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27th January 2012 Archive

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  • Most EU states sign away internet rights, ratify ACTA treaty

    European Parliament observer resigns in protest

    Representatives of 21 of the EU’s member states, including the UK, have signed off on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) – the European version of the US SOPA and PIPA rolled into one and cranked up to 11. Only Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Slovakia, and the Netherlands have held off on signing the treaty …

    Government 27 Jan 00:03

  • Untangling the question of antimatter mass

    Boffins spin up positronium

    A group of researchers at University of California Riverside hopes to chip away at one of physics’ ‘question of questions’ – why the blazes we’re here at all. Their hope is to make electron/positron pairs live long enough to measure the positron’s mass and find out if it’s different to the electron. It’s a puzzle that resists …

    Physics 27 Jan 01:00

  • Planet-hunting Kepler hits EXOPLANET JACKPOT

    11 systems, 26 planets added to inventory

    NASA's exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has identified a slew of new subjects, adding 26 planets in 11 systems to its inventory. "Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky," said Kepler program scientist Doug Hudgins in a statement announcing the discovery. "Now, in just two years …

    Space 27 Jan 01:05

  • Newt Gingrich wants Moon to be 51st US state

    Promises permanent Moon base by 2020, Mars as next target

    Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is telling the people of Florida about his plans for a permanent base on the Moon, and suggesting it may be possible for the satellite to become the 51st US state. "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the Moon, and it will be American," he told supporters at …

    Space 27 Jan 01:23

  • Eurocom Panther 2.0 Core i7, SLI notebook

    Review Just what does a £5k laptop get you these days?

    While currently every notebook manufacturer seems to offering the thinnest, lightest and easiest to carry around notebook ever, in a bizarre way, it’s quite refreshing to find a company wandering off message and offering notebooks at the other end of the scale. Enter Eurocom’s Panther 2.0, the heaviest, most amazingly specified …

    reghardware 27 Jan 07:00

  • EU: Time running out for web companies on 'do not track' system

    Steely Neelie: Agree on it by June, or I'll force one on you

    Internet companies have been urged to establish a final standardised system that will allow users to control their privacy settings across websites. Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, reiterated her demand that the technology be agreed upon by June in a speech at a meeting of the World Wide Web …

    Government 27 Jan 08:04

  • Samsung outsold Apple in world smartphone arena

    iPhone overtaken in 2011

    Apple may have shipped more smartphones than Samsung in Q4, but the South Korean giant sold more of the gadgets during the year as a whole. So says market watcher Strategy Analytics. Some 488.5m smartphones shipped out of manufacturers' warehouses during 2011, up from 299.5m in 2010. Exactly 19.9 per cent of them shipped with …

    reghardware 27 Jan 08:53

  • Maxwell: Under G-Cloud, gov will buy IT 'like stationery'

    Public ICT contracts to be measured 'in months, rather than years'

    The G-Cloud will usher in an era of public ICT contracts that are measured in months, rather than years, according to Liam Maxwell, the Cabinet Office's director of ICT futures. The G-Cloud could see government procurement move away from its traditional model, whereby contracts are signed for periods of several years and then …

    Government 27 Jan 09:01

  • iPhone grabs 6% of world phone shipments

    But Nokia and Samsung tower over Apple

    Apple increased its share of the world phone market in Q4 2011, accounting for 8.3 per cent of mobile shipments, but it's still a small fry compared to the likes of Nokia and Samsung. Look at 2011 as a whole. Some 1.55bn handsets shipped during the year, but only six per cent of them - 93m units - had the iPhone brand, market …

    reghardware 27 Jan 09:20

  • Startup goes titsup: Beyond Oblivion's crash is beyond belief

    Murdoch, charity also face write-offs as digital music outfit goes bust

    It isn't just scofflaw copyright criminals who cause grief for the music business. Sometimes it's quite capable of lining up its own feet for a shooting party. Digital music's answer to Boo.com – Adam Kidron's music startup Beyond Oblivion – has gone bust. It owed creditors between $100m and $500m, but had assets of just $10m …

