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25th January 2012 Archive

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  • Apple CEO: 'Amazon Fire didn't dent our sales'

    'Year of the tablet? Nope. Year of the iPad'

    If purchases of the successful-if-flawed Amazon Fire bit into iPad sales during the holiday season, Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't see it. "I looked at the data – particularly in the US – on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, and in my view there wasn't an obvious effect on the [iPad sales] numbers," Cook told …

    PCs & Chips 25 Jan 00:47

  • Orange Tahiti 7in Android tablet

    Review Freshly squeezed fondleslab, anyone?

    The iPad is all very well, but with its 9.7in display it can be just too big to cart around. Something lighter and more luggable could be the answer. Since there’s no 7in iPad – and the BlackBerry PlayBook has very few apps – we’re left with Android and even this smaller size is still relatively rare on Googleslabs. Handy …

    reghardware 25 Jan 07:00

  • Judges probe minister's role in McKinnon extradition saga

    Pentagon hacker's medical files ignored

    The long-running case of Gary McKinnon returns to court on Friday. The Royal Courts of Justice will review government ministers' handling of the extradition case rather than considering whether or not McKinnon ought to face trial in the US, in spite of his well-publicised medical problems. McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's …

    Government 25 Jan 08:02

  • Outside-the-box thinking literally can't be done inside a box, say profs

    Trick cyclists in fridge-carton tomfoolishness

    Time-rich trick cyclists in Singapore and America have determined to their own satisfaction that it is actually much more difficult to think outside the box if you are, in reality, inside a large box at the time. Dumb...and in a box Photo credit: Lighthelper. They determined this by means of a series of experiments in …

    Small Biz 25 Jan 09:02

  • Facebook 'contributes' €15.3bn to EU economy... bitch

    Tells small biz world to join social network army

    The UK economy might be down in the dumps, but there is a ray of sunshine from an unlikely source: Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has supposedly helped to contribute £2.2bn to the country's GDP in 2011. Facebook added that – with a lot of help from the rise of mobile applications – it has "supported" 232,000 jobs in recent years …

    Small Biz 25 Jan 09:27

  • Dr Who phone game puts Daleks in your living room

    Toy Fair 2012 Augmented extermination

    Robotics toy tycoon WowWee is down at the Toy Fair 2012 in London this week with its range of smartphone games based on the notion of augmented-reality. While the majority of the AppGear collection was on show at CES 2012 a few weeks ago, a new Doctor Who version was talked-up today, which will see fans of the series strolling …

    reghardware 25 Jan 09:43

  • Infinity Blade II

    iGamer In need of a quick slash?

    I liked the original Infinity Blade when it arrived just over a year ago, but it seemed to fall short of classic status due to the repetitive nature of the combat, the rigidly linear exploration and threadbare fantasy storyline. This sequel does try to add a bit more variety to the formula, although I still found the …

    reghardware 25 Jan 10:00

  • Google finally admits it wants to OWN YOU

    Big changes to Terms of Service due in March

    Mountain View's Chocolate Factory is putting its vast userbase on notice of major changes to its privacy policies. Come 1 March the 350 million people worldwide who have Gmail accounts, for example, will no longer be able to use that service in isolation of other Google products they browse to online. That's because the …

    Platform 25 Jan 10:14

  • Nokia exec praises Brazilian...

    ...for purchase of 1.5 millionth S40 handset

    Nokia has shipped 1.5bn Series 40 handsets, the milestone unit being snatched up by a Brazilian lass, 21-year-old Mayara Rodrigues. The Finnish phone giant has been selling S40 phones since 1999, when it rolled out the Nokia 7110, the first mobile with a WAP browser - remember that? Nokia's latest S40: Asha Nokia has been …

    reghardware 25 Jan 10:19

  • Winners and losers in the information race

    Live today Information management: Is IT being asked the impossible?

