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2nd March 2011 Archive

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  • Opera (finally) gets hard on WebGL 3D

    Three years in the hardening

    Opera Software has released the first public build of its desktop browser that includes 3D hardware acceleration based on the WebGL standard. The company announced the Windows preview build with a blog post on Monday, after two years of work on WebGL. "We have been working on a WebGL implementation since early 2009, when the …

    Applications 2 Mar 2011, 00:53

  • Qld police warn against Windows service scam

    Crooks try IQ test on banana benders

    The Queensland Police Service has issued a warning against phone-scammers pretending to offer to fix viruses. The scam, familiar to telephone owners around the world, starts with a caller trying to convince people – usually in a disastrously incomprehensible accent – that a virus has been detected on their computer. If the …

    Security 2 Mar 2011, 03:08

  • IDC: Everything but Unix on the rise

    Windows, Linux, and mainframes skyrocket

    It is not an easy time to be a Unix server vendor, but at least it has stopped getting harder. According to the latest statistics from the box counters at IDC, worldwide sales of Unix servers was flat as a pancake, growing four-tenths of a percent to hit $3.8bn in revenues. That drops Unix from about half of revenues a decade …

    Channel Register 2 Mar 2011, 04:00

  • Ofcom demands ISPs close 'upto' gap

    Oversold much?

    A big gap remains between the marketing of broadband speeds when compared with their real-life performance, Ofcom confirmed this morning. The telecoms watchdog released figures today that found that the average advertised speed is currently sold as 13.8Mbit/s by broadband providers, even though in reality the speeds were "less …

    Telecoms 2 Mar 2011, 05:00

  • US Supremes trash AT&T's claims to 'personal privacy'

    Ma Bell not exempt from FOIA

    The US Supreme Court has made it official: AT&T and other corporations have no right to personal privacy under the Freedom of Information Act. In a unanimous ruling (PDF), the high court shot down arguments that the Federal Communications Commission shouldn't have to turn over documents compiled during an investigation from …

    Law 2 Mar 2011, 05:00

  • Apple to Microsoft: 'App Store name is not generic'

    Accuses lawyer of lifting nonsense from internet

    Apple has shot back at Microsoft's attack on Cupertino's attempt to trademark the term "App Store", saying that Redmond's argument is based on "out-of-context and misleading snippets of material printed by its outside counsel from the internet." Ah, those stupid, stupid outside counsels and that stupid, stupid internet. …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 06:00

  • Nokia C1-01 budget voicephone

    Review Talk is cheap

    Though you wouldn't guess as much from the raucous clamour about the as-yet-unforeseeable outcome of Nokia’s adoption of Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone OS of choice, the Finnish phone giant continues to run a very decent business selling basic handsets to World+Dog. Nokia's C1-01: basic, but bloody good Case in point: …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 07:00

  • Seagate launches XP-supporting 3TB drive

    Legacy software and BIOS support

    Being third in line after Hitachi GST and Western Digital, as Seagate is, to announce a 3TB drive does give you the option to improve its legacy BIOS and operating support. The Barracuda XT and its attendant DiscWizard software provides bootability from non-UEFI motherboards and Windows XP. Neither Hitachi GST nor Western …

    Storage 2 Mar 2011, 09:58

  • Europe confirms raids on ebook publishers

    Antitrust and cartel concerns

    The European Commission has confirmed it raided several companies involved in ebook publishing. The regulators said it carried out "unannounced inspections" at ebook publishing companies in several member states because it has reason to believe they may have "violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and other …

    Music and Media 2 Mar 2011, 11:06

  • TalkTalk silenced over anti-BT comparison

    ASA rejects value and price not the same argument

    BT has scored a minor victory over TalkTalk, after it had a trio of complaints about the latter's advertising upheld. BT had objected to an ad punting a TalkTalk phone and broadband package, which claimed users could save £154 over 18 months compared to BT. TalkTalk was not comparing like with like, complained BT. It claimed …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 11:07

  • Government should extend agile development for IT

    State could cut cost and provide better services, says govt 'think tank'

