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11th January 2012 Archive

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  • Kinect plus tablet control insane skateboard

    A BEHEMOTH for the 21st century

    What do you get when you combine a Kinect, a Samsung tablet and an electric skateboard? Well: it’s really cool, even if the rider looks a bit silly. In this video, Choatic Moon Labs demonstrates its groovy toy, the “Board of Awesomeness”: Chaotic Moon Labs' Board of Awesomeness from Chaotic Moon Studios on Vimeo. Once the …

    Odds and Sods 11 Jan 00:01

  • French regulators investigate Oracle over Itanium pullout

    HP complains, Larry proclaims

    The Autorité de la concurrence, the French national competition authority, has opened up an investigation into Oracle's decision to stop software development for future versions of Intel's Itanium processor family. HP filed the complaint against Oracle with the French authorities quietly back in July 2011 shortly after the …

    Servers 11 Jan 00:06

  • Intel caught faking CES ultrabook gaming demo

    CES 2012 Control panel gives the game away

    Intel has been caught faking a demo at its press conference during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Monday, general manager of Intel's PC Client Group Mooly Eden demoed an Ivy Bridge ultrabook playing a Formula One driving game to display the graphics capability of the system. With a steering wheel on the podium …

    PCs & Chips 11 Jan 00:36

  • Lenovo to ship first Intel smartphone – in China only

    CES 2012 Motorola not far behind

    The first Intel-based smartphone has been unveiled, but don't go looking for it at AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon, or Orange. When the Lenovo 800K ships in the second quarter of this year, you'll have to get yours from China Unicom. "Today, I'm thrilled to announce that the best of Intel's computing is now coming to smartphones," …

    Mobile 11 Jan 03:35

  • X-Dream Rocker wireless gaming chair

    Review Are you sitting comfortably?

    With a design lifted straight from Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds school of home furnishings, the X-Dream rocker is not your average game-playing bench. It’s a lads-mag throne with integrated stereo sound system, subwoofer, pseudo-Shiatsu vibrator and wireless audio system. While away the hours wirelessly in the X-Dream …

    reghardware 11 Jan 07:00

  • Patients to access NHS records via web by 2015

    What could possibly go wrong?

    The Department of Health will develop a plan to allow patients to access their electronic medical records online by the end of this Parliament. This emerged after Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, confirmed he had accepted all of the recommendations (PDF) of the NHS Future Forum. The NHS Future Forum says the plan should …

    Government 11 Jan 08:01

  • GiffGaff boots freetards off mobile network

    Punters sick of top 1pc slurping third of all traffic

    People-powered mobile phone network GiffGaff is debating how best to curb excessive data use, while kicking off a few customers considered to be really taking the biscuit. GiffGaff has always offered unlimited data with its "goody-bag" tariffs, which start at a tenner a month, and unlike competing networks it has never imposed …

    Mobile 11 Jan 09:04

  • Using phone-tracking tech? 'Fess up now, urges expert

    Shopping centres, stadiums among orgs sniffing YOUR whereabouts

    The public should be informed when a building or facility operator uses systems to track the location and movements of mobile phones, a data privacy expert has said. Phone-tracking systems are used in some shopping centres and in other environments such as at stadium concerts and in refugee camps. The system helps to build up …

    Law 11 Jan 09:29

  • C2000 boss moves upstairs into Tech Data Euro role

    Andy Gass replaced by distie's sales director Peter Hubbard

    Andy Gass, the boss of distie behemoth Computer 2000, has confirmed that he is handing over control of the UK business to sales director Peter Hubbard as he moves to a European role with parent Tech Data. Channel veteran Gass took the reins at C2000 - the UK arm of Tech Data - in 2006 having previously directed operations in …

    Channel Register 11 Jan 09:49

  • OnLive

    iGamer Cloud gaming on your tablet and phone

    Sometimes technology just blows your mind. When I reviewed the OnLive Game System, I was impressed by the simple fact that this "cloud gaming" kit worked at all – let alone that it worked so well. Then the company invited me along to see its new iPad app and my jaw landed with a thud on the ground as they fired up the PC …

    reghardware 11 Jan 10:00

  • Groupon, Deutsche Telekom to cake EU in coupons

    Mobiles hooked up to daily deals drip

    Daily deals site Groupon has signed a partnership agreement with Deutsche Telekom to push out coupon deals to mobile users in multiple European countries. Deutsche said its users will have access to Groupon’s mobile services without having to download a separate app. The roll-out is scheduled to start in the first half of this …

