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6th September 2012 Archive

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  • Google to rent Chromebooks for $30 per month

    Well, it can't just give them away, can it?

    Google must have a lot of unsold Chrome OS devices lying around, because it has launched an unusual new scheme to get them into customers' hands. Beginning on Wednesday, customers can rent the boot-to-browser machines on a month-to-month basis for as long as three years or as little as a single month. According to a blog post …

    Hardware 6 Sep 00:29

  • 'Natural health' website apparently hacked by sinister forces

    Oh no

    A two-man "natural health" website claims to be the victim of a DDoS and hacking attack after it mounted an attack on a scientific paper outlining the health benefits – or lack of same – of organic foods. At the start of the week scientists at Stanford University published a peer-reviewed study suggesting that organic foods …

    Security 6 Sep 00:33

  • Anonymous considering another tilt at Australia

    Displeased by speech on data retention, but also going straight when it suits

    Anonymous is not at all pleased with the speech Australia’s Attorney-General Nicola Roxon gave earlier this week, and is considering another round of action to make its point that data retention is an unacceptable erosion of personal liberty. But the nature of those actions may not be the DDOS attacks or leaking for which the …

    Policy 6 Sep 00:52

  • Intel's 'Mobile Etiquette' survey uncovers global peevishness

    And presents it in a slick interactive presentation you've gotta check out

    Intel has published its annual "Mobile Etiquette" study, an effort that makes two things abundantly clear: first, that worldwide online information sharing is ubiquitous; and second, that Intel and its survey partner Ipsos Observer certainly know how to compress a shedload of data into a whiz-bang interactive presentation. " …

    Mobile 6 Sep 01:04

  • Canberra set to host solar farm

    FRV wins contract for 20 MW plant

    Spanish renewables firm FRV has won a “reverse auction” for a feed-in tariff entitlement that will support the construction of a 20 MW solar farm for the Australian Capital Territory. The 83,000-panel, 50 hectare build will power equivalent to supplying 4,500 of Canberra’s households, the company says. To be built at Royalla …

    Science 6 Sep 01:16

  • Apple land-grabs iThingy feature management patent

    Keeping the locker-room private with camera-crimping-zones tech

    The world’s change-rooms and fitness clubs might get that little bit more private, if Apple actually implements its latest patent, to enforce a shut-down of a phone’s camera in “a sensitive area”. Of course, it’s just as likely that if this patent ever makes its way to a product, it could also be used by copyright-holders to …

    Security 6 Sep 01:45

  • Raspberry Pi 2.0 ready to ship

    Two new holes, several fixes, no big changes

    A new version of the Raspberry Pi has made its way into distribution channels. Revision 2.0 boards, as the new model is known, don’t feature any substantive changes and the Raspberry Pi Foundation says most of us can ignore the upgrade, as: “We don’t believe that the changes are large enough to make it worth “holding on” for …

    Hardware 6 Sep 02:15

  • China and Japan face off over Pacific Ocean rare earth rights

    Asian foes both submit applications to trawl seabed

    Japan and China’s maritime stand-off is set to extend to the Pacific Ocean after both submitted applications to sweep vast swathes of the seabed for copper, cobalt and the rare earths so beloved of hi-tech manufacturers. UN body the International Seabed Authority (ISA) announced that it has received two new applications for …

    Business 6 Sep 05:10

  • CIOs' most likely job move is a sideways shift

    CEOs don't seek advice from CIOs and expect them to leave

    CIOs have a great opportunity to boss innovation in their organisation, but they’re not valued as strategic advisors by their CEOs, most of whom think they’ll be out of the door soon, according to analysts and IT leaders. Gartner analyst Terick Chiu used a keynote at the CIO Executive Summit 2012 in Hong Kong on Wednesday to …

    Management 6 Sep 05:31

  • Build a bonkers home cinema

    Product Round-up It's showtime

    It’s a curious fact that when you ascend into the rarefied atmosphere of specialist hi-fi, products transform into creations of often astounding beauty. Do the same with home cinema, and they usually mutate into the unapologetically hideous. This is doubtless a consequence of hi-tech Darwinism. Top class AV gear sits unseen in …

    Hardware 6 Sep 07:00

  • Apple urged to defy China's one child policy

    There's no app for that

    Chinese activist and exiled dissident Chen Guangchen has waded into the controversy surrounding working conditions at the Chinese suppliers of big name tech brands by calling on Apple and others to stand up against his country’s infamous one child policy. Self-taught lawyer Chen became something of a local hero and thorn in …

    Policy 6 Sep 07:19

  • New crime-busting Sherlock Holmes app sought for Brit cops

    You know my methods price, Watson: £60m

    The Home Office has indicated it plans to tender for a replacement for the Holmes 2 crime investigation system used by police forces. The Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, which is considered to be critical to UK policing, is the subject of an Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) notice in which the Home Office …

    Law 6 Sep 07:28

  • UK.gov's web filth block plan: Last chance to speak your brains

    Analysis Now if you could just fill in this Word doc about your pr0n habit...

