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16th August 2011 Archive

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  • Google's Moto move spells iPhone doom

    Open...and Shut And it's Apple's own fault

    Mergers and acquisitions used to be how a company bought revenue, customers, or cool technology. In the mobile world, it's increasingly a way to buy defensive patents. This was clear in Google's $12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility, and it will unfortunately fuel many of the strategies Apple, Google, and others employ to …

    Mobile 16 Aug 01:03

  • AFL boss: NBN could let us bypass broadcasters

    ‘Give me more money, you bastard. Boom-shanka’*

    It’s probably an ambit claim, a negotiating position, but remarks about selling direct to viewers from Australian Football League boss Andrew Demetriou are, to the country’s broadcasters, a shiver looking for a spine to run up. In an interview with indy commentary site TheConversation, the Aussie Rules head-kicker says the …

    Business 16 Aug 02:00

  • Man reveals secret recipe behind undeletable cookies

    New and improved cookie 'respawning' revealed

    A privacy researcher has revealed the evil genius behind a for-profit web analytics service capable of following users across more than 500 sites, even when all cookie storage was disabled and sites were viewed using a browser's privacy mode. The technique, which worked with sites including Hulu, Spotify and GigaOm, is …

    ID 16 Aug 04:00

  • ScaleBase shatters MySQL for scalability

    And glues it back together for speed

    For both performance and capacity reasons, companies running large transaction processing systems, whether they are tickled directly by Web users or just end users working behind the company firewall, sometimes have to partition their production relational databases. This practice, called sharding, is a pain in the neck. …

    Cloud 16 Aug 05:00

  • Apple delays 'retina display' iPad 3 to 2012

    Screens still too costly

    Don't expect an iPad 3 with a "retina display" this year: Apple's screen supplier(s) - LG and Samsung - can't make enough 9.7in, 2048 x 1536 panels to ship the tablet before 2012, it has been claimed. Making such a screen is no small technological achievement, and there's a price to be paid for being at the leading edge: low …

    reghardware 16 Aug 05:20

  • Acer Aspire 5755G 15in Core i7 laptop

    Review Solid option?

    The Aspire 5755G is a fairly winsome system, combining sober, executive-class slate grey with a glossy black lid adding a touch of glamour. When it’s closed it’s a good looking slice of plastic, measuring just 35mm thick. Acer's Aspire 5755G: widescreen but, alas, not quite full HD The 16:9, 15.6in screen has a resolution …

    reghardware 16 Aug 06:00

  • Smartphones rain on Sony PS Vita parade

    Pricey handheld console will struggle

    Analysts have predicted grim times for the PlayStation Vita, with Sony set to lose money on every unit it sells. SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Kazuharu Miura reckons the company will sell 2.5 million Vita units by the end of March 2012, but will lose roughly ¥5000 (£40) on each unit, Bloomburg Japan reports. Miura said the …

    reghardware 16 Aug 07:30

  • Permabit goes into dedupe hyperdrive

    'Primary, secondary, any-ary - it rocks'

    Permabit has upped up its Albireo technology's deduplication speed by 250 per cent, reaching 400GB/sec. This is compared to the 77GB/sec recorded in late 2010. The tech company claims that its Albireo technology is the only tech suitable for deduplicating primary storage, as it has no impact on primary data access performance …

    Storage 16 Aug 08:00

  • £4.4m gov wad to get all Northern Ireland up to 2 Mbit/s

    Ulster bands still not broad enough

    Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt slapped £4.4m on Northern Ireland's broadband pile today in a move to roll out the tech to the entire country. The NI Executive is tasked with matching that sum of cash in order to reach out to the final 3 per cent of homes and businesses not yet upgraded to faster broadband technology. "Matching …

    Networks 16 Aug 08:28

  • Mag bitchslapped in Duchess Kate digi-slimming case

    'We only meant to delete Wills', blubs glossy Grazia

    The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has forced a magazine to apologise for printing an altered photograph of the Duchess of Cambridge. Grazia magazine published a picture of the duchess in her wedding dress that appeared to make her look thinner, according to the complaint the PCC received. The PCC is a self-regulatory …

    Music and Media 16 Aug 08:54

  • Rights Commish warns of creeping gov data menace

    'Need for personal info has to be clearly justified'

    The government's approach to the collection and use of personal data is "deeply flawed", according to a report from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC has joined in long running complaints from privacy activists with the publication of a report, Protecting Information Privacy (105-page PDF/716KB), …

