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14th August 2012 Archive

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  • Barnes & Noble cut Nook pricing in face of competition

    Tiny tablet price war should pass Apple by

    With Google throwing its 7in Nexus fondleslab into the market at $199 and Amazon widely expected to launch a an update to its Kindle line soon, Barnes & Noble has cut the price on its Nook Color and Tablet lines. The Color e-book reader has dropped $20 in price to $149, as has the 8GB version of the Tablet to $179, and the …

    Mobile 14 Aug 00:38

  • Study shows half of all websites use jQuery

    JavaScript library handily beats all comers

    The jQuery open source JavaScript development library is now running on 50 per cent of all websites, according to the latest data from web technology surveyor W3Techs. That's nearly a 40 per cent gain from a year ago, over which time W3Techs says one of the top 1 million websites started using jQuery every four minutes. Among …

    Developer 14 Aug 00:41

  • Tax proposal could change Aus hardware lifecycles

    Cut to depreciation rates could change the game for hardware buys

    A new review Discussion Paper released yesterday by the Australian Taxation Office's Business Tax Working Group (BTWG) has the potential to change the way Australian IT departments manage their affairs. The BTWG was formed last year in response to business groups' concerns that Australia's tax regime, and especially the 30% …

    Policy 14 Aug 00:42

  • Microsoft reveals Windows RT OEMs

    Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and ASUS ARMed for tablets and “RT PCs”

    Microsoft reveals Windows RT PC partners Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and ASUS ARMed for “RT PCs” Microsoft has revealed the full roster of Windows RT PC OEMs, and detailed more about the future products' users interfaces. The details were revealed in a blog post, as is the case for many such announcements in these socially-oriented …

    Windows 8 14 Aug 02:30

  • Google gets the Baidu blues again after mapping losses

    Chinese rival set to overtake Google Maps

    Google looks like being beaten again in China, as Baidu leaps ahead in the mobile mapping space. The text ads giant was still second in the Quarterly Survey of China's Mobile Map Client Market, but only just, according to Beijing-based Analysys International. Chinese player Autonavi was the market leader by a long way, with …

    Networks 14 Aug 04:35

  • Oz regulator says crowdfunding must obey financial rules

    Analyst says ASIC "risks destroying" crowdfunding

    Kickstarter kicked Australia's financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), has run its eye over crowdfunding services and decided some effectively issue securities under Australian law. “Depending on the particular crowd funding arrangement, ASIC's view is that some types of crowd …

    Business 14 Aug 05:56

  • Hong Kong tycoon sues Google search for defamation

    Alleged dodgy content links Yeung with organised crime groups

    A Hong Kong tycoon is suing Google in the region’s High Court after search results associated with his name apparently linked to defamatory content on the web. Albert Yeung Sau-shing is chairman of the Emperor Group, a sprawling business empire which started off as a humble watch shop and now covers everything from property to …

    Policy 14 Aug 06:04

  • Asus Transformer Pad Infinity 64GB Android tablet review

    Full HD fondleslab, anyone?

    When it comes to tablets, it seems Asus is on a bit of a roll. In my estimation, its Transformer Pad is the best value 10-incher on the market and, lest we forget the company makes the altogether excellent Nexus 7 for Google. There is no sign of Asus resting on its laurels either, if its latest Transformer device is anything to …

    reghardware 14 Aug 07:00

  • First, Google goggles - now the world gets self-censoring specs

    Sticky tape is surely a cheaper alternative?

    The Committee for Purity in the Camp is reportedly selling spectacles that deliberately blur vision, leading wearers not into temptation. The glasses are, apparently, on sale in the more orthodox Jewish sections of Israel, for £25 or only a fiver for stickers one can attach to ones existing specs. The idea is to blur anything …

    Bootnotes 14 Aug 07:29

  • Wee biz sector risks wrath of UK data leak watchdog

    Fines through the roof, ICO turns eye to private sector

    Businesses that fail to keep private data secure could be in trouble as the Information Commissioner's Office extends its beady eye beyond breaches in the public sector. Bean counters at Syscap pointed out that with the ICO issuing more warning notices and ramping up its fines, small businesses in particular could be at risk …

    Small Biz 14 Aug 08:02

  • BBC gives itself a gold in 700Gbit-a-second Olympic vid sprint

    Athletes did OK too

    Almost three million people watched the Olympics on a mobile phone while half a million ogled and fondled their slabs on Sunday, 5 August - the day Andrew Murray won gold, Usain Bolt ran 100m in 9.63 seconds and the BBC recorded peak video streaming to handheld gadgets. Overall, 51.9 million people watched Olympic broadcasts …

    Media 14 Aug 08:19

  • Arctic ICE PANIC sparked by half-baked sat data

    Did someone just jump the gun?