    A 10-week public consultation on blocking online pornography to "protect" children browsing the web ends today. And unsurprisingly many of those for and against such a plan have been lobbying hard as the deadline for opinions on the matter closes. The government wants UK internet service providers to install filters that, by …

    Government 6 Sep 08:01

  • Wales: We'll encrypt Wikipedia if reborn gov net-snoop plan goes live

    But what is the plan? Sorry, that's a secret

    Jimmy Wales, talking in a purely personal capacity, has lambasted Britain's Home Office for its plans to massively increase online surveillance of all UK citizens. The Maximum Leader says that such a draconian measure would prevent him from plonking Wikipedia servers on Blighty's soil. Talking in Westminster last night to a …

    Government 6 Sep 08:14

  • Blighty's National Museum of Computing names first director

    Ex-BCS prez David Hartley to lead collection at Bletchley Park

    The National Museum of Computing has appointed its first director just after celebrating its fifth birthday. Dr David Hartley has been named director of the institute, which is based at Bletchley Park and home to the rebuilt Colossus - the machine that decrypted German military messages during the Second World War and is the …

    Bootnotes 6 Sep 08:28

  • Arqiva swallows IPTV-on-Freeview upstart

    All your channel are belong to us

    Not content with a virtual monopoly on broadcast, UK giant Arqiva has bought Connect TV, the outfit that has been slipping IPTV channels into the Freeview Electronic Programme Guide for the last year. Neither company will say how much the UK broadcasting services firm paid for Connect TV, but reps from the company did admit to …

    Small Biz 6 Sep 08:43

  • Online bank punters tricked into approving theft of their OWN CASH

    Man-in-browser Trojan attack discovered

    Security researchers have discovered a malware-based attack against the chipTAN system used by bank customers in Germany to authorise transactions online. The chipTAN system involves the use of a card reader into which a chip-n-PIN bank card is inserted, which generates a transaction authentication number (TAN) used to green- …

    Security 6 Sep 09:02

  • Kobo revamps e-reader line, intros mini model

    Nippier Android tablet too

    Amazon rival Kobo has revamped its e-book reader line ahead of an anticipated Kindle relaunch from the online retail giant. Kobo's existing reader, the Touch, has been given a lower price, and its 7in Android tablet is now called the Arc not the Vox and features souped up internals and a 1280 x 800 display. New to the line- …

    Tablets 6 Sep 09:16

  • Thecus chucks 2 new NAS boxes at SOHO punters

    Atom-powered products spin WD Red drives

    Desktop and low-end rackmount NAS boxes keep on getting more powerful and Thecus has just introduced a brace of new ones, together with directly attached storage box that can be daisy-chained to a master unit. The rackmount N4510 and desktop N7510 are both Atom-powered, with 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and have 4- and 7-bays …

    Hardware 6 Sep 09:22

  • Dawn probe slips Vesta's grip, heads for icy dwarf planet

    Spacecraft exits orbit of virgin goddess, sets off on 3-year trip to Ceres

    NASA's Dawn spacecraft has left the gravitational pull of the giant asteroid Vesta behind after over a year of study and is rocketing towards the dwarf planet Ceres. The satellite, launched in September 2007, has been exploring and mapping Vesta for the first time, showing agency boffins an exotic and diverse building block …

    Science 6 Sep 09:34

  • Skype inks deal to tack payments onto your mobile bill

    VoIP operator becomes even more OTT

    Microsoft's VoIP operation Skype has signed a deal with MACH linking customers' Skype accounts and their mobile bills, allowing them to bypass credit card firms and PayPal when they cough up their payments. The deal won't see Skype minutes on mobile bills, but it will enable customers to buy Skype minutes using the mobile or …

    Broadband 6 Sep 09:49

  • Apple eyes $$$ iDevice adapter bonanza

    Quids in over new pin out

    Does anyone feel umbrage that Apple will be the only supplier of adaptors to bridge its new, nine-pin and old, 30-pin dock connectors at the outset? You do? For heaven's sake why? Even iLounge, the site that made the claim that this will be the case, says it's an "initial" deal. In other words, Apple will - naturally, since …

    Hardware 6 Sep 09:54

  • Agility without anxiety

    Live event Does deliver early, deliver often equal deliver badly?

