18th September 2012 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Microsoft announces Office 2013, Office 365 pricing

Subscribers get extra goodies

Microsoft has announced pricing for the next version of its Office productivity suite, and judging by its aggressive new licensing structure, it would much rather have customers sign up for the new Office 365 subscription model than buy the software outright. "Subscriptions open a host of possibilities," reads a post to …

Applications 18 Sep 00:58
VMTurbo sucks up apps and blows them into clouds

Operations Manager control freak pushed to 3.2

VMTurbo, the startup that created a control freak that uses Adam Smith's invisible hand to allocate resources on public and private clouds, is now applying the same economic scheduling engine to application onboarding – the act of bringing applications from the physical world or another cloud into your own or into public …

Virtualization 18 Sep 04:01
Microsoft offers workarounds for IE bug

English-only, partially-supported Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit the fix

Microsoft has detailed a method users of Internet Explorer can use to secure their computers from the recently discovered exploit allowing malicious code to run on a PC. Microsoft has admitted to the bug, which it says hurts Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9, but leaves IE 10 alone. The flaw is described as follows: A …

Security 18 Sep 04:04
RIPE NCC handing out last European IPv4 addresses

Going, going, almost gone

The Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) has started to hand out the last remaining Internet Protocol version 4 addresses in its possession. Anyone who wants some more IPv4 addresses can still get them, provided they are already signed up to acquire IPv6 addresses from RIPE NCC or another internet …

Networks 18 Sep 04:58
iPhone 5 has 'laser keyboard, holographic images'

Fox out-foxed by fanboi video

US television station Fox 5 New York has aired a report in which it claims the iPhone 5 comes equipped with a laser keyboard and holographic projector. The claims appear in a news report, since posted to YouTube, in which reporter Lidia Curanaj meets fanbois queueing outside a New York Apple store. That part of the segment …

Networks 18 Sep 05:38
Acer Iconia Tab A700 32GB HD Android tablet review

Media darling

If you're looking for a cheap 10in Tegra 3 Android tablet, I'd say buy an Acer A510. If you want one with a 1080p screen and have deep pockets, then take a look at the Asus Transformer Infinity. Now, if you want something in between, with the Infinity’s screen resolution but the A520’s relative affordability, well, that's a …

reghardware 18 Sep 07:00
Agility without anxiety

Live today 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 …

Business 18 Sep 07:26
Forty Canadian birds BONKING against windows EVERY MINUTE

'Free food contributes to the problem'

Shocking news from Canada over the weekend, as researchers there say that the country is in the grip of an astonishing outbreak of birds bonking against its windows. "The thud of a bird hitting a window is something many Canadian home owners experience," begins an excellent press release from Alberta uni, alerting the world to …

Science 18 Sep 08:05
Twitter to UK.gov: Web super-snoop law will trample twits' rights

A little bird ~~told me~~ scolds me

Twitter has said that government plans to increase the UK intelligence services' communications surveillance capabilities could cause it to breach the privacy rights of individuals based elsewhere in the world. The micro-blogging company said that complying with the requirements set out in the government's draft Communications …

Government 18 Sep 08:17
Leeds' amazing cash-slash plan: BYOD and that cloud thing

You spend, we save, ta very much

Leeds City Council's ICT department is stepping up its efforts to help save the council money in the medium to long term. This will include the introduction of new IT asset management software and potential further development of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) options for employees and council members. A series of decisions are …

Government 18 Sep 08:41
Freeview kit to require retune tomorrow

EPG shake-up

Freeview viewers, prepare to retune your equipment. The terrestrial digital TV platform will require yet another channel check tomorrow to implement changes made to its electronic programme guide. TVs with digital tuners and set-top boxes not set to automatically spot the change and to retune accordingly, will require manual …

reghardware 18 Sep 08:54
Siri, will Apple's App Store lock out blind people on iOS 6?

New fears that upgrade knackers VoiceOver support

A website has broken the wall of silence surrounding version 6 of Apple's mobile operating system iOS - and alleged blind people will struggle to use the App Store software in the new build. iOS 6 rolls out tomorrow for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches - but it has been in the hands of selected developers since July, allowing …

Applications 18 Sep 09:01
E-books get Brits reading more

Dead tree sales not dead yet

Sales of e-books are soaring in the UK, but they're not yet completely cannibalising sales of dead tree formats. According to the UK's Publishers' Association (PA) sales of e-book fiction during the first six months of 2012 - before the summer holiday, you'll note - were up 188 per cent on the same period in 2011. Non-fiction …

reghardware 18 Sep 09:29
Windows 8: Never mind Office, it's for GAMING

Open ... and Shut Metro + playtime = easier-to-swallow?

