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11th April 2012 Archive

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  • Unexpected nanotube heat transfer suggests new way to cool processors

    Spooky action at a (small) distance

    A strange phenomenon observed at the University of Maryland could pave the way to new techniques for cooling electronics: when researchers passed a current through carbon nanotubes, they didn’t heat up – but other nearby objects did. While still studying exactly what mechanism produces the phenomenon, the researchers report …

    Science 11 Apr 00:01

  • SpaceX taps Texas for 'commercial Cape Canaveral' site

    Hang in there for the tedious environmental review, Mr. Musk

    More details have emerged about one of the sites that Space Exploration Technologies – better known as SpaceX – is considering for what founder Elon Musk has referred to as "a commercial Cape Canaveral." The site in question is in the southern tip of the state of Texas, just outside Brownsville in Cameron County, overlooking …

    Space 11 Apr 00:19

  • Massive organ blown with Kinect

    Melbourne Town Hall's instrument gets hands-free performance

    Composer and creative developer Chris Vik has used Microsoft's Kinect tools to play the pipe organ in the Melbourne Town Hall. Vik describes himself as “a sound designer/electronic music producer/Max developer” and has released music under the name Synaecide. Since 2011 he's worked with Kinect and has developed "KiNECTAR" ( …

    Music and Media 11 Apr 00:49

  • NBNCo sets up contact centre on the Gold Coast

    130 new jobs for GC

    Australia’s soon-to-be-biggest broadband network, NBNCo, has selected the Gold Coast as its customer service centre hub, creating around 130 new jobs. The centre will be located at Varsity Lakes and is set to begin taking calls in the second half of this year. 100 new positions are set to be filled within 12 months said NBNCo …

    Networks 11 Apr 01:36

  • Julian Assange™ telemovie coming to Oz TV

    Portrait of the artist as a young hacker

    The early hacker activist life of Julian Assange is set to be immortalised in a television drama for Australia’s Network Ten. The two hour telemovie called Underground will be directed and written by Robert Connolly, the director of Balibo. Assange will be played by acting newcomer Alex Williams while Rachel Griffiths will …

    Security 11 Apr 02:00

  • Wavii aims to transform news delivery with social data

    Machine learning used to guess headlines of interest

    A Seattle-based startup is looking to give computer users a personalized news feed based on their social-networking preferences. Wavii is the brainchild of Adrian Aoun, an ex-Microserf, who told The Register that his team of around 25 staffers had made a breakthrough in machine understanding of language that enables the …

    Applications 11 Apr 04:01

  • IBM gets flexible with converged Power, x86 system

    Cloudy server, storage, networking, and software mashup

    The details are a bit sketchy, but IBM is launching its first fully converged systems since it bought itself some clever storage and networking companies a few years back. The new family of products are called PureSystems, and they are based on a new chassis and system architecture that was known as "Project Troy" inside Big …

    Servers 11 Apr 04:22

  • Chinese app stores host malicious apps

    Government scolds carriers for poor security efforts

    The Chinese authorities have voiced concerns after uncovering security vulnerabilities in the application stores run by mobile operators China Mobile and China Telecom. Regional newspaper the Guangzhou Daily reported (via Sina Tech) that according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), mobile operators …

    Security 11 Apr 04:39

  • Trojans target pro-Tibet organisations

    Gh0st RAT implicated again in attacks targeting Mac and Windows systems

    Security experts are warning of yet another targeted malware campaign using socially engineered emails to infiltrate pro-Tibet organisations in a bid to covertly nab sensitive files. Trend Micro threat research manager Ivan Macalintal explained in a blog post that the attacks are linked to the same command and control server …

    Security 11 Apr 05:10

  • MS Office coming for Symbian

    Dying platform gets more productive

    The Microsoft/Nokia tie-up just got weirder, if that's possible, with the launch of Office for Symbian, developed by Microsoft. Yes, you read that right. Office, the productivity suite that is enmeshed in Microsoft's mobile strategy, now runs on Symbian. Nokia has shunted Symbian to Accenture, to which it has outsourced future …

