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24th January 2012 Archive

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  • US Supremes: GPS tracking requires warrant

    'Stop! In the name of the 4th Amendment...'

    The US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that police need to request a warrant before attaching GPS tracking devices to suspects’ cars. “We decide whether the attachment of a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device to an individual’s vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements on …

    Law 24 Jan 2012, 01:29

  • VMware busts through billion dollar quarter

    Headman Maritz expects Microsoft to 'come back at us'

    Server virtualization juggernaut VMware has busted through its first billion dollar quarter, beating Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter of 2011 in both sales and profits. Anyone – this means you, Red Hat, Citrix Systems, and Microsoft – that thinks they can knock out VMware in server virtualization should consider …

    Cloud 24 Jan 2012, 01:44

  • Ten... IPTV set-top boxes

    IPTV Week Bringing films from web to telly

    Nearly every new gadget can be connected to the internet. The smart TVs popularised by Samsung and others are the focus of this but you don’t need to shell out on a new telly - a cost-effective IPTV box can do it too. IPTV means the delivery of TV shows and films over broadband. It can include live channels but the most …

    Hardware 24 Jan 2012, 07:00

  • Laptops get cooler with bamboo bottoms

    Pandas might eat the fans

    "What we do with an old bamboo makes everybody cheer," sang Caractacus Potts, who would no doubt be impressed at what fellow inventors use the material for nowadays. These new laptop coolers from Zignum are crafted entirely from the fast-growing plant, right down to the built-in fans themselves. The Bamboo One and Bamboo Two …

    Laptops 24 Jan 2012, 08:00

  • Campaign launched to teach consumers about ad-stalking

    Ad body produces guide to online behavioural advertising

    An organisation representing US marketing bodies has launched a new advertising campaign to raise consumer awareness of online behavioural advertising (OBA). The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) campaign, called 'Your AdChoices', consists of banner advertising designed to drive users towards "educational videos" and controls …

    Media 24 Jan 2012, 08:01

  • Councils tout £1.2bn for IT whizkid to grab their backend

    Outsourced IT includes crim record checks and payroll

    A one-billion-pound contract is up for grabs as three London councils hunt for IT hotshots to streamline their back-office systems - handling everything from criminal record checks and financial accounts to the payroll and psychometric testing. Westminster Council is spearheading the search for an IT provider that will service …

    Government 24 Jan 2012, 08:31

  • HP palms £316m in DWP desktop deal

    History repeats itself

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has awarded a significant desktop management contract to HP under the Desktop 21 framework agreement. The five-year £316m Desktop 21 deal covers a range of desktop services including security, print, service desk and device provision and support, and will see the DWP move to HP's …

    Government 24 Jan 2012, 09:02

  • How to tell if your biz will do a Kodak

    Blocks and Files Learn to recognise failure - and move on

    Disruptive or enhancing innovation? Kodak's descent into Chapter 11 hell is a tolling bell for all successful storage suppliers facing innovative technology from competitors. King Canute didn't reinvent himself: can you? Let's look at the tape market. Tape devices were backup devices; they were the target storage devices for …

    Business 24 Jan 2012, 09:29

  • CW lets slip Nokia Lumia 900 UK launch date

    Big-screen WinPho boy will be LTE-less

    Nokia's Lumia 900, the Windows Phone 7.5 handset that's literally the bigger sibling of the Lumia 800, will be out here in June, Carphone Warehouse has seemingly let slip. CW just posted a page on its website for the upcoming 4.3in OLED screen smartphone, launched earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CW …

    Phones 24 Jan 2012, 09:56

  • FilmOn

    Android App of the Week UK telly - and more - from the net to your phone

    Android owners are not well served for UK TV content. We now have a version of the BBC iPlayer after a long wait, and while ITV has released its ITV Player for the Googlephone OS, it's not very good. Other channels don't offer player apps. Morally, we ought to accept the situation gracefully. Given the dross that comes up …

    Phones 24 Jan 2012, 10:00

  • Ofcom to borrow cup o' spectrum for Olympics

    Using less than a third the engineers Beijing had

    Ofcom is laying the groundwork for the London Olympics, outlining plans to borrow radio spectrum, but will be running the event with a fraction of the engineering resource of its Chinese predecessor. The UK government promised free radio spectrum as part of its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, but has left it up to Ofcom to …

    Broadband 24 Jan 2012, 10:22

  • GM Volt e-car battery safe, say feds

    No design flaws in cooling system

    General Motors' Chevy Volt e-car does not sport a defective design, the US' National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has judged. This week the Administration closed its formal probe, launched in November 2011, into potential problems with the Volt's battery cooling kit. Past test prangs had exposed the possibility that …

