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15th October 2012 Archive

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  • Protestors target Google over that video

    Thousands insist YouTube should take down offensive film

    Google's London office was barricaded on Sunday, after thousands of protestors marched in protest against youTube's continued hosting of the controversial film, The Innocence of Muslims. London's Daily Telegraph says 10,000 protestors participated. The BBC preferred a figure of “up to 3500” and says the peaceful protest aimed …

    Media 15 Oct 00:45

  • US wireless downloads hit 1.1 trillion MB/year

    37% increase in smartphones helps wireless subscriptions top US population

    There are now more wireless subscriptions in the USA than there are citizens, according to the latest data from The Wireless Association (CTIA). The Association's latest count of all things wireless, The Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey, (PDF) covers July 2011 to June 2012, and found: 321.7 million wireless subscriber …

    Mobile 15 Oct 02:41

  • Japan's Renesas set for £1.6bn rescue plan

    Japanese microcontroller-maker to receive government rev-up, says report

    Ailing Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics is set to receive a ¥200bn (£1.6bn) investment boost to help prop up the company, the majority of which will come from the government, according to new reports from the Far East. The state-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) will plough around ¥150bn (£1.2bn) in …

    Business 15 Oct 04:54

  • China's tech elite crack Forbes' Rich List

    Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba founders in with the big boys

    China’s growing army of tech entrepreneurs have consolidated their position at the apex of the country’s elite, according to the latest Forbes rankings, although most still have some way to go before challenging the likes of Gates and Ellison. Forbes Asia officially released its China Rich List on Monday, and although the Top …

    Business 15 Oct 05:37

  • Big Blue Fellow lured aboard by Dell

    RAID inventor to give Austin a good beefening

    Dell has recruited IBM fellow and CTO Jai Menon to be the chief technology officer for its Enterprise Solutions Business, meaning servers, storage and networking. Menon spent 25 years at IBM, becoming a Big Blue vet, a career which culminated as the chief technology officer (CTO) and VP for technical strategy for IBM's Systems …

    Storage 15 Oct 06:29

  • Free games for all after EA discount code goes viral

    SNAFU meant one code worked multiple times, for multiple people

    Electronic Arts (EA) has endured a difficult weekend after a poorly-coded promotion saw a discount code that could be used many times find its way into the public domain, where it sparked a free games downloading spree. The incident seems to have started with this post to a gaming forum, which includes a discount code good for …

    Software 15 Oct 06:32

  • Iran blamed for ZTE's 260 PER CENT profit slump

    Chinese tech giant will close loss-making offices

    Under-fire Chinese telecoms kit maker ZTE has warned it will report a loss of up to 1.75bn yuan (£174m) for the first nine months of the year, blaming a slowing global economy and the Iranian market, where US investigators are probing its activities. The Shenzhen-based firm’s preliminary financials for the first three quarters …

    Business 15 Oct 06:50

  • Asus N56VM 15.6in notebook review

    Audio enhanced entertainer complete with a separate sub

    A good journalist always tries to avoid clichés, but sometimes when I’m writing laptop reviews I do find myself reaching for a few stock phrases, such as: the speakers are crap. Imagine my relief, then, to discover that the speakers on the Asus N56VM don't fall into the crap category, but are actually rather good, no doubt …

    Laptops 15 Oct 07:00

  • OFT writes volley of stern letters to naughty web retailers

    You are in serious danger of getting another letter

    The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned well-known online retailers trading in Britain that some of them could face formal enforcement action from the watchdog if they failed to comply fully with consumer protection law. It said the regulator had, ahead of the busy Christmas shopping period, written letters to 62 leading …

    Small Biz 15 Oct 07:21

  • SAP customers fancy licence payments 'holiday'

    No staff = no users = no usage

    SAP customers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the German giant’s software charges and want a payments “holiday”. A UK and Ireland SAP User Group poll found 95 per cent think the rules on SAP's licensing are out of control, with 67 per cent blaming SAP’s expanding product line. As the catalogue of …

    Applications 15 Oct 07:38

  • NURSES' natural DESIRES to be SATISFIED, by technology

    No more drinking tea and filling forms, empty that bedpan

    Nurses will get £100m worth of mobile tech including digital pens and other handheld tools, Prime Minister David Cameron and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt have just announced. It is hoped that the digi pens and other piece of comms tech will let nurses spend more time with patients and less time sitting around filling in …

    Government 15 Oct 07:58

  • Tremble, operators: UK gets ACCURATE mobile coverage guide

    Who is this stranger come to free us from your lying maps?

