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22nd June 2012 Archive

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  • Mars has more water than thought

    An apatite for H2O

    It's a big day for extra-terrestrial water: not only are there hints of water on the moon, but now Carnegie says that the mantle of Mars might have water concentrations similar to those found on Earth. Specifically, the researchers say that rocks in Mars’ mantle could have concentrations of water between 70 and 300 parts per …

    Space 22 Jun 01:00

  • Canon PowerShot G1 X compact camera

    Review CSCs – who needs 'em?

    Canon’s ever-popular Powershot G-series has a new and exciting addition that promises to expand the line-up rather than just upgrade it. While the new Powershot G1 X keeps some of the looks and features of its predecessor – the G12 – it also departs from previous models in significant ways. Bigger sensor and a resolution …

    reghardware 22 Jun 06:00

  • Tesco exec brands UltraViolet 'too complicated' for Brits

    Digital movie locker? They won't get that

    Tesco's entertainment products chief has branded UltraViolet, Hollywood's would-be standard for digital movies, "too complicated" for British film fans. The comment was made by Tesco's Category Director of Entertainment, Rob Salter, during a debate at the Future of Entertainment Summit in London, Advanced Television reports. …

    reghardware 22 Jun 07:00

  • Arts & social-sci students briefly forced to do useful work at Foxconn

    Truly, Apple can perform miracles

    A Chinese student forced to intern at Foxconn has complained that his two months on the gadget assembly line was like "military training" and unrelated to his degree, according to a local Chinese news site. A group of students at Xi'an Technological University have complained about having to do work with with the iPhone …

    Jobs 22 Jun 07:19

  • One court order could gag EVERY ISP in Denmark

    It's not just the herring that's fishy

    Internet service providers (ISPs) and copyright holders in Denmark have agreed on a framework that would see all ISPs in the country block access to copyright-infringing content if one of the providers is ordered to do so by a court. The Danish Ministry of Culture said that it would work with ISPs and rights holders groups to …

    Law 22 Jun 07:42

  • GSMA pledges end to data roaming bill shock

    But prices still high for Asian biz travellers

    Mobile industry body the GSMA reckons it has come up with a plan which should help international business travellers avoid bill shock and better understand their data usage. At a meeting in Shanghai this week, the organisation cracked together the heads of 24 major global operators including Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, …

    Mobile 22 Jun 07:42

  • Microsoft rejects Google-Moto patent pact proposal

    'Can't believe they told the press', lawyer tells press

    Microsoft has rejected a proposed offer by Motorola to settle patent disputes between the two companies that threaten to stop the flow of Moto's Android kit and Redmond's Xboxes and Windows gear into the US. This is after the software giant said it reckoned that Motorola was looking for "excessive" royalties. Both Microsoft …

    Business 22 Jun 07:58

  • Yahoo! and Facebook beg US court for more time

    We're negotiating here, bitch

    Yahoo! and Facebook have asked a US court for more time to prepare their filings because their lawyers think that may help them to reach a settlement. Both firms want to push various document deadlines into July and move the next hearing forward while they prepare their motions and figure out if they can reach an arrangement …

    Cloud Business 22 Jun 08:14

  • 'People should be free from Peeping Toms' snapping pics of them!

    QuotW 'No place for photo censorship in Argyll', though

    This was the week when a top US senator laid down the law with Google and Apple over their Maps apps. Or actually, he didn't, he just laid down his suggestion that maybe having "military-grade spy planes" flying around snapping pics of the whole world was less than desirable. He thundered: Barbecuing or sunbathing in your …

    Cloud Business 22 Jun 08:30

  • Choose Smarter: Ten… USB 3.0 External Hard Drives

    Product Round-up Big storage

    Hard drives are still the most cost-effective way of adding extra storage capacity to a desktop or laptop. They are cheap to buy, easy to use and remarkably robust in service. Solid-state drives may be quicker, but while the prices of hard drives continue to fall, their capacity goes on climbing, so the overall cost per …

    reghardware 22 Jun 08:45

  • Samsung frees fanboys from iPhone with freeware

    Apple 'make it easy to migrate' strategy applied

    Apple waged a broadly successful campaign to persuade Windows PC owners to migrate to the Mac by making compatibility tools readily available, and now Samsung is trying the same trick - on iPhone users. Today it said it would give iOS defectors a free copy of Easy Phone Sync to anyone buying a Galaxy smartphone. The utility …

