8th June 2011 Archive

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BBC to serve Wimbledon finals in 3D

Tech test

The BBC will broadcast the 2011 Wimbledon tennis tournament finals in 3D. The two singles finals will be broadcast in 3D on Saturday, 2 July and Sunday, 3 July through Freeview, Freesat, Virgin and Sky, all of which show BBC HD. Viewers will need a 3D TV, of course, but seemingly no special reception hardware. Don't have a …

reghardware 8 Jun 00:01
iTunes Match is iPiracy, claims loopy Oz industry troll

It's like money-laundering!

You can’t make this stuff up: the new Apple iTunes Match service has been described as “legitimizing piracy” by an Australian lawyer. The US$24.99 per year Match service will identify and index the songs on a subscriber’s hard drive, locate those songs in iTunes, and add those tunes to the user’s account in the new Apple …

SaaS 8 Jun 01:00
Sony shuts down site to investigate possible hack

Additional 'Sownage' investigated

Sony has temporarily shuttered yet another website following reports it may have suffered an attack by hackers. The company's Brazilian Music site was inaccessible for much of Tuesday as website engineers investigated a possible security breach, according to news reports. Sony spokesman Tomio Takizawa told Bloomberg News the …

ID 8 Jun 04:00
Get your network ready for World IPv6 Day

Hands On Survey the lie of the LAN

Today is World IPv6 Day, so you might be wondering just how easy it is to run IPv6 on your own home network. The answer is that it’s surprisingly simple, and even if you can’t yet get IPv6 connectivity from your internet provider, it’s still possible to connect your PC – or indeed your whole network – to the IPv6 internet. To …

reghardware 8 Jun 07:00
Has Steve Jobs killed the consumer hard disk industry?

Comment HDD troika face lengthy opera-style demise

Has Apple prophet Steve Jobs just foretold the end of the desktop hard drive? He has brought down his tablets from Apple's mountain and the word from fanbois heaven is that the PC is just another device; iPad, iPod and iPhone users don't need to be tethered to it anymore. Instead of their PC and its hard drive being the main …

Storage 8 Jun 08:02
Google offers tunnel through Kazakh border

Slower but better

Google has rejected demands from the Kazakhstan government that all local search requests should go through servers located in the country. The search giant usually routes requests via whichever server will deal with it most quickly. It described any change to this as an attempt to create borders on the internet. The order …

Government 8 Jun 08:46
'Backward' resellers impede cloud progress. Yeah, right

Comment Borked delivery models

I have conducted a lot of interviews recently with vendors, resellers and systems integrators about why it is proving so hard to motivate the traditional IT channel to get on board with cloud. There are some examples of success, but scaling up action beyond a minority of niche partners or risk takers seems to be proving …

Channel Register 8 Jun 09:01
Google: We ARE Big Culture

World Copyright Summit We come in peace. Shoot to kill

Google offered a vision of itself as the greatest cultural philanthropist in the world yesterday – a sort of Medici family for the 21st century. Everywhere Google went, it was bringing high culture to the masses. Google's Carlo d'Asaro Biondo was addressing the World Copyright Summit in Brussels. He quoted Seneca: "As the …

Music and Media 8 Jun 09:05
Facebook: 'We should've been more clear' on face-scanning tech

Tries to downplay stealth roll-out

Facebook has tried to prevent yet another privacy row engulfing the social network by admitting it "should have been more clear" about the roll-out of its facial recognition technology. The company also posted an updated blog post explaining that its Tag Suggestions function had been switched on by default for the majority of …

Music and Media 8 Jun 09:07
Breaking wave 'big as the USA' spied on Sun's surface

Gnarly plasma rip suited to the Silver Surfer himself

NASA boffins, staring into the Sun with a new space telescope, say they have detected unthinkably enormous waves rolling across the star's hot surface - as if a gigantic breaker of the sort beloved by surfers were scaled up to the size of the United States. Epically sick plasma. The wave-forming process taking place on the …

Space 8 Jun 09:40
RAF Eurofighter Typhoons 'beaten by Pakistani F-16s'

Three-nil, apparently. Brit flyboys 'shocked'

Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon fighter have beaten the RAF's brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises in Turkey, according to a Pakistani officer. Costs like a Raptor, flies like a Tornado This interview with an unnamed but evidently experienced …

Government 8 Jun 10:00
Most gamers are middle-aged adults: FACT

Us lot, basically

Kids love videogames, it goes without saying. However, according to a new study, there are more adults out there playing them, with the average gamer today almost 40 years old. The report, 2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, claims the average age of game players today is 37, while the average age …

reghardware 8 Jun 10:02
Sony hack reveals password security is even worse than feared