    Financial News 27 Jan 09:28

  • Samsung eyes enormofridges for see-through screens

    No beer? Tap for more

    Samsung's 46in see-through LCD screen will go into production this month, paving the way for the transparent tech's appearance in ordinary folks' living rooms. Initially aimed at specialist applications - Samsung is thinking of shops, museums, railway stations, airports and such - it'll be a while before the Samsung see- …

    reghardware 27 Jan 09:43

  • World Solar Challenge: The Musical

    Video Oz heliowheels race for your viewing pleasure

    Last October, we at El Reg's Special Projects Bureau jetted off to Oz in pursuit of the World Solar Challenge – a gruelling 3,000km test of the planet's most advanced solar cars. It took us a while to recover from the terrifying Outback ordeal – five days of hellish survival which saw us deprived of the most basic human needs …

    SPB 27 Jan 10:03

  • Twitter cosies up to governments with country-level filters

    The tweets must flow, unless we're told they shouldn't...

    Micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter has modified its commitment to the free flow of information online by adding a new feature enabling the removal of users' tweets at a country level while allowing them to be viewed elsewhere. In a move many will see as a thinly veiled attempt to cosy up to repressive regimes and maybe even …

    Media 27 Jan 10:26

  • UK sight-loss charity sues BMI

    Excuses over inaccessible website don't fly with us

    The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has taken the unusual step of suing BMI after the airline failed to make changes to its website to make it accessible to blind and partially sighted people. The RNIB was first alerted to a problem back in 2010 when one of its members complained that they could not use the …

    Law 27 Jan 10:47

  • Spring launch for Apple OLED TV with Siri, says retail mole

    Can it really make money when Sony et al can't?

    Apple's voice-controlled 42in OLED TV could be out this April. Assuming, of course, that the Mac maker is indeed working on such an improbable beast. That it's gearing up to launch such a product on the late April/early May timeframe has been claimed by "a high-ranking source with a major electronics retailer", cited by …

    reghardware 27 Jan 10:50

  • Valve pumps Steam into smartphones

    Social gamework

    Valve has taken its digital game distribution platform mobile, launching a Steam app for iOS and Android. Before you get too excited, that doesn't mean you'll be able to play Steam's extensive collection of games on your mobile. Instead, users simply have access to the Steam store, community forums and the ability to chat to …

    reghardware 27 Jan 11:02

  • Google must channel SOPA rage again – against your privacy

    Once more unto the breach, dear netizens

    Put down the NOHO, victorious SOPA protestors – the mothership needs your help once again. Google needs to mount a SOPA-like campaign against European privacy protection proposals, says a US academic. It's for the greater good, apparently. Jane Yakowitz, a visiting professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, writes that …

    Law 27 Jan 11:04

  • Boffins make graphene micro-distillery

    Wonder stuff cooked up super-strength vodka

    Graphene-creating boffins have discovered a new purpose for the wonder material - a teeny-tiny distillery. A team led by one of the Nobel prize-winning scientists who first made the world's thinnest and strongest material have now found out that graphene can stop air and other gases, but it lets water right through. Naturally …

    Physics 27 Jan 11:09

  • BT comes clean on Infinity modem 'upgrade'

    Replacement boxes rolled out due to faulty chip

    National telco BT has been sending letters out to its Infinity broadband customers saying that it will swap their modems for a better version for free, but failing to mention that the real reason for the generous offer is because they could be faulty. The letter to customers, which was forwarded to The Reg by a concerned …

    Broadband 27 Jan 11:14

  • BT seeks apartment dwellers to sign-up to 'superfast' FTTP trial

    We really wanna blow you some cable, dears

    BT is on the lookout for around 1,000 residential buildings to sign up to a pilot to allow the national telco to test superfast broadband speeds in apartment blocks. The company said it needed to carry out the pilot on buildings in areas where its broadband had already been laid. Fibre-to-the-premises will then be blown into …

    Broadband 27 Jan 11:29

  • Nintendo unveils Network for console connectivity

    Wii U to get NFC tech too

    Nintendo has spilled the beans on its next-gen Wii U console's connectivity capabilities to be built around an online service called the Nintendo Network. Company frontman Satoru Iwata said the Network will offer competitions and communication between users, as well as access to digital content, add-ons and full downloadable …

    reghardware 27 Jan 11:42

  • 'You will download your sneakers within 20 years. Yarr'

    QuotW Plus: Fruity smugness - 'momentum is incredibly strong'

