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11th November 2011 Archive

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  • Hydro fuel-cell truck built by RMIT

    An Australian jolly green giant

    A group of researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne has unveiled what they say is the country’s first truck to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Since road transport – including the outback monsters that terrified participants and followers alike in the recent solar challenge race – accounts for an estimated 20 percent of …

    Energy 11 Nov 00:01

  • Gamers stuff Nvidia's pockets with cash

    CEO 'blown away' by Project Denver ARM server chips

    The latest round of high-def video games for PCs – namely Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and the impending launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic – have saved graphics chip maker Nvidia from being slammed by a slowdown in PC sales. In fact, explained Nvidia in a conference with Wall Street analysts call going …

    Channel Register 11 Nov 00:36

  • Nokia loses sales lure as Maps and Music apps cracked

    Yet another reason not to buy Finnish

    If Nokia is banking on its Music and Maps software will give it an edge over other Phone 7 handsets, it’s in trouble – the copy protection behind the code has been cracked. Handsets such as the new Lumia 800 are being billed as the only way to access Nokia’s extensive maps database or music playing system. However, both have …

    Mobile 11 Nov 00:52

  • Feds win access to WikiLeakers Twitter account data

    No Constitutional violations, judge says

    US Justice Department investigators have won a hard-fought campaign to access the Twitter records of three current and former WikiLeaks associates, rebuffing arguments that the document demand violated the constitutional right to free speech and a prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a 60-page opinion …

    Law 11 Nov 01:41

  • Republicans lose key vote to block FCC net neut rules

    Next stop: lawsuits

    In a rare legislative victory for the Obama administration, Senate Republicans failed to pass a resolution to express that body's disapproval of the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality regulations. The FCC's "Preserving the Open Internet" rules were proposed last December, made official when they were …

    Government 11 Nov 01:52

  • Facebook offers 20-year privacy settlement to FTC

    Another thing to get sorted out before the IPO

    Facebook appears to be close to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over complaints of users’ privacy being abused by the social networking giant. According to two people familiar with the negotiations, Facebook is offering to submit to annual privacy monitoring for the next 20 years. It may also give a commitment …

    ID 11 Nov 01:53

  • Hands on with the Sony PlayStation Vita

    First Look Touch me, play me

    It seems fair to state that for a while now Sony's PSP handheld games console has been experiencing something of long and undignified death. Even the Japanese technology giant itself saw fit to limit PSP software releases to largely redundant updates of its EyePet and Invizimals franchises – a move hardly likely to cause a …

    reghardware 11 Nov 07:00

  • IT bods to prove their prowess in bed with spooks

    Got the talent to fix UK.gov's assets?

    The British Computer Society has launched a pilot scheme to certify information assurance professionals in government. The full scheme will be launched in January 2012 and will focus on developing and delivering an Information Assurance Specialist Certification Scheme for anyone working in a government department or those …

    Government 11 Nov 08:01

  • Dish Networks looks forward to 'seat at the table' in wireless

    Doesn't have the capacity to go it alone as a 4G supplier...

    As LightSquared continues to battle for the right to deploy LTE in its mobile satellite spectrum, the other major holder of such frequencies, Dish Network, has remained enigmatic. However, on its third quarter earnings call, chairman Charlie Ergen enlarged somewhat on the firm's plans, saying it would use its proposed LTE- …

    Wireless 11 Nov 08:21

  • Amazon quietly acquires voice capability

    Everyone else is doing it!

    A company specialising in voice-recognition technology has apparently been snapped up by Amazon, and is now operating under an assumed name, for reasons which remain obscure. The company which has been acquired is called Yap, and offers voice-to-text services. Recently it shut down its public offering and merged with a company …

    Mobile 11 Nov 08:39

  • Expert: 'Right to be forgotten' could cause problems for publishers

    Proposal to 'lock' stories away rather than obliterating them

    A system where newspaper stories can be 'locked away' – but not entirely deleted from archives – under new data protection law proposals could be used to ensure a balance is struck between privacy and free speech rights, a media law expert has said. Earlier this week EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding announced that a new …

    Music and Media 11 Nov 09:01

  • Toyota, Intel connect to connect cars to web

    Highway 404 revisited?