    A report from the Institute for Government calls for a new approach to the way the government spends £16bn each year on technology. In its report, titled "System Error: Fixing the Flaws in Government IT", the cross-party think tank says that ending the "big business IT contracts" that lock government in will require a new dual …

    Government 2 Mar 2011, 11:11

  • Google buys malware analysis and reverse engineering firm Zynamics

    Halvar Flake takes it back to the future

    Google has bought reverse-engineering and analysis tools firm Zynamics. Financial terms of the deal, announced on Tuesday, were undisclosed. Zynamics is led by Thomas Dullien, a respected white-hat hacker better known by his online handle, Halvar Flake. The acquisition further strengthens Google's security team, which already …

    Malware 2 Mar 2011, 11:12

  • Charlie Sheen explodes onto Twitter

    Followers will soon match former salary

    Now that he has a bit of time on his hands, actor and keen supporter of LA's nose candy and helpful lady industries Charlie Sheen has decided to give forth on Twitter. They hardly represent a fascinating insight into the mind of the man who thought that trousering $2m an episode for Two And A Half Men was inadequate recompense …

    Bootnotes 2 Mar 2011, 11:15

  • Facebook goes all a twitter with Beluga buy

    Poking is so over

    Facebook has stepped firmly into Twitter's territory with the purchase of messaging start-up Beluga, sure to be pushing status updates to a phone near you any day now. Beluga provides closed group messaging: users create "pods" and invite people to join them, messages addressed to the pod are then bounced out to pod members …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 11:21

  • Ford CEO talks up e-car future

    Interview Alan Mulally speaks out on platforms, prices and power generation

    Ford's five-year e-car plan will see the motor maker's eco-friendly vehicles spring from its existing lines, not as new, bespoke designs, company CEO Alan Mulally has told Reg Hardware. Speaking one-on-one to Reg Hardware just ahead of his CeBit keynote yesterday, Mulally revealed that the battery powered members of Ford's C1 …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 11:26

  • Is videoconferencing reborn?

    Webcast Ready for the big time

    On March 10th at 15:00, The Register's Tim Phillips will be debating the value of videoconferencing with a few people who are better qualified than him to answer your questions. It's a live event so we'd hope you'll have some questions. Cisco's Nick Sheppard and Dale Vile from Freeform Dynamics are there to discuss the nitty …

    Tech Panel 2 Mar 2011, 11:32

  • Apple T&C upsets philanthropic developers

    Don't mention the earthquake

    Developers of iPhone applications keen to share their income with those less fortunate are becoming increasing annoyed with Apple's refusal to let them declare their largesse. The latest to complain is iPhonewzealand, who want the world to know that the $2.59 it is charging for its previously free application is to be donated …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 11:53

  • Tainted apps worm into official Android store

    DroidDream creates security nightmare

    Dozens of tainted applications have been discovered on the official Android Market. More than 50 applications have been found to be infected with a new type of Android malware called DroidDream, an information stealer. Fraudsters repackaged legitimate apps (mostly games) so that they included malicious code before uploading …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 12:03

  • Ofcom shows average broadband speeds half advertised rate

    ISP claims tested, many found wanting

    UK communications watchdog Ofcom has slammed ISPs for failing to provide punters with broadband speeds that come close to their 'up to' claims. According to Ofcom, the average broadband speed over the last two months of 2010 was 6.2Mb/s. That's less than half - 45 per cent, in fact - of the average advertised broadband speed …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 12:05

  • Health experts flip over McD's burger-flip toy

    'Disturbing' drive thru fun kitchen

    Parents of kids who have a penchant for burgers and an academically average school record might be interested in the McDonalds Drive Thru Food Cart Playset – guaranteed to provide "endless hours of make-believe fun", with the added advantage of offering vital training for a future career: As is to be expected, health …

    Bootnotes 2 Mar 2011, 12:26

  • Eurocrats work horizontally to make every European digital

    Neelie Kroes hails Digital Agenda progress

    EU commissioner Neelie Kroes told Cebit yesterday Europe's vast bureaucracy was well on the way to fulfilling the digital agenda it set itself nine months ago. In fact, Brussels was "working horizontally" to push the agenda, with Eurocrats getting horizontal with government bodies, innovators and anyone else that can help …

    Government 2 Mar 2011, 12:29

  • Apple iPad 2 snapped in all its skinny glory

    Go on, take a look. You know you want to...

