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13th September 2012 Archive

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  • Congress report warns: drones will track faces from the sky

    I am the eye in the sky, looking at you

    With the FAA working on rules to integrate drones into airspace safety by 2015, the US government’s Congressional Research Service has warned of gaps in how American courts might treat the use of drones. The snappily-headlined report, Drones in Domestic Surveillance Operations: Fourth Amendment Implications and Legislative …

    Security 13 Sep 00:08

  • Intel backs 'overhyped' HTML5 for cross-platform app dev

    IDF 2012 Resistance is futile

    HTML5 is overhyped, slow, and insecure, says Intel senior VP of software and services Renée James – but Chipzilla thinks it's the future of software development anyway. During her Wednesday keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum 2012 conference in San Francisco, James said there really is no other technology available …

    Developer 13 Sep 00:18

  • One more try: Metro apps are now 'Windows Store' apps

    Microsoft really means it this time

    Another week, another chapter in what must be one of the worst branding and marketing disasters in the history of computing: what to call the blocky, touch-centric apps designed for the new Windows 8 Start Screen, formerly known as Metro-style apps. What we are meant to call them from now on, it seems, are "Windows Store" apps …

    Windows 8 13 Sep 01:20

  • Foxconn to investigate iPhone 5 factory woes

    Undercover hack claims filthy conditions, bullying

    Foxconn, the Chinese contract manufacturer, has admitted it's "not perfect" and promised to investigate conditions at its Tai Yuan plant after an undercover exposé by an undercover reporter revealed filthy dorms and bullying by managers on the iPhone 5 production line. The report by a Shanghai Evening Post hack details (via …

    Business 13 Sep 03:40

  • NHS eye hospital embiggens in-house open source system

    What's that? An e-patient record system that works?

    Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has said that it has added three new modules for prescribing, operations notes and correspondence to OpenEyes, its open source e-patient record system. OpenEyes was developed by an in-house team, led by consultant surgeon and former medical director at Moorfields, Bill Aylward. He …

    Government 13 Sep 07:28

  • Osborne hands £80m tax break to punters drilling in 'old' oil, gas fields

    Brown Field Allowance will 'repair damage' from 2011 rise – energy law expert

    A new tax break for operators of older "brown field" oil and gas fields in the North Sea shows that the government understands their continuing importance to the wider economy, an energy expert has said. Tom Cartwright of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that measures announced by the Chancellor of the …

    Science 13 Sep 08:03

  • Prof casts doubt on Stuxnet's accidental 'great escape' theory

    Analysis How DID the super-weapon flee Iran's nuke plant?

    An expert has challenged a top theory on how the infamous Stuxnet worm, best known for knackering Iranian lab equipment, somehow escaped into the wild. New York Times journalist David Sanger wrote what's become the definitive account of how Stuxnet was jointly developed by a US-Israeli team. The sophisticated malware was …

    Security 13 Sep 08:32

  • Agility without anxiety

    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 …

    Site News 13 Sep 08:56

  • Hate the Windows 8 touch UI? Try Kinect-like finger shaking instead

    Game console tech to stop punters fondling the screen

    Microsoft is pushing hard to promote Windows 8: its first operating system to let you point, swipe and prod your way through desktop applications and actions - quite possibly without the need for a touchscreen or mouse, thanks to gesture-sensing tech. Windows 8 will be built for x86 and ARM compatible processors. On the Intel …

    Windows 8 13 Sep 09:00

  • Apple: Thanks for the iPhone 5s, China, now get to the BACK of the queue

    Hong Kong braces for Chinese fanboi invasion

    Chinese fanbois will have to rely on grey market imports and dubious online sellers yet again as their country was left off Apple’s list of nations to get the new iPhone 5 next week. The People’s Republic – where more than one billion mobiles are in use and is home to the world’s biggest smartphone market – is hugely important …

    Mobile 13 Sep 09:18

  • Stone Group CEO Bird flies the coop in dispute

    Disagreement over selling the biz led to chief's exit

    PC supplier Stone Group's founder and long-standing CEO James Bird is leaving the organisation, The Channel understands. Sources in the sector claim Bird informed private equity backers RJD Partners of his plans to exit the organisation some months ago and is currently working a notice period that is believed to end in …

    The Channel 13 Sep 09:22

  • Yahoo! to! guzzle! £4.7bn! in! Alibaba! stake! sale! 'next! week!'

