2nd May 2011 Archive

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Is iPhone data collection legal?

Musing on the IOS / Android / Windows Phone debate

According to Gizmodo (and many others), it’s “no big” deal that Google, Microsoft and Apple are collecting location data from mobile devices. Its reasoning is that although all three companies’ mobile device operating systems – IOS, Android and Windows Phone – collect both GPS coordinates and WiFi base station data, and …

Law 2 May 00:51
HP forges 32-socket Itanium iron

Beyond Superdome

What's going on with Hewlett-Packard's Itanium-based Integrity server lineup? It has been over a year since HP got its first machines using Intel's "Tukwila" quad-core Itanium 9300 processors into Integrity machines, and the company has still not delivered machines spanning 32 and 64 sockets. This is the kind of big iron that …

Servers 2 May 03:00
Space shuttle Endeavour launch delayed until at least May 8

No power to heaters

NASA has once again delayed the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, as it works to correct the electrical problem that postponed Friday's original launch attempt. The shuttle will now launch no earlier than May 8 (next Sunday). This past Friday, shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach scrubbed the scheduled 3:37pm …

Space 2 May 04:10
Skype sex cadets charged for misusing telco services

Aussie Defence Force clueless on social media

Police in Australia have finally worked out how to charge two Australian Defence Force Academy cadets at the center of the ‘Skype sex scandal’. At the end of last week, the two were charged with “using a carriage service to cause offence" for their alleged role in broadcasting a fellow female cadet engaging in consensual sex. …

Policing 2 May 05:38
Tiscali wants Scality's ring

Needs some cloudy loving ...

Struggling Italian ISP Tiscali has called on Scality and its RING product to build a cloud storage service. The company's Tiscali Cloud Storage offering is said to offer extreme reliability. It is aimed at the SMB market and companies can open an an initial 100GB account for a promotional €15/month, including 50GB of traffic …

Cloud 2 May 06:00
Arcam FMJ BDP100 Blu-ray Disc player

Review Very metal

If you’re an Arcam aficionado, there must have been times when you thought the arrival of a Blu-ray Disc player would never come. The brand’s original strategy, to support both HD DVD and BD with a universal player, was shunted off the road when the HD format war came to an abrupt end. A second, BD-only project met a similar …

reghardware 2 May 07:00
Welcome your ~~robot~~ overlairds, robots

Silicon servitude Nine years of silicon servitude in Scotland

In 2002 we got our first domestic robot, a basic Roomba which is long dead now, but since then our household robots have kept the place tidy, and the children in line. Our first Roomba was a basic cleaner. iRobot's baby didn't even vacuum back then, it just shuffled across the floor pushing the dirt around. But Roomba proved …

PCs & Chips 2 May 08:00
Sony closes PC games site over security 'concern'

Station.com suddenly unreachable

Sony shut down its website for online PC games on Monday, almost two weeks after it closed the PlayStation Network following a criminal intrusion that stole personally identifiable information from 77 million account holders. The move by Sony Online Entertainment affects online playing of games such as Everquest, Dungeon …

Enterprise Security 2 May 16:31
Pakistani IT admin leaks bin Laden raid on Twitter

Updated Twitterati learn of raid before bin Laden

Before Osama bin Laden knew that a squadron of US Navy Seals was approaching his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, their approach had been tweeted to the world by a 33-year-old IT admin, Sohaib Athar. Tweeting under the username shared by his personal blog, RealityVirtual, Athar reported on the unfolding "complicated situation …

Music and Media 2 May 16:33
Cisco rolls out data center pods

Wheels not included

Server wannabee Cisco Systems is now a containerized data center wannabe too. The company has rolled up and rolled out its own variant of modular data centers for its own server, storage, and networking gear (as well as that for its competitors) using standard metal shipping containers. The aptly named Containerized Data …

Servers 2 May 16:49
Canada's internet future at stake in Monday election

Conservatives v The Open Interwebs

The future of the Internet is at stake in Monday's Canadian election. Candidates representing all major political parties have declared themselves "pro-internet Candidates" by pledging support for an open internet on the grassroots website Openmedia. Only one candidate among the dominant Conservative party has signed. Other …

Government 2 May 18:29
Mozilla answers Google's Crankshaft with IonMonkey

Another simian joins Firefox JavaScript engine

Mozilla is developing a new JIT compiler for SpiderMonkey – the Firefox JavaScript engine – aiming to provide a new set of JavaScript optimizations. Known as IonMonkey, this will be SpiderMonkey's third JIT, but Mozilla hopes to consolidate all its optimization work on the new platform. "Our goal is to implement a new compiler …

Developer 2 May 18:35
Microsoft maps WinPhone 7 path for iPhone coders

Eyes up Android

Microsoft is again reaching out to iPhone application developers, this time trying to siphon off some of the Jobisian magic juice for Windows Phone 7. The company has released an API mapping tool that it has promised will help developers to code their exiting iPhone applications to work on Windows Phone 7. "iPhone developers …

Developer 2 May 19:15
Free iPad content for Time, Fortune subscribers

Apple and Time bury half a hatchet

Apple and Time Inc., have inked a pact that allows subscribers of hard-copy rags published by the largest magazine flogger in the US to freely download digital copies of those same issues onto their Cupertinian fondleslabs. Beginning Monday, subscribers to Time's flagship Sports Illustrated, Time, and Fortune will be able to …

Music and Media 2 May 19:35
Small Oz carriers get license fee cut

Conroy tosses bone to increasingly bolshie industry

Senator Stephen Conroy, Australia’s minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has moved to placate an industry increasingly dissatisfied with his handling of the country’s National Broadband Network with cheaper carrier licenses. Under Australia’s telecommunications regulatory regime, carrier license fees …

Telecoms 2 May 22:19
Pure Storage to dethrone 'evil' hard disk

Comment 'Long live flash!'

The problems with networked storage is the hard drive. It's evil – nothing can be done to fix its primary latency and seek problems except by giving up on them and going flash. That's Pure Storage's preferred option, and it's betting the farm on it. The company is a stealth-mode startup with impressive credentials and a simple …

Storage 2 May 22:54
Stolen smart-meter SIM leads to outrageous 3G bill

Tasmanian woman downloads herself into the slammer

Skeptics who think 3G data services can’t be used for volume downloads, think again: a Tasmanian woman has been jailed for racking up a bill of nearly A$200,000 on a SIM stolen from an electricity smart-meter. According to the Hobart Mercury the woman, Kylie Monks, used a SIM card from an Aurora electricity meter that …

Policing 2 May 23:24
Google intros video chat on Android

Face time over cellular

Brace yourself for a new round of 3G service bill-shock horror stories: Google has announced Android support for video chat and voice chat using Google Talk. The new capability means Android phone users can voice or video chat with other Android phone users, or with people using Google Talk on their PCs. Chats are supported …

Mobile 2 May 23:25