    Some Reg readers think so. This is what a few of you tell us about agile development: "Often of a lower standard and the system will inevitably be less reliable". "If you don't have good people, you're screwed". "It leads to several wheels being reinvented in disparate ways". Ouch. Not everyone thinks it equals "deliver badly …

    Software 6 Sep 10:08

  • SpectraLogic smacks back at Overland for 'unwarranted' lawsuit

    'You waited... too long'

    Tape library vendor SpectraLogic has filed its response to on-the-ropes storage biz Overland's lawsuit, which accused Spectra of patent infringements. Overland is suing European tape automation supplier BDT through the International Trade Commission (ITC) for patent infringement and trade violation and has also sued several of …

    Law 6 Sep 10:17

  • Motorola outs Jelly Bean friendly phones

    Razr gang

    While Nokia was showing off its new Windows Phone 8-based Lumias, the Google-owned Motorola Mobility was unwrapping three Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones from its Razr line. The Razr M, which is destined for a worldwide release, follows the trend toward bigger screens. It has a 4.3in panel, though the handset is …

    Phones 6 Sep 10:23

  • New Nokia Lumia mobes fail to inspire investors

    Shares drop after new Windows 8 phones launch

    Nokia failed to excite any investors with its new WinPhones yesterday, its stock slumped 15.9 per cent as the Lumia 920 and 820 were launched. Nokia's shares dropped to $2.38 on the New York stock exchange yesterday, indicating that some shareholding folks don't think the new Lumias will take back any major market share from …

    Mobile 6 Sep 10:35

  • Home Sec to decide Gary McKinnon's fate by 16 October

    NASA hacker's appeal date already pencilled in the diary

    A timetable has finally been set for the next phase of NASA hacker Gary McKinnon's long-running fight against extradition to the US. The UK government's Home Secretary Theresa May will decide by 16 October on whether McKinnon's diagnosis as an Asperger's Syndrome sufferer is sufficient to block his extradition, according to …

    Law 6 Sep 10:48

  • Dixons: We had a good summer, though southern Europe was a drag

    Unleashes corrective action for Europe's bottom bit and web shop PIXmania

    Dixons Retail says a "busy summer of events" helped maintain momentum in its UK and Irish operations as sales climbed 7 per cent, but it's not yet ready to crack open the bubbly. Revenue growth at group level for fiscal Q1 ended 21 July was less marked: up 5 per cent, as a 13 per cent climb in northern Europe and the sales …

    The Channel 6 Sep 11:05

  • Tape makers strap on skis, glide down slope to oblivion

    $169m sales in a quarter - are you taking the piste?

    Figures from number-crunchers at Santa Clara Consulting Group show a tape market with no bottom in sight - yet. Increasingly, storage standard Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is the tape market. The group's quarterly tape industry tracker shows global backup tape cartridge sales amounted to $169.10m (£106m) in the second quarter of …

    Storage 6 Sep 11:19

  • Investors toss $5m to UK firm: Just keep making that White Space kit

    Ofcom drags feet on making Neul's gear legal in Blighty

    Cambridge-based developer of White Space kit Neul has raised another $5m to keep it operational while hardware improves, and Ofcom gets round to making its devices legal. The money follows the $12.8m which Neul has been spending since June last year, and comes from various investors including Mistui & Co. The money should …

    Broadband 6 Sep 11:29

  • LinkedIn adds nagging notifications to social-network-for-suits

    NOW with even better stalking mode

    Social-network-for-biz-types LinkedIn has begun offering a Facebook-like feature that notifies a user when another member connected to their network views that person's profile, accepts an invitation or carries out other creepy stalking habits as is de rigueur in the Web2.0 world. The company said in a blog post that LinkedIn …