    Toyota and Intel are to co-operate on the development of next-generation in-car systems. The two firms' announcement was short on details, long on generalisation: they will "target appropriate methods of providing information to drivers through in-vehicle systems, as well as information technologies that would enable seamless …

    reghardware 11 Nov 09:10

  • New array scoffs disks like a fat bloke gobbling doughnuts

    DataDirect pumps petabytes into supers

    DataDirect Networks customers can grow capacity with fewer racks and enclosures because it has upped the drive count from 60 to 84 drives in its new SFA12K storage products for the big data markets. Just two months after boosting its SFA10K line DDN has come out with even denser storage arrays. There are three products and …

    Storage 11 Nov 09:19

  • Another new Russian nuclear powerplant comes online

    Construction surge as Kremlin aims to ditch fossil 'leccy

    The newly-built Kalinin-4 nuclear power plant northwest of Moscow has achieved criticality, according to plant owner Rosenergoatom, some two weeks after completion of fuelling was achieved. The new power unit is expected to go into service shortly, and will become Russia's 33rd operational nuclear power plant and the fourth new …

    Energy 11 Nov 09:42

  • Logitech Wireless Touchpad

    Accessory of the Week Apple-style multi-touch on a PC, anyone?

    Most Wintel laptops now support a limited range of multi-touch gestures on their trackpads, such as the two-finger swipe to scroll up or down through long documents and web pages. However, Logitech’s new Wireless Touchpad is the first device that I’ve come across that attempts to offer PC users the same range of multi-touch …

    reghardware 11 Nov 10:00

  • Randy dwarf galaxies are making billions of baby stars

    Hubble pervs over distant prolific systems

    The Hubble telescope has picked out distant dwarf galaxies that are churning out stars at an enormous rate compared to the Milky Way. The 18 tiny galaxies – pictured below – are about a hundred times smaller than our galaxy, but they're birthing stars so furiously that they will see the number of stellar bodies double in just …

    Space 11 Nov 10:11

  • Apple posts 'battery fix' iOS update

    5.0.1 out over the air

    Apple last night rolled out iOS 5.0.1, promising that the update flattens bugs that have caused iPhone 4S owners to suffer from rapidly depleting battery syndrome. The update - available through iTunes, or from the new Software Update entry in iOS' settings app - also makes it easier for Aussies to speak to the 4S' voice …

    reghardware 11 Nov 10:14

  • European boffins on voyage of discovery to the Earth's core

    Incredibly powerful laser diamond probe declared ready

    Top European scientists say they are ready to commence an exciting voyage of discovery - to plumb the very depths of the Earth's core, and find out the mechanism by which the planet's magnetic poles disappear or reverse themselves. A titanically powerful machine employing nuclear atom-smasher technology, diamond "anvils" and …

    Physics 11 Nov 10:22

  • Tech sugar daddies shovel millions into Hadoop war

    Open ... And Shut Who will flash the most cloud cash?

    There was once an idyllic time when people like Joe Kraus described an entrepreneur's dream of starting robust companies on a shoestring budget, powered by open-source software and cloud infrastructure. Apparently Cloudera and Hortonworks didn't get the memo. Both Hadoop competitors recently raised mountains of cash at sky-high …

    Channel Register 11 Nov 10:31

  • Now Russians can't even contact their busted Mars probe

    In space, no one can hear you

    Attempts to contact the lost Russian spaceship Phobos-Grunt have so far been unsuccessful, a source in the space industry said. The unmanned craft has been lost in space since it managed to get into orbit around Earth on 9 November, but then failed to produce the two engine bursts that would have sent it on its mission to Mars …

    Space 11 Nov 10:41

  • SAP, EMC and VMware in 3-way cloud orgy

    I want your appliance in my VMAX

    SAP, EMC and VMware have signed a three-way deal about a converged EMC-SAP stack running an in-memory analytic database leading to the possibility of SAP HANA running inside VMAX arrays. SAP is the world's leading supplier of enterprise business automation software and its main competitor is Oracle. EMC is the world's main …

    Channel Register 11 Nov 10:51

  • Were Lavasoft's buyers once on its hit list?

