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19th July 2011 Archive

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  • Medvet board to investigate privacy breach

    More faces meet palms in South Australia

    Medvet, the paternity-and-drug-testing laboratory owned by the South Australian Government that allowed Google to index its customer records until last weekend, says it will investigate how the breach occurred. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s PM radio programme on Monday evening, the breach affected more …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 00:01

  • iPhone plunges 13,500 ft from skydiver's pocket - and lives

    Parachutist able to locate it with 'Find my iPhone'

    A Minnesota skydiver's iPhone 4 slipped out of his pocket at 13,500 feet, landed on a factory rooftop, and lived to tell the tale. Jerrod McKinney told CNN that he was "just absolutely shocked" when his high-flying iPhone still worked after the fall – especially considering that its glass had cracked when his toddler had …

    Phones 19 Jul 2011, 00:17

  • Sydney newspaper hacks Wi-Fi networks!

    A security study, not a scandal

    Here’s a surprise: according to a recent sample of Wi-Fi networks around Sydney, only 2.6 percent were operating without a password. The Sydney Morning Herald, having seen what happens when unsecured home Wi-Fi networks become vectors for viruses and pornography, decided to test how well householders in its home city secure …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 01:00

  • Energy scavenger eats leftover wireless signals

    Nikola Tesla high-fives from the grave

    No, it’s not another cute-but-useless contactless charger: a group of researchers led by Manos Tentzeris at Georgia Tech are working on antennae that could scavenge stray wireless signals to power small sensors or microprocessors. If you’re close enough to a large radio transmitter, harvesting stray energy is pretty …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 02:00

  • Captain Kirk's Google+ account gets zapped

    Phasers fortunately set only to stun

    William Shatner's Google+ account was suspended on Monday and later restored for reasons Google won't divulge. “My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards,” the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek wrote to his almost 647,000 Twitter followers. “Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 05:00

  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo Android smartphone

    Review Ticks a lot of boxes

    Sony Ericsson’s top of the range Xperia Arc was a bold move, cramming a feast of the company’s very latest technology into a case seemingly not a whole lot thicker than a credit card. The Xperia Neo winds things down a notch, not least the price, and the style, but this Android mid-ranger still manages to pack a serious punch …

    Phones 19 Jul 2011, 06:00

  • Huawei Symantec spawns flash-y Dorado

    'The lowest dollar/IOPS device is OURS, mwahahaha'

    Huawei Symantec (HS) has added an all-flash array to its product set, the OceanSpace Dorado S2100. This is one of an accelerating stream of flash announcements as the storage industry looks beyond spinning disks. HS is a joint venture between the large Chinese storage and networking manufacturer Huawei and security and data …

    Storage 19 Jul 2011, 07:30

  • Ordnance Survey, other gov databases move to Biz dept

    Public Data Corporation begins to morph under Cable

    Whitehall announced yesterday that it had shunted the Ordnance Survey, Met Office and Land Registry agencies over to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The OS office had previously operated under the Department for Communities and Local Government but has been shifted, along with the Met Office and Land …

    Government 19 Jul 2011, 08:02

  • So what can't you do with VMware's VSA?

    NFS only and not for app use

    VMware's vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) has restrictions. It is a virtual NFS filer only, not a block-level storage facility as VMWare implied, and it is not accessible by apps. Our understanding, based on VMware's announcement material, was that the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) pools the direct-attached storage in 2 to 3 …

    Storage 19 Jul 2011, 08:29

  • Atlantis undocks from station ready for Thursday landing

    Crew snap unprecedented pics of orbiting outpost

    Space shuttle Atlantis has undocked from the International Space Station, as commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim prepare to fly the venerable vehicle into history. Atlantis "weighed anchor" from the orbiting outpost at 06:28 GMT, ahead of a scheduled landing at …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 08:53

  • Pick a winner: The Sarah Hunter Google competition

    Competition The misunderstanding of science

    A couple of weeks ago we reported what an impression Sarah Hunter, Google's top lobbying person and Head of UK Public Policy, had made at a public event. The internet is "like the Gaia Theory," she said, "A butterfly flaps its wings and a tsunami happens in another part of the world." Somehow I can't imagine Larry or Sergey …

