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9th February 2012 Archive

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  • Loral set to build NBN Co satellites

    Turnbull doesn't like it, again

    NBN Co has awarded Space Systems/Loral an $AU620 million contract to build, deliver and deploy two next-generation Ka-band satellites to cover regional Australia. The tender follows a two-year procurement process undertaken by NBN Co and is part of a total investment of around $AU2 billion that is required to deliver the NBN …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 00:28

  • Huawei gets more UFB kiwi action

    Rolls out that fibre for New Zealand

    Huawei has secured another key government win in New Zealand to provide fibre services to the Christchurch UFB with Enable Services Limited. The multi-million dollar contract covers the provision of all network equipment, including fibre ducting, fibre optic cables and open access layer two network solutions. It will also …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 01:00

  • Thodey chimes in on TV Now decision

    Telcos 'need clarity'

    Telstra CEO David Thodey has told journalists and analysts that the telecommunications industry “needs clarity” following the Federal Court decision which clearly and simply said “Optus TV Now is legal”. In other words, since the clarity provided by the Federal Court is not the clarity Telstra wants – with $AU153 million …

    Law 9 Feb 01:07

  • Robot surgery gets virtual at Euro Space Agency

    CAMDASS augmented reality for astronaut patch-up

    The European Space Agency is showing off an augmented-reality kit which it says will ultimately pave the way for diagnosis and even surgery for astronauts. The CAMDASS – Computer-Assisted Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System – combines a head-mounted display with 3D guidance. The prototype has been developed with ultrasound in …

    Rise of the Machines 9 Feb 02:00

  • Apple Stores getting petitions on ethical conduct for breakfast

    250,000 signatures for fair treatment of iWorkers

    Breakfast at Apple retail outlets in Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, London, Sydney, and Bangalore will come with a side order of protest on Thursday morning, as “concerned Apple customers” will be dropping off 250,000-signature petitions calling out Apple on supplier working practices. The petitions ask Apple to …

    Business 9 Feb 03:16

  • Asus UX21E Zenbook 11.6in Ultrabook

    Review Thin! Small! Mad! Gorgeous!

    Having already reviewed the slightly larger Asus UX31E Zenbook for El Reg, and quite liking it, I whinged that sending me the UX21E model would be a waste of time. It wasn’t, obviously, because you’re reading this. I loved it. In fact, I preferred it. For such a small device, the Asus UX21E has a big feel – in use, nothing …

    reghardware 9 Feb 07:00

  • NHS hands out 3G slabs and phones to roving nurses

    Should help community care workers cut down on desk-time

    The Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust is piloting mobile devices for its community care nurses and therapists to enable them to access files, capture data and update back office systems remotely. The launch of the 14-day pilot, beginning on 7 February 2012, will see about 60 staff equipped with smartphones and tablets using …

    Government 9 Feb 08:02

  • IBM stuffs XIV array with flash tech

    Big Blue puts pedal to the metal

    IBM has pressed the gas pedal to the floor with its third generation XIV array and given it up to 6TB of solid state drive cache storage. The XIV array is a single tier device and this is a flash cache, an SSD Caching option, not a separate tier of storage. IBM provides no performance boost numbers, saying instead: "The …

    Storage 9 Feb 08:33

  • Licked RIM has a lifeline: a social network in a box

    Analysis Don't forget the secret power of BBM

    RIM's fortunes have taken a catastrophic, Nokia-style nosedive in the past year - but it has a chance of pulling up. Admittedly, the odds are long, but this week the Canadian company began its fightback. It's certainly right up against it. Fewer enterprise customers are dependent on RIM's email servers. The trend to 'bring …

    Mobile 9 Feb 09:02

  • Hackers claim to have penetrated Foxconn backdoor

    We don't care about iPhones or workers, only lulz

    It had to happen eventually. Controversial hardware manufacturer Foxconn was reportedly hacked late on Wednesday and a heap of staff email log-ins and intranet credentials posted online which could allow third parties to lodge fraudulent orders. In a lengthy message posted to Pastebin, hacking group Swagg Security claimed the …

    Enterprise Security 9 Feb 09:17

  • MongoDB straps SQL to Google's MapReduce

    One toasting too many for NoSQL?

    To NoSQLers he's the Devil who flames their work. Bring up his name while interviewing the CEO or founder of any NoSQL start-up, as I have, and the interviewee withers to a tight smile. Say "Michael Stonebraker" to the database wizards of today, though, and they'll nod sagely at mention of the pioneer of relational database …

    Developer 9 Feb 09:37

  • British Red Cross First Aid

    iOS App of the Week In case of emergency, break out app...

