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27th September 2012 Archive

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  • Google spikes old MS file formats

    Withdraws support for .doc, .xls, .ppt

    If you’re the nostalgic type who still has much of your office content stored in Microsoft binary formats, get ready for a busy weekend: the Chocolate Factory has decided that users of older Microsoft Office versions are an anachronism, and on Monday will kill off support for .doc, .xls and .ppt file formats. The changes to …

    Software 27 Sep 00:03

  • 'Double Stuf' Power7+ sockets: Yummy, but so is overclocking

    Analysis IBM needs to swing both ways in server land

    IBM's first Power7+ processor systems are expected to launch on October 3, but El Reg has a modest proposal for Big Blue as it prepares its rolling rollout: take a page from the Oreo Cookies cookbook, and "Double Stuf" 'em up and down the line. We've already given you the low-down on the Power7+ processors for IBM's Power …

    Servers 27 Sep 00:28

  • DDR4 memory: Twice the speed, less power

    JEDEC spec has hit the books – now wait a year or two

    The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has published the specifications for the next generation of synchronous DDR memory, which promises to double the speed of DDR3 while requiring less power to operate. "The publication of the JEDEC DDR4 standard represents the culmination of years of dedicated effort by memory device …

    HPC 27 Sep 00:41

  • 325 Dicks sell for AUD$20m

    Woolworths offloads electronics chain Dick Smith for peanuts

    Australian retailer Woolworths has offloaded the 325-store electronics chain Dick Smith to Anchorage Capital Partners for just AUD$20m. The retailer signalled its intention to do so earlier this year after a review of its operations decreed the electronics retailer was not core to its business or a likely source of future …

    Business 27 Sep 00:43

  • Linux-based Tizen mobile platform lives!

    Samsung could soon ship actual phone

    The Linux Foundation has released the source code and SDKs for the first alpha version of Tizen 2.0, its Linux-based smartphone OS, further fueling speculation that Samsung might be close to releasing a handset based on the platform. You could be forgiven for assuming Tizen was dead in the water – if you've heard of it at all …

    Operating Systems 27 Sep 00:56

  • Space Station ready to SWERVE sat junk hurtling towards it

    Indian, Russian debris coming through!

    The scheduled undocking of the ESA’s automated transfer vehicle (ATV) from the International Space Station (ISS) is being delayed as NASA and Russian managers prepare for a possible “debris avoidance maneuver” on Thursday. NASA has announced that the ATV’s engines may be needed to execute the maneuver, should it be required. …

    Science 27 Sep 02:15

  • iOS 6 maps gets thumbs up ... in China

    Partners with local player for better data

    Apple’s new Maps app in iOS6 may be getting an absolute pasting in most of the world but is providing surprisingly detailed results for China, where the fruity tech know-it-all has gone with local mapping info supplier AutoNavi. It’s no secret by now that Maps has been one of the most talked-and-complained-about, features of …

    Networks 27 Sep 04:24

  • Rolling robot avatar trumps telecommuting

    Tell your boss you're sending your private 'bot to work from now on

    Telecommuting just became soooooo twentieth century, thanks to a new oddity called the 'Beam Remote Presence Device' (BRPD, depicted below) that offers you the chance to beam you mug onto the seventeen-inch monitor atop a five-foot robot intended to roll around an office. The new bot comes from an outfit called Suitable …

    Hardware 27 Sep 05:31

  • China beats Burma in internet restriction rankings

    PRC only worsted by Iran and Cuba

    Chinese netizens’ internet freedoms are more restricted even than residents of Burma, according to the latest annual report from independent watchdog Freedom House. The not-for-profit studied 47 countries around the globe for its Freedom on the Net 2012 report, which is compiled by researchers based in each country analysing …

    Policy 27 Sep 06:01

  • Mighty quake shook ENTIRE PLANET, broke tectonic plate

    Indonesian rumble split planetary crust

    An April 2012 earthquake in Indonesian may signal the breakup of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and gave the earth's crust such a shaking that earthquakes happened all over the globe. That's the thrust of new articles in Nature, one of which analyses the quake and says the “11 April 2012 event had an extraordinarily …