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

    CIO 25 Jan 10:31

  • New Euro IP law promises artists torpedoes to sink pirates

    Commissioner wants to stop biz making cash off others' slog

    A revised EU anti-piracy laws will provide content creators with "solid legal certainty" when developing new ways for consumers to legitimately access their works, an EU Commissioner working on the legislation has said. Michel Barnier said that plans to revise the EU's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRE …

    Small Biz 25 Jan 10:34

  • Scalextric restarts space race with Star Wars craft

    Toy Fair 2012 X-Wings race TIE Fighters

    Hornby is at the London Toy Fair 2012 this week putting the Force into slot racing classic Scalextric with a series of Star Wars race kits. Yes, while the series' creator, George Lucas, prepares for his 3D rendition of Episode 1: The Phantom Manarse to hit cinema screens, fans can look forward to pitching Star Wars ships …

    reghardware 25 Jan 10:41

  • London Underground Wi-Fi pusher to be announced in spring

    Tube's wireless delivered in time for 2012 Olympics

    Transport for London (TfL) is in the final stages of the tender process for the supply of Wi-Fi to up to 120 of its underground stations. The announcement of the chosen bidder had been scheduled for the end of 2011, but is now expected in early spring. Gareth Powell, director of strategy and service development, said: "London …

    Wireless 25 Jan 10:49

  • Megaupload master loses Call of Duty crown

    Dotcom bubble burst

    Being held in custody is bad enough for anyone accused of a crime, but when it means you'll lose the number one position on the Call of Duty ranking boards, it's really gonna hurt. That's exactly what has happened to Megaupload mogul Kim Dotcom, who has been overtaken Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's overall statistics after …

    reghardware 25 Jan 10:52

  • Remote-controlled Star Wars kit blown up

    Toy Fair 2012 Inflatable Empire

    Gadget specialist Bladez Toys is to cater for the Star Wars collective with a handful of officially-licensed remote-controlled inflatables based on characters from the films. The Star Wars (ahem) Pump and Play is essentially a run-of-the-mill RC vehicle with an inflatable - at least 65cm in height - fixed to the top. The blow- …

    reghardware 25 Jan 10:55

  • Acer bids to raise prices after levelling inventory mountain

    'Back to the old ways of working,' says UK boss

    Acer has said it expects ASPs to continue to climb this year as the market shifts to ultrabooks – even as the vendor finally levels the inventory mountain that bedevilled it last year. The shock discovery of "abnormalities" in inventory stored in freight forwarders' warehouses led to a massive shakeup at the firm. A "sales …

    Channel Register 25 Jan 11:06

  • Super-powered 'frankenmalware' strains detected in the wild

    Virus-worm crossbreeds will trash systems faster than ever before

    Viruses are accidentally infecting worms on victims’ computers, creating super-powered strains of hybrid software nasties. The monster malware spreads quicker than before, screws up systems worse than ever, and exposes private data in a way not even envisioned by the original virus writers. A study by antivirus outfit …

    Malware 25 Jan 11:17

  • O2 leaks 3G users' mobile numbers to every website visited

    Updated Telco launches probe

    O2 UK is dishing out its customers' mobile numbers like free sweeties to every website they visit over a 3G connection. The info leak was highlighted yesterday by O2 customer Lewis Peckover, who set up a little web tool that displays all the HTTP header information sent to sites by connecting web browsers. These strings of …

    Mobile 25 Jan 11:32

  • Pope praises Twitter and your 'profound' tweets

    Lol! Pontiff tries to get down with the kids, smh!!

    Pope Benedict XVI has given a tentative thumbs-up to micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, but explained to his followers that they may reap more spiritual reward by just piping down a bit online. In his annual message ahead of the Catholic church’s World Communications Day, the Pontiff chose to focus on the virtue of silence …

    Odds and Sods 25 Jan 11:48

  • Loyal NASA rover Opportunity enters 9th year of Mars boffinry

    Plucky robot to sniff Endeavour's rim

    NASA’s exploration rover Opportunity entered its historic ninth year of service on Mars today, having already driven over 21 miles and helped boffins make groundbreaking scientific discoveries on the unforgiving world. The roving robot touched down in Eagle Crater on the Red Planet on 25 January 2004, three weeks after its …

    Space 25 Jan 12:00

  • Toshiba Qosmio DX730 PC TV combo

    Review Touchscreen desktop entertainer

    Toshiba’s Qosmio laptops regularly appear in our hardware reviews but the new Qosmio DX730 is a bit of a departure. In fact, it’s not a laptop at all. It is, according to Toshiba, the very first desktop PC that they’ve ever released here in Europe. And it’s a pretty good one at that. Touching idea: Toshiba's Qosmio DX730 …

    reghardware 25 Jan 12:00

  • Reding's 'right to be forgotten' bill polarises Euro biz world

    Rewriting data protection law in internet age

    EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding will imminently table a draft bill that will – if passed in Parliament – require internet firms to be upfront about the user data they hold. The proposal has already been slammed by many businesses in the UK, where opposition to the draft regulation has been particularly fierce. Reding's …

