The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

20th July 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Optus turns mobiles into PVRs

    Launches Optus TV Now

    Optus is the first Australian carrier to offer free-to-air broadcast content for recording and playback on its 3G mobile network. The Optus TV Now service enables Optus 3G customers to schedule, record and playback all 15 free-to-air digital television channels from any compatible 3G mobile device or a computing device. The …

    Mobile 20 Jul 00:00

  • Russia’s space telescope in orbit

    Spektr-R begins five-year mission

    Russia is celebrating its return to heavy-hitter status in space, with the successful launch of the Spektr-R radio telescope from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday. The radio telescope, which has now successfully reached orbit, is Russia’s answer to the Hubble Space Telescope, but with an added twist: its ability …

    Space 20 Jul 01:30

  • X-COM UFO: Enemy Unknown

    Antique Code Show Mars attacks

    1994 could never be called a dull year but after packing away my ailing Mega Drive and putting on my finest stripy jumper for Kurt Cobain’s funeral, I needed to be diverted by a great game. Quite fittingly UFO: Enemy Unknown aka X-COM came along just as OJ’s white Bronco was trying for orbit. UFO: Enemy Unknown appeared under …

    reghardware 20 Jul 06:00

  • Data Robotics gives up and changes name to Drobo

    It's what the kids are calling us, baby

    Drobo-storage maker Data Robotics has changed its company name to Drobo. Drobo is a 4- and 8-bay desktop storage product that users can populate with hard drives they source themselves and which can be of dissimilar sizes. The box has a simple blue, green and red coloured light management system which signals when it is …

    Storage 20 Jul 08:00

  • Japanese erections named 'Bollox', 'Wonder Device'

    Enough wood to satisfy the most demanding customer

    Someone had better have a quiet word with Japanese wooden building outfit Bess, which is providing fine entertainment for the English-speaking expat community with this new example from its range: According to our local informant "Tokyo Nosehair", Bess recently changed its name from the impressively outdoor "Big Foot", and …

    Bootnotes 20 Jul 08:28

  • Dell considers Google+ for video customer support

    This rain backdrop clearly shows I am in the UK, sir

    Dell is mulling over direct engagement with prospective customers via Google+, and judging by the feedback from some corners it could do with upping its existing pre- and post-sales support. The social networking tool is now more than three weeks old and has over 10 million users on-board, including Dell chief Michael Dell. …

    Business 20 Jul 08:30

  • UK gov 'Spads' hefty salaries released/buried

    The most powerful people you've never heard of

    The Coalition government has released the names of all its special advisers who are paid more than £58,200. David Cameron has two men on salaries just under the ceiling for the posts. Craig Oliver and Andrew Cooper each trouser £140,000 a year and another adviser, Edward Llewellyn, gets £125,000. Seventeen other Spads to the …

    Government 20 Jul 09:00

  • Lenovo unwraps trio of ten-inch tablets

    Two Androids and a Windows job

    Lenovo has finally begin shipping not one but three 10.1in tablets this summer, the Chinese PC giant said today. The line up comprises the IdeaPad Tablet K1 at the consumer end and the ThinkPad Tablet for businesses. Sitting between them is the pro-sumer IdeaPad P1. The P1's distinguishing feature is Windows 7 - the other two …

    reghardware 20 Jul 09:02

  • '3-2-1 ... Good Morning Atlantis!'

    Kennedy workers' emotional salute to last ever shuttle crew

    The crew of space shuttle Atlantis were this morning roused by a message from employees of Kennedy Space Center, preceded by a snippet of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. The Kennedy personnel took to the tarmac to shout: "Three... two... one... Good morning, Atlantis! Kennedy salutes you. See you back at wheels …

    Space 20 Jul 09:06

  • Apprentice runner-up becomes Greggs bigshot

    Mince-inna-bun firm bitchslaps Sugar's biz judgement

    The runner-up of Beeb reality biz game show The Apprentice, Helen Milligan, was overlooked by Lord Shuggie for his £250,000 business investment but she has secured a hefty promotion at bakery chain Greggs. Milligan consistently outperformed the other contestants on the show, fronted by hairy walnut Shuggs, but when it came …

