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1st September 2011 Archive

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  • Oz teachers lugging obsolete lappies

    Victorian departmental lease terms under attack

    A change to government policy in Victoria will see teachers saddled with old and discontinued laptops under a four-year lease that they have to pay for out of their own pockets. According to Victorian assistant principal and blogger Richard Lambert, the policy change by that state’s education department not only extends the …

    Government 1 Sep 00:01

  • Antitrust nemesis accuses Google of 'WMD program'

    Algorithm update 'targets vertical search rivals'

    Foundem – the UK-based vertical search engine that sparked antitrust investigations into Google on both sides of the Atlantic – has accused the web giant of demoting vertical search competitors with the latest major update to its famous search algorithms, an update officially aimed at reducing "webspam". In a document (PDF) …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 01:24

  • Samsung Tocco Icon budget mobile

    Review Vocal style

    While smartphones grab the headlines and an ever-increasing slice of the market, cheap 'n' cheerful feature phones that focus on the basic job of communicating have had to raise their game. Indeed, the Tocco Icon builds on Samsung’s Tocco Lite, upgrading the touch screen from resistive to capacitive and adding Wi-Fi. Samsung' …

    reghardware 1 Sep 07:00

  • Sony Android tablets in-bound

    IFA 2011 Android 3.1 now; 3.2 in November

    Sony will bring its Android tablet and would-be iPad beater, the 9.4in, 1280x800 Tablet S, to Europe this month. The flip-open Tablet P will be out here in the same timeframe. The 598g S is based on Nvidia's 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, and will come in 'Wi-Fi only' and 'Wi-Fi plus 3G' versions. The clamshell P has two 5.5in, …

    reghardware 1 Sep 07:48

  • Scotland Yard cancels £20m IT tender

    Plodware deal shifted onto different bureaucro-mechanism

    The Metropolitan Police Authority has cancelled its tender for a new custody and case-preparation system in favour of using a framework run by the Government Procurement Service. It has published a cancellation of the tender notice, which was posted in May and valued at up to £20m, in the Official Journal of the European Union …

    Policing 1 Sep 07:56

  • Sony drives DAB+ motoring

    IFA 2011 Tunes up in-car entertainment

    Sony has announced its first DAB+ car radio that’s due to hit the road early next year. The CDX-DAB700U is touted as a CD receiver with DAB/DAB+/DMB-R support as well as FM/AM reception. If loading a CD seems a bit too 1980s for you, MP3, WMA and AAC discs are also playable as well as audio from USB flash drives and, of …

    reghardware 1 Sep 08:21

  • UBS tells IT contractors: Take a 10% pay cut ... or 100%

    Gnomes of Zurich still sharing their pain generously

    UK contract IT staff at Swiss bank UBS have been given the choice of taking a 10 per cent pay cut or receiving four weeks' notice. UBS informed outsourced workers that due to the current economic climate, it had decided to reduce rates and those who did not want to accept the new rates would be let go, with some given less …

    CIO 1 Sep 08:28

  • Sony Ericsson launches Xperia Arc S

    IFA 2011 Its fastest Android smartie yet

    Sony has given its Xperia Android smartphones range a boost with the Arc S, it’s fastest model yet featuring a 1.4GHz CPU. The Xperia Arc S remains in keeping with the sleek styling of the rest of the range and includes an 8.1Mp camera with 3D/2D sweep panorama functions, 720p video and HDMI support. This latest Sony smartie …

    reghardware 1 Sep 08:49

  • Ford readies in-car Sync for 2012 release

    IFA 2011 MyKey to limit what the kids can do with your car, too

    Ford today re-iterated its plan to bring its voice-activated in-car navigation and entertainment system, Sync, to the UK next year. Pitching the Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive-powered kit to the tech industry at IFA 2011 in Berlin, Ford executives said Sync will debut in 2012 in the new Ford Focus. Sync provides the …

    reghardware 1 Sep 08:59

  • Haiti study: Mass mobile phone tracking can be laudable

    You'll wish the gov had huge snoop powers - in a quake

    A new study uses the movements of mobile phones during the Haiti earthquake, and cholera epidemic, to accurately show where people went during the disasters, and where help should be delivered. Studying location data stored by Haiti's biggest network operator, Digicel, Swedish boffins got more accurate estimates of population …

