The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

16th April 2012 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • NBN essential for faster mobility: Vodafone

    Confident Huawei meets trust requirements

    Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) believes the NBN's fibre to the premises is essential if mobile networks are to meet mobile device owners' expectations. Speaking in Sydney today at a public hearing of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network, VHA's General Manager Industry Strategy and Public Policy Matthew …

    Networks 16 Apr 00:59

  • AWS bids for cloudy SharePoint

    Own experiences translated into how-to guide

    Amazon Web Services wants your SharePoint rig in its cloud and has released a white paper telling you how to do it, fast, with Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008. The rationale for the move involves the usual cloud spiel of opex not capex, fast implementation time thanks to the removal of mucky jobs like installing …

    Cloud 16 Apr 01:51

  • Intel shows Apple how to win a trademark dispute in China

    Shenzhen-based Inteljet ordered to fork out £20,000

    Chip giant Intel has shown Apple how to deal with an irksome trademark dispute in China by claiming a legal victory over Shenzhen-based printing peripherals firm Inteljet over the weekend. Chipzilla won 400,000 yuan (£20,000) in compensation after Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court agreed with it that the name of …

    Business 16 Apr 03:44

  • Telstra says it could work with Libs NBN FTTN policy

    Turnbull fierce on home networking costs

    Telstra could work to implement a policy change to the federal opposition's current alternative NBN plan, a fibre-to-the-node network, representatives of the carrier today told a public hearing of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network. Under sustained questioning from Senator Doug Cameron, Telstra's Group …

    Networks 16 Apr 04:20

  • Google's Brin admits he under-estimated Chinese censorship

    They've managed to put genie back in the bottle

    Google co-founder Sergey Brin has admitted he was wrong to question China’s long-term ability to restrict the free flow of information online, as the Communist Party’s crack down on internet rumours following suggestions of a failed coup continues. Speaking to The Guardian, the billionaire said he didn’t believe five years ago …

    Policy 16 Apr 04:44

  • Android Trojan distracts Japanese with anime and porn

    Video trailers mask data pilfering malware

    Security experts are warning of yet more malicious applications found on Google’s official online apps market Play, this time designed to steal personal data in the background while promising to show trailers for Japanese anime, video games and porn. McAfee malware researcher Carlos Castillo explained in a blog post that the …

    Security 16 Apr 05:36

  • NHS trust loses personal data of 600 maternity patients, kids

    Hands up whether patients' info should be encrypted. Anyone?

    South London healthcare trust has admitted to losing two unencrypted memory sticks containing sensitive personal data about patients. The data breaches occurred in separate incidents. In the first breach, the device contained data relating to around 600 maternity patients, according to an undertaking signed by the trust with …

    Government 16 Apr 07:04

  • Is Dropbox good enough to be called 'good enough'?

    Our man wanders lonely as a personal Cloud

    Blocks and Files Dropbox is popular for syncing and sharing files across smartphones, tablets, notebooks and desktop PCs. I use it myself in my all-Apple computing universe of iMac, MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone, and I use it in preference to Apple's iCloud. The killer aspect for me? Dropbox is a device icon that acts like a …

    Storage 16 Apr 07:30

  • UK server-makers weather Q4 sales droop

    HDD shortages, poor demand and delayed purchases blamed

    UK server sales hit the skids in Q4 due to HDD shortages, weak customer demand and delayed purchases as buyers waited for next-gen Intel architectures to launch. According to abacus-stroker IDC, some 82,000 servers were shipped in the period – representing a drop of 2 per cent – and market revenues fell to $609m, a 1 per cent …

    The Channel 16 Apr 08:01

  • If Google's only taking a COPY of your personality, why worry?

