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19th January 2012 Archive

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  • Modeling-clay iPads foisted on unwary Canucks

    'Professionally shrink-wrapped' scam nets cash and fondleslabs

    Canadian scammers are buying iPad 2s, replacing them in their original packaging with ZipLoc bags filled with modeling clay, "professionally shrink-wrapping" the boxes, then returning them for refunds, absconding with the precious fondleslabs. The precisely weighted, shrinkwrapped packages containing the clay-filled bags are …

    Channel Register 19 Jan 00:27

  • AWS takes NoSQL database to the cloud with DynamoDB

    Solid-state drives power scaling system

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its database cloud-service offerings beyond Oracle with DynamoDB, a non-relational NoSQL database that is run on solid-state drives (SSD) to handle fluctuating demand. The huge increase in web applications needs scalable database access, which makes a cloud-based delivery system logical, …

    Cloud 19 Jan 01:51

  • Wacom Bamboo Fun S Pen and Touch

    Review Graphics tablet and trackpad in one

    Take TWO pointing devices into the shower? Not me, I use Wac-and-Go. When I first saw this product demonstrated – a graphics tablet with pressure-sensitive stylus but whose surface equally supports touch gestures – I thought I’d seen the best creative gadget ever. Wacom's Bamboo Fun S Pen and Touch: the finish is not so much …

    reghardware 19 Jan 07:00

  • Blighty's film biz asks gov to hurry up pirate crackdown

    Anti-file-sharing measures only kick in 2013

    The government should implement anti-piracy measures contained in the Digital Economy Act (DEA) "as quickly as possible", an independent panel appointed to review the future of the UK film industry has said. The Film Policy Review Panel was appointed by the government and has said that copyright infringement is contributing to …

    Government 19 Jan 08:03

  • Careless care charity loses unencrypted patient data stick

    Whoops, won't happen again

    A care provider with offices in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland has committed to improving its data protection standards after losing a memory stick containing unencrypted patient data. The charity, Praxis Care, lost the memory stick in August 2011. The device held personal information relating to 107 Isle of Man …

    Government 19 Jan 09:02

  • Asda peddles phones for £12.50

    Budget blower bonanza

    Supermarket mogul Asda is selling budget blowers for the PAYG market, with shoppers able to pick up handsets from as low as £12.50. Up for offer is the T-Mobile Zest 2, which features a 0.3Mp (VGA) camera, MP3 player, radio, Bluetooth and a battery life of five hours. For the same price, there's the Nokia 1616. …

    reghardware 19 Jan 09:21

  • Teen net addicts pee in bottles to stay glued to WoW

    Brits' screen-break aversion doesn't bode well for desk job future

    British youngsters have become so addicted to the internet that they will relieve themselves into bottles rather than step away from their screens to visit the lav, reports the, er, Sun. It is online multiplayer games such as World Of Warcraft that are coming between children and the toilet, with addictive game play …

    Entertainment 19 Jan 09:28

  • Boffins dig up prehistoric popcorn in Peru

    Bit soggy now: Man wolfed down treat 6,700 years ago

    Mankind was scoffing prehistoric popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, reckons a top archaeologist. Before anyone along the arid north coast of Peru bothered crafting ceramic art or making cooking pots, let alone building cinemas and other attractions in which the crunchy snack is often wolfed down by modern Man …

    Biology 19 Jan 09:42

  • Ultrabooks to account for 35% of Acer laptop shipments

    Fondleslabs? Pshaw!

    We already know that, having failed to set the world alight with its tablets, Acer is keen to talk up alternatives, most notably Intel's Ultrabook platform. So it comes as little surprise that the PC maker is saying it's going to sell a lot of them this year. Specifically, it reckons at least a quarter and perhaps more than a …

    reghardware 19 Jan 09:45

  • Errands To-Do List

    iOS App of the Week Task tracking for the terminally disorganised

    For some reason, I just don’t get on with the new Reminders app that Apple introduced with iOS 5, so I recently went looking for a decent task manager to take its place. There are hundreds of these on the App Store, of course, but the one that seems to best suit my semi-organised approach to life is Errands To-Do List. …

    reghardware 19 Jan 10:00

  • Facebook, experts spar over Ramnit worm contagion

    Security boss says stalking site is free of bank account-raiding malware

    Facebook has downplayed the significance of Ramnit, a recently discovered worm that attempts to steal login credentials for the social networking site. It said an adapted version of the bank account-raiding virus is not actually spreading through the site itself. However Seculert, the security biz that discovered a Ramnit …