Despite threats to its software hegemony from Apple and others, Microsoft's stranglehold on enterprise IT has been its saving grace. Yet this advantage has started to fade as Apple and Android increasingly invade the enterprise through smartphone adoption, with IT departments scrambling to devise security policies that plug the …

Windows 8 18 Sep 09:43
Motorola outs Razr phone with Intel Inside

Updated Oh, i

Motorola Mobility has introduced its first Intel-based smartphone: the Razr i. In addition to the 2GHz Intel Atom Z2460 - based on the chip giant's single-core Medfield design; 2GHz is a peak, if-the-phone's-cold-enough burst speed - the i has a 4.3in (almost) edge-to-edge OLED display frame in aluminium and a Kevlar casing …

reghardware 18 Sep 09:53
Elpida stakeholders beg US courts: Stop Micron's cheap meal deal

Injured DRAMurai warrior's bondholders go Stateside to stop $2.5bn slurp

Elpida bondholders trying to stop the sale of the wounded DRAMurai warrior to Micron have taken the fight to the US courts, claiming that the bankrupt Japanese firm has had "unauthorised" transactions in the States. Elpida went bankrupt in February and limped around looking for a white knight before US firm Micron eventually …

Financial News 18 Sep 10:23
Booksellers club calls in Kobo to aid indies

Small shops to get e-stores

Britain's Booksellers Association (BA) has hopped into bed with Japanese-owned Canadian e-book company Kobo in a bid to help the UK's independent bookshops fight back against Amazon. Kobo already operates in the UK through a partnership with newsagent WH Smith. The deal with the BA will allow the trade organisation's 3000-odd …

reghardware 18 Sep 10:32
Mobile phones still failing to kill people – Nordic scientists

Boffins call out hypersensitive types

Mobile phones still aren't killing people, according to the latest research from Norway, but in contrast to previous studies the Norwegians aren't calling for more money to fund research. The fact that mobile phones don't cause cancer, or other medial condition, isn't news, but the latest study from the Norwegian Institute of …

Mobile 18 Sep 11:02
All you need to know about nano SIMs - before they are EXTERMINATED

The chip inside the iPhone 5

Apple's iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM, the smallest SIM ever designed and, quite possibly, the last SIM we'll see in any mobile telephone. The nano SIM used in the new smartphone is tiny and its pattern of electrical contacts are about two thirds the size of the original SIM. It's almost too small to hold and certainly small enough …

Mobile 18 Sep 11:19
Apple forecast to sell 8m iPhone 5s next weekend

Kerching

Two long-time Apple watchers have said they are "confident" the Cupertino company can shift 8 million iPhone 5 handsets during the three days after the smartphone goes on sale. The iPhone 5 chalked up more than 2 million advance orders after Apple began taking them, and that's convinced Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Muster and …

reghardware 18 Sep 11:27
'How I CRASHED my bank, stole PINs with a touch-tone phone'

Security bod's boast harks back to 1980s phreaking era

Miscreants can crash or infiltrate banks and help desks' touch-tone and voice-controlled phone systems with a single call, a security researcher warns. Rahul Sasi, who works for iSight Partners, said audio processing algorithms in office telephone networks and speech-driven command software are liable to crash when bombarded …

Security 18 Sep 11:35
SEC bars ex-Systemax veep from director role in fraud deal

Gilbert Fiorentino settles with fine of $65,000

The SEC has barred former Systemax veep Gilbert Fiorentino from being a director of a PLC again after finding he "fraudulently" pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation over five years. The disgraced exec, who had been CEO of the reseller's Technology Products Group, was put on administrative leave in April …

Channel Register 18 Sep 11:52
Google+ claims 100 million 'active' users

Buys Instagram rival for ~~social network~~ ~~platform~~ destination site

Google has claimed that it now has 100 million active monthly users of its social networking site that it continues to insist isn't actually a social network. Google+ has had 400 million signups since it launched in 2011, but only a quarter of that figure are apparently engaged regularly with it. Sadly, the company didn't …

Applications 18 Sep 12:16
Famous thesps tread boards on smart TVs

Play time

Keen on live theatre but unable to afford West End prices? Digital Theatre has the answer. It has recorded a number of productions and made them available online. Now they're coming to Samsung Smart TVs too. DT's app goes live today, will be made available worldwide and runs on any Samsung Smart TV released after May 2010, …

reghardware 18 Sep 12:32
Virgin Media STILL working on fix for SuperHub corrupt downloads glitch

Promises it's nearly fixed as punters resort to buying other routers

Vexed Virgin Media customers dissatisfied with the telco's SuperHub kit are having to resort to buying their own routers to try and get the service to work adequately. The modem/router combi networking box supplied to VM punters has repeatedly been flagged up as crappy and not fit for purpose by some of its users. Complaints …

Broadband 18 Sep 12:39
New benefits website at risk of hackers, no Plan B - ministers

Fraud, downtime, data loss, anything could happen!

