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15th February 2011 Archive

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  • Groupon tweets first Aus media release

    Blanket coupon coverage

    Proving that coupon shopping – that strange internet creature that uses social media to add spice to an activity so old and dull that your grandmother would recognize it – has become the next Internet bubble, Groupon used Twitter to announce its first Australian press release. And proving that there’s nothing like group-think …

    Business 15 Feb 2011, 00:37

  • Lead Firefox developer exits Mozilla

    So long and thanks for all the IE antidote

    Mike Beltzner – the man who oversees development of Mozilla's Firefox browser – will leave the organization after the release of Firefox 4, the latest version of the browser due for official release later this quarter. Beltzner joined Mozilla six years ago from IBM Canada and worked on six major Firefox upgrades, beginning …

    Applications 15 Feb 2011, 01:01

  • Adobe open source code backs – gasp! – HTML5

    Things that never happen in Steve Jobs' head

    Adobe believes in Flash on mobiles. But it believes in HTML5 too, and it would like the world to know that these two beliefs are not mutually exclusive. On Thursday, at a press event in San Francisco, the company announced that over 20 million smartphones now ship with Flash Player 10.1, and that it hopes to push the player …

    Developer 15 Feb 2011, 01:17

  • Man matches machine in Jeopardy! showdown

    Wetware draws round one

    Man has drawn with machine in round one of the much-hyped showdown between two wetware Jeopardy! champions and IBM's Watson supercomputer. In the early going, it wasn't looking good for the humans of the world, as IBM's machine ripped through the easy questions and took a hefty lead over Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the …

    HPC 15 Feb 2011, 01:55

  • Apple suppliers: Child labor, bribery, suicides

    Jobsian crusaders to the rescue

    During 2010, Apple audited the facilities and management practices of 127 of its worldwide suppliers, and found instances of underage labor, unsafe working conditions, inadequate safety devices, lack of first-aid supplies, improper handling of hazardous chemicals, excessive recruitment fees, and more. Much more. And if Apple's …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2011, 04:00

  • Pacnet opens Sydney data centre

    Facility also hot backup for network ops

    Pacnet has opened a new data centre in the Sydney CBD, to be fully operational in March. The centre replaces space formerly operated in Bond Street. The facility will be used both for customer projects and to provide a live backup of Pacnet’s Singapore network operations centre. The data centre is not huge by the standards of …

    Cloud 15 Feb 2011, 05:22

  • Iomega SuperHero iPhone back-up gadget

    Review To protect and serve

    The cost of losing a smartphone goes further than the hardware: don't forget all the data - contacts, apps, pictures, music and so on - you keep on it. The sensible thing for iPhone owners to do is to regularly sync the handset with iTunes - it backs up all that content. Not everyone does this, of course. Iomega's answer is to …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2011, 07:00

  • UK opposes EU plans for '28th regime' for contract law

    No evidence preferred solution would work, says UK

    There is no need to reform European consumer contract law and no evidence to suggest that the European Commission's preferred solution would work, the UK Government has said. The government has rejected EU plans to harmonise the laws governing consumer contracts and had rejected the very basis of reform, which is that the …

    Small Biz 15 Feb 2011, 08:52

  • Qualcomm paints Gobi as WiMAX successor

    Rushing in where Intel failed to tread

    Chip giant Qualcomm reckons its new Gobi chip will provide the standard connectivity that Intel planned, and failed to deliver, with WiMAX. Not that the new Gobi3000 incorporates any new networking technology, though it does provide HSPA at twice the download rate of its predecessor while still supporting CDMA and earlier …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 09:18

  • Computacenter splashes out on French reseller

    Profits at last?

    Computacenter's French tentacle is paying €21m for Paris-based reseller Top Info SAS. The deal will see Computacenter pay €21m initially, followed by a €1m cash bonus at year end, dependent on performance, and a further €15m in cash for the anticipated net cash on the books at the closing date – end of March 2011. Top Info …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2011, 09:40

  • Spanish police hold alleged Nintendo blackmailer

    He grabbed 4,000 users' details

    Spanish police have arrested an alleged cyber-extortionist accused of using stolen personal details of 4,000 users to blackmail Nintendo. The unnamed alleged hacker, from the Malaga area of southern Spain, allegedly threatened to report Nintendo to data protection authorities over a security breach he was responsible for …

    Security 15 Feb 2011, 09:41

  • Are you crying out for virtualised storage tiering?