    Science 27 Sep 06:46

  • Apple MacBook Air 13in review

    The other Ultrabook

    Two years ago Apple got really serious about thin and light laptops - and did something really quite important. It replaced its original Air model – that was by then almost three years old – with two new designs. The first Air had been widely perceived to be an expensive novelty, over-priced and under-powered, and it didn’t look …

    reghardware 27 Sep 07:00

  • Big Content split on China's IP crackdown

    BSA and MPAA clash over Taobao as 'Notorious Market'

    The movie and software lobbyists don’t seem to be able to agree on whether to drop China’s biggest e-commerce marketplace site Taobao from the US government's list of "Notorious Markets" in which pirates and counterfeiters operate with impunity. Taobao, often referred to as the eBay of China, allows individuals and small …

    Business 27 Sep 07:07

  • Texas Instruments: Screw smartphones, put our chips in the dishwasher

    Seeks better markets as Apple and Samsung start eating own dogfood

    Apple and Samsung are squeezing smaller chip manufacturers out of the market by only using their own chips, said a VP at chipmakers Texas Instruments. Greg Delagi senior vice president for embedded processing at Texas Instruments announced that his company was winding down its investment in smartphone and tab chips, and …

    Hardware 27 Sep 07:33

  • CPS grovels after leaking IDs of hundreds arrested during student riots

    Exclusive FOI blunder spaffed details of people released uncharged

    A botched response to a Freedom Of Information Act request could be about to cost the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dear. Prosecutors have issued grovelling apologies after revealing the identities of over a hundred people who were arrested during the tuition-fee riots but subsequently released without charge. Back in June, …

    Government 27 Sep 08:02

  • IBM takes on Amazon, wades into medium size biz clouds

    Big Blue offerings to puff out through many orifices

    IBM is about to start extolling the wonder of its cloud to medium-sized companies instead of sticking with its usual larger customers. Big Blue will the harness the power of a network of managed service providers in an effort to start a presence in a market dominated by companies like Amazon and Salesforce. Beancounters at …

    Small Biz 27 Sep 08:18

  • Aga-saga doyenne ponders how to put ebooks in public libraries

    Like vicars'-wives-and-their-problems stories? Got slab?

    The UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport has launched a panel to figure out how to get ebooks into public libraries in the country. Publisher William Sieghart will lead the panel of experts, which will also include Society of Chief Librarians president Janene Cox and popular UK author Joanna Trollope, who doesn't …

    Government 27 Sep 08:41

  • Rumour: Asus rejects $99 Nexus 7... rumour

    Google to massive subsidise hardware at last?

    Google and Asus won't be releasing a $99 (£61) Nexus 7 tablet, the second of those two partners has insisted. Somewhere on the internet, someone has suggested that the pair have just such a plan in mind. The $199/£159 price point will be maintained for a higher spec model, goes the theory, while the pared-back entry-level …

    reghardware 27 Sep 08:50

  • Instagram on iPhone 5: Now you can spoil even MORE snaps

    App tweaked, live image furtling banned

    Apple iPhone 5 owners can now ruin tint and enrich more photos in one go on their new mobes, thanks to the extra 18 per cent of screen space and an updated Instagram app. The photo-filter biz has just updated the user-interface in its software for Apple's mobile operating system iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. The 4-inch touchscreen …

    Mobile 27 Sep 09:03

  • McFlurry McMisdemeanour costs Welsh lass McJob

    Extra choc bits to colleague end in McMarching orders

    A 19-year-old Welsh lass has been relieved of her McJob after giving a fellow worker at the Llangunnor tentacle of the fast-food monolith an extra dose of chocolate pieces on a McFlurry. "Exceptional" employee Sarah Finch, of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, was given her McMarching orders after responding to a colleague's request …

    Bootnotes 27 Sep 09:19

  • AData claims 'world's thinnest external HDD' crown

    Can you beat 8.9mm?