    Mailbag Privacy, property and permissions

    My tale about how digital privacy needs to be protected by strong property rights caused heated discussion here and over the web - I'll summarise the best points here. The idea that you ultimately own your data is pretty fundamental to creating effective privacy legislation. If you're the sovereign "owner" of your data, then …

    Media 16 Apr 08:33

  • Mobee Magic Numpad

    Geek Treat of the Week Turn your touchpad into numeric keys, kind of

    Mobee has built a niche for itself building accessories for Apple’s Magic line of input devices. This one might just be the cleverest of the lot. The package consists of three film overlays, each printed with a different arrangement of buttons, which allow you to use the Magic Trackpad for tapping in digits. Essentially, it …

    reghardware 16 Apr 09:00

  • Sony: UK ebook shop open for business

    Apple and Amazon alternative

    Sony UK has rolled out an e-book shop it hopes will tempt buyers away from Amazon and Apple's iTunes, the company said today. The Reader Store UK - to give it its official moniker - offers the usual array books and bookshop features, plus a couple of daily papers: the Mail and the Guardian. It's already tuned to the latest …

    reghardware 16 Apr 09:12

  • UK.gov: Firms can't fondle your smart meter privates...

    ...Unless you want them to

    Third-party companies will not be able to access data recorded in consumers' smart meters unless consumers choose to let them see it, the Government has said. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said consumers should be able to control who accesses their smart meter consumption data other than in select …

    Science 16 Apr 09:21

  • ISPs should get 'up to' full fee for 'up to' broadband

    Wispa's campaign against Ofcom turns shouty

    Anyone promised broadband speeds of "up to" an amount should be free to pay a monthly fee of "up to" what's asked, according to the firebrand lobbying consultancy wispa Limited. It's not the first time wispa has riled against Ofcom, but this time its campaign has caught the imagination by asking people to tell the regulator …

    Broadband 16 Apr 09:38

  • Samsung S III to enter Galaxy next month

    Prepare for take off

    Samsung's next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, appears set for launch early next month, with the company now inviting folk to "come meet the next Galaxy" at a London event on 3 May. OK, so Sammy's official blog doesn't detail which new addition to the Galaxy family will be on show, but the S III has been seemingly on …

    reghardware 16 Apr 09:50

  • Google fined for stalling Street View cars' Wi-Fi slurp probe

    Must pay pocket change for gobbling unencrypted packets

    Google has been fined $25,000 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for impeding its investigation of the search giant's Street View cars, which inadvertently collected payload data including emails and passwords from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. The company first admitted in October 2010 that its street-mapping …

    Law 16 Apr 10:01

  • Larry vs Larry: Oracle and Google in courtroom smackdown

    Ellison's Java suit against Choc Factory goes to trial

    One of the big patent cases in tech will finally come to trial this week, as Oracle takes on Google in court over its use of Java software in its Android operating system. Oracle laid hands on the Java platform when it bought Sun Microsystems in January 2010 and it had filed suit against Google under the new Sun moniker of " …

    Law 16 Apr 10:14

  • HP ships hack-friendly all-in-one

    Crack open the Z1 and tinker to your heart's content

    HP has begun shipping its easy-to-upgrade all-in-one desktop PC, the Z1, worldwide, the computer giant said today. The 27in, 2560 x 1440, one-billion colour screen machine packs a clamshell casing that allows hardware hackers the crack the Z1 open to add and replace its inner workings. Aimed at punters needing serious …

    reghardware 16 Apr 10:26

  • How EMC stuffs channel cakeholes with VSPEX recipes

    Analysis Storage biz fattens up SMB clouds

    No server maker of any appreciable size – now including the famously direct Dell – has been able to sell machines without the help of the reseller channel. Ironically, EMC is not even a server maker, but its aspirations in the IT sector make it just as dependent on the channel as rivals Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM. The world …

    The Channel 16 Apr 10:28

  • Lesser-spotted Raspberry Pi FINALLY dished up

    Cheap-as-chips ARM computer hits doormats

    The credit card-sized ARM-powered Raspberry Pi is finally shipping, at £30, allowing thousands of middle-aged dads to achieve their adolescent dreams of computing nirvana. Shipping was supposed to happen last month, but problems with a couple of components, and getting the CE mark organised, delayed things slightly. The first …

    Hardware 16 Apr 10:46

  • Apple TV third-generation (2012)

    Review Set-top stop-gap for the 'iTV'?

