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30th July 2012 Archive

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  • U.S forces maintain fire against Megaupload

    MPAA labels Dotcom as career crim (for piracy, not rapping)

    The United States government is holding firm against the pursuit of file sharing platform Megaupload and its founders stating that even if the indictment of the Megaupload corporation is dismissed, it will continue the indefinite freeze on its assets. During a federal hearing in the U.S last Friday, prosecutors urged U.S. …

    Policy 30 Jul 01:02

  • CloudFlare condenses in Australia

    Claims bandwidth prices are causing data drain

    San Francisco-based content delivery network aspirant CloudFlare has rolled out a data centre in Sydney as part of the first phase of a global rollout. CloudFlare CEO and co-founder Matthew Prince told The Register that Australia was selected due to demand from its customer base, despite the prohibitively high bandwidth costs …

    Cloud 30 Jul 01:27

  • Namibia unveils whopper Cherenkov telescope

    Capturing tiny atmospheric flashes to reveal distant galaxies

    Namibia expanded its role in the hunt for ancient, highly energetic galaxies this weekend past, when the southern African nation flicked the switch to fire up its HESS II telescope. The largest Cherenkov telescope in the world, HESS II adds a 28-meter mirror to existing 12-meter telescopes that have operated in the country …

    Science 30 Jul 01:50

  • Apple blacklisted by Chinese consumer watchdog

    Support policies earn scorn as punters air grievances

    A Chinese consumer rights group has slammed Apple’s after-sales service as unfair and placed it on an “integrity blacklist” after numerous complaints about maintenance and support. The China Consumer Association in the southern province of Guangdong released a report into the tech giant’s support policies last week, citing …

    Business 30 Jul 04:41

  • Job ad seeks 'mediocre' developers

    Melbourne biz admits not every coder is a star, bans 'brogrammers'

    Are you just scraping by coding in Ruby? Are you not prepared to pull infinite all-nighters? Are you less than amazingly fast? If you answered yes to any or all of the above, worry not: Melbourne, Australia, company Flippa has advertised for “Mediocre Ruby Devs”. The ad is not entirely serious, as Flippa does want good …

    Jobs 30 Jul 05:35

  • SAP, Huawei, sign mutual assistance pact

    WORLD DOMINATION the plan for giant pair

    SAP has deepened its ties with China and found a new outlet in which to invest its growing wodge of cash, by naming mobile comms giant Huawei its first Global Technology Partner for the region. The deal will see closer technology integration and support between the two and the joint development of new software for global …

    Business 30 Jul 05:46

  • OLPC confirms tablet on the way

    Swedish touch tech makes XO Touch a “next-level innovation machine”

    The One Laptop Per Child project may be about to issue a tender for graphic designers after deciding its next piece of hardware will be a hybrid laptop/tablet “next-level innovation machine.” The organisation behind the green machines unveiled a prototype tablet at CES, after issuing a roadmap way back in 2009 that promised …

    Hardware 30 Jul 06:18

  • Japanese giant sorry for Kobo launch balls-up

    Rakuten bins negative reviews after technical glitch

    Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has been forced to apologise for a double balls-up after first allowing customers to use its Kobo e-reader before it was fully ready and then deleting hundreds of ensuing bad reviews posted to its site after the software failed. Rakuten launched the Kobo Touch on 19 July to an expectant …

    Business 30 Jul 07:00

  • ICO power to stop FOI dodgers 'some way off'

    More time to investigate destruction of FOI data requires change in law

    Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, has said that implementation of the justice committee's recommendation for his office to have more time to prosecute people who destroy data requested under freedom of information (FOI) is "still some way off". Although it is an offence to destroy information so as to avoid …

    Law 30 Jul 07:29

  • UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

    We're using less and generating less too

    British politicians are depleting the nation's ability to produce the energy it needs, according to state statistics. The annual DUKES survey has provided exhaustive statistics on the UK's energy production and consumption since 1948, and the latest figures have been published by DECC, the Department for Energy (and Climate …

    Science 30 Jul 08:02

  • What links Apple, Sun's ZFS and a tiny startup? Al Gore

    Blocks and files Greenbytes touts ZEVO freebie... But what does this mean for fanbois?

