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5th May 2011 Archive

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  • Oracle subpoenas Apache in search of Google smoking gun

    Trawls for Android Java violations

    Oracle is going after the Apache Software Foundation and its open-source version of Java to find the smoking gun it clearly believes will prove Google deliberately violated patents and copyrights it owns on Java. The database giant hit the open source group on May 2 with a subpoena demanding they surrender a raft of …

    Developer 5 May 00:27

  • Red Hat revenues pumped by partners

    Getting by with a little help from the channel

    Red Hat is ramping up to be the first billion-dollar open source baby, and more than anything else, the commercial Linux operating system and middleware distributor has its channel partners to thank for the growth. Speaking at the Red Hat Summit today in Boston, Alex Pinchev, president of global sales and field marketing, didn …

    Financial News 5 May 01:30

  • Want an untracked Android? Here’s how

    Marlinspike firewall manages device connections

    Self-described hacker Moxie Marlinspike has released WhisperMonitor, a firewall for the Android operating system that among other things blocks its location-tracking features. Its egress filtering monitors all outbound network traffic, and lets users create filtering rules. An outbound connection request can, for example, …

    Security 5 May 02:00

  • Oracle U-turns on Hudson open source control

    Hudson can't have Hudson. But Eclipse can

    Oracle is relinquishing control of the Hudson project after a heavy-handed attempt to stay in charge prompted most community members to fork themselves and undermine the project's viability. The database giant said on Tuesday that it had submitted a proposal to the Eclipse Foundation to create a Hudson project and that it …

    Developer 5 May 02:53

  • CNET sued for giving kids LimeWire

    Downloads equal piracy, says film producer

    Even as the LimeWire damages case grinds its way through the courts, a group of film and music artists led by wealthy film producer and founder of FilmOn.com Alki David are suing CBS Interactive and CNET for distributing the LimeWire application. LimeWire, whose service was killed off by the US District Court last year, was …

    Music and Media 5 May 03:00

  • IE is tough on Flash cookies but ignores homegrown threat

    Dear Microsoft: There's a Silverlight log in your eye

    Members of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team are giving themselves a pat on the back for making it easier to delete the privacy menace known as Adobe Flash Cookies. Too bad the IE developers aren't tackling a similar snoop threat embedded in Microsoft's very own Silverlight framework. On Tuesday, a Microsoft program manager …

    ID 5 May 03:03

  • Sccope best price finder

    iOS App of the Week Consume with confidence

    I decided to avoid last week's royal rave-up by engaging in some retail therapy. We’ve seen a number of shopping-related apps recently, but this price-comparison app is the one I've found most useful when I’m in shopping mode.    Sccope helps you compare prices online and on the high street Available as an app on iOS devices …

    reghardware 5 May 07:00

  • Facebook fails webmail tests

    Nearly as bad as Hushmail

    Consumer organisation Which? reckons Facebook provides one of the worst free webmail services available. Researchers looked at seven different sites, including AOL and Excite for history fans. Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail came out in top spot with an 83 per cent score. Researchers liked its 5GB of storage space and easy …

    Applications 5 May 07:50

  • Janet 3G to go live in June

    Academics wired up to higher education resources

    Janet (UK), the organisation responsible for the UK's higher education and research network, has announced that a new high capacity data service for universities and colleges will be launched in June 2011. Known as Janet 3G, the service will be provided by communications company aql, and has been developed to provide a range …

    Data Networking 5 May 09:04

  • HP's new EVA: The big reveal

    The P6000 could look like ...