    CIO 11 Jan 10:02

  • Ex-Acer chief grasps reins of Lenovo's EMEA biz

    Gianfranco Lanci rides again

    Gianfranco Lanci, who quit Acer after a series of boardroom wrangles nine months ago, has been picked up by rival computer company Lenovo to head up their operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Lanci, CEO of Acer until March last year, has just been appointed head of Lenovo's EMEA PC division as the Chinese giant …

    CIO 11 Jan 10:22

  • Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to annihilation

    Nuke treaty feud brings humanity closer to destruction - boffins

    The boffins who run the Doomsday Clock – an estimate of how close humanity is to annihilation by climate change or nuclear war - have just moved the minute hand one minute closer to midnight. Invented by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) in 1947, the clock represents nuclear danger with midnight representing the end of …

    Odds and Sods 11 Jan 10:31

  • Media Player and BEAST fix star in Patch Tuesday update

    Roll up, roll up ... and upgrade already, chaps!

    The first Patch Tuesday of 2012 rolled around with seven bulletins, including a postponed bulletin from December 2011 that plugs the BEAST SSL security flaw. Only one of the seven vulnerabilities earns the dreaded critical rating – an update (MS12-004) that addresses two vulnerabilities in Windows Media Player: a critical bug …

    Software 11 Jan 10:57

  • Dell debuts shrunken Ultrabook

    CES 2012 13in screen in an 11in chassis?

    Although Intel has been busy faking Ultrabook gaming demos, Dell has been busy working on the real deal. At CES the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook was unveiled – touted as a “13.3in display machine in near 11-inch form factor”. It sounds a bit TARDIS, but compared with both the Asus Zenbook UX31E and the Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook, …

    reghardware 11 Jan 10:58

  • Dell sprays hot fluid data across storage products

    Delivers 4 from Texas – Backup, SharePoint and SAN storage get the focus

    Dell's fluid data is travelling faster and further, with its first Data Domain replacement box, a SharePoint object storage system, and more capable Compellent SANs that better support VMware and have faster network links. Fluid data is Dell's concept of having data stored, manageable, protected and accessible across its …

    Storage 11 Jan 11:03

  • Suicidal Foxconn workers talked down from factory roof

    Staff threatened to jump in protest at Xbox plant

    Scores of workers at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China, threatened mass suicide during a protest last week. Foxconn - which makes a good chunk of the world's tech gear - said that the dispute began after staff were told they would be transferred to another business unit due to a shift in production lines. The electronics …

    Business 11 Jan 11:11

  • Nokia's nightmare: There's no room for a third ecosystem

    Analysis Why the mobile-maker faces a gruelling battle

    Humiliatingly, Nokia was forced to deny rumours last week that it was planning to break up and sell its crown jewels to Microsoft. Normally a company can remain impervious to Twitter-born gossip, particularly from a known antagonist. Acknowledging the rumour simply gives it a chauffeured ride around the internet. But not this …

    CIO 11 Jan 11:24

  • Google attacks Twitter's search bias claim

    Search Plus Your World a 'bad day for the net', says tweet biz

    Google has come out fighting after Twitter claimed that changes to its search engine nobble results to favour Google+, damaging the internet. Mountain View has expressed "surprise" at Twitter's reaction, while reminding folks that if they really want a decent billing in Google's search, they need to do a deal with the ad …

    Business 11 Jan 11:34

  • Data deluge, data desert or both?

    Reg research Information management in financial services

    Staying in business and keeping out of jail has dominated the financial services management agenda for the past few years and rightly so. IT has playing a crucial role in supporting those aims, helping organisations achieve regulatory compliance, in particular when it comes to the relevance, accuracy and timeliness of data …

    Business 11 Jan 11:50

  • Pure Highway 300Di in-car digital radio kit

    Review Beep-beep, yeah!