    Media 6 Sep 11:48

  • Ballmer predicts 400 MILLION Win 8 Surface and Lumia fumblers

    Microsoft boss attempts to spark apps gold rush

    Steve Ballmer's back in the numbers game, this time predicting sales of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 kit to draw in application developers. Ballmer is reported to have claimed at the event that "close" to 400 million Windows phones and tablets will be running Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. He didn't say when, though. …

    Windows 8 6 Sep 12:04

  • It's time to burn the schedules and seize control of OUR TVs

    Analysis Today's tellies will show us anything - yet viewers are stuck in the 1980s

    Freesat's redesigned user interface for its set-top boxes is a welcome improvement even if it is aping YouView. But the way in which we command and control our TVs will remain locked in the last century until everyone knows just what a modern telly set can do these days. Using a television used to be very simple, back when TVs …

    Media 6 Sep 12:24

  • South Korea probes 'mobe patent bully-boy' Samsung

    Apple takes phone feud to rival's home turf

    South Korea's Fair Trade Commission is investigating whether Samsung abused its position as a wireless patent hoarder following a complaint by Apple. The competition watchdog will assess whether Sammy used its patents, which cover technology deemed essential for meeting telecommunications standards, to bully mobile-phone …

    Government 6 Sep 12:42

  • Apple Java update fails to address mega-flaw – researcher

    Chocolate coffee-pot

    Apple released a Java update on Wednesday but it does not tackle a high-profile flaw that has become the target of attacks over recent weeks. Java for OS X 2012-005 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10 offer patched versions of Java for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion systems that tackle CVE-2012-0547. But this is a different …

    Security 6 Sep 13:03

  • AVG kicks out new touchy-feely UI to grab smartphone-fondlers

    Freebie scanner firm adds support for Windows 8 kit

    AVG launched a revamped range of its security products on Thursday that it said offered faster scanning and support for the latest touchscreen Windows 8 devices through an updated user interface. The 2013 vintage of AVG includes new versions of AVG’s consumer products, such as AVG AntiVirus Free, as well as paid-for security …

    Phones 6 Sep 13:34

  • GSMA politely asks Uzbekistan to free locked-up telco bods

    Would be terribly nice, old boy, if you eased up on those Ruskies

    Mobile industry body GSMA has written to Uzbekistan's president in hope of resolving the country's tiff with Russian-owned operator MTS, a dispute that cut off punters and led to the "interrogation" of staff. MTS had its Uzbekistan licence revoked in July after five employees were cuffed on suspicion of committing a variety of …

    Mobile 6 Sep 14:01

  • Dell makes unexpected grab for the PAYG storage cloud

    Using Nirvanix cloud storage service

    Dell quietly released an announcement a few days ago that it was offering a cloud storage service in partnership with Nirvanix. There was no press release, neither from Dell nor Nirvanix, no video, no PR blast, no nothing, just a single tweet, which was promptly retweeted by Nirvanix. The tweet came from DellServices and read …

    Storage 6 Sep 14:34

  • Raspberry Pi production back in Blighty

    South Wales jobs boost

    The Raspberry Pi is to be manufactured in the UK - possibly the first time a microcomputer has been produced here, as opposed to simply being assembled, for a number of decades. Production has begun in Sony's Pencoed, South Wales plant on behalf of the Raspberry Pi's sales partner, Element14/Premier Farnell. The initial …

    Hardware 6 Sep 14:43

  • No Apple TV this year: Media moguls still won't cough up content

    Why won't you give us your revenue stream?

    Media execs unwilling to sign a deal with the suits at Cupertino HQ have scotched hopes for an Apple TV in 2012, Bloomberg reports. Wrangles for control in such areas as the user interface have kicked Apple's TV plans into the long grass, and we won't see a TV of any sort in Apple's 12 September reveal, according to the site. …

    Media 6 Sep 15:11

  • WD touts slimline external HDDs

    Shaves 2mm off the Mac version, adds £8 to the price

    "Skinny external hard drives for all!" shouted Western Digital today while launching an 11mm-thick USB 3 unit. The WD My Passport Edge, available in separate NTFS format for Windows boxes and Journaled HFS+ for Mac OS X - the latter has an aluminium edge for extra fanboy appeal - offers 500GB of svelte storage, courtesy no …

    Hardware 6 Sep 15:23

  • QLogic drops veil on new flashy adapter technology

    HBA flash caching

    QLogic is adding flash caching capability to its storage network adapter cards in a project called Mount Rainier. The company makes host bus adapters (HBAs) to connect servers to Fibre Channel accessed SANs and converged network adapters (CNAs) to link servers to iSCI and FCoE accessed SANs as well as to Ethernet networks. …