    A raft of pictures purporting to show the iPad 2 have popped up on the web just hours before the updated tablet will to be unveiled. The snaps come from Chinese-language site DGtle, which undoubtedly has access to the nation's notoriously leaky electronics factories. As we've seen many times before - most recently with the …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 12:31

  • Virgin offers unlimited action for a fiver

    Textual feeling

    Sorry folks, but this story is about Virgin Media, which is now offering a Sim-only deal with unlimited texts, unlimited Virgin-to-Virgin calls and 100 minutes of calls to other networks for just £5 a month. At that price, though, the 30-day rolling contract is only open to existing Virgin customers, ie. anyone who already …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 12:37

  • Timely information: We want it now. But not too much of it

    Workshop How much? When?

    The classic complaint from business managers is that they don’t have sufficient information to make the right decisions. This has given rise to an entire subset of IT in the shape of business intelligence (BI) and data analysis tools for slicing, dicing, filtering, probing, and generally torturing the data until it tells you …

    Doing Better Business 2 Mar 2011, 13:13

  • Compellent micro-manages data to gain efficiency

    CeBIT Sixteen times increase in tiering granularity

    By micro-managing data with its coming 64-bit software, Compellent is aiming to increase its automatic data placement tiering granularity sixteenfold and greatly increase SSD use efficiency. Currently its Storage Centre O/S is 32-bit software and it automatically moves 512KB pages of data between faster and slower tiers of …

    Storage 2 Mar 2011, 13:15

  • IT job seekers can't smell spell

    Schoolboy CV errors

    Job applicants seeking technology jobs often make basic spelling and grammar mistakes while writing their CVs. Some even misspell the name of the technologies and products they're meant to be experts in, which might be why 23 per cent of people admit they get someone else to write their CV. Recruiters said there were five …

    CIO 2 Mar 2011, 13:16

  • Blighty's expensive Watchkeeper spy-drone in further delays

    Extra bonuses: It's unarmed and needs Israeli support

    The troubled, extremely expensive Watchkeeper project intended to supply unmanned surveillance aircraft to the Royal Artillery has hit further technical delays. The first robot spyplanes should have been delivered in February - eight months later than the original contract called for - but they will now arrive "toward year's end …

    Science 2 Mar 2011, 13:29

  • Border Agency raids private college in Gateshead

    Four senior staff arrested in immigration probe

    The UK border agency has raided a college in Gateshead that it suspects is being used for immigration crime. Five people were arrested yesterday in a series of raids targeting Castle College, Gateshead, the UK Border Agency said. The college, which offers language, business and computing courses, also had its licence to …

    Policing 2 Mar 2011, 13:43

  • Time-wasting twits survey scam hits Twitter

    I'm not fooled by Tweeter's curl ...

    A survey scam that supposedly tells marks how much time they have wasted on Twitter spread widely on the micro-blogging site on Tuesday. Lures to the scam appear as updates in the feed of already compromised users, inviting prospective new victims to click on a link. Victims are invited to allow a rogue application called " …

    Malware 2 Mar 2011, 13:53

  • Swiftpoint Futuremouse

    Review Refashioned rodent with laptop leanings

    Mice are nice, but you need desk space to use them. The large trackpad on my MacBook Pro is a decent substitute, but regular notebook trackpads usually seem to me too meanly proportioned. And when it comes to netbooks the dancefloor is getting really tight. Netbook habitat: Swiftpoint's Futuremouse Me, I favour the …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 14:00

  • Sheila's Fails? The statistics of biological risk

    Comment Why the ECJ insurance judgment might not be the right road after all

    Yesterday’s ruling by the European Courts may have stirred the general public to a wide-ranging and not altogether informed debate on the issues of gender discrimination. Less obvious, but in the long run more serious, is the fundamental challenge it poses to the way in which two pillars of the establishment – the financial …