    Since 2008 Pure has offered its relatively cheap first-generation DIY upgrade kit to add DAB radio and more besides when motoring. Now comes the second generation Highway, with an improved aerial and two-part combo of a main ‘interface’ unit, which is fitted under the dashboard near the car’s existing radio, and a detachable …

    reghardware 11 Jan 12:00

  • Dell dithers over fresh fondleslabs

    CES 2012 iPad effect delays development

    Dell has revealed intentions to corner the consumer fondleslab market by the end 2012, promising to turn up to the soirée this time with enough party-poppers for everyone. According to chief commercial officer Steve Felice - who spoke of Dell's tablet ambitions in an interview with Reuters - the company was taking its time …

    reghardware 11 Jan 12:03

  • Apple accused of extortion by rival tablet biz

    And we're not talking iPhone prices

    Tablet maker Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá, the company behind one of Apple's rare court defeats, is now taking the fruity tech titan to court for extortion. Apple alleged that the teeny-tiny company's tablet, sold in Spain under the NT-K brand, was a forged iPad, and on that basis convinced custom officials to impound …

    Law 11 Jan 12:16

  • Sony slips out strap-on Android aid

    CES 2012 SmartWatch in, LiveView out

    Sony was quick to eliminate the Ericsson brand from its products at CES this week, the latest being a refresh of its Bluetooth wristwatch smartphone-alert assistant. The Sony SmartWatch - which replaces the Sony Ericsson LiveView - joins forces with a user's Android handset, providing a second mini display for various …

    reghardware 11 Jan 12:21

  • RIM demos PlayBook OS2

    CES 2012 Finally, native email... a month from now

    PlayBook owners should be getting native email next month, but as RIM's tablet gains independence it's also shifting away from the infrastructure which has served RIM so well. RIM has been demonstrating the latest version of its PlayBook OS at CES, and has finally got native PIM applications running on the tablet – including …

    PCs & Chips 11 Jan 12:34

  • ICANN snubs critics, opens domain extension floodgates

    Buy .whatever-you-want for just $185,000

    Global domain name overseer ICANN has shrugged off intense criticism from big brands and parts of the US government, and will tonight start allowing companies to apply for new top-level domain names. For a hefty $185,000 (£119,500) processing fee – a third of which will be dumped into ICANN's legal defence fund – any company …

    Hosting 11 Jan 12:46

  • Churlish HSBC drops atomic-scale accuracy

    Your nearest tentacle now to within 1 mile

    International banking monolith HSBC has rather churlishly reprogrammed its magnificent "Find your nearest branch" service so that customers are no longer given the distance to their closest tentacle to within a couple of quarks. Last week, we discovered that Vulture Central and HSBC's Gerrard Street branch were separated by …

    Applications 11 Jan 13:02

  • Bond Blu-ray box set marks 50 years on film

    CES 2012 Worth every Moneypenny

    This October marks 50 years since the first James Bond film appeared to wow cinemagoers worldwide. To celebrate, MGM and 20th Century Fox have teamed up to release all 22 films that have borne the 007 marque in one Blu-ray box set. Bond 50 not only packs in every Bond film to date from 1962's Dr. No to 2008's Quantum of …

    reghardware 11 Jan 13:07

  • GAGA prepares to munch some organic rug

    El Reg's robot lawnmower gets a name, and a sidekick

    Following lengthy deliberations, our expert panel has agreed that our advanced robotic lawnmower shall henceforth be known as the Genuinely Autonomous Garden Assistant – or GAGA – and it gets a sidekick too. That sidekick takes the form of a blade-testing runabout to which we can fit a variety of blades in order to show us how …

    SPB 11 Jan 13:21

  • Polaroid develops Android camera combo

    CES 2012 Snaps and apps

    Polaroid clicked into gear at CES this week, launching an Android-powered smart-camera with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities and access to the Android Market. The Polaroid SC1630 is far from your standard snapper. Making use of its Android platform, users can download apps and remain entertained through games when there's nothing …

    reghardware 11 Jan 13:30

  • Kids should be making software, not just using it - Gove

    Education Secretary orders IT curriculum overhaul

    Education Secretary Michael Gove today proposed killing off Blighty's ICT curriculum in September to give it a thorough reboot. Launching a consultation into his plans, Gove suggested that from the start of the next academic year, schools should be able to teach what they want in computer classes. The Tory minister recommended …

    Government 11 Jan 13:42

  • T-Mobile 'fesses up to secure email ban gaffe

    Wild spam-hunting robots killed off SMTP connections

    T-Mobile was caught blocking the secure transmission of emails earlier this month, and VPNs too, but the operator claims the former was a mistake while the latter is a legacy from a bygone era. The problem turned up around the end of December when some punters found T-Mobile was responding to all encrypted SMTP connections, …

    Mobile 11 Jan 13:59

  • DIY virtual machines: Rigging up at home

    Sysadmin blog Set-ups for the time-rich and the rich-rich ...

