The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

24th February 2012 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Court rejects Tesla’s latest libel spat with Top Gear

    Battery bricking rumors cause stock dip

    Tesla's on-going libel case with the BBC over a negative portrayal of its Roadster electric sports car on Top Gear suffered another setback when the courts ruled that it could not amend its claim. "We are pleased Mr Justice Tugendhat has ruled in favour of the BBC on both the issues before the court, first in striking out …

    Law 24 Feb 01:07

  • 3D processor-memory mashups take center stage

    ISSCC 'I have seen the future, and it is stacked'

    A trio of devices that stack layers of compute units and memory in a single chip to boost interconnect bandwidth were presented at this week's International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. Sharing the stage at the ISSCC's High Performance Digital session were three technologies; one prototype developed by IBM …

    HPC 24 Feb 01:51

  • TNZ braves the demerger with strong profits

    While Stephen Fry gets throttles

    The freshly de-merged Telecom New Zealand has posted a net profit of $NZ1 billion after what the CEO described as the “most complex corporate transaction in recent New Zealand history.” Adjusted profits rose 52 per cent to $NZ240 million with earnings from continuing operations coming in at $NZ129 million. The carrier demerged …

    Business 24 Feb 02:14

  • Roku 2 XS IPTV player

    Review Smarten up your TV viewing

    In the US, Roku has ridden to prominence on the back of services like Netflix and Hulu, and the phenomenon of ‘cord cutting’, where people discontinue pay TV services in favour of, well, paid IPTV services. That’s perhaps not surprising when their entry level box costs less than £40 including tax for US customers. The Roku …

    Hardware 24 Feb 07:00

  • GreenBytes goes on SME flash array gig

    Flash solidarity

    ZFS-using disk array storage supplier GreenBytes has set out on a flash project with its Solidarity flash array offering faster than disk performance at lower than disk cost for small and medium business. The Solidarity is a 3U rackmount, 3.5TB to 13.5TB, dual controller, iSCSI flash array, using inline and real-time …

    Storage 24 Feb 08:03

  • Report: Most council workers granted access to Facebook, Twitter

    Followers and Likers on the up in the public sector

    Most councils allow employees to access social media. This is compared with only one-third of them allowing it two years ago, research by Socitm indicates. All employees potentially have access to Twitter in 44 per cent of councils and only some employees in 54 per cent of councils, with only 2 per cent offering no access, …

    Government 24 Feb 08:59

  • The cyber-weapons paradox: 'They're not that dangerous'

    A war boffin talks to El Reg

    When it comes to bombs, the more powerful they are, the bigger their impact. With a cyber-weapon, the opposite is true: the more powerful it is, the more limited the damage it causes. The deeper a bug can get into any given system, the less likely it is to trouble anything else. And that's why cyber-weapons aren't real weapons …

    Security 24 Feb 09:29

  • Asus teases MWC 'retina display' revelation

    Starts posting Transformer Android 4 update too

    It's official: Asus has begun posting its Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich update for its Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The pad, aka the TF101, will get updated first in Taiwan, Asus said, but pledged to roll out the new Google operating system "in other regions soon". The update takes the TF101's system software to release 9.2.1. …

    Phones 24 Feb 09:46

  • Belkin Keyboard Folio case for iPad

    Accessory of the Week True to type

    The myth that the iPad is only for content consumption was debunked many moons ago. And this Belkin Keyboard Folio is as good an example as any of how the iPad, with a little help, can in some circumstances be a replacement for a laptop. The soft case folds up to make carrying keyboard and iPad together easy. Pairing it with …

    Tablets 24 Feb 10:00

  • Proview parks IPAD battle tanks on Apple's US lawn

    iPad maker sued in California, accused of treachery

    Asian monitor biz Proview has taken its legal scrap with Apple to the US - and alleged that it was hoodwinked when it sold its IPAD trademark to the fruity tech titan in 2009. In a lawsuit filed last week in Santa Clara County, Taiwan-based Proview Electronics and Shenzen entity Proview Technology claimed that Apple …

    Business 24 Feb 10:18

  • UltraViolet passes million download mark

    Hollywood's movies-in-the-cloud service sprockets up

    More than 800,000 US homes have signed up for Ultraviolet, the Hollywood-backed movies-in-the-cloud platform. And they've used it to download more than 1m copies of films. Not bad numbers for a service that only went live four months ago. That said, that total was dwarfed by the 19m digital movies that market watcher IHS, …