    Entertainment 20 Jul 09:20

  • LaCie reduced Rugged HDD size not capacity

    SuperSpeed USB 3.0 included

    LaCie has shrunk its rubber-wrapped Rugged external hard drive. Well, a little. Despite the word "Mini" being appended to the new drive's handle, it's not radically smaller than the current Rugged. It's 135 x 86 x 19mm to the regular Rugged's 145 x 90 x 28mm - 40 per cent smaller by volume, but only a centimetre off the …

    reghardware 20 Jul 09:21

  • UK, Dutch cops cuff 5 more in Anonymous-LulzSec raids

    Bag now totals 20 following US braceletings

    The arrest of 16 Anonymous and LulzSec suspects in the US on Tuesday was accompanied by the arrest of a teenager in the UK and the cuffing of four further suspects in the Netherlands. FBI agents arrested 14 people across the US suspected of attacking PayPal's website as part of an Anonymous-related operation in support of …

    Crime 20 Jul 09:22

  • Jobs: Apple succession plans are 'hogwash'

    Who can fill the great leader's turtleneck?

    Steve Jobs took to email to deny a story that Apple's board of directors are talking about a succession plan. Given his medical history, it would be weird if no such discussions had taken place. But Jobs emailed the Wall Street Journal to dismiss the story as hogwash. The Wally reckons that informal discussions with …

    Business 20 Jul 09:29

  • Steady as she goes at Datatec

    Logicalis, Westcon daddy cautiously chuffed

    Datatec has issued an upbeat trading statement claiming that profits and sales at its integration arm Logicalis and distribution business Westcon continue to improve. The South Africa-based giant said top and bottom lines for the four months ended 30 June were up on the same period a year ago, and the group remains on track to …

    Channel Register 20 Jul 09:30

  • Lancs plods exposed complainant on website

    Left details up for days after being informed

    Lancashire Police Authority breached the Data Protection Act by publishing the details of a complaint from an individual member of the public on its website, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed. The force published the information accidentally, and then failed to remove it after the individual concerned …

    ID 20 Jul 09:42

  • Apple Store down for Lion tweakage

    New MacBook Air details being uploaded too?

    Apple's online store is displaying its infamous "We'll be back soon" message. The giant last night revealed that it would be releasing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion today. That will be delivered through the - as yet un-updated - Mac App Store, but presmumably Apple will be wanting to tweaking the Mac line-up's Apple Store graphics to …

    reghardware 20 Jul 09:54

  • MPs probe science behind bogus gov booze guidelines

    Write in to save your pub, and maybe lower beer prices!

    Science Committee MPs are to investigate the "evidence base" behind the Government's guidelines on alcohol consumption. A thorough investigation is long overdue, as the Puritanical advice of the doctor's union, the BMA, long ago diverged from the scientific evidence. And there are signs that this inquiry may have teeth. The …

    Government 20 Jul 09:58

  • Are your secrets safe with SaaS providers?

    Plugging the leaks

    There are plenty of opportunities for people to disclose, steal or sell sensitive company data. After all, anyone who really wants to swipe information needs only the intent and a USB stick. Admittedly, truly nefarious types are in fairly short supply. But the every day threat to any company’s data comes from the unintentional …

    SaaS 20 Jul 10:30

  • Nepalese gov to nail Everest's bigness in row with China

    May be stymied by mountain's tectonic rise

    The Nepalese government has decided to answer once and for the all the question of just how tall Everest is, since it can't agree with the Chinese on an exact height for the lofty peak. The generally accepted height of 8,848m (29,029ft) came from a 1955 Indian survey, the BBC notes. Nepal accepts this "snow height" figure ( …

    Science 20 Jul 10:32

  • Virgin confirms only half of UK will get its 100MB/s broadband

    No more than 13m homes

    Virgin Media today lauded its 100MB/s broadband service, which is now connectable to 6.5m homes - a quarter of the UK's total, it claimed. But the company confirmed that only half the nation will get access to the service, which will be completely rolled out by mid-2012. At that point, "nearly 13m homes" may, if they wish, …

    reghardware 20 Jul 10:40

  • Baidu apes Google with Chinese Chrome

    You want web stuff that works behind the Great Firewall?