    Mobile 1 Sep 09:01

  • The real reason Google bought Motorola

    Analysis Patents are nice, but lovely tax losses are worth more

    I think we all know that Google's pretty good at, um, obeying tax laws to the letter. For example, they've paid an entire £8m in UK corporation tax on revenues of some £6bn from 2004 to 2010. Here the game is wrapped up in things like the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich", entirely legal moves which put the revenues …

    Business 1 Sep 09:18

  • Ford unwraps Evos cloud-connected concept car

    IFA 2011 Nice tech, nicer looks

    Now, we're not sure we entirely approve of a cloud-connected car capable of resetting your alarm clock - also net linked - because a colleague has delayed a meeting, but that's the vision Ford pitched today at IFA. It gave a taster of Evos, a concept car it will be unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a few weeks' time, …

    reghardware 1 Sep 09:26

  • US judge tells Levi's to take its Euro problems to Europe

    Gardening-trouser giant in row with online trader

    A US court has said that it did not have a duty to rule whether an online trader had breached EU trademark laws. Under the terms of the US Code and US Constitution – the underlying principles upon which US laws are constructed – federal courts can issue judgments in "supplementary jurisdiction" if claims made in cases "are so …

    Law 1 Sep 09:37

  • TextGrabber

    iOS App of the Week OCR on your iPhone

    I often use the camera on my iPhone to take quick snapshots of telephone numbers and other bits of information that I see when I’m out and about during the day. When I get home, I have to write the info down somewhere, or maybe enter it into my contacts or some other app on the iPhone. That’s a tedious little chore, so I was …

    reghardware 1 Sep 10:00

  • UK-US corporate world slams 'dot-brand' domain plans

    The Man lawyers up, gets in ICANN's grille

    Lobby groups representing a majority of US advertisers and online media companies have demanded that domain name overseer ICANN slam the brakes on its controversial new generic top-level domains programme. Claiming the gTLD programme is "likely to cause irreparable harm and damage", the US Association of National Advertisers ( …

    Hosting 1 Sep 10:13

  • Apple Store newspaper headlock may be slipping

    Comment No need to put up with Jobsian gouging, even in iOS

    There was praise aplenty last week when Steve Jobs stepped aside as Apple CEO. Jobs was lauded as the saviour of newspapers and the man who halted the "inevitable" trend towards unpaid or low-paid production of free digital media. But like the Marshall Plan aid, the Jobs Plan aid came at a very high price. Newspapers don't …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 10:26

  • Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 gets aired

    IFA 2011 The film buff's fondleslab?

    At IFA in Berlin today, Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Tab 7.7 Android tablet and, with its 1280 x 800-pixel touchscreen, claimed a world’s first for display resolution on a 7.7in tablet. This latest addition to the Galaxy Tab range features a dual core 1.4GHz processor and runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). It is available in 16, 32 …

    reghardware 1 Sep 10:36

  • Tricky Xbox 360 hack claimed to work 1 try in 4

    New slim Redmond console pwned like a bitch

    Hackers reckon they have come up with a way to circumvent the security of Xbox 360 gaming consoles via an attack that allows them to inject unsigned code into the heart of the system. The so-called Reset Glitch Hack, developed by hackers GliGli and Tyros, creates a means to load code into a console's CPU. This makes it more …

    Enterprise Security 1 Sep 10:42

  • Deciphering the secrets of network encryption

    Focus on all-round security

    Modern data centres are pools of shared resources and segmenting the data in them has become a requirement as much for regulatory as for security reasons. It is no longer enough simply to provide access and expect individual users to take care of security themselves. Relying on file system permissions or even virtual …

    Network Fabric 1 Sep 11:00

  • Prototype iPhone 5 lost in bar, right on schedule

    Time for the annual Jesus-mobe-left-in-pub story already?