    Science 24 Jan 2012, 10:30

  • Shatner faces final frontier as Priceline.com spokesman

    Hammy actor ends lucrative ad run

    Priceline.com has decided to milk the last dregs from an increasingly portly franchise by roasting spokesman William Shatner in a fiery death. Shatner has milked many iconic roles, not least Captain James Tiberius Kirk, singer, sanitized Twitter soap star, and the best-forgotten TJ Hooker, but his regular appearances as …

    Media 24 Jan 2012, 10:42

  • HP pitches 10in netbook at business

    No Windows Starter for the suits

    HP clearly thinks there's still mileage in the netbook - many of its rivals don't - at the very least as a business device. It has launched a new model, the Mini 1104, to prove it. Unlike consumer-centric netbooks, the 1104 runs Windows 7 Home Premium rather than Starter Edition. But the spec is otherwise netbook standard: 1 …

    Laptops 24 Jan 2012, 10:47

  • Apple looking to support new technology, says blog

    No s**t

    Apple may be looking to incorporate the latest version of a new technology, the company's many fansites are reporting. The technology was recently upgraded to deliver greater performance, and while the new version has yet to be formally approved by the relevant standards bodies, the specification is available for use by makers …

    Hardware 24 Jan 2012, 11:02

  • Dinosaurs were super mums, nest find proves

    Cold-blooded reptiles showed caring side - bone boffins

    They may have been cold-blooded, but it turns out dinosaurs were caring parents – arranging their eggs neatly and letting their scaly offspring stay in the nest until they had at least doubled in size. Fossil-bothering boffins poking around in a 190-million-year-old nest in South Africa have published a new study into the the …

    Science 24 Jan 2012, 11:09

  • Juror jailed for looking up rape defendant on Google

    Lecturer ignored judge's ban on web search

    A juror who used Google to search for a defendant in a rape case in Luton was jailed for six months yesterday for contempt of court. Academic Dr Theodora Dallas, 34, told fellow jurors that the man on trial for sexual assault had previously been accused of rape after finding a newspaper article about him on the internet. Her …

    Law 24 Jan 2012, 11:21

  • Facebook, MySpace, Twitter expose Google's 'evil'

    App fingers 'search results bias'

    A gang of engineers from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has released a new bookmarklet designed to expose how Google’s People & Pages service favours the ad giant’s own Google+ results at the expense of the rest of the web. The Focus On the User group posted a video explaining how the Don’t Be Evil tool works - a reference to …

    Networks 24 Jan 2012, 11:41

  • Telly makers failing to turn punters on to smart TV

    IPTV Week Games consoles to be most popular IPTV platform?

    UK consumers aren't yet turning on to the smart TV concept, pollster YouGov revealed today. Over the Christmas 2011 period, smart TV ownership rose by just a single percentage point, the psephologist said. In November 2011, ten per cent of the UK population owned a smart TV. Back then, 15 per cent of UK consumers, based on …

    Hardware 24 Jan 2012, 11:43

  • Information management in financial services

    Déjà vu all over again?

    Involved in information management? Then join us on January 25 at 11:00 GMT, when we discuss the findings from the latest Reg research and offer tips and techniques on good information practice. This Regcast features research lead Martha Bennett from Freeform Dynamics, Jason Frost from Blueprint, which specialises in helping …

    Site News 24 Jan 2012, 12:00

  • Sony SVR-HDT1000 Freeview+ HD DVR

    Review No-nonsense telly recorder with HDD archiving

    At first glance, the Sony SVR-HDT1000 may appear rather unprepossessing. It’s a Freeview HD digital recorder which bucks the trend for ubiquitous Smart-ness and has no integrated Blu-ray player or fancy multi-platform functionality. It does, however, make a virtue of simplicity. Those looking for a no-nonsense, high grade …

    Hardware 24 Jan 2012, 12:10

  • Microsoft names SQL Server 2012 launch date

    Price increases likely

    Microsoft's SQL Server 2012 will be officially launched on 7 March and likely come with a higher list price than older versions of the relational database. Redmond released the date and announced a concurrent online event, featuring a day of speakers and over 30 technical sessions taking customers through the new database's …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 12:19

  • Watchdog bites Nokia over Lumia 800 TV 'flash ads'

    Channel 5 sponsorship crossed the line

    UK communications regulator Ofcom has slapped the wrists of Nokia and Channel 5 for failing to make it sufficiently clear to viewers that the TV company had taken the Finnish phone giant's sponsorship Euro, part of Nokia's Lumia 800 Windows Phone handset promo programme. Nokia paid Channel 5 an undisclosed sum to sponsor the …