    GreenBytes, the flash array startup which uses ZFS, bought Mac ZFS developer Ten's Complement last week and is now going to make its ZEVO Community Edition ZFS software freely available from 15 September. CEO Bob Petrocelli said so in a blog yesterday. The product should be enhanced between now and then. GreenBytes has …

    Storage 30 Jul 08:17

  • Cloudy punters can't rely on 'certified' CSPs for data protection

    ICO: Certification of service providers is great, but it won't help you in court

    A new online platform that enables prospective users of cloud computing services to assess the security features of registered cloud providers is to be welcomed, the UK's data protection watchdog has said. Amazon has become the latest cloud provider to publish details (42-page/475KB PDF) of how it ensures the security of …

    Cloud 30 Jul 08:37

  • Orange adjust data roaming prices

    Day rate's better value than the bundles

    Orange has introduced new mobile broadband roaming prices that penalise bulk-buying. Take the rates for Europe. Choose to pay £3 a day and you'll get 30MB to use up by midnight each day. That's 10p a megabyte. Use it for 30 days and you'll pay £90 in all and get 900MB of data. Pick the 30-day bundles, available for £15, £50 …

    reghardware 30 Jul 08:40

  • Military-grade IBM kit senses love, hate in Wimbo fans' tweets

    'Sentiment analysis' served at high speed

    Although Andy Murray lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon this month, he managed to ace the pair's Twitter contest. Britain’s best tennis hope since Fred Perry didn't just feature in more tweets than his Swiss rival, he also surfed a tidal wave of plaudits on the social networking site. More than 490,000 tweets mentioned Murray …

    Servers 30 Jul 09:13

  • Apple mulls over investment in Twitter

    #SentFromMyiPhone @TimCook

    Apple has reportedly held talks with Twitter over the last few months in a move that could lead to a multi-million dollar strategic investment by Cupertino in the micro-blogging website. As noted by the New York Times, which cited people familiar with the discussions, Apple has failed to make a success out of its attempts at …

    Financial News 30 Jul 09:18

  • Boffins puzzled over impossibly fast ice avalanches on Saturn's moon

    Is all that rubbing making ice rubble hot?

    Planetary boffins have spotted that Saturn's other moon, the walnut-shaped Iapetus, is home to spectacular ice avalanches that flow across the surface of the rock. The walnut in the sky. Credit:NASA/JPL/SSI The ridge of 20km-high mountains, twice the height of Mount Everest, that circle the equator of the moon and give it …

    Science 30 Jul 09:33

  • Skype hits back at angry wiretap reports: Rat finks? Not us

    Analysis 'Supernodes' are not for spooks, they're to make service better for YOU

    Skype has hit back against a wave of stories speculating that the internet telephony outfit has made chat recordings, call logs and other user data more available to the authorities. In truth such assistance to law enforcement has been going on for at least five years, as Skype itself acknowledges. A series of stories in Slate …

    Security 30 Jul 10:02

  • Million-plus IOPS: Kaminario smashes IBM in DRAM decimation

    But apples-and-oranges storage test not the fairest of them all

    Solid state storage supplier Kaminario has grabbed the SPC-1 storage benchmark with the first million-plus IOPS score, a full 134 per cent faster than previous king-of-the-heap IBM. The Storage Performance Council 1 (SPC-1) benchmark aims to provide comparison performance numbers for a storage subsystem while carrying out …

    Storage 30 Jul 10:16

  • Apple, Samsung begin battle for billions in US patent smackdown

    Tech behemoths enter the ring for four-week bout

    Apple and Samsung's tit-for-tat patent posturing will finally come to a head in the US today, as jury selection starts on a trial that could kill a massive audience for Samsung stuff, and result in a win (or loss) of billions of dollars for either side. SEE, WE DID IT FIRST (Samsung's summer 2006 phone designs from a court …

    Law 30 Jul 10:34

  • Beeb stuffs $21tn into Olympic-sized swimming pools

    Goes for gold with 'overwrought quantification metaphor'

    The BBC has agreebly calculated that the amount of wonga Brits have squirrelled away in offshore accounts would fill no less than 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The total in question is $21tn, or £13.5tn. Were this substantial wedge "denominated in $1 bills", it would occupy rather a lot of Olympic Park Aquatics Centres …

    Financial News 30 Jul 10:47

  • Sony Xperia Go waterproof Android phone review

    Another blower for beer baptism benchmarking

    The arrival of the Nexus 7 has given me cause to reconsider my next phone purchase. Do I need a 4.6in superphone now I have a 7in Tegra 3 tablet? Surely a small, rugged handset with good battery life, a decent dual-core CPU and plenty of storage for apps would make more sense. An outright purchase price of around £200 would be …

    reghardware 30 Jul 11:02

  • Japanese fanboi builds FrankenPhone from 'bits of iPhone 5'

    You have created a monster, and it will destroy you!