    reghardware 22 Jun 08:58

  • Kensington Virtuoso Mini collapsible stylus

    Accessory of the Week Quick on the draw

    Dabbing away at a smartphone touchscreen is all very well if all you’re doing is checking email, searching Google, or replying to a text message. But if you want to paint - using the excellent Brushes, say - sketch, or take handwritten notes, it’s far from ideal. But who wants to carry around a stylus in their pocket just in …

    reghardware 22 Jun 09:00

  • Firefox 'new tab' feature exposes users' secured info: Fix promised

    Unlucky version 13 not ideal, Mozilla admits

    Privacy-conscious users have sounded the alarm after it emerged the "New Tab" thumbnail feature in Firefox 13 is "taking snapshots of the user's HTTPS session content". Reg reader Chris discovered the feature after opening a new tab only to be "greeted by my earlier online banking and webmail sessions complete with account …

    ID 22 Jun 09:13

  • El Reg official units of measurement: Linguine, Jubs, Hiltons and all

    Vid The return of Lucy Sherriff

    Earlier this week, the Beeb described IBM's Sequoia supercomputer as being so potent that it could do in one hour "what otherwise would have taken 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they had worked non-stop". This latest, highly suspect piece of mathematical jiggery-pokery - with no mention of …

    SPB 22 Jun 09:30

  • Sony deploys 11in Vaio to battle Apple Air

    Same size screen, half the price

    Sony has turned to AMD for processors to power its 11in sub-notebook, the Vaio E 11. The 11.6in, 1366 x 768 machine incorporates an AMD dual-core 1.7GHz E2-1800 CPU plus Radeon HD 7340 graphics. Pack in a 500GB, 5400rpm hard drive, 4GB of 1333MHz DDR 3, three USB ports - one of them USB 3.0 - HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4GHz …

    reghardware 22 Jun 09:33

  • Neo-Nazis scoop YouTube ad revenue from UK telcos

    Blood and dishonour

    Neo-Nazis operating in the UK have reportedly used YouTube's advertising revenue-sharing system to gobble up payments from companies that include BT, O2 and Virgin Media. None of the telcos were aware that the right-wing extremists who had posted the videos on Google's website were exploiting the search giant's Adsense network …

    Cloud Business 22 Jun 09:45

  • Alan Turing 100: Visionary, war winner ... game maker?

    When he appears to reappear in a machine his legacy will be complete

    We all know Alan Turing was a Nazi cipher breaker, which is already cool enough, but a computer games and AI pioneer? That’s a story that's told less often. Alan Turing achieved many things before his suicide in June 1954, many of which have been written and spoken about during the run-up to the 100th anniversary of his birth …

    Rise of the Machines 22 Jun 09:54

  • Texas sues Google for 'withholding' documents from antitrust probe

    That thing about making information easier to find ...

    Google is being sued by the Texas Attorney General's office in the US, because - it has been alleged - the search giant "withheld" documents from a competition investigation of the company. Texas AG Greg Abbott said in a state court filing that a "large volume" of paperwork had been sat on by Google, which claimed attorney- …

    Cloud Business 22 Jun 10:14

  • Microsoft's Surface proves software is dead

    Open ... and Shut Ballmer finally gets with the program

    Did Microsoft finally get the memo on software licensing? While Microsoft's legal department continues to believe that software licensing is the industry's best business model, its mobile team now acknowledges that software is just one piece of an overall product, and not even the part that consumers buy. With the launch of …

    PCs & Chips 22 Jun 10:30

  • Kodak's using bankruptcy to rob us of our rights – Apple

    Ah, the old go-bust-and-die ploy, eh?

    Apple has hit back at Kodak's attempts to get the firms' patent issues sorted out in bankruptcy court, filing a motion in district court asking the judge to move the row there. Kodak has accused Apple of "frivolous" claims to its patents, saying that Cupertino's only purpose is to delay the camera company's sale of those …

    Financial News 22 Jun 10:46

  • Natwest, RBS: When will bank glitch be fixed? Probably not today

    Wish we hadn't fired all those techies now ...