    Software 11 Apr 05:31

  • The Hardware Hacker's Guide to Home Automation

    Gizmo Week Doctorin' the house

    The home of the future is a staple of both speculative fiction and comedy. Back in the 1970s, Frank Spencer caused havoc in an automated home during an episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em. For some of us, the enduring image of home automation is either Michael Crawford chaos, worthy but dull X10 electric curtain openers, …

    reghardware 11 Apr 06:00

  • Crowdfunding, startup fever, come to Indonesia

    Kickstarter clones sprout, hope for better payment technologies

    Indonesia's technology sector is adopting familiar models to foster growing businesses. The Jakarta Post reports that the Indonesia Information and Communications Awards, a program sponsored by the nation's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, will in 2012 offer a prize to the best startup as Indonesia seeks …

    Business 11 Apr 06:24

  • Android spanking iOS in world's BIGGEST mobile market

    Google OS wins up to 70 per cent of China's mobile market

    Android is absolutely creaming iOS in the world’s biggest mobile phone market, according to new stats from Beijing-based Analysys International, which estimate the Google platform now accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Chinese smartphones. The market watcher’s breakdown of smartphone sales by operating system for 2011 makes …

    Networks 11 Apr 06:37

  • 'As seen on TV' claims can't be made about unbranded props

    Ad body: Cannot refer to appearance in paid-for ad either...

    Companies cannot claim that the product they are advertising is '... as seen on TV ' or '... as seen in' certain publications if those products merely featured as unbranded props in programmes or in paid-for ads in those mediums, an ad body has said. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) said it could be misleading for …

    Music and Media 11 Apr 07:02

  • NHS farms out £125m deal for hardware, medical tech

    Health service sets out tender for X-ray kit, laptops and more

    A framework for the supply and maintenance of NHS IT hardware and services with an estimated value of between £45m and £125m is being set up by NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative and NHS Shared Business Services. The deal will include the delivery of desktop computers and peripherals, laptops and touchscreen monitors, as …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 08:03

  • LOHAN lifts lid on revised mission summary

    Where we are with our audacious spaceplane plan

    Over the past few months, our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) spaceplane mission has been evolving with the help of you, our beloved reader experts. We've mulled various balloon configurations and launch platforms, checked out a possible rocket motor for the Vulture 2 aircraft, and progressively moved towards …

    SPB 11 Apr 08:32

  • Too small to fail: Obama signs Nontrepreneurs Act

    Accountability, disclosure rules relaxed for webtastic startups

    A new Act just signed into law by President Obama that relaxes accountability requirements for internet startups has been called a 'licence for fraud'. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) Act (HR.3606) is backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case (himself no stranger to fraud allegations) and other titans of Silicon Valley …

    Small Biz 11 Apr 08:59

  • Amount of ice in Bering Sea reaches all-time record

    Hippies get it wrong again

    The amount of floating ice in the Arctic's Bering Sea - which had long been expected to retreat disastrously by climate-Cassandra organisations such as Greenpeace - reached all-time record high levels last month, according to US researchers monitoring the area using satellites. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center …

    Science 11 Apr 09:18

  • New ZeuS-based Trojan leeches cash from cloud-based payrolls

    Adds phishing mules to employee roster

    Cybercrooks have forged a ZeuS-based Trojan that targets cloud-based payroll service providers. ZeuS, a favourite tool for financially motivated cybercrooks, has provided a straightforward way to harvest online banking credentials for years. A new attack, detected by transaction security firm Trusteer, shows that crooks are …

    Cloud Business 11 Apr 09:39

  • DARPA boffins seek Terminator-style disaster-zone rescue robot

    Car-driving, tool-using tsunami-surviving android needed

    The Pentagon's brash boffinry bureau DARPA is offering millions in research funding to any robot-builders who can come up with a machine capable of dealing with disasters like nuclear meltdowns and tsunamis. Robots breaking down walls and fixing leaky pipes. Credit: DARPA The DARPA Robotics Challenge wants tech firms to …

    Rise of the Machines 11 Apr 09:57

  • Apple to maintain tablet lead over Android

    RIM, Microsoft elbow in as rivals fight

    Don't think World+Dog is bonkers for tablets? Market watcher Gartner does. It reckons some 118.9m of the things will ship this year - almost twice the number shipped in 2011. No surprise for guessing Apple will lead the pack - and then some. iOS will outsell its closest competitor, Google's Android, right through 2016, Gartner …

    reghardware 11 Apr 10:08

  • Kelway gulps down Microsoft reseller, plots march on Europe

    Irish BSS embiggens swollen belly of serial UK acquirer

    Serial acquirer Kelway has swallowed Irish corporate and public sector reseller Business & Scientific Services (BSS) Ltd for an undisclosed sum, bagging Microsoft top-tier certification in the process. Founded in 1985, BSS – which Kelway claims is Microsoft's largest large account reseller (LAR) in Ireland – has offices in …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 10:13