    Law 25 Jan 12:11

  • Punters to pick up cheap laptops not Ultrabooks

    Consumers too price-wary for skinny tech, says analyst

    Ultrabooks are still too darn pricey for punters, with the new skinny laptops' average selling price during Q4 2011 63 per cent higher than that of regular notebooks. Worse, said UK-based market watcher Context, which released the figures today, Ultrabooks are, on average, more than three times the price of a netbook. Context …

    reghardware 25 Jan 12:23

  • iPad users 'risk shoulder pain', say US gov, Microsoft boffins

    Too much time fondling your slab will leave you stiff

    Boffins employed by the US Department of Environmental Health and Microsoft (among others) say that users of tablet computing devices – an area almost completely dominated at the moment by Apple's iPad, selling in unbelievable numbers – run a more serious risk of "neck and shoulder discomfort" compared to people using normal …

    PCs & Chips 25 Jan 12:47

  • Paramount opens Cloud-based movie shop

    IPTV Week PayPal support good news for non-US viewers

    Paramount has opened the door of the the first Ultraviolet-based film rental and download service. The studio said it is offering 60-odd titles initially, though there seem rather fewer when you look at the website. Films are priced at $20 (£13) for an HD copy and $13 (£8) for an SD version. Rent SD titles for $3 (£1.91) or …

    reghardware 25 Jan 12:51

  • Acer unleashes account managers on corporate customers

    Uses Olympics gloss to burnish biz credentials

    Acer will capitalise on its Olympics prominence this year by ratcheting up its SMB channel and setting an end-user sales team on the UK's biggest companies. The vendor will launch a revamped partner portal in the next few months as it looks to strengthen its contacts: about 2,000 dealers will target the SMB space and up the …

    Channel Register 25 Jan 13:03

  • Lego readies kit for Minecraft lovers

    Block party

    Lego has given the green light to a set of the famous building bricks based on the world of the cult cyber-block game Minecraft. The idea came from fan submission site Lego Cuusoo, where users can suggest new creation kits. If these submissions gather sufficient interest among the site's visitors, the Danish toy maker takes …

    reghardware 25 Jan 13:09

  • EU commissioner unleashes draft data protection bill

    Fines for fumbling punters' privates 'not watered down', Reding insists

    European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding was forced into a defensive corner today, after putting forward her proposed rewrite of the EU's 17-year-old data protection law. She claimed nothing had been "watered down" in the draft bill she tabled. Earlier reports had suggested that Reding was expected to propose that …

    Law 25 Jan 13:18

  • Groupon banned from selling SNAKE OIL

    Site unable to 'substantiate' serpent serum claims - ASA

    Groupon has been rapped for selling snake oil after the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled that the online deals giant couldn't substantiate their claims about the reptile juice. An advert for a deal on 'Wrinkle Killer Snake Serum' sent out in October last year by Groupon claimed that customers rubbing the reptile- …

    Small Biz 25 Jan 13:29

  • Microsoft to cash in chips on virtual currency

    Points break

    Microsoft will call time on its virtual currency, Microsoft Points, with a switch to real money on the cards later this year, it has been claimed. Future transactions across the Windows Phone, Zune and Xbox Live platforms will be based on the currencies of the region in which the user has pegged their account to, an anonymous …

    reghardware 25 Jan 13:47

  • O2 3G stops giving punters' mobile numbers to websites

    HTTP header blooper stamped out within hours after outcry

    After a flurry of complaints, O2 engineers appear to have shut off the proxy server quirk that leaked to websites the phone numbers of punters browsing the net on 3G connections. The disclosure that affected all users of O2's 3G network on iPhone and Android in the UK was highlighted earlier today. O2 has yet to issue an …

    Mobile 25 Jan 13:53

  • Google plays the long game with Chrome OS

    First the kids, then the commercial sector

    Google is betting that slow and steady will prove a winning strategy for its Chrome OS platform, and is reporting some successes for the system in the education sector. It has been a little over a year since Google first showed off ChromeOS, and around six months since the first commercial systems were released for sale by …

