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5th October 2012 Archive

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  • Mozilla floats fondleslab-ready Firefox for Win 8

    Hopes to beat IE10 at its own game

    The Mozilla Foundation has made available a preview release of a version of its Firefox browser that has been re-engineered to run as both a desktop application and a Windows Store app for Windows 8's new, fondleslab-friendly Start Screen. So far, the touch-enabled version of the browser can only be downloaded from Mozilla's …

    Applications 5 Oct 00:16

  • Drinking too much coffee can MAKE YOU BLIND

    Study not iron-clad, but ask yourself, 'Do you feel lucky?'

    According to a new study, drinking more than three cups of coffee per day has been shown to correlate with an increased risk of developing glaucoma, which can lead to vision loss or blindness. "While caffeinated coffee has several health benefits," lead researcher Jae Hee Kang told Health magazine, "drinking three or more cups …

    Science 5 Oct 00:20

  • Microsoft plans midnight launch for Surface

    Who does they think they are, JK Rowling?

    Say what you like about Microsoft, but the company has never lacked chutzpah. According to invites sent out on Thursday, the company is to launch its Surface tablet hybrid at midnight on October 26 from its pop-up stores. This means Redmond is expecting punters to queue up through the night for a chance to buy a system that …

    Hardware 5 Oct 00:20

  • New questions raised over Kim Dotcom snooping

    Reports ‘ping’ Kiwi spy agency for spying on Dotcom's Modern Warfare sessions

    The slow-motion train wreck of the Megaupload investigation rumbles on, with a new report alleging Kim Dotcom’s Internet connection showed signs of interference earlier than New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau had admitted. According to the New Zealand Herald, Dotcom’s ping times were under investigation by …

    Law 5 Oct 01:03

  • Archaeologists resume Antikythera Mechanism hunt

    Expedition returns to site where world’s oldest computing device found

    Scientists from the USA and Greece have returned to the site where, in 1901, a device widely regarded as the world’s first computing mechanism was found, in the hope that similar devices can be found. The device in question is the Antikythera Mechanism, an apparatus of interlocking gears dated to the first century BC. The …

    Science 5 Oct 01:59

  • Happy 20th Birthday, IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad

    The laptop, yes - but NOT the brand

    The ThinkPad is 20 today. Sort of. Launched by IBM and now made by Lenovo, the familiar black-clad, red-nippled laptop family quickly established itself as an icon, in many ways re-establishing Big Blue's reputation as a PC maker after years in the shadow of the clone manufacturers. The first three clamshell-styled ThinkPads, …

    Hardware 5 Oct 06:00

  • New telescope tipped to spot 700,000 galaxies

    Australia’s Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder opens for business

    “Please don’t attempt to interact with native wildlife … or collect flowers or stones” seems an odd thing to hear at the launch of a radio telescope, but those words were intoned today at the ribbon-cutting function for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). …

    Science 5 Oct 06:02

  • Security mess sends Kiwi auction site titsup in two days

    Holes allowed auction price resets, exposed passwords

    A New Zealand auction website has shut after just a day, thanks to IT professionals who noticed extraordinarily relaxed security operations. The site in question is Wheedle.co.nz, which currently says “unforeseen technical problems “have “postponed further activity on the website.” Postp0wned may be a more accurate term, as …

    Security 5 Oct 06:45

  • Google Wallet: Rub our button, cough 15p for quick read

    Tests the waters on pennies-for-content

    A new scheme launched by Google is allowing internet users to pay to access content on individual pages on websites. The internet giant has partnered with a select number of publishers – including Oxford University Press and Peachpit – to enable users of its 'Google Wallet' mobile payment system to buy content from individual …

    Media 5 Oct 07:32

  • Just how good is Nokia's PureView 41Mp camera tech?