Most conformed to very predictable patterns

An analysis of password re-use from data spilled via the Sony and Gawker hack reveals that consumer password security is even more lax than we might have feared. A million Sony users' password/username IDs and 250,000 Gawker login credentials, each stored in plain text, were exposed via separate hacks. In each case hackers …

ID 8 Jun 10:07
Whitebox tablet sales surge smacks down iPad

Price-conscious users vote with their feet

Apple's stranglehold on the worldwide tablet market has loosened slightly, with whitebox or non-branded vendors taking over as the fastest-growing segment during the first quarter, according to research from beancounters at DisplaySearch. Numbers for Q1 also show that slate shipments declined sequentially, down 5.2 per cent to …

PCs & Chips 8 Jun 10:26
iOS 5 system files finger next-gen iPad, iPhone

Fanboys fantasise about new kit in the Fall

Apple's developer-only pre-release version of iOS 5 contains tantalising references to future iPhones and iPads. Since iOS 5 launches to everyone in the autumn, some folk reckon that's when the new hardware will debut too. The references to the future iDevice model codes "iPad3,1", "iPad3,2", "iPhone4,1" and "iPhone4,2" are …

reghardware 8 Jun 10:41
Sony reveals next-gen NEX

World's smallest compact system snapper?

With compact system cameras (CSC) fast becoming the snapper of choice among the photo enthusiasts, the race is on to make the smallest to broaden their appeal still further. Sony’s NEX range of APS-C compacts has always been dinky, but the latest addition, the NEX-C3 rounds off the boxy look of its predecessors with its …

reghardware 8 Jun 10:54
May's terror review reveals state of unknowns

al-Qaeda really is in the library

Home Secretary Theresa May has revealed the results of Lord Carlile's review of Prevent, the anti-terror program. The £46m program includes action to improve internet filtering at government departments and libraries. It also revealed the creation of a Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit of police officers which …

Policing 8 Jun 11:10
Win8: A beginner's guide to FondleWindows

Tiles for fat fingers, drag 'n' snap, but no meta-widget ambitions...

Microsoft has unveiled the biggest design changes to Windows in the past 15 years, and probably the biggest redesign in its 26-year life. There are also implications for Windows developers – many of you will soon be obliged to learn the Ways of the Script Kiddie. These are huge changes and you should have a look yourself. What …

Operating Systems 8 Jun 11:22
Nintendo coughs to using Xbox, PS3 footage at Wii U event

E3 presentation shows rival consoles at work

All that glistens is not necessarily Nintendo, it seems, after news has broken that gameplay footage shown during its Wii U announcement was actually from Xbox 360 and PS3 games, rather than clips rendered by the new hardware. Various third-party titles were on show during the E3 event, from Ninja Gaiden 3 to Dirt, but with no …

reghardware 8 Jun 11:35
Apple 'spaceship' awaits landing clearance in Cupertino

Jobs warns councillors: 'We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt'

Apple boss Steve Jobs has pitched Cupertino's City Council with plans to build a new company campus on the land it recently bought from Hewlett-Packard. The company has outgrown its current home at 1 Infinite Loop in California. "We've come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building," Jobs told councillors. "It …

Bootnotes 8 Jun 11:46
Java update tackles multiple critical flaws

Users should consider disabling browser plugins, says security firm

Oracle has released a cross-platform update for Java that addresses 17 vulnerabilities in the ubiquitous software platform. All 17 vulnerabilities might be abused to inject code into vulnerable systems, and all but one affect how Java Runtime Environment client software runs in browsers. Java 6 update 26 for Windows, Linux …

Enterprise Security 8 Jun 11:48
Hannspree Hannspad 10.1in Android tablet

Review Finger flickin' good

Hannspree is primarily known for its somewhat gimmicky range of TVs and monitors – if you ever need a TV embedded in the stomach of a cuddly toy then Hannspree has just the thing for you. Its move into the tablet PC market was therefore rather unexpected. However the new Hannspad actually turns out to be quite a pleasant …

reghardware 8 Jun 12:00
'Leccy price hike: Greens to blame as well as energy biz

Analysis Who's paying for your neighbour's solar panels? You are

UK consumers seem set to suffer a vicious round of electricity price rises in the near future: and for the first time the energy suppliers are not only blaming the gas market but openly pointing the finger at steadily escalating government green policies whose effect is to drive up utility bills. ScottishPower retail director …