Fraud and identity theft are serious problems threatening Universal Credit, Blighty's soon-to-be-launched web-based benefits system, ministers said yesterday. Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and welfare reform minister Lord Freud were grilled by the Work and Pensions Select Committee over the new programme, designed to …

Security 18 Sep 13:02
NASA working on faster-than-light drive capable of WARP TEN

May not even need 17,000 megaton superbomb for power

A top NASA boffin has outlined ongoing lab experiments at the space agency aimed at first steps towards the building of a warp-drive spacecraft theoretically capable of travelling at 10 times the speed of light. The latest developments at the "Eagleworks" super-advanced space drive lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center were …

Science 18 Sep 13:06
Amazon cosies up to Nokia for Google Maps alternative

To exit Google Maps, head southwest

Amazon has unveiled a mapping API that offers an exit strategy from Google Maps for its developers. The new API is aimed at devs who want to incorporate mapping into apps on Amazon's pocket cash registers tablets such as the Kindle Fire, and uses Nokia's mapping services – Nokia Location Platform. Although the ruthless retail …

Developer 18 Sep 13:33
OCZ chief dashes as flash cash stash bashed

Top marketing bod steps in after results, shares fall short

Solid-state drive maker OCZ Technology's chief executive Ryan Petersen has jumped ship, leaving top marketing boy Alex Mei to man the tiller for now. Mei will hang onto his job as chief marketing officer until a permanent CEO is picked, the company said in a canned statement. OCZ stock has been steadily falling after four …

Financial News 18 Sep 14:07
Romanians plead guilty to credit card hack on US Subway shops

$10m PoS pwn

Two Romanian nationals who were extradited to the US in May have confessed their involvement in a $10m scam aimed at stealing credit and debit card data from payment terminals at hundreds of Subway restaurants and other merchants across the US, according to the United States Attorney's Office. Iulian Dolan, 28, of Craiova, …

Security 18 Sep 14:32
UK.gov squatting on £1bn IPv4 motherlode

Epetition asks DWP to flog its /8 block of internet addresses

The UK's Department for Work and Pensions is sitting on up to £1bn worth of IPv4 addresses that it is not using, according to an online petition. The epetition was sparked by a blog posting from programmer John Graham-Cumming, who spotted the /8 block of addresses, over 16.8 million, was completely unused on the Autonomous …

Hosting 18 Sep 15:02
Arise Sir Kevin, king of HP's enterprise channel

Re-org over for now: HP says fewer business units = more agility

HP's UK enterprise partners of all ilk now fall under the control of channel stalwart Kevin Matthews in a long awaited re-org that the tech monster says will make it more agile. Earlier this year the US titan stitched together its PC and printing business, and merged its Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) arm …

Channel Register 18 Sep 15:12
Motorola Razr i hands-on review

First look Cutting edge-to-edge?

Motorola Mobility's launched its first Intel-based smartphone today and I've been playing with it ahead of its release this October. The compact beauty - which continues with the company's Kevlar-backed design - features a 4.3in 'edge-to-edge' OLED display and it's easy to see why this is one of the Razr i's major talking …

reghardware 18 Sep 15:13
Lenovo gobbles Stoneware, joins cloud storage game

Room for one more on that bandwagon?

Lenovo has joined the cloud computer game by buying privately held Utah-based Stoneware for an undisclosed sum. The idea is to nab Stoneware's cloudy services so biz customers and consumers can store their data remotely and manage multiple devices through one system. The portfolio of Stoneware – Lenovo's first software …

Channel Register 18 Sep 15:32
Acer takes fight to Nexus 7 with seven-inch Iconia tablet

Taking aim at the Asus-made slate

Acer has announced its take on the Asus-made Google Nexus 7: the Iconia Tab A110. The debt it owes to the Nexus is clear. The A110 has an almost identical spec, from its Tegra 3 core to its OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but Acer has addressed the Google slate's limitations by adding a Micro SD slot, a micro HDMI port and upping …

reghardware 18 Sep 15:44
K3 Business Technology Group no longer for sale

Offers on table weren't up to much

K3 Business Technology Group says it has sniffed the offers on the table from prospective buyers and didn't like the smell. The mid-market ERP firm, which has retail software, manufacturing software and managed services units, went public in March that it was reviewing offers from numerous suitors. But more than six months …