    Bootnotes 19 Jul 2011, 09:00

  • Firms fight over universal remote control patents

    One For All vs Harmony

    One For All remote control maker Universal Electronics (UEI) has begun legal action against Logitech after the manufacturer of Harmony remote controls refused to re-license a number of its patents. Logitech maintains that the intellectual properties in question, which it did license in 2004, no longer apply to its products. …

    Hardware 19 Jul 2011, 09:08

  • X2 triplex super-chopper in final flight

    Prototype retires: Military 'Raider' version forthcoming

    The (ahem) revolutionary X2 prototype copter, which can fly much faster than a normal helicopter but still make vertical landings and takeoffs, has made its last flight. Manufacturer Sikorsky now plans to produce an S-97 military version of the speedy chopper for sale to the US Army. “This flight is the culmination of a five- …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 09:27

  • ARM to wrestle quarter of laptop market from Intel

    Windows 8 to lead smartbook revival

    Give it four years and ARM-based processors will be found in almost a quarter of all notebooks sold. So predicts market watcher iHS iSuppli, which also reckons 7.6m ARM-based laptops will ship next year - three per cent of total number of notebooks shipped. That itself is a staggering statistic since there are none shipping …

    Laptops 19 Jul 2011, 09:50

  • NASA

    Android App of the Week Revealed! US space agency's facility in... er... Stoke-on-Trent

    Arriving on Android and iOS to coincide with the last mission of the Space Shuttle, NASA's new official app is a must-have for anyone with even a passing interest in humankind's efforts to reach for the stars. Basically a portal for the vast amounts of media the National Aeronautics and Space Administration generates and …

    Phones 19 Jul 2011, 10:00

  • How LulzSec pwned The Sun

    'Walnut-faced Murdoch' prompts pranktivist encore

    Infamous pranktivist hackers LulzSec exploited basic security mistakes on a News International website to redirect users towards a fake story on the supposed death of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, it has emerged. The bogus story claimed that Murdoch had died after ingesting a "large quantity of palladium" (a rare metal*) before …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 10:01

  • Baidu inks deal with 'Big Music'

    When pirates become partners

    Chinese search giant Baidu has done a deal with three of the biggest Western music labels. It has signed an agreement with One-Stop China, a company owned by Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music. The deal covers MP3 downloads and streaming of Chinese and international tracks. Baidu will pay per track played or …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 10:18

  • Cloud changes shape in a crystal ball

    What the future holds

    “The mark of a successful technology,” says Simon May, tech evangelist at Microsoft, “is that it vanishes.” By that measure, cloud computing has a way to go, as it is surely the most visible technology out there – if you are counting headlines, at least. So it is interesting to speculate when it will fade from our discussions …

    Cloud 19 Jul 2011, 10:30

  • Get your kit off for Putin, win an iPad 2, Russian ladies told

    Vid Muscovite minx shows the way (largely SFW)

    Backers of Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin have hit upon a perhaps not-so-novel means of bolstering his political support: they have offered young Russian women the chance to win an iPad 2 by "stripping for Putin". In this YouTube vid, we observe saucy Muscovite minx Diana – who already has an iPhone 4 – striding boldly along …

    Bootnotes 19 Jul 2011, 10:37

  • Toshiba pledges fix for sleepy tablets

    Dozy Thrives to be revived

    Toshiba has confirmed the 'Sleep of Death' bug affecting some of its Thrive Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablets. Thrive went live in the US earlier this month. It has yet to be released over here. A number of buyers in the States have complained that, after they press the power key to turn off the tablet's screen, the display never …

    Tablets 19 Jul 2011, 10:47

  • Nokia WinPho handset resurfaces in factory flick

    N9 gets Mango

    The Nokia 'Sea Ray' has surfaced again today, showing the Windows Phone 7 device running the upcoming Mango update in a grainy video from the production line. The Nokia N9 was dubiously leaked by CEO Stephen Elop last month, who was filmed theatrically telling audience members to turn their cameras off. Here the handset …

    Phones 19 Jul 2011, 10:52

  • Google erects Colombian 'g.co' URL shortener for Google+

    Copies Twitter trick - goo.gl simply too long

    Google has followed in the footsteps of Twitter by buying a Colombian internet address to use as a corporate URL shortener. Mountain View announced yesterday that it now owns g.co, which will only link to its official Google products. Twitter owns t.co, so Google's latest domain purchase is clearly intended to be added to the …