  • Microsoft seals up Windows zero-day flaw in April Patch Tuesday

    Kill Bit for every MS boy and girl

    Microsoft released six bulletins on Tuesday to fix a total of 11 vulnerabilities, one of which has become the target of active attacks against unpatched applications. One of the four critical patches in the batch – MS12-027 – addresses an Active X issue that impacts numerous application and creates a mechanism to drop malware …

    Operating Systems 11 Apr 10:28

  • Yahoo! pleads! for! ad! juice! as! products! guru! exits!

    CEO tells staff it's time for YET ANOTHER makeover

    Yahoo!'s latest broom, Scott Thompson, is trying to fix the company's ailing business by giving the Purple Palace yet another revamp. This means that people need to be axed, products need to be sharpened or dumped and various execs are suddenly vanishing. All of those moves happened under Thompson's predecessor Carol Bartz, …

    CIO 11 Apr 10:43

  • Jazz Jackrabbit

    Antique Code Show Easter Bunny?

    What with Easter's inextricable link with bunnies, it seemed in order to revisit an old lop eared friend. Jazz Jackrabbit is a side scrolling platform game and one I consider to be DOS shareware gaming at its finest. Who would have thought our friend Jazz would come from the same stable as a Gears of War Nemacyst? Aesop's …

    reghardware 11 Apr 11:00

  • Speaking in Tech: Is Instagram really worth $1 BILLION?

    Podcast Bubble 2.0 ready to burst, plus: Cloud wars, sucky mobe apps

    It's time for another Speaking in Tech enterprise and tech biz roundup, with The Dude of enterprise tech, Greg Knieriemen, cloud and storage meister Ed Saipetch and web2.0 insider Sarah Vela. This week they discuss: Eddie on the West Coast; Sarah dispels pregnancy rumours; Greg complains about Best Buy; Facebook snaps …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 11:14

  • Hardware hacker knocks up own Google AR glasses

    Smashing Project Glass attempt

    Google may have a pair of augmented reality goggles in the works but without an ETA, hardware hackers are already growing inpatient. One AR enthusiast has refused to wait and put together his own impressive DIY version of the hi-tech specs. Designer Will Powell created his own take on the Project Glass One Day video, by …

    reghardware 11 Apr 11:20

  • AOL investor: $1bn Microsoft patent deal not good enough

    Selling IP to Redmond – good. Not giving us the cash – bad

    A major shareholder in AOL wants to shake up the firm's board, saying its billion-dollar patent deal with Microsoft wasn't good enough. AOL has agreed to sell a bundle of more than 800 patents to Microsoft and license the rest of its intellectual property to the software giant and other firms. Agitating hedge fund Starboard …

    Financial News 11 Apr 11:28

  • Samsung sales-floor rejig leads to layoffs in B2B push

    Names Graham Long veep of corporate and channel sales

    Samsung has crowned Graham Long as the UK veep of corporate and IT sales following a restructure of the division to help its push into B2B. The Korean giant asked its internal sales team to reapply for their jobs, after "aligning the roles" to seven vertical markets. Whereas previously the sales force pushed either mobile PC, …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 11:47

  • Vintage alien tech crash-lands in field

    Reg reader in Staffordshire Nazca lines shocker

    It's widely accepted among those with a penchant for banging on about Atlantis, the pyramids and the bloody Mayan calendar that the Nazca Lines in Peru represent a vast alien spaceport hewn from the living desert by beings so advanced that the human mind would explode if it were obliged to absorb even a millionth part of their …

    Bootnotes 11 Apr 12:01

  • Dream:ON iPhone app-maker seeks sleepy fanbois for testing

    You won't feel a thing...