    A Japanese Apple fan has created a proto-iPhone 5 by fixing together parts of the screen and casing which he claims were sourced from the iPhone supply chain. The results – posted on the blog iLab.cc – show a phone shaped like the iPhone 4 and 4S but with new features, in particular a silvered plaque across the back panel and …

    Mobile 30 Jul 11:04

  • Apple refutes 'Sony Jony' iPhone prototypes

    What about these blueprints, Sammy?

    Apple has cocked a snook at Samsung's claim that the iPhone's look was based on Sony designs by showing off a series of blueprints - all closer to the iPhone design - that predate the controversial 'Jony' sketches. The Cupertino company's "Purple" concept materialised in August 2005, long before the Jony mock-up was made, …

    reghardware 30 Jul 11:13

  • Google snaps bird's eye view of Olympic Village

    Forget relying on realtime GPS data. Look at this pretty picture instead

    Twitter fanatics and texting-obsessed supporters of Team GB may have hampered the GPS units of competitors taking part in the Men’s Olympic Cycling Road Race on Saturday, but no bother as Google has added a pretty picture of the London 2012 village to its Maps service. The search and ad giant updated its high resolution aerial …

    Cloud 30 Jul 11:19

  • Samsung lets slip info on WinPho 8 Odyssey

    Taps into multi-core

    Samsung has indadvertedly revealed in court documents its plans for a pair of Windows Phone 8 devices. The dual-core handsets - dubbed "Odyssey" and "Marco" - are both set to roll out with the mobile platform's release later this year. There are no detailed specifications, but the court copy shows the Samsung Odyssey features …

    reghardware 30 Jul 11:26

  • Product-led campaigns just don't work for vendors or resellers

    What would you like in your marketing menu?

    Nobody really cares about product feature differentiation anymore - feeds and speeds just don't cut the mustard. But the battle among tech vendor marketers to configure their programmes and content to this new engagement model has now really heated up. Their marketing content now needs to be compelling to business buyers as …

    The Channel 30 Jul 11:32

  • Scotland Yard's hacking probe: Cops arrest journalist

    'Gathering of data from stolen mobile phones' investigated

    Scotland Yard officers cuffed a 51-year-old man this morning on suspicion of handling stolen goods in relation to its investigation of alleged computer hacking. That arrest is the eighth one under Operation Tuleta, which is a probe into criminal breaches of privacy being carried out in tandem with the ongoing phone-hacking …

    Media 30 Jul 11:42

  • O2 dropped the ball in Olympic cycle race Twitter fiasco

    Twits blamed for network's inadequacies

    O2's mobile network is to blame after a surge in tweets from spectators' smartphones scuppered the live reporting of an Olympic cycling road race. Onlookers were told to stop using Twitter on their mobes to allow vital data to reach the organisers. It is understood tiny mobile GPS electronics on athletes' bikes were unable to …

    Cloud 30 Jul 11:57

  • Big biz 'struggling' to dump Windows XP

    Microsoft's bagged only easy Win 7 wins, says Browsium

    Windows 7 is running in just 20 per cent of large enterprises with the most difficult migrations yet to come. That’s according to web browser specialist Browsium, which said 80 per cent of big companies - those with 10,000 or more PCs - are still clinging to Windows XP even though support for it is due to end in two years. But …

    CIO 30 Jul 12:26

  • BT Engage IT big boss goes on whistlestop tour of offices

    Staff worried job cutting to continue under new regime

    BT Engage IT says its new chief exec has already done the rounds at the majority of its sites since taking control of the business a little more than a week ago. Richard Lowe was ushered into the big chair after John Thornhill left the telco two weeks ago, after 24 years of working in various roles there. There were claims …

    Financial News 30 Jul 13:01

  • @UnSteveDorkland Twitter satirist faces 4 charges in US court

    Daily Mail group heads to Cali to pin down exec parody

    The anonymous satirist behind spoof Twitter account @UnSteveDorkland faces four criminal charges in a Californian court for making fun of a Daily Mail group executive. @UnSteveDorkland has been charged for computer fraud and abuse, data access and fraud and for defamation and online impersonation - all for a series of tweets …

    Law 30 Jul 14:02

  • Apple serves 3m Mountain Lions in four days

    Install frenzy

    Three million copies of Mac OS X Mountain Lion have been downloaded in the four days following its release on Wednesday, 25 July, Apple said today. That makes the Hillside Cat the "most successful OS X release in Apple's history", the Cupertino crew chirped. Don't forget that downloads doesn't equal buyers. A fair few folk, …

    reghardware 30 Jul 14:38

  • 3PAR goes all-flash, shaves hefty wodge off price tag

    All solid state, all the time....