    Law 2 Mar 2011, 14:35

  • Library e-books to become too tatty to lend

    Digital copies must not outlast paper one, HarperCollins insists

    Does an e-book wear out? If it’s from publisher HarperCollins and belongs to a library, then the answer is now 'yes' – and potentially in as short a time as one year. New terms introduced by the publishing giant mean that instead of being sold with a perpetual licence, as they are now, e-books sold to libraries will be limited …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 15:21

  • UK extends IT spending controls

    Every contract over £5m needs Treasury, Cabinet nod

    All central government IT contracts worth more than £5m are to be subject to approval by the Treasury and the Cabinet Office. The move is intended to provide long term measures and replace the interim changes introduced when the coalition government came to power. A spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office told GGC that, whereas …

    Channel Register 2 Mar 2011, 15:34

  • Portsmouth stretches the Olympic-sized swimming pool

    Adds critical 0.2143 linguine to polemical length

    We're delighted to report that Portsmouth City Council's Olympic-sized swimming pool really is long enough to satisfy the demands of top aquatic athletes. Contrary to what we claimed yesterday, the pool at the city's Mountbatten Centre is in fact 50.03m in length, rather than 50.00m, and the critical extra 0.2143 linguine …

    Bootnotes 2 Mar 2011, 15:47

  • Radio in the cloud: Do we want to TiVo our radio?

    What problem is Michael Robertson trying to solve?

    Michael Robertson's latest quixotic venture has much in common with his earlier adventures in entrepreneurship, such as MP3.com, his Linux distro, VoIP service and locker music. These have divided opinion, you might say; they're viewed either as fabulously "disruptive" innovations, or solutions looking for a problem to fix that …

    Music and Media 2 Mar 2011, 16:04

  • Apple shutters store as fanbois camp out on virtual pavement

    Feast your eyes on Post-it of destiny

    Apple has pulled the plug on its online store, flagging up to he world that it is about to unleash something new and magical and revolutionary on the world. Or it's simply clearing the virtual shelves for the iPad 2 later today. Visitors to the site are currently being met with the mystic "We'll be back soon" virtual Post-it …

    PCs & Chips 2 Mar 2011, 16:41

  • Dixons prices up Motorola Xoom for Blighty

    More than expected

    Retailer Dixons has priced up the Wi-Fi only Motorola Xoom. The 10.1in Androud 3.0 tablet will sell for £500 when it goes on sale "in the first week of April". Dixons outlets Currys and PC World both show that that timeframe is not yet confirmed. Indeed, both say delivery will take place on or after 9 April. But "if you order …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 17:11

  • Official: Booze prevents senile dementia

    WHEN will the gov provide free booze for wrinklies?

    Isn't alcohol wonderful? Not only does it make you clever (this has been proven more than once), not only is it good for your heart, but now research has revealed that boozing will also stave off the onset of senile dementia. Seriously: German boffins led by Professur Doktor Steffi G Riedel-Heller of Leipzig uni have just …

    Biology 2 Mar 2011, 17:15

  • Twitter terminates Steve Jobs parodist

    Not the Fake Steve Jobs, a fake Steve Jobs.

    Twitter has axed the highly popular parody account of a counterfeit Steve Jobs. The tweeter, @ceoSteveJobs, had a following of more than 460,000 Twitterati, GeekSmack reported on Tuesday night when revealing the account suspension, and @ceoSteveJobs had contributed more than 650 satirical tweets in the persona of the Apple …

    Music and Media 2 Mar 2011, 17:56

  • Easier to secure the cloud than your data center - IBMer

    Really?

    Security is probably the biggest factor keeping enterprises from moving more applications and data to public clouds. I argue that security is just one (albeit a hugely important one) of the reasons why public clouds will exist as a tool for data centers – rather than the default usage model – for the foreseeable future. …

    Infrastructure 2 Mar 2011, 18:00

  • Amazon floats (another) cloud over Asia

    EC2 goes to Tokyo

    Amazon has floated a second cloud over Asia, opening new Amazon Web Services data centers in Tokyo. The etailer cum virtual infrastructure maven now offers AWS in five separate regions across the globe: two in the US, one in Europe, and two in Asia. The first Asian region launched in April of last year with the opening of data …

    Infrastructure 2 Mar 2011, 18:01

  • Steve Jobs unveils iPad 2

    Faster, slimmer, dual-core

    Apple unveiled its second-generation iPad on Wednesday morning, called simply the iPad 2. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, away from Apple on medical leave, did the honors, as was rumored yesterday. According to live blogs from Macworld and ArsTechnica (for some reason, The Register is not invited to Apple press events), the …

    PCs & Chips 2 Mar 2011, 18:42

  • Elop's choice: Microsoft and Nokia take a bruising

    MicroBite What now for IE9 on mobile?