    Well, at least we can get the hardware over and done with quickly. The latest Apple TV looks exactly like the old one, and it's innards aren't really any different either. Box steady: no change to the look, little to the spec For the record, there's an A5 processor on the inside in place of the previous model's A4, but that …

    reghardware 16 Apr 11:00

  • BT blows fibre into 'multiple biz units' for first time

    Hopes FTTP tech will help grow Acorn House

    BT's biz wing has completed what it claimed to be the first fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) install to multiple buildings in the UK. The national telco said it had blown fibre optics into Acorn House's office units in Milton Keynes. BT said its FTTP broadband service can deliver download speeds of "up to" 100Mbit/s and upload …

    Broadband 16 Apr 11:23

  • How far can you shift the shape of cloud software?

    Tweak and ye shall find

    Deep in the bowels of the EU academics, businesspeople and bureaucrats are putting the finishing touches to a set of specifications that could change the way we handle software as a service (SaaS). The €1.08m CAST project, funded by an EC program called Eurostars, was created to develop a framework for making cloud-hosted …

    Cloud 16 Apr 11:30

  • Himalayan glaciers actually GAINING ice, space scans show

    An inconvenient truth

    A new study of survey data gleaned from space has shown a vast region of Himalayan glaciers is actually gaining ice steadily, mystifying climate scientists who had thought the planet's "third pole" to be melting. The study was carried out by comparing two sets of space data, the first gathered by instruments aboard the space …

    Science 16 Apr 11:44

  • Apple can't agree with Australian regulator on iPad 4G

    Case against Cupertino continues after talks fail

    Apple's talks with Australia's competition authority today over the little advertising snafu where Cupertino wrongly announced that 4G would work in the country have failed to come to any resolution. Australian media said that negotiations between the regulator and Apple hadn't reached any agreement. An Australian Competition …

    Law 16 Apr 11:58

  • Brits get red PlayStation 3 next month

    Scarlet fever

    Sony reckons British punters will warm to a red version of the PlayStation 3, which ends its Japan-only exclusivity with a UK launch early next month. Despite missing the rosy rush of Valentine's Day, Sony hopes the rare colour will be enough to tempt shoppers into parting with roughly £250. The 320GB console comes with a …

    reghardware 16 Apr 12:15

  • MI5 stinks up website with dead SSL certificate

    Secret policeman's balls-up

    Blighty's intelligence agency MI5 forgot to replace the expired digital certificate for its website over the weekend. The schoolboy error meant anybody trying to securely access the Security Service's site - perhaps to report suspected terrorist activity - would have been warned by their browser that the connection was …

    Security 16 Apr 12:16

  • Hacker jailed for 32 months for attack on abortion-provider site

    Judge: No excuse for targeting the vulnerable

    A self-identified member of Anonymous was jailed for two years and eight months on Friday over a hacking attack against Britain's biggest abortion provider in March. James Jeffery, 27, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, swiped around 10,000 records of women who had registered with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) in …

    Law 16 Apr 12:29

  • Bulletproof iPhone case set to survive shootouts

    Protected in iRaq?

    We've seen some odd smartphone cases over our time, but this bullet-proof beast, heavy enough to crush a chap's toes, is a fine contender for the crown. Madurai's Armoured Case 1 for iPhone 4/4S weighs in at 2.1kg and warns of serious injury should it be dropped on a hapless hoof. It is apparently the world's strongest …

    reghardware 16 Apr 12:33

  • Local gov buying group inks £50m software framework

    Twelve resellers bag place on Pro5 agreement

    The Pro5 buying consortium has confirmed that 12 suppliers have made it onto the next generation software and services framework agreement. The framework is worth tens of millions over a 36-month period. The procurement group includes the Central Buying Consortium as well as purchasing organisations for the North-east, Eastern …