    Malware 19 Jan 10:21

  • LG, Lovefilm sign smart TV pact

    More tellies to get Amazon IPTV

    LG is to add Lovefilm to its smart TVs, the telly maker and Amazon-owned video streaming firm said today. LG's sets have so far provided access to Acetrax, a Lovefilm rival without the latter's DVD rental option. Lovefilm, meanwhile, is keen to get its service onto as many IPTV-capable platforms as possible, not merely to …

    reghardware 19 Jan 10:27

  • HP optimistic it can sort that pesky UK downturn

    Helping SMBs to rescue the economy ...

    In a slight alleviation of the general economic doom and gloom, HP said today that UK small and medium businesses had seen double-digit growth in the second half of last year. HP's SMB Index, a survey of 1,000 British businesses with between one and 50 employees, found an average growth of 11 per cent in the last six months …

    Channel Register 19 Jan 10:42

  • Record numbers of readers flock to The Register

    Hey Mister Tally man, tally me November

    The Register and its sister publications Reg Hardware and Channel Register climbed new heights in November 2011, bagging 46 million page impressions and 6.6 million "uniques" for the month. We now have a certificate to prove it. abc.org.uk/Certificates/17591287.pdf That represents a lot of thought, planning and hard work by a …

    Site News 19 Jan 11:00

  • Asus tackles Eee Transformer Prime tablet GPS woes

    Buyers offered patches, refunds, extended warranties

    Asus has begun rolling out a firmware update for its Eee Pad Transformer Prime that some owners are suggesting goes some way to solve the tablet's GPS problems. Meanwhile, British Prime owners are being offered an extended warranty period in case they're troubled by ongoing GPS issues - or are struck by newly emerged Wi-Fi …

    reghardware 19 Jan 11:13

  • Nuke support in UK hits record high

    Keeping calm and carrying on

    Public support for nuclear energy has reached an all-time high in the UK, less than a year after the Fukushima incident. There is an interesting gender gap, though. Pollsters Ipsos MORI, who buttonholed about 1,000 Brits last month for its survey, found that 40 per cent of the sample [PDF] now hold favourable views of nuclear …

    Energy 19 Jan 11:14

  • Number cruncher charts rise of the personal computer...

    ...and its fall at the hands of smartphones, tablets

    A map of the rise and rise of the personal computer over the past 30-odd years shows that the platform's popularity may have at long last peaked. Blogger Horace Dediu has posted a fascinating graph charting the relative sales of key computing platforms over the past 36 years, from the early days of 8-bit micros to the present …

    reghardware 19 Jan 11:23

  • Blogger bully site yanks MPAA's chain in poison-pen letter

    Dear Chris, *** ******* suck, lots of ****, Righthaven.com

    The new owner of the domain name Righthaven.com, which until recently belonged to a notorious copyright troll, has used his purchase to openly mock the Motion Picture Ass. of America. The website currently displays a heavily and ironically redacted open letter to MPAA chief Christopher Dodd, and lends support to yesterday's …

    Hosting 19 Jan 11:28

  • EU probes 'nature of concerns' from Google rivals

    How much of a sticky mess is the Chocolate Factory in?

    UK-based vertical search engine Foundem – which spearheaded antitrust investigations into Google in the US and Europe – is patiently awaiting a response from competition officials in Brussels, who are meticulously scrutinising complaints from the internet giant's rivals. A 400-page statement of objections had been expected to …

    Law 19 Jan 11:48

  • Second Nokia Lumia update inbound

    Finnish-ing touch?

