Razer has brought out a bunch of peripherals tailored to match the game’s latest incarnation, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Light fantastic: Razer's Marauder keyboard The Razer Marauder keyboard, Spectre gaming mouse and Banshee headset are all …

    reghardware 18 Jan 13:00

  • Sage moves into cloud with online SMB accounting package

    Bustin' out of the shrink-wrap

    Business software company Sage launched a new web-based accounting product today targeted at individuals and SMBs. The Newcastle-based FTSE 100-listed firm developed the software, which was built on the Ruby-on-Rails open source web application framework, as part of Sage's effort to focus on what its North European boss Paul …

    Applications 18 Jan 13:19

  • Who are the biggest electric car liars - the BBC, or Tesla Motors?

    Analysis Kryten from Red Dwarf weighs into 'leccycar race row

    In a world-gone-topsy-turvy moment, the BBC has been accused of virulent anti-green bias by advocates of electric motoring, including Kryten from Red Dwarf and - of course - famous battery-car manufacturer Tesla, maker of the iconic Roadster. Don't try doing an Italian Job in one of these (maximum load 195kg including driver …

    Environment 18 Jan 13:41

  • Pavement hogging Segway rider convicted

    A UK first

    A Yorkshireman is the first person in Britain to be fined for driving a Segway on the pavement. Coates 51, an unemployed factory worker, was fined £75, and ordered to pay £250 costs and a £15 victim surcharge at Barnsley Magistrate's Court. Coates bought the two-wheeler after taking one for a spin on holiday in Florida. "I' …

    reghardware 18 Jan 13:47

  • Plastic Logic scores $700m from Russians

    Plastic electronics, real cash

    The size of Russian investment in failed e-reader company Plastic Logic has been revealed, with $700m on the table for a company that has never managed to make a viable product. Plastic Logic did make a few Que readers, one of which is on display in Churchill College, Cambridge, but delays in production allowed the competition …

    Mobile 18 Jan 13:48

  • Lenovo forms 'connected kit' division

    Beijing team to focus on tablets, phones, tellies

    Lenovo has formed a team to develop internet-connected gadgets, the Chinese giant said today, a bid to expand beyond PCs and enter the world of consumer electronics. It has in mind both fixed and mobile products, noting that the new business group will be lloking after smartphones and tablets, as well as connected TVs and …

    reghardware 18 Jan 13:51

  • OpenStack fluffs inaugural open source cloud

    Internap takes storage to the heavens

    Internap – an internet infrastructure outfit based in Atlanta, Georgia – has unveiled a public storage service based on OpenStack, becoming the first organization outside of Rackspace and NASA – OpenStack's founders – to actually deploy the open source "infrastructure cloud" platform. Known as Internap XIPCloud Storage, the …

    Cloud 18 Jan 14:00

  • BBC iPlayer in 'hugely popular at Xmas' shock

    Corporation lauds record 145m catch-up views, listens

    Brits sure love the BBC's iPlayer, which clocked in a record 145m programme requests in December 2010, the Corporation chirped today. That total is up 27 per cent on December 2009's total, but only just under three per cent on November 2010's total of 141m requests. A sign that iPlayer's rapid rise has levelled off? Possibly …

    reghardware 18 Jan 14:23

  • Microsoft readies official Kinect support for PCs

    Windows to get Xbox tech

    In the wake of the many Kinect hacks informally converting the player-sensing control device, Microsoft will release official drivers and a Kinect SDK for Windows PCs. Hackers tore apart the device late last year and made it run on both Windows and Mac OS X, with video footage released of the device controlling Windows 7 …

    reghardware 18 Jan 14:37

  • Europe bites Hungary over media and internet censorship

    Content-bash provokes protests

    A rumble of protest is spreading across Europe in reaction to a new media censorship law in Hungary. Yesterday, Europe’s Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes told an Extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee that the EU had been in touch with the Hungarian …

    Government 18 Jan 15:03

  • Shocked mum muzzles foul-mouthed toy mutt

    'If you're happy and you know it, f*ck with me'

    An Oxfordshire mum who bought her nipper a singing puppy toy was obliged to contact the tabloids when the fluffy mutt let rip with a torrent of "f*cks". Leigh McPherson, of Banbury, coughed up 22 quid at Asda for the My Pal Violet, expecting it to provide innocent entertainment for four-month old baby Mia. However, one of the …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 15:08

  • EMC declares war in the channel with entry-level VNXe

    VNXe is EMC channel's anti-Dell weapon

    The unified CLARiiON/Celerra VNX line lived up to leaked expectations in EMC's announcement today, with the entry-level VNXe. The company has extended its channel programme to sell the new lower-cost systems to small and medium businesses – putting it head to head with offerings from Dell and NetApp. The VNX converges the …