    The Red Cross was in the news recently when it issued new guidelines for performing CPR - Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - and it has followed this up with a free First Aid app that's worth downloading in case of emergencies. The app is divided into four sections. The Emergency area provides instant advice for dealing with …

    reghardware 9 Feb 10:00

  • Lenovo slates Ice Cream Sandwich for ThinkPad tablet

    Unlock your fondleslab with your face

    Lenovo will update its ThinkPad Android-based tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich in May, the PC giant said last night. The business-centric fondleslab currently ships with Android 3.1 Honeycomb. The new version of the operating system will be delivered over the net, across Wi-Fi or 3G, since the ThinkPad has both. Lenovo touted …

    reghardware 9 Feb 10:12

  • Privacy warriors sue FTC over Google's policy tweak

    Failure to halt imminent changes makes EPIC angry

    The Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing the US Federal Trade Commission for failing to take action against Google's plans to change its terms of service on 1 March. EPIC is concerned that the privacy policy revamp will be bad news for punters. As we've noted previously, a user of Gmail can shortly expect to be much …

    Networks 9 Feb 10:24

  • Now Siri brushes up on Russian, Japanese languages

    Mandarin lessons going well too, says Apple dev mole

    Apple is already testing Chinese, Japanese and Russian language support for its voice-activated personal assistant technology Siri - and will roll out the new functionality next month as its efforts to cosy up to customers in these lucrative markets gathers pace. Chinese tech site DoNews spoke to an Apple development engineer …

    Applications 9 Feb 10:42

  • HP hands in-house Android code to TouchPad tablet hackers

    Developed as a WebOS fall-back plan?

    Top marks to HP for handing over an Android kernel it once coded for its TouchPad tablet to fondleslab hackers. The catch: there's no Wi-Fi support. Still, for the likes of the CyanogenMod team, that shouldn't pose too much of a hindrance. Indeed, early investigation of the wireless code in WebOS and regular Android shows the …

    reghardware 9 Feb 10:49

  • Trustwave admits crafting SSL snooping certificate

    Allowing bosses to spy on staff was wrong, says security biz

    Certificate Authority Trustwave has revoked a digital certificate that allowed one of its clients to issue valid certificates for any server, thereby allowing one of its customers to intercept their employees' private email communication. The skeleton-key CA certificate was supplied in a tamper-proof hardware security module ( …

    Enterprise Security 9 Feb 11:03

  • Life-size Portal gun to shoot onto shelves soon

    Hole in the wall

    Despite the fact they generally sit on the mantlepiece as a decorative reminder of where one's interest lies, replica weapons are a big business and gaming enthusiasts are an eager audience to target. Fans of Valve's Portal franchise are the latest group in sight. They're being pitched with this 1:1 scale model from the series …

    reghardware 9 Feb 11:07

  • Japan enlists foreign bloggers to revive tsunami-hit tourist biz

    Will 10 gaijin really make a difference?

    The Japanese government is trying to get foreign bloggers to do PR for it by inviting them to earthquake- and tsunami-hit areas to write compassionately about the progress being made in reconstructing the ravaged north-east of the country. The Foreign Ministry thought up the idea in a bid to revive the disaster-hit nation’s …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 11:24

  • Asus posts patch for Prime random reboot bug

    Tablet's auto-restart glitch fixed

    Asus UK has posted a firmware update for its Android tablet, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The new code fixes the fondleslab's "random reboot problem", the company claimed. This glitch has tried the patience of a fair few Prime owners, and we wonder if it was one of the factors that persuaded UK retailer Clove to cease …

    reghardware 9 Feb 11:28

  • Google drive cloud to rain on Apple, Dropbox parade

    Web giant has our email and docs, might as well hand over everything else

    Never one to miss out on an up-and-coming tech trend, Google is all set to launch its very own cloud storage service, competing with the likes of Dropbox, Microsoft and Apple. People familiar with the matter were unable to keep schtum and spilled to the Wall Street Journal (paywall), telling it that the Chocolate Factory's new …

    Platform 9 Feb 11:39

  • iPad 3 shell shots spied on web

    Snaps point to bigger battery. Possibly

    Snaps are circulating Apple and iPad fansites revealing that the upcoming iPad 3 will hold a larger battery than its predecessor… probably. One shot, from repair site Fix-iPhones, shows the inside of what's claimed to be the back of the iPad 3's casing. The site infers that the re-sited screw holes and such mean the new tablet …

    reghardware 9 Feb 11:58

  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

    Review Hit and myth

    Like a mage's potion, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is based on a tried and tested formula: the essence of Fable II, a dash of Oblivion, the gizzards of God of War. And let's not forget the vital binding agent, of course: a liberal dose of Tolkien's legendarium. Circle of strife That's not to say Big Huge Games' debut title …

    reghardware 9 Feb 12:00

  • Royal astro-boffin to MPs: Stop thinking about headlines

    'Nuclear biz is screwed, chill out about carcinogens'

