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26th April 2011 Archive

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  • Hulu eyes Down Under (again)

    Are broadcasters ready to play?

    Periodic and breathless speculation about when Hulu is going to jump into the Australian market has re-emerged, for the umpteenth time since 2009. Problem is, Hulu hasn’t been able to get the local broadcast industry on board. Moreover, the pretty much constant upheavals in the business keep Australian TV networks distracted …

    Networks 26 Apr 2011, 02:00

  • Boffins devise way to hide secret data on hard drives

    Technique evades forensics investigations

    Computer scientists have developed software that hides sensitive data on hard drive, without the use of encryption, by controlling the precise disk locations containing the file's data fragments. The application, which the academic researchers said they would release as open-source software, makes use of steganography, or the …

    Security 26 Apr 2011, 02:25

  • Itanium's future: Users believe Intel, not Oracle

    Server 'battle royale' on the horizon

    Who do you believe? Oracle, when it says that Intel will eventually replace the Itanium processor with Xeons, or Intel and its Itanium co-developer HP, when they say there are two more generations of Itaniums coming, and that those processors will be supported for at least a decade. There isn't a lot of consensus on this issue …

    Servers 26 Apr 2011, 05:00

  • Communicate

    Android App of the Week Make yourself understood to Johnny Foreigner

    Google’s increasingly powerful translation tools are starting to make the Babel Fish a technical possibility and Communicate is the latest app to make use of them to offer real-time speech translation.   Languages choices and phrases for that longed-for escape Using Communicate couldn’t be easier. Simply select your own …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 06:00

  • Mellanox uncloaks SwitchX network switch-hitter

    Chip turns InfiniBand, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel triple play

    Servers have been virtualized, storage has been virtualized, and now it's the network's turn, thanks to Mellanox Technologies, a maker of chips and switches running the InfiniBand and Ethernet protocols. With the advent of its SwitchX multi-protocol ASICs, the chip designers at Mellanox have come up with a single chip that it …

    Data Networking 26 Apr 2011, 06:00

  • App-stores-in-the-enterprise kit spans Apple iOS and Android

    The names are AppCentral

    AppCentral – a startup based in San Francisco – has released a new incarnation of its platform for operating private mobile app stores within the enterprise. Version 2.0 of the platform can be used with both Apple iOS and Google Android devices. Apple and Steve Jobs forbid iPhone and iPad users from purchasing, downloading, or …

    Mobile 26 Apr 2011, 07:00

  • Coder Android tablet love on (a bit of a) wane

    Googasm falling

    Developer interest in Android phones and tablets is on the wane – at least a bit – according to a new study. The latest mobile-developer survey from IDC and Appcelerator – the Silicon Valley outfit whose Titanium kit lets coders build native mobile apps with traditional web tools – indicates that during the first quarter, …

    Developer 26 Apr 2011, 07:00

  • Sony unwraps Android 3.0 tablet pair

    iPad rival and a palmtop too

    Sony has come clean with its tablet plans: it will launch a pair of of them, but it's waiting until the autumn to do so. Previously, it pointed to a summer release. And neither may look like the preview images the Japanese giant posted today, the company warned. The design is "subject to change". The line up comprises two …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 08:46

  • MS now issuing security advisories about third-party Windows bugs

    New caretaking role for the ecosystem

    Microsoft has expanded its vulnerability disclosure program to include security bulletins about third-party Windows software as well as its own applications. The first bulletins, released last weekend, cover two flaws in Google Chrome and one in Opera ll, both of which were patched by December 2010. Microsoft has promised to …

    Enterprise Security 26 Apr 2011, 10:00

  • Yahoo! buys! TV-sharing! startup! IntoNow!

    'Why is everything here completely pointless?', asks Mike Teevee

    Yahoo! has bought television 'check-in' startup IntoNow for an undisclosed sum. IntoNow, which was founded by one-time Google exec Adam Cahan, was developed to work with a mobile phone app that flags up TV programmes being aired by scanning the audio waves from television sets. Once the app indexes those programmes in a …

    Mobile 26 Apr 2011, 10:03

  • Man arrested wearing hair scrunchie on short and curlies

    My pants? They must have been taken

    A Californian man staged a dirty protest in a police cell after he was arrested half-naked in a cemetery. Shawn Batie, 42, was nabbed in a boneyard near the town of Lodi, in California's Central Valley, after police were called to investigate reports of a half-naked man "yelling in the dark". They found Batie "standing in the …

    Bootnotes 26 Apr 2011, 10:06

  • Iomega Home Media Network Cloud Edition 1TB drive

    Review Made for sharing

    I must confess that I do have have an extraordinary fondness for network attached storage. And when terms like ‘home media’ and ‘cloud edition’ appear on the box, then it certainly gets my attention. Cloud cover: Iomega's Home Media Network drive So, while for you Iomega’s latest storage box may be unnecessarily encumbered …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 10:14

  • Apple Square sallies forth from stores

    iPhone banky box is go. Bothered?