    Public Sector 16 Aug 09:18

  • BT wholesale boss bails out, cites personal reasons

    'Competing demands on her time'

    BT's wholesale boss is leaving after four years heading up the fixed and mobile network services wing of the telecom giant's biz. Sally Davis, who has worked at the company since 1999, will leave BT at the end of October. The telco said Davis had quit, citing "personal reasons". "Sally has been a key member of our executive …

    Telecoms 16 Aug 09:42

  • UN ICT agency asks world yoof, geeks for great tech ideas

    Hefty cash prizes, free trips to Switzerland on offer

    As part of its revamp, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is asking yoof and geeks to submit world-changing ideas, 60 of which will earn their entrants a trip to Geneva to pitch them to "industry leaders". The competition is open to two groups: youths aged between 18 and 25, and geeks (who must be partnered with …

    Networks 16 Aug 10:02

  • DeskSMS

    Android App of the Week Manage your texts on Gmail

    I don’t usually include apps in active beta in this column but DeskSMS is so darned useful I’ve decided to break my own rule.   Notifications and set-up Cooked up by the creator of ClockworkMod Recovery DeskSMS pushes your text messages from your phone to your Gmail and Google Talk accounts or to a web portal once you have …

    reghardware 16 Aug 10:07

  • Motorola beefs up rugged Android smartphone

    Defy+ hits the 'G' spot?

    Despite obvious distraction in the form of a rather large Google takeover yesterday, Motorola still found time to announce a Defy refresh, upping the speed of the rugged smartphone by 25 per cent. The Motorola Defy+ now packs a 1GHz processor, which not only puts it 200MHz ahead of its predecessor, but also keeps one foot in …

    reghardware 16 Aug 10:16

  • Recovery-ware startup Zerto uncloaks, scoops $15m

    Virty disasterproofing brothers back in the game

    Secretive recovery software start-up Zerto has closed a $15m financing round just weeks after emerging from stealth mode. Zerto provides VMware hypervisor-based replication enabling disaster recovery for virtualised server applications. This is more flexible, Zerto says, than relegating replication to storage arrays, and is …

    Virtualization 16 Aug 10:18

  • RIM emits 100-BlackBerry cloud for small biz

    Not enough minions to bother with your own server?

    Research In Motion (RIM) is releasing a cloud service for small firms to manage up to 100 BlackBerry smartphones and secure biz data stored locally on the device. The BlackBerry Management Centre is built for commercial users that access email via an ISP or web-based services, running on OS 4.6 models or later versions. Alan …

    Infrastructure 16 Aug 10:26

  • Just 0.2% of Facebook flogged for $133m

    Means it's worth 20% of Apple ... or ALL of HP

    Ad firm Interpublic has sold half its stake in Facebook for $133m. The firm's stake was 0.4 per cent, so the sale gives an apparent value for the whole social network of $66.5bn. The deal was done back in 2006, when Facebook needed revenue and respect. Interpublic agreed to spend $10m of its clients' money on advertising on …

    Business 16 Aug 10:35

  • Apple changed shape of Galaxy Tab in court filing

    Looks exactly like an iPad - if you stretch the truth a bit

    Apple's court submission, which led to an EU ban on Samsung's sale of its rival Galaxy Tab device, contains one comparison which seems to warp reality to make its point. Apple claimed in a German court, which it also claimed in its submission to the Dutch court, that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a straight rip-off of …

    Business 16 Aug 10:53

  • Hunt empties broadband funding pot across Blighty

    Euro speed dominance by 2015 as promised? Unlikely

    Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt ambitiously declared earlier this year that he wanted Britain to be gifted with the fastest broadband network in Europe by 2015. But as of today that plan remains a huge challenge, given that its success is heavily reliant on endorsement and big financial subsidies from local authorities and the …

    Telecoms 16 Aug 11:05

  • HARRY POTTER CHAINED to new Sony reader

    Updated Boy wizard to levitate gadgets off shelves this Xmas

    Sony will bundle its next generation e-reader with the entire series of Harry Potter stories from November, The Register has learnt. The bespectacled wizard debuts in digital format in October – the same time as the Sony-sponsored Pottermore "online reading experience" goes live – according to well-placed sources in the vendor …