    HP has announced an all-flash version of its 3PAR P10000 single tier storage array delivering the same performance at 70 per cent less cost. This configuration can have up to 512 solid-state drives, of unrevealed capacity, and should deliver the same IOPS performance as the P10000 V800 model with some 1,900 300GB 15K hard disk …

    Storage 30 Jul 15:04

  • Apple reverses resistible rise of Android

    Regains ground from Google on home turf

    Android's share of the smartphone market is waning, at least in the US. Market watcher Strategy Analytics, which tracks phone shipments and such, today noted that Android's Stateside share had fallen from 60.6 per cent in Q2 2011 to 56.3 per cent in 2012's second quarter, on the back of a 12.4 per cent decline in unit …

    reghardware 30 Jul 15:14

  • EMC warns sales bods: Steal deals and it's no shoes for your kids

    It's party time for resellers, so no pilfering of customers

    EMC will strip commissions from its direct sales bods if they snatch deals from resellers and integrators. This is one of the Rules of Engagement the storage giant has come up with to end conflict in the channel between its staff and third-party box-handlers. Philippe Fosse, veep of EMEA channels at EMC, said his company is …

    The Channel 30 Jul 15:34

  • Bradley Manning's lawyers seek to show 'cruel treatment'

    If they can prove illegal pretrial punishment, charges could be dropped

    Bradley Manning is seeking to prove that he was held in torture-like conditions after being arrested on suspicion of giving classified army documents to whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, and has asked the judge to allow seven expert witnesses to testify at his next pretrial hearing on 1 October, according to documents filed by his …

    Law 30 Jul 15:59

  • Forget 'climate convert' Muller: Here's the real warming blockbuster

    Apply official WMO methods, warming shrinks massively

    If new techniques endorsed by the World Meteorological Organisation are applied to official figures, over half of the global warming reported by US land-based thermometers between 1979 and 2008 simply disappears, researchers have found. The new study used the same raw temperature measurements as US government federal …

    Science 30 Jul 16:34

  • US flags from the 1970s SEEN ON MOON

    Lunar probe confirms one blown down by Apollo liftoff

    A NASA probe craft in orbit around the moon has confirmed that most of the US flags planted on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts of yesteryear are still flying, despite some scientists' having theorised that their fragile materials would have failed to survive extremes of temperature and radiation over the decades. …

    Science 30 Jul 16:46

  • Netflix punters told of privacy change, get 3 months to object

    Accept, and you opt in to class-action settlement

    Netflix is alerting customers to changes in its privacy policy under a proposed legal settlement that would put an end to a class action suit launched against the company last year. The company is changing its policy so that it is no longer possible to identify the video "histories" of customers who haven’t subscribed to …

    Cloud 30 Jul 16:59

  • Flame worm's makers fail to collect Epic 0wnage award

    Black Hat State cyberespionage tool-makers shun Pwnie Award glory

    Hackers and other delegates to Black Hat celebrated the best and worst of information security with the latest edition of the Pwnie Awards, the security geek equivalent of the Oscars. The award in the top "Epic 0wnage" category went to whoever's behind the Flame cyber-espionage spyware. It was their use of an MD5 collision …

    Security 30 Jul 18:03

  • WikiLeaks punks The New York Times with op-ed hoax

    Two columnists unwittingly spread fake editorial

    Early on Sunday, columnists Nick Bilton and Bill Keller of The New York Times both reposted Twitter links to an essay by Keller on the subject of WikiLeaks. There was just one problem: The linked essay wasn't actually Keller's, but an elaborate hoax designed to discredit both him and the newspaper. WikiLeaks itself has since …

    Media 30 Jul 18:49

  • More reports that Apple plans iPhone 5 September surprise

    Steve Jobs could reach 45rpm over iPad Mini

    With another report naming September as the likely release date of the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini, it now looks likely that Apple may be planning an earlier-than-normal release for its latest iOS kit. Chinese sources identified the September launch date last month, and now "sources who have proven accurate in the past" tell iMore …