    Shining a light on Solaria acquisition

    Anti-spyware company Lavasoft AB is now owned by a set of online entrepreneurs who have been linked with misleading websites. The Montreal-based entrepreneurs, who purchased the company's assets in January, have previously been accused of selling the free versions of Lavasoft products to unwitting internet users as recently as …

    Security 11 Nov 11:03

  • Eleven - if you will - rocktastic music movies

    Round-up We go to 11 to celebrate Nigel Tufnel Day

    11 November 2011 - 11/11/11 - is Nigel Tufnel Day, a day to celebrate pushing the envelope as far as it can possibly be pushed - and then pushing it one step beyond that. As Spinal Tap's lead guitarist would say: "An 'undred years ago, a great war - the greatest since the Romans - came to an end. It was all quiet on the Y …

    reghardware 11 Nov 11:11

  • Angry Birds to hit shop shelves this month

    Rovio flings wings to retail

    Angry Birds continues on its course toward global domination today when developer Rovio announced the game will be coming to retail later this year. The original Angry Birds is set to take flight on PCs on 25 November and will sell for around a tenner. That'll be followed by Angry Birds Rio sometime before Christmas, with …

    reghardware 11 Nov 11:15

  • Hamburg loses rag with Facebook, threatens to sue

    CURRENT Euro data protection law unlikely to agree

    Hamburg's data protection authority has reportedly given up continuing its dialogue with Facebook and is preparing to sue the company over its use of facial recognition technology. That might be tricky for the agency, however, given that the long-awaited overhaul to 1995's European data protection law has been delayed until …

    Networks 11 Nov 11:23

  • BOFH: Licence to grill ... stupid users

    Episode 18 The phone rings. Ah, live bait!

    ... "Hello, You're speaking with Simon – or rather, Version 3.1 recurring" "Sorry?" my user asks. "Version 3.1 recurring. Speaking." "Can't you just give me Office 2003 back?" he whines. "Sorry, Office 2003 is ancient history – like calculator watches, white jeans for men and the expression 'snazzy'." "Why?" "It was …

    BOFH 11 Nov 11:33

  • World's first biz computer was British – and sold teacakes

    Pictures 60th anniversary of the LEO is today

    Forget BlackBerry and Bill Gates: the first business computer in the world was British and was used to help sort the logistics for bakery distribution. Tea merchants, bakers and Wimpy burger founder J Lyons and Co instituted the enormous programmable computer – LEO – in its Hammersmith office to help with deliveries of …

    Servers 11 Nov 11:41

  • Fusion boffins crack shreddy eddy plasma puzzle

    Progress made on solving all humanity's problems

    Physicists in the US are patting themselves on the back today as they prepare to announce that they've got a grip on a knotty problem troubling anyone designing working nuclear fusion powerplants - which could solve pretty much all of the human race's problems, but have proved very difficult to actually achieve. The idea of a …

    Physics 11 Nov 11:52

  • WebOS developer? 'Grab a slab, while stocks last'

    QuotW Plus: Apple is terribly rude for ousting hacker from iOS dev programme

    This was the week when HP continued to act erratically and desperately in the marketplace by offering WebOS developers a cheap deal on the final stocks in the channel of its WebOS Touchpad, which you can get "while stocks last". Although why anyone would want a discontinued fondleslab running a soon-to-be-defunct platform is …

    Bootnotes 11 Nov 12:11

  • Valve admits forum hack exposed gamers' privates

    Punters steamed about sensitive data leak

    Steam, the online platform of video game firm Valve Corporation, has admitted that customer personal details including encrypted credit card information might have been exposed by a hack attack last weekend. The hack led to the creation of a new "promoted" discussion thread on the Steampowered forum, ostensibly promoting a …

    ID 11 Nov 12:24

  • Asda tempts technophobes with cheap PCs and broadband

    Stack 'em high and they will come, maybe

    Asda is trying to drag its price conscious Luddite punters into an internet world this Christmas by chopping the price of its notebooks and mobile broadband. Amid flakey consumer spending, the supermarket chain has vowed to stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap in a bid to undercut rivals and etailers. A spokesman told El Reg it …

    Channel Register 11 Nov 12:31

  • Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman

    Review Toe-tapping talker

    Sony Ericsson is still producing standalone Walkman devices, but the natural home for the oldest portable music player brand these days is on a phone. The Live With Walkman delivers the latest version of the music player in an Android phone with a 5Mp camera and a nippy 1GHz processor. Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman The …

    reghardware 11 Nov 12:33

  • Sony develops 'new kind of television'

    Cracking the box

    Sony plans to revive its fortunes in the TV market by launching a new type of telly that it hopes will compete with - of all companies - Apple in the future goggle-box marketplace. So said CEO Sir Howard Stringer, speaking to the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, he didn't detail the new kind of television he has in mind. …

    reghardware 11 Nov 12:35

  • Fanboi called 911 repeatedly because iPhone didn't work

    Drunken Jesus mobe stroker cuffed by deputies

    A bloke in the US has been arrested after repeatedly calling the emergency number 911 to complain that his iPhone wasn't working. The 48-year-old from Illinois called the emergency services no less than five times to moan about his Jesus mobe, according to a Kendall County Sheriff's Office report cited here. Eventually the …

    Mobile 11 Nov 12:42

  • Is Financial services IT in a mess?

