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31st May 2011 Archive

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  • Ten... Core i5 laptops

    Product Round-up Sandy Bridge computing on the go

    After a slight hiccough with its Cougar Point 6 chip-set, Intel’s spiffy new Sandy Bridge Core i5 chips are finally starting to arrive in laptops from all the usual suspects. To herald their arrival Reg Hardware has donned its Phil Drabble cap and rounded up ten of the new breed, poked them with a benchmark stick or two and …

    reghardware 31 May 06:00

  • Folder Organizer

    Android App of the Week Your UI, the way you want it

    Bought an iPhone or Windows Phone 7 handset but don’t like the UI? Tough tomato. Bought an Android phone but don’t like the UI? Change it. And what better app to help you on your way than Folder Organizer, one of the most versatile, stable yet unobtrusive applications you will ever download.    Mix up icons and folders In a …

    reghardware 31 May 08:00

  • Server flash cache deathmatch: Bring it

    Comment Grease up and grapple, contenders

    Servers currently get flash caches as a branded supplier's retrofit or through special deals between a server supplier and an OEM source, like Fusion-io. This can't go on and server flash cache is going to become a standard fit item. Servers suffering disk storage I/O bottlenecking can now use PCI-e connected NAND caches as a …

    Storage 31 May 08:07

  • Hackers pwn PBS in revenge for WikiLeaks doco

    Tupac and Biggie Smalls fake news LOLZ

    Hackers aligned with WikiLeaks broke into and defaced the website of US broadcaster PBS over the weekend shortly after it had aired a less than flattering documentary about the whistle-blowing site. LulzSec took particular offence at the portrayal of presumed WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning during of an episode of PBS's …

    Enterprise Security 31 May 08:42

  • CEOP announces 'record results' in child protection battle

    'Loving being under supervision', says new head

    Child protection net-cop quango the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre has announced what it describes as "record results" in its fifth annual statistics. According to the agency, during 2010-2011 CEOP was responsible for the safeguarding of 414 children, the arrest of 513 child sex offenders and the …

    Policing 31 May 08:51

  • Daleks given a well-earned break

    Off to put their feet up, says Steven Moffat

    Doctor Who exec producer Steven Moffat has announced the Daleks are taking a well-earned break, and will be spared yet another confrontation with their Time Lord arch enemy for the foreseeable future. Speaking to Radio Times, Moffat said: "They aren't going to make an appearance for a while. We thought it was about time to …

    Entertainment 31 May 09:09

  • Android Marketplace starts cleaning house

    Console emulators first against the wall

    Google has been cleaning up the Android Marketplace, kicking out developers responsible for some of the most popular Android apps – without notice – and leaving customers scrabbling for an alternative. The applications concerned are games-console emulators: N64oid, Ataroid, Gamboid and Snesoid have disappeared from the …

    Mobile 31 May 09:29

  • Skype pushes gaming software down users throats

    VoIP firm disables unintentional adware-style push

    Skype has further irked its users, already put out by an outage last week, by pushing a Windows add-on that installed itself on users' systems whether or not they gave it permission to install. Auto-update functionality was used to push an update to the EasyBits Go games centre towards Windows users who used Skype Extras …

    VoIP 31 May 09:45

  • Polaroid goes Gaga with instant printer refresh

    Paparazzi in your pocket

    She may have a strange sense in fashion, but as Polaroid's Creative Director, Lady Gaga must have picked up a thing or two about product development, with the latest addition to the company's range of portable printers appearing as the festival season approaches. The Polaroid GL10 Instant Mobile Printer, from House of Gaga's …

    reghardware 31 May 09:48

  • Ousted Egyptian prez fined £20m for net cut-off

    BT engineers left quaking in boots

    Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been hit with a £20m fine for cutting off the internet during the popular revolt in the country earlier this year. Reuters reports that an administrative court slapped the former prez and two other former officials with the fines over the weekend. As well as Mubarak's 200m Egyptian …

    Telecoms 31 May 10:17

  • eBay calls for cheap 4G networks

    Tat bazaar turns operator lobbyist

    eBay wants 4G radio spectrum to be cheap, claiming that mobile commerce is a lost opportunity in the UK, but the shopping portal's motives aren't quite as altruistic as they appear to be. The UK regulator, Ofcom, is currently consulting on how best to flog off the old analogue TV frequencies, which are expected to end up …

