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2nd February 2012 Archive

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  • Obama refuses to respond to MPAA bribery claim petition

    Poor wording breaks petition’s T&Cs

    The White House has said it won’t be responding to a petition calling for an investigation into whether comments by MPAA head Chris Dodd about paying for political support constituted an admission of bribery. Shortly after SOPA and PIPA were kicked into the long grass by nervous legislators, Dodd - himself a former senator – …

    Government 2 Feb 00:17

  • Cray shrinks XE6m supers down to a rack

    So long CX1000 Xeon-InfiniBand baby clusters

    Cray tried to sell Fords and Chevies when it launched the CX1000 entry supercomputer clusters launched back in March 2010. But to make its life easier, and to help bolster sales of its XE6 and XE6m supers that are based on Cray's own high-speed interconnect and software stack, the company has figured out how to shrink a Lexus …

    Servers 2 Feb 00:55

  • LG HLX56S net savvy 3D Blu-ray soundbar combo

    Review Smart deco

    LG’s HLX56S is an audacious all-in-one home cinema system, cast in the guise of a mild-mannered soundbar. With integrated 3D Blu-ray player, copious amplification and IPTV portal, it’s got everything you need for the upmarket man-cave, in a package easily parked beneath a 40in or larger flatscreen. All bar one: LG's HLX56S 2. …

    reghardware 2 Feb 07:00

  • New Trojan routes your bank's calls to CROOKS

    That's right, I really just ordered 10 plasma tellies...

    Devious cybercrooks have developed a Trojan that is capable of redirecting calls your bank has made to verify suspicious transactions – straight into the waiting handsets of professional criminal caller services. The capability comes bundled in a modified configuration of Ice IX, a Trojan developed using the infamous ZeuS …

    ID 2 Feb 08:02

  • Death of IE6 still greatly exaggerated, says browser hit squad

    Ex-Redmondians play to big biz holdouts

    Internet Explorer 6 dead? In your dreams, Microsoft, in your dreams. Redmond broke out the dancing shoes and did a twirl on IE6's grave in January, citing data that showed its once-celebrated, now-hated browser had slipped below 1 per cent US market share. The decline followed some determined pushing by, of all people, …

    Applications 2 Feb 09:03

  • ENORMOUS BACKSIDE FILMED FROM SPACE in moon flypast

    Pale, rounded bounties probed

    US space agency NASA has released a new video of the back side of the Moon, filmed by its newly-arrived duo of GRAIL lunar probe craft. Here it is: Arriving in lunar orbit as the human race welcomed in the New Year here on Earth, the twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) craft's primary mission is to work …

    Space 2 Feb 09:19

  • Apple iPhone 5 to debut at developer gig

    WWDC or bust

    Toss straw into wind, see where it blows. Ah, it's landed on the square marked 'Apple to unveil iPhone 5 in June'. That's what the Chinese-language paper Commercial Times is saying, quoting Japanese Securities, a local broker, but we'd say neither has cast-iron evidence for the claim. Apple traditionally unveiled new iPhones …

    reghardware 2 Feb 09:40

  • El Reg's comments policy? It's all in moderation

    House rules given a spring clean

    The Register has changed its comments moderation policy, making the UK's biggest IT pro talking shop even more immediate, enthralling and noisy. As of right now we have moved to a hybrid moderation model for comments. Over 95 per cent of comments will go straight on to the site, rather than being individually moderated by our …

    Site News 2 Feb 09:41

  • CNN

    iOS App of the Week Here is the news

    I’m a news junkie, and when I recently cancelled my Sky subscription I found that the one channel that I really missed was CNN. So I was pleased to find that there’s a free CNN app that is available in versions for both iPhone and iPad. The iPad version opens in 'front page' mode There are actually three separate apps for …

    reghardware 2 Feb 10:00

  • Google 'chooses' not to censor Mosley content, MP says

    We'll do that as you report it, says Choc Factory lawyer

    Former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said Google could stop links to the material appearing in results but decides not to. He made the comments during a question-and-answer session conducted by the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions. A Google lawyer defended the company's privacy policy and said it responded to take …