    Networks 19 Jul 2011, 10:58

  • World of StarCraft MMO continues minus Activision legal beef

    Mod moves forward

    World of Starcraft is back on the map this week, with a fresh video showing off more of the mod's features, gameplay and levels. Earlier this year, we heard how the game's creator, Ryan Winzen, had ruffled Activision Blizzard's feathers, not by creating an MMO take on the game using the StarCraft II editing tools, but by …

    Games 19 Jul 2011, 11:01

  • English, Welsh cops get mobile fingerprint-check tech

    Keeps plods outdoors, puts crims inside

    The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) has rolled out mobile devices that allow the police to scan a person's fingerprints and check them against information from the national fingerprint database for verification. Known as Mobile Identification (MobileID), the technology helps police to identify individuals more …

    Law 19 Jul 2011, 11:18

  • Reg Hardware expands Twitter presence

    Site News More µblogs

    Twittering Reg Hardware readers know the site's @reghardware content feed, but we're now increasing our presence on the social network with new micro-blogs from our journalists. We'll be Tweeting all our takes on the key stories of the day, posting our thoughts about cool kit we've seen and new products we're currently trying …

    Phones 19 Jul 2011, 11:40

  • DARPA project seeks immortality, suspended animation

    Shot? Blown up? Chill out until you reach hospital

    The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is offering money to researchers looking at identifying and controlling timing mechanisms in cells, including those of the human body. The blue sky gazing loon-collective notes that no single "master switch" has been found to control genes' activities. But it hopes that …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 11:41

  • First snap of giant asteroid Vesta from orbiting probe

    NASA ion-engine craft Dawn surveys juggernaut of space

    NASA's Dawn asteroid hunter has returned the first photo of Vesta since achieving orbit around the giant object at the end of last week. The snap (big version here) was grabbed at a distance of 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometres), and shows Vesta's impressive 530 kilometre (330 mile) diameter bulk beginning to come into focus. …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 11:53

  • Toshiba Satellite P775 17.3in Core i7 laptop

    Review The Young Ones' notebook?

    As laptops become ever more identical on the inside, it's the stuff on the outside that now differentiates one from another. Off to college: the (wealthy) student's laptop? Toshiba's Satellite P775 is a good example. The key points I jotted down while putting it through its paces are not the 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630WM quad- …

    Laptops 19 Jul 2011, 12:00

  • Bill seeks to decriminalise pianos in pubs and schools

    NuLab crackdown on unlicenced joannas, trumpets to end

    A private member's bill proposing to decriminalise offering musical instruments without a licence received its second reading on Friday. The, er... what? You may well ask. The Licensing Act of 2003 introduced bans on unlicensed musical instruments appearing in public. The law, intended to promote musical events at small venues …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 12:17

  • UK top cop: Coulson 'blindingly obviously' mixed up in hacking

    Regrets hiring Murdoch man at Scotland Yard

    Sir Paul Stephenson, who resigned from his job as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on Sunday, has told MPs that he "regretted" the "embarrassing contract" in which he had hired a News of the World executive, Neil Wallis, as a PR consultant. But the outgoing top policeman of the UK said that it was "blindingly obvious" …

    Government 19 Jul 2011, 12:22

  • Apple said to be sampling Samsung, LG iPad 'retina' screens

    Pixel testing in progress?

    Evidence that a future iPad - possibly even the next one - will feature a 2048 x 1536 display is growing. Apple is sampling screens of that resolution from Samsung and LG, the Korea Times claims, with a view to using them in the iPad 3. Testing will be completed in Q3, the KT source said, which suggests the "retina display" …

    Tablets 19 Jul 2011, 12:27

  • Popstar hackers snaffle Lady GaGa fans' email addresses

    Mutter about gayness in incomprehensible yoof jargon

    Hackers claim to have broken into the UK fansite of Lady GaGa before extracting the names and email addresses of thousands of her fans. SwagSec claimed it had targeted GaGa because the famously gay-friendly star had supposedly made a less than enlightened comment about the value of gay people in society. The group uploaded a …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 12:51

  • Robots form band, rock out to Marilyn Manson

    Droids are back in town

    The music world is a difficult cookie to crack. In most cases, all revenue is funnelled into a cigar-smoking businessman's pocket after a group of robots churn out some pre-programmed bollocks. But when the robots are programmed to act like humans and not the other way around, things start to get interesting. Here we see the …

    Hardware 19 Jul 2011, 12:53

  • Complexity killed the IT quality of service ...