    Phones 24 Jan 2012, 12:27

  • Starship Voyager dumped into skip

    Tearful Trekkie dismantles intergalactic flat

    One Trekkie's dream of boldly going where no interior designer has gone before appears to be over – thanks to his estranged wife, who has decided his starship Voyager-themed flat isn't entirely suitable for the terrestrial housing market. Former DJ Tony Alleyne, 58, has spent 10 years and a wad of cash coverting the one-bed …

    Bootnotes 24 Jan 2012, 12:38

  • HP pays $425,000 to settle blazing battery claim

    Denies it knowingly sold dangerous kit

    HP has coughed up $425,000 to lay to rest allegations made by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that it sold lithium ion laptop batteries it knew were dangerous. In July 2008, HP notified the CPSC that it was aware of a potential safety issue with certain notebook power packs. Under certain circumstances, the batteries …

    Laptops 24 Jan 2012, 12:44

  • Top RIM jobs shake-up: Heads roll... but not very far

    Comment Heins spills beans on BlackBerry rescue plan

    Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have stepped down as co-CEOs at RIM, but sacrificial lambs have to be sacrificed, not kept knocking around while things continue as usual. Lazaridis hangs on as vice-chairmain, and gets control of a new "Innovation Committee" within the company, while Balsillie will have to content himself with …

    Business 24 Jan 2012, 13:02

  • Pay attention, 007: Wi-Fi cufflinks perfect for a spy

    Gadget includes 2GB USB drive too

    Brookstone, the up-market US gifts-you-know-you-absolutely-can't-resist retailer, has come up with another winner: Wi-Fi routing silver cufflinks with an on-board USB stick. How on earth did we ever do without them... and they only cost $249.99. The coolest cufflinks ever The USB thumb drive bit stores 2GB, respectable …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 13:19

  • Google+ lets in nicknames, slams door on plebs' pseudonyms

    Please, do tell the nice ad giant even more about yourself

    Google has very slightly tweaked its naming policy for Google+ by allowing nicknames to be displayed alongside an individual's real identity on the social network. But the company is still largely refusing to listen to those users who want to remain anonymous on that service. The Chocolate Factory's product veep Bradley …

    Networks 24 Jan 2012, 13:28

  • Assange™ to present own TV show

    Dubs self 'revolutionary figure', 'pioneer for justice'

    Famous WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange™ says he will soon be presenting an unnamed weekly TV show via unspecified channels to a vast global audience. According to a press release "authorized by Julian"*, Assange™ is "one of the world’s most recognizable revolutionary figures ... a pioneer for a more just world and a victim …

    Bootnotes 24 Jan 2012, 13:41

  • Inspiration Works intros Android tablet for tykes

    Toy Fair 2012 Skates out, slates in

    Here at the Toy Fair 2012, the fact technology dominates kids' entertainment is clear as day. Inspiration Works aims to capitalise on this trend with a tablet specifically targeted towards nippers. The Kurio is an Android 4.0 based slate, spruced up with a kid-friendly UI and behind-the-scenes parental controls. While adults …

    Tablets 24 Jan 2012, 13:50

  • WD soaks up $2bn in Thai flood aftermath

    Coyne still faces HGST deal approval

    Western Digital and its supply chain have pulled out all the stops and delivered a decent profit in the last quarter of 2011, the one in which some of its Thailand plants were inundated by deadly flooding. For this quarter, its second fiscal 2012 quarter, WD pulled in revenues of $2bn – compared to $2.5bn a year earlier – and …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 14:03

  • Hacktivists hammer Polish govt for backing ACTA

    Support for SOPA's big brother sparks hackers' wrath

    Hacktivists at Anonymous have turned their ire at least partially away from SOPA in the US and towards governments pushing its bigger brother, ACTA. The majority of Polish government websites were taken offline over the weekend as the result of a DDoS attack in protest against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 14:33

  • Sage 'satisfied' as squeezed small biz still puts out

    UK software giant keeps numbers up despite 'challenging environment'

    Sage the British software juggernaut said that its trading results had held up since 1 October, despite the strain on its core customer base in small businesses. In an interim manager's statement CEO Guy Berruyer described Sage's performance in the past three months as "satisfactory": “In the context of a macro-economic …

    Small Biz 24 Jan 2012, 15:04

  • Apple's Dutch Galaxy Tab ban shot down by The Hague

    Trendy tech titan takes a hit as patent war reaches The Netherlands

    The Dutch have found themselves on the front line of the long-running international patent battle between Apple and Samsung: an appeals court in The Hague has rejected Apple's design-related gripes against Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet, snubbing its request for a ban on the sale of the iPad rival in The Netherlands. The Hague …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 15:24