    A psychologist is asking iPhone owners to sleep with their iPhones on the bed in a test to see if sounds can influence dreams. Suggesting that the Jesus mobe owners might like to take part in a mass psychological experiment, the app is designed and introduced by British psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman who also describes …

    Applications 11 Apr 12:18

  • Nokia drops Lumia 900 price to $0 in response to bug outrage

    Hey, no mobile data - it's a feature not a <arrgh>

    Nokia is hoping an emergency rebate program will mollify American consumers who rushed out and bought the company's new flagship Windows phone - only to get bitten by a serious wireless data bug. The Lumia 900 is Nokia's big comeback phone - and also Microsoft's biggest ever shot at the mainstream US market. It was launched at …

    Mobile 11 Apr 12:29

  • DoJ could start Apple ebook price-fixing lawsuit this week

    Updated US Justice Dept gears up to throw sueball

    The US Department of Justice is getting ready to launch a lawsuit against Apple over alleged ebook price-fixing, according to whispering sources. Those familiar with the matter told Reuters that the DOJ could sue Apple as early as today, since it wouldn't or couldn't sort out a settlement with the department so far, but no …

    Law 11 Apr 12:37

  • iPad to reign unchallenged as KING of FONDLESLABS

    Moses would have used Apple tablets

    Global shipments of fondleslabs are predicted to nearly double to 119 million in 2012 but Apple's dominance is unlikely to be challenged, Gartner box counters claim. This represents a whopping 98 per cent leap on the 60 million tabs sold worldwide last year, the analyst revealed. But Google and its band of hardware partners …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 12:47

  • MPs: Border Agency's own staff don't trust airport-scanner tech

    Bioscanning e-Gates and £9.1m IRIS cash splurge were big mistakes – report

    The UK Border Agency's own staff don't trust the million pound bioscanning e-Gates installed at nine British airports, and in some cases actively discourage passengers from using them, said a damning report published today by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. MPs on the committee said that they had seen for …

    Government 11 Apr 13:02

  • Spotify adds web button: Just push... Play

    Like SoundCloud, but with added ColdPlay

    Spotify is launching a web widget that allows instant access to songs in its catalogue. As with SoundCloud, anyone can embed the Play button in their pages, from garden-shed bloggers to established web publishers. Only Spotify subscribers will be able to hear the song, however. And through some inexplicable technical sorcery, …

    Developer 11 Apr 13:32

  • Nokia shares fall as it drops first quarter forecast

    Finnish phone firm didn't get off to a good start this year...

    Nokia shares dropped over 16 per cent on the Helsinki Stock exchange today after it cut its profit forecast for the first quarter. The Finnish phone firm said that it now thought its operating margin for the first three months of this year was around -3 per cent, instead of a previously expected break-even range of plus or …

    Financial News 11 Apr 13:57

  • Leisure Suit Larry set for second coming

    Antique code growth

    Leisure Suit Larry could be set for a humorous return through a Kickstarter campaign that has already rounded up the original development team and seeks the remaining funding to get the title the green light. The widely loved Larry Laffer will be thrust back into the limelight through a complete remake of the original 1987 …

    reghardware 11 Apr 14:40

  • Employers' group: New comp sci GCSE driven by vendor agenda

    Prepare 'em for life, not Microsoft MCSE

    Employers have criticised the government’s computer science GCSE work for having a vendor agenda which means that it may fail to deliver business-ready IT graduates. The Corporate IT Forum has told The Reg it feels IT suppliers have a "very significant" degree of influence on the Department for Education's work on the new GCSE …

    Government 11 Apr 15:02

  • Hands on with the Huawei Ascend G300 low-cost Android phone

    First look Budget blower packs a punch

    Huawei continues its push into the UK market this week with the Ascend G300, an affordable smartphone with admirable specs given its entry-level status. Ahead of its Blighty launch this Friday, I was given a sneak preview of the device. First impressions are that the G300 is a lightweight, bog-standard blower yet sports an …

    reghardware 11 Apr 15:07

  • Malware-infected flash cards shipped out with HP switches

    Vendor fields ProCurveBall

    HP has sent out a warning to customers after the vendor found out it had inadvertently been shipping virus-laden compact flash cards with its networking kit. The unnamed malware appeared on flash cards that came bundled with HP ProCurve 5400zl switches. The flash card wouldn't do anything on the switch itself but "reuse of an …

    Enterprise Security 11 Apr 15:26

  • BT fattens fibre customer pipes for free - with a contract extension

    Requires commitment before coming across

    BT broadband customers who subscribe to the company's Infinity 2 package will see their fibre download speeds nearly double from tomorrow, the national telco has promised. Those punters will see current downstream speeds boosted from 38Mbit/s to "up to" 76Mbps on 12 April. BT has said for some time now that its Infinity …