    So many dependencies, so much to go wrong

    “Ring, ring...” “IT support. How can I help you?” “The system’s really slow. It’s taking about a minute to save stuff. Normally it’s only a few seconds.” “How long has this been going on?” “About 20 minutes, and the backlog is building up. It slowed down yesterday too, but then seemed to right itself after about 10 minutes …

    Service Assurance 19 Jul 2011, 13:00

  • LulzSec say they'll release big Murdoch email archive

    Rebekah Brooks apparently not a password genius

    The hacktivists behind a hack on The Sun's website claim to have extracted an email archive which they plan to release later on Tuesday. News International's systems were hacked on Monday night. As a result, visitors to The Sun's website were redirected towards a fake story on the supposed death of Rupert Murdoch by infamous …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 13:30

  • NASA eyes Atlas V for 'naut-lifting duties

    Goodbye shuttle, hello big rocket

    NASA has welcomed United Launch Alliance aboard its Commercial Crew Program, and the two organisations will investigate the possibility of using the Atlas V lifter (see pic*) to launch astronauts into low-Earth orbit. NASA head honcho Charles Bolden said of the deal: "I am truly excited about the addition of ULA to NASA's …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 13:58

  • TSG gets its lips round Rocket

    Geordie gobbles fellow Northeasterner

    Acquisitive reseller Technology Services Group (TSG) has snapped up fellow Geordie Microsoft SharePoint consultancy Rocket Solutions. This is the second small-scale deal that TSG has struck this year following the takeover in April of specialist CRM dealer Concentrix, and represents its twenty-fifth takeover to date. …

    The Channel 19 Jul 2011, 14:12

  • 'Wilful blindness? We've heard of it,' says Murdoch

    Table-banging biz tyrant and son grilled by MPs

    A "humbled" Rupert Murdoch appeared before a committee of MPs this afternoon as a witness on the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the News Corp boss' media empire. The committee's chair, John Whittingdale, denied James Murdoch the opportunity to read from a written statement; the younger Murdoch is the deputy COO at his …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 14:53

  • Skype: XSS vuln fix is on the way

    Updated Backend backdoor to be firmly plugged

    Skype has promised to fix a cross-site scripting flaw that exposes Windows users of VoIP technology to potential attack. The flaw was discovered by independent security researcher Levent Kayan, who warned that a hacker might be able to enter a string of JavaScript code into the "mobile phone" field. This would enable a hacker …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 15:21

  • RIM updates PlayBook OS

    BlackBerry Corporation

    Got a BlackBerry PlayBook? Research in Motion is starting to push out version 1.0.7 of its QNX-derived tablet OS. The new release adds some minor tweaks - at last, the Pictures app will operate with a portrait screen orientation, and you can now zoom into videos - and incorporates are raft of extra languages. RIM has updated …

    Tablets 19 Jul 2011, 15:31

  • Atlantis crew wrap heatshield inspection

    Shuttle robot arm exits world stage

    The crew of space shuttle Atlantis have wrapped an inspection of the spacecraft's thermal protection system, ahead of the veteran spaceplane's planned return to Kennedy Space Center on Thursday morning. NASA reports: "They used the 50-foot long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to conduct a high fidelity, three-dimensional scan of …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 16:18

  • RUPERT MURDOCH HIT BY PIE

    Activist ladyslapped by Wendi Murdoch, now in custardy

    News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a protestor during a parliamentary hearing into the phone-hacking allegations at his sister company News International this afternoon. The committee's public inquiry has been suspended. SkyNews was there Reports claim that a UK Uncut activist, whose Twitter handle is @ …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 16:27

  • Apps overrated in mobile web wars

    Open...and Shut Can't we all just get along?