  • Ultrabooks won't smash tablets, says analyst

    Fondleslabs to be a bigger seller for years

    Ultrabooks will not outsell tablets, the next five years at least, though the new skinny laptop category will experience unit-shipment growth three times as fast as the tablet. So says UK-based market watcher Juniper Research. It predicts that 178m Ultrabooks will ship in 2016, from just under 20m in 2012. But the number of …

    Laptops 24 Jan 2012, 15:31

  • Is France's 'three strikes' anti-piracy banhammer working?

    IFPI says yes. We look at the file-sharer numbers

    The global trade group for the record industry IFPI says France's 'graduated response' scheme HADOPI is helping win the war against piracy. Under the scheme, which began 15 months ago, if a file-sharer receives three warning letters in a year, their account is suspended for a month, and the subscriber may receive a fine of up …

    Media 24 Jan 2012, 15:42

  • Facebook to shove Timeline in EVERYONE'S face soon

    Tick tock, bitch

    Facebook is now pushing its Timeline feature to all of its users, after carrying out a slow reveal of the dominant social network's makeover to those people happy to upgrade to the new look. For those stuck-in-the-mud types opposed to Mark Zuckerberg's "frictionless sharing" future – the clock is now ticking. "Last year we …

    Networks 24 Jan 2012, 16:04

  • Micron, Elpida, Nanya lust for a DRAM hot threesome

    Merge mulled to take on rampant South Korean rivals

    The boys from Boise are on a roll after buying the ashes of Virtensys last week - now Idaho-based Micron is chatting up struggling Japanese memory maker Elpida and Taiwan's Nanya to form a 3-way merger. Reuters reports that talks have reached the final stage. Elpida has not been raking in enough revenue to be either profitable …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 16:22

  • Microsoft fingers alleged Kelihos botnet kingpin

    Suspected coder once worked for Russian antivirus biz

    Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against a Russian national who allegedly created and operated the Kelihos botnet, prior to a takedown operation in September 2011. Fresh evidence has allowed Microsoft to name Andrey N Sabelnikov as a defendant in its suit. The move follows a settlement in action brought by Microsoft against …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 16:39

  • Facebook sheds light on Nokia's Lumia sales

    App stats show gap between the platform and the sales train

    Despite pushing half-second "break flashes" onto Channel 5 viewers – in contravention of Ofcom rules – Facebook figures seem to show the Lumia isn't selling as well as Nokia might have hoped. There are no official sales figures for the Lumia but the Windows-Phone-embedded Facebook application is only attracting around 1.3 …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 17:03

  • IBM and NEC tag team on OpenFlow networking

    Control freaking network configs from servers

    IBM and NEC are joining forces to promote switches and controllers based on the OpenFlow protocol to their joint customers. After a decade-long hiatus, IBM jumped back in the network-equipment business in September 2010 with its $400m acquisition of Blade Network Technologies, which made both blade and rack switches. Big Blue …

    Data Networking 24 Jan 2012, 17:20

  • HUD's up! Ubuntu creates menu-free GUI

    No drop-downs in the future

    Canonical has unveiled HUD, which it has billed as the "menu of the future" for its next Linux desktop. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, due in April, will feature the first release of Head Up Display, or HUD, which distro creator Mark Shuttleworth has predicted will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. HUD dispenses with drop- …

    Developer 24 Jan 2012, 17:32

  • Ultrabooks will devour notebook biz by 2016 - report

    MacBook Air threatened as Intel slimbooks get cheaper

    All notebooks will look like Ultrabooks in five years' time as vendors find cheaper ways of offering the shiny Intel-based machines, according to a new report. The report's author also speculated that this move could force Apple to ditch its MacBook Air and look for a new form factor to invent. A new Juniper Research forecast …

    The Channel 24 Jan 2012, 18:04

  • Antivirus startup Dasient flocks off to Twitter

    Bought-up securo biz and social site make tweet love

    Twitter has acquired anti-malware startup Dasient. Financial terms of the deal, announced Monday, were undisclosed. Twitter chirps about acquisiton Dasient launched a web-based anti-malware platform in 2009, following up with technology designed to restrict the spread of malicious ads a year later. In joining Twitter, …

