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27th October 2011 Archive

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  • Super Micro revved up for impending Xeons, Opterons

    Old iron selling like hotcakes

    White-box server and motherboard maker Super Micro is champing at the bit for Intel and Advanced Micro Devices to get their next generation of server processors out of the fabs and into its hands. But just the same, the company has done a good job selling it existing Xeon 5600 and Opteron 6100 servers as it waits, one has to …

    Servers 27 Oct 00:13

  • UK wants our geeky army

    Initiative launched to lure tech Aussies to UK

    Australian ICT and digital media companies seeking to expand to the UK are being targeted via a new drive from UK Trade & Investment. The body has launched Go UK a business plan competition open to Australian and New Zealand businesses with an interest in crossing the pond. UKTI says it assisted around 40 Australian companies …

    Business 27 Oct 00:30

  • Consumer Watchdog lambasts Los Angeles over Google Apps

    Unfortunately, the council meeting is next week

    Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court has given Los Angeles city council members an impassioned speech about the failings of its Google Apps contract, even though the meeting to discuss the issue has been moved to next week. He claimed that schools in the Los Gatos Union School District, about an hour south of San Francisco …

    Cloud 27 Oct 00:30

  • RIM faces legal action following service outages

    Canucks quick to class action suit

    RIM has been sued in its home country following the series of outages that hit customers throughout much of the world. The suit has been filed on behalf of a Canadian user of a Blackberry Curve 9300, who paid $25 a month for 1GB of access and lost service for a day and a half. The user wants to be compensated to the tune of $1 …

    Mobile 27 Oct 01:02

  • ASX down, blames glitch

    Traders curse screens, mark time

    Unexplained “technical difficulties” have frozen the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) since shortly after 10am this morning, 27 October. As a result, the exchange has placed a halt on all trading, termed “enquiry mode”. There is no word from the exchange on what has caused the problem or when trading will be resumed. The …

    Business 27 Oct 01:07

  • Orbitsound T12v3 spatial soundbar

    Review Flatscreen fortifier

    The popular Orbitsound T12 soundbar has reached its third version. Retailing for the same price as version two, the new edition looks the same externally but there are various improvements inside, including a better subwoofer speaker, higher quality components for the main speaker drivers and an extended volume range. The T12 …

    reghardware 27 Oct 06:00

  • Insulin pump hack delivers fatal dosage over the air

    Sugar Blues, James Bond style

    In a hack fitting of a James Bond movie, a security researcher has devised an attack that hijacks nearby insulin pumps, enabling him to surreptitiously deliver fatal doses to diabetic patients who rely on them. The attack on wireless insulin pumps made by medical devices giant Medtronic was demonstrated Tuesday at the Hacker …

    Security 27 Oct 06:23

  • Cabinet Office on £2m digital talent hunt

    28 new hires to get the civil service up to speed

    The government department charged with running the Civil Service is looking for developers to transform the public sector – and they're prepared to pay £2m to get the best. Whitehall's digital tsar Mike Bracken just announced 28 new digital jobs at the Cabinet Office (with pay packets ranging from £59k-£117k a year), declaring …

    Government 27 Oct 07:30

  • Windows XP and iPod: A tale of two birthdays

    Unwanted versus unforgettable

    This week is remarkable for two 10-year computing anniversaries: that of the Apple iPod and of Microsoft's Windows XP. Both should be celebrated for their success and impact on consumers and tech sector. But while Apple's iPod will be celebrated in the history of its creator and – no doubt – the annals of computing history as …

    Operating Systems 27 Oct 08:01

  • Credit card companies plan to sell your purchase data to advertisers

    Evil plot may end up buried in the T&Cs ...

    Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc are working on a system for delivering online behavioural adverts to consumers based on what they buy in shops, according to media reports. The US-based credit card networks have developed "preliminary" plans to place shoppers into groups based on their in-store purchasing history and sell the …

    Business 27 Oct 08:30

  • Sony and Ericsson divorce

    Sony gets the business, Ericsson the cash ...