Energy 8 Jun 12:16
Hybrid vigour boosts Cloud formation

Head in the cloud, feet on the ground

Cloud computing was always going to be about hybrid models, as we have already discussed (Cloud says No). This was brought up some three years ago by our colleagues at Freeform Dynamics. The idea behind hybrid models is to take advantage of the benefits of both on-premise applications and cloud solutions by making them work …

Infrastructure 8 Jun 12:36
Top telly tech fails to drive new set sales

Vendors promoting the wrong features, says study

The technologies telly makers are promoting in a bid to persuade punters to replace existing TVs are failing to excite consumers. LED backlight technology, internet connectivity and 3D are all being pitched up by vendors in the hope consumers will splash out on new sets. 3D is being pushed in particular, but according to …

reghardware 8 Jun 12:38
Maximum fine raised to £2m for telcos that don't cough up network data

Ofcom lays down the law

Ofcom can fine telecoms companies up to £2m for failing to hand over information about their networks, the media regulator has said. The government raised the maximum fine Ofcom could issue from a previous level of £50,000 following changes to the EU Authorisation Directive, Ofcom said in a statement. "The government has …

Telecoms 8 Jun 13:11
UK gov to bust fraudulent IT suppliers

Scams cost taxpayers £2.4bn in 2011

The Coalition has concocted a four-pronged strategy to cut the £2.4bn problem stemming from public sector procurement fraud. According to estimates from the National Fraud Authority (NFA), central and local government fraud will cost the UK £1.5bn and £855m respectively in 2011, a relatively small fraction of total fraud …

Government 8 Jun 13:25
Everything Everywhere goes all over the High Street

30 new shops, proper phones to play with, etc

Orange and T-Mobile's joint sales tentacle Everything Everywhere is opening 30 new shops in the UK. These are on top of the 720 shops already run by the two networks. The two firms are trialling various different formats, including concessions and joint stores with both Orange and T-Mobe branding. But it claims footfall ( …

Business 8 Jun 13:28
FARTING DEATH CAMELS MUST DIE to save the world!

Carbon plan to unleash kill-choppers against dromedaries

An Adelaide-based entrepreneur has hit upon a novel method of fighting global warming: he intends to exterminate Australia's vast population of feral camels by means of gunfire from helicopters and jeeps, so preventing the beasts from unleashing a deadly planet-wrecking miasma of greenhouse gas from their rumbling guts. The …

Energy 8 Jun 13:30
Microsoft BPOS encourages jacuzzi use at Wise Group

Video Get back to work

Glasgow-based Wise Group has worked for a generation in Scotland to help get jobs for ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed. With a creaking IT system, many small offices and little cash to spend, Wise CIO Alan Lee-Bourke decided that his best chance of putting a jacuzzi in his server room was to use Microsoft BPOS to …

SaaS 8 Jun 14:00
Pixmania users report scam-spam bombardment

Updated Retailer either hacked or sold us out, say Reg readers

Several Reg readers have complained to us about receiving spam emails directed at addresses they had exclusively supplied to Pixmania, the online consumer electronics retailer. The incidents of spam – reported by four Reg readers, and numerous other users on various online forums (as a quick Google search reveals) – have …

Security 8 Jun 14:20
Porridge for Ofcom IT boss in £500k software fraud

Two-and-a-half years up the river for naughty sailor

Jurgen Whitehouse, IT services boss at Ofcom, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison yesterday for defrauding the telecoms regulator out of more than half-a-million quid. Royal Navy veteran Whitehouse, 37, of Welling, Kent, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's …

CIO 8 Jun 14:37
Explosion at Intel's 'Fab 32' Arizona chip plant

Humans hurt, robo factory keeps on fabbin'

A small explosion injured seven people yesterday afternoon at Intel's wafer-baking factory in Chandler, Arizona. According to various reports, the explosion took place in a part of the Chandler facility that is being upgraded to support 22 nanometer chip fabrication, which Intel will ramp up later this year using its Tri-Gate …

PCs & Chips 8 Jun 14:56
Belkin Pleat Sleeve for Kindle

Txt Take Bag yourself an e-reader

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

reghardware 8 Jun 15:00
Pirate-bothering ACS:Law lawyer goes bankrupt

Crossley gets the Black Spot

Andrew Crossley, the man/lawyer behind file-sharer-botherers ACS:Law, has been declared bankrupt. Crossley's last known address according to the High Court is worth in the region of £700,000, says Zoopla - so let's hope he's kept his hands on that. London's High Court of Justice declared Crossley bankrupt on 20 May 2011. This …

