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30th August 2011 Archive

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  • Facebook pays bounties of $40,000 in first 3 weeks

    $5,000 'for one really good report'

    A new Facebook program that pays cash rewards to people who report security bugs on the social networking site doled out more than $40,000 in its first three weeks. According to a post published Monday by Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan, researchers in 16 different countries have collected the bounties, which can …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 00:00

  • Wikileaks shock: US watches tech news as well

    Turn on your irony detectors

    In yet another round of stunning revelations, leaked cables published on Wikileaks demonstrate clearly that US embassies assign staff to read newspapers and send digests back to America, and wherever possible, they toe the party line. What’s been leaked this time includes previously classified unclassified cables summarizing …

    Broadband 30 Aug 2011, 00:30

  • Google's anonymity ban defied by Thomas Jefferson

    Open...and Shut 'Twas commentards defeated the Brits

    The technology world loves to navel-gaze and think it's constantly breaking new ground, but as in the case of the recent debate over real names and anonymity on Google+, technology often plods over well-trodden ground. For example, if you dropped one of the American republic's "founding fathers" into the midst of the Google+ …

    Media 30 Aug 2011, 05:00

  • Paper Camera

    Android App of the Week Filter tips

    I’m not a big enthusiast of mobile phone photography. As long as the end result is in focus and the lighting doesn’t make it look like it was taken on the surface of some distant planet orbiting a green sun, I’m happy. If I want better, I use a real camera. But if your photographic emphasis is more on fun than verisimilitude, …

    Phones 30 Aug 2011, 07:00

  • NHS digital pens: The 'Total Solution'

    Will need special software to read doctors' handwriting

    An NHS procurement organisation has tendered for the first framework contract for the supply of digital pen technology, making it available to the wider public sector. Solent Supplies Team (SST), which provides a procurement service for a group of NHS trusts on the south coast, has said it wants provide a "total digital pen …

    Policy 30 Aug 2011, 08:00

  • Samsung outs Bada 2.0 smartphone trio

    Tidal wave of Waves

    Having unveiled new Galaxy M, W and Y Android smartphones last week, the South Korean giant today updated its Wave line with similar suffixes. The Wave series uses Samsung's own OS, Bada, recently updated to version 2.0. The Wave 3, Wave M and Wave Y all run Bada 2.0. They all have Bluetooth 3.0 and 72Mb/s 802.11n. Wave 3 …

    Phones 30 Aug 2011, 08:21

  • Tribunal: ICO was wrong to bin angry man's FOI request

    Council tenant's request wasn't 'vexatious', so there

    The UK's freedom of information (FOI) law watchdog was wrong to rule that an FOI request was vexatious, the Information Rights Tribunal – formerly the Information Tribunal – has ruled. The request had a "clear purpose and value" and was not "manifestly unreasonable", the Tribunal said. The Information Commissioner's Office ( …

    Government 30 Aug 2011, 08:27

  • HP Pre 3 punters peeved as expected price cut is a no show

    Pre bargains fail to materialise

    HP attempted to sell off the remaining stocks of its Pre 3 WebOS smartphone last week, but eager anticipation that it would do so at a dirt cheap price were not met, much to annoyance of a number of Reg Hardware readers who were told they'll have to cough up the full price. Having sold its TouchPad tablet for just £89 the …

    Phones 30 Aug 2011, 08:56

  • RAM prices set to 'free fall'

    Tablet love is cutting suppliers' throats

    Not content with merely rolling downhill, the price of RAM is set to drop off a cliff as the PC market slows, according to IHS iSuppli. The average selling price for DDR3 with 2 gigabit density, which is the bellwether DRAM product, is projected to drop to $1.60 in the third quarter, down 24 per cent from $2.10 in the second …

    Hardware 30 Aug 2011, 09:31

  • Red Hat's Aeolus to 'out-Linux' Rackspace's cloud

    OpenStack with a Fedora twist

    Red Hat is leading a Fedora-like effort to succeed where OpenStack has struggled in building an open-source cloud founded on broad community input. Red Hat's engineers are building Aeolus, a software suite to spin up, manage and deploy applications from physical and virtual servers to any public or private cloud. Red Hat …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 09:43

  • Pirate Bay founders launch new cyberlocker

    Yarr! Sue me again

    The founders of The Pirate Bay have launched a Rapidshare knock-off called BayFiles. Anyone can upload material to the cyberlocker without creating an account. The site does not appear to be scanning for infringement. Prepaid credit is available for €5 a month, or €45 a year. This allows freetards to fill their boots more …