    "In politics the urgent seems to trump the important," venerable astro-boffin Lord Martin Rees told a committee of MPs yesterday, saying that it there needed to be "bipartisan consensus on long-term issues" such as energy and the environment if Britain is to haul its sorry ass into the next century. Giving evidence to The …

    Science 9 Feb 12:17

  • Google Wallet PIN security cracked in seconds

    Update Luckily no one important is using it

    A researcher at website categoriser zvelo has discovered Google Wallet's PIN protection is open to a brute-force attack that takes seconds to complete. And Google is powerless to fix the problem, it seems. The attack is limited to instances where physical access is available, or the phone has been previously "rooted" by the …

    Security 9 Feb 12:39

  • New sat data shows Himalayan glaciers hardly melting at all

    Results 'really were a surprise', say climate profs

    New scientific analysis of satellite gravity measurements has shown that ice is melting from glaciers around the world much less quickly than had been thought. The new research is important as worldwide glacier melt is thought to be one of the main factors which could drive rising sea levels in future. The new results were …

    Energy 9 Feb 13:01

  • UK cops set up new £30m bases to nail cybercrooks

    They're proper champion e-bobbies

    The UK is to establish three regional policing e-crime hubs as part of efforts to boost the capability of British police to tackle the growing problem of cybercrime. The new hubs, in Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and in East Midlands, will each get their own three-officer team. Each will work alongside the …

    Policing 9 Feb 13:22

  • Groupon loses $42.7m in Q4, shares tumble

    Hang on to your coupons, we'll make a profit next quarter

    Groupon (GRPN) has posted a net loss of $42.7m for the last three months of 2011, disappointing Wall Street's expectation that the coupon-pushers would make a small profit. Groupon stocks closed the day at $24.58 but in after-hours trading stocks tumbled 15 per cent to $20.75 – suggesting that Groupon shareholders might want to …

    Financial News 9 Feb 13:32

  • Ingram Micro CEO outlines growth plan as 2011 profits falter

    Weak Euro consumer biz and challenged Oz operation blamed

    Ingram Micro's new chief exec has set out three strategic priorities as he gets to grips with the challenges facing the world's largest distributor and looks to bolster bottom line goodness. Alan Monie, who returned to Ingram as COO in November and was made top dog last month, outlined the imperatives on a Q4 conference call …

    Channel Register 9 Feb 13:33

  • Ethernet standards for hyper-scale cloud networking

    Always just over the horizon

    What if the largest Ethernet networks we see today are just precursors, initial steps on the path to what's been called hyper-scale cloud networking? "Hyper" is the term used generally for something almost unfathomably and exceptionally large. We might say that a regional group of airports is a small air transport network, a …

    Data Networking 9 Feb 13:45

  • Pentax pushes super sturdy snapper

    GPS-equipped Optio WG-2 pumps iron

    Pentax pushed rugged photography into new terrains this week, launching a pair of 16Mp compact cameras that promise to perform under the most demanding of outdoor conditions. The Pentax Optio WG-2 and WG-2 GPS may look like Optimus Prime's caboose, but they're built to pull through even the harshest of Decepticon onslaughts …

    reghardware 9 Feb 13:46

  • How Zuck wields power over Facebook for a few hundred bucks

    CEO's voting rights and package exposed

    Mark Zuckerberg's effortless swagger into the business world got an airing in public yesterday when Facebook filed more documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of the company going public in a few months' time. Just days before the dominant social network submitted its regulatory filing confirming its plan …

    Business 9 Feb 14:01

  • Microsoft sets date for Windows 8 preview - at mobile shindig

    Barcelona, it was the first time that we met

    Microsoft will unveil Windows 8 at Mobile World Congress, says an invitation sent out today. The invitation is for a Windows 8 Consumer Preview in Barcelona on 29 February, two days into the industry event. The choice of the world's biggest mobile show as the backdrop for the unveil makes it clear Microsoft is positioning its …

    Windows 8 9 Feb 14:16

  • Alibaba! suspends! shares! amid! Yahoo! stake! buzz!