    Sony is paying €1.05bn in cash to buy out its partner in mobile telephony, though it gets ongoing patent rights and ownership of some key intellectual property as security. The deal has been approved by both sides, and is expected to complete by January, enabling Sony to start dropping mobile phones into its whole product …

    Mobile 27 Oct 08:38

  • Vlingo

    iOS App of the Week Siri-ous competition

    One of the standout features of the new iPhone 4S is the Siri voice-recognition assistant. Siri started out as just an ordinary third-party app until it was swooped up by Apple, and there are still a number of similar rivals that you can use to add voice-recognition features to older iPhones, as well as the iPod Touch and iPad …

    reghardware 27 Oct 09:00

  • Inside WD's flooded Thai factory

    Hard drive maker is wet wet wet...

    There is an eerie calm inside Western Digital's flooded hard disk drive plant near Bangkok. It has been transformed into a silent lake. Photo images sent to us and posted on Facebook show the plant rising out of a sea of floodwater. Here are three of the images. First, the approach to the plant: Click to enlarge Closer to …

    Channel Register 27 Oct 09:29

  • Samsung gets fast-track appeal on Tab injunction

    Aussie court gives firm expedited hearing on Apple's fondleslab ban

    Samsung Electronics has won court approval to fast-track its appeal against the ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. The Korean company didn't look like it was going to catch a break in its ongoing patent battles with Apple after the last few decisions went against it, but it has been granted an expedited hearing by the …

    Law 27 Oct 09:45

  • Telecom World tries to shake off its paper-pushing reputation

    ITU Telecom World UN still caught in Barcelona envy

    ITU Telecom World is the UN's chance to push out the message that broadband internet is a human right, but the now-annual event is also pitching itself as a grown-up version of the increasingly infantile Mobile World Congress. Just like Mobile World Congress which takes place annually over valentines in Barcelona, Telecom …

    Mobile 27 Oct 10:04

  • Crypto boffins uncover rogue task risk on Amazon cloud

    AWS drops the SOAP, plugs backdoor quickly though

    Security researchers have unearthed a flaw in Amazon Web Services that created a possible mechanism for hackers to take over control of cloud-based systems and run administrative tasks. The flaw, which affected Amazon's EC2 cloud and has already been plugged, could have been abused to start and stop virtual machines or create …

    Infrastructure 27 Oct 10:19

  • Nokia takes NFC phones to New York subway

    If it ain't American, it ain't happening

    Despite eschewing NFC payments in the rest of the world, Nokia will be testing a handset capable of paying for subway tickets in New York, and before the end of 2011. The news came as a footnote to Wednesday's releases, and simply stated that the Finnish company so publicly embracing Microsoft is also working with the New York …

    Wireless 27 Oct 10:39

  • Sony KDL-40HX723 40in LED 3D TV

    Review A better class of Bravia

    The KDL-40HX723 is a feature-heavy 40in Freeview HD TV from the posh end of Sony’s 2011 catalogue. While it sells for a tad more than a looky-likey from the brand’s bread and butter EX range, the premium is worth paying if you want to see what Sony’s picture boffins are really capable of. Quality viewing: Sony's Bravia KDL- …

    reghardware 27 Oct 11:00

  • Virgin Media touts high-speed signups and TiVO

    Squeezes nearly 2 extra quid a month from users in Q3

    Virgin Media claims half a million people now subscribe to its high speed 30 Mbit/s cable service, with 178,000 on the 50 Mbit/s or 100 Mbit/s plans. The company clawed back 6,300 broadband punters in the third quarter of 2011. The company made a pre-tax loss of £74m in the quarter, compared to a £10m profit a year ago, but …

    Financial News 27 Oct 11:14

  • Mozilla delivers Binged-up Firefox browser

    Seeing the web through Microsoft's eyes

    Mozilla has released a customised version of Firefox that defaults to Microsoft's Bing. The customised Firefox, released yesterday, sets Bing as your default search engine in the search box. AwesomeBar will also set Bing.com as your home page. If Bing on Firefox is your thing, you can download it here. Existing Firefoxers can …