    HP has told us all that the EVA is morphing into the P6000. El Reg can reveal a little more about this coming P6000 line. There will be, we understand, two new models. Both will support 2.5-inch SAS disk drives and Fibre Channel (FC) only, or a mix of FC and 1GbitE or 10GbitE iSCSI ports The P6300 EVA takes over from the …

    Storage 5 May 09:07

  • iOS 5 said to sport over-the-air update facility

    Patches pushed

    Apple's iOS 5 will support over-the-air firmware updates, it has been claimed. So say "multiple sources" - none named, mind - who've spoken to 9to5 Mac. Once iOS 5.0 has been installed on devices using the customary method based on iTunes, iOS 5.0.1 or whatever comes next will be pushed direct to handsets. Presumably punters …

    reghardware 5 May 09:10

  • Fraud charges for 3 former Torex execs

    Former chairman, accountant and legal director accused of dodgy dealings

    The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is charging three former executives of Torex Retail Plc with fraud offences. The company came to the attention of investigators four years ago after a trading update in 2007 which claimed all was well was quickly followed by a profit warning. The SFO raided several properties as a result, and the …

    Applications 5 May 09:29

  • Apple iPad 3 to sport 3D screen a 'dead cert'

    Studios gagging for it, insists movie biz mole

    If claims that Apple's next iPad will sport a 2048 x 1536 display containing four times as many pixels as the current one stretched credibility, one rumour, that successor to the iPad 2 will incorporate a glasses-free 3D screen, takes it to breaking point. The claim comes from an alleged Hollywood insider who told RCR Wireless …

    reghardware 5 May 09:39

  • Sony flicks to B-side with Walkman refresh

    Same bits, different case

    Sony has modified its MP3 player collection, with this year's refresh of Walkman Music Clips. Over the past year, Sony has seen its fair share of transformation. The same can't quite be said for its Walkman range. The Sony Walkman NWZ-B160 is almost identical to last year's NWZ-B150 - what's new is a nanoscale size reduction …

    reghardware 5 May 10:09

  • Surrey voted tops for tits in birdwatching poll

    It's the most wooded county in England after all

    Surrey is the best place in England to spot tits in gardens, a survey has revealed. The British Trust for Ornithology's Garden Birdwatch showed that a greater percentage of leafy Surrey's gardens were visited by Blue Tits and Great Tits than any other country. Householders in the stockbroker belt taking a peek into their back …

    Bootnotes 5 May 10:10

  • X Factor hack exposes personal data of fame-seeking contestants

    Tales of security breaches and Cowell's chest-high britches

    The personal information of more than 250,000 would-be X-Factor contestants may have been exposed after hackers broke into systems maintained by producers of the US edition of the TV talent show. X Factor applicants' names, email addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers were swiped in the course of a hack attack against US …

    Enterprise Security 5 May 10:13

  • Bradley Manning now in nicer Army prison

    'We'll do what we like', Marines reportedly told doc

    Imprisoned US soldier Private Bradley Manning, who is charged with leaking huge amounts of classified data from military computer systems, is now under a much less severe confinement regime. Manning's lawyer, David Coombs (a former Army judge and reserve Lieutenant-Colonel) reports in a recent blog post that his client's move …

    Law 5 May 10:16

  • Dear Mr Beefy ex-soldier: Your BT needs you

    A land fingered by heroes

    BT wants to enlist tough, muscly ex-armed forces personnel to help the telco roll out faster broadband in the UK. As The Register has previously reported, BT engineers are currently taking up to seven hours to lay cable in BT's ongoing fibre-to-the-premises trial in Milton Keynes. So perhaps the company needs a leg-up, so to …

    Telecoms 5 May 10:24

  • Rethinking desktop virtualisation

    Desktop Virtualisation It’s not just thick versus thin

    It used to be simple. Users could either run a local operating system, or use a thin client with screen, keyboard and mouse talking to an operating system running on the server. Today there are many models of desktop virtualisation, and few safe assumptions. It used to be the case that virtual desktops could not handle …