    Music and Media 16 Aug 11:19

  • Vodafone signals low-cost Facebook ringer

    Status updater

    Vodafone is tapping into the social network generation by offering its own-brand budget Facecrack blower for Pay As You Go customers. The Vodafone 555 looks fairly similar to HTC's ChaCha, but doesn't nearly pack as much under the hood, running on Vodafone's proprietary OS and running a 200MHz processor. It features a 2.4in …

    reghardware 16 Aug 11:33

  • Microsoft begins cagey Windows 8 disclosures

    'We want to know we know what we're talking about'

    Microsoft has promised to start sharing technical information about Windows 8 – just don't get too excited or expect too much. Windows and Windows Live president Steven Sinofsky has launched the Building Windows 8 blog to talk about features in the operating system that is expected to hit beta next month. Kicking off the blog …

    Developer 16 Aug 11:43

  • Chinese giant figures to muscle into UK mobe market

    No more partnering: It's my way or the Huawei

    Not content with supplying network infrastructure and making handsets for other people, Huawei is aggressively pushing into the UK's handset market with Android handsets for all. The idea is to launch cheap Android handsets and get the name Huawei recognised by the man in the street, enough to make a success of the Android …

    Mobile 16 Aug 11:50

  • Intel says no to massive ultrabook CPU price cut

    Notebook makers demand cheaper chips

    Intel has apparently rejected demands from notebook makers that it slash the cost of its ultrabook chips. Manufacturers keen to release skinny laptops along the lines of Apple's MacBook Air range say Intel's products need to be cheaper if they're to comptete. The inevitable unnamed sources say vendors asked the CPU giant for …

    reghardware 16 Aug 11:58

  • Office 365 in a private cloud

    Interview Office by design

    When Microsoft launched Office 365 it knew that not everyone would want its Henry Ford-style, one-size-fits-all service. Even cloud enthusiasts are constrained by a service with one type of security, one service level and one place to store your customer data, if that place is Dublin. Office 365 users might also have …

    SaaS 16 Aug 12:18

  • BBC explains 'All your Twitter pics are belong to us' gaffe

    Analysis Property is theft, man. So we're taking yours

    There are some subjects on which giant media companies need to be ultra tippy-toe cautious. When, say, the majority owner of a satellite broadcaster uses its newspapers to lobby for a change the law, we should remember it is not a disinterested party. It may have an agenda. Similarly when the BBC covers copyright, or "net …

    Music and Media 16 Aug 12:25

  • Google gets UK OK on privacy in slurping probe

    'Not a rubber stamp' insists kid-glove-clad regulator

    Google's privacy policy has been gently applauded by Information Commissioner Christopher Graham, who came under sharp criticism for his initial "lily-livered" handling of the company's Street View Wi-Fi data-slurping operation. An audit by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) took place last month at Google's London …

    Government 16 Aug 12:35

  • Europe's PC mountain barely dented in price slash bloodbath

    Biz still buying boxes, but consumers go slab-happy

    Tit-for-tat price-cutting from notebook vendors pummelled the value of the PC market in Europe during July but failed to make more than a dent in inventory levels that have been building up since the Christmas quarter last year. And August, which heralds the Back to School season for the channel, is also looking conspicuously …

    Channel Register 16 Aug 13:23

  • PETA to launch .xxx smut site 'to help animals'

    Naked celebrity campaign moves to next level

    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reportedly plans to launch a porn site. The website, at peta.xxx, will be "a pornography site that draws attention to the plight of animals", according to Reuters, which cited a spokesperson. With thousands of well-known companies reluctantly queueing up to pay up to block their …

    Hosting 16 Aug 14:21

  • Sage looking to mind Mind Your Own Business' business

    Looking for a bit of down-under gobblement

    Geordie accountancy specialist Sage is in the race to buy Australian firm MYOB (from Mind Your Own Business) which offers similar services down under. The deal could close for as much as A$1bn (£637m) according to sources quoted by Reuters. MYOB has been in business for over 20 years and claims a million Aussie and Kiwi …

    Business 16 Aug 15:01

  • Injunction suspended: EU can buy Galaxy Tabs again

    Non-iPad slabfondle fun still verboten in Germany though

    The German court which imposed an EU-wide ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 has suspended it, on the grounds that it may not have the authority to impose such a decision, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ban was based on the Tab's similarity to Apple's iPad, which the court still reckons is too much for coincidence, but the …

    Business 16 Aug 15:30

  • News International mail server password FAIL exposed

    Full login details published along with damning letters

    A letter from News International chairman James Murdoch to the Commons Culture Select Committee has let slip details of how to gain full access to the company's MS Exchange email system – albeit the information is from four years ago. MPs published a raft of letters this lunchtime including one from jailed News of the World …