    Square is now in the Apple stores, both physical and virtual, putting the banking revolution in a plastic cube in front of a lot more eyes than its competitors. For only $10 anyone can drop into an Apple store, pick up a Square box to plug into an iPhone, download the free app and start taking credit card payments. As long as …

    Mobile 26 Apr 2011, 10:39

  • Oracle chief bean-counter mysteriously quits database giant

    Software maker drags the Catz in to replace him

    Software maker Oracle has let go of its chief finance officer, Jeff Epstein, without revealing why the exec had resigned from the company. He has been replaced by the firm's current president Safra Catz. Epstein, who had reported to Catz during his tenure, only joined Oracle in September 2008. The company confirmed Epstein's …

    Financial News 26 Apr 2011, 10:47

  • Five amazing computers for under £100

    Old-school gizmo gladhandling to cure the bank holiday bores

    Many men are facing a dilemma in the coming days. Thanks to the Royals, a great, great, yawning maw of consecutive weekly Bank Holidays looms large. With enforced downtime, this means a stark choice: either face the family, or retreat to the Garden Shed. To help you make this choice, here are some suggestions. My desk at …

    PCs & Chips 26 Apr 2011, 11:16

  • Motorola pushes laptop-dock Android phone at Brits

    Express your interest

    Orange has the UK exclusive on Motorola's netbook-powering Atrix Android smartphone, the US phone maker has confirmed. The Atrix is a 1GHz dual-core handset with 1GB of Ram and 16GB of on-board Flash storage to which you can add the contents of a 32GB Micro SD card if you wish. It's just 11mm thick and has a "qHD" 960 x 540, …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 11:35

  • Computer glitch opens un-staffed supermarket to happy Kiwis

    Dirty dozen go wild in the aisles without self-scanning

    Canny Kiwis were given a Good Friday bonus when a computer system automatically opened a supermarket to all comers. The Mill St Pak 'n Save in Hamilton, New Zealand should have been shut for Good Friday, but the godless computer system overrode a manual command to shutter up, and flicked on the lights and threw open the …

    Bootnotes 26 Apr 2011, 11:52

  • Dell waves its Boomi at large back-ends

    Madam, I'm AtomSphere

    Boomi – the Pennsylvania-based startup acquired by Dell last year – has released a new version of its flagship AtomSphere service, a so-called "integration cloud" that lets businesses connect various back-end applications running in their own data centers as well as those in the proverbial data-center heavens. Available …

    Software 26 Apr 2011, 12:00

  • 2011 Ford Focus

    Review Hi-tech hatchback

    With Ford’s consumer research showing that drivers regard its cars as fun to drive and reliable to own but not particularly hi-tech, it’s playing the technology card heavily with the third-generation Focus. The new car comes loaded with sort of driver assistance kit that just a few years ago would only have been found on a high- …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 12:00

  • Three adds iPhone 4 to unlimited data package

    AYCE on PAYG

    Network operator Three has added the iPhone 4 to the list of pay-as-you-go smartphones it offers with "all-you-can-eat" mobile broadband. Three will sell you a 16GB iPhone 4 for £500, or a 32GB model for £600 - both a tenner or so less than Apple charges. You'll have to add £15 to that for the airtime: 300 minutes of calls, …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 12:09

  • Chinese mapping hotline stays cold

    Not a single call to snitch on shifty mappers

    China's new hotline for reporting of dodgy cartographers has remained silent, with not a single call since being switched on last week. New licence requirements came into effect at the end of March, making the provision of online maps illegal and even the gathering of cartographic information subject to fines and confiscation …

    Government 26 Apr 2011, 12:14

  • End of the line for mechanical typewriters

    Pesky PCs put paid to print purists

    The death of the mechanical typewriter is upon us, after Godrej & Boyce recently confirmed that the firm's remaining inventory at its production plant in Shirwal, near Pune, had significantly dwindled to just 500 machines. That company, which began production in the 1950s, had become the world's final old-school typewriter …

    PCs & Chips 26 Apr 2011, 12:24

  • Pillar pillages SPC-1 benchmark

    Er, where is EMC?