    Chinese biz counts readies to buy back web biz's share

    Alibaba.com has suspended its shares on the Hong Kong market, pending news from its parent company Alibaba Group, which reportedly wants to buy back Yahoo!'s stake in the company. The Chinese website asked the market to stop trading its stocks starting today, because it needed to sort out some stuff with Alibaba Group. "The …

    Financial News 9 Feb 14:30

  • Ofcom: Make it easier for punters to switch ISPs

    But could middleman plan jack up prices?

    Broadband and landline customers could soon find it a lot simpler to ditch one telco in favour of another, after Ofcom published its proposals on cutting the hassle out of switching providers for punters in the UK. The communications watchdog said today that research showed that 520,000 households in Blighty in the past year …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 14:41

  • What downturn? Lenovo stuffs pockets with 54% extra profit

    World's number 2 PC maker buoyed by China performance

    Lenovo Group is one of the few PC makers still in the pink, beating market expectations with a fat third-quarter net profit. The Chinese firm's profit jumped 54 per cent to $153.46m in the three months to December last year, up from $99.65m in the same period the year before. Despite the downturn in the global economy and the …

    Channel Register 9 Feb 15:01

  • Vodafone squirrels cash into Blighty nightly as Europe falters

    Spain, Italy disappointing - Turkey, India a pleasant surprise

    Vodafone's numbers for the tail-end of 2011 show the network doing pretty well, though it admitted husbanding cash back to the UK nightly just to be on the safe side. It won’t surprise anyone that trading in Italy and Spain has been a bit grim lately, and Vodafone hasn't broken the figures out for Greece but it has pulled out …

    Mobile 9 Feb 15:17

  • IBM UK's channel queen abdicates, long live the king

    Richard Potts takes the biz partner hot seat from Jacqui Davey

    IBM has crowned popular channel figure Richard Potts as veep of business partner and mid-market sales for the UK and Ireland, and named Mark Hennessey as worldwide partner boss. Potts, who helped to turn around Big Blue's volume server biz in the UK as director of the System X unit replaces Jacqueline Davey, who is moving to …

    Channel Register 9 Feb 15:28

  • Airport bomb Twitter joker in second fine appeal bid

    Judges deliberating whether or not to quash conviction

    Paul Chambers, the Twitter joker turned misdemeanour conviction martyr, returned to court on Wednesday to launch a second appeal against a conviction over a "threatening message" to blow Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport "sky high". Chambers, 27, posted the notorious micro-blogging message in early January 2010 while the …

    Law 9 Feb 15:43

  • Google will swap you a box of crisps for your web privacy

    Or anything else from Amazon for $25 if you agree to be stalked

    Google has revealed exactly how little cash it thinks a user who is willing to "sell" their data to the search giant is actually worth. The answer? $25 for one year of letting the Chocolate Factory happily slurp your data. And that figure isn't even in the form of cold, hard cash. Nope. Amazon gift vouchers are on offer to …

    Networks 9 Feb 16:02

  • Appcelerator adds Titanium backend with Cocoafish buy

    I like backends and I cannot lie

    Mobile platform developer Appcelerator has completed its second purchase of the last year, snapping up Cocoafish to gets its APIs and server backend system. The company bought HTML5 expertise with the Particle Cloud buy last year, and this buy was also part of a hunt for specific technology, CEO Jeff Haynie told The Register. …

    Developer 9 Feb 16:29

  • Timico Technology Group gobbles Redwood

    ISP and MSP get together

    ISP Timico Technology Group (TTG) has devoured unified comms minnow Redwood Telecommunication for an undisclosed sum. London-based Avaya and Mitel reseller Redwood employs 28 staff and counts Jimmy Choo and Broadgate Estates among its customer list. Tim Radford, chairman at TTG, said the IP telephony and UC services that …

    Channel Register 9 Feb 16:29

  • Hitachi GST pushes out boosted SSD

    Intel's new NAND

    Hitachi GST has birthed a boosted Ultrastar SSD using Intel's latest 25nm NAND. Intel launched its own 520 just a few days ago. In these frenetic days of flash hyper-awareness, close attention will be paid to the performance of new flash drives to see if suppliers are keeping up with the pace or slipping behind. The Ultrastar …

    Storage 9 Feb 17:04

  • Kodak to kill off digital cameras

    End in sight for snappers, camcorders

    Kodak is knocking its line of budget digital cameras on the head, part of its plan to revive the fortunes of the troubled firm. Out go its YouTube-oriented handheld video cameras and digital photo frames too. Production will have ceased by the middle of the year. Kodak will continue to support these products, and honour …

    reghardware 9 Feb 17:16

  • Googorola's desire for iPhone royalties will upset Apple cart

    Analysis Moto patents at heart of latest fair licensing row

    Google's outline of how it will use Motorola Mobility's intellectual property – should regulators allow the buyout – has sparked fierce debate as pundits worry about how the smartphone patent wars will pan out. Originally, Google's letter to the IEEE, a global standards body, was praised by commentators because it promised …