    Developer 27 Oct 11:29

  • Price-slashing fails to ignite PlayBook sales

    Channel says fondleslab fever bypassing RIM

    RIM's little-loved fondleslab is failing to get the tills ringing, even after significant price cuts, channel partners have claimed. BlackBerry PlayBook prices were cut by $200 in the US last month as retailers cried out for something extra to help shift mountain mounting stock levels estimated at some half a million units …

    reghardware 27 Oct 11:39

  • Google won't face Oracle in court until next year

    Judge proposes three-phase trial to deal with copyright and patent issues

    The Oracle v Google patent punch-up definitely won't be heard this year, according to a court filing. The Northern California court judge, William Alsup, has said that "the trial will not be in 2011", in a filing that also lays out the trial plan for the case. Oracle is suing for both copyright and patent infringement over …

    Law 27 Oct 11:50

  • China Central TV comes to Freeview

    It's broadcast, but not as you know it

    China Central Television is coming to Freeview HD, but not as a broadcast television channel. It will have its own channel number, but it won't be broadcast in the UK or subject to UK broadcast rules. CCTV is taking advantage of the Vision IPTV platform, which started supplying internet video streams to UK Freeview HD boxes in …

    Music and Media 27 Oct 12:01

  • Groupon will replace 1 in 10 sales staff to ensure growth

    Repeat customers... Who needs 'em?

    Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has told potential IPO investors that the company will be replacing 10 per cent of its sales staff in a push to get better deals from merchants and continue to grow. Mason, who was talking to investors in Boston as part of the initial public offering roadshow for the daily deals site, said the company …

    Financial News 27 Oct 12:16

  • Google Maps API now costs $4 per 1,000 requests

    Devs will have to cough up

    Apps and websites that use the Google Maps API will soon have to pay $4 per 1,000 visitors Google announced today. There is an allowance for small sites – the first 25,000 map-loads a day are free. The toll has been on the way since Google updated the Maps API's Terms of Service in April and was scheduled to kick in at the …

    Developer 27 Oct 12:29

  • Earth escapes obliteration by comet

    Elenin breaks up into teeny bits and misses planet

    NASA has released another statement on Comet Elenin, the totally insignificant comet it keeps giving out statements about, to say that it has broken up into "smaller, even less significant, chunks of dust and ice". "This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as the original comet, completing its …

    Space 27 Oct 12:44

  • Google splurges $1.5bn on acquisitions in nine months

    Not including the $12.5bn it'll spunk on Motorola

    Google has managed to spend around $1.5bn on acquisitions in the last nine months, including $265m in the month of September alone, according to a regulatory filing. The official form for its quarterly earnings for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also detailed that the Chocolate Factory had splurged $151m on …

    Financial News 27 Oct 13:01

  • Privacy warning as cops lean on domain registrars

    Mind-boggling delays lead to hasty fixes in Dakar

    Internet policy experts have warned about possible threats to privacy and an increased risk of police domain name seizures after domain firms were pressured into overhauling how they do business. Intense criticism from governments including the US and UK, prompted by their respective cybercrime agencies, this week forced …

    Hosting 27 Oct 13:29

  • Crescent Electronics proposes CVA

    East Sussex e-tailer seeks distie support to ease cashflow woes

    E-tailer Crescent Electronics is putting together a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with business advisory ChannelMoney. The East Sussex-based online reseller ran into "temporary" financial difficulties in the last month, managing director Alastair Croker told El Reg. "Two major sources of revenue and traffic were …

    Channel Register 27 Oct 13:29

  • Acer execs play musical chairs

    Who's sitting down with thump?

    Acer is shuffling the chairs on its exec deck with EMEA president Walter Deppeler moving to become chief marketing officer, and head of the China operations Oliver Ahrens replacing him. Long-serving exec Deppeler will also lead global marketing and branding, assuming the responsibilities of Gianpiero Morbello who left in the …

    Channel Register 27 Oct 14:01

  • Cops find hackers' phone in NOTW office

    Handset was codenamed 'The Hub'...