    Mobile 31 May 10:21

  • Twitter forced to hand over user details to English council

    Tyneside councillors hang spank Mr Monkey

    Twitter has handed over users' details following a demand from a local council in North East England that took its complaint to California, forcing the micro-blogging site to comply with a US court order. It's understood to be the first legal action of its kind in the UK and comes after intense pressure has surrounded Twitter …

    Law 31 May 10:25

  • EU parks disk drive mergers ahead of competition probe

    Concerns over pricing, innovation

    The European Commission has run up red flags over the competition implications of the disk drive industry's current game of musical takeovers. Brussels has said that following a preliminary probe, it will conduct "in-depth investigations" into both Seagate's proposed takeover of Samsung's hard disk drive operations, and …

    Channel Register 31 May 11:15

  • Stealth hovercraft armada poised to invade South Korea

    Nork mud commandos get their skirts blown up

    North Korea is assembling a powerful fleet of hovercraft to menace the South's northwestern islands, according to the Seoul government. The Chosun Ilbo reports that government sources have said that a large Nork base with berths for 60 "hovercraft and stealth air-cushion warships", under construction at Koampo in Hwanghae …

    Bootnotes 31 May 11:16

  • Linux 3.0 all about 'steady plodding progress'

    20-year-old Sneaky Weasel comes into view

    Linus Torvalds has put penguins out of their misery by revealing that the next version number for the Linux kernel will be ***drumroll*** - 3.0. A week after Torvalds publicly deliberated what the next iteration of the Linux kernel should be, he said he bit "the bullet" and simply numbered the thing. He pointed out that the …

    Operating Systems 31 May 11:32

  • Multinationals out themselves as big Aaas fans

    Comment 60% more MNCs will 'migrate to the cloud' this year

    The Artificial Intelligence guru Ray Kurzweil believes that technology, accelerating exponentially, is converging on a point some 20 years ahead when in a flash of universal illumination he calls "The Singularity". It will solve all the problems of mankind. Adoption of cloud services is up about 60 to 61 per cent from last …

    Cloud 31 May 11:48

  • Government plans cyberweapons programme

    Cabinet Office and GCHQ lead on developing offensive cyber capability

    Whitehall officials have revealed that work has begun on a range of offensive cyberweapons to add to its defensive capability. It is understood that the Cabinet Office and the Cyber Security Operations Centre at GCHQ have taken the lead on the issue, and that in time there will be some input from the Ministry of Defence. The …

    Government 31 May 12:18

  • Samsung Solid Immerse rugged phone

    Review Plop and drop

    Phone manufacturers today are all too keen to tell us their phones aren’t really phones at all, they’re handheld computers with oodles of processing power and capability. Sometimes, however, a basic communications device is just what you need, especially if your life might depend on it. Hard talk: Samsung's Solid Immerse …

    reghardware 31 May 12:20

  • 'One size fits all' EU data law would undermine rights, says Clarke

    Just too risky

    New European data protection law proposals risk compromising freedoms and security, UK Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said. He said that he opposed a 'one size fits all' approach to European data protection law. "A preoccupation with imposing a single, inflexible, codified data protection regime on the whole of the European …

    Government 31 May 12:31

  • Sony restores PlayStation Network in full

    Back from the hack

    Sony has announced all PlayStation network functionality – including access to the PlayStation Store – will be fully restored by the end of the week. While a few areas in Asia will still have features missing - namely countries with very protective regulatory bodies - those of us in the UK can finally get shopping again. This …

    reghardware 31 May 12:40

  • Apple sues teenager for white iPhone conversion kits

    Lam to the slaughter

    Apple has thrown the book at a student who last year sold White iPhone 4 conversion kits to those sick of waiting for an official product to surface. In November 2010, with release dates for the white iPhone 4 constantly pushed back, one fanboy's impatience got the better of him. New York teen Fei Lam ordered parts from Apple …

    reghardware 31 May 13:19

  • Infosmack 101 - Smack down

    Quiz show time

    And on Infosmack this week is an enterprise tech quiz show we call "Smack Down". Special guests this week are Nigel Poulton (our quiz master), Chris M. Evans, Devang Panchigar and Chris Harney. As usual Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley with the Diva of Disruptive Technologies, Christina Weil, are hosting the show. You can …

    Infosmack 31 May 13:30

  • Official: Apple to float iCloud on 6 June

    Bringing sexy back to online storage? Really?

