2nd June 2011 Archive

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Spear phishers target gov, military officials' Gmail accounts

Google: 'Hundreds affected'

Google has detected a targeted campaign to collect hundreds of personal Gmail passwords, many of them belonging to senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, and journalists. The accounts may have been compromised using spear phishing techniques in which victims received highly personalized …

Crime 2 Jun 00:08
NBN Co taps Ericsson, Silcar for billion dollar tenders

Construction back on track as Quigley takes break

Carrier vendor Ericsson and construction company Silcar have been awarded two highly coveted and long anticipated National Broadband Network (NBN) tenders, signifying a turning point for the project. Ericsson has picked up the network's fixed wireless rollout, while Silcar has the job of rolling fibre to a slew of second- …

Telecoms 2 Jun 00:18
Microsoft unveils Windows ~~Phone 7~~ 8

'We copied ourselves. Not Apple'

Microsoft has joined Hewlett-Packard in trying to drum up enthusiasm for their Apple-battling tablet operating systems at a fashionable West Coast tech event. On Wednesday, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft Windows and Windows Live group president, previewed the long-awaited Windows 8 operating system at All Things D's D9 conference …

Operating Systems 2 Jun 00:51
Angry Birds creators swoop on animation studio

Pig pummeller dreams of a Disneyesque future

The creator of casual gaming phenomenon Angry Birds, Rovio Mobile, has swooped on fellow Finnish animation studio Kombo, for an undisclosed mix of cash and stock. The acquisition follows the successful closure of a round of US$42 million funding in March, which Rovio claimed would be put towards broadcast media opportunities. …

Financial News 2 Jun 01:00
Dell digital guru escapes to Aussie bank

Commonwealth Bank updates with new CMO

Australia's Commonwealth Bank is looking to social media to help patch up its reputation in a year in which Australian banks have suffered IT failures, network crashes and security scares, and has tapped senior Dell executive Andy Lark as its new chief marketing officer. The former New Zealander made a splash at Dell, driving …

Financial News 2 Jun 02:00
Here comes the zettabyte, says Cisco

2015 the next big milestone, apparently

There will be more of them than us: Cisco has joined the clamour of voices predicting an explosion in machine-to-machine comms, saying that by 2015, there will be more than two Internet-connected devices for every person on Earth. Yes, it’s Cisco Visual Networking Index time again. In the latest round of its ongoing Internet …

Networks 2 Jun 02:30
Livescribe Echo Smartpen

Review The write stuff

We all do it. Business meetings, lectures, interviews, whatever. As a TV writer and IT journalist I've spent a lifetime taking notes. But while you're scribbling, you're not listening. At best, you're missing nuances. Add an audio recorder and you can probably take fewer notes and listen better. But when you play back that audio …

reghardware 2 Jun 06:00
Sinking Sun scuppers Oracle server figures

Oracle server sales tumble...again

Oracle's standing in the EMEA server space took another battering during Q1 as sales collapsed in a market that posted double-digit growth, underpinned by high-end and mid-range shipments supporting virtualisation and cloud deployments. The US behemoth saw revenues plummet by almost 20 per cent to $241m, pushing down its …

Servers 2 Jun 07:00
Micron streaks away with PCIe flash

Performance rocket

There's fast PCIe flash and then there's Micron's just-announced P320h PCIe flash. PCIe flash is for servers needing minimal I/O delays in fetching data to memory. Instead of having that data on hard disk drives, which have millisecond delivery times, the servers can stir on the cards attached to the PCIe bus and have the data …

Storage 2 Jun 07:09
Pain free Windows 7 roll outs? We show you how

Live broadcast Seasoned IT pro drops in to offer tips

At 11:00 BST today we have a studio full of experts discussing how to do a successful Windows 7 roll out. Tim Phillips is running the show with a little help from our friend Dale Vile from analysts Freeform Dynamics. Joining this pair is Will Westwick, head of workplace at BskyB, who recently kicked off a Win 7 migration of …

Desktop Strategy 2 Jun 07:37
Singing Duke set to Nukem dead

Shooting star gets groovy

In the build up to the game's release, we've seen all sorts of Duke Nukem hype, from videos of turds being slung around, to flash games with stripping page 3 models. Now, less than two weeks before launch, it turns out the Dukester may drop his hard-man look in favour of a melodic croon. Game publisher 2K certainly kept that …

reghardware 2 Jun 07:45
Napster

iOS App of the Week Going for a song

I’ve been a keen user of Spotify’s free, ad-supported music streaming service ever since it first launched. However, Spotify is now starting to restrict its free service, and with big names like Apple, Google and Amazon lining up their own cloud-based services it looks as though subscriptions are the way forward – whether we …

reghardware 2 Jun 08:00
Russian computer programmer buries himself alive

Subterranean good luck ritual a very bad idea

A Russian computer programmer who believed that spending the night buried alive would bring him good luck didn't survive the subterranean ritual. The unnamed 35-year-old victim of the "supervised self-burial" dug a grave in a garden in Blagoveshchensk, in the Amur Oblast region of eastern Russia, then clambered into an " …

