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13th January 2012 Archive

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  • Amazon welcomes Microsoft files into Kindle cloud

    'Send to Kindle' for Macs coming soon

    Amazon has released an application that will let Kindle users synchronize and view Microsoft files held in cloud storage via their devices. The “Send to Kindle” for PC application, - according to Amazon, adds a right-click option on any Windows application that adds a Send to Kindle option to the Select Printer list in the …

    Cloud 13 Jan 01:38

  • Top techs preview CES 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017...

    CES 2012 Peak geeks sneak peeks at future gadgetgasms

    CES isn't the only game in Las Vegas this week. For the true down-and-dirty technophile, the real action is at the International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE) – and The Reg got a sneek peek at the geek freak that commences while CES concludes. The ICCE, under the umbrella of the Institute of Electrical and …

    Hardware 13 Jan 02:27

  • Reg Hardware Awards 2011 Winners

    Reg Hardware Awards 2011 The year's best products... and the worst

    More than 28,500 votes were cast by Reg readers during December 2011 when we asked you all to name the best - and the worst - tech products of the year. We asked for your thoughts on hardware and software in the Lifestyle, Mobile, Computing and Gaming categories, and we also wanted you to name and shame the products that you …

    reghardware 13 Jan 07:00

  • NHS fined £375k after stolen patient data flogged on eBay

    Hospital bosses appeal against ICO's stiffest punishment yet

    The Information Commissioner is proposing to issue its heaviest ever fine for a breach of UK data protection laws. It proposes fining a health body after patient records were stolen from a hospital and sold on eBay. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust told Out-Law.com that hard drives containing patient data had …

    Public Sector 13 Jan 08:01

  • Micro-mech chips to free phones from 'grip of death'

    CES 2012 RF MEMS to the rescue

    In the summer of 2010, Apple's marketing was forced to move from the offensive into a defensive mode. The successful launch in June of the iPhone 4 had been quickly followed by 'Antennagate', the controversy surrounding claims that holding the handset in a certain way would kill its ability to communicate with mobile phone …

    reghardware 13 Jan 08:14

  • Titsup EMC VNX kit unleashes 5 days of chaos in Sweden

    Crashed Tieto system took down bank, pharmacy, schools' website

    Tieto, a prominent Swedish IT service supplier, had an EMC Array go titsup on 25 November, causing five days of chaos at the Motor Vehicle Inspectorate, the Sollentuna and Nacka municipalities, the City of Stockholm's schools' website and intranet, the National Board of Health and other prominent sites. The debacle (in Swedish …

    CIO 13 Jan 09:02

  • Wheels fall off Aviva Insurance's website for 5 hours

    Promises to 'roll over' lapsing policies after outage

    Aviva's British insurance customers were left battling to get through to a jammed helpline after the company's IT services suffered a five-hour outage that left its web services dangling. A Reg reader wrote in to say his attempt to access his account online had been fruitless for two days. An Aviva spokesperson confirmed over …

    CIO 13 Jan 09:22

  • Gridstore shafts rival Overland over a Barrall

    CTO exits to take exec chairman job

    Overland Storage has lost its guiding technology visionary, Geoff Barrall, to a stealthy startup and an exec chairman role at rival Gridstore. Gridstore produces grid-based scale-out filer storage for small and medium business (SMB). At Gridstore Barrall replaces now ex-chairman Dr Chris Horn, the co-founder of Iona …

    Channel Register 13 Jan 09:42

  • Seagate mulls flogging precious drives at auction

    CES 2012 How to solve a drive shortage: bidding wars

    At CES Seagate boss Steve Luczo said the company was considering running open market auctions of its disk drives to gauge spot prices and demand. Luczo was talking at an informal investor event attended by Stifel Nicolaus' Aaron Rakers, who wrote that Seagate could run the auction events itself or hire a third party to do it. …

    Channel Register 13 Jan 10:02

  • Apple, Amazon and Google take lazy punters hostage

    Open ... and Shut Digitised download cults create pocket monopolies

    Would-be monopolists have a new tool to claim control over the unsuspecting masses: sloth. In the offline world, big vendors must go to extensive ends to ring-fence consumers into concentrating their spend with those vendors. Think vertical integration, price fixing and other monopolistic means. But in a heavily digitised …

    CIO 13 Jan 10:21

  • OnLive sneaks Windows 7 into the iPad

    We're not playing games now

    Tablet fondlers can finally get some work done thanks to streaming cloud supplier OnLive, which now pipes the full Windows 7 experience from its data centres to punters' palms. Right now the free app doesn't maintain any settings between sessions, but does provide a working Win 7 desktop, and copy of Microsoft Office, which …

    Developer 13 Jan 10:42

  • Tiny frog claimed as smallest vertebrate ever

    Mine's smaller, yells irate ichthyologist*

    Boffins have found what they believe to be the world's smallest vertebrate. The tiny amphibian was discovered when scientists grabbed some leaves from the forest floor in Papua New Guinea and shoved them in a plastic bag. With an average body size of 7.7mm (0.27 inches), the translucent nano-frogs sit easily on a US dime ( …