    Small Biz 24 Jan 2012, 18:27

  • US govt security advice site trashed by hackers

    Hacktivist campaign against SOPA, PIPA and ACTA continues

    Anonymous and LulzSec members have hacked US government security web site OnGuard Online and defaced it, forcing it offline, in retaliation for the recent MegaUpload takedown and the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the groups have announced. Anonymous has been ramping up its opposition to ACTA on …

    Security 24 Jan 2012, 19:06

  • AT&T starts dishing out $1bn in radio frequencies

    Spectrum today, cash tomorrow

    AT&T has asked the FCC to approve the transfer of a billion dollars' worth of radio spectrum to T-Mobile USA, to accompany the $3bn it will be handing to Deutsche Telecom. The money, and radio spectrum, is compensation for failing to buy T-Mobile USA after the deal failed to surmount regulatory hurdles. The money goes to the …

    Mobile 24 Jan 2012, 20:04

  • Node.js sees Windows compatibility as key to success

    Avoiding the mistakes of Ruby on Rails

    The creator of Node.js says he wants to avoid the mistakes of other development environments, and support cross-platform systems as much as possible. Ryan Dahl, who devised Node.js as a way of running JavaScript on the server side, was speaking in a group session with Rackspace and Microsoft at the first Node Summit in San …

    Developer 24 Jan 2012, 21:05

  • Anonymous explodes MegaUpload clone 'scam'

    AnonyUpload is nothing to do with us, sir

    A supposedly "Anonymous-built" alternative to MegaUpload has been discredited by members of the hacktivist collective. AnonyUpload sprung up days after a takedown operation against MegaUpload website, the arrest in New Zealand of its founders on copyright infringement charges, and a hacktivist backlash against government and …

    Hosting 24 Jan 2012, 21:06

  • Nokia busted for dodgy SMS to customers

    Spam Act breach draws $AU55k wrist-slap

    Nokia has fallen foul of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, incurring a $AU55,000 fine following consumer complaints over its SMS marketing practices. The watchdog commenced an investigation into the vendor’s SMS marketing activity and found that Nokia’s text ‘tips’ delivered to handset users did not include …

    Mobile 24 Jan 2012, 21:19

  • Apple tops estimates with earnings leap of 118 per cent

    Wall Street moneymen looking a wee bit silly

    Apple blew past even the most optimistic Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter of its fiscal 2012, posting revenues of $46.33bn, resulting in a quarterly net profit of $13.06bn, or $13.87 per share. "We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said CEO Tim …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2012, 21:57

  • Oz stalls e-health trials

    Pilot catches bugs in specs

    Australia’s e-health implementation has stalled because of cross-version software incompatibilities, it emerged yesterday. The agency responsible for the rollout, the National E-Health Transition Authority, made the announcement on January 24, stating that an assessment of the Primary Care desktop software “highlighted some …

    Business 24 Jan 2012, 22:00

  • APN gets friendly with Pollenizer

    When old media and new media collide

    Australasian print and radio media company APN News & Media has secured a deal with leading Australian digital start up incubator Pollenizer. APN secured the first of two strategic investments with Pollenizer that will help APN beef out its digital portfolio. APN took a 25% stake in Friendorse, an early stage online business …

    Business 24 Jan 2012, 22:30

  • No bail for Kim Dotcom

    Come back in a month

    Kim Dotcom has been denied bail in a New Zealand court, and remanded in custody until February 22. The reserved decision by district court judge David McNaughton has now been released. Bail applications for his co-accused in New Zealand – Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk – will be heard later today. Dotcom …

    Law 24 Jan 2012, 22:42

  • Whacked moon rocks yield up their secrets

    What happens when you shock zircon

    Since NASA is trying to find the moon rock samples it once cheerfully scattered around the world, here’s a hint: some of it is over at Curtin University in Western Australia. However, the sample at Curtin has been put to good use: working out how to identify rocks that have suffered a meteor collision, by looking at formations …

    Science 24 Jan 2012, 23:00

  • Yahoo! revenues! continue! to! decline!

    New CEO faces a mountain to climb

    Yahoo! has released disappointing results for its fourth quarter, with earnings down 5 per cent and revenues falling a further 13 points. Revenues excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) fell three per cent to $1.17bn, compared to $1.21bn this time last year, although income from operations did increase by 10 per cent to $ …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2012, 23:08

  • AMD swings to a loss in Q4

    Blame wafer bakers, discrete graphics – or both

    Despite issues with getting chips from both GlobalFoundries and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp last year, AMD was able to get a modest bump up in sales in the fourth quarter thanks in large part to its hybrid CPU-GPU chips for PCs, with sales up 2.5 per cent to $1.69bn. But a write-off of $208m relating to AMD's wafer …

    Financial News 24 Jan 2012, 23:33