Bootnotes 2 Jun 08:56
Tragedy nurse's boyf fined over medical records abuse

'When greed and breach of trust meet'

A man who worked for a firm of ambulance-chasers must pay more than £2000 in fines and costs after being convicted of illegally obtaining NHS patients' personal information and using it for commercial gain. Martin Campbell, who was working for the Bury-based personal injuries firm Direct Assist at the time, lifted data …

Law 2 Jun 09:08
Tesco pricing cock-up provokes beer stampede

Pandemonium as Scots battle for cut-price booze

Scots with an eye for a bargain and a healthy thirst mobilised en masse yesterday to storm several Tesco stores after a pricing error offered boxes of beer at irresistable prices. The deal was supposed to be "buy three boxes of beer and save £11", but punters soon realised that instead of charging 20 quid for the triple whammy …

Bootnotes 2 Jun 09:17
Qualcomm confirms Windows 8 on ARM

On tablets, for now

Qualcomm is working with Microsoft to get Windows 8 working on its ARM-based processors. Qualcomm's Snapdragon range of chips is already powering a huge number of Android smartphones and tablets, but it seems that tablets running Microsoft Windows 8 will also be Snapdragon powered - finally breaking the long-standing …

Mobile 2 Jun 09:49
Francis Maude goes back 110 years for cybersecurity strategy

Net is like the roads of 1900: full of horse sh*t

Francis Maude kicked off his tenure as the UK's lead on Cyberspace Security by recalling the early days of motoring in the UK. On the day that Google unveiled another attempt by Chinese hackers to break into the email accounts of prominent individuals in the US, the Cabinet Secretary suggested that the UK could learn a lot by …

Enterprise Security 2 Jun 09:51
Sony lets slip NGP name change

Lovely Vita

Sony's next-gen handheld console, codenamed NGP, is to be launched as the PS Vita. Rumours of the new name have been popping up all week in various places, but Sony itself has unexpectedly leaked the news now, spreading the name all over the back end source code of its E3 webpage, Kotaku reports. NeoGaf user Gofreak noticed …

reghardware 2 Jun 10:38
Britain mounted secret 2010 cyberwarfare attack on al-Q

UK spooks struck as Yanks argued

British intelligence corrupted the debut issue of a glossy Jihadist magazine last year, creating confusion in the ranks of would-be mujahideen who tried to download a PDF copy of Inspire in the process, the Washington Post reports. Inspire, billing itself as the first al-Qaida literature in the English language, and offering …

Government 2 Jun 10:41
BPI works out how to put PG stickers on downloads

Brings digital music back into the '80s

The BPI has invoked the spirit of Tipper Gore in its effort to warn parents and kids when downloads might be offensive to young ears and eyes. The BPI said its Parental Advisory Scheme "will stipulate that UK digital music retailers and streaming services should clearly display the internationally recognised Parental Advisory …

Music and Media 2 Jun 10:52
Government spending freeze kills off spring server sales

Cloud shines in corporate world

The UK server market is back in the doldrums with revenues tumbling 10 per cent in the first quarter and worryingly for resellers the short-term prognosis is anything but rosy, according to market researcher IDC. Factory revenues slid 10 per cent to $508m (£310m) in the first three months of 2011, and only Portugal fared worse …

Servers 2 Jun 10:57
CaseBuddy case-friendly iPhone dock

Txt Take From cradle to grave error?

Daily Product reviews in 140 characters... CaseBuddy Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware - details here.

reghardware 2 Jun 11:00
Gov 'skunkworks' to develop e-petitions system

First of priorities for government IT devs

The government "skunkworks" team is aiming to develop an e-petitions system over the next few weeks as the first of its initial round projects. Mark O'Neill, leader of the informal team of IT developers based in the Cabinet Office, said the government has made this a priority and it is aiming to deliver the system by mid-July …

Government 2 Jun 11:35
How to detect heart disease with a smartphone

Finger on the iPulse

Scientists are touting a self-service heart monitor which transforms a smartphone into medical equipment, helping to diagnose cardio problems, while easing the fears of countless hypochondriacs. The Smartheart claims to be the world's smallest hospital-grade ECG, measuring roughly the same size of an iPhone 4. After …

reghardware 2 Jun 11:41
China goes on attack over Google phishing claims

School for ~~scandal~~ chefs

China has angrily denounced Google's claims that it has uncovered a sophisticated spear phishing attack on key US individuals which originated from the heavily firewalled country. Google said in a blog post that the campaign "affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users including, among others, …

ID 2 Jun 11:56
4G interference will knock out Freeview

Screens to go blank for 30,000 households?