    Troubled web biz needs cash for spending spree

    Chinese internet giant Alibaba is set to get back half of Yahoo!’s 40 per cent stake in the company for a whopping $7.6bn (£4.7bn) outlay, as the two firms near the end of their bumpy relationship. The deal for 20 per cent of Yahoo!’s shares, which was outlined in May, will be closed by next Wednesday, according to the usually …

    Business 13 Sep 09:41

  • EE screams UK iPhone 4G exclusive, rest of pack sobs quietly

    O2, Vodafone unable to join Apple's party

    Only EE (formerly called Everything Everywhere) will be able to offer islands of 4G connectivity to the 4G-capable iPhone 5 when it arrives in the UK. The Apple smartphone will be available from every network operator, but two - O2 and Vodafone - will never be able to give the phone the fastest possible mobile broadband. …

    Mobile 13 Sep 10:04

  • Apple iPhone 5 hands-on review

    First look The Lightning seeds

    Last night in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook presented his third keynote in fine, relaxed form. There were announcements about iTunes, a longer iPod nano and colourful iPod touch models. But the night belonged to the iPhone, not to be dubbed the new iPhone, but the iPhone 5. Hacks in London were treated to a simultaneous …

    Phones 13 Sep 10:20

  • Journo bung probe cops cuff armed-forces bloke and wife

    Suspects quizzed by police after 6am swoop

    Met cops investigating allegations of corrupt payments to police and public officials arrested two suspects in Surrey this morning. A 32-year-old woman was cuffed at her home in Chertsey at 6am BST, and her 42-year-old husband - who is a serving member of the armed forces - was nabbed at a separate address in Camberley half an …

    Law 13 Sep 10:45

  • Who cares about Big Data

    Tech Panel What do you think

    “Big Data” today clearly rules the web pages as market makers promote the topic at the drop of a hat. But with so much effort, and money, being spent promoting BD, is anyone actually doing anything in everyday businesses to exploit this loosely grouped family of technologies? Most readers of The Register acknowledge there are …

    Business 13 Sep 11:01

  • Cambridge boffins: Chip and PIN cards CAN be cloned – here's how

    Chip and skim

    Boffins at Cambridge University have uncovered shortcomings in ATM security that might be abused to create a mechanism to clone chip-and-PIN cards. The security shortcoming might already be known to criminals and creates an explanation for what might have happened in some, otherwise baffling, "phantom" withdrawal cases. Each …

    Security 13 Sep 11:02

  • Ten iPhone 5 challengers

    Product Round-up Smart alternatives on price and performance

    It’s that time of year again when the Autumn leaves begin to fall and a young man’s thoughts turn to a shiny new iPhone. Or perhaps, this year, something running Windows Phone 8? Redmond's new baby is also just about to be thrust mewling and puking 'puting into the world and thus anyone shackled to a recently inked two year …

    Phones 13 Sep 11:24

  • RIP Howard Strowman: The stock doctor

    Obituary Industry, friends and family mourn IT channel hero

    The career and life of Howard Strowman, who died in a motorbike accident this weekend, mirrored the ever-changing fortunes of the UK's high-tech sector. The crash happened in North Wales on Sunday, 9 September, and he was airlifted to hospital with severe injuries. He died on Tuesday morning aged 67. Strowman set up PST Group …

    The Channel 13 Sep 11:41

  • Humanity facing GLOBAL BACON SHORTAGE

    Stuff climate change, this is serious

    Doomwatchers are painting an apocalyptic picture of a world where weeping humanity is reduced to scraping meagre nourishment from mash without bangers, hole without toad, scratchings without pork and, chillingly, sarnies without bacon. According to the BBC, a drought-hit US maize harvest has forced up cereal prices worldwide, …

    Bootnotes 13 Sep 11:58

  • EMC slashes channel training fees to woo resellers

    Vows to stop using sessions as a profit centre

    EMC says it will no longer seek to profit from holding IT channel training sessions, but said that only a select band will get courses completely free of charge. This is the latest change in the storage goliath's efforts to court resellers as it limits the role of the direct sales team to 150 ring-fenced enterprise accounts. …

    The Channel 13 Sep 12:09

  • Ding dong, the Ping is dead! Apple brings in Facebook for iTunes

    Whether you Like it or not... bitch

    Apple has quietly done away with Ping, its music-based social network in iTunes. The move came as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage at the iPhone 5 launch last night, and announced all the ways his website will integrate with the latest version of Apple's music'n'vids software. It's an admission that Apple hasn't …