    Our pro photographer holidays in Stromboli to find out

    When I first learnt about Nokia's 808 PureView phone featuring a 41Mp camera, I thought I'd either misread the specs or I'd somehow stepped into the future. A forty one megapixel camphone – WTF? Not even professional DSLRs showcase such a high resolution. Nokia's 808 PureView 41Mp camphone Well, once I ascertained that …

    reghardware 5 Oct 08:00

  • GCHQ boss: Crypto-genius Turing brought tech to British spooks

    Tributes paid to 'unique' code-breaking boffin

    The director of GCHQ Iain Lobban credited Alan Turing with bringing technology to Brit spooks in a speech marking 100 years since the late mathematician's birth. Lobban, who gave a talk at Leeds University last night as part of the famous Bletchley Park codebreaker's centenary celebrations, also said the wartime crypto-boffin …

    Security 5 Oct 08:19

  • Want to know the Channel chatter before it hits the headlines?

    We're uniquely in a position to provide that service ...

    Attention all resellers, integrators, distributors and service providers! Who is it that knows the Channel news before it hits the headlines? Who else but the staff of The Channel - by definition we have to know it before it can be a headline. Sister publication of the UK's most widely read technology and science daily The …

    The Channel 5 Oct 08:30

  • Inside the real-world Double-O section of Her Majesty's Secret Service

    Bond on Film Commander Bond's previous career as it would be today

    Thanks to the books and films we all know a lot about James Bond 007. We also know a little about the group he supposedly belongs to, the "Double-O agents" of "Her Majesty's Secret Service" - the only British secret agents with a licence to kill. But just how realistic is the idea? Does anything like the Double-O section really …

    Bond, James Bond 5 Oct 08:40

  • Tablet security study finds BlackBerry still good for something

    iPad,Galaxy Tab and PlayBook face off in BYOD probe

    A technology audit has identified security failings in three of the most popular tablets, raising concerns about the security implications of allowing workers to use their personal technology at work. A study by Context Information Security looked at Apple's iPad, Samsung's Galaxy Tab and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, and …

    Security 5 Oct 08:58

  • Sony suspends slate sales

    Water-tight tablets open to the elements

    Sony has put the brakes on shipments of its Android-based Xperia tablets, the company admitted today, after the Android slab sprung a leak. The Xperia Tablet S, launched early in September at the IFA consumer electronics show, was said by Sony to be water resistant. However, a manufacturing flaw ensured that gaps between the …

    reghardware 5 Oct 09:04

  • Experts troll 'biggest security mag in the world' with DICKish submission

    Updated Researchers SICK OF SPAM submit ridiculous piece to Hakin9

    Security researchers have taken revenge on a publishing outlet that spams them with requests to write unpaid articles – by using a bogus submission to satirise the outlet's low editorial standards. Hakin9 rather grandly bills itself as the "biggest IT security magazine in the world", published for 10 years, and claims to have …

    Media 5 Oct 09:31

  • Harvester garners iFans with first UK Passbook e-voucher

    Money off your meal, but only if you're an iOS 6 user

    Harvester, the Mitchells & Butlers-owned Berni Inn de nos jours, is offering iPhone fans a fiver off a £30 bill if they turn up at one of the branded restaurants with a handset running iOS 6 and at least one other person, and do so before 20 October. Just don't use iOS 6's Maps app to find your nearest hostelry... The offer …

    reghardware 5 Oct 09:43

  • Perth porkfest crowned ULTIMATE BACON SARNIE

    Jubilant Scottish cafe celebrates A90 Behemoth triumph

    It's official: "The A90 Behemoth" is the ultimate bacon sarnie, according to our pork-loving gourmet readers. The pinnacle of pork perfection was put forward by Neil Cardy and, against a plethora of porcine-rich peers, was picked in our public poll. Cardy, who tucked into the mega-butty at The Horn cafe on the A90 between …

    SPB 5 Oct 10:00

  • Frontrunners emerge in sprint for Cisco's CEO crown

    John Chambers promotes two execs as he mulls retirement by 2016

    Last month, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers indicated he was mulling over a succession plan for when the 63-year-old veteran chief retires from the networking giant. On Thursday, the frontrunners to replace him moved into clear view. Cisco made Gary Moore and Rob Lloyd presidents of the company, and insisted that it was " …