    Pillar has announced a sparkling SPC-1 benchmark, bettering IBM's Storwize V7000. Oddly EMC is not present in SPC-1 results and NetApp's results are 2008 vintage. What's going on? The SPC-1 benchmark is for block-access storage, not for filers, where the SPECsfs2008 benchmark is used. There are high-end SPC-1 results, ranging …

    Storage 26 Apr 2011, 12:27

  • Airborne killer robot destroys Libyan anti-aircraft missile

    Analysis Another nail in the coffin of the combat jet

    In news which will send a cold chill down the necks of fast-jet pilots and air forces around the world, it has been announced that an unmanned "Predator" drone has destroyed a heavy Libyan surface-to-air missile in Tripoli on Sunday. You could do it this way... British Rear-Admiral Russ Harding, deputy commander of NATO's …

    Government 26 Apr 2011, 12:40

  • Vintage flying car offered at auction

    Chitty Chitty Bang Bang up for grabs

    She may not be full of gizmos like Bond's DB5, nor does she talk like Knight Rider's KITT, yet Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remains one of the most loveable motors in the history of cinema. Which is why collectors will be chuffed to know she's going under the hammer next month. If you wish to take Chitty on a trip to find the …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 12:42

  • Windows 7 takes PC upgrade for a cycle

    Interview New hardware required?

    Since Windows 7 stabilised its service packs big organisations are moving into upgrade mode. Given that we’re over at least the first hump of the recession, the upgrade leads to the questions; if you’re upgrading to Windows 7, should you upgrade your hardware too? Intel’s Scott Mordue puts forward balanced arguments in favour …

    Enterprise Tech 26 Apr 2011, 13:09

  • Golden Gate swallows up Lawson Software

    ERP vendor set for extensive integration with Infor

    Veteran ERP vendor Lawson software is being swallowed by acquisitive VC house Golden Gate Capital, the firms announced this morning. Lawson will be lined up with Golden Gate's GGC Software affiliate and Infor, another software firm in its portfolio. "Infor and Lawson will create a rich, integrated enterprise application suite …

    Financial News 26 Apr 2011, 13:39

  • US smartphone market goes Google

    Android grabs lion's share of installed base, recent purchases

    Android is now the most popular smartphone operating system in the US, on the basis of the number of folk using it, at least. According to market research company Nielsen, 37 per cent of US smartphone owners have an Android-based handset, as of March this year. Apple's iOS is second, with 27 per cent of the US smartphone …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 13:47

  • Homer talks TomTom through iPhone app

    Mmmm.. Little Chef

    If satnav instructions from Darth Vader were beginning to tire, why not opt for some Homer Simpson instead? Those who use TomTom on the iPhone can now install the donut-muncher's characteristic voice to tell them when to make a U-turn. Developed in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox and Locutio Voice Technologies, the …

    reghardware 26 Apr 2011, 14:39

  • Google and Facebook tool up for coupons fight

    Chocolate Factory targets world's biggest fungus

    Google has chosen Oregon as its initial theatre of operations for its long-awaited response to Groupon. The search giant's push into the home of the world's biggest fungus comes as Facebook preps its own coupon assault on five US cities. Ever since Groupon had the temerity to decline a takeover offer from the Chocolate …

    Music and Media 26 Apr 2011, 15:01

  • Force10 cranks Ethernet switches to 40 Gigabits

    Will hit 100 Gigabits this year

    The race to sell 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches for data center backbones and high-speed networks has begun, and Force10 Networks is getting out there early to stake its claims. The company is announcing the Z9000 distributed core switch, which tops out at 40Gb/sec speeds but also supports a large number of 10Gb/sec ports if …

    Data Networking 26 Apr 2011, 15:26

  • Infosmack and the Storage Brain

    Episode 96 Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?

    Oh Hello. Tune into some podcast magic from the Infosmack team, with hosts Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley with the Diva of Disruptive Technologies, Christina Weil. Special guests this week are Larry Freeman, Technologist for NetApp and author of Evolution of The Storage Brain and W. Curtis Preston of BackupCentralLive.com. …

    Channel Register 26 Apr 2011, 15:41

  • China gently chides Baidu over deep-linking MP3 naughtiness

    Artist Punishment unknown

    China's most popular search engine has had its wrist slapped by Beijing officials for allegedly providing illegal music downloads via its MP3 service. According to a report on Xinhua, which is China's state-run news agency, 14 websites will be "punished", after ignoring repeated warnings to remove links to files that the …

    Music and Media 26 Apr 2011, 15:45

  • 'Anti alpha' mirror-matter made from gold in atomsmasher

    Shuttle Endeavour mission 'may find antimatter worlds'

    Allied international boffins are exceedingly chuffed this week to announce a recordbreaking reverse-alchemy triumph: gold has been turned into extra hefty nega-helium antimatter by using an enormously powerful atom smasher. The particle-punisher in question was not our old friend the Large Hadron Collider but rather the …

    Space 26 Apr 2011, 15:54

  • Amazon algorithms price bio book at over $23m

    Drosophila melanogastic cockup

    An algorithmically induced pricing spiral drove up the price for a popular biology reference work on Amazon.com to an astronomical $23.7m. Amazon allows third-party retailers to set their prices using algorithms that take into account what other booksellers are charging for the same title. In this case, the title was The …