    Media 13 Sep 12:22

  • Nikon launches D600 lightweight full-frame DSLR

    Not so heavy on the wallet either

    Nikon has unveiled the D600, its most compact and inexpensive full-frame DSLR yet. The Nikon D600 features a 24Mp image sensor and the same Expeed 3 processor found in its bigger brother, the D800. As with its pricier sibling, the camera's magnesium alloy body provides weatherproof protection, but its weight of 760g means …

    Hardware 13 Sep 12:40

  • New monkey species with massive blue arse found in Africa

    Possibly record-breaking buttocks stun boffinry world

    A species of monkey previously unknown to science has been discovered in Africa: and boffins say that it has an "extensive" bright blue bottom which rivals that of the largest and most colourful known monkeys on Earth. Feeling blue The new monkey was first sighted by scientists in 2007, when boffins found one being kept as …

    Science 13 Sep 12:58

  • UK govt to KILL OFF Directgov within weeks

    Replacement GOV.UK nearly ready for showtime

    New Labour's Directgov is about to be tossed into the rubbish bin, after it was revealed today that Britain's public services website would be replaced by the Cabinet Office's single government domain on 17 October. That project, dubbed GOV.UK, surfaced into public view in May 2011 when Francis Maude's department initially …

    Government 13 Sep 13:32

  • VCs snaffle £200m of UK taxpayer gold ... to bet on high-risk biz

    All systems are BONG!

    The UK government has showered venture capitalists with £200m of taxpayers' money for high-risk investments, the science and universities minister David Willetts told MPs today. Willetts said £50m of this cash has already been set aside as an angel investment pot. “For the first time, we’ve said we’ll co-invest,” he said. …

    Small Biz 13 Sep 14:03

  • Who's afraid of Windows 8? Trio leads Microsoft migration pack

    Internet Explorer a hurdle for most, says consultant

    Windows 8 isn't ideal for many big businesses and government users. In fact, the majority of operations running tens of thousands of PCs are only now replacing Windows XP with Windows 7 at any meaningful scale – despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary. But a few brave businesses are planning on jumping into touch and swipe …

    Windows 8 13 Sep 14:38

  • Microsoft seizes Chinese dot-org to kill Nitol bot army

    Takedown after infected new computers sold to victims

    Microsoft has disrupted the emerging Nitol botnet - and more than 500 additional strains of malware - by taking control of a rogue dot-org website. The takedown is the latest in Microsoft's war against armies of hacker-controlled PCs. The Windows 8 giant's Operation b70 team discovered crooks were selling computers loaded with …

    Security 13 Sep 15:01

  • IT chiefs' purses drained, security budget still safe - report

    CIO study finds spending maintained or rising, despite recession

    Security looks set to be one part of companies' IT budgets that will be comparatively safeguarded in the recession, if the beancounters at Gartner are to be believed. Global spending is forecast to rise more than 8 per cent this year to $60bn, reaching $86bn by 2016. Gartner research director Lawrence Pingree said that based …

    Broadband 13 Sep 15:33

  • Smartphone sales to new users 'have peaked'

    It's an upgrade business from here on

    The smartphone market will establish its maturity this year: 2012 will be the last time the shipment of handsets to new users grows. According to figures posted by market watcher NPD DisplaySearch, smartphone shipments have been dominated by upgrade sales - handsets bought by people who already own a smartphone - but until now …

    Phones 13 Sep 15:43

  • Channel newbie SSS swallows e-Warehouse

    Bags customer list, some staff and SaaS tool

    Specialist Software Services (SSS) has made its first acquisition, devouring certain assets of e-Warehouse for an undisclosed sum. The Reading-based IT infrastructure and asset consultancy firm has coughed for e-Warehouse's customer contracts, its Oxygen-branded web-based SaaS help-desk products as well as selected staff that …

    The Channel 13 Sep 15:52

  • iPhone 5 adaptors goldrush begins

    Conversion kit manufacturing mother lode

    As Apple's iPhone 5 packs an all-new Nano Sim, those with two handsets will probably need a fresh Sim card adaptor. These have already hit the market, of course. Packs of Nano Sim adaptor trays featuring conversions between all three formats have started to appear on Amazon, in fact many have been available for over a month, …

    Phones 13 Sep 16:15

  • 'Google strangled Acer phone using Alibaba Android rival at birth'

    Cancelled launch event leaves journos milling

    Google has reportedly forced Acer to cancel the launch of a phone that used an Android rival as its operating system. In an embarrassing U-turn, Acer cancelled a launch event for the smartphone so late that journalists were left milling outside the doors of the venue in Shanghai this afternoon. Acer had been collaborating …