    Storage 6 Sep 15:31

  • Microsoft hires 1,000 more workers in China

    Contract-hunting software giant rewards Beijing for bootleg crackdown

    Microsoft will hire 1,000 extra employees in China over the next year, adding to the 4,500 it already has in the country. The new staff will be added to the R&D, sales, marketing and services departments, Ralph Haupter CEO for Microsoft's Greater China business told reporters in Beijing. The Windows maker is trying to get its …

    Management 6 Sep 16:04

  • DARPA builds faster-than-Usain-Bolt Cheetah robot

    Still caged in a lab at Pentagon's mad scientist bureau... FOR NOW

    A terrifying legged robot has beaten its own speed record and bagged a world first by reaching 28.3 mph (45.5km/h) over 20 metres in a lab trial. The beast is currently locked up in the DARPA research facility. The galloping bot is officially faster than the fastest human - Usain Bolt who reached 27.3 mph (43.9km/h) in 2009, …

    Science 6 Sep 16:33

  • Nokia apologizes for faking Lumia 920 ad

    'This is Lumia' – except it's not

    Nokia has issued an apology over charges that it sexed up the qualities of its new Lumia 920 handsets in an ad intended to show off its new image stabilization system, dubbed "PureView". The advert shows a typecast tall, thin Nordic woman riding a bicycle and funfair ride before dancing in the street, all the while being …

    Mobile 6 Sep 17:36

  • NEC, Egenera tag team on cloudy infrastructure freakage

    PAN Manager paired up with SigmaBlades, Nblocks

    Japanese server maker NEC has teamed up with automation and management software company Egenera of Boxborough, Massachusetts, to make the latter's PAN Manager physical and virtual server control freak the preferred – though by no means exclusive – tool for managing the former's SigmaBlade blade servers. NEC and Egenera are …

    Servers 6 Sep 19:02

  • Boffins computerize giant cyborg cockroaches

    Why bother with robots when evolution's already done its job?

    A team of scientists have developed a microchip backpack that allows them to control the movements of a cockroach by stimulating its nerve endings. Rather than trying to build a robotic insect controlled by custom software, the team from North Carolina State University used cockroaches and off-the-shelf electronics. Since …

    Science 6 Sep 21:17

  • Amazon unveils new hi-def Kindle iPad-killers

    Want cheap 4G wireless with that? You got it!

    Amazon has announced a refresh of its entire Kindle line, including updated models of its basic e-readers and fondleslabs, plus a new family of upscale tablets designed for viewing high-definition content. The new devices, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled on Thursday at a press event in Los Angeles, include a new e-ink …

    Mobile 6 Sep 21:53

  • ENCODE’s ‘junk DNA’ claims spark biological bunfight

    Define ‘functional’

    An overly-promotional – or perhaps merely badly-written – abstract in Nature has spawned a biology boffins’ bunfight. It started with this item, “An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome”, which makes the startling claim that the ENCODE project (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) had data which “enabled us to …

    Science 6 Sep 22:30

  • Assange movie debuts this weekend

    Video Portrait of the hacker as a young man

    Julian Assange continues to insist that Australia's government has done him no favours, but his nation of birth has supported his cause in one, indirect, way. Screen Australia, the Australian federal government’s national movie-funding-and-promotion agency, is one of the key production finance investors for the Australian-made …

    Media 6 Sep 22:33

  • Photos of 'iPad mini' body stir rumor pot

    Is Steve Jobs' bête noire ready for launch?

    Photos have surfaced of what's said to be the metal back of Apple's oft-rumored "iPad mini" – and, yes, despite what the late Steve Jobs said about the deficiencies of small-sized fondleslabs, it's of the about-seven-inch variety. The photos appear in an article on the Chinese-language website tech.163.com that credits its …

    Mobile 6 Sep 22:51

  • UPEK fingerprint scanners insecure, says Elcomsoft

    Dell, Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba may use holey biometric kit

    Spines in laptop vendor-land are shivering right now with the news that fingerprint scanners from UPEK take users’ Windows passwords and dumps them in near-plain-text in the registry. The security howler was turned up in the UPEK Protector Suite, which until recently shipped with laptops using the company’s scanners. While the …

    Security 6 Sep 23:15