    On the fourth day of a IT systems choke-up that has left customers unable to access money and in some cases unable to buy food or travel, Natwest and RBS – which both belong to the RBS group – still have no idea when the issues will be fixed. A spokesperson said the banking group had been working overnight to fix the problems …

    Financial News 22 Jun 11:02

  • Choose Smarter: Ten... Sata 3 SSDs

    Product Round-up Solid choices for an essential upgrade

    There may never be parity between SSDs and the good old mechanical HDD, but the solid state option is moving rapidly in the right direction regarding cost and capacity. SSDs already lead the way in terms of resilience (they're far more durable than hard drives), power consumption (low), noise (lower still) and speed (high), …

    reghardware 22 Jun 11:03

  • Developers get to touch Microsoft's SmartGlass

    Xbox mobilised

    Microsoft has released a software development kit (SDK) to encourage coding for its upcoming SmartGlass application, which lets mobile devices interact with the Xbox 360 console "in an intelligent way". The Redmond firm has pushed the free SDK to partners with agreements to build Xbox games or entertainment apps, so they can …

    reghardware 22 Jun 11:10

  • Why I love Microsoft’s vapourware tablet

    Something for the weekend, Sir? Probe beneath the Surface

    When I first got into this journalism lark in the late 1980s, the exploding nature of the personal computer market would force the hand of IT companies to reveal products far in advance of their intended launch date. Such was the race to give the appearance of being cutting-edge, they sometimes found themselves announcing …

    reghardware 22 Jun 11:30

  • Assange: Australian neglect made me flee to Ecuador embassy

    Oz should have told Sweden, UK to leave me alone. Or else

    Julian Assange™ has spent his third night in the Ecuadorian embassy in London as he continued to await the outcome of his plea for political asylum from the South American country. In the meantime, the WikiLeaker-in-chief has been grumbling to a radio station that his homeland of Australia had ditched him in his hour of need …

    Crime 22 Jun 11:58

  • TERROR in SEATTLE: Gang of violent LEPRECHAUNS on the loose

    Delays to Windows 8 feared as bearded rampage continues

    Seattle is expected to go into lockdown this weekend, as fears grow that a gang of rogue leprechauns is on the loose and attacking locals. Komonews.com reports that police were called to reports of a street fight last Saturday. When they arrived they saw a number of people run from the scene, before finding a man "covered in …

    Bootnotes 22 Jun 12:11

  • Lollipop Chainsaw

    Review Cheerleader gets chopper out

    Its name alone could be enough to suggest the origins of Lollipop Chainsaw. It's a title that somehow immediately resonates with Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture Inc, whether you knew it was one of its titles or not. Bright squeeze With his studio already responsible for the "out there" experiences that are Killer7, No More …

    reghardware 22 Jun 12:30

  • Gone fishin' with Nokia

    Sign of the times

    A dismantled Nokia sign at Oulu's Technology Village, Finland Reg reader Andy Crofts snapped the above picture - after re-arranging the Nokia sign to read "ONKIA", the Finnish verb to fish with a rod and line. Andy was inspired by a story on YLE, Finland's public broadcaster, about the downgrading of Nokia's credit status …

    Bootnotes 22 Jun 13:00

  • Hybrid Cloud -The Emperor’s new clothes or stylish business wear?

    Reg Research Reg readers link private and public arenas

    ‘Cloud Computing’ has been on the lips of every IT vendor marketing manager for the past two or three years and Reg readers have always been forthright in telling us what is happening in their organisation compared to the hype. While some vendors think ‘Private Cloud’ to be a contradiction in terms, Reg readers disagree, with …

    Cloud 22 Jun 13:32

  • Nintendo supersizes 3DS

    From small to XL

    Nintendo has revealed an larded-up 3DS handheld console with a display almost twice the size of its predecessor, although the absence of other improvements has left fans up in arms. The Nintendo 3DS XL ups its two display sizes from 3.53in and 3.02in, to 4.88in and 4.18in, respectively. Battery life has been improved …

    reghardware 22 Jun 13:34

  • Iran: Our nuke facilities still under attack by US, Israelis 'and MI6'

    Now pay attention 007, this is a computer

    The Iranian government has warned of yet another cyberattack against its nuclear facilities. Iranian state television reports that the discovery of the assault followed the breakdown on Tuesday of international talks related to Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which Western governments allege is aimed at manufacturing …

    Enterprise Security 22 Jun 14:01

  • Watch out, channel biz: Mega-services models will cut you if they can

    Salad days of classic channel are over... almost

    Does the channel as we know it have any relevance to customers in today’s very complicated technical world? Forgetting the emotional kneejerk responses, which I can anticipate coming immediately, and the indignant shrieks of outrage from some legacy organisations and their dinosaur management who believe they have the right to …