    A US company mapping mobile coverage has jumped the pond – nimbly bypassing the operators – and is now providing detailed UK coverage maps by combining professionally gathered data with cloud-sourced samples. Root Metrics was set up in 2008 and has been happily plotting US network coverage since then, using researchers with …

    Mobile 15 Oct 08:19

  • British car parks start reading number plates

    And tell the world you went to see Twilight

    UK car parks are now reading number plates to ensure everyone pays their due, with payments deducted from the account and unregistered parkers getting a ticket while everyone gets tracked. The system is called SwishPARK and already operational in eleven car parks, six in Welwyn Garden City, the rest scattered around England. …

    Security 15 Oct 08:39

  • Microsoft launches ad-funded Xbox Music audio streaming

    Consoles, Win 8 kit even iDevices to be covered

    Having failed to take on Apple and win in the music download business, Microsoft is hoping it can dominate - or, at least, stay relevant - with a streaming offering, this one free to users - provided they’re willing to accept advertising. With a library extending to some “tens of millions” of tracks in a catalogue claimed to …

    Hardware 15 Oct 08:51

  • Sky support dubs Germany 'Hitler's country'

    Told you not to mention the war

    It seems that it's not just the Greeks who are comparing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Nazi-leader Hitler: Sky support seems to share the view that Germany is still in thrall to the long-dead dictator. An El Reg reader preparing to move to the country of lederhosen and oompah bands was explaining his decision to Sky's …

    Bootnotes 15 Oct 08:58

  • Miniature Baumgartner jumps from 128,000ft

    Playmobil Lego or it didn't happen

    On Sunday, Austrian Felix Baumgartner leapt into the record books when he skydived from 128,100 feet (39,045 meters), possibly going supersonic as he plunged earthwards over New Mexico. Simultaneously, somewhere in Holland, his diminutive twin made his own bid for glory, albeit from a slightly less heady height: Good stuff …

    SPB 15 Oct 09:15

  • The 3D die stack tack: Toshiba builds towering column of flash

    Resistance is futile

    Toshiba is building high rise flash and ReRAM chips, with prototypes coming next year and volume shipping in 2015. The idea of high-rise or 3D chips is that we can sidestep limitations on increasing the storage density of flash or memory chips by stacking them one on top of the other, increasing the storage density on a Mbits/ …

    Storage 15 Oct 09:28

  • Jam today: Raspberry Pi Ram doubled

    All boards now ship with 512MB

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation has upgraded its credit card-sized computer: it now sports 512MB of memory rather than 256MB, but still costs $35 (£22). Foundation founder Eben Upton promised that anyone who has an outstanding order will receive the upgraded board. “Units should start arriving in customers’ hands today, and we …

    Hardware 15 Oct 09:42

  • Spiceheads keep Austin weird at IT's Comic Con

    Sysadmin blog I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want

    Spiceworld 2012* was in Austin, Texas. I spent my time there grilling vendor reps at the booths, talking to attendees and collaborating with Spiceworks employees. I'll save the article on "what's new in Spiceworks" as well as the feeds and speeds for later, after I've done some compare-and-contrast in the lab. Instead, I bring …

    Data Center 15 Oct 09:47

  • Apple extends fail-prone Seagate HDD swap scheme

    Own an iMac bought in or after October 2009?

    Apple has extended its 2011 iMac hard drive replacement scheme. Originally pegged to all-in-one desktop maps purchased between May and July 2011, the programme now runs from October 2009 to July 2011. If you own a 21.5in or 27in iMac bought new during that period, you may qualify for a free hard drive replacement. At issue …

    Hardware 15 Oct 09:58

  • Win 8 ready for slate ... but biz customers can wait

    Who needs to be touchy-feely in the corporate IT world?