    Law 2 Feb 10:19

  • Snaps confirm new CPU for Apple iPad 3

    But maybe not a quad-core chip, after all

    Apple's iPad 3 will not have the same processor as its predecessor. Snaps of Apple's iBoot bootloader programming tool in action covertly emailed to BGR reference the model code 'iPad3,1'. They also refer to an ARM chip dubbed the S5L8945X. The iPad 2's Apple A5 chip was the S5L8940X, while the iPad's A4 processor was …

    reghardware 2 Feb 10:27

  • Samsung 'Galaxy 4S' spied in benchmark results

    Galaxy S II Plus to stand in for Galaxy S III?

    Samsung may be doing an Apple. Since it isn't releasing the Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) show later this month, how about a tweaked version of its current flagship instead? Enter - maybe - a reference to the Galaxy S II Plus, seemingly keyed into the An3DBenchXL benchmark app by Samsung itself. All we can …

    reghardware 2 Feb 10:39

  • Ofcom: UK broadband speed on the up as punters' packages swell

    More of a shunt than a glide

    Average broadband speeds in Blighty are on the up, communications watchdog Ofcom concluded in a report published this morning. Of course, some might argue that it's impossible to define a national average given the disparity of broadband network connections across the UK. Ofcom said that as of November last year, the country' …

    Networks 2 Feb 10:44

  • World's first bamboo smartphone to enter production

    Concept blower branches out

    A British student will see his bamboo blower blueprint brought to market, after backers took note of the ADzero, an eco-friendly smartphone carved entirely from the fast-growing wood. Conceived by Middlesex University scholar Kieran-Scott Woodhouse, this lignum-lined Android blower is around half the weight of an iPhone. The …

    reghardware 2 Feb 10:54

  • Five ways Microsoft can rescue Windows Phone

    A critical success, a market dud. Here's what Redmond should do next

    Windows Phone might be the most impressive bit of software Microsoft has produced - but it isn't setting the world on fire. The iPhone and Android go from strength to strength - the latter proliferating so widely even Google doesn't know how many Android systems are out there. (It can't count the Chinese forks which don't use …

    Mobile 2 Feb 11:00

  • JEDI alliance: Jellyfish overlords won't rule Earth after all

    Blancmange invader threat turns out to be, erm, trifling

    The worldwide jellyfish-threat trouser state was officially downgraded from "damp" to "wear again if necessary" yesterday as top international boffins - operating under the title "JEDI" - announced that in fact there is little evidence to suggest that planet Earth will soon be ruled by wobbling gelatinous blobominations. …

    Biology 2 Feb 11:13

  • Met's email hack probe turns spotlight on The Times - MP

    Scotland Yard keeps mum

    Scotland Yard officers investigating allegations of computer hacking by News International staff have declined to "give a running commentary" on their probe, batting away MP Tom Watson's narration of the saga. The Labour backbencher and member of the culture, media and sport select committee had said earlier on Twitter: The …

    Policing 2 Feb 11:32

  • Facebook warns investors of potential SPAM DELUGE

    IPO filing: Spamvalanche could kill us

    Facebook has been the first internet company to baldly state the risks it faces from hacking and spam to the markets since the SEC issued guidance on the issue. In October last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission told publically listed companies that it was about time they talked about the cyber-attacks they had …

    Spam 2 Feb 11:44

  • Android users more likely to put out

    Open like their app ecosystem...