    Apple has to wonder if it's really hiring the cream of the crop when another of its employees manages to leave a another prototype iPhone in a bar. Yes, in a story we've all heard before, some hipster from Apple went out on the town with the prototype, presumably under the guise of some sort of testing, and then accidentally …

    Mobile 1 Sep 11:01

  • Vivendi ponders EMI buy, as its games biz rivals music

    Activision Blizzard snapping at Universal's heels

    The world's biggest record company, Vivendi-owned Universal Music, is looking at EMI – but is non-committal about an acquisition. "We have the strongest music business in the world, but we have a duty to look at their assets and see if any make sense," Vivendi boss Jean-Bernard Levy said yesterday. Music is but a small part …

    Business 1 Sep 11:17

  • IBM builds biggest-ever disk for secret customer

    Analysis 120 PB monster 'for simulation'. Nuke labs?

    Flash may be one cutting edge of storage action, but big data is causing developments at the other side of the storage pond, with IBM developing a 120 petabyte 200,000-disk array. The mighty drive is being developed for a secret supercomputer-using customer "for detailed simulations of real-world phenomena" according to MIT's …

    Storage 1 Sep 11:32

  • UK to make White Space devices legal

    Can anyone can make them practical?

    The feedback from Ofcom's consultation on White Space has convinced the regulator to push ahead of Europe and get deployments by 2013 – if the technology can be shown to work. Ofcom received 25 non-confidential responses to its consultation, which was published in November last year. Based on those comments the regulator is to …

    Wireless 1 Sep 11:41

  • Philips extends Fidelio sound quality to headphones

    IFA 2011 Outs Android phone-friendly docks too

    We've rated the quality of the sound pumped out by Philips Fidelio family of iPod docks - now Android friendly, thanks to the micro USB docking tech into the new AS111, AS351and AS851 speakers - and we have to give an initial thumbs up to its first Fidelio headphones too. The L1 provide large, semi-open backed - kind of - cans …

    reghardware 1 Sep 11:45

  • Crystal Video wireless HDMI kit

    Review 5GHz WHDI video streaming made easy, ish

    WHDI really can send HD video across a house at 1080p resolution and without compression. But for the same money you could get a pair of Blu-ray players, so you've got to really care about streaming that content. The technology was demonstrated at the CES event in January - and see Reg Hardware's WTF is... wireless HDMI - but …

    reghardware 1 Sep 12:00

  • Rugby World Cup reporters swap identities in login glitch

    Rugger buggers' buggy buggerup

    The Rugby World Cup has hit a security snag just over a week before the eagerly awaited tournament kicks off in New Zealand. Media partners logging into the dedicated media centre system were confronted with the profiles of other journalists instead. Sysadmins are trying to get to the bottom of the problem, in the meantime …

    Enterprise Security 1 Sep 12:19

  • Samsung outs 5in Galaxy Note as new smartphone concept

    IFA 2011 Revamping the PDA?

    We now know what the Samsung Galaxy Note - the product name leaked last week alongside the Galaxy Tab 7.7 - actually is. It's a "new type of smartphone", apparently. Or rather it's a 5.3in, 1280 x 800 touchscreen tablet running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU with on-board dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and 21Mb/s …

    reghardware 1 Sep 12:21

  • Openwave sues: Asks for halt on iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry

    Long-abrew patent stormcloud finally rains down

    Mobile pioneer Openwave has launched action against Apple and RIM, claiming patent infringements and asking for a ban on US imports of Apple and RIM's infringing kit as well as the traditional damages. Openwave's action sees claims filed with a Delaware court which state that both Apple and RIM are infringing Openwave's …

    Mobile 1 Sep 12:38

  • TomTom fights falling satnav sales with iPad app

    Tiny, crippled nav-only fondleslabs not selling well

    TomTom has released an app for Apple's iPad as sales of its flagship personal navigation devices (PNDs) continue to fall. The Dutch firm already has an app on iPhone but said the new version, to be released in Autumn this year, would also be optimised for iPads. "Now customers have one App for all iOS devices," Corinne …