    In a fortnight you’ll start to hear Microsoft's marketing machine crunching into overdrive as Windows 8 is driven onto the market. Not only will you hear from them, but also from the hardware manufacturers who are primed and ready to simultaneously release a slew of products that will support and embrace the new functionality …

    The Channel 15 Oct 10:00

  • Water, water everywhere on the Moon: But not a drop to drink

    Solar wind doesn't bring on the rain

    Astroboffins have discovered more and more water on the once-thought barren surface of the Moon in the last five years, but the question of where that water comes from is still a mystery. The ice at the poles of the Moon is one sort of water long known to be present on the Earth's major satellite, but water has also shown up …

    Science 15 Oct 10:17

  • Microsoft Halo 4 launch countdown continues as game leaks online

    Master Chief makes premature ejection

    Code for Microsoft's upcoming shooter Halo 4 has leaked online three weeks ahead of the game's launch, prompting investigation and action from team Xbox. Images of Halo 4 game disks appeared up on the NeoGaf forums last Friday and footage of the eagerly awaited FPS being played has since flooded the net. Fans are warned to …

    Games 15 Oct 10:22

  • Japan's Softbank offers $20.1bn to take big gulp of Sprint

    CEO: We're coming to America

    Japanese operator Softbank wants to buy Sprint, and has confirmed that it is prepared to pay more than £12bn ($20.1bn) for a 70 per cent stake in the US operator, assuming the US regulator will let it. Rumours of the deal were swirling around last week, leading to a drop in Softbank's own share value as investors balked at the …

    Financial News 15 Oct 10:37

  • Windows 8 ads hit US screens: Death Metal, exploding laptops

    Someone get a small kid in here, I can't work this

    Microsoft’s Windows 8 TV ads have started running in the US. Microsoft started running the spots during peak-time viewing for US sports audiences on Sunday, just 12 days before the launch date of the Windows 8 OS on 26 October. Pre-orders have been open since Friday. The ad pushes touchscreen PCs hard – showing off only one …

    Windows 8 15 Oct 10:59

  • Amazon reportedly looking to buy TI chip-maker at heart of Kindle Fire

    If you want something doing ...

    Mega-etailer Amazon is reportedly in talks to buy a mobile chip business from Texas Instruments. TI's mobile chips, which are used in Amazon's Kindle Fire fondleslab, could be in the market as the company moves away from smartphones and other mobile devices and into industrial clients like carmakers. If the talks lead to a …

    Financial News 15 Oct 11:24

  • Femto fail: Vodafone's Sure Signal gets a bit shaky again

    Requires occasional square-wave in power supply, says Voda

    Vodafone's femtocell offering, Sure Signal, is up the spout again. The UK's third largest operator said it was investigating and has recommended that disconnected punters try power-cycling the kit. Vodafone reckons the problem, which surfaced last week, is only hitting a small number of customers, but it's more than enough to …

    Mobile 15 Oct 11:53

  • Retailer leaks iPad Mini price list starting at £200

    But inventory leaker admits catalogue could be filled with placeholders

    Apple's new iPad Mini will sell for £200, if screenshots on a German site are to be believed. Mobilegeek.de is showing images of an inventory spreadsheet from the German gadget store Media Markt, which shows various models of iPad Minis listed alongside their prices. The cheapest iPad Mini, an 8GB Wi-Fi-only device, is listed …

    Hardware 15 Oct 12:28

  • iPad voice app back after patent spat: Mute kids get 'voices' back

    You WILL think of the children, judge insists

    A judge has saved an app that helps disabled children to make themselves understood, ruling that the two warring sides in a patent dispute will have to come to a business agreement. iPad app Speak For Yourself will return to the App Store, after a year-long patent lawsuit from patent-holder Prentke Romich that has seen the app …