    Channel Register 22 Jun 14:03

  • Microsoft shaking up SPLA licensing channel

    RFP's sent to disties in nod to channel conflict

    Microsoft is set to shake-up the way it sells Service Provider Licensing Agreements, The Channel can reveal. The software giant threw out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to existing and prospective distributors recently that need to be completed by today and an appointment is expected mid-August, the timeline sources say …

    Channel Register 22 Jun 14:19

  • Office printers spew reams of garbage as 2-year-old Trojan runs wild

    Different kind of garbage

    Computer printers around the world are spewing garbage following a flare-up of a strain of malware first detected two years ago, Symantec warns. A spike in infections by the Milicenso Trojan has hit businesses in the US, India, Europe and South America over the last two weeks or so – resulting in a massive, wasted print jobs …

    Malware 22 Jun 14:25

  • Kepler space telescope peers at hot alien couple

    Pic Offer view from Seattle if Earth had giant companion

    Astro-boffins have located an alien planet pair that are orbiting so close to each other, any inhabitants would see a planet-rise as well as sunrise. Gas giant sits on the Seattle skyline. Pic credit: NASA, Frank Melchior, Eric Agol Both of the planets are a little too toasty to play host to life as we know it; the …

    Space 22 Jun 15:02

  • Are you a hot BABE in heels and a short skirt? SCIENCE is for YOU

    Updated 'Science - It's A Girl Thing', says the EU. Whoops

    The EU have clearly acknowledged that there is a problem with getting women into areas like science and technology. Issues such as educational bias, the lack of role-models and certain sorts of institutional sexism have all been cited as problems in the past, and at national level the topic has been discussed at conferences such …

    Science 22 Jun 15:09

  • Facebook loses face: Faced down in faceoff over face-placing

    OK, we'll get out of your Face ... bitch

    Facebook is expected to cough up around $20m, and amend certain features of the site, to end litigation brought against the dominant social network following the arrival of its much-disliked "sponsored stories" feature. In December last year, five users of the service – who complained about their faces being featured in ads on …

    Networks 22 Jun 15:44

  • Hackers publish payday loan emails after failing to levy 'idiot tax'

    'World King' doesn't care for the word extortion

    Hacker group Rex Mundi has published thousands of loan-applicant details it siphoned off from US payday loan outfit AmeriCash Advance. The move follows AmeriCash Advance's refusal to sump up $15,000 in what Rex Mundi describes as an idiot tax for maintaining insecure systems and what AmeriCash Advance characterises as an …

    ID 22 Jun 16:03

  • Cisco bends UCS rack and blade metal around new Xeon E5s

    Where's the C420 M3 racker?

    Server upstart Cisco Systems has updated its B-Series blade servers and C-Series rack servers in the "California" Unified Computing System line, bringing itself on par with the latest Xeon E5 machines available from rivals HP, Dell, and IBM. Like the past two generations of UCS machines, Cisco's now fleshed-out third …

    Servers 22 Jun 18:32

  • Powering your iPad costs $1.36 per year

    And other wacky stats from wooly electro-boffins

    If you charge your fully depleted iPad every other day, it'll cost you a buck thirty-six per year, according to a just-released study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) of Palo Alto, California. "At less than a penny per charge these findings bring new meaning to the adage, 'A penny for your thoughts'," said the …

    PCs & Chips 22 Jun 19:21

  • ICANN anoints new internet kingpin

    Meet the new boss, not like the old boss

    The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has confirmed that it will have new CEO to replace outgoing boss Rod Beckstrom, but not until October. The new recruit is Lebanese-born businessman Fadi Chehadé, who has spent time in senior management at IBM and was until recently the CEO of cloud vendor Vocado. …

    Hosting 22 Jun 19:29

  • Apple's iPhone 5 connector said to be a control freak

    30-pin? Nope. Micro-USB? Nope. Power grab? Yup

    Rumors that the iPhone's familiar 30-pin connector will be replaced in the iPhone 5 with a Micro-USB port have riled the fanbois universe, inciting charges of planned obsolecense and worse. New reports, however, point not to a standard Micro-USB port, but a new – and proprietary – Apple port. A bit of background: in case you …

    Mobile 22 Jun 20:52

  • ITU denies plans for global internet power-grab

    Details sticky WC-IT plans for online rewiring

    The ITU has finalized its proposals for rewriting the regulations governing internet traffic, which will be decided at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WC-IT) being held in Dubai this December. The eleven-day conference will host the rewriting of the international telecommunication regulations (ITRs) …

    Networks 22 Jun 22:58