    This was the week when Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a Russian man who allegedly created and operated the Kelihos botnet before it got taken down in September last year. RIM co-chiefs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as joint CEOs of the beleaguered BlackBerry-maker, a move investors have been howling about for …

    Bootnotes 27 Jan 11:47

  • ICANN responds to smut portal antitrust lawsuit

    'We do not make or sell anything,' says $75m non-profit

    ICANN and .xxx manager ICM Registry want a California judge to throw out an antitrust lawsuit, saying plaintiff Manwin Licensing is just miffed that it missed out on the juiciest domain names. Manwin, which runs major online porn networks including YouPorn and Brazzers, sued ICANN and ICM in November claiming that they had …

    Hosting 27 Jan 12:02

  • Sony BDP-S185 Blu-ray player

    Review A little gem

    The BDP-S185 is the latest entry-level player in Sony's standalone Blu-ray range. It’s also the smallest and lightest model, at a mere 290mm wide and 1.15kg. With these reduced dimensions, comes a similarly diminished specification: the player isn’t DLNA compliant and can’t stream content across a network. Entry-level …

    reghardware 27 Jan 12:04

  • Trevor goes hands-on with Microsoft Training

    Screencap recap

    Reg columnist Trevor Pott's recent review of the Microsoft Virtual Academy sparked several comments that largely said the same thing: "where's the pics?" So we sent him back to the lab to flesh it out and he's returned with this screencap walk-through. Watch Video var MediaPlayerVars = { '_': { 'http://youtu.be/5n5WYNh8nT0 …

    Applications 27 Jan 12:06

  • Update Facebook by thrusting your hips to, er ... 'Like' things

    NFC belt buckle lets you show affection with a friendly hump

    Seventies throwbacks who like big belt buckles, and pelvic thrusting in public, can now check into a location, or "Like" a friend, with no more than a flick of the hips. The innovation comes from self-described "innovation studio" Deeplocal, which extended the NFC antenna from a Nexus S phone and mounted it on the largest belt …

    Broadband 27 Jan 12:17

  • North Korea labels phone users war criminals

    Hundred-day ban on blowers

    North Korea has banned the use of mobile phones for 100 days while it formally mourns the death of its late "glorious leader" Kim Jong-Il. Those who disobey the dictat will be treated as war criminals and punished accordingly, it has been claimed. Following Kim Jong-Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011, hordes of …

    reghardware 27 Jan 12:22

  • Stab victim protected by Bulgarian airbag

    Jub job saved Florida woman's life, doc reckons

    A Florida woman who was set upon by her ex-fiance's knife-wielding new squeeze survived the attack thanks to one of her Bulgarian airbags, according to this report. The unnamed victim was assaulted outside her former boyf's apartment in Melbourne, Brevard County, and allegedly stabbed "repeatedly in the left side of her chest …

    Bootnotes 27 Jan 12:27

  • NAO: British bobbies wasting £80m BlackBerry stash

    Some forces share 1 among 100, some have 150 for 100 officers

    Brit coppers are not getting enough benefits from their £80m splurge on BlackBerrys and other mobile devices, the National Audit Office has said. The NAO reckons that the bobbies are only getting a "basic level" of benefit from the programme to equip them with mobes, mostly that they can pound the pavements for a bit longer. …

    Law 27 Jan 12:43

  • Galaxy drives up profits for Samsung

    Smartphone sales fuel massive multi-billion dollar investments

    Samsung's smartphones have helped drive the company to an operating profit of ₩5.3 trillion ($4.7bn) in the fourth quarter of last year. The Korean chaebol's mobile line, particularly its Galaxy smartphones, saw Samsung's mobile business grow profits to $7.4bn over the whole year, up 90 per cent from 2010. Samsung has gotten …

    Mobile 27 Jan 13:01

  • Apple: Yes there are horrendous accidents, but we CARE

    Tim Cook sends letter after Chinese factory horror exposé

    Tim Cook has sent a letter to all Apple employees stressing how much the company cares about industrial accidents in its Chinese factories. It comes a day after a graphic story in the New York Times about an explosion in a Chinese iPad factory and two weeks after Apple released a new Supplier Code of Conduct that goes into …