    Chinese search giant Baidu has launched its own web browser, aping Google's Chrome with web applications and aspirations of becoming a desktop replacement. The Baidu Browser only runs on Windows, but it does have its own application store for web apps (which run in a Webkit-based sandbox) and an extension framework very …

    Software 20 Jul 10:41

  • UK Serious Fraud Office mulls News Corp probe

    'We are in touch with US feds, will assist as required'

    The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is considering investigating various allegations against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. A spokeswoman said the SFO was mulling over a letter sent to the agency by MP Tom Watson, a member of the Commons media select committee which grilled Murdoch, his son James, and ex-News International boss …

    Policing 20 Jul 10:44

  • Samsung torn over Galaxy S II sibling UK launch

    Brits R left out?

    Samsung has refused to confirm the UK release of the Galaxy S II's smaller sibling, contradicting widely spread reports that the dual-core smartphone is Blighty-bound. Rumours were rife that the Galaxy Z spotted in Sweden earlier this month wouldn't grace these shores. At the time, Samsung declined to comment. Z Today CNET …

    reghardware 20 Jul 10:59

  • STUDENTS EXPOSED in university IT blunder

    Lithe youngsters' records on internet for all to see

    The Information Commissioner's Office has reprimanded the University of York for stuffing up its IT systems so that student records were accessible to anyone. The ICO blamed a staff member who "failed to realise they had made an error while carrying out work on the University's IT system". The screw-up resulted in student …

    ID 20 Jul 11:01

  • Samsung rolls out Galaxy Tab 10.1

    Korea choice

    Samsung today paved the way for the worldwide release of its second-gen Android tablet by launching the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Korea. The skinny, light - it's 8.6mm thick and weighs 565g - tablet runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb on a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip. As the name suggests, it's a 10.1in tablet. The LCD screen has a …

    reghardware 20 Jul 11:11

  • TalkTalk watchdog smackdown after ad complaint

    Pullout ordered following BT moanings

    The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint brought by BT against TalkTalk for exaggerating savings claims it made in a TV ad. It said TalkTalk had misled viewers of the advert by overstating the savings that customers might achieve. The regulator said the ad's on-screen declaration that punters could "Save …

    Telecoms 20 Jul 11:19

  • LulzSec hacker Sabu: Murdoch emails 'sometime soon'

    Secretive figure tells our man release is coming

    The promised dump of its emails from News International by hacktivist group LulzSec failed to materialise on Tuesday. However a prominent affiliate of the group told El Reg that the release had only been delayed, rather than postponed. The UK end of the Murdoch media empire was hacked on Monday night, so that surfers visiting …

    Enterprise Security 20 Jul 11:27

  • Yahoo! loses! revenue!

    'This is good, and at the same time, unsatisfactory'

    Yahoo!'s revenue fell slightly compared to last year, thanks to rubbish sales of US display adverts. The portal failed to see much joy from its search agreement with Microsoft. Total revenue was $1.07bn for the three months ended 30 June 2011, a 5 per cent drop on the $1.12bn it made in the same quarter of 2010. Income from …

    Business 20 Jul 11:38

  • Google+ hits the iPhone

    Jesus mobe welcomes unthreatening Googly app

    Apple has approved Google+, the ad giant's social networking app, for the iPhone. The app was sent to Cupertino for approval earlier this month. There was some debate as to whether Apple would ban the application, but given that it doesn't threaten any Apple product, or annoy its telco partners, we're not sure why. Google+ …

    Applications 20 Jul 11:59

  • Google Wallet left on margins by ISIS tap-pay hookup

    But Chocolate Factory has the only working handset

    Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express have all signed onto US operator consortium Isis, leaving Google Wallet with just MasterCard as a payment partner. The US operator consortium – set up by AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon – has announced that the four biggest payment processors will create mobile payment …

    Mobile 20 Jul 12:02

  • Microsoft apologises for yet another BPOS outage

    'What a totally useless tool'

