The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

29th December 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Dixons Logik LE423ED11 42in passive 3D TV

    Review Specs 'n' plugs 'n' rock 'n' roll

    Now that the big name TV makers have made 3D a mainstream commodity, traditionally cheaper own-brand vendors are moving in for a slice of the pie. But does it make sense to nab a cut-price stereoscopic TV? Not on the evidence of this 42-incher, released under the Logik marque and distributed exclusively through Dixons, Currys …

    reghardware 29 Dec 07:00

  • Network kit sales outpace servers in Q3, overall picture looks decent

    Work in a data centre? No sign of pink slip doom yet

    The data center networking market is keeping pace with sales of servers, according to the latest research from IDC. The company's box counters say that in the third quarter ended in September that revenues for switching and routing gear for the glass house rose by 6.1 per cent to $5.9bn. As El Reg previously reported, IDC …

    Data Networking 29 Dec 08:06

  • Amazon quietly gobbles up 'social shopping' tech

    Will this pig-out actually fatten anything up?

    Recent hires by Amazon show that etailer is toying with contextualised, social shopping. In a talent buyout, Amazon have acquired four key employees of social shopping service Quorus in the past month, geekwire reports. Quorus co-founder Logan Bowers was poached to become a senior software engineer at Amazon in November, …

    Cloud Business 29 Dec 08:57

  • Apple fined $1.2m for flouting Italian warranty law

    iPhone maker must also admit blunder on website

    An Italian regulator has fined Apple €900,000 ($1.17m) for trying to sell a two-year extended warranty when customers were entitled to such a thing for free under Italian law. Apple offered a one-year warranty, with an option to extend that cover under an AppleCare Protection Plan, but Italian law says that all goods have to …

    Law 29 Dec 09:33

  • David Cameron gets custom prime-ministering iPad app

    Check NHS waiting lists, launch nukes - on the fondleslab

    The crack coders assembled by the Cabinet Office have a new mission: making an iPad app for David Camerons. The app will contain the latest figures on NHS waiting lists, crime, unemployment and other public sector data according to a report by The Times. It will also allow him to read Civil Service documents on the tablet and …

    Government 29 Dec 10:02

  • Christmas solar plasma belches to hit Earth, Mars - and Mars rover in space

    Sun emits festive eruptions, but no bad effects foreseen

    In tune perhaps with the festively-overtaxed digestive processes of many Register readers and hacks, the Sun has lately been giving vent to frightful burning eruptions of internal gas; ones sufficiently awful to mean fatal consequences for unprotected humans in their path. Fortunately (in the case of the Sun at least) there …

    Space 29 Dec 10:23

  • CSC faces £1bn write-off over botched NHS IT project

    UK Govt not keen to pay for late patient record system

    CSC, one of the two remaining prime contractors to the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), has told its shareholders that it might lose an amount in excess of its £943m investment in the project. The US firm and the government had been discussing amendments to its NPfIT work under a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which …

    Government 29 Dec 11:24

  • Never mind the switch, feel the fabric

    Vendors take up weaving

    It is not clear who started it but it is all-out war in the systems business and the battleground is convergence. Networking giant Cisco Systems has moved forcefully into the server racket, IBM is buying its way back into the networking business, Dell is buying into it for the first time and Hewlett-Packard is expanding the …

    Network Futures 29 Dec 11:40

  • Nekkid Tech: The end of the year show

    Big Data? Puhleese!

    Hello again from Nekkid Tech, podcast about enterprise tech hosted by Greg Knieriemen. This week's episode finds Greg and crew in reflective mode as they consider some of the big stories of 2011. Joining him on the show are trusty sidekick Ed Saipetch of Joyent (@edsai), Louis Gray, of Google+ at Google (@LouisGray), Brad O' …

    Hardware 29 Dec 12:00

  • ALIEN ARTIFACTS can best be FOUND ON MOON

    Boffins advocate volunteer @home trawl of NASA's lunar pix

    Space boffins have come up with a plan which strikes a deeply resonant chord with us here on the Register lunar desk. The scientists advocate the settting up of a distributed volunteer effort to trawl for signs of alien visits through the vast databases of lunar imagery being accumulated by NASA's space probe now circling the …

    Space 29 Dec 12:49

  • Solicitors from hell website unplugged by libel judge

    Review site sued into oblivion for 'naming and shaming' briefs

    A website that allows users to 'name and shame' lawyers whose services they are unhappy with has been ordered to close after the High Court ruled its publisher had breached libel, data protection and harassment laws. The High Court ruled that solicitorsfromhell.co.uk should be shut down and its publisher Rick Kordowski …

    Law 29 Dec 13:57

  • Raving Iranian TV accuses Ofcom of Sky ban

    But regulator insists it hasn't booted Press TV off the air

    Iranian-backed Press TV is again claiming it's been kicked it off Sky, despite the fact that Ofcom hasn't done any such thing, though the regulator has asked for an editorial office in the UK. Perhaps concluding that attack is the best form of defence, Press TV has launched into Ofcom with cries of censorship and conspiracy …

    Music and Media 29 Dec 14:52

  • Wi-Fi Protected Setup easily unlocked by security flaw

    Couple of hours of brute force will crack a network's PIN

    Security researcher Stefan Viehböck has demonstrated a critical flaw in the Wi-Fi Protected standard that opens up routers to attack and has prompted a US-CERT Vulnerability notice. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is used to secure access to wireless networks and requires each router to have a unique eight-digit PIN. One mode of …

    Security 29 Dec 15:51

  • US deploys 1.8 gigapixel helicopter surveillance drones to Afghanistan

    Boeing A160T Hummingbird carries upgraded spying eye

    The US Army will deploy Boeing A160T Hummingbird surveillance helicopter drones for the first time (officially at least) in Afghanistan by June 2012. The 35 foot long Hummingbird can operate at a ceiling of 30,000 feet, has 2,250 miles of range and can fly at a maximum of 165mph, with Boeing claiming an endurance record in its …

    Government 29 Dec 20:41

  • Mobile operators need to evolve in 2012

    Ericsson looks into crystal ball

    Mobile operators will be forced to up the ante on innovative business models if they are to survive, warns vendor Ericsson. Delivering its predictions for the year ahead and beyond, Ericsson predicts that maturing markets and heightened competition between mobile broadband operators will force them to dramatically shift …

    Business 29 Dec 21:30

  • MIT student unicycles, Segway-style

    Homebrew ‘leccy single-wheeler

    A student at MIT has created a nearly self-balancing electric unicycle, imitating the kind of stability control seen in the Segway. Demonstrated in a YouTube video, the “Bullet” unicycle, created by MIT student Stephan Boyer, can’t manage to be self-balancing sideways, but does protect the rider from falling over in the …

    Bootnotes 29 Dec 22:00

  • appiChar launches cloud platform for NFPs

    Aussie developed software going global

    Australian IT services company Appichar has developed a new cloud-based relationship management platform branded supporter360 which targets the not-for-profit sector. The platform, which is set to be rolled out globally, was built by teams in Sydney and Melbourne over the last 18 months. Locally the platform will be deployed …

    Cloud Business 29 Dec 22:30