    Business 27 Jan 13:14

  • Google lets youngsters in to Google+. Officially, that is

    ZitFaceBook to offer 'nuance, richness, meaningfulness'

    Google has finally opened the doors of its Google+ social networking service to kids, but was careful to keep their ‘rents onside with new online safety features, as its desperate efforts to catch Facebook continue. The service has up until now been the preserve of adults, although it’s likely that teens have used the site …

    Networks 27 Jan 13:32

  • Apple Italy throws up ruling on its store site

    UPDATE: We accept that they think we were wrong

    Apple Italy has posted details of the ruling against it, as required by the Italian courts, though we don't yet know if Cupertino will be coughing up the €1.2m fine too. A small "Communication to protect consumers" has appeared at the top of the Italian Apple store, linking to a PDF document setting out the court decision …

    Law 27 Jan 13:46

  • Microsoft exec says Safe Harbor framework is 'alive and well'

    CPDP Privacy critic: 'It's dead. We just forgot to bury it'

    Privacy advocates have expressed concern about Brussels' Commissioner Viviane Reding's decision to leave in place the Safe Harbour framework used by some companies to transfer data from Europe to the US. The EC's vice president tabled her draft bill for the overhaul of the EU's 1995 data protection law on Wednesday. However, …

    Law 27 Jan 13:56

  • Snake slides back onto Nokia smartphones

    Nostalgic grub gobbling

    Most people enjoyed playing Snake on their ancient Nokias, gobbling dots and chasing their tail in zig-zags around the screen, at some time in their lives. Well, gamers can now revisit the past and install the ol' classic on their Lumia handsets, retro stylee. Snake '97 transforms a touchscreen Lumia into a replica of a Nokia …

    reghardware 27 Jan 14:07

  • Microsoft schtum on Dropbox snags with IE

    Possible SmartScreen dislike of Amazon caused hiccups

    Microsoft has so far declined to explain why Internet Explorer this week flagged Dropbox as a phishing threat, in an apparent clash with Amazon’s S3 cloud storage. Customers manned the Dropbox forums looking for answers after IE started alerting them to the fact Dropbox was an unsafe site to visit and advising against …

    Cloud 27 Jan 14:27

  • Judges set timetable for McKinnon case resolution

    Pentagon hacking suspect has been waiting for 10 YEARS...

    Senior judges have set a timetable to speed up resolution in the long-running Gary McKinnon extradition case, effectively setting a deadline for the Home Office to respond to evidence that McKinnon is too infirm to withstand the stress of a US trial and likely imprisonment over alleged Pentagon hacking offences. The case was …

    Law 27 Jan 14:39

  • US lawmakers question Google over privacy policy

    Politicos ask if Chocolate Factory's new rules violate an FTC agreement

    Google is insisting that its new privacy policy will still give its users control, after criticism in a letter from US members of Congress. The lawmakers wrote to Google to express concern that users wouldn't be able to opt-out of the new data sharing system when using Chocolate Factory products. "We believe that consumers …

    Law 27 Jan 15:02

  • Playstation Vita games match PS3 software prices

    Keep 'em steep

    As next month's PlayStation Vita launch edges near, publishers have revealed prices for the games that'll be available, with some titles even stretching to a big-ticket £45. The news that games could cost the same as PS3 titles won't to win favour from gamers, especially when smartphone games can be had for extremely low …

    reghardware 27 Jan 15:16

  • Spotify reckons 1 in 5 freebie-gulper eventually pay up

    Takes pop at labels for withholding

    Spotify executive Ken Parks says Spotify has 3 million paying customers, and 20 per cent of people who get on to the free, ad-supported part of the service are signing up to become paying punters. Most of those, 15 per cent, sign up to the premium tier, Parks claimed. The premium tier gives you offline and mobile access to the …

    Business 27 Jan 15:34

  • RIM slashes BlackBerry PlayBook tablet prices

    Up to 58 per cent off launch cost

    RIM has taken an axe to the prices it charges for its BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in the UK - again. You can now pick up the 16GB version of just £169. It was priced at £399 at launch, and yesterday would have set you back £249. That's roughly a third off in 24 hours. The 32GB now costs £199, the 64GB tablet £249, down from £ …

    reghardware 27 Jan 15:37

  • Facebook flings clickjack spam lawsuit at ad-slingers

    Social network teams up with Washington State to hound marketing firm

    Facebook and US state of Washington have filed lawsuits against marketing firm Adscend Media over alleged clickjacking and spam practices, as the social networking giant finally gets tough with scammers operating on the site. The lawsuits were filed against the co-owners of Delaware-based Adscend in the US District Court in …