    Tech Panel A reality check

    Whether it’s insurance or banking, those working in financial services keep coming in for a lot of stick. Over the years, many organisations have spent shed loads of money on IT, yet customers still complain about bad service, broken processes and the fact that nothing seems to be joined up. This brings the state of IT into …

    CIO 11 Nov 12:52

  • Fondleslabs homing in on desktops in biz sales

    iPad blows rivals out of UK market

    Fondleslabs iPads are now the third-largest revenue line for distributors across Europe as adoption by biz customers lifts off, sales-out numbers from Context reveal. The channel analyst tracks wholesale shipments from distributors to get a more accurate picture of the actual units that biz customers and consumers are buying …

    Channel Register 11 Nov 12:54

  • How to make clouds and influence accountants

    Slipping in between the beancounters and the CEO's PR bird

    The cloud might mean that the corporate accountant becomes your new best buddy. Appalling thought, I know, but beancounters aren't all that bad: they can do sums even if they can't do algebra, which puts them a step ahead of the marketing department. Of course, this time of year, when bonuses are being decided, is a great time …

    Business 11 Nov 13:02

  • Chicken fillets: The affordable alternative to Bulgarian Airbags

    Bra padding saves car crash Scot's life

    Women wanting the protection of Bulgarian airbags in a car crash situation, but wary about going under the knife will be reassured that a couple of pairs of chicken fillets makes an ample substitute. The road safety breakthrough is reported in the Daily Mail, which recounts the heartwarming story of a 28-year-old Scots woman …

    Bootnotes 11 Nov 13:12

  • EDF security bosses guilty of hacking Greenpeace

    French nuke biz fined £1.3m for cyber-spying

    French nuclear giants EDF have been fined €1.5m (£1.28m) by a Paris court for hiring spooks to hack computers and gather info on eco group Greenpeace. Two EDF security bosses - ex-cop Pierre-Paul Francois and former Rear Admiral Pascal Durieux - were given suspended jail sentences for "complicity in computer piracy". …

    Energy 11 Nov 13:24

  • Nokia's future phone sees red when you do

    Mood-aware mobe will ensure your teen never answers your calls

    Ah, the future! Once the province of sci-fi on our tellies and authors like Jules Verne, but now also frequently the subject of videos from top tech companies. Recently, Intel gave The Register a glimpse of our near future with their super-snoop smartphones which will know all about you all the time and thereby send you an …

    Mobile 11 Nov 13:31

  • Apple applies to patent a SIM you can't remove

    Only Cupertino can piss off operators that much

    Apple has been filed a US patent application on an embedded SIM capable of switching between mobile network operators under command from Cupertino, assuming the operators comply. The patent places an embedded SIM within the secure element which one would expect to see managing electronic payments, which is why it was spotted …

    Mobile 11 Nov 13:42

  • Sperm donors nicer than average, Swede study finds

    Independent and NOT shy, researchers discover

    Swedish sperm donors are more stable and mature and have better social skills than the country's manhood at large, researchers have found. Researchers at Linköping University studied 115 men at seven fertility clinics between 2005 and 2008, comparing them with a control group of sperm bank non-depositers. Donors who agreed to …

    Biology 11 Nov 13:53

  • The Adventures of Tintin: the Game

    Review Quiffly does it

    Until I was five, my dad worked at Cern and we lived in the Jura Mountains across the France-Switzerland border. At weekends my mum would take us to Jouets Weber, the largest toyshop in Geneva. It stocked a large number of Tintin books, which my mum translated to me at bedtime. Take a hit and throw up The memories of this …

    reghardware 11 Nov 14:00

  • Universal closes in on EMI. Lawsuits to follow?

    Updated Merde!