    Channel Register 18 Jan 15:09

  • Tablets to eclipse e-book readers

    Thanks to Amazon and pals' focus on the US

    Tablets will outsell e-book readers this year, and will continue to put even more distance between the two gadgets over the next two years. By 2012, tablets will outsell readers four to one. So says market watcher IDC, which is expecting sales this year of 17m iPads, Galaxy Tabs and co., and 10.8m Kindles and its like. Here' …

    reghardware 18 Jan 15:10

  • Greyhats had up for AT&T iPad celebrity backdoor slurp breach

    Feds prep charges over slab-fondler exposure

    The "theft" of email address and personal information of early adopters of Apple's iPad tablet last June is about to become the subject of a criminal prosecution. The personal details, including phone numbers, of around 114,000 iPad 3G users were obtained from insecure servers maintained by AT&T. Those exposed included …

    Crime 18 Jan 15:42

  • Sprint introduces $10 smartphone premium

    Robust OS? That will be a tenner a month

    American operator Sprint is to start charging customers $10 a month extra if they're using a smartphone, as it attempts to even the playing field for data users. Sprint reckons smartphones use, on average, ten times the data of more-intellectuality-challenged handsets, so from the end of January all new activations will be …

    Mobile 18 Jan 16:14

  • Chip upstart Tilera lines up $45m in funding

    Cisco, Samsung, and equity firms open wallets

    Those of you rooting for lots of alternatives to the x64 architecture for the server, networking, and embedded systems rackets will be delighted to hear that Tilera, a maker of innovative system-on-chip (SoC) processors, has lined up $45m in funding to help it ramp up development and sell more product. Tilera is billing its …

    HPC 18 Jan 16:31

  • Mass Effect 2 for PS3

    Review Saga shoots over to Sony

    Saren, Reapers, Blue Suns, Geth. If these names mean nothing to you then consider yourself in the position of the majority of PS3 owners: that of never having experienced Mass Effect. That’s because Mass Effect, BioWare’s seminal action-RPG, never made its way onto Sony’s console, instead finding a home on only Xbox 360 and PC …

    reghardware 18 Jan 17:01

  • Microsoft Kinect man enlists with Google special ops

    Face-time at Mountain View

    One of the core engineers working on Microsoft's Wii-like Kinect set-up has jumped ship for Google. Johnny Chung Lee has blogged that he joined Microsoft's search and ads adversary after just two years at Redmond. He joined what he called a Google "special projects team". Lee had served as a core contributor on the human …

    Music and Media 18 Jan 18:48

  • Dell morphs into Amazonian 'public cloud' biz?

    Round-Rock-as-a-Service

    Dell will offer a public "infrastructure cloud" along the lines of Amazon's EC2 as well as a public "platform cloud" à la Microsoft Windows Azure, according to a tweet from inside Michael Dell's IT empire. It would seem that the venerable PC and server outfit is morphing into an internet service provider. In July, Dell told …

    Cloud 18 Jan 19:48

  • Hackers eyed sale of celebrity iPad data

    Feds charge Goatse trolls

    Two hackers accused of stealing personal data belonging to 120,000 early adopters of Apple's iPad tablet last year discussed the possibility of selling it to spammers or using it to promote Goatse, the collective of trolls they belonged to. According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday, Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler …

    ID 18 Jan 19:56

  • Ubuntu Qt equality promised post Narwhal

    'Not a criticism of GNOME'

    Ubuntu is getting enhanced support for Qt tools, paving the way for wider deployment of the Linux distro on a range of devices. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has blogged that Canonical is driving development of dconf bindings for Qt and that it's working with dconf expert Ryan Lortie. The idea is that with a release of …

    Operating Systems 18 Jan 21:06

  • Apple without Jobs: Who's next?

    Analysis 'Frustratingly obtuse' succession plans

    Steve Jobs has stepped away from his daily duties as Apple CEO, and by doing so, the famously-private tech kingpin has ignited rumors and speculation about his future with the company – and of the company's future without him. Jobs' just-announced medical leave of absence is his third. The first began when he revealed in …

    Business 18 Jan 21:45

  • Apple tops $6bn in quarterly income

    'Phenomenal,' says Jobs

    One day after saying that he'd would be taking an open-ended medical leave of absence, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that in the recently completed first quarter of his company's fiscal year, net income exceeded $6bn for the first time. "We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales,” Jobs said in …

    Financial News 18 Jan 21:59

  • Univa forks Oracle's Sun Grid Engine

    Ellison's mind elsewhere

    Another fork has appeared in the Sun Microsystems software road. Univa is forking the Sun Grid Engine project, now controlled by Oracle. In the wake of Oracle's $5.6bn acquisition of Sun a year ago, co-founder and chief executive officer Larry Ellison made no secret of the fact that Oracle was not going to waste time on …

    Applications 18 Jan 23:42

  • IBM (nearly) hits $100bn in 2010 sales

    Mainframe rebirth

    It looks like there was a lot of pent up demand for IBM's System zEnterprise 196 mainframes. At least for the large banking, insurance, and manufacturing companies that tend to buy this big iron. In the fourth quarter of 2010, IBM's mainframe sales were the best that company has seen in six years. and they helped drive the …

    Financial News 18 Jan 23:58