    Police have discovered the existence of a mobile phone known as "the Hub" which was used by News of The World journalists to hack over 1,000 voicemails between 2004 and 2006, according to The Independent. The phone sat on the news desk of the now-defunct newspaper and was used to illegally access 1,150 numbers between 2004 and …

    Crime 27 Oct 14:29

  • Porsche finds top gear with BlackBerry design

    Custom RIM job

    RIM gave BlackBerry a lap of honour this week, announcing the speedy arrival of a smartphone crafted collaboratively with Porsche Design. The BlackBerry P'9981, officially unveiled in Dubai today, rocks up looking rather edgy, with a brushed stainless steel casing and leather back panel. The P'9981 resembles a luxury version …

    reghardware 27 Oct 14:45

  • Machine translation cracks 18th century occult cipher

    Secret society members were thrilled by ... eye surgery

    Statistical translation techniques have been successfully applied to decode an 18th century document written using an encryption scheme that has baffled scholars for decades. The Copiale Cipher was found in book housed in an East Berlin Academy after the Cold War. The book’s pages contained about 75,000 neatly hand-written …

    Science 27 Oct 15:01

  • Scrambling for spectrum: What to do when we run out

    ITU Telecom World Snatch it off the military or build more base stations?

    The lack of radio spectrum is probably the most debated subject amongst the delegates at the ITU's annual talking shop, with the military, emergency services and broadcast TV all in the firing line as punters want more data. Mobile data consumption is rising, and the popular airwaves are getting full, but strategies for …

    Wireless 27 Oct 15:29

  • Google indoor Streetview images go live

    Merchants waggle their tools at innocent Googlers

    Google's cameras on sticks will be peering inside buildings starting from now as they start to incorporate the inside of shops and commercial properties onto Google Streetview. Business Photos by Google are accepting applications from shops and businesses from today. Restaurants, gyms and shops from around the world can apply …

    Software 27 Oct 16:01

  • Respect your BOFH or watch your small biz fail

    Study says hierarchical position of IT important for success of SMEs

    Small and medium manufacturing businesses that don't put IT high up in their strategy decisions are scuppering their chances of success, according to a new study. Researchers at Concordia University in Canada looked at IT performance at 44 manufacturing SMEs (those with between 10 and 299 employees) in France and found that …

    Small Biz 27 Oct 16:29

  • Europe is computer biz disaster zone, says Avnet

    Blames EMEA econ woes as numbers crash into wall

    Avnet's top line growth stalled in Q1 largely due to the testing macroeconomic landscape in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) after seven consecutive quarters of increases. Pro-forma revenues for the trading period ended 1 October were flat on a constant currency basis at $6.4bn (£4bn), operating profit was up 14.7 …

    Channel Register 27 Oct 16:53

  • OpenLogic floats multi-language custom cloud service

    CloudSwing promiscuous with platforms

    OpenLogic has launched a platform-as-a-service dubbed CloudSwing, which it is touting as the most flexible yet for the enterprise developer. The service has pre-built stacks for Java, Ruby, PHP, and JavaScript, with platforms based on Rails, Tomcat, LAMP, node.js, and nginx. Users can create their own stacks using blends of …

    Platform 27 Oct 18:16

  • As iPhone 4S battery suckage spreads, fixes appear

    But not from Apple

    Ever since the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 were released earlier this month, early adopters have flooded the web with complaints about reduced battery life and overheating handsets. But now a few solutions have emerged from multiple sources – but not from Apple, unfortunately. "So... is this going to be considered 'Battery-gate' or ' …

    Mobile 27 Oct 19:42

  • Apple sending sun-juiced iPads to rural Zimbabwe

    Updated To replace unused or stolen computers

    If you want a solar-powered iPad 2 with a pico projector, get a job as a school teacher in Zimbabwe, where Apple has entered into a joint venture with the Mugabe government to supply such setups to rural schools. "Great meeting with Apple today in Paris - unveiled a fascinating new 'School Box' which will take iPads to the …

    Mobile 27 Oct 20:07

  • (At least) 4 web authentication authorities breached since June

    SSL security chain as good a broken

    At least four web authentication authorities have reported being compromised in as many months, according to research from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that renews serious questions about a technology millions of websites rely on to remain secure. EFF Technology Projects Director Peter Eckersley compiled the data by …

    Enterprise Security 27 Oct 20:53

  • Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes first commercial flight

    Airliner makes much-delayed safe landing

    The first commercial flight of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet has touched down safely and on time at Hong Kong, a little over three years after it was due to arrive. The flight from Narita Airport, Tokyo only took the passengers four and a half hours, but Boeing had originally planned to supply All Nippon Airways (ANA) …