    Operating Systems 13 Sep 16:20

  • Blackhole 2: Crimeware kit gets stealthier, Windows 8 support

    Malware-flinging tool to target mobiles too

    Cybercrooks have unveiled a new version of the Blackhole exploit kit. Version 2 of Blackhole is expressly designed to better avoid security defences. Support for Windows 8 and mobile devices is another key feature, a sign of the changing target platforms for malware-based cyberscams. The release also includes a spruced-up user …

    Security 13 Sep 17:03

  • Intel builds 'can't be built' working digital RF transceiver chip

    IDF 2012 Analog out as radios enter SOCs

    Intel has developed a truly digital radio chip, a part that replaces the analog elements in today's radio frequency transmission and reception circuitry with digital equivalents. The result of a ten-year research project, the digital transceiver is a 32nm part capable of delivering Wi-Fi. It's still at the experimental stage: …

    Hardware 13 Sep 17:59

  • Nintendo Wii U launch and pricing disclosed

    Two models inbound

    Nintendo today officially revealed Wii U release dates, foreign pricing structures and launch titles. Two variations of the console will be available, with a basic edition set to cost around the £200 mark and a more premium edition roughly £50 more. Nintendo's RRP for the UK is a hazy affair, so the ball is in retailers' court …

    Games 13 Sep 18:55

  • Microsoft keeps Win Phone 8 under hype-boosting wraps

    'Not all features have been announced'

    The reason Microsoft isn't sharing more information about Windows Phone 8 with developers is because it doesn't want to let the cat out of the bag regarding the features of its new smartphone OS, the company says. On Wednesday, Redmond began accepting applications for its super-secretive Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Developer Preview …

    Developer 13 Sep 19:51

  • Intel to take felon-foiling tech to phones, slates

    IDF 2012 Lock up your datas

    Intel has confirmed that it will bring its Anti-theft Technology (AT), currently being pitched at Ultrabooks, to Atom-based smartphones and tablets. The timeframe for bringing AT to such devices is unclear, but it is definitely on the company's roadmap, said Mojy Mirashrafi, Intel's Director of Engineering, Security and …

    Tablets 13 Sep 22:11

  • HGST floats helium for low power, MASSIVE capacity HDDs

    Up to seven platters in one drive

    A new hard drive technology from HGST promises to improve drive performance in virtually every category, the company says – including capacity, power, cooling, and storage density – all because the drives are filled with helium instead of air. "The benefits of operating a HDD with helium fill have been known for a long time," …

    Storage 13 Sep 22:28

  • 4K LCD TV output to outstrip OLED production

    Smart picture tech too late to market?

    An interesting snippet here from market watcher NPD DisplaySearch: the momentum behind 4K x 2K TVs is rather greater than that behind large OLED sets. At least nine television makers have demo'd - some at the IFA show earlier this month - and said they will mass-produce very large LCD tellies with a 3840 x 2160 even though the …

    Hardware 13 Sep 22:33

  • Intel's chief chipman: '22nm better than expected, 14nm on track'

    IDF 2012 'After 14nm? My lips are sealed'

    The low-voltage performance of Intel's 22-nanometer chip-baking process turned out better that the company had predicted, and the development of next year's 14-nanometer process technology is proceeding swimmingly, thankyouverymuch. So said Chipzilla's head of process technology, Mark Bohr, speaking at a tech session during …

    Hardware 13 Sep 22:49

  • Australian gamers can get high and naked

    New R18+ classification allows nudity, drug use, but no sex or dealing

    Australian gamers will soon be able to legally indulge in violent, nude and drug fuelled games, thanks to the publication of new, long-anticipated Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games that for the first time include an R18+ classification for games that can only be sold to adults. From January 2013, Australia …

    Policy 13 Sep 22:55

  • German court turkey-slaps Motorola in patent case

    Recall ordered, subject to Apple posting bonds

    A Munich court has determined that Motorola infringed Apple’s “overscroll bounce” technology and has ordered a recall of all tablets and smartphones containing the technology. The Chocolate Moto won’t have to move immediately, since it’s now up to Apple to post various bonds to cover enforcement. For a mere 25 million Euros, …

    Law 13 Sep 23:30

  • Codethink jumps into the ARM server fray with Baserock Slab

    A Marvell-ous cluster in a box

    The crafty engineers at embedded software development house Codethink assembled an ARM-application build server for their own use this June, and have now decided that you might want one, as well – so starting this week they'll sell you a commercial version of that box called the Baserock Slab. The reason for Codethink's entry …

    Servers 13 Sep 23:51