760,000 households risk losing Freeview when 4G telephony comes online, and even with mitigating techniques Ofcom reckons 30,000 households face a future without terrestrial broadcasting. The regulator reckons those 30,000 will have to switch to satellite or cable to get their TV broadcasts, as 4G telephony leaks into their …

Mobile 2 Jun 11:58
HTC Sensation dual core Android smartphone

Review Twin-engined talker

HTC’s latest high-ender is the first dual core device from the Taiwanese company and offers a huge screen, improved 8Mp camera, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the latest HTC Sense user interface. The HTC Sensation is available from Vodafone only to begin with though, and the big red one isn’t saying for how long… Big impression …

reghardware 2 Jun 12:00
Gamers celebrate full return of PlayStation network

Store restored

The PlayStation network is back in business, hip hip hooray. Sony announced today that the full restoration has begun, fulfilling a promise made a few days ago that all services would be up and running before the week was up. Of course, the company had already broken the promise made prior that all would be back before the …

reghardware 2 Jun 12:01
NATO members warned over Anonymous threat

C for cracktivism

NATO leaders have been warned that the Anonymous "hacktivist" collective might have the capability to threaten member states' security. A report for the alliance by Lord Jopling, UK general rapporteur and Tory peer, provides a general (mostly factual) overview of the changing nature of the internet. One key section deals with …

Enterprise Security 2 Jun 12:40
Data encryption and the Cloud

Not what it's cracked up to be

Survey after survey finds that IT professionals’ number one concern about cloud services is security. Some may say that concerns are overblown and that IT managers are more worried by loss of control than by real security risks. In some cases, the argument goes, security may even be better with a cloud deployment. That may …

Platform 2 Jun 12:53
Nokia: When pigeons fly home to roast

Don't blame Elop or Microsoft for Nokia's catastrophic fall from grace

Pundits this week are describing Nokia's fall from grace as one of the greatest corporate car-crashes of all time. But here's an unfashionable view. Nokia's problem is not Stephen Elop, or his strategy. Its problem is it didn't have Stephen Elop, or his strategy, in place two years ago. And while we are certainly watching a …

Mobile 2 Jun 13:09
WW2 naval dazzle-camo 'could beat Taliban RPGs'

Bristol trick-cyclists' comical claim

Biologists and trick-cyclists at Bristol uni say they have performed experiments indicating that if British troops were to use the "dazzle camouflage" favoured for warships in the World Wars on their vehicles in Afghanistan, this would make them harder to hit with RPG anti-armour rockets, a favourite Taliban weapon. If we …

Science 2 Jun 13:14
Chinese teen flogs kidney to buy iPad

Fondleslab funding foolishness

A Chinese teenager desperate to get his hands on an iPad allegedly sold a kidney to raise some fondleslab funding. According to various news reports, 17-year-old Zheng travelled from the city of Huaishan in Anhui Province to Chenzhou in neighbouring Hunan Province, after hooking up with an internet intermediary. Zheng …

Bootnotes 2 Jun 13:17
Rapid TMS product revamp continues

It's the turn of the mid-range

TMS is hurrying along flash product refresh road, and it's the turn of its mid-range to get a product using its new seventh generation controller, first seen in the PCIe-format RamSan-70. The RamSan-710 is a 1 to 5TB capacity, externally-attached flash array packaged in a 1U rackmount enclosure. It uses 32nm single level cell …

Storage 2 Jun 14:04
Friendster password emails spark site hack fears

Blast from the social networking past

Multiple users have reported receiving spam emails containing their Friendster password in plain text. The appearance of the suspicious emails to registered Friendster addresses (widely reported by numerous Twitter users on Thursday) has spawned fears that Friendster database might have been hacked. An alternative theory is …