    Tiers before bedtime

    You can virtualise pretty much any technology these days, so the thinking goes, and that includes storage. This means hiding what's going on behind a virtualisation layer - including tiering. But why tier? Remember the old equation that you can have any two out of faster-cheaper-better but not all three? It's no secret that …

    Data Center 15 Feb 2011, 10:06

  • Hardware keyloggers found in Manchester library PCs

    Spy on the wire gets your mad up proper

    Hardware keyloggers have been discovered in public libraries in Greater Manchester. Two USB devices, attached to keyboard sockets on the back of computers in Wilmslow and Handforth libraries, would have enabled baddies to record every keystroke made on compromised PCs. It's unclear who placed the snooping devices on the …

    Security 15 Feb 2011, 10:21

  • Tax tribunal finds contractor wasn't employee

    Another slap for unpopular IR35 law

    The Tax Tribunal has found that a contractor was not an employee in a case involving controversial tax avoidance law IR35. Whether or not a worker is an employee of a company or not can only be decided by looking at a wide range of facts related to their working life. It said a designer in the aircraft industry was not an …

    Small Biz 15 Feb 2011, 10:28

  • Twitter wants mobile industry followers

    MWC What are you twittering about? You want more money?

    First day at Mobile World Congress sees Twitter, that well-known mobile phone company, secure the second keynote. So ... not a carrier, not a handset manufacturer, and with no way of making money for the mobile industry beyond providing more traffic (and lots of things, like X-factor voting do that), the only thing that merits …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 10:37

  • SaaS security: it comes down to knowing what you are doing

    Roundup of discussion from Week 2

    In this workshop on Software as a Service (SaaS), we’ve been having a good look at the issues of risk, trust and security in the cloud. A lot of things have happened recently that may cause us to think twice about SaaS and risk – Flickr showed just how absurd things can get if policies and processes are not properly thought …

    Hosted Apps 15 Feb 2011, 10:53

  • Where to now for the data robot?

    Comment Limited options one way but wide open another

    Data Robotics has the great mass of business data centre computing closed off but the small business market is wide open and waiting for Drobo-isation. We talked to Tom Buiocchi, Data Robotics CEO, and also to Paul Thackeray, the EMEA VP, to get a picture of the Drobo company just after it had announced its refreshed 8-bay …

    Storage 15 Feb 2011, 11:17

  • The case for DV

    Desktop virtualisation For some it's a 'lightbulb moment'

    Ever since the PC landed on desktops in the early 80s, it has been a mixed blessing for IT administrators. On the one hand it has empowered employees, but on the other hardware refreshes, maintenance and support have entailed high capital and operational expenditure. Most organisations are virtualising the desktop to regain …

    Desktop Virtualisation 15 Feb 2011, 11:30

  • Pandora to spark music IPO goldrush?

    I said no, no, no ...

    Internet streaming site Pandora has filed for an IPO – a rare event in the tech world and even rarer for music companies. The flotation values the company at $100m. Pandora started its personalised streaming operation in 2005, but withdrew from all overseas markets including the UK in 2008. It reckons income in the first nine …

    Financial News 15 Feb 2011, 11:57

  • Supermarket blows £70m on kid-commerce site

    We knew nappies were expensive but...

    Supermarket Morrisons is spending £70m on buying Kiddicare.com - a UK-based website which flogs stuff for kids and babies. Morrisons said the big buy was just a first step into developing its ecommerce business. The site will continue to function as a stand-alone site run by Scott and Elaine Weavers-Wright. The company turned …

    Financial News 15 Feb 2011, 11:58

  • Dissenting Nokia shareholders: Bring us the head of Stephen Elop

    Elopocalypse, Day Five

    A group of purported Nokia shareholders and former employees has vowed to challenge the new company's strategy at the next AGM in May. The revolting shareholders' "plan B" calls for a return to "high growth and high profit margin through innovation" and "maintain ownership and control of the software layer of the Nokia products …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 12:13

  • Julian Assange gets helping hand from OJ Simpson's briefs

    WikiLeaks man pulls on snug gloves

    Julian Assange has a new member of his defence team – Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, who once served as an adviser on OJ Simpson's legal counsel. The WikiLeaks' founder's head lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC asked Dershowitz, who has famously defended clients that include Claus von Bülow, Michael Milken and Mike …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 12:25

  • Boffins demand: Cull bogus A-Levels, hire brainier teachers

    UK values sci/tech grads – very few forced into teaching

    Today the Royal Society, Blighty's pre-eminent boffinry institution, has issued its "state of the nation" report into science education in the UK – and it doesn't make encouraging reading. According to the report, there are far too few schoolchildren studying the correct combinations of subjects at A-Level in order to become …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 12:29

  • Telstra dropkicks femtocell business model

    MWC Aussies can offload their own data ...