    Music and Media 16 Aug 15:40

  • Apple sells world's most expensive flash drive

    The $40 Lion convenience fee

    You can now purchase Apple's Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, on a flash drive for $69 – and, yes, it's the exact same operating system that's available at the online Mac Store for $29.99. The USB thumb drive is available through Apple's online store, where Apple explains that the $69 lets you install the company's new OS without a …

    Operating Systems 16 Aug 16:29

  • Giant iPhone 4 brings Mac OS X to the table

    Honey, I blew up the blower

    Check out this giant iPhone 4, a tabletop LCD system that runs OS X and Windows 7. It's a PS3 too. Benjamin Bachmeier’s iTableous borrows its look from the popular Apple handset and even opts for the sought-after white design. It puts a 5.7Mp HD camera and speakers in the same spots as the Apple hardware, as well as giant …

    reghardware 16 Aug 17:02

  • AutoCAD LT arrives on the Mac

    App Store embrace

    AutoCAD LT is now available for the Mac. On Tuesday, Autodesk announced that it has ported AutoCAD LT to the Mac, selling this "lite" version of its venerable design tool through the Mac App Store at a price of $899. Alongside AutoCAD LT in the Mac App Store, Autodesk will also offer a Mac incarnation of the free AutoCAD WS – …

    Applications 16 Aug 18:44

  • Cloud box does virtualization sans SAN

    Practice safe SOCS

    Cloud-computing appliance maker Nutanix is tackling a problem that has dogged the deployment of virtual servers and desktops: all the key hypervisors require storage area networks and centralized storage. To overcome this limitation, Nutanix has created a virtualized controller that implements a clustered file system and embeds …

    Cloud 16 Aug 19:05

  • Malware mints virtual currency using victim's GPU

    Bitcoin mining meets parallel computing

    Security researchers have unearthed a piece of malware that mints a digital currency known as Bitcoins by harnessing the immense power of an infected machine's graphical processing units. According to new research from antivirus provider Symantec, Trojan.Badminer uses GPUs to generate virtual coins through a practice known as …

    Malware 16 Aug 20:00

  • HTC hurls more patent spew on Apple

    Mobile biz stuck on repeat

    HTC has filed a new patent-infringement suit against Apple, setting in motion yet another round of patent litigation between Cupertino and the Taiwanese manufacturer of Android-based smartphones and tablets. The suit, which alleges infringment of three patents, follows Apple's four-patent slap at HTC of July 11. Other jolly …

    Music and Media 16 Aug 20:44

  • Mac OS X Lion gets bug-squashing update

    HDMI, Wi-Fi fixes

    Apple has released an update for its new Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, that promises to fix a number of vexing bugs that have been burbling into view in discussions on Apple's user forums. The update, version 10.7.1, comes in four flavors: a general update for both Mac OS X Lion client and server, an update specific to the 2011 …

    Operating Systems 16 Aug 21:59

  • MacTel, Verizon score AGIMO gig

    Panel adds another two to coveted gov roster

    Enterprise grade telecommunications companies Macquarie Telecom and Verizon have secured coveted spots on the Australian Government Information Management Office's (AGIMO) Telecommunications Internet Based Network Connections (IBNC) Panel. AGIMO announced the additions on its blog and said that further companies may be added …

    Business 16 Aug 22:04

  • Mozilla strokes coders with Firefox 6

    JavaScript Scratchpad

    Mozilla has officially released Firefox 6, offering a new JavaScript editor and several other tools aimed at web developers. Over the weekend, the open source outfit posted the latest stable version of Firefox to its FTP servers, but the browser wasn't formally released on the web until Tuesday. Firefox 6 is the second …

    Developer 16 Aug 22:05

  • Popular Android modder takes job with Samsung Mobile

    Cyanogen to make Android 'more awesome'

    The creator of one of the most popular Android modification kits has taken a job as a software engineer with Samsung's mobile device unit. Steve Kondik, the hobbyist hacker behind CyanogenMod software, confirmed the appointment with Samsung Mobile on his Facebook page and to several bloggers. “I will be working on making …

    Mobile 16 Aug 22:52

  • Australia Institute: we’re all mindless sheep

    What, there’s a second page of search results?

    Search dominates how we shop on the Web, Google dominates search, big names dominate Google results, and most people don’t bother looking beyond the first page of search results. Those are the key, and remarkably unsurprising, results of a paper called What you don’t know can hurt you, researched and published by the Australia …

    Business 16 Aug 23:00