    Mobile 30 Jul 18:54

  • Oracle chugs down I/O virtualising Xsigo

    Any server, any network, to any storage

    Oracle has bought data centre fabric virtualisation start-up Xsigo for who knows how many bucks. Xsigo was founded in 2004, and its products connect servers and networked devices across an InfiniBand fabric based on I/O Director hardware. This is virtualised, so servers operate as if they have a normal, ordinary connection to …

    Cloud 30 Jul 19:01

  • Sophos dangles free Android antivirus to tempt BYOD-friendly biz

    Fandroids, don't let your phone be pwned

    Sophos has crafted a freebie antivirus app dubbed Sophos Mobile Security for Android-powered devices. The software tries to protect smartphones against malware, warns fandroids of privacy-invading programs and can lock down a gadget if it's lost or stolen, ideally without taxing either performance or battery life. The software …

    Security 30 Jul 20:04

  • Ubisoft assassinates Uplay flaw, denies DRM rootkit

    Browser plugin allowed any file to execute

    A bit of holiday fun for Google security researcher Travis Ormandy left Ubisoft scrambling to fix a gaping flaw in its Uplay gaming application on Monday morning. "While on vacation recently I bought a video game called 'Assassin's Creed Revelations,' he posted on the Full Disclosure mailing list. "I noticed the installation …

    Security 30 Jul 21:04

  • Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

    It hasn't blown to pieces yet

    Hobbyists have used 3D printers to make guitars, copy house keys, and bring robot dinosaurs to life, but a firearms enthusiast who goes by the handle "Have Blue" has taken this emerging technology into a new realm by assembling a working rifle from 3D-printed parts. Specifically, ExtremeTech reports, Have Blue used 3D CAD …

    Data Center 30 Jul 21:07

  • AGIMO hangs up on mobile phone panel

    No value for money on handsets, accessories

    The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has hung up on its own mobile phone procurement panel, declaring it didn't deliver value for money. A blog post emitted yesterday says a May 2012 review found other methods of acquiring handsets and accessories proved cheaper than using the panel, after “agency …

    Policy 30 Jul 22:22

  • Hot nine-incher pulled by Dick

    Overheating batteries in portable DVD player could mean fiery lap dances

    Retailer Dick Smith Electronics has recalled a nine-inch portable DVD player, pictured below, after the device’s batteries were found represent “… a potential fire hazard.” The recall notice says the batteries, Lithium Ion affairs, will only reheat “in rare cases”. But that’s surely one case too many given that devices of this …

    Business 30 Jul 22:47

  • LinkedIn shuts down online tricks

    Bans anti-sex trafficking site

    The long arm of the LinkedIn law has shut down and indefinitely banned a Singaporean anti-sex trafficking profile, claiming it violated user agreement terms. The offending profile was part of a campaign branded ‘TrickedIn.’Created by interns at advertising company BBH Asia Pacific, the profile's aim twas to help the not-for- …

    Networks 30 Jul 22:53

  • Jackson’s Hobbit becomes a trilogy

    All those dwarves don't come cheap

    Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson has revealed that his next work, a film adaptation of The Hobbit, will span three films. The adaptation had previously been pencilled in as two flicks. Jackson took to Facebook to announce the extension, arguing that editing of the first film has yielded the insight that: “We were …

    Media 30 Jul 23:22

  • Microsoft unveils fondle-ready keyboards, mice

    Aping Apple with custom kit for Surface slabs

    Offering the latest evidence that Microsoft is moving toward an Apple-like integrated product strategy, on Monday Redmond announced a new collection of keyboards and mice that cater not just to Windows 8's spare aesthetic, but also to the design of Microsoft's upcoming Surface tablets. The new devices, which Microsoft says …

    Data Center 30 Jul 23:42

  • AIIA takes the ‘Australian’ out of price-gouge concerns

    Sock-puppetting the case for higher prices

    As predicted by The Register, once the IT and related industries lumbered into motion to respond to the Australian Parliament’s inquiry into IT pricing in Australia, the rent-seeking would begin. As has been amusingly pointed out by local publisher Crikey, some of the submissions read as if they were penned in imitation of …

    Business 30 Jul 23:45

  • Jury selection delays start of Apple/Samsung patent showdown

    'When did you last see your iPhone?'

    The jury has been picked for the forthcoming patent trial between Apple and Samsung to determine who has the rights to produce a rectangular fondleslab with rounded corners, among other things. Tomorrow three women and seven men will hear opening statements in the case in San Jose's federal court. Jury selection took all day …

    Law 30 Jul 23:57