    Mobile 9 Feb 17:37

  • AON: Give us cash, we'll emit 10TB holographic cube

    They do it with mirrors

    Access Optical Networks says it has developed a 1.2TB holographic storage cube that can transfer data at 155MB/sec and last longer than 50 years. Oh, and it's done using mirrors – but no smoke. The storage medium is a 1cm cube of photorefractive lithium niobate crystalline material and the claimed cost/GB is $0.11 in 1,000 …

    Storage 9 Feb 18:19

  • What's in the box, Windows sysadmin?

    Sysadmin blog What lurks inside the toolkit...

    Windows is a powerful and complex Operating System (OS). As with any modern OS, it comes equipped with numerous features, utilities, and applications. But Windows' default tools are not always the best widget for the job at hand. The ubiquity of these tools makes them a standard minimal toolkit that Windows administrators can …

    Sysadmin blog 9 Feb 19:03

  • FBI investigated Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, LSD use

    Sex, drugs and bomb threats

    Steve Jobs' drug use, court cases and personality flaws were all investigated by the FBI, as a file released on Thursday reveals. The FBI launched the investigation in 1991 to vet Jobs for a potential post in government under George Bush Snr - an appointment to an advisory committee on foreign trade. It's a popular role for …

    Government 9 Feb 19:55

  • Oracle inhales Taleo for $1.9bn

    Blows it onto the Fusion app cloud

    Only two months ago, Taleo, the seller of online talent management software, was saying that it intended to remain independent despite the cloud software feeding frenzy. But today, Larry Ellison, CEO and co-founder of Oracle, made Taleo CEO Mike Gregoire an offer he couldn't refuse: $1.9bn. That price, net of cash and debts, …

    Cloud Business 9 Feb 20:06

  • Hackett bookish after Internet sale

    Aus tech entrprenuers back new publishing house

    Internode founder Simon Hackett is behind the launch of Australia’s newest cross-platform book publishing house, MidnightSun Publishing. Supported by fellow technology entrepreneur Ross Williams, the duo have backed niche house MidnightSun, which wants to leverage demand for multi-platform and multi-format books. The …

    Business 9 Feb 21:06

  • Coming to a continent near you: America

    Also Asia, Europe and Africa

    It’s going to be a heck of a reunion: the Pangea supercontinent that broke up to create the atlas we know today will one day reform in the Northern hemisphere. That’s the conclusion reached by researchers at Yale University who, instead of looking at the past history of continental movements, have turned their attention to the …

    Science 9 Feb 22:00

  • Eolas falls at first hurdle in bid to tax browser apps

    Google grins at Adobe jury’s verdict

    A jury in Texas has ruled against Eolas Technologies in its patent battle to lay claim to the concept of in-browser applications and most plug-ins. Internet luminaries such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee were flown into the small Texas city to testify in Eolas’ case against Adobe – the first time the father of the World Wide Web has …

    Law 9 Feb 22:13

  • Teradata surfs big data wave in Q4

    Big data = big bucks

    Data warehousing pioneer and big data playa Teradata has just turned in the best fourth quarter and full year in the company's 33 year history, thanks to the big data wave and a number of key acquisitions that the company that have moved it beyond its core data warehousing biz. In a conference call with Wall Street analysts …

    Servers 9 Feb 22:26

  • Elon Musk helps AsiaSat with new regional satellites

    Asia Pac enjoys a satellite bonanza

    Hong Kong satellite operator AsiaSat and space launch company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will launch two new communications satellites in 2014 servicing the Asia Pacific region. Space X was founded by dotcom protagonist, PayPal and Tesla creator Elon Musk. AsiaSat 6 and AsiaSat 8 are scheduled to launch in the …

    Business 9 Feb 22:30

  • IBM does financing deals for Power, storage kit

    Low or no interest rates

    It's a new year and a new first quarter and a new and somewhat challenging economy in North America, and therefore IBM is offering financing deals in the United States and Canada. Last week, Big Blue rolled out a zero per cent financing program called Fast Start Financing that, as the name suggests and as the company has done …

    Servers 9 Feb 22:41

  • StreetView disappears Dutch office tower

    Because it’s Friday…

    It’s one of those wonderful discrepancies that happens when a site has to wait a year or so between visits from the Google StreetView photo-harvesters. An office tower in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands, plays “now you see it, now you don’t” on StreetView, depending on your viewing location. At a distance, the Irdeto tower looks …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 23:00