    Telecoms 11 Apr 15:42

  • Apple trails behind world+Microsoft in 'Flashback' malware debacle

    Finally pulls head from sand, pledges patch

    Apple went out of its way to make life difficult for the Russian security firm that first alerted the world to the spread of the now infamous Flashback Trojan on Mac computers, it has emerged. However the fruitbite-branded firm has now pledged to resolve the problem, well after security firms - and Microsoft - had acted. The …

    Enterprise Security 11 Apr 15:56

  • How Apple revived publisher-set pricing and got sued for it

    Comment But DRM got off, scot-free

    In the beginning there was the Net Book Agreement. The NBA, a gentleman's accord 'twixt publishers and retailers, ensured that prices set by the makers of books were respected by the sellers of the same. Then it was realised that this was a form of 'price maintenance' and that this was anti-competitive. Quite right, said many …

    reghardware 11 Apr 16:09

  • 170m people 'upgrade' to Google+, but how many stick around?

    Major UI revamp leaves us with more questions than answers

    Google is still struggling to answer, publically at least, that thorny question of just how many people are actually engaged with its social network, which arrived around 10 months ago. But no matter! Mountain View claimed today that 170 million users had "upgraded" to Google+, which the Chocolate Factory has just applied a …

    Applications 11 Apr 16:17

  • SGI storage gets a head transplant

    ZFS-based Nexenta NAS head

    SGI has stuck a Nexenta NAS head on the modular version of its InfiniteStorage product line and extended the halfway house of a departmental filer it pushed out in January. Back then SGI released its MIS server and JBOD in a phase one NAS launch, saying thin provisioning, snapshots and replication were coming, along with more …

    Storage 11 Apr 16:37

  • Citrix chomps Podio for cloudy workspaces

    GoTo heavenly project management

    The mad rush to grab cloudy startups that make interesting apps continues, and this morning Citrix Systems has snacked on a little Danish. Specifically, Copenhagen-based Podio, a maker of malleable workspaces for online collaboration and project management. You might be one of the 45,000 companies already using the Podio tool …

    Cloud Business 11 Apr 17:01

  • Judge: Checking Facebook at work is not a crime

    'Sometimes we use computers for ... play'

    Checking your personal email on a work computer is not a federal crime, a judge in San Francisco has ruled (PDF), despite the US government trying to argue otherwise. Judging on the case of US v Nosal, maverick San Fran judge* Alex Kozinski concluded that doing non-work things on work facilities was not criminal, though he …

    Jobs 11 Apr 17:17

  • US sues Apple, publishers over ebook pricing strategy

    Alleges conspiracy to fix prices and stick it to Amazon

    The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers, alleging a conspiracy to fix the prices of ebooks. The DoJ had been investigating Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to see whether they had conspired together to stop competition in the price of …

    Law 11 Apr 17:38

  • WD pushes out super-slim shock-resistant Ultrabook drive

    Single platter

    Western Digital has crafted up a slim half-terabyte single platter drive that uses the least power of all Ultrabook disk drive on the market. WD says it is also the most shock-resistant Ultrabook drive yet. The 6.8mm thin Scorpio Blue comes in 320GB and 500GB capacities, spins at 5,400rpm and has a 4000Gs operating shock …

    Storage 11 Apr 18:01

  • US Trade Rep criticises tech trade barriers in Oz, NZ

    Wary of telecoms, cloud, patent and copyright rules

    Australia and New Zealand have come under criticism from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) over a raft of tech issues. In its latest 420-page National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, the USTR expresses concerns at Australia’s National Broadband Network, and government concerns at …

    Public Sector 11 Apr 22:41

  • German scientists link two labs with ‘universal quantum network’

    Communicating with entangled distant atoms

    German researchers have demonstrated a technique that allows them to create entanglement between atoms in different places, using photons to put the atoms into an entangled state. Quantum effects have already crept into the cryptography world, in which entangled pairs of photons are used for key exchange. However, in the new …

    Science 11 Apr 23:48

  • SAP flashes cash to pump up HANA biz

    In-pocket database, in-face Larry

    SAP hasn't had a product as popular as its HANA in-memory data processing engine since the R/3 enterprise resource planning suite launched two decades ago and took off like wildfire, transforming the German software company into the dominant application software provider in the world. SAP wants to hit replay with HANA, and it is …

    Software 11 Apr 23:55