    Microsoft has apologised for another Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) outage that left customers across the pond struggling to access email. Only last month, the software firm was forced to say sorry after its troubled online service crashed for three hours, which followed problems in May. Microsoft confirmed the …

    Channel Register 20 Jul 12:09

  • Ten... Portable USB 3.0 HDDs

    Product Round-up SuperSpeed pocket drives tested

    USB 3.0 has been with us for nearly two years now, not that you’d notice, as adoption and availability of peripherals has been somewhat slow. However, things are looking up now as more and more portable HDDs are coming to market featuring the not-so-new interface. Here at Reg Hardware, we've put together a round up of the …

    reghardware 20 Jul 12:22

  • Python orgy menaces Yorkeys Knob canoes

    Snakey Oz SWAT team collars slithering sex pests

    An Oz sporting club has been forced to call for ophidian SWAT assistance after a python orgy threatened to destroy its boatshed roof. According to the Cairns Post, at least half a dozen scrub pythons – each at least 3.5 metres long – have been getting jiggy above the ceiling of the Hekili Outrigger Canoe Club, suitably located …

    Biology 20 Jul 12:25

  • Ofcom moves: Rural broadband price war on the cards?

    BT shrugs at wholesale price caps

    Ofcom has ordered BT to slash its prices by 12 per cent below inflation per year for the company's wholesale broadband network. The telecoms watchdog claimed 3 million homes and businesses in rural parts of the UK could benefit from the price reduction by the end of 2011. It said the move "follows Ofcom's decision to reduce …

    Telecoms 20 Jul 12:38

  • Apple kills MacBook, soups up MacBook Air

    Forget Bluetooth 3.0, these boys have Bluetooth 4.0 on board

    Apple the specced up the new MacBook Air line - and killed off the plastic MacBook. The new Airs do indeed gain Core i5 processors: 1.6GHz for the 11-incher, 1.7GHz for the 13.3in Air, and 1.8GHz Core i7 as a build-to-order option for both. They get backlit keyboards too, absent from their predecessors. But the basic model, …

    reghardware 20 Jul 12:47

  • Nokia ‘giving away phones at cost’

    With margins so thin you need a microscope to see them

    Nokia's financial results for the second quarter of 2011 are due tomorrow, and the company has already warned investors of very bad news coming. Yesterday, it issued a peek into just how tough things have got in 2011. Nokia said its smartphone profit margins were down to 6.2 per cent in Q1 2011, with margins of 16.4 per cent on …

    Mobile 20 Jul 12:52

  • Apple ups Mac Mini spec, lowers price

    Optical drives ditched

    Apple has added Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors to its Mac Mini small form-factor desktop - and yanked the optical drives from the system. The new model - which now comes in at £529, down from the £649 the previous version launched at - sports a 2.3GHz Core i5, 2GB of 1333MHz DDR 3 memory and 500GB of hard drive storage …

    reghardware 20 Jul 13:08

  • Dell buys Force 10 Networks

    Storm winds to leave Brocade out in the cold?

    Dell is buying Ethernet networking supplier Force 10 Networks for an unrevealed sum, getting the networking capability needed to build a complete in-house converged IT stack of servers, storage and networking. Force 10 Networks is a privately owned supplier with nearly $200m in annual revenues and operating on some 60 …

    Business 20 Jul 13:26

  • OS X Lion roars, coughs on appearance in App Store

    Fanbois moan on Twitter at failure to get paws on

    Apple has stuck the Lion operating system on its Mac App Store. The update can be yours for just £20.99 ($29.99), although we're getting reports of problems using the site. Despite being a supposedly soft launch, it is likely that fanbois are already queuing up to grab the first major operating system upgrade. Twitter is …

    Operating Systems 20 Jul 13:44

  • Google sends warnings to machines with infected search

    Alerts are genuine - until scareware scum get on board

    Google is issuing warnings to people whose computers are infected with a type of malware that manipulates search requests. A strain of rogue anti-virus software also includes a search hijacker component. The hijacker is designed to further enrich scammers by redirecting users of compromised machines through various dodgy pay- …

    Malware 20 Jul 14:16

  • EMC revenues explode in Q2

    Colossus flops out a stonker

    EMC second quarter 2011 results are extremely good with record-breaking, double-digit growth all over the place, and only the Information Intelligence stuff down in the dumps. Second quarter (Q2) revenues were $4.85bn, 20 per cent higher than Q2 2010's $4.02bn. Net income rose to $546.5m, up a stonking 28 per cent on the $426m …

    Business 20 Jul 14:38

  • Insight sales veep Akkerman resigns

    Eleven months in the kitchen and the heat gets to veep?