    Android users are more likely to be slutty, it transpires – having more one night stands, signing up to dating sites more often and being more likely to have sex on a first date, according to a Match.com survey of single Canadian mobile users. The figures are a dramatic reworking of previous research in the area that suggested …

    Mobile 2 Feb 11:45

  • Boffins out earbuds that sound right when inserted wrong

    Left is right regardless

    Researchers have devised a method of automatically adjusting a stereo signal to match whichever ears a pair of earphones are squeezed into. At last, the days of squinting to see the tiny Ls and Rs on your phones may finally be at an end. A group from the Igarashi Design Interfaces Project in Tokyo put a proximity sensor into …

    reghardware 2 Feb 11:54

  • Robot rabbits take on Facebook, female orgasms

    Poked by a rabbit, figuratively and literally

    One waits ages for a story about robotic carrot-crunchers, and then two turn up at once as Karotz the robot rabbit starts talking to Facebook while app-controlled vibrator Vibease looks to sell value-added orgasms. Karotz is the older robot. Already capable of reading out a Twitter feed while cutely waggling its ears, it can …

    PCs & Chips 2 Feb 12:14

  • Final Fantasy XIII-2

    Review Terminal illness

    Is it just me who remembers Final Fantasy III – actually, that’s FF VI if you’re Japanese – the mercurial tale of the evil Kefka and heroes Sabin, Edgar, Terra, et al? I recall the brilliant use of magical espers, its line-up of amazingly distinct fighters – Sabin even channelling Street Fighter-style special moves in a clever …

    reghardware 2 Feb 12:29

  • Sony nosedives into $2.8bn loss as Hirai grabs controls

    Full-year forecast torn up after cash-draining Q3

    Sony's new CEO will have his hands full at the helm of the loss-making Japanese firm - the entertainment megacorp announced today that its net loss in the quarter ending in December was 159 billion yen ($2bn) and it has slashed its full-year forecast to a loss of 220 billion yen ($2.8bn). Sony, which announced just yesterday …

    Financial News 2 Feb 12:44

  • Star Wars MMO sales pip past 2 million mark

    WoW, watch your back

    EA revealed today that since the game's release in December 2011, over 2m copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic have been sold, with 1.7m users actively subscribed. The figures show that unique logins stand around 1m every day, with an average playtime of roughly four hours. Still in the red, though “BioWare Austin has …

    reghardware 2 Feb 12:56

  • Demand for safety kitemark on software stepped up

    MPs want new standard plus web security schooling

    The government and industry ought to do more to promote online safety, according to an influential panel of MPs. Politicos on the Science and Technology Select Committee called for the expansion of Get Safe Online and similar efforts, and for more prolonged awareness campaigns geared towards dispelling fears and encouraging …

    Enterprise Security 2 Feb 13:03

  • Facebook IPO: Boom or bubble?

    Analysis We look at the numbers - and what's missing...

    Is Facebook hugely overvalued or a solid business with some reliable growth ahead of it? A great deal of both. The reason the Facebook flotation is different from yourfunny.co.ck, or anything conceived by a Shoreditch "leisure startup", is that it already has a large and devoted audience. When you can reliably draw a large …

    Financial News 2 Feb 13:11

  • French court lays le smackdown on Google Maps

    Fined for unfair competition in online cartography

    A French court has found Google Maps guilty of unfair competition and ordered the Chocolate Factory to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping firm. Bottin Cartographes had complained to the court that Google France and its parent Google were creating a dominant position for themselves in the market by providing their web- …

    Law 2 Feb 13:29

  • Fotoshop by Adobé: The miracle beauty treatment

    'My skin feels like plastic!' gasps blemish-free babe

    Our piece yesterday on L'Oreal giving Rachel Weisz a intensive age-defying makeover prompted several readers to point us in the direction of this remarkable product: Superb. We contacted Jesse Rosten to see if he'd be marketing his miracle lotion on this side of the Pond, where pockets aren't as deep as James Bond's missus …

    Applications 2 Feb 13:47

  • Kelihos botnet BACK FROM THE DEAD

    Bloodied spam-spewing zombie staggers in

    The spam-spewing Kelihos botnet has returned from the dead. Microsoft collaborated with Kaspersky Lab to run a successful takedown operation last September. The takedown decapitated the botnet by shutting down command-and-control server nodes, directing the bots on infected computers to contact a server under the control of …