    Media 30 Aug 2011, 10:05

  • Sony e-book reader line to get multi-touch screen

    PRS-T1 specs leak

    Sony's next e-book reader has slipped out, courtesy of a Dutch retailer. Bol.com subsequently pulled the page, but not before a MobileRead correspondent cut and pasted it into the forum. The Reader PRS-T1 sports a multitouch 6in, 600 x 800 E Ink Pearl display capable of presenting 16 shades of grey. It works with fingers and …

    Tablets 30 Aug 2011, 10:21

  • Next-gen Atom benchmarks show big boost for GPU

    Not much change to the CPU's abilities, mind

    Netbooks based on Intel's upcoming 'Cedar Trail' Atom CPUs - the N2600 and N2800 - may not show a big processing performance leap over their predecessors, but they will sport smart graphics core. So say benchmark tests carried out on the new Atoms for VRZone by erstwhile Reg Hardware Reviews Ed Lars-Goran Nilsson. 3DMark 06 …

    Laptops 30 Aug 2011, 10:42

  • Fake Facebook spam cannon fires double-shotted malware

    Duff Flash on top of Blackhole, both packed with ZeuS

    Malicious spam messages generated by the infamous Cutwail botnet are targeting Facebook users as potential banking Trojan victims. The messages arrive in the guise of a Facebook friend invite notification. The emails look genuine enough on casual inspection, thanks to the malware-spinners' apparent use of a genuine Facebook …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 10:51

  • Foxconn reports $17.6m 1st-half loss as robot legion grows

    Company that actually makes everything struggles

    Foxconn International, which makes components for Apple, Motorola Mobility and Nokia products, has seen considerably reduced first-half losses this year, though its outlook is still uncertain. The unit of Taiwanese electronic components conglomerate Foxconn Technology Group reported an unaudited loss of $17.6m, compared to a …

    Business 30 Aug 2011, 10:56

  • Virtualization is the new hardware, says virt kingpin

    VMworld 'I feel I can die now' - VMware chief Maritz

    Paul Maritz has been CEO at server virtualization juggernaut and cloud computing contender VMware for three years, and he has not forgotten – despite his long experience running divisions of Microsoft – that he got his first job at a mainframe company at the beginning of the minicomputer and PC revolutions. This was back in 1978 …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 11:01

  • Wacom intros scribble-saving wireless ink pen

    Digitise your doodles

    Wacom wants 150 quid for its upcoming Inkling - a pen capable of saving on a computer what you draw on paper. Sound familiar? It should - the Inkling uses essentially the same trick as the IRISnotes Executive device Reg Hardware reviewed earlier this month. Both gadgets feature a real pen with built-in motion-sensing tech …

    Hardware 30 Aug 2011, 11:08

  • Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft

    'Aargh, this crazy UI is strangling meee', wail users

    Microsoft is tangled up in ribbons again. This time its plan to expand the Office 2007 look-and-feel in Windows 8 is putting its Windows group president on the defensive. The company has confirmed reports dating from earlier this year that it is revamping the Explorer interface in Windows 8 to feature a ribbon UI. Only, as …

    Software 30 Aug 2011, 11:28

  • AT&T merger with T-mobile countdown restarted

    AT&T&T-mobile mobezilla now to birth next year

    The FCC has restarted the review process looking at the impact of AT&T's merger with T-Mobile USA, which should now complete in early December if nothing else goes wrong. The review was started in April, and was supposed to take 180 days, but the FCC halted the countdown on day 83 to provide AT&T with more time to submit its …

    Business 30 Aug 2011, 11:38

  • Ten... gaming headsets

    Product Round-up Hear my player

    I wish I had my own flat, but I don’t. Cue Slayer Reign in Blood thundering from upstairs. Six hours into a raid and my housemate comes home and turns the volume up on their shitty boombox above my head and I have completely lost any sense of immersion. Yes I could get into a ‘speaker-off’ with them but luckily I have some of …

    Top Ten 30 Aug 2011, 12:00

  • VMware reaches deeper into iPad, Android, desktop

    VMworld Nice View while watching the Horizon

    VMware is updating its View virtual desktop infrastructure stack as well as expanding coverage for its "Project Horizon" application manager – including a rebranding of its virtualization layer for Android mobile devices, formerly known as MVP and now known as Horizon Mobile. It appears that VMware wants to own virtualization …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 12:00

  • Toshiba gen-three tablet set for IFA intro

    Third time lucky with Excite?