    Enterprise Tech 5 May 10:30

  • Three unlimited data plan gets no tie-in option

    Now available on one-month rolling contract

    Network operator Three has made its all-you-can-eat data tariff, The One Plan, available to punters who don't want a two-year tie-in. The One Plan is now available on a £25-a-month, one-month rolling contract. It brings you aforementioned unlimited internet access plus 2000 minutes of calls to any network, 5000 minutes of …

    reghardware 5 May 10:31

  • Harman Kardon SB 16 soundbar

    Review Fat sound for thin tellies

    It’s a sad fact that as the picture quality of flatscreen TVs have been steadily improving, their audio performance has been dropping off. This is mainly due to the fact that TVs are becoming slimmer and slimmer, leaving less room for decent sized speakers. If your other half won’t hear tell of a surround sound systems and all …

    reghardware 5 May 10:45

  • Boffins herald end of stiff screens

    Your iPhone will be obsolete in five years

    Flexible e-ink is, again, being heralded as the future of mobile computing, this time with navigation by manipulation of semi-rigid jabber-slablets, as well as grey-on-grey animated action. The revolution comes from boffins at Queens University, Ontario, who are demonstrating how flexible e-ink can create a computing surface …

    Mobile 5 May 10:46

  • Be.ez Le Reporter Air 11 MacBook Air bag

    Txt Take Case in point

    Product reviews in 140 characters... Be.ez Le Reporter Air 11 Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware - details here.

    reghardware 5 May 10:48

  • Reg reader lost for words over blank HP keyboard

    Pics Wireless ... and letter-less too

    PC buyers have become used to having to do most of the donkey work when it comes to setting up their machines, but Hewlett Packard has gone one better by supplying keyboards that are not just wireless, but letter-less and digit-less too. Just look at these pics from Reg reader Ian who said he has just received this pristine, …

    Bootnotes 5 May 11:28

  • O2 revises PlayStation phone release date

    Out early June, if Sony Ericsson splats last few bugs

    Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play smartphone will finally make it to O2 next month, the network operator said this week. Originally due on 1 April, the Android-running game-centric handset was pulled by O2 at the eleventh hour after fail to pass the company's network-friendliness tests. Other carriers went ahead and launched the …

    reghardware 5 May 11:31

  • LastPass resets passwords following possible hack

    Precautionary change-up

    Password management system LastPass has reset users' master passwords as a precaution following the discovery of a possible hack attack against its systems. The move follows the detection of two anomalies – one affecting a database server – on LastPass's network on Tuesday that could be the result of a possible hack attack. …

    Enterprise Security 5 May 11:34

  • DARPA, NASA look to spawn STARSHIP enterprise

    Self-building interstellar shipbuilder sought

    More details have emerged on the US government's plan to build a spacecraft capable of "a journey between the stars". Astoundingly, it is expected that this can be achieved with no more than "several hundred thousand dollars" of government funding. This is because the idea is that the starship will not, in fact, be built or …

    Space 5 May 11:49

  • Nokia touted Meego to rivals, but nobody wanted to know

    One Linux too many

    Nokia touted its former "platform of the future" Meego to industry rivals, but was rebuffed, chief executive Stephen Elop said. "We discussed Meego with HTC, RIM, Samsung, LG, and Motorola. One manufacturer was fairly interested in Meego and the others have their own plans, and they were not particularly interested in Meego. …

    Mobile 5 May 11:53

  • SOCOM 4

    Review Another banger?

    If the murder-sim genre has taught us anything, it’s that gamers require little pretext to kill. It helps, of course, when justification is provided through exposition, or by that simplest casus belli of all, an enemy pulling the trigger first. But occasionally, along comes a game like SOCOM 4 to prove all we really need to know …

    reghardware 5 May 12:00

  • Adobe, Apple, Google hit by wage-fixing case

    Class action for secret poaching deals

    Six of Silicon Valley's largest companies have been named in a class action suit seeking compensation for anti-competitive employment practices to which the companies have already admitted. Late last year the Department of Justice reached a settlement with Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar to stop them continuing …

    Law 5 May 12:00

  • Skype mulls going online with offline Facebook, Google contacts

    Report points at chats 'n' that

    Facebook has reportedly been in talks with Skype, and the company's boss Mark Zuckerberg is said to have mulled over buying the web video chat service. According to Reuters, which cites various sources familiar with the matter, Facebook isn't the only big gun tech outfit sniffing around Skype. Google is also understood to …