    Spam 2 Feb 14:04

  • Chinese admirer fancies WD's 3.5-inch hardness - insider

    Watchdogs would favour Great Wall of China's disk fab chunk slurp

    Could China become a major hard disk manufacturing base if Great Wall snaps up a slice of Western Digital's 3.5-inch drive business? WD is trying to buy Hitachi GST, but EU and Chinese regulators said the sale would limit competition in the HDD market - unless WD sells off some of its 3.5-inch disk fab capacity in amelioration …

    Storage 2 Feb 14:19

  • Unisys wallet emptied in rebadged server, storage cash crash

    Mainframe biz profit wobbles in Q4

    Mainframe maker and services provider Unisys managed to almost hold profits steady in the final quarter of 2011 despite taking a dip in revenues. In the quarter ended in December, Unisys saw its technology sales swoon 18.9 per cent to $150m primarily due to declining sales of third-party equipment including rebranded Dell and …

    Servers 2 Feb 14:43

  • Capita bags Quartermaine to run IT Services

    Gulps down SAP management firm Smith's Consulting for £10m

    Former Azzurri Communications chief exec Mark Quartermaine is set to take the reins at Capita IT services (ITS). Quartermaine, who resigned from the managed comms provider just before Christmas after nearly one-and-a-half years in the role, today confirmed he is set to rock up at Capita. "I am joining Capita at an exciting …

    Channel Register 2 Feb 15:02

  • Micro Anvika seeks channel props for CVA rescue plan

    Tot Court Road old-timer battles consumer slump and store costs

    Troubled Tottenham Court Road retailer Micro Anvika is seeking approval from distributors to green-light a restructure package. The independent – which set up shop in 1984 and has seven stores including a concession in Harrods – appointed biz consultancy Re10 last month to advise it on the best way to counter the slump in …

    Channel Register 2 Feb 15:39

  • Riverbed lobs Granite at offices, WIPES OUT remote servers

    Revs up WAN optimisation

    Riverbed says customers can dispense completely with servers in remote and branch offices by using Granite technology layered on its Steelhead-based WAN optimisation – and so deliver all IT services to remote offices as if they were local. Riverbed describes its technology as Edge VSI (Virtual Services Infrastructure); WAN …

    Servers 2 Feb 16:03

  • Dell names ex-CA CEO as software chief

    Cloud on Michael's mind?

    Dell has appointed a former tech company CEO and blue-chip middleware executive to lead its software group. John Swainson has just been named president of Dell’s software business – and he's due to start on 5 March. Swainson will report to Michael Dell, company chairman and CEO. Swainson was CEO of CA between 2005 and 2009 …

    Financial News 2 Feb 16:21

  • Retailer drops Eee Pad Transformer Prime, claims quality issues

    But Asus denies tablet problems

    Asus has denied that its Eee Pad Transformer Prime is suffering from the quality issues one retailer has claimed have necessitated withdrawing the Android tablet from sale. UK mobile retailer Clove this week stopped selling the Prime because it isn't convinced that "all units we could provide you with are working correctly". …

    reghardware 2 Feb 16:24

  • Symantec: We've plugged up pcAnywhere holes

    Security giant tries to draw line under source code soap opera

    Symantec has said its pcAnywhere remote control software is once again safe to use, following the release of its latest security patch. The security giant made the highly unusual move last week of advising customers to avoid using older but still widely used versions of pcAnywhere as a precaution, after it emerged that the …

    Enterprise Security 2 Feb 16:37

  • Apple ousts LG from world phone biz top three

    Nokia and Samsung still well ahead

    Market watcher IDC has weighed in on the 'who sells how many mobile phones' debate with its own figures. It has followed the consensus that Apple is now the world's third biggest phone maker. Not 'smartphone maker' but 'phone maker'. It's worth stressing the difference because both Nokia and Samsung, the two companies placed …

    reghardware 2 Feb 16:45

  • Hitachi earnings hit hard in Q4

    Blames Japanese tsunami and Thai flooding

    Japanese conglomerate Hitachi – which derives a fair portion of its sales and profits from the IT and telecom sectors – has taken it in the chin profit-wise in its third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended in December. For the quarter, sales were essentially flat at ¥2,2665bn ($29bn), but net income fell by 42.3 per cent to ¥46.4bn ($ …