    Australia's biggest network operator has rejected the business model behind domestic femtocells, claiming the technology is already redundant, though not everyone agrees. Speaking at Mobile World Congress, Telstra's CTO Hugh Bradlow explained that the basic premise of modern femtocells – offloading data traffic from the …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 12:44

  • HTC takes a flyer on tablets

    MWC 2011 Scaled up Android smartphone ahoy

    HTC has entered the tablet game, announcing at Mobile World Congress a 7in, 1024 x 600 Android slate that will arrive in Q2. Called the HTC Flyer, the tablet provides the customary features: 1.5GHz processor - dual- or single-core, HTC didn't say, so presumably the latter - 1GB of Ram and 32GB of storage. For a gadget that …

    Tablets 15 Feb 2011, 12:45

  • Dell Venue Pro WinPho 7 smartphone

    Review Does the business?

    When the first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets washed up on our shores back in October one handset was noticeable by both its absence and its form factor - the Dell Venue Pro. Now however it's finally made it to Blighty if only through third-party suppliers rather than from Dell itself. Boardroom coup: Dell's Venue Pro As …

    Phones 15 Feb 2011, 13:00

  • EMC joins Storage Performance Council

    It's benchmark WAR!

    In a few days' time, EMC will sign up and join the Storage Performance Council, notwithstanding how much it has dissed benchmarks in the past. The SPC produces storage array benchmarks which suppliers can run and so enable their kit to be compared on a level, albeit artificial, playing field with their competitors. EMC senior …

    Storage 15 Feb 2011, 13:21

  • 'Vacuous' - Twitterati hail Eric Schmidt's midnight tweet

    And Schmidt saw what technology did in Egypt. And it was good

    Google boss Eric Schmidt has commented on the goings on in Egypt - vaguely, very quietly, and, possibly, in the middle of the night. Schmidt is quite frugal in his tweeting, not surprisingly, given he'd previously slapped down the service as "poor mans email." However, at around 2.30 GMT today he wrote "Egypt: people plus …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 13:40

  • DARPA to pay hackers and hobbyists for help

    Your tax dollars at rest

    Internet grandfather DARPA (US-based Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) is throwing open its doors and wallet in an attempt to solicit unconventional security solutions. It is reaching out past the usual huge, multinational technology consulting firms and egghead think tanks and trying to engage with small start-ups – …

    HPC 15 Feb 2011, 13:55

  • BlackBerry OS 6 – Red Star Rising

    Looky-touchy-feely

    It would be both right and wrong to describe the new BlackBerry Operating System as just eye-candy on the existing java based system. Correct in that what it does is make the OS look very much better. Incorrect in that in making it look better it also works better and is easier to use. The most significant change is the …

    Phones 15 Feb 2011, 14:00

  • Visa's chip-and-PIN exemption rules given cautious welcome

    Good news for shopkeepers

    Visa has relaxed its regulatory rules so that European high street merchants who capture at least three-quarters of their take through EMV-enabled chip-and-PIN terminals will no longer have to pass Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) audits every year. The programme, which will help high street shops to reduce …

    Security 15 Feb 2011, 14:12

  • OFT waves through UK.gov's national addressing database

    Joint effort with Ordnance Survey gets 'all clear'

    The government's national addressing database venture with the Ordnance Survey was cleared by the Office of Fair Trading today. GeoPlace was created last December as a joint undertaking between local government and the OS agency to amalgamate addresses into a single register for use by public sector workers and private …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 14:48

  • European child abuse image law a step closer

    Committee approval

    The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee has passed a draft law to remove all child sex abuse images hosted in EU countries. The law says that if images are hosted outwith the EU they should be blocked by individual member states. The Committee made some changes - the law previously made removal of images mandatory …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 14:57

  • Clinton demands net freedom for all... 'cept Wikileaks

    Who said anything about China?