    Operating Systems 25 Jan 14:17

  • The Pirate Bay torrents printable 3D objects

    Yarr! Getting physical with small plastic models

    Tremble, thing-makers, because The Pirate Bay has started to share the source files for physical objects. The controversial file-sharing site, known for aiding the distribution of music tracks, films and books, has decided to start a new category for files of 3D objects. Only those with 3D printers will be able to make use of …

    Media 25 Jan 14:44

  • Apple's soaraway growth is Google's pain - and here's why

    Analysis The Martian test - Mountain View FAIL

    Compare these two headlines: "Google shares tank after disappointing financial report" (here) and "Apple tops estimates with earnings leap of 118 per cent" (here). Today, Google brings a vision of the future to wonks, pundits and politicians - and this vision has so far been very persuasive. Google calls its own annual PR …

    Financial News 25 Jan 14:48

  • Pwn2Own 2012 touts bigger prizes, drops mobile hacks

    Make $60,000 with a few carefully injected bytes

    Organisers of security conference CanSecWest have changed the rules for the next outing of its Pwn2Own computer hacking contest. The prize money will be increased, but smartphone hacks have been dropped from the competition. Instead Pwn2Own will challenge security researchers to develop browser exploits in order to hack into …

    Security 25 Jan 15:02

  • Try a 'shroom before ruling on chill pills, boffin tells gov

    Ministers 'irrational' on depression-busting hallucinogen

    The government may never be able to “think rationally” about the therapeutic properties of hallucinogenic drugs, says Professor David Nutt. The top boffin was speaking on the publication of two new studies that show the anti-depressant qualities of magic mushrooms. Prof Nutt, who was sacked from his role as Blighty's top drug …

    Biology 25 Jan 15:27

  • Dell fluffs up fatter Microsoft private clouds

    More huffing and puffing later this year

    Dell is hedging its bets in the private cloud war that is ranging between VMware and Microsoft and has crafted two different versions of its vStart prefabbed clouds: one to run the vSphere stack (and thus ending with a "v") and another the Hyper-V-Systems Center stack (and thus ending with an "m"). Dell is today rolling out the …

    Cloud Business 25 Jan 15:58

  • Telly makers aim to put OLED in your lounge in 2012

    IPTV Week Another five years to wait for the tech to mature?

    Five years ago, the display technology on the consumer electronics industry's lips was OLED. Screens made from an "active" matrix of organic light-emitting diodes - tiny components that contain molecules which emit light when an electric current passes through them - could produce a more colourful, higher contrast picture than …

    reghardware 25 Jan 16:12

  • OpIreland hackers spank gov sites as 'Irish SOPA' nears

    Angry hacktivists land on Irish shores

    Anonymous took out several key Irish government websites last night and promised more disruption to come in retaliation for new SOPA-like legislation which it claimed would make it easier for copyright-holders to block access to file sharing and other sites in the country. The hacktivist collective announced OpIreland last …

    Government 25 Jan 16:18

  • pcAnywhere let anyone anywhere inject code into PCs

    Symantec plugs holes in desktop remote-control tool

    Symantec is urging users to patch pcAnywhere, its remote control application, following the discovery of a brace of serious security flaws. The most severe of the two holes allows hackers to remotely inject code into vulnerable systems - made possible because a service on TCP port 5631 permits a fixed-length buffer overflow …

    Security 25 Jan 16:29

  • Quad-core Samsung Galaxy S III set for April launch

    Rumour with a view

    The unannounced Samsung Galaxy S III will hit shelves in April with some meaty specs, including a quad-core processor and a 12Mp camera, it has been alleged. The pinch-of-salt claims come from Russian tech enthusiast Eldar Murtazin, known for his close links to industry insiders. “HD resolution, 12Mp camera, [software] tweaks …

    reghardware 25 Jan 16:37

  • EE and BT get LTE extension

    180 lowenek Kernewek* won't have to give up their broadband

    Ofcom has granted BT and Everything Everywhere an extension to their test licence for cohabited LTE spectrum until the end of 2012, much to the relief of the trialists. The trial, which is testing how effectively LTE can be used to share radio spectrum, was supposed to wind up at the end of January, which would have left the …

    Wireless 25 Jan 16:43

  • Nvidia hit by GPU slump, too

    Tegra 2 stepped on by Tegra 3

    Microprocessor and GPU maker Advanced Micro Devices said yesterday that its financial results had been whacked by an unexpected downturn in discrete graphics processor sales in the fourth quarter, and Nvidia now says it had the same problem. In a statement, Nvidia put the blame squarely on the disk shortage that has been …