    Music and Media 26 Apr 2011, 17:20

  • IBM bumps up dividend – again

    More financial – not computer – engineering

    IBM, the original IT darling of the New York Stock Exchange, has once again boosted its cash dividend and piled up billions more cash to run down to the exchange to buy back its own shares. On Tuesday, the company's board of directors approved a 15 per cent increase in IBM's quarterly dividend – a dime per share – to 75 cents …

    Financial News 26 Apr 2011, 17:27

  • Boffins pull plug on SETI alien-seeking antenna array

    With no funds in coffers, ET searchers let go

    The SETI Institute has put its renowned Allen Telescope Array into hibernation because it doesn't have the money to run the giant cluster of radio dishes that search the heavens for extraterrestrial life. The shuttering of the ATA was disclosed on Friday by scientists who said the project was unable to find the $5m infusion it …

    Space 26 Apr 2011, 17:46

  • Dropbox snuffs open code that bypassed file-sharing controls

    'Torrent successor' Dropship drop-kicked

    Dropbox – the San Francisco startup that offers a free service for sharing files over the net – has suppressed a fledgling open source project that lets anyone use the service outside of its control, saying the project exposed Dropbox's proprietary protocol and could be used for piracy. The open source project is called …

    Music and Media 26 Apr 2011, 18:04

  • NASA Nebula cloud spans nine space centers

    Open source floats

    NASA's Nebula project – an Amazon-like "infrastructure cloud" for use within the federal government – is now being used across nine NASA centers, including the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its headquarters in Washington. According to James Williams – the chief information officer at NASA's Ames Research Center in …

    Infrastructure 26 Apr 2011, 19:04

  • Cops raid man whose Wi-Fi was used to download child porn

    The risks of open wireless and the sleuths who use it

    A man recently found a swarm of armed federal agents descending on his Buffalo, New York, home after a neighbor accessed his open Wi-Fi network and used it to download child pornography. The account, included in a recently published article from the Associated Press, is one of several demonstrating the unintended consequences …

    Crime 26 Apr 2011, 20:32

  • Amazon: Some data won't be recovered after cloud outage

    Post mortem wait

    Amazon says that about 0.07 per cent of the EBS storage volumes in the East Region of its infrastructure cloud are not "fully recoverable" following the extended outage that hit the service last Thursday. The company has yet to fully explain the cause of the outage, but it still plans to publish a "post mortem" on the incident …

    Infrastructure 26 Apr 2011, 20:47

  • Freebie SMS day for suffering Vodafone customers

    Don't pay for what you already don't pay for...

    Vodafone has offered beleaguered Australian customers 12 hours of free text messaging as compensation for a network outage over Easter, the latest in a series of service outages. In a message on the company blog the carrier said: “We apologise for the technical fault that occurred yesterday and resulted in many customers …

    Mobile 26 Apr 2011, 20:53

  • User data stolen in Sony PlayStation Network hack attack

    Poorly secured system to remain offline

    Sony is warning its millions of PlayStation Network (PSN) users to watch out for identity-theft scams after hackers breached its security and plundered the user names, passwords, addresses, birth dates, and other information used to register accounts. The stolen information may also include payment-card data, purchase history, …

    ID 26 Apr 2011, 21:53

  • Feds finger China in wire fraud

    Where phishing victims’ money goes

    The FBI has issued an alert warning that money obtained by phishing is being transferred to trade companies in China. The bureau says money obtained from compromised business computers is being wired to Chinese companies located near the Russian border. The transfers are initiated after criminals compromise computers ( …

    Crime 26 Apr 2011, 22:13

  • Amazon refudiates Apple 'app store' trademark suit

    Quotes Steve Jobs in defense

    Amazon is fighting back against an Apple lawsuit that charged the mega-etailer with using the term "App Store" without proper Cupertinian consent. In a response to Apple's lawsuit, which was filed on March 18 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Amazon says it needs no license or other …

    Music and Media 26 Apr 2011, 22:35

  • Note to Mozilla: We don't get the Firefox billboards

    Open...and Shut Value trumps virtue

    Although people often contribute to charities because "it's the right thing to do," they rarely give to businesses on this basis. That's why it's strange to see industries turn to "guilt trips as business models," as GigaOm's Matthew Ingram terms newspapers' recent business-model experiments. The news media and its apologists …

    Business 26 Apr 2011, 23:36

  • Super Micro preps hopes for 'Sandy Bridge' Xeons

    Blades, storage, GPUs selling well, but systems slow

    Business was not as smooth as it could have been in the third quarter of fiscal 2011 for Super Micro, a supplier of both motherboards and complete systems, and a bellwether of sorts for the server racket. The reasons for the bumpy ride were many and varied. Some big customers put off server and component purchases. Intel …

    Financial News 26 Apr 2011, 23:57