    Hillary Clinton will bang the drum for internet access as a human right today when she outlines the US vision for the net in the wake of recent political turmoil in the middle east, and its own savaging in the wake of the Wikileaks disclosures. The US Secretary of State will claim that the debate about whether the internet …

    Government 15 Feb 2011, 15:09

  • May promises £63m for cybercrime fight

    Less than ten per cent of cyber security budget

    Home Secretary Theresa May has announced a £63m boost to police budgets for combatting cyber crime. The money will come from the £650m being spent on beefing up the UK's national cyber defences announced last year. The move to a proactive, and attacking, form of cyber defence was explained to the Reg by "senior Whitehall …

    Law 15 Feb 2011, 15:22

  • Toshiba £300 'entry level' Froyo tablet back on sale next month

    Honeycomb offerings to be premium products

    Toshiba will not be canning its Folio 100 10.1in Android tablet when its 10.1in Android Tablet arrives on the scene. The Folio, which has at last received Adobe certification for its implementation of Flash, paving the way for its re-introduction after being dropped by exclusive supplier Dixons in November 2010, will return to …

    Tablets 15 Feb 2011, 15:30

  • Old folks' phones set to take over from nurses

    MWC Cut down on the Mars bars, granny

    Doro, the other mobile phone company from Lund, Sweden, has announced a couple of deals at Mobile World Congress that less grown-up companies would tout with words like "ecosystem", and "partnerships". The mainstream manufacturers have avoided phones for old people, sorry, seniors, and the running has been left to the likes of …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 15:32

  • UK.gov asks developers for views on Public Data Corporation

    Working title may change to Vanilla Data Corp or similar (maybe)

    The UK government wants to know what British taxpayers think about its newly created Public Data Corporation, which was greeted with a slow hand clap by some openistas when it was announced last month. From today until 11 March, the Cabinet Office is asking individuals and organisations that use government data to get in touch …

    Applications 15 Feb 2011, 15:41

  • Toshiba previews TV UI for cloud content

    IPTV meets social networking meets... everything

    Toshiba today gave a sneak peek of the internet-TV-and-then-some user interface it plans to build into a number of its HDTVs later this year. Called Toshiba Places, the smooth-looking UI goes beyond the more basic internet TV interfaces we've seen from the likes of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG, to offer not just IPTV …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2011, 15:56

  • Ecstasy doesn't make rave-goers any stupider - official

    Going to raves, though...

    Using ecstasy appears to have no effects on "cognitive performance", according to a new study which controls for other factors such as repeated sleep deprivation, dehydration and the possibility of being drunk or drugged while taking intelligence tests. "Researchers have known for a long time that earlier studies of ecstasy …

    Science 15 Feb 2011, 16:25

  • Opera Mini BREWs up

    The other browser comes to the other OS

    Opera Mini, the proxy-served edition of the third browser, is now available on BREW MP, the OS that used to be a platform, and still claims to be relevant. BREW MP is an embedded OS, but one that supports an app store and developer community. Support for Opera Mini should help attract those manufacturers able to see beyond the …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2011, 16:44

  • Samsung readies Android-based iPod Touch killer

    Smartphone minus the phone bit

    Samsung has launched its latest media player, and it's a clear case of 'iPod Touch meets Android'. It even looks a lot like the early Touches. The Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 borrows branding from Samsung's smartphone line, along with the kind of 4in, 480 x 800 LCD touchscreen, 1GHz processor, front and rear cameras - 0.3Mp and 3.2MP, …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2011, 16:49

  • Intel updates Xeon six-shooters for servers

    Gunning for Opterons high and low

    Advanced Micro Devices was not the only server chip maker in the x64 racket that updated its chips for Valentine's Day. Yesterday evening, chip giant Intel slipped out a blog posting announcing that it too had tweaked its server chip lineup. Specifically, Intel has added nine new chips in its "Westmere-EP" Xeon 5600 lineup and …

    Servers 15 Feb 2011, 16:50

  • Steve Jobs unveils 30% subs model for ... everything

    Publishers get 'magical, revolutionary' our-way-or-the-highway deal

    Apple finally unveiled the shape of its new subscription model for the App store today, confirming that it will force magazine and newspaper publishers to hand over 30 per cent of their cover price. Cupertino billed its take-it-or-leave-it T&Cs as "the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently …

    Media 15 Feb 2011, 16:52

  • TiVo calls time on ageing set-tops

    Nine-year-old kit marked end-of-line

    Long-time UK TiVo owners are up in arms because the company is to effectively stop their boxes from working to the full. TiVo has announced that from the start of June, its old PVRs will no longer operate beyond playback of TV programmes that have already been recorded at the point. TiVo insisted that the boxes "may" be able …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2011, 16:53