    Insight Enterprises veep of sales Olaf Akkerman has resigned less than a year after moving into the role. Sources close to the firm reckon he was pushed after a tough second calendar quarter, but this has been categorically denied by the reseller. "I can confirm with sincere regret that Olaf is leaving Insight," said Stuart …

    Channel Register 20 Jul 14:48

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic preps pre-order pages

    Force with us tomorrow

    Retailers have leaked details of pre-order plans for EA and BioWare's anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Polish outlet Empik briefly posted a sales page for the game, which stated the pre-order date as 21 July. Meanwhile, over in Spain, XtraLife posted details about the Collector's Edition. The latter - which is …

    reghardware 20 Jul 15:28

  • Riverbed pumps up software with Zeus, Aptimize buys

    US sales 'simply on fire' in Q2

    WAN optimization appliance maker Riverbed Technology turned in a very good second quarter yesterday and decided to blow some of its cash hoard buying two companies to pump up the applications that run on its Steelhead and other appliances. The first company that Riverbed is snapping up is Zeus Technology, the maker of traffic …

    Servers 20 Jul 15:29

  • Hi-tech mobile hack spreads rumour of Taliban chief's death

    'This is the work of American intelligence'

    The Taliban has become the victim of a hi-tech disinformation campaign spreading false rumours that its leader, Mullah Omar, had died following a heart attack. Text messages spoofed so as to appear to have originated from phones used by Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Qari Yousuf were used to spread the rumour. …

    Security 20 Jul 16:21

  • Apple unveils 'World's First Thunderbolt Display'

    Costs as much as a wee MacBook Air

    What with all the hoo-hah on Wednesday over the release of Mac OS X Lion and updates to the Mac mini and MacBook Air, one nice new piece of Cupertinian kit slipped in under the radar: what Apple calls the "World's First Thunderbolt Display". That's Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Air sitting in front of the 27-inch Thunderbolt …

    PCs & Chips 20 Jul 18:03

  • SUSE Studio spins up on IBM mainframes

    VMware partnership spawns ESX optimizations

    The SUSE division of legacy-loving conglomerate Attachmate is updating its SUSE Studio software appliance toolkit to help it maintain its dominance at IBM mainframe shops that run Linux on those machines. In the wake of the acquisition of Novell by Attachmate back in May, SUSE was split off as a separate division and its …

    Servers 20 Jul 18:51

  • Intel reports (mostly) solid revenue growth

    Double digits across all segments – except Atom

    Intel's second quarter of 2011 was a good one, beating Wall Street estimates and showing double-digit revenue growth across all major business segments. But weakness at the low end of the market shows that the world's largest microprocessor maker has its vulnerabilities. "We achieved a significant new milestone in the second …

    Financial News 20 Jul 21:28

  • Yelp clicks into Aus with Telstra

    Carrier set to Google-fy its directories arm

    American local-business recommendation site Yelp is coming to Australia via a strategic partnership with Telstra’s directories arm, Sensis. Yelp will integrate Sensis’ Yellow Pages local business listing data into its site, while Sensis' local sales force will launch yelp.com.au into the Australian market. Sensis will also …

    Business 20 Jul 23:02

  • Boxing boomers bounced building in Seoul

    Panic! at the health club

    Middle-aged fitness fanatics don't mix with skyscrapers, according to the "tentative" conclusions of an investigation into the strange shaking that brought about the evacuation of the 39-story Techno Mart in northeastern Seoul on July 5. After the original panic, the building’s owner, Prime Development, had speculated that “ …

    Odds and Sods 20 Jul 23:03