    Business 5 Oct 10:19

  • Microsoft puts Patch Tuesday on a diet, fixes Office flaw

    Just one critical vuln in light update

    Microsoft is planning a light October edition of its regular Patch Tuesday updates next week that focuses on Office flaws and features just one critical patch. The critical bulletin features a vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 as well as Word Viewer and Microsoft Office Web Apps. Office for Mac is not …

    Security 5 Oct 10:39

  • 'X Factor for tech is going to be OUTTA THIS WORLD'

    QuoTW Plus: 'While we're improving Maps, you can try our rivals'

    This was the week when the unexpected and the completely incredible happened all at once - Apple apologised for its craptastic Maps app in iOS 6. Yes, following relentless fruit-bashing, with even the most foaming-mouthed fanatic fanbois justifiably ticked off at the rather glaring inaccuracies in the firm's new satnav-like …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 11:01

  • Will you soon be fingering your seven-incher?

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Tablets set for shrinkage

    The mill that grinds out iPad Mini launch rumours was hit by a hurricane this week, its normally creaking sails thrashing like helicopter blades. I’d love to say that I’m bored by the whole thing but unfortunately it’s going to affect everyone at work. You spend six months preparing for the Kindle Fire UK launch – a “game- …

    reghardware 5 Oct 11:09

  • Prehistoric-super-tooth dentists drill DIAMONDS into duck-billed 'saur riddle

    Cretaceous era cow's survival secret revealed at last

    Some dentistry work on a 70-million-year-old tooth has provided an insight into the evolutionary success of duck-billed dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs' unique tooth structure is now a vital clue in the mystery of how the billed herbivores, dubbed "the cows of the Cretaceous era", spread so far and lived for so long. The ancient …

    Science 5 Oct 11:25

  • 4K vs OLED: and the winner is...

    South Korea, Japan - fight, fight, fight

    How will television makers persuade punters to buy a new set now we all - well, most of us - have 1080p sets with internet access? We’ve already seen that 3D isn’t going to do it, but now two new alternative upgrade-driving technology are emerging - OLED and 4K - and they two are re-establishing an old battle line between …

    reghardware 5 Oct 11:32

  • Microsoft beefs up cloud login security in PhoneFactor gobble

    Is that a token in your pocket or are you pleased to see us?

    Microsoft has bought PhoneFactor, the maker of software that allows punters to securely identify themselves to computer systems using their mobiles. Terms of the deal, announced yesterday, were undisclosed. The snapped-up biz offers phone-based authentication as an alternative to physical security tokens that can, for instance …

    Security 5 Oct 11:46

  • Gartner has its head in the clouds - and its numbers are WRONG

    Open ... and Shut Less is more

    Gartner analyst Frank Ridder recently opined that "the number of cloud offering[s] is not at all at a satisfactory level today." He made this assertion after canvassing a number of IT users at two Gartner summits. Unfortunately, he may have missed the message these users were sending him. It's not that we need more cloud …

    Cloud 5 Oct 12:07

  • Motörheadphönes ears-in review

    Review Rock stars

    It’s tempting to see the new line of Motörhead phones - sorry, phönes - as just another entry in the growing list of celebrity branded audio gear triggered by the rise of Dr Dre’s Beats line. And you can’t blame Lemmy and co. for telling their roadies to shove their amps and speaker stacks onto this particular bandwagon. In El …

    reghardware 5 Oct 12:11

  • Samsung expects whopping $7.3bn profit from mobes

    The chips may be down, but Galaxy sales are up

    Samsung reckons it's in line for a record quarterly operating profit after Apple's reduced orders for chips and screens seem to have failed to make a dent in the South Korean business. The fruity firm is clearly hoping to hamper or just distance itself from the South Korean firm by unwinding their long partnership as their …

    Financial News 5 Oct 12:23

  • Stone Computers sales catch cold as public sector keeps sneezing

    Admin cost slash hanky wipes mucus off profit sleeve

    Staffordshire-based PC builder Stone Computers ground out a profit in calendar 2011 as it chopped admin expenses to offset the general market decline in public sector IT spending. One of the last bastions of the once mighty Brit community of PC makers, Stone saw sales slide to £65.5m from £69.7m in 2010 and operating profits …