    Listeners to Radio 4's Today programme - and this includes much of the political elite - will have been alarmed to be told that "the Arctic could be ice-free on a summer’s day by the end of the decade". Yet the evidence for this "trend" turns out to be drawn from less than two years worth of data. Dr Seymour Laxon of …

    Science 14 Aug 08:43

  • The 'experts' who never see BBM will never understand RIM

    Analysis Middle-aged suits in social media failure

    Written off by pundits and the markets, barely a day goes by without a fresh requiem for RIM. A recent example comes from Jean-Louis Gassee in Saving Private RIM. It’s a good analysis - you never get anything less from Gassee - but astonishingly BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) barely gets a mention. Of all RIM’s assets, the value …

    Mobile 14 Aug 09:01

  • Symantec, Violin in no-strings fling for flash array software

    Slips on protection, dedupe

    Violin Memory has added data management software to its flash memory arrays by partnering with Symantec. It hopes this will pit the memory biz against rival deduping all-flash array startups. Networked-all-flash arrays from Violin Memory run application software faster than situations where the data is stored on networked disk …

    Storage 14 Aug 09:22

  • BeBook outs Kindle-beating e-book reader

    Thinner, cheaper, more capacious

    Does half a millimetre matter? E-book reader maker BeBook believes it does. It's relying on that tiny, effectively unnoticeable difference to claim its new 8mm-thick Pure reader is the thinnest of its kind. Its nearest rival is the 8.5mm-thick Amazon Kindle 3, now called the Kindle Keyboard. Apart from its waist measurement, …

    reghardware 14 Aug 09:28

  • Windows 8: Download it, then speak YOUR brains

    Live Chat Reg readers gathered for a lunchtime debate

    Got any plans next weekend? Cancel them. Tell your partner to finally catch up with those old university friends, get a cat sitter in, and order a pizza. This week sees the eagerly anticipated first release of Microsoft's Windows 8 to those outside the Redmond circle of friends. Windows 8 is, according to bullet-headed …

    Windows 8 14 Aug 09:44

  • Unite workers at Capita ITS vote for strike action

    Updated UK walkout threat over job cuts, offshoring

    Unionised workers at Capita IT Services have threatened to down tools over plans to offshore service-desk jobs to India and force through compulsory redundancies. The reseller-cum-integrator kicked off a redundancy plan earlier this year placing 1,000 UK staff at risk - although bosses are aiming to reduce headcount by about …

    Channel Register 14 Aug 09:57

  • RIM: We can't flog phones, would you like our nuke plant OS instead?

    QNX licences up for grabs to anyone with a chequebook

    Troubled phone biz Research in Motion wants to license its new BlackBerry 10 operating system to anyone who can afford it in the hope of climbing out of its rut. RIM has coyly rebuffed rumours of companies wanting to use its mobile OS, and has tried to focus on its own phone handset launches with the new software. But now …

    Operating Systems 14 Aug 10:28

  • Hold onto your hats, world: Groupon actually made a PROFIT

    Shares plummet by a fifth

    Voucher bazaar Groupon managed to bag a profit for the first time ever in the second quarter of this year - but it wasn't enough to convince investors it's a good place to leave their money. The coupon company's revenue missed analysts' expectations, sending shares sliding down more than 18 per cent in after-hours trading. …

    Financial News 14 Aug 11:00

  • Apple granted patent for in-cell touchscreen display tech

    IP win cements iPhone 5 screen 'leaks'

    Apple has been granted a US patent detailing in-cell LCD touchscreen tech of the kind already said to be implemented in the iPhone 5 to make it slimmer. The patent covers "touchscreens that integrate the touch-sensing elements with the display circuitry" and describes several ways this may be achieved and a number of …

    reghardware 14 Aug 11:02

  • Saudi royals seek ban on .virgin, .sex, .catholic, .wtf and 159 MORE

    Complaints over dot-word web extensions flood in

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has objected to the proposed new top-level internet domains .virgin and .baby – applied for by Virgin Group and Johnson & Johnson respectively – on the grounds that they will encourage pornography. The bizarre claims are among 163 complaints about new dot-word gTLD applications that the Saudi …

    Hosting 14 Aug 11:32

  • HP rebrands LeftHand virty storage tech, slashes price

    Updated Capacity and performance improvements coming

    HP has rebranded its LeftHand Virtual Storage Appliance software as StoreVirtual VSA and given it an 80 per cent price cut as well as signalling capacity and performance improvements are coming. LeftHand Networks was an iSCSI storage area network (SAN) startup that HP bought for $360m in October 2008. As well as providing a …

