29th August 2011 Archive

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Verizon buys up cloud start-up

Will borg CloudSwitch into Terramark biz

Cloud software start-up, CloudSwitch, has been snapped up by Verizon for an undisclosed sum. The three-year-old company specialises in high security management of enterprise grade applications running via the cloud. The start-up had raised around $US15 million from Boston based VC firms to date. Verizon is set to integrate …

Cloud 29 Aug 2011, 00:30
How to... re-energise your Android smartphone's OS

Customise your phone with CynanogenMod

Generally, users have two beefs with Android. One, handsets often don’t get updated when a new version of the OS rolls out from the Chocolate Factory, and, two, many of the bespoke overlays and ROMs cooked up by handset makers and telecos are more akin to painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa than adding anything of value to the …

Phones 29 Aug 2011, 08:00
VMware turns self into (virtual) database co.

VMworld Rolls own PostgreSQL

Server virtualization juggernaut and cloud puffer VMware is getting into the database business. But it's not selling database the way Oracle or IBM sell databases. It's selling them more like the Microsoft sells database services on its Azure cloud. One of the most important announcements to come out of the VMworld …

Developer 29 Aug 2011, 12:00
VMware orders vCloud army across five continents

VMworld World domination by fluffiness

VMware envisions a world where applications can roam across one big intercloud. Apps won't just jump from internal data centers to public cloud services, the company believes. They'll move from cloud to cloud like phone calls across cell networks. That's why VMware is keen on getting its vSphere server virtualization not only …

Cloud 29 Aug 2011, 12:00
Cloud.com goes open source

VMworld Citrix sets cloud builder free

After taking control of the CloudStack cloud management framework through its acquisition of Cloud.com back in July, Citrix Systems is now open sourcing the code behind the tool. At the same time, it's adding support for the provisioning of workloads on additional hypervisors and, for the first time, on bare-metal machines. …

Cloud 29 Aug 2011, 12:00
HP mates blades with VMware vSphere

VMworld VirtualBladeSystem

It's the VMworld virtualization extravaganza this week, and that means everyone wants to show that they are best buddies with VMware and enthusiastically supporting its virty and cloudy tools. And so it is that Hewlett-Packard is trying to change the subject about its own software aspirations and PC business spinoff and wants to …

Servers 29 Aug 2011, 13:00
Dell floats cloud built on ... VMware

VMworld Azure, 'open cloud' on the way

After hemming and hawing for months, server maker and services player Dell will soon launch its first infrastructure cloud. Appropriately, enough, it's called the Dell Cloud. At the VMworld virtualization and cloud extravaganza in Las Vegas today, Dell said that it was fluffing up the Dell Cloud using VMware's brand-spanking- …

Cloud 29 Aug 2011, 13:30
Samsung 'mulls bid for' HP's orphaned webOS

Smart smackback at Apple, Googorola

Samsung may be mulling over the purchase of webOS – recently orphaned by HP – in a move to protect itself from an increasingly unfriendly Apple and the threat of Google and its new toy, Motorola Mobility. Or so say "sources from notebook players", speaking with the Taiwanese rumor-and-news website, DigiTimes. Notice the word …

Mobile 29 Aug 2011, 16:37
Seven lessons from the HP Touchpad fire sale

The tablet effect is real. Really

The unfolding saga surrounding the HP Touchpad contains a goldmine of salutary tales. So, just what can we learn from the last few days? Anyone who says they expected the fire sale of HP touchpads to turn into a global gadget grab is a liar. Fortunately nobody has yet, not publicly anyway – indeed, apart from a few bits of …

Management 29 Aug 2011, 18:36
Sprint issues iPhone 5 gag rule to staff

'iPhone? What iPhone?'

If you ask a Sprint employee whether they'll offer the iPhone, don't expect a straight answer – the company has told their staff to clam up if asked. So says an purported "internal memo" snagged by the Sprint fanboi website, SprintFeed. The memo – if it's real, that is – was prompted by a Wall Street Journal report last week …

Mobile 29 Aug 2011, 18:39
Hackers penetrate website for Nokia developers

Named and shamed by Homer Simpson

Nokia suffered an embarrassing security breach over the weekend when hackers penetrated one of its community websites and accessed names, email addresses, and other information belonging to developers of smartphone apps. Nokia posted a message that warned developers that their information was exposed after hackers exploited a …

Security 29 Aug 2011, 18:45
Fraudulent Google credential found in the wild

Did counterfeit SSL cert target Iranians?

Security researchers have discovered a counterfeit web certificate for Google.com circulating on the internet that gives attackers the encryption keys needed to impersonate Gmail and virtually every other digitally signed Google property. The forged certificate was issued on July 10 to digitally sign Google pages protected by …

Security 29 Aug 2011, 20:54
Russian rocket flub threatens to empty ISS

Current residents must come down. New ones can't go up

NASA has announced that there's a good chance that, come November, the International Space Station will be uninhabited for the first time in a decade, but the US space agency says not to worry. Much. "We know how to do this," NASA's ISS manager Mike Suffredini said at a Monday press conference, according to Space.com. " …

Science 29 Aug 2011, 23:03
Aussie satellite company scores $US134m capacity deal

Second multi-million contract in a month

Australian satellite communications company NewSat has secured a ten year $US134 million capacity agreement with Pakistani service provider 3A Technology for carriage on the yet to be launched Jabiru-1 satellite. The multi-million dollar deal is its second in a month, following on from the $US105 million contract with …

Business 29 Aug 2011, 23:11
Samsung will add cross-suits in Oz

Court stalls fondleslab release again

In yesterday’s directions hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney, the only new detail to emerge in the Apple-versus-Samsung international lawyers’ progressive dinner is that Samsung will follow its international fightback strategy and file counter-suits against Apple. Apple has refrained from adding anything to its few public …

Business 29 Aug 2011, 23:45