    A brief look at virtual machines for home use resulted in several requests for system specifications and configuration details. It seems some of you would like to take a go at replicating my setup. The hardware is simple. The motherboard is an ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe, with an Intel Core i5 2500 CPU, two 8GB Corsair SODIMMS and an …

    Sysadmin blog 11 Jan 14:33

  • Nekkid Tech: Barman, a pint of storage beer for my friend ...

    Podcast Live from London

    Nekkid Tech's 14th episode comes to you live from one of London's most venerated pubs, where locals have been swilling down pints through the reign of 14 monarchs. Greg Knieriemen and trusty sidekick Ed Saipetch recorded live this week from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub during the Dell Storage Forum ... We kick off …

    Storage 11 Jan 15:04

  • NASA's ageing black hole-stalking probe switched off

    X-ray-sniffing RXTE detected spacetime warping

    Astronomers are marking the decommissioning of a satellite that has spent 16 years peering into black holes and neutron stars. NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) helped astronomers establish the existence of highly magnetised neutron stars and collected the first evidence of the spacetime-distorting frame-dragging …

    Space 11 Jan 15:11

  • Parrot puts on headphone gesture gadgetry

    CES 2012 Moves with the music

    Parrot ruffled feathers at CES 2012 this week with the second generation of its smartphone-controlled quadricopter, the AR.Drone 2.0, however the company has much more that just that up its sleeve, also launching a set of snazzy Bluetooth headphones that boast NFC connectivity and a built-in accelerometer. The Zik Parrot by …

    reghardware 11 Jan 15:33

  • Big stars give birth to little stars in new WISE pic

    Telescope provides evidence for secondary star formation

    NASA's WISE space telescope has stitched together a panoramic view of the Milky Way where stars are born. WISE mosaic of a section of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) scope has taken a 1,000-square-degree shot of a stretch of cosmic clouds that regularly form new …

    Space 11 Jan 16:01

  • EE eyes up £400m payday at spectrum auction

    Everything Everywhere starts ball rolling through gritted teeth

    Everything Everywhere has started consulting on how best to auction off the 30MHz of bandwidth it's required to give up, with a view to turning it into £400m in cash some time next month. That's according to the Financial Times, who's been talking to the ever-helpful "people familiar with the plan" and heard that the Royal …

    Wireless 11 Jan 16:32

  • Virgin Media to push out nimble new broadband speeds

    Telco to burn £110m on shoving 120Mbps through fibre

    Virgin Media is planning to whip its broadband into a wild gallop in a £110m upgrade that will produce a top speed of 120Mbps. The company won't be charging its existing customers for the new speeds, and folks who have an old modem incapable of handling the super-fast internet – such as those on the 20Mbps package – will get a …

    Wireless 11 Jan 16:58

  • Griffin plugs Midi for iPad musos

    CES 2012 Worth of note

    Griffin Technology has danced round the iPad for a while now, but at CES this week, the company introduced two Midi-based gadgets to turn your fondleslab into a fully-fledged music production box. Griffin's MidiConnect equips iPads - and other iOS devices for that matter - with a standard 5-pin Din Midi-in port to attach …

    reghardware 11 Jan 17:15

  • Spammers hit mobes with QR code junkmail jump pads

    Ultimate URL obfuscator

    Security researchers have spotted spam emails that point at URLs featuring embedded Quick Response codes (QR codes). QR codes are a two-dimensional matrix barcode that can be scanned by a camera phone to link users directly to a website that can host any type of content, malicious or otherwise. By using QR codes (rather than …

    Security 11 Jan 17:32

  • SGI books $90m in ICE X super orders

    Exiting CEO stays on board of directors

    Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics just lost its president and CEO, Mark Barrenechea, to enterprise content management software supplier OpenText, and therefore it needs to talk up the business while its board looks for a replacement. The good news coming out of SGI today is that its Xeon E5-based ICE X servers are being well …

    Servers 11 Jan 17:57

  • Super Micro server biz whacked by disk shortages

    And maybe the Xeon E5 delay, too?