    Apple' iOS has over 425,000 apps, with over 15 billion downloaded, according to Apple. Google Android? It has 250,000-plus, but that number is growing at a faster pace than iOS. According to research by Adobe and Forrester, however, a rising number of developers may decide to forego the arms apps race entirely, preferring …

    Mobile 19 Jul 2011, 16:50

  • Oracle revs VirtualBox, mushrooms memory

    Virtual iron more supple than real iron

    The open source VirtualBox hypervisor for PCs and servers got a major release on Tuesday when Oracle – which controls the VirtualBox project – kicked out version 4.1. The big change with VirtualBox 4.1 is that both the hypervisor and the guest virtual machine partitions that ride atop of the hypervisor can address more main …

    Virtualization 19 Jul 2011, 17:34

  • Reddit programmer charged with massive data theft

    Harvard ethics fellow accused of hacking MIT

    A former employee of Reddit has been accused of hacking into the computer systems of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and downloading almost 5 million scholarly documents from a nonprofit archive service. Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old researcher in Harvard University's Center for Ethics, broke into a locked computer- …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 17:43

  • Ex–News International boss Brooks denies bribing cops

    Says she only recently learned of Milly Dowler phone hacking

    News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch stood by Rebekah Brooks this afternoon at a parliamentary hearing about the phone-hacking scandal at his sister company News International. Brooks, of course, resigned from her job as NI CEO on 15 July. Two days later she was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and of …

    Media 19 Jul 2011, 17:50

  • Intel snaps up network chipper Fulcrum

    Low-power chores to which Xeons won't stoop

    As good as Xeon chips might be for lots of things, Intel obviously believes that it needs some other silicon: the chip giant bought privately held networking ASIC maker Fulcrum Microsystems on Tuesday. Intel has made no secret of the fact that it wants to expand its Xeon line of server processors out into storage arrays and …

    Business 19 Jul 2011, 19:05

  • 14 arrested in crackdown targeting Anonymous

    Computers seized in early morning raids

    More than a dozen people were arrested in early morning raids Tuesday in what was described as a major legal offensive against the Anonymous hacker collective, it was widely reported. The arrests of at least 14 individuals coincided with raids in New York, California, New Jersey, and Florida, the reports said, citing unnamed …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 20:11

  • Apple annihilates Wall Street performance estimates

    Third fiscal quarter results 'best quarter ever' (again)

    With another fiscal quarter now in the bank, Apple has again embarrassed Wall Street analysts. The Cupertinian juggernaut posted its financial results for its third fiscal quarter of 2011 on Tuesday, and the numbers were – to understate a wee bit – quite satisfactory. "We're thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with …

    Financial News 19 Jul 2011, 21:00

  • VMware crushes Q2 despite looming vSphere 5.0

    Sitting pretty on a big pile of cash

    Server virtualization juggernaut VMware smashed through the upper range of its guidance in its second quarter and just kept on going, with sales of $921.2m, which were up 36.7 per cent. That was considerably more impressive than the $860m to $880m that VMware had been expecting. But even more impressive was net income growth, …

    Financial News 19 Jul 2011, 22:52

  • Huawei circling NZ’s UltraFast Broadband contract

    Buttering up the Kiwis

    Huawei Technologies could soon be named as preferred supplier for New Zealand’s NZ$1.5 billion Ultrafast Broadband Network deployment. The UFB project, run by government-owned Crown Fibre Holdings, had stalled on its year-old equipment vendor selection, but is understood to be close to an announcement. The network-in-waiting …

    Business 19 Jul 2011, 23:33

  • Quantum crypto for consumer GPON

    It can be done, say Irish researchers

    Get ready to add another gadget to your Jetsons want-it-one-day list: personal quantum encryption. Although vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks by kitted-up boffins with access to the fibre, quantum key distribution (QKD) is still secure enough to give nightmares to spooks already scrambling to catch up with ordinary …

    Science 19 Jul 2011, 23:34

  • Apple to release Mac OS X Lion on Wednesday

    Unnamed 'future product transition' coming soon

    "We are very excited to be launching Mac OS Lion tomorrow," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told reporters and analysts during a conference call on Tuesday, when discussing his company's most-recent financial results. If you plan to install "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty" on Wednesday, do remember to first upgrade Snow Leopard to …

    Hardware 19 Jul 2011, 23:48

  • Feds arrest 16 in Anonymous hack probe

    PayPal avenged for 'Operation Avenge Assange'

    Federal officials arrested 16 people accused of carrying out computer crimes that damaged or breached protected systems, including a December attack organized by the Anonymous hacker collective on PayPal that caused numerous service disruptions. Fourteen suspects from 10 states were accused of participating in “Operation Avenge …

    Security 19 Jul 2011, 23:50