    AData has unwrapped what it claims is the thinnest external hard drive to ever make it to market: a USB 3.0 unit that measures 8.9mm front to back. For comparison, one of the slimmest external HDDs we've seen of late is the 11mm-thick WD My Passport Edge for Mac. You have to wonder what practical difference that 2.1mm makes …

    Hardware 27 Sep 09:35

  • Got a data security policy? Chances are your IT bods don't know it

    Most data-blurt blunders are internal cockups, not hacks

    Advisory firm Forrester Research questioned 2,383 IT workers from five countries for a report called Understand The State Of Data Security And Privacy: 2012 To 2013, but only 56 per cent of those surveyed in North America and Europe said that they were aware of their employers' current data security policies, according to a …

    Security 27 Sep 09:42

  • Olympics may have been glorious, but they 'dampened IT trade'

    Big distie poops UK party with 'feeling of depression'

    The Olympics may have boosted the feelgood factor in London and across the wider country but it dampened trade in the IT channel - well, according to distributor Northamber anyway. The veteran UK distie made the claim today as it reported financials for the year to 30 June which revealed a return to pre-tax profits but a …

    The Channel 27 Sep 10:02

  • Steve Jobs backs Amazon from beyond grave in Apple trademark row

    Web souk wants false advertising claim binned in App Store lawsuit

    Amazon has asked a US court to lop off an allegation of false advertising from Apple's trademark lawsuit against the Amazon Appstore. Apple launched legal action last year alleging that the Amazon Appstore for Android is a trademark violation of Apple's App Store. On top of the trademark kerfuffle, Apple also claimed that …

    Business 27 Sep 10:19

  • Euro watchdog to charge Microsoft on web browser choice boob

    Fines of up to $7bn loom for breaking promise

    Microsoft will be slapped with "a formal proceeding into the company's breach of an agreement", the European Commission's competition chief Joaquin Almunia confirmed today. He apparently told reporters that the process was likely to be dealt with swiftly "because the company itself explicitly recognised its breach of the …

    Business 27 Sep 10:31

  • Japanese boffins unfurl banner above newly-discovered Element 113

    'We shall be FIRST IN ASIA to name an atomic element'

    Japanese scientists are chuffed to bits to announce that they have discovered the so-far undiscovered superheavy element with atomic number 113, and have staked a claim to naming it - and so joining the big leagues of element-finding boffinry nations. According to a statement issued by the Japanese research institute RIKEN: …

    Science 27 Sep 10:46

  • Intel launches ARM battery life Windows 8 Atom chip

    Clover Trail becomes Z2760, offers three weeks' standby time

    Intel has formally launched Clover Trail, its upcoming Atom system-on-a-chip for Windows 8 tablets. Officially branded the Atom Z2760, Clover Trail contains a dual-core x86 CPU capable of running at up to 1.8GHz in burst mode - maximise the clock frequency as far as the chip's temperature will allow - and equipped with …

    reghardware 27 Sep 10:57

  • Microsoft's Bing bods exploit fanbois' Apple maps misery

    Redmond chases after lost and stumbling iPhone punters

    Microsoft’s Bing team is taking advantage of Apple’s map app misery to make a push for Redmond's own cartographic efforts. In a cheeky blog post here, Microsoft invites iPhone 5 users to use Bing Maps to get around instead of Apple’s own shoddy substitute for Google Maps. The blog is titled Just Got a New Phone? Time to …

    Applications 27 Sep 10:58

  • EU policy-makers roll out red carpet for cloud adoption

    Legislation, legislation, legislation

    Public sector procurement regulators at the European Union (EU) look to have finally got a grasp on the issues around cloud computing in Europe – which is good news for both users and providers of cloud computing services. Like the UK government, with its G-Cloud initiative, the EU has declared that the use of public software- …

    The Channel 27 Sep 10:59

  • Virgin ramps 4G to a whopping 90Mbps - and switches it off

    Nyah nyah nyah, you can't have this... yet

    Virgin Mobile has completed its 4G trials in the UK, hitting speeds of 90Mbps both indoors and out. But don't expect EE's 4G monopoly to break any time soon despite the ongoing collaboration between the two companies. Virgin's mobile business is a virtual operator, carried on EE's 2G and 3G networks, but these next-gen mobile …