    Motherboard and whitebox server-maker Super Micro has warned Wall Street that its second quarter of fiscal 2012 ended in December is not going to be as rosy as it expected. In a statement, the company said that sales in the quarter would fall between $249m and $250m, significantly lower than the $260m to $280m it had been …

    Servers 11 Jan 18:02

  • Billions of potentially populated planets in the galaxy

    Loads of Earthlike worlds in the habitable zone around stars

    There are billions of habitable planets in the Milky Way where aliens could be having their tea right now, according to a new six-year study. "Our results show that planets orbiting around stars are more the rule than the exception. In a typical solar system approximately four planets have their orbits in the terrestrial zone …

    Space 11 Jan 18:27

  • Dutch clog up The Pirate Bay (again)

    This time, we mean it

    A Dutch court has ordered two popular ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay, or face fines of €10,000 a day. The case was brought by Dutch anti-piracy coalition BREIN. The case dates back to a 2009 court decision to block access to the Swedish-founded site. Court-ordered blocks are becoming almost routine. On Monday a …

    Law 11 Jan 18:31

  • Mozilla deploys Firefox safety net for corporate mindreaders

    Security fixes applied to as-yet-undisclosed older builds

    Mozilla has pledged to update old versions of Firefox with security fixes, granting enterprises extra time to test and deploy major upgrades of the browser safe in the knowledge that vulnerabilities in existing installations will be patched. It's not clear which builds will fall onto Mozilla's safety net, however, so IT …

    CIO 11 Jan 19:03

  • Alca-Lu seizes Aus resource sector

    Scores biggest global project to date with Bechtel

    After conquering Australia’s biggest telecommunications project de jour, the NBN, Alcatel-Lucent has taken on the lucrative resource sector with gusto securing a construction contract with partner Bechtel for the $AU29 billion Wheatstone Project in remote Western Australia. Alcatel Lucent has been eyeing the resources area for …

    Business 11 Jan 19:31

  • Microsoft execs warn of PC sales drop in crucial Q4

    Blames Thai floods for stagnation

    Senior Microsoft executives are warning that PC sales in the last quarter will be lower than expected, saying the effects of the floods in Thailand are having a lingering impact. CFO Tami Reller told a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference that the flooding was causing the PC industry more serious problems than had been expected. …

    PCs & Chips 11 Jan 21:59

  • The US patent yeast batch continues to swell

    Pity it makes lawsuits, not alcohol

    Once again, for the 19th year in a row in fact, IBM is the king of new US patents awarded in a year and talk will now turn to the utility and futility of patents. The annual rankings of patents awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office used to come out of that government agency, but in 2007 it stopped because, as the …

    Law 11 Jan 22:00

  • Woolworths goes Door Busting for daily deals

    Soft launches with little razzle

    Woolworths is the latest Australian retailer to enter the deal-of-the-day online fray, quietly launching "Door Buster” over the holiday period. The website, registered on 20 December, is an extension of Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards loyalty card system, offers a raft of products under two areas “Instant Buys” and “Mega Deals …

    Business 11 Jan 22:00

  • Australia should head-hunt Michael Gove

    Comment At least for long enough to rewrite computer education

    Over in Blighty, there’s an outbreak of sanity that puts at risk years of work by the computer industry to place itself at the centre of the education budget. If stories coming from the UK are accurate, the government has discovered that the IT sector’s vision for computers in schools amount to little more than an industry- …

    Business 11 Jan 22:30

  • Ceglia fined for failing to show evidence of Facebook ownership

    How long will this farce continue?

    Paul Ceglia has been fined $5,000 for failing to produce the evidence that he is the owner of half - or 84 per cent as he first claimed - of Facebook. US Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio ordered Ceglia to pay the fine, and a proportion of Facebook’s hefty legal costs, as a punishment for prevarication over producing the …

    Law 11 Jan 22:43

  • Dell upgrades Karaboutis to CIO

    Johnson leaves "to pursue other opportunities'

    The executive changes continue at Dell, with the company appointing a new global chief information officer to knock its data centers and systems into shape. Robin Johnson had been global CIO since December 2008 after running Dell's EMEA IT operations and stints running aspects of the IT operations of Safeway, Capgemini, and …

    Hardware 11 Jan 23:59