    The Channel 5 Oct 12:26

  • Watch out, Martians! Curiosity to scoop its first soil sample

    But first Mars rover will rinse, spit 'n' repeat

    Mars rover Curiosity has rolled up to Rocknest and is getting ready to scoop its first soil sample, which is key to figuring out if microbial life ever existed on the Red Planet. Rocknest, site of Curiosity's first soil sample. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The rover is going to do some limbering up exercises with its …

    Science 5 Oct 12:41

  • Social Bikes inks deal with AT&T to stalk pedal-pushers

    Vid Networking the bike, not the rack

    AT&T will be providing connectivity to push bikes from Social Bikes, enabling bike-share schemes to operate without dedicated big racks by tracking every mile peddled. Despite failing as a Kickstarter project, and only finishing the prototype bike four months ago, Social Bicycles (or SoBi as they prefer to be called, though …

    Mobile 5 Oct 12:58

  • The tips stop here: Starbucks to take Square Wallet payments

    Throws a creepy first-name greeting in too

    Starbucks coffee shops in America, all 7,000 of them, will start accepting payments from Square's Wallet next month, but they'll be no tipping until 2013. Starbucks has $25m invested in Square, the revolutionary new way of paying which is neither revolutionary, nor new, but does have a Silicon Valley celeb at the helm and $ …

    Mobile 5 Oct 13:23

  • 'Never seen before' Fraunhofer wireless breakthrough... seen before

    Many Hans make light work?

    Pity Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute. The research organisation best known for devising the MP3 music format seems to be running short of projects to puff. This week it published an item of “research news” about the work of Fraunhofer boffin Frank Deicke, who is employed at Fraunhofer’s photonics lab in Dresden. Herr Deicke is …

    reghardware 5 Oct 13:44

  • LOHAN plugs into some hot LiPo treatment

    Vulture 2 rocket motor heater fired up and toasty

    We turned up the heat a little this week at the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) headquarters, with the first test of our space-grade Polyimide Thermofoil flexible heater, intended to keep the Vulture 2 spaceplane's rocket motor nice and toasty as it it ascends into the stratosphere. Initial tests of solid …

    SPB 5 Oct 14:04

  • Steve Jobs is STILL DEAD

    'I am Ahead of the Puck', insists deceased biz titan

    Visitors to Apple's online shop were today reminded that Steve Jobs remains dead. Fanboys accessing the normally functional retail site, keen to buy such post-Jobsian products as the iPhone 5, were forcibly delayed for 1.45 minutes by a black and white slideshow presentation "Remembering Steve" featuring voice-over quotations …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 14:33

  • Facebook IPOcalypse cases: One lawsuit to end them All

    Plucky Zucky aims to dump them into NY legal Mount Doom

    The 57 different cases against Facebook or the NASDAQ over the free-content ad firm's disastrous IPO have all been mashed up into one uber-lawsuit to be heard in New York. The technical glitches that marred the first day of Facebook's stock trading have been blamed by many for the share's low prices, sparking class action …

    Law 5 Oct 14:58

  • Democrat candidate attacked by GOP for being stabby assassin ORC

    When Republicans play WoW they're all paladins

    US Republicans are completely out of touch with, er, virtual reality - it would seem - after a Maine state senate candidate was outed by Republicans for being a sweary orc badass in the online game World of Warcraft. Apparently, Colleen Lachowicz' participation and persona in WOW makes her unfit to run for office - in GOP eyes …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 15:03

  • Google-Moto slips out of Microsoft's grapple in German court wrestle

    Legal baby oil beats Redmond belly slam

    Googorola has scored another win against Microsoft in Germany, as a Mannheim court decided that the ads'n'mobes conglom didn't infringe on one of Redmond's patents. Specifically the regional court said on Friday that Moto products didn't infringe on Microsoft's patent that allows apps to work on different phones. "This …