    Apple's unwell CEO Steve Jobs will reveal details about the company's iCloud technology early next month. The Cupertino boss will open Apple's annual Worldwide Developers conference on 6 June, when the iPad and iPhone maker is expected to pack in lots of details about its upcoming products. And it's now clear that Apple …

    Cloud 31 May 13:44

  • Robot air fleet can launch mid-air from cargo plane's ramp

    Hundreds of jet decoys can fly from Hercules 'birdcages'

    US manufacturers have carried out a flight test that might change the way air battles are fought. In future, rather than sexy jet fighters or massive bombers, the aircraft which crush an enemy dictator's air defences could be ordinary cargo haulers – each of which could launch a hundreds-strong armada of small robot planes into …

    Science 31 May 13:49

  • Filesharers spread Allied Telesis networking 'backdoor' info

    Updated No need for alarm over password-recovery feature, says networking firm

    "Backdoor passwords" for a range of Allied Telesis networking devices have been leaked online. Allied Telesis said that although the leaked document referred to a "backdoor password" (screenshot via H Security here), this was an unfortunate choice of phrase for what was actually a password-recovery feature of the type most …

    Enterprise Security 31 May 14:39

  • Dell boasts of cloudy server dominance

    Whiteboxes on the rise

    Perhaps more than any other major server-maker, Dell has benefited from the rise of hyperscale data centers and the cloudy service providers which build them. The company is boasting that it not only rules the clouds in the United States, but also in China. The question is, can it hold out against whitebox suppliers which are …

    Cloud 31 May 14:54

  • Depressed Scottish file-sharing nurse gets 3 yrs probation

    Enormous karaoke stash 'boosted self-esteem'

    Auxiliary nurse Anne Muir, 58, has become the first person to be convicted and sentenced for illegal filesharing in Scotland. The Ayr Sheriff's court has sentenced her to three years' probation after she admitted sharing a stash of more than 30,000 music files online. Muir was charged by Strathclyde police following an …

    Music and Media 31 May 15:13

  • Rumours confirmed: NetApp now supports tape storage

    OEMing CommVault's Simpana

    NetApp is supporting tape storage through an OEM deal with CommVault for Simpana 9 and SnapProtect. A possible NetApp and CommVault deal was rumoured back in December last year, and now it has come to pass. NetApp is providing a unified console, CommVault's SnapProtect, to provide what it calls a seamless integration of …

    Storage 31 May 15:18

  • MP headshot sex rating site: Gentlemen prefer Tories

    Pearl necklace set dominates Members' rankings

    British politicians and politics fanciers, if no one else, are wildly excited today by the appearance of a website which asks viewers to decide which of two randomly-selected MPs they would prefer to have sex with, and then uses this information to rate the Members of each gender in order of attractiveness. At the time of …

    Bootnotes 31 May 15:37

  • Nokia gives up predicting sales

    Shares tumble on storm warning

    Nokia is predicting Q2 sales to be "substantially below" its previous estimates, and says it won't provide public targets anymore as the company tries to adjust to the new reality. In its statement to the stock market Nokia doesn't say how much worse things will be, only that "multiple factors are negatively impacting Nokia's …

    Mobile 31 May 15:46

  • Activision calls for duty with premium subscription

    Profits set to shoot

    Activision has spilled the beans on its premium Call of Duty subscription today, a service that seeks to enrich multiplayer experience and unite the CoD community. Oh.. and make a shed-load more cash for the games giant, which is rubbing hands at the prospect of breaking sales records again when the next instalment in the game's …

    reghardware 31 May 16:16

  • Opera extends Speed Dial with Swordfish beta

    Thumbnails evolve

    Opera has released a new beta of its desktop browser, adding "extensions" to the Speed Dial page that appears each time you open a new browser tab. With the current stable version of Opera – version 11.10 – the Speed Dial page merely offers thumbnail links to off-visited webpages. With the new beta of version 11.50, you can …

    Applications 31 May 17:00

  • MIPS enters Android Honeycomb tablet race

    ARM and Intel face potent Chinese competitor

    Amid all the brouhaha about the low power–chip tussle between Intel and ARM, another processor architecture has been quietly advancing into the same tablet and smartphone battleground: MIPS Technologies, which has announced a partnership with Beijing's Ingenic Semiconductor to port Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb, to the Chinese …

    PCs & Chips 31 May 17:59

  • Malware from Google Market menaces Android users

    Security firms sniff out threat so Google doesn't have to

    Google has yanked more than two-dozen mobile apps from its Android Market after security researchers reported they were laced with malicious code that transferred user data to servers controlled by attackers. As many as 120,000 Android users downloaded the trojans before they were detected, according to Tim Wyatt, a researcher …