    Third time lucky for Toshiba? Its Folio 100 Android tablet was a failure and its second attempt, the Thrive, didn't make it across the Atlantic to the UK and suffered sleep problems. So it's having another go, with a thinner model said to be shown at the IFA show later this week. The Folio 100 was an Nvidia Tegra 2-based …

    Tablets 30 Aug 2011, 12:19

  • DARPA wants a working manned starship for $500k

    Mere seed money for mighty humanity-saving organisation

    Bad-boy Pentagon boffinry bureau DARPA has now released the official solicitation for its "100 Year Starship" project, intended to get human beings making interstellar voyages within a century. We've covered the 100 Year Starship push on these pages before, and the outline idea remains the same. A very small amount of US …

    Science 30 Aug 2011, 12:26

  • Beyonce's belly: Most important thing ever, on Twitter

    Bootylicious popster's baby bump busts all records

    The Twitterati were in a frenzy after Beyonce's big news last night, setting a new Tweets Per Second (TPS) record. Beyonce announced her pregnancy at the VMAs. Photo by: AlexJohnson The announcement on the red carpet of MTV's Video Music Awards that the bootylicious R'n'B star was in the family way courtesy of husband Jay- …

    Media 30 Aug 2011, 12:27

  • Tablet wars set for Apple vs Amazon head-to-head

    Content is king. Especially if it subsidises hardware

    If Amazon makes enough tablets and prices them right, the company will sell lots of the gadgets, according to Forrester Research's Sarah Rotman Epps. "If [Amazon's tablet] is launched at the right price with enough supply, we see Amazon's tablet easily selling 3m to 5m units in Q4 alone," she said. If… If… Apple sold 7.3m …

    Tablets 30 Aug 2011, 12:46

  • Commentard-triggered and Web-2.0 lawsuits on the rise

    Yow! Numbers double to, er, 16 in a year

    The number of online defamation cases brought to English and Welsh courts has more than doubled in the past year, a new report has said. In the year up to the end of May, 16 defamation claims were made with regard to comments made online. This is in contrast to just seven such claims last year, the report said, according to …

    Law 30 Aug 2011, 13:01

  • What vegetables are best for growing in Spaaace?

    Grim diet of turd-garden cabbage, spinach for Mars 'nauts

    It's a question that must have vexed many space-loving gardeners over the years: Just what kinds of vegetables are most suitable for growing in space or at far-flung bases on alien worlds? Now, that question has a definitive answer. At a conference in America*, scientists have announced their top 10 plants, chosen for such …

    Science 30 Aug 2011, 13:20

  • Schmidt bewails Blighty's boffin-v-luvvie culture clash

    Comment You Limeys and your rubbish school IT courses

    "The more one pleases generally, the less one pleases profoundly" – Stendahl Eric Schmidt had two objectives in the TV industry keynote he delivered last Friday evening, apart from getting out of Edinburgh alive. Those objectives were simple: plug Google, and plug the internet. Schmidt went about this by being self-deprecating …

    Media 30 Aug 2011, 13:48

  • We didn't leak names of US agents, insists WikiLeaks

    'Drooling, senile and evil' big media is made of lies!

    WikiLeaks has sprung a "leak" that has reportedly resulted in the availability of unredacted copies of US diplomatic cables, according to German media outlets. WikiLeaks has admitted some sort of unspecified infosec problem while denying suggestions that its cache of US diplomatic cables has been exposed. The whistle-blowing …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 14:16

  • Sky makes iPad trolley for square-eyed shoppers

    Supermarkets set for CHAOS

    No, despite Sky's effulgent press release, you are not going to be able to watch Sky while you wheel a trolley round Sainsbury's - thank the beardy bloke up there - for some time, if ever. Sky today pitched the notion - a supermarket trolley with a bolted on iPad 2 running the satellite broadcaster's Sky Go app - as a means by …

    Hardware 30 Aug 2011, 14:29

  • Elgato readies iPad 2 TV tuner dongle

    Freeview on the freeway

    TV tuner specialist Elgato has come up with a plug-on Freeview pick-up for the iPad 2. The diminutive dongle - called the EyeTV Mobile - clips onto the popular fondleslab's dock connector and pulls down digital TV signals through a telescopic micro-antenna. Power comes from its own on-board battery, charged over a separate …

    Hardware 30 Aug 2011, 14:45

  • Pre-paid Chinese users still anonymous despite new law

    What countries permit you to have an ID-free phone?