    Financial News 2 Feb 16:58

  • Sprint gives LightSquared extra 6 weeks to get FCC thumbs-up

    Feds to consult on the issue

    Sprint has given LightSquared another six weeks to get FCC approval for its controversial LTE network, otherwise the wannabe operator will have to build its own network rather than piggybacking on Sprint's. The six weeks are essential as the FCC is seeking additional input from interested parties (PDF, dull, but well …

    Wireless 2 Feb 17:23

  • Google Music 'an oxymoron' - outbound Warner mogul

    The thoughts of Chairman Bronfman

    Outgoing media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr has warned against the Universal-EMI merger – and taken a potshot at Google. Bronfman is stepping down as chairman of Warner Music, which was acquired by Russian entrepreneur Len Blavatnik last year. Bronfman has a long history of antipathy with Universal, the world's largest record …

    Business 2 Feb 17:58

  • Verisign admits 2010 hack attack, mum on what was nicked

    SEC filing shows BOFH cover-up

    Verisign has admitted in an SEC filing that it suffered numerous data breaches in 2010, but that management wasn’t informed by staff for nearly a year after they occurred. In the 10-Q filing, the company said that it suffered multiple data breaches during 2010, and that data was stolen. Exactly what is missing the company isn’ …

    Enterprise Security 2 Feb 19:36

  • AMD uncloaks tablet processor plans

    Sub 2-watt x86 chippery for Windows 8 fondleslabs

    AMD has updated its product roadmap, announcing for the first time that it will be creating ultra-low power (ULP) processors for the tablet market. "We want to hit the volume sweet spots of the industry," said AMD Global Business Units general manager Lisa Su, speaking at the company's Financial Analyst Day in Santa Clara, …

    PCs & Chips 2 Feb 21:31

  • Andreessen Horowitz raises $US1.5b

    Crisis? What crisis?

    High profile VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has secured $US1.5 billion in new funding. The new cash brings the total funding under its management to $US2.7 billion. The company has been boasting that the serious chunk of change took a mere three weeks to raise the funding, and another six weeks to complete the formalities. The …

    Business 2 Feb 21:43

  • Kiwis pitch university IP database

    Get your better mousetrap here

    KiwiNet has launched a database of New Zealand university IP with a aim to attract companies interested in developing and commercialising NZ-led research. The database is designed to act as a shopfront for research projects and patents from across New Zealand. As KiwiNet director Andrew Turnbull puts it, the database “is …

    Public Sector 2 Feb 22:15

  • Jackpot: astronomers tag Goldilocks planet

    GJ 667C is practically a next-door neighbor

    While the Kepler mission turns up its ever-growing crop of exoplanets, a group of astronomers has announced an exciting find closer to home: looking towards Scorpius, there’s a super-Earth-sized planet just 22 light-years distant, with a habitable-zone orbit. Planets with the right orbit offer the best chance of harbouring …

    Space 2 Feb 23:00

  • Wotif get ad serving smarts from Webfirm

    DIY digital ad platforms

    Online travel group Wotif has struck a commercial deal with ASX-listed digital media solutions company Webfirm to implement its Adslot end-to-end self-serve display sales platform. The Adslot self-serve platform will enable advertisers, which include 19,000 properties, to buy, build and serve display advertising campaigns on …

    Business 2 Feb 23:15

  • Zuckerberg: Facebook rakes in cash... to make world a better place

    Analysis Web2.0 investors masticate wildly on Zuck's gummy bubble

    Mark Zuckerberg: a shrewd businessman or simply the world's greatest ever opportunist. Now we can finally find out. His company, Facebook, filed for its initial public offering yesterday, which immediately set off a gentle Web2.0gasm across the interwebulator. The CEO of the world's biggest social network site, whose infamous …

    Cloud Business 2 Feb 23:30