    Hardware 24 Feb 10:24

  • Tiniest ever 128Gbit NAND flash chip flaunted

    A little bit of TLC from SanDisk, Toshiba

    SanDisk and Toshiba have jointly developed the smallest 128Gbit NAND flash chip in the world by using a 3-bit multi-level cell design (TLC) and a 19nm process. The thing, just 170.6mm2 in area, is SanDisk's fifth generation of TLC technology. It uses something called All Bit-Line (ABL) programming and lots of technology tweaks …

    Storage 24 Feb 10:39

  • Global warming COULD SHRINK THE HUMAN RACE

    Prehistoric horses downsized to survive - and so could we

    Modern mammals, including humans, could be at risk of shrinking as a result of global warming, just as teeny prehistoric horses shrank to an even smaller size when temperatures rose 56 million years ago. Modern Morgan horse (left) thinks about eating teeny Sifrhippus. Credit: Danielle Byerley, Florida Museum of Natural …

    Science 24 Feb 11:01

  • Apple gobbles apps search robot Chomp

    Oz startup drafted in to improve iTunes

    Apple has scooped up a search engine for apps in an acquisition for an undisclosed sum yesterday, although Bloomberg said a source had revealed the price at around $50m. Insiders expect that Chomp's proprietary search engine set up by Aussie Ben Keighran in 2009 to promote app discovery will become a cornerstone of the new …

    Applications 24 Feb 11:17

  • iPad owners 'considerably richer than yow'

    But tablet ownership shifting to the lower orders

    iPad owners are far more likely to be able to claim they are considerably richer than you, a study of the thickness of tablet fondlers' wads has revealed. The survey, conducted by US market watcher NPD, found that more than 40 per cent of iPad owners have a household income in excess of $100,000 (£63,250) but only 26 per cent …

    Tablets 24 Feb 11:26

  • Mozilla's app Marketplace tempts HTML5 worshippers

    MWC 2012 Prays for devs at telco bash

    Mozilla takes the open web to Microsoft, Google, Apple and others next week with an invitation to developers to start coding for its technology-agnostic apps store. The Mozilla Foundation said it's using the spotlight of the mega Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, to open its planned Mozilla Marketplace to developer …

    Mobile 24 Feb 11:44

  • Syndicate

    Review Bullfrog classic revived

    Cyberpunk's lasting appeal is often attributed to its familiar tropes: dystopian near-future settings, rapid technological advancements, massive societal upheaval and, of course, alienated loners living off-the-grid. But it's not the conventions that sustain the genre, but its allegories. Rooftop rampage They warn of …

    Games 24 Feb 12:00

  • Apple chief thinks about his MOUNTAIN OF CASH a lot

    Cook's not dishing out surplus dough

    Apple has given in to shareholder pressure on director voting, but is still thinking about what to do with its vast mountain range of cash. The fruity firm is sitting on $98bn, which in single dollar bills is roughly equivalent to 45 Olympic swimming pools stuffed with notes or half of a regular-sized supertanker groaning with …

    Financial News 24 Feb 12:19

  • Sony to strike gold with PS Vita - if it cuts the price

    Analyst says success comes for less than $200

    Sony may shift more than $2.2bn worth of PlayStation Vita handheld consoles - some 12.4m units - by the end of 2012, it has been forecast. The catch: the price has to come down under $200. The prediction comes from market watcher Strategy Analytics, which reckons the gadget could revive Sony's fortunes. That $2.2bn figure …

    Games 24 Feb 12:25

  • Gov CloudStore critics: 'Rollout too fast, contracts too short'

    Grumblings from within the channel

    The G-Cloud framework has received criticism from analysts as well as from some corners of the channel over the construction and rollout of CloudStore before it was ready for public sector consumption. The online catalogue – built in 28 days – was unveiled last weekend but G-Cloud programme director Chris Chant has already …

    The Channel 24 Feb 12:31

  • 'Nobody can resist the charming of iPAD'

    Quotw Plus 'The kids' app ecosystem needs to wake up'

    This was the week when Microsoft decided that its new Windows logo should actually look like a window, resulting in this streamlined and modernistic (or uncolourful and mundane depending on your viewpoint) effort: After a few rumours had circulated that Samsung was considering spinning off its loss-making LCD biz into a …