Enterprise Security 2 Jun 14:14
Asus revamp adds tablet-phone dock

Fondleslab swallows smartphone

Asus has debuted of pile products at Computex this week. Highlights include a 3D tablet and the Padfone – a device which unites smartphones and tablets through a unique docking system. The Padfone is basically a 4.3in smartphone which docks inside a 10.1in tablet, charging the battery as well as sharing data and 3G internet …

reghardware 2 Jun 14:49
Xperia Play gets new games boost

Minecraft on the move

Bored of your Sony Ericsson Xperia Play already? Not to worry, there's an influx of games heading this way soon. Xperia Play games have so far stuttered in sales, with first month figures indicating PSOne titles were only installed a maximum of 1000 times each. Perhaps the fact several games come free with the device is the …

reghardware 2 Jun 15:15
Super Micro says MicroClouds will rain down in July

Packs them in for micro server preview

Motherboard and whitebox server maker Super Micro is showing off its first entry into the so-called micro server segment, called the MicroCloud, at the Computex 2011 trade show in Taipei, Taiwan this week. The company had been hinting back in April that the MicroClouds were in the works. The MicroCloud machines, like a number …

Infrastructure 2 Jun 15:53
Brit rubbish-dump worms in space station science triumph

Garbage-scoffing creatures prove zero G therapy

An international boffinry alliance, by means of sending a huge colony of worms found scoffing rotting vegetables in a Bristol rubbish dump on a trip to the International Space Station, has found a cure for the muscle wasting suffered by astronauts living in zero/micro gravity. The worms in question were of the species …

Space 2 Jun 16:03
Apple strikes back with update blocking new scareware

'The cat and mouse game has begun'

Apple has updated Mac OS X to detect a piece of scareware that managed to bypass its malware-blocking measures. As previously reported, a variant of a rogue antivirus package known as MacDefender was introduced on Tuesday that evaded the malware protection feature built into the latest version of the Mac operating system. In a …

Malware 2 Jun 16:20
Microsoft eyes Ubuntu and Debian love on Hyper-V

Azure to run Linux?!

Microsoft says that its Hyper-V virtualization stack may soon support the Ubuntu and Debian Linux distros as well as CentOS, Red Hat, and SuSE. The proprietary software shop has told The Register that after adding CentOS support last month, it's looking to support other Linux distros on Hyper-V and also its management software …

Infrastructure 2 Jun 17:31
US state bans Netflix, Napster password sharing

Recording Industry Ass. of America triumphant

It's now illegal in Tennessee to share passwords for online content-subscription services such as Netflix, Napster, and SuperPass. Senate Bill 1659, sponsored by Senator Jim Tracy and signed by governor Bill Haslam, adds "entertainment subscription service" to a long list of items subject to theft-of-services law. It's now …

Music and Media 2 Jun 18:30
California set to impose 'Amazon Tax'

Will the Golden State succeed where others failed?

A California bill that would require Amazon and other online retailers to pay taxes to a state reeling in financial crisis took another step towards passage this week when it was approved by the state Assembly. "Each year, California loses over $1.145 billion in revenues as a result of unreported use taxes," wrote California …

Music and Media 2 Jun 21:13
Rustock botnet suspect fancies job at Google

Circumstantial evidence points to aspirational cv

A Rustock botnet suspect has aspirations to work at Google, according to a nice piece of cyber-sleuthing by ex-Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs. Microsoft dismantled the command and control structure of the notorious spam-distributing Rustock botnet back in March. Redmond has since discovered that a Webmoney account used …

Malware 2 Jun 21:23
Groupon follows LinkedIn with IPO

Here we go again

Six months after it rejected a $6bn takeover offer from Google, Groupon has filed for an IPO. The Chicago-based company – which sells coupons for discounted goods and services from local merchants – hopes to raise $750m. According to an SEC filing, Groupon's revenues topped $644.7m in the first quarter of 2011, up from $44.2m …

Financial News 2 Jun 23:01
Microsoft becoming Apple with Windows 8 control freakery?

Closed is the new open

Microsoft is becoming more like Apple by bringing some hardware discipline to Windows 8 tablets, to the annoyance of OEMs who've had decades of freedom. At his week's Computex trade show in Taipei, Acer chief executive JT Wang complained that Microsoft is putting "troublesome" restrictions on makers of tablets running Windows …

Operating Systems 2 Jun 23:22
Heroku Ruby fluffer embraces Node.JS

Framework fan

Amazon cloud-sitter Heroku, owned by Salesforce.com, has updated its Ruby service and embraced the Node.JS framework. Heroku rolled out an update called Celadon Cedar it says lets you fluff more-powerful and more-complex applications, and that provides greater control over deep computing processes. Celadon Cedar also sees …

Platform 2 Jun 23:38