    The world's largest record company, Universal Music, is set to swallow Britain's biggest - EMI – according to reports in the financial press. The most recent rumour sees EMI going two ways: with the profitable music publishing division heading to Sony for $2.2bn, while UMG picks up the recordings for $1.9bn. Either way, it may …

    Music and Media 11 Nov 14:22

  • Google buys brace of start-ups to out-Facebook Facebook

    Slurping from the Chocolate Factory milkshake

    Google may want to insist that it is not interested in building a social network, but that didn't stop the company from buying a pair of start-ups yesterday that just so happened to be covered in social goo. Financial terms of both acquisitions were kept secret. It bought one-year-old Katango, which describes itself as an …

    Small Biz 11 Nov 14:41

  • World's only twin jet-engine bike drives onto eBay

    Pulsejet-powered cycle under the hammer

    A motorbike powered by a pair of pulsejets popped up for auction on eBay this week. Custom created by jet engine fan Bob maddox as an exclusive model for a wealthy customer, the intention was to build a two-wheeler that could exceed 200mph, biking blog Kneeslider notes. That well-heeled punter had to pull out of the purchase …

    reghardware 11 Nov 14:47

  • First scientific paper filed from Spaaaace published today

    Plasma boffinry only possible under zero gravity

    Hard-working astro-boffins have filed a scientific paper from space. Published today in the journal Europhysics Letters, it is believed to be the first article in an earthly publication ever to have been submitted from outside the planet. Editor Michael Schreiber said that the journal had always attracted manuscripts from …

    Space 11 Nov 15:03

  • Business Cloud Summit countdown

    Event 20 free Reg reader passes up for grabs

    On December 5, London's annual Business Cloud Summit kicks off with a Technology and Developer stream helmed by The Register’s own Tim Phillips. Better still, we've persuaded the organisers to give away 20 free conference passes*. The first 20 of you heading across to http://www.businesscloudsummit.com/ and entering the code ‘ …

    CIO 11 Nov 15:22

  • Gobble! some! Yahoo! now! – slurp! the! rest! later!

    Investors mull taste test

    More rumours that private equity might be the route for Yahoo!'s buyout surfaced today: a report suggests firms including KKR and TPG Capital are thinking of buying a little slice of Yahoo! in order to slurp the whole thing later. The firms could buy minority stakes of up to 20 per cent in the troubled web firm and then …

    Financial News 11 Nov 15:41

  • Boozed-up ball-biting mum spared jail

    Drinking marathon ended with lover's scrotum perforated

    A woman who admitted biting a hole in her boyfriend's scrotum was spared a stretch in prison by Newcastle Crown Court on Friday. The ball-puncturing biter, Maria Topp, a 44-year-old from Wrekenton, Gateshead, was instead handed a suspended jail term and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. She had pleaded guilty to …

    Bootnotes 11 Nov 16:01

  • Apple offers unlocked iPhone 4S online in the US

    No carrier tie-in

    Apple has begun selling unlocked iPhones through its US online shop. Prices range from $649 (£406) for the 16GB model to $849 (£531) for the 64GB 4S. That's a lot, yes, but can work out cheaper in the long run, especially if you travel overseas. Popping over to, say, Europe with an unlocked handset means you can grab a cheap …

    reghardware 11 Nov 16:14

  • Adobe's future is controlling what you watch, not delivering it

    Analysis Streaming video is so 20th century

    Adobe's decision to stop developing mobile Flash shouldn't surprise: Adobe can see there's more money in preventing people watching stuff than enabling them to do so. The news came on the back of 750 layoffs and a refocusing of the company which will see Adobe "investing aggressively in Digital Media and Digital Marketing" – …

    Software 11 Nov 16:23

  • 'Bionic' leg gives amputee ability to ski

    Step in the right direction

    If you lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, working on a building site afterward would usually be a tall order. Not for amputee Matthew Newbury, though, who became the first Briton fitted with new artificial limb, the Genium, The Daily Mail reports. Made by German firm Otto Bock Healthcare, the Genium uses sensors to detect …

    reghardware 11 Nov 16:24

  • Fully assured

    Report Service assurance: a workshop in one document

    If you were following our service assurance workshop and wanted a summary, or if you wanted to follow it but didn't have the time and then all the articles piled up and you panicked, we've got an early Christmas present. Our round-up takes all the essential points of the articles in the workshop, plus the best of your feedback, …

    Service Assurance 11 Nov 16:34

  • Feargal Sharkey moves on from UK music org

    What'll he do next for his Teenage Kicks?