    The Channel 16 Apr 12:34

  • Gov: New G-Cloud chief is no 'part-timer'

    Rain will fall as planned, Whitehall says

    The government’s promised G-Cloud is on track, despite in-coming director Denise McDonagh having to juggle her new role with her existing job as Home Office head of IT. McDonagh has been named new G-Cloud director after it emerged that incumbent Chris Chant is retiring from the civil service after just 18 months in charge of G …

    The Channel 16 Apr 12:47

  • Bytes' NHS deal loss hits revs – but biz margins rise

    Profits up, sales plunge at Bytes Technology Group

    Bytes Technology Group's (BTG) top line took a hammering in fiscal 2012 ended February from the loss of a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement with the NHS – but efforts to push up gross margins boosted the bottom line. The Surrey-based reseller saw sales fall 16 per cent to £125m for the 12 months as two NHS true-ups in the …

    The Channel 16 Apr 12:48

  • Rackspace eats own OpenStack heavenly dog food

    Betas cloudy database, block storage, virtual networks

    Rackspace Hosting, one of the contenders in the fight to take on Amazon's eponymous Web Services division as the dominant public cloud, is finally confident enough in the OpenStack wares to start its internal rollout of the software underpinning its Cloud Servers, Cloud Files, and other services. By doing so, Rackspace is …

    Cloud 16 Apr 13:03

  • RIP wind power: Minister blows away plans for more turbines

    Everyone off the gravy train

    It looks as though the wind energy boom is over. UK energy minister Greg Barker has hinted at a significant change in government strategy - cutting subsidies for the deployment and operation of environmentalists’ favoured technologies. The climate change minister hinted that R&D handouts would continue, but for the wind lobby …

    Science 16 Apr 13:28

  • EU boots UK phone cash bonk threesome out of bed

    Telco trio must wait until August for NFC green-light decision

    The EU thinks O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere's combined approach to pushing pay-by-wave phones could stifle competition - so the triumvirate will have to wait another three months to find out if they'll be allowed to team up. Not that the EU is rejecting Project Oscar, the platform proposed by the telco trio, but the …

    Broadband 16 Apr 14:01

  • Apple fights off ebook suit with anti-Amazon defence

    Win or lose, the US gov will lose

    Apple is a liberator, not an oppressor – that’s according to Apple, at least. The Mac-maker turned device-and-content shop has dismissed the US government’s decision to prosecute on the grounds that it rigged ebook prices by claiming the iBookstore has freed consumers and publishers from the tyranny of Amazon. According to …

    Law 16 Apr 14:31

  • Google's top female cheese nominated to serve on Walmart board

    Marissa Mayer maps way to world's largest retailer

    Google veteran Marissa Mayer has been nominated to serve on the board of the world's biggest retailer Walmart. The multi-billion dollar outfit said its directors sought the election of Mayer to become the sixteenth member of the board. Voting will take place at Walmart's annual shareholders' meeting on 1 June, it added. Mayer …

    CIO 16 Apr 14:58

  • Fanboys frolic on recyled rumours of Q3 iPad Mini debut

    Tech speculation will eat itself

    Take care with fresh claims that Apple will have an 'iPad Mini' out in Q3: they seem to be simply repeating a similar claim made back in March. Then, Taiwanese moles said the Mac maker would have the scaled-down iPad out in the third quarter - or at least launched within that three-month period. These claims echo rumours …

    reghardware 16 Apr 15:11

  • Peeling back the skins on IBM's Flex System iron

    Analysis More Power – and x86 – to you

    IBM announced the PureSystems converged systems last week, mashing up servers, storage, networking, and systems software into a ball of self-managing cloudiness. What the launch did not talk a lot about is the underlying Flex System hardware which is at the heart of the PureFlex and PureApplication machines. So let's do that …