    For the last 12 months it has been illegal to buy a mobile phone in China without presenting ID, but Chinese customers seem as reluctant to be identified as everyone else. Just like Google, the Chinese are concerned about the use of false, or non-existent, identities in the online world. Rumours abound that local versions of …

    Mobile 30 Aug 2011, 14:56

  • £69 Pre 3 spied on HP UK website

    Company willing to discuss sales options

    HP's Pre 3 smartphone has made an appearance on the company's website priced at a mere £69 including VAT. While HP's main Pre page says the WebOS handset is "sold out", the "Handheld PCs" section of the site lists the Pre 3 at the knock-down price. Previously, the Pre 3 was priced at £299. Alas, the £69 handset "may not be …

    Phones 30 Aug 2011, 15:07

  • Tony Sale, 'Colossus' crypto machine rebuilder, dies at 80

    Obituary Bletchley Park founding father and top MI5 scientist

    Tony Sale, the leader of the project to rebuild the code-breaking Colossus computer, has died at the age of 80. Sale and his wife Margaret were part of the team which, in 1991, undertook the campaign to save Bletchley Park, the site where World War II code-breakers worked to crack the German High Command's communications. Two …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 15:44

  • World ostracizes firm that issued bogus Google credential

    DigiNotar says it was breached ... but little else

    A counterfeit credential authenticating Gmail and other sensitive Google services was the result of a network intrusion suffered by DigiNotar, the parent company of the Netherlands-based certificate authority said in a press release that raised disturbing new questions about security on the internet. Tuesday's disclosure by …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 19:08

  • Apple's iTunes Match music service goes beta

    Sorry, world+dog: US developers only

    Apple's iTunes Match service – which, as its name implies, matches your music collection with tunes in Apple's iCloud – has gone beta to US developers. As reported by MacRumors and others, the announcement came in an email message to developers on Monday evening. To take advantage of the beta, devs will have to subscribe to …

    Developer 30 Aug 2011, 19:37

  • VMware, Cisco stretch virtual LANs across the heavens

    VMworld 2011 VXLAN virtualizes Layer 3 networks

    VMware and Cisco have teamed up with a quartet of fellow industry heavyweights to attack a vexing virtual-network configuration problem by proposing a solution that takes its inspiration from – of all places – cell phones. VMware has long since figured out how to teleport virtual machines around a network of servers using its …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 20:04

  • Apache squashes 'devastating' bug under attack

    Byte range vuln exposed servers to crippling DoS exploit

    Maintainers of the open-source Apache webserver have fixed a severe weakness that attackers are exploiting to crash websites. Flaws in Apache's HTTP daemon made it easy to crash servers using publicly available software released last week. The bugs in the way the HTTPD processed multiple web requests that involved overlapping …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 20:57

  • VMware sneak-peeks future 'disruptive' cloudy tech

    VMworld 2011 Rein in file sharers, run vanilla desktop apps in browsers

    In a tech tease at the VMworld extravaganza in Las Vegas, VMware CTO Steve Herrod gave a sneak peek at two projects aimed at giving end users "universal cloud access". The first one is an enterprise-grade, centrally controlled file sharing dropbox called Project Octopus. IT departments want to control who has access to what …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 22:24

  • Accenture and Telstra open cloud lab

    Making the cloud work for Australia

    Fresh from securing a multi-million dollar national government e-health contract, Accenture, along with Telstra, has invested in a new Product Innovation Lab in Melbourne to develop cloud-computing solutions for customers in Australia and New Zealand. The Lab supports the Accenture and Telstra cloud-computing alliance, and …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 22:50

  • Did Google certificate forgers hit hundreds more sites?

    Google Chrome blacklists 247 credentials

    The hack attack that minted a fraudulent authentication credential for Google.com may have affected hundreds of other websites, a review of source code for Google's Chromium browser suggests. A side-by-side review comparing code contained in an upcoming version of Chrome increased the number of secure sockets layer certificates …

    Security 30 Aug 2011, 22:51

  • Apple's cloudy music streamer won't stream music

    'Listen while you download' – with restrictions

    Apple's long-awaited iCloud music-streaming service won't actually stream your iTunes music collection. Instead, it will download tunes to your device, though you'll be able to listen to them while they are being downloaded. That's what an unnamed Apple spokesperson told AllThingsD on Tuesday after a video appeared on the …

    Cloud 30 Aug 2011, 22:56