    Security 31 May 18:01

  • Pentagon: Hack attacks can be act of war

    Military response possible

    For the first time, the Pentagon has formally concluded that computer sabotage carried out by another nation can constitute an act of war that warrants a response of traditional military force, according to published media reports. The determination, included in the Pentagon's first ever “formal cyber strategy,” represents an …

    Security 31 May 19:44

  • World Health Organization: Mobile phone cancer risk 'possible'

    Not 'probable'. Not yet

    In a move that's sure to fan the flames of the ongoing debate about the safety of mobile phones, a panel of World Health Organization (WHO) experts has classified those ubiquitous handsets as "possibly carcinogenic to humans". The group of 31 scientists from 14 countries, meeting in Lyon, France, under the auspices of the …

    Mobile 31 May 19:48

  • Zencoder serves HTML5 video freedom in spades

    Leg up for Video.JS and Google WebM

    Open video on the web is getting a boost, with a service that can shovel tens of thousands of files onto the net for consumption via the new open-source player Video.JS as well as Google's royalty free WebM codec. Amazon-EC2 based Zencoder has rolled out a service for transcoding thousands of video files and spitting them out …

    Music and Media 31 May 20:13

  • Twitter slaps 'follow' button on third-party sites

    Follow Justin Bieber. Without leaving Justin Bieber

    Twitter has rolled out a "follow" button for third-party websites. With the button, users can instantly arrange to follow particular Twitter accounts without actually visiting the micro-blogging service. According to a Twitter blog post, more than 50 third-party sites are already offering the button, including AOL.com, the …

    Music and Media 31 May 20:55

  • VMware eats Socialcast for collabware

    Munches way up the stack

    Server and desktop virtualization juggernaut VMware continues to build out a stack of applications for the cloudy era. It has now snapped up Socialcast, a maker of enterprise-grade social networking tools, for an undisclosed sum. If you think you might have created what could become the preferred collaboration tool to plug …

    Financial News 31 May 21:38

  • Apple ships removal tool for Mac-menacing malware

    MacDefender Defender hits the streets

    Apple has updated its Mac operating system to protect against a malicious application that has been hoodwinked untold numbers of users by masquerading as legitimate security software that warns they have serious infections on their machines. Apple issued Security Update 2011-003 on Tuesday to update Mac OS X to detect for …

    Malware 31 May 22:21

  • Wake up, Linux hippies: No one 'morally obligated' to give back

    Open...and Shut Open source selflessness does not exist

    For years, open-source advocates – including me – have demanded greater open-source contributions from the world's largest beneficiaries, from Google to Morgan Stanley and the US Department of Defense. Now Amazon is on the firing line for not giving back commensurate with the benefits it receives from various open-source …

    Software 31 May 22:22

  • Danes ban busty babes, Oz okays for teens

    Between titillation and kiddie porn

    Australia’s gaming rating confusion has been highlighted yet again with the revelation that a Nintendo game, withdrawn from sale in Sweden, Denmark and Norway due to child pornography concerns, is on sale in Australia with a PG rating. The country's usually hawk-eyed puritans, so easily disturbed that a shirtless child is …

    Entertainment 31 May 23:00

  • Germany’s rights-holders hit freetards hard

    ISPs hand over 300k addresses each month

    While other countries debate how to go after freetards, Germany’s ISPs are handing over user data for 300,000 accounts per month, according to an announcement by that country’s ISP association, Eco. The organization is claiming success against piracy, saying that the number of online pirates has declined by 20 percent in …

    Music and Media 31 May 23:33

  • HP issues annual exploding battery recall

    If you checked yours before, check it again

    HP came thiiis close to getting out of the month without its traditional May laptop-battery recall – but it didn't quite make it. Bad batteries! Bad! Bad! (click to enlarge) The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that HP is recalling another 162,600 lithium-ion batteries that shipped with HP- and Compaq- …

    PCs & Chips 31 May 23:41

  • Apple nemesis sues iOS, Mac, and Android devs

    Lodsys in freak $1,000 wager with Jobsian coders

    Lodsys – the patent holder already pressuring various iOS and Android app developers to turn over licensing fees – has now sued seven small developers in the patent-friendly Eastern District of Texas, and in truly bizarre fashion it has told targeted iOS developers that if its patent claims are wrong, it will pay them $1,000 …

    Developer 31 May 23:42