    Servers 25 Jan 16:59

  • Why O2 shared your mobile number with the world

    And why they'll probably do similar again

    O2 has been sharing customers' phone numbers with every website they visited, but O2 isn't the only offender - it's just the one that slipped up and got caught. The Information Commissioner will investigate, and O2 will be told it should be more careful in future. Punters will be outraged but actually suffer very little as few …

    Mobile 25 Jan 17:14

  • Amazon bridges enterprise IT with cloud backup

    Official at last: book-seller goes corporate

    Amazon has become an official supplier of enterprise IT by turning its cloudy Simple Storage Service (S3) into a back-up option for earth-bound data. It's a smart move on Amazon's part as it means the cloud pioneer is staking a claim on data centre SANs by abstracting them behind an iSCSI volume layer, which then ships data up …

    Cloud Business 25 Jan 17:32

  • Super Micro awaits the Xeon E5 launch

    Disk shortage bites box shipments

    The shortages of disk drives due to flooding in Thailand continues to take its toll on IT suppliers, with motherboard and whitebox system maker Super Micro joining the club of companies adversely impacted by the shortages. In the second quarter of fiscal 2012 ended in December, Super Micro's sales were $249.9m. This is up 3.8 …

    Servers 25 Jan 17:43

  • Tucci to hang around another year as EMC earnings soar

    Record-breaking dosh, but info intelligence not so clever

    EMC recorded record revenues and profits for the full year and final quarter of 2011, although Information Intelligence results didn't look so clever. The company sold a massive $20bn worth of products and services last year, an 18 per cent jump on 2010. It earned $2.5bn profit which, to put it in context, is a good deal more …

    Channel Register 25 Jan 18:01

  • Nekkid Tech: Pricey frocks, Duran Duran and VMware power users

    Podcast Live from New England VMUG

    Greg Knieriemen fought through a 1,000-strong crowd at the New England Area VMware User Group (VMUG) to bring El Reg readers a piping hot dose of Nekkid Tech. This week he chats to Chris Harney, Founder of the New England VMUG (@csharney), Taya Wyss from The Enterprise Strategy Group (@TayaWyss) and Erin Banks, vSpecialist …

    Storage 25 Jan 18:33

  • Intel issues dividend, Apple sits on $97.6bn

    A tale of two companies

    Intel has quietly announced that it will pay a quarterly dividend of 21 cents per share on March 1, just as they did last September and December, and in earlier quarters at lower rates. At the end of last year, Intel had $14.84bn in cash and short-term investments, from which it pays its dividends to shareholders. Apple, on …

    Financial News 25 Jan 18:52

  • Fusion-io revenues flash upwards

    Market punishes Fusion for margin fall

    Server flash array vendor Fusion-io saw stonking quarterly revenues but disappointed with a loss despite unexpected higher sales. Did it under-price its ioDrive 2 products? Fusion ships PCIe-connected flash memory cards for servers – ranging up to 10TB in size – which store primary data, replacing 15,000rpm disk drives, and …

    Storage 25 Jan 19:02

  • O2 apologizes for 'unintended' number-leak cockup

    Will cooperate with Information Commissioner's probe

    O2 has issued a public apology for leaking the phone numbers of some 3G customers in header information sent to website managers. “We would like to apologize for the concern we have caused,” the company said in a statement. The cellco said it was standard industry practice to send out user’s phone number information in this …

    Mobile 25 Jan 19:04

  • HP outlines schedule for full WebOS open source release

    Full development system out by September

    HP has announced the schedule for the open sourcing of WebOS tools and source code, and said it will be continuing to push development hard to build a truly open platform. “We wanted to do it right, we’re upleveling WebOS to the most current versions,” said Sam Greenblatt, CTO of WebOS, told The Register. “Basically we …

    Developer 25 Jan 20:35

  • Two million-degree matter from SLAC laser

    PICOSECOND PULSE OF DOOM!

    From “wow, that’s cold” we now get to meet a “wow, that’s hot” laser application, courtesy of the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: its X-ray laser has created and probed matter as hot as the Sun’s corona. In a busy day at SLAC, the lab announced the creation of 2-million-degree Celsius matter, …

    Physics 25 Jan 21:06