    Virtualization 14 Aug 11:51

  • Brits obey mobile ads, says mobile ad biz

    Half the population admit their phone rules their wallet

    Nearly half of punters polled in a survey reckon mobile ads are influencing their purchasing decisions, and 63 per cent have bought stuff on their phones - says the company supplying the ads. That's according to InMobi, which describes itself as "the largest independent mobile advertising network". It asked a thousand Brits if …

    Mobile 14 Aug 12:16

  • Android spanks Apple iOS in sales as fanbois hold out for iPhone 5

    And jury out on Microkea struggle, says Gartner

    Samsung is riding the rising tide of Android-powered mobile phones as the world reels from recession and Apple fanbois hold out for the iPhone 5. Global sales of mobile phones fell year-on-year by 2.3 per cent to 419 million devices in the second quarter of 2012, according to numbers from Gartner today. Smartphones accounted …

    Operating Systems 14 Aug 12:48

  • Shift F7 devours Datashare Solutions

    'Size matters' say reseller minnows

    Reseller minnow Shift F7 has consumed bite-sized managed services player Datashare Solutions Ltd (DSL) for an undisclosed amount. In a statement on its site, Shift F7 boss Garry King said it had historically outsourced some services deployment to fellow Surrey-based firm DSL. "Naturally acquiring a company along with its …

    Channel Register 14 Aug 12:54

  • Apple, Microsoft reveal their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

    Non-aggression treaty carves up phone patents

    Testimony this week in the Apple-Samsung patent trial has thrown new light on the tech world's equivalent of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact - the 1939 peace deal between Germany and the Soviets. Apple and Microsoft have a non-aggression treaty giving each giant access to a range of each other's intellectual property. This means …

    Operating Systems 14 Aug 13:07

  • Sugar daddies dangle fat wad to woo chip biz Elpida from Micron

    Ditch the Yanks, treat yourself with this $380m cheque

    A group of bondholders are offering ailing chip maker Elpida a loan of ¥30bn ($383m) to restructure instead of letting Micron take over. The loan deal is going to be presented in bankruptcy court in Tokyo today, a source whispered to Reuters. The bondholders don't like the plan for Micron to snap up the company for ¥200bn (£1 …

    Business 14 Aug 13:38

  • Wannabe media barons outed in UK local telly bid list

    Swansea and Plymouth, no homegrown TV for you

    Ofcom has published the list of organisations bidding to run Local TV stations in the UK. The list of those who want to operate the actual broadcast equipment is much shorter. Fifty-seven companies have bid for franchises that will permit them to transmit homegrown telly in White Space - pockets of unused radio frequencies …

    Media 14 Aug 14:08

  • Can YOU crack the Gauss uber-virus encryption?

    Appeal for help to break open hidden scrambled payload

    Antivirus experts have called on cryptographers and other clever bods for help after admitting they are no closer to figuring out the main purpose of the newly discovered Gauss supervirus. While it's known that the complex malware features many information-stealing capabilities, with a specific focus on capturing website …

    Security 14 Aug 14:48

  • SurfTheChannel Brit movie pirate gets 4 YEARS' PORRIDGE

    Landmark fraud prosecution

    The mastermind behind popular pirate site SurfTheChannel.com has been jailed for four years. A jury found Anton Vickerman guilty in June, but sentencing only took place today at Newcastle Crown Court. Vickerman, of Gateshead, earned at least £35,000 a month from the site, which actively curated links to infringing material. …

    Law 14 Aug 15:19

  • Hard-up Kodak stalls crown jewels sell-off to milk bidders

    1,100 patents going for a mere few billion dollars

    Kodak, the poor-as-a-church-mouse photo biz, has decided to keep its patent auction fundraiser going for a while as it chats up bidders. The firm, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, is selling off its portfolio of digital imaging technology, containing some 1,100 patents, to pay off its creditors and reinvent …

    Business 14 Aug 15:41

  • Dell sales heavyweight Bell defects to Code 42

    Cloud backup player lures bigwig to spend VC cash on expansion

    Code 42 is a Windows error code saying a device driver couldn't load. It's also a cloud backup firm founded in 2001, which landed $52.5 million funding in January and has just poached ex-Compellent sales boss Brian Bell from Dell. It must be like coming home in a sense for Bell as Code 42 is headquartered in Minneapolis, near …