    Law 27 Jan 15:50

  • Nominet puts the squeeze on rude members

    Scammers, speculators warned

    Nominet, which runs the .uk domain registry, has proposed a new code of conduct that would ban unprofessional behaviour by its members. The new draft Members' Code would enable the organisation to strip members of their privileges if they're caught scamming customers or being rude to Nominet staff. It would also force its …

    Hosting 27 Jan 15:58

  • Dumb salesmen are hurting us – Nokia CEO

    Analysis Incentivising the McJobs

    Stephen Elop got a pretty indulgent reception from analysts, and most of the press yesterday, after delivering some shocking results. Nokia turned a profit of €2bn into a loss of €1bn in the new boss's first full year; volumes are down by 29 per cent; sales of the new Windows phone are unremarkable (to put it generously); and …

    Mobile 27 Jan 16:19

  • Juniper stalled by jittery service providers, product transitions

    Switch hitting

    Juniper Networks warned Wall Street earlier this month that the fourth quarter was going to be rough because key service provider customers are cutting back on spending at the same time that the company is putting the finishing touches on some new switches and routers. The company hit the high point of its revised revenue and …

    Data Networking 27 Jan 16:34

  • Enterprise gets social: Twitter-style data streams, engagement 'apps'

    Open ... and Shut Little numbers, big software and the data deluge

    The winning game plan for enterprise software has long been to "play it safe." Enterprise software developers are just as talented as their free-wheeling consumer-facing peers, but are shackled by the need to prioritise enterprise security over personal utility, and by the fact that IT buyers differ significantly from IT users …

    Developer 27 Jan 17:01

  • America abandoning DSL in favour of faster cable

    Dash to fibre as people abandon twisted copper

    ADSL connections to US homes are on the slide as companies and consumers turn to cable and fibre for faster connectivity. End of 2011 results show Verizon lost almost half a million DSL customers during last year, while AT&T managed to lose more than six hundred thousand in the last quarter alone - but those customers aren't …

    Broadband 27 Jan 17:27

  • Quantum shares plunge after results

    Turning the corner

    Revenues for the third quarter of fy2012 were $173m, 2 per cent down on the $176m of a year ago. Net income was $3.94m, down from the $5.8m recorded a year ago. These earnings exceeded the Street's expectations so why did investors decide to sell the shares? It could be the decline in both revenues and profits. Why did this …

    Storage 27 Jan 18:02

  • Polish lawmakers don Guy Fawkes masks to protest ACTA

    Thousands roil Polish streets – more protests planned

    Over 30 Polish lawmakers held up paper replicas of the Guy Fawkes mask, made famous by both Anoymous hacktivists and the Occupy movement, during a protest in parliament of their country's signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the EU's highly controversial online-piracy legislation. The parliamentarians …

    Government 27 Jan 18:41

  • GaleForce control freak paints clouds KVM red

    Spanning more devices and hypervisors

    Gale Technologies, one of the many companies that wants to manage your private and public clouds, has revved up its GaleForce cloud control freak to 6.0, and is improving its support for XenServer-based clouds and adding KVM to the mix. While many cloud control tool vendors are coming at the market for a heritage in systems …

    Infrastructure 27 Jan 18:44

  • First US CTO Aneesh Chopra resigns from post

    Logs out for possible political career

    The first US government chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra has announced he’s leaving the job. Chopra was hired by President Obama in April 2009 to concentrate on upgrading the nation’s technological infrastructure and to bring some much-needed IT savvy to the business of government. Previously Chopra had spent six years …

    Government 27 Jan 19:14

  • Students busted for hacking computers, changing grades

    'Very bright kids' too bright for their own good

    Three high school juniors have been arrested after they devised a sophisticated hacking scheme to up their grades and make money selling quiz answers to their classmates. The students are accused of breaking into the janitor’s office of California's Palos Verdes High School and making a copy of the master key, giving them …

    Security 27 Jan 23:36