    Mobile 1 Sep 12:57

  • LG backs Sharp, Philips would-be TV apps standard

    IFA 2011 Write one app, deploy on multiple tellies

    LG has joined an initiative established by Philips and Sharp to create a standard platform for television apps. All big-name TV makers are pushing internet connectivity. All provide an foundation for content providers to plug in links to their sites, and more recent efforts present these as downloadable 'apps', an attempt to …

    reghardware 1 Sep 13:00

  • Sharp shows off 8K4K hi-res prototype telly

    IFA 2011 Putting on a display

    At IFA, Berlin Sharp set about wowing its press audience with a European premiere of it Super Hi-Vision 8K4K, 85in LCD TV, developed in collaboration with Japanese broadcaster NHK. Touted as the next-gen HD format, this telly has a knock ’em dead 7680 x 4320 resolution – 16 times higher than current HDTVs – and clocks up …

    reghardware 1 Sep 13:07

  • Microsoft delivers 'copy Apple' Windows 8 message

    Sinofsky admits 'balancing act' to avoid fondle fumble

    With Windows 8, Microsoft is joining Apple and Linux-shop Canonical in trying to make its signature operating system mouse-free and more touchable for use on devices like tablets. The approach Microsoft is taking, however, has more in common with Apple than Canonical – chief custodian of the popular Ubuntu – as Windows chief …

    Operating Systems 1 Sep 13:29

  • You like Flash, you like cache: Put 'em together to form ...

    Fusion produces Cheesy Peas style ioCache

    Wasting no time in following the trend, Fusion-io has integrated recently-acquired ioTurbine flash caching software with its hardware to create ... ioCache. Fusion bought IO Turbine in August and its ESXi plug-in software looks after a cache for virtual machines in a VMware server. Now Fusion has bundled a 600GB flash memory …

    Storage 1 Sep 14:10

  • All WikiLeaks' secret US cables are on BitTorrent in full

    The Guardian published crypto password

    Wikileaks has accused a Guardian journalist of negligently publishing the passphrase for a database of unredacted secret US diplomatic cables in a book. The encrypted database is available on BitTorrent. The book by David Leigh, Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, contains an excerpt explaining how he persuaded Julian …

    Enterprise Security 1 Sep 14:38

  • Twitter to serve unsolicited ads in Facebook style

    Crystal stream of news to be controllably polluted

    Twitter is to start pushing adverts from companies which Twitter users are not following into their tweet streams, but only ones it has decided they will be interested in: so that's OK then. At the moment, Twitter only pushes adverts into a user's stream of tweets if the Twitter user has signed up to "follow" the company …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 14:58

  • Lawsuit alleges that Windows Phone 7 tracks users

    Camera app fingered in claims

    Microsoft is facing a lawsuit that claims it tracks the location of its smartphone users, even if they ask not to be followed. A class action suit was proposed against Microsoft in a filing in the Seattle federal court. The filing alleged that the software giant had lied in its letter to Congress in May this year, when it said …

    Operating Systems 1 Sep 15:05

  • Toshiba outs 'world's thinnest, lightest' tablet

    IFA 2011 Exite engages

    Sneaky Toshiba. A day after saying its thick Thrive tablet is coming to Europe as the AT100, it unveiled a 7.7mm fondleslab, the AT200 - set to ship in the States as the Excite. It weighs an impressive 558g. It'll be the thinnest laptop… when it ships. Well, maybe - someone else may have a thinner one by then. Toshiba's …

    reghardware 1 Sep 15:11

  • Toshiba: Europeans to get specs-less 3D TV by year's end

    IFA 2011 55in, 3840 x 2160 telly inbound

    Toshiba's specs-less 3D TV, the 55ZL2, will be out in Europe by the end of the year. The 55in set, a smaller version of which was demo'd in Rome earlier this year, packs in four times as many pixels as a 1920 x 1080p TV in order to present a 3D image to nine different but fixed viewing points simultaneously. Lenses guide the …

    reghardware 1 Sep 15:23

  • TMS adds software services to RamSans

    Bulkening should make chunks-o-Flash easier to digest

    We have heard from a reliable TMS source that the company is working on a "software services solution". Until now, TMS has sold RamSan products essentially as hardware components and relied on other suppliers for the software needed to make them part of a working storage service. The RamSans are either networked flash memory …