  • UK, Oz won't get latest AMD ThinkPad

    'North America and other emerging markets' only

    Lenovo has given its European and Australian ThinkPad fans the finger by refusing to allow them to buy its upcoming AMD-based ThinkPad X120e sub-notebook. Lenovo launched the 11.6in laptop at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, and it's currently listed on the company's US website as "coming soon". It's due to go …

    Laptops 15 Feb 2011, 17:28

  • Apple cripples iBooks for jailbreakers

    No e-books for you!

    Apple has opened a new chapter in its campaign against hackers with a feature that prevents jailbroken iDevices from accessing iBooks. According to the Social Apples blog, iPhones and iPads running the latest iOS firmware contain a “jailbreak check” that automatically detects when the devices have been unlocked using the …

    Phones 15 Feb 2011, 17:50

  • Hacked BBC streaming websites serve up malware

    Driveby exploit on 6Music and 1Xtra

    Streaming sites operated by the BBC were hacked on Tuesday so they silently served visitors with malware, researchers from security firm Websense said. An iframe tag on the BBC's 6 Music and 1Xtra websites injected an exploit that was housed on a website with an address ending in cc, a top level domain for the Cocos Islands. …

    Security 15 Feb 2011, 19:18

  • 'Unlimited' misleading on throttled broadband: Federal Court

    ACCC wins Optus advertising case

    Australia's Federal Court has handed the ACCC a win over the misleading use of the word “unlimited” in broadband advertisements. In a decision handed down in Melbourne this week, Justice Anthony North of the Federal Court agreed with the ACCC that the word “unlimited” in Optus advertisements was misleading. Under the plans …

    Law 15 Feb 2011, 20:49

  • Australian group buying soars

    From invisible to fly-speck in only 12 months

    The Australian group buying market is set to grow by 284 per cent in 2011, generating A$242m and capturing 0.1 per cent of Australia’s A$200bn retail market. The forecast from research firm Telsyte says group-buying is the fastest growing in the online retail. The sector is in nascent development, with players launching last …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2011, 20:50

  • Money gone, people gone: Oracle's open-source blowback

    GlassFish sucks dollars, Hudson quietly moves

    Oracle loves open-source projects and technologies – it's just not crazy about other people running them. Now, Oracle has a growing reason to dislike the projects themselves and it's got everything to do with the two things Oracle values most: money and control. Oracle has said that customers are picking the former Sun …

    Developer 15 Feb 2011, 21:06

  • Twitter off-limits for cricketers

    Learn to play cards again, chaps

    Cricketers at this year’s World Cup one-day tournament have been told to keep their fingers off the Tweet button by the International Cricket Council. Concerned at the opportunity social media presents for match-fixing messages, the ICC has told players and team officials “no Twitter” during matches. Bookmakers will be forced …

    Bootnotes 15 Feb 2011, 21:13

  • Mozilla: 'Internet Explorer 9 is not a modern browser'

    Arch rival condemns Microsoft browser to Victorian age

    Mozilla has taken a right swipe at Microsoft's Internet Explorer, telling the world that the latest incarnation of IE is not a "modern browser." On Tuesday, with both Firefox 4 and IE9 on the verge of official release, Mozilla technical evangelist Paul Rouget hit back at apparent Microsoft suggestions that the new IE offers …

    Applications 15 Feb 2011, 21:21

  • iPhone 5 rumors: bigger, smaller, cloudy, keyboard-equipped

    Will Apple ape Google?

    The latest round of iPhone rumors point in multiple directions at once: a larger screen, a smaller phone, a slide-out keyboard, and cloud-only operation à la Google's still-gestating Chrome OS. Let's start with that larger screen. According to a DigiTimes report on Tuesday, "upstream component suppliers" say Apple's next …

    Phones 15 Feb 2011, 22:57

  • Dell busts through $60bn barrier

    Business buying binge

    PC and server maker Dell has reached its long-time goal of breaking through the $60bn revenue barrier. Now what is it going to do? In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, ended January 28, Dell's revenues hit $15.7bn, rising 5 per cent year-on-year. Product sales rose by 5 per cent to $12.75bn, and services revenues were up 5 …

    Financial News 15 Feb 2011, 23:09