    Nokia has announced its second Lumia 800 battery update will hit its WinPho handsets in two weeks' time. The Finnish outfit acknowledged customer's concerns over the 800's battery life last year, promising a couple of software rejigs to address the Lumia 800's durational deficiencies. While the first of these updates was made …

    reghardware 19 Jan 11:59

  • More Brits desert high streets to spend £50bn online

    Unmerry Christmas for Comet, bonanza for eBay

    Evidence of the agonising demise of Blighty's high streets piled up today as comparison website Kelkoo announced that UK e-sales jumped 14 per cent to nearly £50bn last year. The average Brit web shopper spent about £1,400 online, picking out 39 items, in 2011 - and Kelkoo is predicting that's going to rise again this year. …

    Financial News 19 Jan 12:14

  • Apple iPhone 4S grabs back ground lost to Android

    Lead narrows

    Apple's decision to launch a tweaked iPhone 4 - the 4S - rather than a brand new iPhone 5 may have flabbergasted some pundits, but punters have taken to the phone and narrowed the gap between iOS and Android. According to US market watcher Nielsen, during the three months of October, November and December 2011, Android's share …

    reghardware 19 Jan 12:24

  • Facebook litters Timeline with apps

    It's the fat of the interwebs land ... bitch

    Facebook may be slowly tip-toeing its way gently around cry babies who have yet to turn their profiles into scrapbooks for their "friends" via the new Timeline feature. But the dominant social network has a new tactic up its sleeve: the company is trying to entice more people into its "frictionless sharing" playpen with the …

    Networks 19 Jan 12:38

  • Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android Tablet

    Review First Nvidia Tegra 3 five-core fondleslab

    It’s only been a little over six months since the original Eee Pad Transformer landed but Asus has already launched a new model that advances the breed to such an extent that the original model appears obsolete and with it every other 10in Tegra 2 Android tablet on the market. Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 Android …

    reghardware 19 Jan 12:43

  • EU asks why credit cards are so expensive

    Reckons industry could save €300bn in six years

    The European Commission is asking for input on better ways to integrate electronic payments across the European Community, and whether today's opaque billing mechanisms can be allowed to continue. The consultation – which talks about card payments but is most concerned with a future where e-payments and m-payments continue to …

    Government 19 Jan 12:49

  • Japanese cops cuff six smut-scam ransomware suspects

    Victims forced to pay stiff charges

    Japanese police have arrested six suspected cyber-crooks over a one-click billing fraud scam that allegedly targeted sweaty smut surfers. The Kyoto-based gang allegedly used malware to run a billing fraud against victims, netting them JPY12,000,000 (about $148,800 or £96,000) in the process. The suspected cyber-criminals are …

    Crime 19 Jan 13:06

  • Holographic storage's corpse twitches

    Storex sniffs cash, but InPhase out of luck

    Failed holographic storage start-up InPhase is selling off its patents as Eugen Pavel's Storex has developed 2nm optical lithography which could lead to a 100 exabyte optical disk. At one end of the holographic storage spectrum we see a crumbling corpse, while at the other holographic gee-whizzery is talking about a disk with …

    Storage 19 Jan 13:19

  • NT daddy turns his hand to Xbox

    Code wizard Dave Cutler to turn play-crate into everything-box

    Ex-DEC VMS code king Dave Cutler, who moved to Microsoft to drive the development of Windows NT and later focus on Azure, is working to evolve the Xbox into a "complete home entertainment device". Microsoft Fellow Dave Cutler Cutler's NT code is at the heart of all Windows builds today. He is a Senior Technical Fellow at …

    Developer 19 Jan 13:34

  • 'Space Monkey' craze: Texan students 'get high' by choking each other

    Forget bongs and beer, it's nooses now for the hip kids

    Kids these days don't need drugs or alcohol to have fun, according to a new study. The latest craze sweeping American youth - and thus, no doubt, British youth in due course - is "Space Monkey", aka "The Choking Game", in which thrill-seeking youngsters strangle or suffocate themselves or each other "in order to achieve a high …

    Odds and Sods 19 Jan 13:44

  • Spam-squirting hole found in McAfee antivirus kit

    Ironic server-side flaw exploited, patch promised

    McAfee is promising to patch a vulnerability in its hosted anti-malware service after it found a flaw that allowed systems where the product was installed to be turned into potential spam-relay nodes. SaaS for Total Protection, the vulnerable software, will be patched on "January 18 or 19, as soon as we have finished testing …

    Spam 19 Jan 13:59

  • Sony Ericsson announces pre-slurp loss

    Hopes things will look up after Sony takes reins

    Sony Ericsson has announced what it no doubt hopes will be one of its last quarterly losses for the end of 2011, just before it gets slurped in full by Sony. The mobile phone maker, which has struggled to compete with big Android houses like Motorola and Samsung, is to be fully taken over by Sony in the next few months. The …

    Financial News 19 Jan 14:17

  • Facebook registers mysterious fBoriGin domain names

    Is Zuck's network about to get in online family tree game?