    Bootnotes 24 Feb 12:38

  • HP, Dell warn of price hikes after Foxconn wage rise

    Consumer backlash passed on to, er, consumers

    Tech giants HP and Dell have revealed that they are keeping a close eye on developments in the Chinese labour market and may even be forced to put up their prices if wages keep increasing in the region. It was reported last week that Taiwanese hardware giant Foxconn – which is the world’s largest component maker and builds …

    The Channel 24 Feb 13:01

  • Apple fanbois forced to go on the pull by Motorola patent

    Germans won't get the message after iOS court defeat

    Apple has switched off push notifications in Germany, responding to Motorola Mobility's successful patent lawsuit, so iCloud users in Germany will have to learn to pull together. The outage also affects MobileMe, but anyone using ActiveSync or other push mechanisms will be fine as the companies behind those aren't being sued …

    Operating Systems 24 Feb 13:17

  • Getting to grips with the dynamic data centre

    Reader research (Recon)figuring it all out

    Many companies have now undergone a wave of server consolidation, enabled by virtualisation. But virtualisation doesn't have to stop at rationalising servers. It offers the potential to radically alter the speed and flexibility of IT delivery, making it demand driven and able to dynamically respond to changes in hours or …

    Tech Panel 24 Feb 13:38

  • UK-French drone aircraft blueprints nicked at Paris station

    No botnet required for low-tech theft

    Old-school crooks managed to steal documents related to secret plans to build a joint French-British drone aircraft after snatching a briefcase at a Paris railway station. The briefcase was stolen from an executive at French defence contractor Dassault Aviation while he and a colleague were in the process of purchasing a …

    Security 24 Feb 13:38

  • HP caught with SIX Windows 8 PC packages up its sleeve

    Home, Ultimate and Starter revamped?

    Windows 8 is being re-packaged into six versions in a move that looks like it might kill off four editions of the desktop client currently sold. Documents posted on PC-partner Hewlett-Packard’s website here and picked up here say Windows 8 will come as a Windows 8 32- and 64-bit Edition, and an Enterprise and Professional …

    Hardware 24 Feb 14:01

  • New password-snatching Mac Trojan spreading in the wild

    Exploits Java vulns and packs fake certificate

    Security watchers warned on Friday that a new variant of a Mac-specific password-snatching Trojan horse is spreading in the wild. Flashback-G initially attempts to install itself via one of two Java vulnerabilities. Failing that, the malicious applet displays a self-signed certificate (claiming to be from Apple) in the hope …

    Security 24 Feb 14:19

  • Google Goggle glasses ARE WATCHING YOU

    Meat in the Cybernetic Sandwich

    "So we have the human operator surrounded on both sides by very precisely known mechanisms," an American physicist called John Stroud once observed, referring to anti-aircraft gunners in the Second World War. "And the question comes up, 'What kind of machine have we put in the middle?'" Stroud went on to participate in the …

    Science 24 Feb 14:39

  • Student cluster warriors battle it out in Hamburg

    ISC2012 Hell on the Elbe

    The International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), due to kick off in Hamburg in mid-June, is Europe’s leading supercomputing event. This show has almost everything you’d expect: keynote speeches by research computing stars; presentations, tutorials, demonstrations, and exhibits; and a huge variety of logo-imprinted tote bags. …

    HPC 24 Feb 15:02

  • Oracle: 'US Navy tricked by illegal Solaris touts'

    Two channel firms sued in download and resell row

    Oracle has launched legal action against channel firms in the US, accusing them of a "gray market conspiracy" to nick its software and flog Sun Solaris OS support. The allegations were made against Georgia-based managed services provider ServiceKey and Delaware-based DLT Federal Business Systems Corporation in a lawsuit filed …

    The Channel 24 Feb 15:17

  • Private Manning keeps mum at Wikileaks plea hearing

    Alleged classified info leaker buys more time

    WikiLeaks suspect Private Bradley Manning declined to enter a plea on Thursday at the start of his court martial over charges that he had handed over reams of US Army classified data to the website, AP reported from the court. The 24-year-old was formally charged with 22 counts in the court appearance, including aiding the …

    Security 24 Feb 15:42

  • Microsoft deal registration program backfires

    What a useless tool

    Microsoft's Partner Sales Exchange (PSE) deal registration tool, designed to safeguard large account resellers (LAR) from rivals pilfering business at the eleventh hour, seems to be causing more problems than it is solving. The program was already beset with problems before it launched, with implementation delayed from October …