    Mobile 27 Sep 11:17

  • Cops cuff Google exec over YouTube Brazilian whack vid

    Web giant refused to pull attack piece on wannabe mayor

    Google's senior exec in Brazil was detained by police for questioning yesterday after the firm refused to take down YouTube videos attacking a mayoral wannabe. Brazil has stringent election laws that prevent any campaigning that might "offend the dignity or decorum" of candidates. The two videos in question "slander, insult …

    Media 27 Sep 11:44

  • Can you be a strong development manager and stay agile?

    On demand Work it out with our online video

    By the end of last week’s Regcast Agility without Anxiety, El Reg's Tim Phillips decided he could do with being a bit more agile himself. Judging by the wave of questions we had on the live broadcast agility is definitely something you are concerned with too. Mark Warren from Perforce shared the Perforce Version Management …

    Developer 27 Sep 11:45

  • 'Seagate's OCZ gobble was real, but went sour in CEO row'

    Insiders claim former top dog Petersen wanted more control

    Juicy scuttlebutt from storage insiders suggests the Seagate acquisition of OCZ fell through because the larger firm refused to give OCZ's CEO Ryan Petersen a seat on its board. According to our sources, this, in combination with flash NAND shortages at OCZ, led to Petersen's eventual resignation. Petersen founded and ran OCZ …

    Storage 27 Sep 12:01

  • Tibetan STATUE found by 1930s NAZI expedition is of ALIEN ORIGIN

    You couldn't make it up - actually somebody already did

    Life-imitating-art news on the boffinry wires today, as it has emerged that a 1938 Nazi expedition to Tibet brought back a mysterious statue or idol which has now been confirmed to be of extra-terrestrial origin. It seems that the strange artifact was brought to Germany following an expedition to the remote Asian interior led …

    Science 27 Sep 12:16

  • Now LG Display smacks Samsung with patent lawsuit over OLED

    'We nicked trade secrets? Never... it was YOU'

    LG Display filed a retaliatory patent lawsuit against Samsung today over OLED tech used in Sammy's smartphones and tablets. LG told a press conference that it was claiming that Sammy had infringed on seven of its display patents, just a few weeks after Samsung filed in Seoul claiming more or less the same thing about LG, the …

    Business 27 Sep 12:27

  • New I-hate-my-neighbour stickers to protect Brits' packages

    Postie ruling to reveal how much we trust next door with our sensitive stuff

    From Monday the Post Office will deliver letters and parcels to the house next door if you're out - and hand out new "don't trust the people next door" stickers that will tell you at a glance what type of neighbourhood you're living in. The Post Office asked for permission for surrogate deliveries back in July, and following a …

    Bootnotes 27 Sep 12:43

  • Politico's locked room mystery Linux install crime solved

    Rock lob boy and 'clueless staffer' fingered in Grimmgate probe

    A surprising twist has emerged in the tale of a New York politician who found Linux had been installed on his office computer after miscreants supposedly broke into the locked room. After his office windows were smashed by rocks, Michael Grimm, a US Republican who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, denounced the " …

    Bootnotes 27 Sep 12:59

  • Ultrabooks to finally out-ship notebooks after 20% price slash

    UK IT buyers prefer skinny models, if slightly cheaper

    Ultrabooks are forecast to overtake notebook shipments by mid 2012 after swingeing price cuts appear to be finally reeling in some UK punters, particularly in the enterprise. This is according to channel box-counter Context, armed with distributor sales-out stats that show a six fold rise in 13.3 inch utrabooks - 80 per cent …