    Science 27 Oct 20:55

  • AMD beats analysts' bets with profitable quarter

    If only they had been able to bake more chips

    AMD beat the Street when reporting its financial results for the third quarter of 2011, with earnings per share of 13¢ on revenues of $1.69bn. According to Thompson Reuters, the consensus of 29 professional analysts was that AMD would report earnings per share of 10¢ on revenues of $1.65bn. "Strong adoption of AMD APUs drove …

    Financial News 27 Oct 20:56

  • Datacom, Revera expanding NZ cloud

    Gummint contract spurs data centre builds

    Datacom is to build a new data centre after sharing a New Zealand government contract with IBM and Revera. The company is to become a supplier of cloud and data centre services to New Zealand, and has announced Hamilton as the home for its new Tier 3 data centre to support the win. Its ten-year contract is with a cross- …

    Cloud 27 Oct 21:28

  • Friends join Facebook's Open Compute project

    Open Compute Summit What's not to like about open source hardware?

    Back in April, when Facebook opened up its Prineville, Oregon data center, it really opened it up. The social media giant didn't just give a tour of the data center and brag about its smarts; it open sourced the server, rack, battery backup, and data center designs so anyone can use them an innovate on top of them as part of …

    Data Centre 27 Oct 21:44

  • Southern Cross Cable ramps up network

    Phase H looked after by Ciena

    New Zealand cable outfit Southern Cross Cable Networks has secured vendor Ciena for the expansion of its subsea cable network infrastructure. The cable company is embarking on Phase H of its ongoing network upgrades ramping up capacity by 2T bps in the first half of 2012. The Phase H upgrade will implement Ciena's 40 Gbps …

    Telecoms 27 Oct 22:00

  • HP flip-flops on sale of Personal Systems Group

    We love PCs, after all

    Meg Whitman, who in September replaced the deposed Leo Apotheker as president and CEO of HP, has decided that “exploring options” for the company’s PC business will not, after all, involve selling the division. Whether in response to indifference to the opportunity to buy its Personal Systems Group, or because it’s decided …

    PCs & Chips 27 Oct 22:08

  • Fact check clears Czech in botnet case

    Redmond removes dotFREE from defendant list

    Microsoft has announced that it’s dropped dotFREE from its ongoing lawsuit over the Kelihos botnet. In a blog post dated October 26, senior attorney of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit Richard Boscovich says neither dotFREE nor its owner, Dominique Alexander Piatti, were involved in Kelihos. Piatti’s case was unusual, in that …

    Spam 27 Oct 22:30

  • Facebook triple stuffs Swedish data center

    Open Compute Summit It's boxy, but good – and very cold

    In concert with the launch of the Open Compute Foundation on Thursday in New York, social media giant Facebook announced it is building a data center in Sweden close to the Arctic Circle, its first outside of the United States. The massive data center, which will be three times the size of the 300,000 square footer that …

    Infrastructure 27 Oct 23:26

  • Urban legend nips iiNet 'subliminal' campaign

    Free TV punts 'two-frame freebie' ads

    Australian ISP iiNet has pulled a TV advertising campaign after its two-frame “Easter egg” fell foul of this country’s advertising rules. The ISP’s idea would probably win awards rather than criticism in a less po-faced country: once news escaped about the Easter Egg, thousands of viewers reversed their normal TV ad-watching …

    Business 27 Oct 23:30

  • AMD CEO vows 'maniacal' chip-baking fix

    Customer trust 'eroded', not 'irreversibly damaged'

    AMD's newish president and CEO fairly flaggelated himself for his company's failure in execution during its last quarter, a failure that caused Intel's only real competition to do the unthinkable: leave money on the table. "We saw both 32 and 45 nanometer supply challenges during the third quarter," Rory Read told analysts and …

    PCs & Chips 27 Oct 23:57

  • Google+ opens up to enterprises and apps

    Catching up to Facebook, feature by feature

    As promised at last week’s Web 2.0 Summit, Google has opened its social networking site to enterprises, via integration with Google Apps. The move will see hundreds of companies pouring onto the social network and setting up business pages. Over the next few days customers of Google Apps for Business or free customers will get …

    Cloud 27 Oct 23:58