    Biology 13 Jan 10:50

  • Raspberry Pi Linux micro machine enters mass production

    Model A, Model B cheap as chips

    The Rapberry Pi Foundation has begun manufacturing its pocket-sized Linux-based micro in volume, with the first batch set to roll off the line by the end of the month. The charity revealed the news this week after finalising payment details, stating its Dyson-esque regret that Raspberry Pi production had to be moved overseas …

    reghardware 13 Jan 11:02

  • India threatens to block Google, Facebook and chums

    Court orders filtering of offensive stuff - 'like in China'

    Google, Facebook and other internet companies have been warned by India's High Court that their websites could be blocked if they fail to remove "offensive, objectionable" content from their sites. The Delhi High Court told representatives from Facebook and Google yesterday that the firms "must have a stringent check" in place …

    CIO 13 Jan 11:16

  • Apple Beijing store egged in botched iPhone 4S launch

    Rioting fanbois scramble from cops after egg-stream outburst

    Apple closed its flagship store in Beijing after frustrated fanbois rioted and pelted the windows with eggs when they were told the shop didn't have the iPhone 4S. A crowd of 500 people waited outside the Sanlitun Apple store in Beijing yesterday morning for the Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S, and the mood turned ugly when …

    PCs & Chips 13 Jan 11:39

  • Android devs get schooled on style

    Polish that UI to an Apple-crushing shine

    Android's latest incarnation has come with an unexpected bonus, a design guide to help developers polish their apps, and add some much-needed consistency to the platform. The guide comes in the form of a website. Matias Duarte, head of user experience at Android, talking to Wired, describes it as "the second part of Ice Cream …

    Developer 13 Jan 11:46

  • Fujifilm Finepix X10 compact camera

    Review A curious case of bountiful buttons

    Pulling out a Fujifilm X10 in mid-conversation will often elicit a rapid change of subject. Common responses include, “Oh, now what sort of camera is that?”, “Is that a Leica?” and frequently, “Let me have a go!”. The last of these is one to be relished as, should you hand over the camera, there’s a very strong possibility that …

    reghardware 13 Jan 12:00

  • EPIC asks FTC to probe Google's search biz tweak

    It's a sticky social situation

    The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), as expected, has now written to the US Federal Trade Commission requesting that the watchdog investigates Google's search business. The move follows Mountain View's decision to merge personal data collected via its social network Google+ with the company's search engine, which …

    Law 13 Jan 12:22

  • Big Blue boffins cram information onto a cool 12 atoms

    Vorsprung durch kleine-informationenspeichernstelle

    Boffins at IBM Research's Almaden centre have stored one bit in 12 atoms - creating a memory that's 150 times denser than NAND flash. They used the anti-ferromagnetism phenomenon to order the 12 atoms in a stable group that retained its properties for several hours, and wasn't influenced by neighbouring groups. A byte needs 96 …

    Science 13 Jan 12:41

  • Firm pitches tech trio powered by portable processor

    Quad-core keyring

    Tech-design outfit I'm has unveiled ambitious plans for a collection of mobile devices which all run off a single, keyring-sized processing hub. The I'm Core squeezes a quad-core processor, Sim card, GPS pick-up and Wi-Fi radio and more into a diddy unit which becomes the brains for a phone, tablet and smart TV trio the …

    reghardware 13 Jan 12:51

  • Namesco spits out phishy warning after credit card info leak

    'Please do not treat this as SPAM'

    Namesco customers are angry over the domain name and hosting firm's handling of a security breach that exposed their credit card details. A number of punters' card details were leaked after hackers broke into Namesco's systems. The web biz notified these customers as well as advising a larger number of its clients to reset …

    Security 13 Jan 13:03

  • Etailer punts steamy lace-up 24-port switch

    The Brocade 300 Corset features FULL FABRIC. Phwoaaaar...

    Those among you who're looking to spice up your server room are directed right here, where you can avail yourselves of this provocative piece of Brocade kit: Obviously, the form factor is a bit bigger than a standard 19-inch rack, but if you're willing to go to the extra trouble of mounting this particular model, you'll find …

    Channel Register 13 Jan 13:18

  • Sony shows slider tablet

    CES 2012 Asus inspired?

    Sony showed off its take on the Asus Eee Pad Slider: a 10in tablet that incorporates a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. Source: Sony Dubbed the Vaio Hybrid Concept, the tablet's branding - it's part of Sony's laptop and all-in-one desktop family - hints that the machine, should it ever be released, may run Windows 8 rather than …

    reghardware 13 Jan 13:26

  • BBC mulls iPlayer fees for archives, repeats

    Fair's fare?