    Servers 16 Apr 15:28

  • EA confirms Crysis 3 release

    Bow to the Nanosuit

    Electronic Arts officially confirmed Crysis 3 today and revealed the "sandbox shooter" will explode onto shop shelves in spring 2013. Crytek's third installment is set in a futuristic plant-ridden New York City, trapped under a "Nanodome" by the corrupt Cell Corp. Here, our protagonist, Prophet, must navigate seven …

    reghardware 16 Apr 16:09

  • Pirates not to blame for Big Media's sales plunge

    Sysadmin blog Evil empire caught in logic loop ... arrrrrr

    The RIAA and MPAA would have you believe that piracy is responsible for their decline in sales. This is all of course blame to be laid at the feet of computers, the internet and the generic "digital boogyman." Even without getting deep into the flawed math in play, there are other reasons for the middling returns on investment …

    Servers 16 Apr 16:32

  • VMware buys up benchmarketeer tools

    Helping you to help us help ourselves

    Server virtualization juggernaut VMware doesn't just want to own the lion's share of the cloudy infrastructure inside data centers. It wants to convince all data centers to virtualize all workloads, and use the best virtualization tools available to do so. But to do that, the company has to prove that real-world workloads in …

    Virtualization 16 Apr 17:03

  • Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

    Finns failing at high and low end of market

    Ratings agency Moody's has lowered its debt rating for Nokia to near junk status, and warned that the company is facing even tougher times ahead. In a note to investors today Moody's cut the world's largest mobile handset manufacturer's rating from Baa2 to Baa3, its lowest rating for investment grade stock. While the trigger …

    Financial News 16 Apr 19:34

  • 'Not guilty' plea in Utah cop site hacking case

    Police twitter feed doesn't wait for court hearing

    An Ohio man pleaded not guilty today to charges that he hacked into a pair of police websites in Salt Lake City, Utah in January. John Anthony Borell III, a 21 year old from Ohio, made the plea at an arraignment hearing in Salt Lake City today, AP reports. He faces up to ten years inside and a $250,000 fine if found guilty on …

    Security 16 Apr 21:44

  • IBM ringing up retail system biz sale to Toshiba?

    Checking out of POS market

    Is IBM fixing to sell its point of sale hardware and software business to Japanese conglomerate and sometime IT partner Toshiba? That's what a report in the Japanese business daily Nikkei says. Nikkei cites sources saying that Toshiba wants to give Big Blue ¥70bn, or around $870m at current exchange rates, to acquire the …

    The Channel 16 Apr 21:46

  • SATELLITE SMACKDOWN: Turnbull vs. Quigley

    We replay their NBN Joint Committee brawl

    At about 3:30 PM yesterday, during a Public Hearing of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network, several NBNCo staffers suddenly became quite agitated. They passed an iPhone among themselves, before handing it to NBNCo CEO Mike Quigley, who quickly reddened and broke verbal stride to read aloud the following Tweet …

    Networks 16 Apr 21:59

  • German software giant plucks London software outfit

    my-Channels is now Software AG's

    Software AG has hoovered up a UK-based messaging software developer founded by a bunch of Deutsche Bank alumni. The German enterprise software vendor has bought out 13-year old London-based my-Channels for a sum reportedly in the low double digits of million euros. my-Channels' "extremely fast (low latency) messaging software …

    Cloud 16 Apr 23:03

  • Microsoft sharpens Azure media tools ahead of Olympics

    Redmond goes Vegas to tempt big media

    Microsoft has announced the "preview" of Windows Azure Media Services, a set of tools to let media companies host, stream and encode content. Redmond used the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012 conference in Las Vegas to unwrap the service package, which includes both hosting services within the Azure cloud and …

    Cloud 16 Apr 23:37

  • Pew study finds one in five Americans still won't go online

    Luddite fringe exposed as internet use plateaus

    A hardcore 20 per cent of Americans ain't using the internet and don’t want to neither, according to the latest survey data from the Pew Internet and American Life project. The survey data showed that since 1995 internet use in the US had grown from around 10 per cent to just over 78 per cent in August of last year. The rate …

    Hosting 16 Apr 23:50