    Developer 15 Oct 12:58

  • Second LulzSec member pleads guilty to Sony hack

    HideMyAss didn't hide his ass

    A second suspect has admitted involvement in high profile attack last year against Sony Pictures website by notorious hacking crew LulzSec. Passwords and personal information leaked as a result of the breach in May 2011. The site was breached using an SQL injection attack, a common hacking technique, to extract personal …

    Security 15 Oct 13:26

  • Affected by ebook price-fixing? Amazon has a few shiny pennies for you

    Publishers' settlement cash will go to customers

    Amazon has gleefully started contacting US ebook customers about the funds they're entitled to claim after three publishers settled price-fixing lawsuits. The Kindle-maker told customers that they'd be getting partial refunds of $0.30 to $1.32 for each eligible ebook bought between April 2010 and May 2012. Ebooks will be …

    Media 15 Oct 14:03

  • Investors shovel another $10m of 'fuel' onto the SkyFire

    Whose side are you on? Server side?

    Cloud-optimised browsing company SkyFire has landed another $10m investment, on top of the $30m it has already spent, to push its mobile browsing solution into Europe and Asia. Mobile browsing optimisation company SkyFire has raised another $10m from investors, on top of the $30.5m that has already been poured into the company …

    Financial News 15 Oct 14:26

  • Paid secur-o-ware is generally better than free, but not always by a lot

    Some big names well down the rankings in lab test

    Antivirus tests that assess the effectiveness of security products from the moment users visit infected websites have exposed widely differing performances among the various anti-malware products. The unsponsored tests by Dennis Technology Labs, which were run over a three-month period, revealed that the efficacy of paid-for …

    Security 15 Oct 14:58

  • AMD to decimate workforce several times over?

    Plus maybe the first born male children - reports

    With AMD announcing lowered expectations for the third quarter and CFO Thomas Siefert shown the door or finding the exit on his own a month ago, the talk has turned to what the company will do to get to profitability - and the prospect of deep job cuts. The Wall Street Journal jumped out in front with the layoff rumors, citing …

    Servers 15 Oct 15:29

  • Watchdog: Gov bods should rummage through BINS for FOI data

    Files sitting in electronic trash cans fair game for disclosure – ICO

    Public sector bodies will generally be required to disclose information even if it is stored in computer 'recycle bins', the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said. The watchdog has issued new guidance (25-page/350KB PDF) to help public bodies which are subject to the UK freedom of information (FOI) or environmental …

    Government 15 Oct 16:04

  • 13-inch 'Retina Display' MacBook Pro to uncloak next Tuesday?

    Unconfirmed notebook to join unconfirmed tablet at unconfirmed event

    Today's Cupertinian rumeur du jour: a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display will share the stage at next week's introduction of the much-anticipated iPad mini – or whatever that shrunken fondleslab may be dubbed. That is, of course, if there really is an event, as reported, on October 23 to introduce a svelter sibling of …

    Hardware 15 Oct 17:12

  • Leaked AT&T files show planned anti-piracy measures

    Blocking websites and handing over repeat offenders

    A series of what are claimed to be leaked training manuals show that AT&T will get a lot more aggressive with its customers over suspected internet piracy, beginning this November. The documents, allegedly obtained by TorrentFreak, say that AT&T will contact customers who have been identified as pirates by copyright owners. …

    Security 15 Oct 18:34

  • Mellanox etches software-defined networking onto SwitchX-2 chips

    Working on OpenFlow controller for fabric manager

    Networking chip and switch maker Mellanox Technologies is ramping up its efforts to play in the software-defined networking (SDN) world. The company will create its own OpenFlow controller and work to ensure that its switches work well with controllers from other vendors. The company is also rolling out a new switch ASIC that …

    HPC 15 Oct 18:47

  • GIANT EYEBALL PANIC ends: Oceanic peeper identified

    Sadly, alien origin debunked

    The giant eyeball that washed up on a Florida beach last week has been identified, quelling fears of a new monster swimming in the vasty deep. Researchers at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) report that the eye has been positively identified as coming from Xiphias gladius, or as it is more commonly …

    Science 15 Oct 19:17

  • Global notebook sales tank in recent months

    One company bucks the trend big-time. Wanna guess which one?