    Feargal Sharkey is to step down as chief executive of UK Music, the umbrella trade organisation for music in the UK, after three years in the job. The organisation, previously known as British Music Rights, represents live music and musicians, publishing and record companies. The former Undertone helped keep the media profile …

    Music and Media 11 Nov 16:39

  • Latest Call of Duty day-one sales hit $400m

    6.5m copies sold

    Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has rung up sales totalling $400m (£250m) during the game's first day on sale. Kerching. MW3 arrived in the shops on Tuesday, and after 24 hours on sale, 6.5m copies had been sold in the UK and North America. EA's Battlefield 3 took a week to reach 5m units. EA and Activision have …

    reghardware 11 Nov 16:51

  • Student cluster compo SMACKDOWN: Texas holds at 2-1

    SC11 Taiwan 7-1, Colorado moves up

    Another few days of betting gives us a better view of how bettors handicap the SC11 Student Cluster Competition (SCC). So what do we see? The first thing that jumps out at us is that the Texas Longhorn team is still the overall favorite by a wide margin. There are a few reasons behind this. First, it’s a competitive team that …

    SC 2011 11 Nov 17:01

  • Stats king SAS surfs the analytics wave

    Blog But can number-crunching software grandad stay on the surfboard?

    One obvious beneficiary of the rush to embrace enterprise analytics and "Big Data" is the SAS Institute Inc (or just plain SAS – rhymes with "pass"), the granddaddy of statistical analysis software. But it can be argued that SAS doesn’t really need the analytics boom; they’ve been doing quite nicely up until now without it, …

    Data Warehousing 11 Nov 17:16

  • Ringtones still netting $2.1bn for music biz

    Bigger than subs, small than sales

    Gartner's latest figures on the digital music industry show that downloads are growing, but while subscriptions are minimal, ring and ring-back tones are still netting $2.1bn, to general surprise. Gartner reckons online music revenue till top $6.3bn in 2011, which compares to the $15bn or so spent on physical media (CDs and …

    Music and Media 11 Nov 17:32

  • Crooks lured investors with fake watchdog site

    Bogus promises to extract cash from bankrupt biz

    The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has closed down a website that was using its content to dupe investors. The association, which is an international group that aims to protect investors, issued a cease-and-desist letter to the State Securities Commission website, which seemed to be posing as a …

    Small Biz 11 Nov 18:03

  • Deep-sea squid go from transparent to dark as fast as a Kindle

    Amazing, living e-ink displays of the ocean

    US-based scientists have left the tech world flabbergasted today with the discovery that living e-ink displays – very bit as responsive as those found in a Kindle or similar e-reader – have been found swimming about deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. As the vid above shows, the remarkable Japetella heathi, a bulbous, short- …

    Biology 11 Nov 18:21

  • iOS upgrade swells iPhone battery-suckage grief

    'It gets WORST :('

    If you've experienced runaway battery suckage on your brand-spanking-new iPhone 4S, you won't be alone if you're still cursing your Cupertian smartphone after updating to Apple's supposed battery-fixing iOS 5.0.1. Apple admitted battery-life problems with the iPhone 4S and the new iOS 5 earlier this month, and released the iOS …

    Mobile 11 Nov 18:22

  • Yelp update ridicules Republican (ex)-hopeful Rick Perry

    Two out of three ain't bad

    Yelp has released an update for its iPhone app, and in doing so snuck in a not-too-subtle dig at Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry. For Reg readers either outside the US or living in a cave stateside, Perry uttered an epic FAIL at a Wednesday night debate, forgetting the third US government agency that he planned to …

    Government 11 Nov 19:26

  • Fingerprint scanner can detect drugs in sweat

    It knows if you’ve been bad or good

    A prototype fingerprint scanner has been developed that can detect the presence of opiates, cannabis, or cocaine in the sweat on a user's fingertip. The device uses special cartridges to take a fingerprint, which are then processed using both chemical testing and a unique photo scanning system. This takes a high resolution …

    Policing 11 Nov 19:30

  • Logitech CEO: Google TV a 'gigantic mistake'

    End of the line for connected-TV Revue

    The CEO of Logitech has slammed Google’s TV service and has said his company will not develop hardware for the platform in the future. In a call to analysts and investors, Guerrino De Luca didn’t mince words, calling the launch of the company’s Revue set-top box "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature" and saying …

    Music and Media 11 Nov 21:26

  • Duqu targeted each victim with unique files and servers

    Well-financed developers had sense of humor

    The creators of the Duqu malware that penetrated industrial manufacturers in at least eight countries tailored each attack with exploit files, control servers, and booby-trapped Microsoft Word documents that were different for each victim, according to research published on Friday. What's more, two of the drivers the …

    Malware 11 Nov 21:48