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14th September 2012 Archive

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  • Final Office 2013 for ARM may not ship until January

    Microsoft confirms some features removed

    Microsoft has revealed some more details about the version of Office 2013 for ARM-powered devices running Windows RT, including the fact that some customers will have to wait until January 2013 to get their hands on the final code. In a post to the Office Next blog on Thursday, Microsoft reps explained that the version of …

    Applications 14 Sep 00:32

  • Australian retailers make just 3% of sales online

    All Australian business now making 7.5% of coin on the Net, says new ABS data

    The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released new and more detailed data on the nation’s use of information technology that shows e-commerce accounts for 7.5% of Australian business revenue, but retailers are only scoring 3% of their take online. The new Selected Characteristics of Australian Business, 2010-11, …

    Business 14 Sep 02:11

  • 'Over half' of Android devices have unpatched holes

    Fix is up to your carrier, Google, mobo maker - just about everyone

    Duo Security is claiming that “over half” of Android devices have unpatched vulnerabilities. The company’s Jon Oberheide says in this blog post that the results come from the first slew of users of the company’s X-Ray Android vulnerability scanner. Promising to announced detailed results on Friday (September 14) at the Rapid7 …

    Security 14 Sep 02:12

  • Chinese man on trial for smuggling hi-tech military secrets

    Prosecutors claim he was looking for a better job back home

    The federal trial of a Chinese man accused of smuggling hi-tech military secrets from the US into his homeland in the hope of landing a better-paid job began this week. Both sides exchanged opening salvoes on Wednesday in the case of Sixing Liu, an employee at New Jersey-based firm Space & Navigation, a division of US defence …

    Security 14 Sep 05:01

  • Can Windows 8 developers be ‘the new rock stars’?

    TechEd Australia The variables go to eleven

    One of the odder things to transpire at TechEd Australia this week was Microsoft’s insistence that developers are the new rock stars. Kids these days, The Reg was told by a middle-aged product manager for Visual Studio, aren’t interested in electric guitars, turning it up to 11, leather jackets, attracting members of the …

    Software 14 Sep 05:20

  • Huawei, ZTE clash with US over national security

    How big a risk can it be given US telco kit-makers do their manufacturing in China?

    Chinese telecoms kit makers Huawei and ZTE failed to allay the long standing national security concerns of Congressmen surrounding their access to the US market, at a high profile hearing in Washington on Thursday. The two have been in the spotlight for almost a year as the US House of Representatives Select Committee on …

    Networks 14 Sep 05:45

  • Apple time is now world time

    Carrier call centres schtum until 12:01 AM Cupertino time

    When Apple says orders for the iPhone five will open on September 14th, that's exactly what the Curpertino-centric company means. We know this because El Reg's antipodean eyrie has chatted to the call centres of local carriers, and has been told they won't take any calls about the new handset until 17:01 Sydney time. That's a …

    Mobile 14 Sep 05:53

  • Queensland to appropriate household PV

    Wants to force solar home-owners to buy from the grid

    Queensland’s new state government has put forward a proposal that will startle homeowners with solar PV electricity installed: the homeowner will be forced to sell all of the power generated on their roofs to the grid at a reduced rate, and will buy all the power the consume from the grid at full retail prices. The proposal …

    Policy 14 Sep 06:55

  • Peugeot 508 RXH estate car review

    High-riding hybrid

    If there is a problem with Peugeot’s HYbrid4 tech, then it’s that being modular and compact it can end up in cars that are frankly just a bit dull. After a day spent tootling around in a HYbrid4 3008 the underlying technology left me quite impressed but the 3008 isn’t a car that gets my pulse racing. Up to scratch? Lion's …

    reghardware 14 Sep 07:00

  • Worker dumps council staff's private data in supermarket skip

    Council failed to 'manage the outsourcing' properly

    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) deemed that Scottish Borders Council had been guilty of a serious breach of the Data Protection Act. The watchdog said the organisation had failed to manage the outsourcing of the personal data processing properly. The Council had arranged for a man, known only as 'GS', to "digitise …