    VoIP 5 May 12:27

  • Let the Cloud Developer Wars begin

    Damn right it's better than yours

    Microsoft is all for the cloud, says chief executive Steve Ballmer. IBM has its new Smart Business Cloud. Oracle has its Exalogic cloud in a box. Amazon’s cloud services are growing apace. Salesforce.com and Google have always been cloud. The economic arguments are unassailable. Economies of scale make cloud computing more …

    Cloud Developer 5 May 12:52

  • IBM preps Power7+ server chip rev

    Ponders Power8

    It has been more than a year since IBM got its first Power7-based machines out the door, and about six months since the chips were fully ramped across the Power Systems lineup. The server processor racket waits for no one, and a slowpoke will quickly get left behind in the volume and midrange space. And so Big Blue has to …

    Servers 5 May 13:59

  • Cell site data sinks into black hole of local bureaucracy

    The perfect solution... for the network operators

    It seems that UK mobile operators do publish the location of every base station, but they then mail that information to local authorities who do almost nothing with the data. The data is collected by the Mobile Operators Association (MOA), and converted into the standard-but-little-known Easting and Northing coordinate system …

    Mobile 5 May 14:11

  • Virgin space rocketship trials 'feather' re-entry system

    Plummets toward Mojave with tail pointing straight up

    The SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocketplane, commissioned by beardy biz-lord Richard Branson in order to offer zero-G exoatmospheric joyrides to wealthy customers, has flight-tested its unique "feathering" re-entry mode. Engage shuttlecock mode, Mr Sulu Virgin Galactic, Branson's nascent ballistic thrilljaunt venture, says that …

    Space 5 May 14:15

  • Francis Maude outlines Public Data Corporation plans

    Policy framework for new open gov data org ready by autumn 2011

    The government intends to have a data policy framework in place by autumn 2011 as part of its preparations for the Public Data Corporation (PDC), according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. Maude was responding to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Mark Pawsey about the government's plans for the PDC, aimed …

    Government 5 May 14:44

  • Slack bank practice creates opportunity for phone phishing scams

    Opinion A question of authentication

    There is a scene during the underrated '70s conspiracy thriller Three Days of the Condor when Robert Redford's bookish spy is asked to verify his identity when calling into base. He resists, insisting that the person who took his call needs to verify their own identity before he gives anything away. Authentication ought to …

    ID 5 May 14:46

  • EU pay-by-tap accepts operator independence

    GSMA not involved this time around

    The European Payments Council guidelines for NFC proximity payments are up for debate, and this time the operator isn't considered an essential component though still the preferred partner. In its last paper on the subject the EPC worked with operator-consortium The GSMA to work out how payment applications should be installed …

    Mobile 5 May 15:13

  • Intel brings protected DVD, BD playback to WiDi

    Wirelessly stream content - if you have the right kit

    Intel has tweaked its WiDi 2.0 software to support the playback of DRM-protected content - DVDs and Blu-rays, essentially - as promised four months ago. WiDi 2.0 was launched back in early January, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Updated for Intel's second-generation Core i platform - aka Sandy Bridge - WiDi 2.0 was …

    reghardware 5 May 15:21

  • Cisco trims bloat

    Engineering turnaround

    Cisco Systems has taken some hit points in recent quarters from its bloated business lines and unfocused product and marketing efforts. In response today, it announced its expected corporate reorganization. Most changes are in its engineering efforts, which is a tacit admission that the data networking giant has as much a …

    Data Networking 5 May 16:09

  • Domain security comes to .co.uk

    Will DNSSEC ever be sexy?