    Law 5 Oct 15:29

  • US unemployment dips below 8 per cent, but IT sector takes a hit

    Some risk of being forced to take a job as a teacher

    The economy in the United States added as many jobs as economists had been expecting and President Obama had been no doubt praying for, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 per cent, the first time it has been below 8 per cent since the current Great Recession began in December 2007. The Bureau of Labor Statistics not only …

    Jobs 5 Oct 16:01

  • Feds charge US firm with smuggling illegal military tech to Russia

    'Traffic light' firm actually supplied KGB-successor with hi-tech gear, say officials

    Key personnel in a Texas-based electronics firm are among 11 people arrested over an alleged conspiracy to smuggle advanced microelectronics from the US to Russia. Arc Electronics Inc allegedly acted as a conduit for the smuggling of high-tech components potentially useful in radar, weapons guidance, surveillance and other …

    Security 5 Oct 16:28

  • Pilfering sysadmin gets four years and $2.3m fine for kit theft

    FBI nails Verizon engineer over Cisco scam

    A former Verizon network engineer is beginning a four-year jail term after being sentenced for scamming Cisco and Verizon out of millions of dollars worth of kit and fencing it through the reseller community. For nearly a decade, Michael Baxter, 62, used his position at Verizon to order processors, cards, and other networking …

    Security 5 Oct 16:39

  • Oracle, Google limber up for round two in their Android Java bout

    Put your dukes up, and let's do this all over again

    Oracle has launched an appeal after its legal action over the use of Java in Google's Android operating system fell flat. Not to be outdone, Google is also appealing against part of the trial's outcome. Larry Ellison's database company yesterday filed notice of its plan to appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal …

    Law 5 Oct 17:02

  • Microsoft spruces up crap apps in early Win8 update

    New versions to arrive before launch date

    When Reg contributor Tim Anderson reviewed Windows 8 in August, he described the built-in Metro Modern UI Windows Store apps that ship with the OS as being "a bit rubbish." Microsoft must have agreed, because it's already planning to deliver updates for at least 13 of those apps, most of which should ship before Windows 8 even …

    Windows 8 5 Oct 18:57

  • Google trains Army's information Top Guns in data skills

    DeDupe, log off! You'll crash the system

    The US Navy may have its Top Gun training school, but now the Army is sending its best of the best at systems management to a similar program at Google, to get training in industrial management tactics, techniques, and procedures. Just like its flashier aviation counterpart, places at the Google program had to be earned …

    CIO 5 Oct 19:03

  • Astroboffins to search for mega-massive alien power plants

    Dyson Spheres – not just for Star Trek anymore

    A team of alien-hunting astroboffins has been awarded a grant to search the sky for immense engineering feats that would reveal the existence of astral civilizations far, far more advanced than us puny humans. Lead by assistant professor Jason Wright of Penn State's Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the team will use …

    Science 5 Oct 20:01

  • Not so fast, T-Mobile: Sprint may bid for MetroPCS

    Consolidation ahead for US wireless market

    Reports that US mobile carriers T-Mobile and MetroPCS are headed for a merger may be premature if rival carrier Sprint Nextel is close to making a counter-bid, as sources claim. On Wednesday, fourth-place US carrier T-Mobile and its smaller rival MetroPCS jointly announced that their boards had approved a merger that would …

    Mobile 5 Oct 20:42

  • ReDigi fights for right to sell used digital music

    Record companies seek to kill the golden goose

    A New York court is hearing legal arguments that will decide if there can be a legal market in second-hand digital music, an idea strongly opposed by record companies. ReDigi, a Boston,MA startup, opened its virtual doors last year with a scheme to allow the resale of people's digital music collection if it has been bought on …

    Law 5 Oct 22:14

  • LASER STRIKES against US planes on the rise

    Zap attacks now at 'epidemic' levels

    The next time you find yourself on an airline flight coming in for a landing, consider this: at that very moment, someone on the ground could be training a handheld laser at your aircraft's cockpit. It happens more often than you think. The FBI has only been keeping records of laser beams striking planes since 2004, but …

    Security 5 Oct 23:49