    The Channel 27 Sep 13:28

  • TalkTalk's YouView box gets Ab Fab reception

    Free STB for Plus punters

    UK telecoms provider TalkTalk added YouView IPTV to its product portfolio in London today with the release of its own set top box. Although made by Huawei, the telco had a hand in its interface design and offers it free to all its Plus package customers. TalkTalk's STB is Huawei built but the UI is home grown Talking up its …

    reghardware 27 Sep 13:47

  • Quantcast gives the boot to Hadoop's HDFS

    Boots up – and opens up – homegrown QFS alternative

    There's no shortage of complaining about the limitations of the Hadoop Distributed File System that underpins the MapReduce algorithms of the Hadoop Big Data muncher, which is why quite a few companies have come up with alternatives. And now there is a new HDFS alternative from internet click counter Quantcast called – you …

    Storage 27 Sep 14:12

  • Fuming fanbois flood 'flimsy iPhone 5 Wi-Fi' forum

    Networking not working, claim puzzled punters

    Punters on an Apple support forum claim they are struggling to use Wi-Fi networks with their iOS 6 gadgets. The trouble seems to affect new iPhone 5s as well as iPads and older iPhones updated to the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system. Users of iOS 6, writing under a headline "iPhone 5 wifi issues", reported a …

    Networks 27 Sep 14:34

  • European Commission: Cloud will save us from economic doom

    But only if we set standards

    The European Commission is to create cloud computing standards across its 27 member states to spur customer adoption and boost local economies. Cloud has already been hyped to death in the commercial world and now the EC is adding to the marketing bluster. It said in its new strategy document – "Unleashing the potential of …

    The Channel 27 Sep 15:17

  • Canonical bungs kill switch onto Ubuntu's Amazon 'adware'

    Penguinista revolt sparks volte-face at Um Bongo towers

    Canonical is reining in its Ubuntu Linux distro's new Amazon "adware" desktop search feature after penguinistas vented their rage. Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon has explained in a blog post how users can disable the controversial system that, by default, sends desktop search queries unencrypted to Amazon via Canonical's …

    Operating Systems 27 Sep 15:34

  • AI game bot HUNTS DOWN ENEMIES, passes Turing Test

    Passes for human in first-person shooter scenario

    A gaming bot has passed the Turing Test for the first time ever by successfully mimicking the traits of human gamers including irrational grudges and poor aim over long distance. The University of Texas computer scientists behind winning game bot UT^2 – one of the two champions of the BotPrize 2012 competition – coded it to …

    Applications 27 Sep 16:03

  • New Zealand Prime Minister apologizes for Dotcom spying

    Dotcom says police missed explosive clues

    The Prime Minister of New Zealand has formally apologized for the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom, saying that the Government Communications and Security Bureau (GCSB) had "failed at the most basic of hurdles". "I apologize to Mr Dotcom, and I apologize to New Zealanders," the Kiwi PM John Key said at a press conference. …

    Government 27 Sep 20:03

  • Curiosity photographs evidence of ancient streams on Mars

    A river ran through it

    NASA has announced that the Curiosity rover has found evidence of a fast-moving stream that once flowed over the Martian surface. "From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator …

    Science 27 Sep 20:53

  • Portugal’s prosecutor punts P2P case

    Personal sharing legal

    Portugal has decided that personal P2P file-sharing is legal, and that an IP address isn’t sufficient evidence to launch actions against users, reports Exame Informatica. APACOR, the Portuguese entertainment trade association, had launched a complaint against two thousand P2P users it accused of illegally sharing movies, the …

    Law 27 Sep 22:20

  • Adobe scrambles to revoke stolen cert

    Malware signed as Adobe software

    Adobe has revealed an attack that compromised some of its software development servers, resulting in its code signing certificate being used to disguise malware as Adobe software. The attackers compromised a build server, Adobe says in this statement, which had “access to the Adobe code signing infrastructure”. The build …

    Security 27 Sep 22:51

  • ASIC chimes in on data retention, seeks more intercept powers

    Carriers fight rearguard action on cost

    The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has dropped a stink-bomb into the data retention debate, asking the government to give it intercept powers covering e-mail, social media, text messages and phone calls. In hearings of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security in Sydney on Thursday …

    Policy 27 Sep 23:30