    Nominet plans to bring a higher level of security to UK domain names within the next two weeks. The .uk registry manager said on Thursday that it has implemented the new DNSSEC protocol in the .co.uk zone. Companies could be able to cryptographically sign their internet addresses as early as May 18. "The signing of .co.uk was …

    Hosting 5 May 18:19

  • iOS lauded as top moneymaker

    iPad, iPhone rake in 'freemium' cash

    The iPad and iPhone are the most valuable and profitable devices available for your software-development business – at least according to Evernote CEO Phil Libin. Presenting a wealth of figures about his company's sales, users, and upgrade rates at The Founder Conference in Silicon Valley, Libin revealed that Apple's iOS …

    Mobile 5 May 18:20

  • Google Go boldly goes where no code has gone before

    How to build all the Google stuff Google won't talk about

    Every Google data center has a Chubby, and Heroku wanted one too. Like the rest of Google's much admired back-end infrastructure, Chubby is decidedly closed source, so Heroku men Keith Rarick and Blake Mizerany built their own. Although they didn't have source code, they did have one of those secret-spilling Google research …

    Developer 5 May 19:18

  • Google joins California Do-Not-Track opposition lobby

    Opt-in, opt-out bait and switch

    Google has become the only browser marker to explicitly join lobbyists opposing a proposed law giving consumers the legal right to keep companies from tracking them online. The giant has put its name to an alarmist letter signed by 30 other organizations, trade groups and individual companies, objecting to the passage of a Do- …

    ID 5 May 20:09

  • Mozilla refuses US request to ban Firefox add-on

    Stiff-arms feds over seized domains

    Mozilla officials have refused a US government request to ban a Firefox add-on that helps people to access sites that use internet domain names confiscated in an unprecedented seizure earlier this year. The request came from officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency under the Department of Homeland …

    Applications 5 May 20:47

  • Big Data pumps up Teradata in Q1

    The Petabyte Club

    There may be a lot of big name server makers chasing the data warehousing and analytics market, but there is still enough business for industry pioneer Teradata to grow respectably. In the first quarter ended March 31, Teradata reported $506m in sales, up 18 per cent, with a good balance across product revenues (up 18 per cent …

    Financial News 5 May 20:51

  • Australian Privacy Act feels revamp pressure

    Sony breaches may force hand

    The Australian government may consider expediting significant reforms to the Privacy Act as a result of the Sony data breaches. The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim has already opened an investigation into the Sony Playstation Network security breach where 77 million users of the network have had their personal …

    Crime 5 May 21:20

  • Google dumps Aussie Wi-Fi data tracking

    Wipes StreetView data, takes kit from cars, says 'sorry'

    Google Australia has removed all Wi-Fi equipment from its fleet of Street View cars and has confirmed that it will not be "accidently” collecting any more unencrypted data via the StreetView process. Last year the Privacy Commissioner was forced to investigate how and why Google had collected unencrypted payload data while it …

    Law 5 May 21:23

  • Westpac data centre feels heat

    Network melts down

    An air conditioning fault at a data centre has been blamed for immobilising the Westpac ATM, EFTPOS and online banking system yesterday. Services went down from around 8 am but the issue had been resolved in most cases by early afternoon. However online banking was not up and running until the early evening. The bank took the …

    Business 5 May 21:58

  • TIO has record complaints quarter

    Vodafail strikes again

    The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has reported 59,532 new complaints between January and March 2011, an increase of more than 14,000 new complaints on the previous quarter. The ongoing woes at Vodafone have emerged as the catalyst for the rise with 14,670 new complaints devoted to Vodafone services, an increase of 96% …

    Telecoms 5 May 21:59

  • Court rejects Google call to end 'Android not open' suit

    Skyhook gathers evidence on Google 'interference'

    A Massachusetts court has denied Google's efforts to dismiss a hot-button lawsuit that accuses the company of unfairly using its Android operating system to strong-arm mobile handset makers into using Google location services rather than those of rival Skyhook. Earlier this week, Judge Judith Fabricant of the Massachusetts …

    Mobile 5 May 22:17

  • Intel PC hegemony facing ARMy attack

    ARM set for '13% share by 2015'

    ARM-based processors will bite off a significant chunk of Intel's PC hegemony in the next few years, achieving a 13 per cent share of the PC-processor market by 2015. That's one conclusion of "Worldwide PC Microprocessor 1Q11 Vendor Shares", an IDC report released Thursday. Notice that IDC's report focuses on PC processors – …

    Channel Register 5 May 22:41