    The Channel 24 Feb 15:44

  • Google adds Do Not Track button to Chrome

    Updated But you don't have to push it, pleads ad giant

    Google's Chrome browser has added a Do Not Track option that will prevent websites using your browser history to target ads at you.* Pioneered by Mozilla Firefox, the Do Not Track convention adds a field in the HTTP header of each web page instructing websites not to take info about you from your browser. Commonly used to …

    Applications 24 Feb 16:02

  • Flood-hit Thai disk fabs to pour out 140m drives

    Factories running full tilt amid high prices

    The production of hard disk drives is nearing full capacity after flooding last year in Thailand sent shockwaves through the supply chain, with output set to reach around 80 per cent of pre-flood levels. A Digitimes report, citing industry sources, claimed that production would increase to somewhere between 140 and 145 million …

    The Channel 24 Feb 16:33

  • Wake up, small biz: Learn to speak internet

    Blog Get searchable, get on Facebook - or lose your customers

    Today I wanted to buy a metal business card case I could carry around in my pocket. I asked Google Maps politely if it knew where in Edmonton I could find such a widget, preferably on the way home. Google didn't have the faintest clue where I could get such a thing, no matter how delicately I phrased the request. I eventually …

    Servers 24 Feb 17:04

  • Death to Office or to Windows - choose wisely, Microsoft

    Open ... and Shut Apple makes Microsoft look good, again

    Windows is dead, and Microsoft Office has killed it. Or will, once the rumours about Microsoft porting its wildly popular Office product to the iPad become reality. For just as porting Office to Mac OS X back in 2001 sowed the seeds of Apple's relevance as a credible desktop alternative to Windows, so too will Microsoft's …

    Management 24 Feb 17:36

  • Cisco's 3-ring circus: Xsigo CEO on bait and switches

    OEM keepaway game

    Blocks and Files: Cisco's John Chambers has EMC, HP and NetApp dancing to his tune and helping to sell his UCS servers and networking gear. But how does that work? Xsigo CEO Lloyd Carney has an interesting take on the situation. Xsigo makes director switches that enable up to 250 servers to share a bunch of InfiniBand, 10GigE …

    Storage 24 Feb 18:02

  • Chinese cops bust culinary Apple trademark thieves

    'Yes, sir, this iPhone will boil your noodles'

    Steely-eyed industrial gumshoes in the east-central Chinese city of Wuhan have foiled a nefarious plan by dishonorable appliance punters to exploit the power of the Apple brand. In the Qiaokou district of that riverside city of 10 million souls, a firm dishonestly identifying themselves as "Apple Limited" had – without legal …

    Bootnotes 24 Feb 18:43

  • Dell mothership hovers over backup startup, beams it aboard

    AppAssure absorbed into enterprise wing

    Dell has acquired its own continuous data protection software by buying AppAssure for an undisclosed amount. This is a significant purchase and potentially limits future sales by Dell of CommVault and Symantec data protection software. AppAssure's technology for backup, replication and archive, is application-aware and tracks …

    Storage 24 Feb 19:01

  • El Reg issues CIO scrapheap challenge

    Let's do vox pop

    Dear reader, we are conducting an experiment in vox pop journalism, and that means we want to involve you, the man or woman on the IT street. We get to ask you a bunch of questions and synthesise your replies, votes and other feedback into a lovely impressionistic Reg-juicy article. We have the means, the writers, the forums …

    Management 24 Feb 21:54

  • Anti-phishing DMARC adoption gathers (free) steam

    Biggest webmail names open anti-spam intelligence

    The world's biggest names in the consumer webmail space are sharing security intelligence with businesses for free to help drive adoption of the DMARC email-authentication system. Last month, Google, Microsoft, AOL, Facebook, and Yahoo! joined up with service providers such as PayPal to push the Domain-based Message …

    Security 24 Feb 21:55

  • Male dinosaurs failing on social privacy

    Women are the smarter social sex, says study

    The latest data from the Pew Research Center shows men to be the least privacy-conscious people online, and the most likely to make a gaffe on social networking sites. The study of US social-networking users found that privacy controls are certainly popular among those who use such sites, with over half setting their accounts …

    Media 24 Feb 23:52