    Government 14 Sep 07:28

  • Fujitsu lands on Ministry of Fun's grey list for broadband bids

    'High risk' suppliers earn extra probing, warns DCMS

    After Fujitsu was flagged up as being too "high risk" to take on public sector contracts for the Cabinet Office, The Register wanted to know if the same blacklisting policy applied over at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Here's what a spokesman at Maria Miller's department told us: The suppliers appointed to the …

    Broadband 14 Sep 08:02

  • Surrey council plans to SAVE money by switching to BT

    PSN deal could save cough £5m plus

    Surrey county council has said that its Public Services Network (PSN) contract with BT will save more than £5m on its current networking arrangements. According to the council, the seven-year contract will replace up to 40 separate networks in Surrey and Berkshire with a single PSN. It expects savings of up to 20 per cent on …

    Broadband 14 Sep 08:19

  • UK boffins get £3.8m pot to probe 'science of cyber-security'

    GCHQ taps up universities, expects results

    GCHQ, the UK's nerve-centre for eavesdropping spooks, has established what's billed as Blighty's first academic research institute to investigate the "science of cyber security". The lab - which was set up with the Research Councils' Global Uncertainties Programme and the government's Department for Business, Innovation and …

    Security 14 Sep 08:42

  • Post-pub nosh deathmatch prompts paprika potato pierogi

    El Reg creates Hispano-Polish fusion cuisine

    El Reg's first foray into the wonderful world of Polish cuisine, in the form of the cheesy mash-packed pieróg, prompted post-pub nosh deathmatch fans to suggest we might have missed a trick as the eastern European delicacy went head-to-head with Spanish patatas revolconas. Here are said dishes, served up by guest waitresses …

    SPB 14 Sep 09:04

  • Microsofties to get Windows 8 Surface tabs

    Touch your work PC, like it or not

    Microsoft has found an eager early audience for its Windows-8-powered Surface Ultrabook: its own employees. The software giant is reportedly giving each of its 94,000 full-time staff a Surface computer for work and home use, in a gesture of mass Windows 8 munificence announced at the company’s annual staff meeting in Seattle’s …

    Hardware 14 Sep 09:39

  • Windows Phone 8 stands a chance as Apple, Android dither

    Analysis The world has Xbox, PlayStation and Wii - it can handle 3 mobile OSes too

    The markets have delivered their verdict on Nokia. Failure is priced in, and the company is deemed to be worth little more than its intellectual property portfolio. The Finns may as well pack up their bags, go home, and whip themselves with birch twigs in the sauna – there’s no future to compete for. That’s also the …

    Windows 8 14 Sep 10:01

  • Resellers and cloud providers need to play dating game

    IT channel turns its back on cloud, and cloud vendors don't understand the channel

    Cloud computing is one of the most over-used terms in the technology industry today, yet ironically when it comes to the channel, it’s one of the least understood areas of IT. While the vendor community is literally falling over itself to promote all the products and services that can be delivered as-a-service, channel …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 10:02

  • Error found in climate modelling: Too many droughts predicted

    We foretold eight of the last two

    An international team of top boffins say that current climate models are based on faulty assumptions which lead them to predict more drought than will actually be the case. OK, the drought didn't turn up. Again At the moment, climate modelling assumes that areas of land that are wet give off more evaporated water, which …

    Science 14 Sep 10:24

  • HTML5 isn't Facebook's 'biggest mistake'

    Open ... and Shut Zuckerberg's excuse risks movement's set back

    Everybody makes mistakes, but if you're Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, mistakes can shave 50 per cent off your market valuation in a matter of weeks. Happily, admitting Zuckerberg-sized mistakes apparently is also worth a 7.9 per cent bounce. Zuckerberg's biggest mistake, as he described in an interview at the …

    Developer 14 Sep 10:43

  • I spy: Drug drops and foxy couples

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? The joys of snooping with digital binoculars

    When I was a child, mid-September was the time when the holiday photos turned up in the post from the developer. It seems I cannot shake this photographic jetlag in adulthood, as I have only just this week removed the SD card from my camera to look at what I shot in the south of France last month. I’m not very skilled in …

    reghardware 14 Sep 11:00

  • BT gets postcode knickers in twist, plants Shoreditch on Mount Everest

    And the Silicon Roundabout is nowhere to be seen!