    Facebook registered a curious bunch of domain names yesterday with the moniker fBoriGin. It's unclear what the domain names, spotted by blog ubergizmo, will be used for. When asked by The Register about the - among others - .com, .org, .net and .co.uk registration of fBoriGin, the world's biggest social network declined to …

    Hosting 19 Jan 14:42

  • Thousand-gamer FPS fragfest shoots for world record

    Gib to go

    A Swedish tech outfit is to pit no fewer than one thousand first-person shooter players against each other simultaneously in a bid to set a world record. Uppsala-based outfit MuchDifferent reached out to the gaming community this week to gather interest in Man Vs Machine, an event which will see developers fight it out against …

    reghardware 19 Jan 14:42

  • VCs shower WhipTail with cash

    Crain cranks up development as AMD becomes customer

    Flash array start-up WhipTail has had an eight-figure B-round of funding less than six months after its A-round as AMD becomes a customer and its development pace accelerates. The company saw revenues increase 400 per cent in 2011, a year in which it tripled its workforce and went past the 100 customer mark. It says 30 per …

    Channel Register 19 Jan 15:03

  • GiffGaff mobile network goes titsup for 3 weeks

    GiffGaffe

    People-powered phone network GiffGaff left some of its punters without a mobile connection for three weeks and mixed up customers' numbers for several days. Others also complained that they were unable to move their numbers to new SIMs. Some fixes promised by support staff took longer to emerge than promised - some customers …

    Mobile 19 Jan 15:33

  • SOPA is dead. Are you happy now?

    Open ... and Shut It was a bad bill, but world needs IP incentive to keep producing

    In response to internet technology companies leading a rousing protest against SOPA and PIPA, these bills appear to be doomed to ignominious defeat. Even the co-sponsors of these anti-piracy bills are deserting their legislation, leaving the tech world to cheer its success. But what kind of success did we achieve? As written …

    Law 19 Jan 16:02

  • Kodak's moment: Camera biz files for bankruptcy

    Comment Will $1bn lifeline be enough to save it?

    Iconic and inept US camera and film company Kodak has finally pressed the shutter button: it has filed for Chapter 11 protection. Citigroup has stumped up $950m for a credit facility over eight months while the bankruptcy process is worked out. Beset by the digital camera revolution and screwed by a breathtakingly stupid …

    Financial News 19 Jan 16:34

  • Grooveshark croaks in Germany

    Blames royalty shakedown, but collection society says they never called...

    Controversial streaming site Grooveshark has pulled out of the German market, blaming royalty demands from collection society GEMA. But GEMA says the reason offered is false – and no negotiations ever took place, Billboard reports. GEMA has played hardball on behalf of its members with overseas music services, prompting Google …

    Media 19 Jan 16:58

  • Windows 8 will show where it likes to be touched

    A five-fingered shuffle is mandatory

    Windows 8 gadgets fitted with NFC will have a logo showing where on the case a pay-by-wave radio signal can be picked up, given a tablet might be bigger than the wireless technology's range. The requirement came out of the Windows 8 hardware specifications, which were published last month but occulted by the furore over the …

    Windows 8 19 Jan 17:32

  • Dell, Nvidia insider traders nabbed by Feds

    The Big (Illegal) Short

    Crusading US Attorney Preet Bharara, famous for bringing down two insider-trading rings associated with the hedge fund Galleon Group, has worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission to bring down another insider-trading ring, this one comprised of analysts and hedge fund employees …

    Law 19 Jan 17:47

  • Microsoft injects Windows 7 mojo into server biz

    Shakeup freezes out PR droids, turns on engineers

    Microsoft's $14bn server and tools division is undergoing a massive reorganisation so that it's run more like Microsoft's Windows operation. Sources tell The Reg S&T has shaken up line reporting by implementing the Windows group's triad system, which was considered crucial in bringing Windows 7 to market. From now on, S&T …

    Servers 19 Jan 18:03

  • Feds cuff coder accused of US bank source code swipe

    Alleged thief 'nicked $9.5m software to train his students'

    A computer programmer has been charged with stealing source code worth $9.5m from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to the FBI and prosecutors. Bo Zhang, a 32-year-old from Queens in New York, was cuffed on suspicion of swiping the Government-wide Accounting and Reporting (GWA) software, used to help keep track …

    Crime 19 Jan 18:33

  • Apple launches three-pronged education assault

    The end of textbooks as we know them?