    Global notebook shipments took it on the chin in the third quarter of this year, with Acer, Asustek, and Toshiba seeing sales plunge by 15 to 25 per cent when compared to the previous quarter. One notebook vendor, however, bucked the trend, with sales of its notebooks climbing nearly 30 per cent during the same period. Care to …

    Hardware 15 Oct 19:34

  • Kindle DX delisted by Amazon

    Large-screen e-ink reader quietly retired

    Amazon has begun rolling out its latest Kindle e-readers in the UK and other international markets, but it seems the large-screen Kindle DX will no longer be part of the line-up, either in the US or abroad. Beginning on Monday, the online retailer's Kindle e-reader family now includes only the bargain-basement, ad-subsidized $ …

    Hardware 15 Oct 20:23

  • Cisco rolls up its own OpenStack distro

    Cloud control freaking on UCS rackers, Nexus switches

    Cisco's software engineers have rolled up a distro of the open source OpenStack cloud controller for its "California" Unified Computing System blade and rack servers and related Nexus converged switches. Cisco Systems might be very tight with storage juggernaut EMC and its VMware server virtualization minion, but that doesn't …

    Virtualization 15 Oct 22:08

  • NZ blogger names source for data leak tipoff

    Kiwi self-serve privacy outrage continues

    Blogger Keith Ng, who went public over the deeply-careless kiosk implementation in New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development job-seeker kiosks, has named the man that gave him the tip-off as Ira Bailey. The revelation, which Ng writes was made with Bailey’s permission, adds a certain spice to the story, since Bailey is an …

    Security 15 Oct 22:15

  • Android app dev dashboard update eases headaches

    Reworked Google Play Console brings better UI, more stats

    Google has overhauled the developer dashboards for its Google Play online store, with the aim of making it easier and faster for Android developers to publish, manage, and track the performance of their apps. According to a blog post by the Google Play team, the search giant first demoed the new Google Play Console at its …

    Developer 15 Oct 22:29

  • Yahoo! hires! top! Googler! to! revamp! operations!

    Marissa Mayer gets her man – for a price

    On her first day back in the office after just two weeks of maternity leave, Yahoo! CEO Marisa Mayer has announced that she's wooed a senior Google employee to join her management team. Henrique de Castro, currently Google's president of Global Media, Mobile & Platforms, will join Yahoo! in January as chief operating officer …

    Business 15 Oct 22:35

  • Planet hunters double down with FOUR-STAR SYSTEM

    Amateurs pluck nugget from Kepler data

    A group of amateur astronomers trawling through the vast store of data captured by the Kepler spacecraft has helped turned up a gem: a planet orbiting a double star, with another two stars in a more distant orbit. The discovery was made by Planethunters.org which, led by Yale University, lets “citizen scientists” (aren’t …

    Science 15 Oct 22:37

  • Last month ties for WARMEST September on RECORD

    'Is it hot in here, baby, or it just you?'

    If you found last month to be a mite toasty, the data is now in: you were right. "The average combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September 2012 tied with 2005 as the warmest September on record, at 0.67°C (1.21°F) above the 20th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F)," reports the National Climatic Data Center …

    Science 15 Oct 23:33

  • Engineer designs glass slipper on Quora

    You shall go to the ball, Cinderella

    This is merely a diversion, but a delightful one nonetheless: a mechanical engineer has answered a question posed on Quora, “What qualities would the glass in Cinderella's slippers need to have in order for her to walk and dance comfortably (and hold her weight)?” In the kind of what-if that probably has Randall Munroe over at …

    Bootnotes 15 Oct 23:43

  • Rackspace touts OpenStack private cloud prowess

    When will OpenStack split into enterprise and development releases?

    The OpenStack Design Summit kicked off today in San Diego, California, and Jim Curry, who had been managing the development effort for the OpenStack cloud control freak for the past two years, tells El Reg that he is enjoying not frantically running around running the show, and instead participating, along with the entire …

    Virtualization 15 Oct 23:58