    Storage 1 Sep 15:27

  • Google App Engine exits preview and ups prices

    All grown up, with bigger costs but better service

    Google App Engine is taking off its training wheels and charging real money from the second half of September. The service will be leaving preview status and introducing a new billing structure that will charge for an instance, which Google defines as "a small virtual environment to run your code with reserved amount of CPU …

    Platform 1 Sep 15:47

  • First Ultrabooks surface at IFA

    IFA 2011 Intel specs 'em - Toshiba, Lenovo announce 'em

    While Toshiba was announcing the Portégé Z830 - a 18mm-thick 13.3in notebook matched to Intel's Ultrabook spec - Lenovo was taking the wraps off the IdeaPad U300s - also an Ultrabook. The spec is defined entirely by the chip giant - you want to use the Ultrabook trademark on your machine, you have to spec it up the way Intel …

    reghardware 1 Sep 15:52

  • Big Blue's math shows Algorithmics worth $387m

    Risky business

    IBM has embiggened its Software Group for the second time this week with the $387m acquisition of Algorithmics. The company is a specialist in risk analytics software, which it will cram into its ever-bulging quiver full of business analytics arrows. The deal for Algorithmics, which is based on Toronto, follows a day after Big …

    Applications 1 Sep 15:58

  • VCE goes for Zaphod Beeblebrox management style

    Cisco/EMC hoopy froods know where their towels are

    Two heads are better than one: Cisco and EMC's VCE joint-venture is moving forward with a chairman and a president, but no CEO. Mark Wing-Davey plus realistic-looking second head play Zaphod Beeblebrox in the TV adaptation of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. VCE makes the converged IT stack Vblocks based on Cisco UCS …

    Data Networking 1 Sep 16:01

  • Samsung unveils 20Mp EVIL shooter

    IFA 2011 APS-C mirrorless marvel?

    At IFA today, Samsung upped the ante on the EVIL (electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lenses) marketplace by introducing the NX200, sporting a 20.3Mp APS-C CMOS sensor. Besides being a stills shooter capable with RAW support, the NX200 captures video at full HD 1080p at 30fps with stereo audio. Its sensitivity covers and …

    reghardware 1 Sep 16:21

  • 'Anon member' claims credit for WikiLeaks takedown

    Friend turns foe

    A Twitter user who claims affiliation to the infamous Anonymous hacktivist collective has claimed responsibility for launching denial of service attacks that floored WikiLeaks on Tuesday night. The attack against the whistle-blowing site occurred at the same time as less high-profile assaults against Pastebin and 4Chan, the …

    Security 1 Sep 16:42

  • Apple blasted for toxic waste spewed by iDevice suppliers

    'It's not easy being green,' Cupertino replies

    Apple has come under blistering criticism after Chinese environmentalists accused Cupertino's Chinese partners of discharging toxic metals when manufacturing iPhones, iPads, and other must-have products. In a 46-page report issued Wednesday, The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing said it documented …

    Environment 1 Sep 16:45

  • Apple girds loins for 'obscene iPad sales surge'

    Foxconn ships '20 million' fondleslabs

    If you need any further proof that the iPad will continue to dominate the tablet market, here's a bit of news that should remove all doubt: Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of Apple's fabulously successful fondleslab, will ship 20 million iPad 2s this quarter. So says DigiTimes when reporting Foxconn's earnings – $945.9m – for …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 19:10

  • Judge kneecaps Oracle's $1.3bn triumph over SAP

    Industrial espionage award 'grossly excessive'

    A federal judge has tossed out a November jury award would have seen SAP pay $1.3 billion to arch-rival Oracle for theft of its intellectual property. As reported by the AP, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the US District Court in Oakland, California, called the original award "grossly excessive," and said that the damages should be …

    Applications 1 Sep 21:40

  • Did NBN Co’s recruiters miss CFO's accident prone past?

    Tenure at Alcatel and Crédit Lyonnais unaccountably missed

    The sudden exit of NBN Co’s CFO, Jean-Pascal Beaufret, raises doubts over the original selection process by which the French executive was given charge over the purse strings of the Australian government’s most ambitious infrastructure project. Recent Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy documents …

    Networks 1 Sep 22:30