    Storage 14 Aug 16:08

  • Burglar steals $60,000 of computers from Steve Jobs' home

    Not a fanboi-targeted job it seems

    Police have arrested a man accused of breaking into the former home of Apple icon Steve Jobs and stealing over $60,000 worth of "computer equipment and personal items." On July 17, Job's former home on Waverley Street in Palo Alto was broken into and turned over, AP reports. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Tom …

    Security 14 Aug 16:26

  • Vodafone UK web titsup blamed on 'holiday maintenance'

    Nothing to see here, it's August

    The entire Vodafone.co.uk website was down for 60 minutes this afternoon and online account access was out of action for 24 hours - but the blackouts were due to planned maintenance, Voda said. Between 3pm and 5pm today, the telco displayed the message: "We are making some changes to the site." A Reg reader told us he had not …

    Mobile 14 Aug 16:40

  • HP slips out ProLiant DL560 Gen8 four-socketeer

    Server for sale in the US and UK

    While Hewlett-Packard has not yet formally announced any ProLiant servers based on Intel's Xeon E5-4600 processors for four-socket boxes, we knew from SPEC CPU benchmark tests that a blade called the BL660c Gen8 is on the way. And now we know a DL560 Gen8 rack-mounted box is in the works, too, with the machine on sale in the US …

    Servers 14 Aug 17:22

  • HP hardens switches to juggle myriad virty networks

    Extends Layer 2 nets around the world

    Hewlett-Packard has tweaked the Comware operating system at the heart of its switches to make them more amenable to the clouds and to implement what is being called software-defined networking (SDN). Communication between computers is now more fluid than ever as servers and storage are increasingly virtualised and made more …

    Virtualization 14 Aug 18:03

  • Flash Player to vanish from Android store on Wednesday

    Mobile users won't have Flash to kick around anymore

    If you really, really want to use the Flash Player plugin for Android and you haven't downloaded it already, you'd better move quickly. Tomorrow, August 15, is the day Adobe will pull it from the Google Play store. The software maker has said it will adjust the configuration settings on the Flash Player page in Google Play on …

    Applications 14 Aug 19:15

  • Fisker Automotive probes second flaming eco car

    Not only price tag that's too hot to handle for Karma

    The luxury sports sedan of the ecologically-minded, the Fisker Karma, is being investigated after another one went up in flames. A Karma caught fire on Saturday when it was parked in Woodside, California, but Fisker Automotive said that neither "the lithium-ion battery pack, new technology components nor unique exhaust routing …

    Energy 14 Aug 20:00

  • Australian government gouged on PC software prices

    Corrected: software expensive, PCs competitive

    Consumers aren’t the only buyers that suffer the infamous “Aussie tax” on IT: AGIMO has revealed that its desktop OS software purchases cost about double similar purchases by the US and Singaporean governments, although its hardware arrangements yield competitive prices. Chiming into the price gouging debate, AGIMO has stated …

    Policy 14 Aug 21:55

  • '$199' Surface tablets: So crazy it might work, or just crazy?

    New sketchy Microsoft rumour riles PC makers

    If the latest Redmond rumors are to be believed, Microsoft's ARM-based Surface tablet models could arrive priced as low as $199, positioning them as heavyweights in the burgeoning low-cost tablet category. Engadget reports that the $199 price point was unveiled at the recent TechReady 15 conference, an internal technical event …

    Mobile 14 Aug 22:33

  • Storming quarter sees Apple reassert tablet dominance

    Seven out of ten tablet owners prefer an iPad

    Apple's market share boomed in the second quarter of the year, with Cupertino accounting for 69.6 per cent of all tablets shipped globally The latest figures from IHS iSuppli show sales of iPad fondleslabs were up 44 per cent in the second quarter, at 17 million tablets sold. Apple shipped nearly 29 million tablets shipped …

    Mobile 14 Aug 22:33

  • Don’t waste time hiding NBN POI locations

    ‘Natsec’ too big for its boots?

    Since it was only a Tweet, I don’t know whether it’s true that the ACCC’s consultation on relocating some NBN points of interconnect was, or was not, based on national security concerns expressed by the Attorney-General’s department. If it was some kind of misguided national security notion, then Nicola Roxon needs someone to …

    Security 14 Aug 23:09

  • Australian Police want in-house social network

    Let’s call it “Pintarrest”, shall we?

    The Police Force in the Australian state of New South Wales wants to build its very own social network. The Force isn’t just bandwagon-hopping: the tender (registration required) for the network says it’s already done that, with decent results: The organisation’s ITC department, Business and Technology Services (BTS) …

    Policy 14 Aug 23:34