Law 8 Jun 15:25
UK watchdog looking into Facebook face-tech row

Matter for national authorities, says Brussels

Blighty's data regulator the Information Commissioners Office is talking to Facebook about the "privacy implications" of its facial recognition technology, The Register has learned. However, despite widespread reporting based on a Bloomberg story that suggests that European watchdogs are probing the company over this issue, no …

Policing 8 Jun 15:47
Dell flashes roadmap, keeps product futures in its pants

Dell Storage Forum Open event dons cloak of secrecy

Dell's Storage Forum in Orlando is packed with 900 attendees, full of happy channel partners pleased with the Compellent integration process, enticed by the Fluid Data marketing idea. And yet there is a lack of pizazz, and no flat-out fantastic ideas. What we do have is rock-solid execution and a clearly expressed storage …

Storage 8 Jun 15:52
Greek police nab Pentagon hacking carding suspect

nsplitter collar-finger

Greek police have arrested an 18-year-old suspected of hacking into systems run by Interpol, the FBI, and the Pentagon. The unnamed Athens-resident teenager - known only by his online handle nsplitter - allegedly began his hacking spree with an attack against the FBI when he was only 15. However, investigators reckon his main …

Crime 8 Jun 16:14
Apple: First cult to lead world in semiconductor spending

The power of positive mind control

Apple has become the world's largest OEM buyer of seminconductors, leaving both Hewlett-Packard and Samsung in the dust, according to industry research outfit IHS iSuppli. In 2010, iSuppli says, Apple spent $17.5 billion on semiconductors, a 79.6 per cent increase from the $9.7 billion is spent in 2009. That year, the company …

Channel Register 8 Jun 16:19
Researcher slows PC sales growth prediction

Consumers tighten belts

Market watcher Gartner has reduced its forecast for the degree of growth it expects the global PC market to experience this year - largely thanks to a slowdown in consumer spending. PC shipments will grow 9.3 per cent this year, Gartner now reckons, not 10.5 per cent. That's 4m fewer machines: 385m shipping rather than 389m …

reghardware 8 Jun 16:39
US bill would make concealing data breaches a crime

Senator Sisyphus tries again

US-based companies would be required to report data breaches that threaten consumer privacy and could face stiff penalties for concealing them under federal legislation that was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday. The Personal Data Privacy and Security Act aims to set national standards for protecting the growing amount of …

ID 8 Jun 18:39
Appro wins 6 petaflops contract from DOE nuke labs

Largest deal in company history

Niche supercomputer supplier Appro International has bagged the largest deal in its history, having won a massive contract from the US Department of Energy to supply up to 6 petaflops of raw computing power to three of its nuke labs for the next several years. Appro was not allowed to divulge the price tag on the clusters that …

HPC 8 Jun 18:41
Ex-Google engineer dubs Goofrastructure 'truly obsolete'

MapReduce and BigTable as 'ancient, creaking dinosaurs'

A former Google engineer who worked on a library at the heart of "nearly every Java server at Google" has dubbed the company's much-ballyhooed backend software "well and truly obsolete". In a blog post published earlier this week, Dhanji R. Prasanna announced that he had resigned from the company, and though he praised Google …

Infrastructure 8 Jun 18:53
Apple ~~pilfers~~ rips off student's rejected iPhone app

iOS 5 lifts idea, name, even logo

Apple is famous for going to absurd lengths to enforce its patents and trademarks. It recently sued Amazon for calling its app store Appstore. And it has publicly lectured competitors to “create their own original technology, not steal ours”. But the company isn't always as fastidious about respecting the ideas of others. …

Mobile 8 Jun 22:34
HP threatens Oracle with legal action for jumping Itanic

Back on board! Or else!

HP has threatened legal action in response to Oracle's recent decision to withdraw support for its software on future Itanium processors. In his keynote address at HP's Discover 2011 event in Las Vegas today, Martin Fink – senior vice president and general manager of HP's Business Critical Systems unit – hinted that HP will …

Servers 8 Jun 23:12
US senators draw a bead on Bitcoin

Shock: people buy drugs with currency!

Two US senators have called on American authorities to crack down on the Bitcoin peer-to-peer online virtual “currency” after discovering it’s being used, rather like greenbacks in personal transactions, to buy drugs anonymously. Bitcoin uses a decentralized model: users exchange Bitcoins directly between each other in …

Law 8 Jun 23:30
DoC calls for security standards, co-operation

Oh, also bigger markets for American security products…

The US Department of Commerce is broadening its attention beyond the critical infrastructure sector, proposing security codes of conduct for the rest of the Internet economy. Its new report, Cybersecurity, Innovation and the Internet Economy, has a wide scope, from the small business with a Website through to social networks …

Security 8 Jun 23:59