    The BBC is mulling introducing pay-per-view fees for recent broadcasts and access to its archive via iPlayer, according to trade mag Broadcast. The corporation is keen to plug what it sees as a funding loophole. The majority of the BBC's income comes from a compulsory tax on viewing live TV via a TV set in the UK. But an …

    Music and Media 13 Jan 13:41

  • Lords chew over Tory green policies

    Quality of debate right up there with lunchtime pub chat

    The unelected upper chamber of Parliament is often praised for providing vital independent oversight of legislation - and sometimes it lives up to the job. The House of Lords is also said to reflect a wider range of experience compared to the lower chamber - it isn't just party hacks. But anyone looking for evidence of …

    Government 13 Jan 13:51

  • Kenyan startup claims Google 'scalped' its data after staging a STING

    Google smacks back: Mocality's data was 'publicly available'

    Google has been accused of "fraudulently" accessing a rival Kenya-based business listings database and then attempting to sell the internet giant's competing GKBO product to that customerbase. That's the remarkable claim made by Stefan Magdalinski of startup Mocality. The outfit alleges that some of Google's staff based in …

    CIO 13 Jan 14:29

  • Barclays axes 422 UK IT staff

    Job massacre will help wealthy bank 'innovate'

    Barclays is cutting back its UK IT workforce by axing 422 jobs - mainly at Radbroke Hall in Knutsford, northwest England. The bank euphemistically said that the lay-offs are part of "essential changes to technology and infrastructure". A well-placed source told The Reg that affected staff should expect more details on Monday …

    CIO 13 Jan 14:58

  • Nokia partners with EA in major WinPho game push

    CES 2012 Finnish first

    With the reveal of Nokia's Lumia 900 out the way, the Finnish phone giant turned its attention toward a new partnership with EA which will see over 25 popular games made available for Nokia handsets. The full list of titles has yet to be revealed, but as you can see in the video below from EA Mobile's YouTube channel, …

    reghardware 13 Jan 15:04

  • Acer pulls out Wang, thrusts its wealth at Ho

    Tech titan treats itself to vigorous shuffle

    Acer has appointed Eva Ho as Chief Financial Officer today to replace Lilia Wang, Bloomberg reports. Ho, who was educated in Taiwan, previously held financial posts at Sun Microsystems China and Oracle. She will also take the role of company spokesperson and assume all her new responsibilities by the end of March. The …

    Channel Register 13 Jan 15:31

  • Flash stalks Seagate's hybrid drives

    Blocks and files Spinning disk spindoctor competes on size. Wrong move ...

    Is Seagate in denial over Ultrabook solid-state storage and the rising capacities of flash drives? In an interview with magazine Barron's at CES 2012, Scott Horn, Seagate's chief marketing officer, said that many people overrate flash. He added that hybrid drives, which use a mix of flash cache and spinning disk, will be …

    Channel Register 13 Jan 16:02

  • US military access cards cracked by Chinese hackers

    Access to buildings and intranets harvested by super-spy Trojan

    A new strain of the Sykipot Trojan is been used to compromise the Department of Defense-sanctioned smart cards used to authorise network and building access at many US government agencies, according to security researchers. Smart cards are a standard means of granting active duty military staff, selected reserve personnel, …

    Security 13 Jan 16:35

  • Cloud power plant SAP closes 2011 on a high

    HANA in-memory appliance off with a bang

    Application software giant SAP turned in the best fourth quarter and the best financial year in its 40-year history, thanks in part to reviving software sales and the better-than-expected uptake of its HANA in-memory database appliances. And because the numbers were better than expected, SAP is giving a preview of the full …

    Cloud 13 Jan 17:02

  • Microsoft carves up Wi-Fi into White Spaces

    So many options, so little room to work in

    Researchers from Microsoft have proposed running Wi-Fi in White Spaces, by slicing up the Wi-Fi signal into bundles small enough to fit between the broadcast TV channels. The proposal, termed Wi-Fi Narrow Channel (Wi-Fi NC), means reusing lots of Wi-Fi technology. But unlike those who want to just squeeze the existing wireless …

    Wireless 13 Jan 17:32

  • X Prize: Build a Star Trek 'tricorder' and win $10m

    CES 2012 CATCH: It has to work...

    Make a portable body scanner that can detect 15 diseases and capture key health metrics and you could win 10 million dollars (£.6.5m). This year's X Prize - a global competition with the aim of improving the lot of humanity through invention – asks entrants to make a Star Trek-style "tricorder" that could revolutionise …

    Biology 13 Jan 18:02

  • UK student faces extradition to US after piracy case ruling

    Possible five years in US federal prison for linking

    A 23-year-old student is facing extradition to the US, and possibly five years in a federal prison, after the British courts ruled he should face charges of copyright infringement for linking to websites hosting pirated content. Richard O’Dwyer, a computer science student at Sheffield Hallam University who had never even left …

    Law 13 Jan 18:29

  • Pirate Bay dropping torrents after magnetic attraction

    Technology to make tracking harder

    The Pirate Bay has announced that it is dropping torrent files in favor of magnet links to keep up with current trends. “Magnet is now default, Download torrent is now where the magnet links used to be,’ said the group said on its blog. “The reason is the same as always: Magnets are now good enough to use, and it's not as easy …

    Music and Media 13 Jan 21:29