Channel Register 18 Sep 15:51
'Cloud' services to bag $109bn in 2012

Even more people rush into the cloud

Even more folks are going to be seduced by the cloud this year, making the meteorological market a hundred-billion-dollar one, according to beancounters at Gartner. They reckon that the public cloud services sector will grow nearly 20 per cent this year to $106bn worldwide, as business process services in particular appeal to …

Cloud 18 Sep 15:58
Lightning strikes fresh iPad Mini shots

Rumour mill still cranking, not resting after iPhone 5 debut

iPhone 5? Old news. It's all eyes on the as-yet-unannounced iPad Mini now. And the rumour mill continues to churn stuff out for them. The latest: a trio of smartphone-shot snaps of the alleged compact slab. Blurry and pale, the three pics posted by Chinese-language site Bolopad are, the site claims, "real machine spy shots", …

reghardware 18 Sep 15:59
Wobbly swipe reader Square gulps down another $200m

Web 2.0 sweetheart now valued at $3.25bn

Beloved son of the Twitterati Square has swallowed another $200m in VC cash, apparently pegging the company at a value of $3.25bn. Square didn't invent credit card readers of course, neither did it create the first card terminal on an iPhone, but it does have Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey's name attached, and the tacit approval …

Financial News 18 Sep 16:33
Net neuters seek FCC relief from AT&T's FaceTime fees

Free market at work or Big Phone extortion?

A trio of public-interest groups plans to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission charging that AT&T's requirement that its subscribers move up to a higher-priced plan if they want to use Apple's FaceTime video conferencing over wireless broadband is in violation of the FCC's net-neutrality rules "There's a …

Mobile 18 Sep 19:48
Win8 tablets may cost MORE than iPads – AND LAPTOPS

Leaked slide shows $599 and up

Microsoft has predicted that Windows 8 and Windows RT will usher in a new era of touch-based computing, but if leaked pricing from Asus is anything to go by, customers will have to pay a pretty penny to share in Redmond's vision. Although PC makers have been busy readying a range of tablets and laptops with touchscreens in …

Windows 8 18 Sep 19:51
Nvidia puts Tesla K20 GPU coprocessor through its paces

Early results on Hyper-Q, Dynamic Parallelism speedup

Back in May, when Nvidia divulged some of the new features of its top-end GK110 graphics chip, the company said that two new features of the GPU, Hyper-Q and Dynamic Parallelism, would help GPUs run more efficiently and without the CPU butting in all the time. Nvidia is now dribbling out some benchmark test results ahead of the …

HPC 18 Sep 20:21
Microsoft, RIM ink new licensing agreement

Calm down, Microsoft isn't the one buying

Shares of Research in Motion spiked briefly on Tuesday on news that the struggling smartphone maker had signed a new licensing agreement with Microsoft, but investors who hoped the deal meant Redmond would bundle BlackBerry technology with its phones were in for a disappointment. Instead, RIM has licensed a group of Microsoft …

Mobile 18 Sep 21:53
Aus curriculum consultation skips some, still pleases

Vendors, industry groups, unaware of national curriculum development and review

Prominent vendors and industry associations are unaware of efforts to develop a new, national, IT curriculum for Australia. The Register last week reported that the curriculum does not, in its current form, include a software development stream. We've since been told by West Australian Education Minister Peter Collier that he …

Policy 18 Sep 22:30
Brains behind Kazaa and Morpheus unleash patent storm

Personalweb nastygram has Github, Apple, Rackspace and others in the cross-hairs

Level3 has joined with Personalweb Technologies to lay complaints against another lengthy list of Internet companies. The defendant list can be seen at the Texas Lawyer blog, and includes Yahoo!, Rackspace, Nexsan Technologies, Apple, IBM, Facebook, and Microsoft. Personalweb has previously filed complaints against Amazon, …

Policy 18 Sep 22:46
ACCC busts Bieber scamming mobile content pushers

Regulator slaps down premium SMS naughtiness

Mobile content providers attempting to dupe vulnerable teenagers with premium content honey traps have attracted the wrath of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Federal Court. The Australian Federal Court has dismissed appeals by mobile content service providers Global One Mobile Entertainment and 6G, …

Policy 18 Sep 23:09
Cisco EOLs ACE load balancer platform

Borg bullets Application Control Engine

Cisco is exiting the data centre load balancing market, confirming that it is ceasing development on its Application Control Engine product line. While only a back-alley in the Borg’s sprawling product line, the confirmation that ACE will be added to the Cisco end-of-life list will be a fillip for companies like F5, Radware, …

Data Networking 18 Sep 23:29