    Stephen Elop's decision to make Windows Phone the Nokia smartphone operating system of choice could be rationalized, even defended, right up until the point where Microsoft's new phone platform bricked Samsung Omina 7 phones. Suddenly, and without any real explanation, Windows Phone 7 couldn't be updated on 10 per cent of …

    Microbite 2 Mar 2011, 19:08

  • Apple cuts iPad price

    Tablet discounted in run-up to new version's debut

    Apple has knocked £100 off the price of the first-generation iPad. Undoubtedly a move to clear the shelves before the arrival, on 25 March, of the new version, the upshot is that buyers can avail themselves of the older, thicker, heavier model for less. The 16GB Wi-Fi only is now £329, down from £429 - which is what the 16GB …

    reghardware 2 Mar 2011, 19:26

  • Facebook to share home addresses, phone numbers

    How Zuckerberg learned to stop worrying and love opt in

    To the dismay of some, Facebook will indeed introduce a new feature that gives users the option of sharing their home addresses and cellphone numbers with third-party application developers. Facebook managers are still working out specifics, but under a plan the company outlined late last month, the site would allow users to …

    ID 2 Mar 2011, 19:49

  • Oracle seeks Java cloud closure help

    Work needed on Java EE plan

    Oracle has outlined a plan for the next version of Java used in application servers that makes it clear that, for once, the giant needs other peoples' help. The database giant has published Java Specification Request (JSR) 342, intended to convert Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 7 into a building block of cloud services. …

    Developer 2 Mar 2011, 19:54

  • More interception, less scrutiny as Oz Senate passes wiretap laws

    Big Brother is listening

    Australia’s Senate has passed amendments to that country’s wiretap laws, allowing security agency ASIO to pass information across a wide range of government agencies, and apparently to conduct wiretaps on behalf of those agencies. According to Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, the Australian Security Intellgence Organisation (ASIO …

    Policing 2 Mar 2011, 20:27

  • iPad 2 spawns updated iOS and apps

    Fondleslab finger candy

    In addition to unveiling the iPad 2, Apple revealed details of the operating system that will run on its new fondleslab and other capable iOS devices, while also demmoing two new apps that will ship with iOS 4 and two that will be available from the iTunes App Store. iOS 4.3 includes a number of enhancements and new features …

    Software 2 Mar 2011, 20:32

  • IBM ex-boss tapped for convergence review

    Nobody ever got sacked for that

    Former IBM Australia managing director Glen Boreham will chair the “Convergence Review” into Oz media regulation. Senator Stephen Conroy, minister for censorship and fibre, Communications and the Digital Economy, announced the new appointment yesterday as the consultation period came to an end. Boreham is known to governments …

    Government 2 Mar 2011, 22:48

  • Rogue AV pimps finally show love for alternative browsers

    Ruse spoofs Firefox, Chrome, Safari

    For years, ads pimping malware disguised as legitimate antivirus programs have gone to great lengths to mimic the look and feel of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and Windows operating system. Now Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari are getting the same treatment. A security researcher from Zscaler has …

    Malware 2 Mar 2011, 22:50

  • Opera man muscles into Apple mobile ad kingdom

    Ex-Apple 'Pink' engineer takes fight to Google

    When Apple launched its iAd platform, says Mahi de Silva, it barred all third-party advertising services from accessing the platform's mobile ad network. That included de Silva's own AdMarvel, the mobile-ad exchange owned by browser-maker Opera Software. But according to the AdMarvel CEO, multiple big-name publishers told Apple …

    Mobile 2 Mar 2011, 23:40