    As expected, Apple has announced a major foray into the education arena with the release of three new – and free – apps, one for reading interactive textbooks, another for creating said textbooks, and a third for accessing K-12, college, and university course materials in iTunes U. More than the apps themselves, what Apple has …

    Applications 19 Jan 19:02

  • It's official: Google is the happiest place in the USA

    CEO Page: 'best place to work' honor due to 'family' values

    Google has been named by Fortune as the best place to work in the US, moving up from number four in 2011, and regaining the top spot it held in 2008 and 2007. "It's important that the company be a family, that people feel that they're part of the company," Google CEO and cofounder Larry Page told Fortune, "and that the company …

    Business 19 Jan 20:20

  • Sikorsky plays killer copter sim on SGI Altix UV 1000

    Stephen Hawking sticks with Altix iron, as well

    Technically, a Silicon Graphics Altix UV 1000 could play Crysis, but in the case of the machine being installed at Sikorsky Aircraft, its game is more realistic: an advanced helicopter flight simulator to create things that really do blow stuff up. The Altix UV 1000 is, of course, the big gun in the SGI arsenal, able to …

    HPC 19 Jan 20:28

  • MIT boffins devise faster Fast Fourier transform

    New technique dramatically speeds processing

    Researchers at MIT have published a paper detailing a new approach to Fast Fourier tranforms (FFT) that could increase the speeds of image and sound processing tenfold. FFT has been in use since the 1960s to process audio and image files by isolating key frequencies from an irregular original signal and then assembling them in …

    Science 19 Jan 20:43

  • Intel beats Street with record year

    Analysts underestimate Chipzilla

    Intel had a record-breaking 2011, with record revenues of $54bn, record net income of $12.9bn, and record earnings per share of $2.39. "2011 was an exceptional year for Intel," said Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini in a statement – for the record, of course. "With outstanding execution the company performed superbly, …

    Financial News 19 Jan 21:27

  • NewSat scores $AU7.5m in new deals

    Mining boom helps drive satellite demand

    Australian listed satellite company NewSat has secured a raft of new contracts across oil, gas, mining, construction, aviation and government sectors, totalling $AU7.5 million. The new deals for Teleport services were signed during the first half of the 2012 financial year and will provide satellite communication services …

    Business 19 Jan 21:41

  • Ericsson's Saba heads to Indonesia

    Makes way for new Aus CEO

    The outgoing CEO of Ericsson Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, Sam Saba, will be moving to Asia to take on the role of as President and Director of Ericsson Indonesia within the Southeast Asia and Oceania region. Saba assumes his new post in February 2012, where he will be driving growth in this emerging market. As a 17 year …

    Business 19 Jan 22:30

  • SOPA from a distance: multiplying the trade threats

    Congress creating an international protection racket

    While punch and counter-punch continue over the legislative insanity of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, it seems from Australia that non-American governments like our own either don’t understand, or have chosen to hold their silence, about the threat the bill poses to Web-based businesses outside the US. Although the bill’s …

    Law 19 Jan 23:00

  • Canberra fire demonstrates emergency messaging limits

    Too many calls for one exchange

    A report into a major chemical fire in Canberra last year has found that many automatic emergency calls were not made, because the systems in place did not have sufficient capacity. It’s not often that any emergency service gets to conduct a real-life test of a system in a genuine emergency that ends with no loss of life and …

    Networks 19 Jan 23:30

  • Kiwis collar Megaupload kingpin, Anonymous exacts revenge

    Retaliation downs US DoJ, RIAA, MPAA

    America’s war on file-dump site Megaupload has escalated dramatically, with founder Kim Dotcom and three others in Auckland among seven people arrested in connection with the site. The four arrested in New Zealand include Megaupload’s chief marketing officer Finn Batato, cofounder and CTO Mathias Ortmann, and BOFH Bram van der …

    Media 19 Jan 23:35