    A website set up by BT to help its customers track the progress of when their local telephone exchange will be souped up with superfast fibre broadband goodness is currently displaying a dodgy bug in the postcode checker. Anyone typing in N1, which is the postcode for Islington, north London, will instead be greeted with a map …

    Broadband 14 Sep 11:17

  • The perfect CRIME? New HTTPS web hijack attack explained

    BEASTie boys reveal ingenious login cookie gobble

    More details have emerged of a new attack that allows hackers to hijack encrypted web traffic - such as online banking and shopping protected by HTTPS connections. The so-called CRIME technique lures a vulnerable web browser into leaking an authentication cookie created when a user starts a secure session with a website. Once …

    Security 14 Sep 11:44

  • EU greases up orphan works copyright loophole for Big Culture

    'Non-commercial' use permitted, unlike UK bureaucrats' landgrab

    The European Parliament has voted to approve new copyright rules on artistic works that can't be identified, so-called 'orphan works'. The proposals allows Big Culture to digitise works protected by copyright. The proposal does not permit commercial exploitations of the unidentified works, except by museums, archives and …

    Law 14 Sep 12:05

  • Reg hack uncovers perfect antidote to internet

    A profound, earth-moving experience

    I was on holiday last week, and as is the local custom, I took the chance to disconnect completely from cyberspace, shut down the PC, and retire to the alfresco chillax zone of the Special Project Bureau's mountaintop headquarters for a few well-deserved beers. Mercifully, I don't suffer from internet withdrawal jitters or …

    SPB 14 Sep 12:22

  • Apple threatens to ruin peace worldwide with voice-controlled iMacs

    Siri, delete my coworker's files, ha ha ha

    Imagine an office full of people controlling their Apple iMacs by shouting into their iPhones: "Email John! No, not Juan. John! EMAIL John! NOT SHE-MALE John. STOP!" Well, that dystopia could become reality if the US Patent Office rubber-stamps blueprints revealed online yesterday. The patent application, filed by Apple's …

    Hardware 14 Sep 12:45

  • Work for beer, Neil Gaiman's wife tells musicians

    Kickstarter wealth doesn't trickle down

    Amanda Palmer, the artist who raised $1.2m from her fans on Kickstarter to fund a new record and tour, is now asking classical musicians to work for her for free. The money has been on lavished on studio time, a luxury booklet, and an abundance of expensive promotional material. But there's nothing left for the classical …

    Media 14 Sep 13:03

  • ISIS puts off US NFC pay-by-bonk bid

    We said summer launch ... but never said which summer

    A consortium of US operators backing the ISIS electronic wallet platform has admitted that a promised "summer" NFC payments launch is not going to happen, but isn't saying what the new schedule is or even if there is one. ISIS was supposed to launch in Salt Lake City and Austin during the summer, but with the official end of …

    Broadband 14 Sep 13:33

  • AntiSec leaks 'Feds' credit cards' after Barrett Brown cuffed

    Anonymous spokesman arrested live on the web

    Hacking crew AntiSec claims it has published the credit-card details of 13 US government officials in retaliation for the arrest of self-described Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown. Brown was cuffed at his Dallas home on Wednesday hours after he published a rant against a named FBI agent. The arrest was recorded for posterity …

    Security 14 Sep 14:01

  • How to be a Puppet master: Make Amazon, VMware dance for YOU

    Sysadmin blog Deployment tool jumps onto the cloud train

    Puppet, if you haven't heard of it, is automation software that takes on a role similar to Active Directory's group policy. Puppet can also handle application deployment, image deployment and anything else you can imagine that you would typically manage with scripts. Puppet is both cross platform and very simple to use. Born …

    Data Networking 14 Sep 14:29

  • HP plots tablet comeback to penetrate biz world with slab

    But UK channel in the dark

    HP is returning to the tablet game, but it doesn't want to take on Apple in its consumer backyard - instead the vendor would prefer business types fondled its hardware. Troubled HP spectacularly canned its TouchPad slab last summer after it spent just six weeks on the market, despite the gear flying off the shelves when the …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 15:04

  • Capita ITS ditches UK job cuts, offshoring dream

    Unite claims victory, suspends strike threat

    Capita IT Services has finally shelved its plans to offshore jobs and make compulsory redundancies in 2013. In August just 84 unionised workers at the reseller-cum-integrator threatened industrial action over moves to send part of the service desk to India and push through job cuts across the wider organisation. Then last …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 15:27

  • iPhone 5: UK pay-monthly tariffs compared

    Talk is anything but cheap

    With fanbois eager to pre-order an iPhone 5, networks have started to tout their predictably expensive tariffs so here's a comparison table to highlight what's on offer. Of course, there are plenty of rates either side of those mentioned below, with varying minutes and data allowances, but in the interests of a fair comparison …

    reghardware 14 Sep 15:42

  • Control issues forced Foxconn daddy to shun Sharp deal

    Hon Hai wanted 'management role' in exchange for its pile of cash

    Foxconn chief Terry Gou walked away from talks with Sharp last month because he wasn't being offered enough control in return for his cash, it has emerged. It has been apparent for several weeks that the deal between Sharp and Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai was stumbling, and now a comment from Gou explains why. Sharp …

    Financial News 14 Sep 16:01

  • Smartmobe Wi-Fi blabs FAR TOO MUCH about us, warn experts

    Londoners unknowingly tracked by phones' network chatter

    Smartphones leak far more personal information about their users than previously imagined, according to new research. Security researchers at Sensepost were able to track and profile punters and their devices by observing the phones' attempts to join Wi-Fi networks. Daniel Cuthbert and Glenn Wilkinson created their own …

    Security 14 Sep 17:04

  • Western Digital cuts revenue forecast, cites 'muted demand'

    Follows Intel into fiscal hidey-hole

    Storage megacorp Western Digital dropped a bomb on its investors – and the entire computer industry – by announcing that it was lowering its revenue projections for its first fiscal quarter, which will end on September 28. That quarter, the company said in a press release on Thursday, will now see revenues of between $3.9 …

    Financial News 14 Sep 17:28

  • Oracle tunes up VirtualBox hypervisor for Windows 8

    Punts new Enterprise Manager 12c control freak

    The open source VirtualBox hypervisor is still alive and kicking after being absorbed into the Oracle collective more than two years ago, and has just gotten what the project calls a major update with release 4.2. Oracle has also revved its Enterprise Manager 12c to turn it into a platform cloud manager for puffy …

    Virtualization 14 Sep 17:35

  • Twitter bows to subpoena, releases Occupy protester's tweets

    Under seal until 99 per center's appeal

    Twitter has succumed to threats of contempt of court charges and significant fines, and has handed over a trove of tweets from Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris to a Manhattan Criminal Court. The tweets had been subpoenaed by the Manhattan district attorney's office, which demanded that Twitter provide it with access …

    Law 14 Sep 19:40

  • Apple's first batch of iPhone 5 preorders sold out in an hour

    Ship date pushed back to September 28

    If you were hoping to have your brand-new iPhone 5 in your sweaty hands on its announced September 21 launch date, you may be out of luck. Apple has run out of its initial stock for preorders of its new smartphone, and carriers' stocks are dwindling rapidly. Apple's online store was reportedly still listing the September 21 …

    Mobile 14 Sep 19:43

  • HP boss Whitman: 'We have to offer a smartphone'

    But let's not be too hasty

    Hewlett Packard may have crashed and burned when it last tried to crack the mobile device market, but it isn't ready to give up yet. According to CEO Meg Whitman, a new smartphone from HP is not a matter of "if", but "when". Describing HP's bungled acquisition of Palm as "a detour into smartphones," Whitman told Fox Business …

    Mobile 14 Sep 21:20

  • Apple wins second round of Samsung patent slugfest

    Will trade commission ban Korean kit from the US? Stay tuned ...

    Apple has won a round of their ongoing battle with Samsung, scoring a complete four-patent victory at the US International Trade Commission. Samsung had filed the case with the trade arbitrators alleging that Apple, with the production of its iPhone and iPad, had infringed upon four of the Korean smartphone and tablet maker's …

    Law 14 Sep 22:28