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1st November 2012 Archive

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  • Vodafone Oz taken to court by dealer

    Update Liquidator says Voda's billing systems drop out

    Vodafone Australia has something else to worry about besides its dwindling customer base and fragile network, as dealer BD Mobile suing the carrier for unpaid commissions. BD Mobile, also known as Besyl, was one of Vodafone’s exclusive dealers but was placed into voluntary liquidation in February. Boutique insolvency firm …

    Business 1 Nov 00:02

  • NASA's long shot shows Titan glows in the dark

    Cassini probe captures natural neon sign

    A series of long-exposure photos taken of Titan have shown the solar system's second biggest moon glows in the dark of Saturn's shadow. The Cassini probe, which celebrated 15 years of operation earlier this month, has photographed the moon using exposure times of 560 seconds as it was blocked from the sun. The goal was to …

    Science 1 Nov 01:21

  • Appro adds water-cooling to Xtreme supercomputers

    An HPC-driven hot tub for every university and city

    It's time to install the hot tub, sauna, and heated swimming pool next to the supercomputer centers of the world and open them up to the public as modern-day baths. If you can think of a better use for waste heat generated by petafloppers, so be it. But clearly this is possible with a new line of supercomputers from Appro …

    HPC 1 Nov 04:02

  • HP to partners: sew your way to vertical Win 8 success

    Canalys APAC First in, best dressed

    Mastery of a sewing machine may help the channel cash in on Windows 8, HP representatives have told the APAC Canalys Channels Forum. Prowess in the domestic arts, the company said, could come in handy thanks to HP's provision of information and assistance to create covers and accessories for its Windows 8 devices. That's not …

    Business 1 Nov 04:06

  • World's tallest tower in massive broadcast FAIL

    Tokyo tower is 634 metres high and still can't send a signal

    The world’s tallest free-standing broadcasting tower has a slight problem – it can’t broadcast very well. The ¥65 billion (£503m) Tokyo Skytree was opened to an awe-struck public in May this year. Standing at an impressive 634 metres (the Eiffel Tower tops out at 324 metres), the idea was that in January 2013 it would take …

    Networks 1 Nov 05:21

  • Cupertino man jailed for exporting tech to China

    No, he's not from Apple...

    The founder of a Cupertino tech firm has become the latest to fall foul of tough US laws restricting the sale of military technology to China, after he was banged up for over a year. Fu-Tain Lu was sentenced to 15 months in the slammer after pleading guilty to selling sensitive microwave amplifiers to the People’s Republic …

    Policy 1 Nov 05:54

  • Snooper's-charter plans are just misunderstood, sniffles tearful May

    Reborn plan to tap entire UK internet catches cold

    Home Secretary Theresa May appeared before peers and MPs in Westminster on Wednesday afternoon to face questions about her proposed communications data bill, which has been almost universally rejected by people outside the security services bubble. Excellent Hallowe'en vampire makeup, Minister Her Hallowe'en session was the …

    Government 1 Nov 06:00

  • Seagate: Oh no, is my enterprise disk sales slip showing?

    Hard disks, hard times, hard numbers

    Seagate saw a 9.3 per cent slip in enterprise disk drive sales in its first fiscal 2013 quarter and revenues fell to $3.732bn compared to the previous quarter's $4.482bn. However, revenues were higher than the year-ago quarter's $2.8bn, when a profit of $140m was made. In the latest quarter profits were substantially higher at …

    Storage 1 Nov 06:27

  • Big cell towers now outnumbered by briefcase-sized jobs

    Complain loudly enough, you might get a free one at home

    There are now more small cells than bigger 'macro' base stations, with the vast majority located in users' homes but an increasing number rented out to network operators wanting coverage. Globally there are a shade under six million cellular base stations as we'd recognise them, according to Informa Telecoms and Media, but …

    Mobile 1 Nov 06:56

  • Halo 4 game review

    The Master Chief is back but the combat has not evolved

    If you’re a Halo fan, it’s a no-brainer of course. You’ll buy Halo 4 whatever I or anyone else says. You’ll enjoy it too, no question, especially if you’re after its upgraded multiplayer experience. But if you’re hoping the game's solo campaign will let you relive the magic of the original Combat Evolved, you may be a little …

    Games 1 Nov 07:02

  • El Reg acquires wildly dangerous laser cannon (with lightsabre option)

    Soon to be mounted on head of a shark. Or maybe donkey

    Once a year, El Reg's Special Projects Bureau compiles a hardware/office supplies acquisition list for the coming 12 months, which is ceremoniously laid before management in the hope the Vulture Central coffers are particularly cornucopious. The trick is to slip in the more provocative items amid the usual litany of …

    SPB 1 Nov 08:29

  • Meet the photographer who brings Google Street View INDOORS

    Interview Snapper describes out-of-the-blue recruiting call

    Google Streetview will now venture into your business, at a price, and the Chocolate Factory has been busy signing up local shutterbugs, so El Reg caught up with one of them to find out what it takes to get one's shelves added to Streetview. Turns out it takes about two hundred quid, depending on the size of one's business, …

    Media 1 Nov 09:00

  • Big Data to battle fraud, cyber crime: EMC guard dog gets a Silver Tail

    If you can't sniff with the big dogs, get off the porch

    EMC has signed a deal to acquire web fraud detection specialists Silver Tail Systems. Financial terms of the deal, announced Tuesday, were undisclosed. In a statement, EMC said that Silver Tail’s technology bolsters RSA’s position in the web fraud detection market because its technology complements RSA’s anti-fraud products …

    Security 1 Nov 09:19

  • Lindsay Lohan storm over Hitler, Hurricane tweets: 'It was hackers'

    Curiously dull hack ... maybe they were a bit tired

    Actress Lindsay Lohan has blamed hackers for posting a frankly-odd Hitler themed Twitter update to her profile. The deleted tweet stated: “How does Hitler tie his shoes? from @oatmeal”, SecurityFAQs reports. Later on Wednesday LiLo apologised to the 4.5 million plus followers to her micro-blogging feed. "My twitter was hacked …

    Security 1 Nov 09:39

  • Speaking in Tech: The ARMs race, Commander Data and Larry’s evil empire

    Podcast And... Chromebook: An outstanding laptop for mum

    It's another enterprise techcast hosted by Greg Knieriemen and Sarah Vela. Greg and Sarah host special guest Mark Twomey (@Storagezilla) from EMC, who brings them the low-down on everything we all want to know about ARMed server chip revolution. They also inspire Trekkie envy by chatting about Brent Spiner, aka Commander Data …

    Datacenter 1 Nov 10:00

  • EE 4G LTE review

    Very high speeds - if you can pick up a signal

    EE’s LTE network went live this week, opening its 1800MHz band to the public and becoming the first, and currently only, one of the major operators to offer a 4G service. It has a six-month lead, give or take, on rivals Vodafone and O2, which have to await the outcome of Ofcom’s 800MHz and 2.6GHz frequency auctions before they …

    Mobile 1 Nov 10:02

  • Ailing Comet at last prayers: Cawing of accountants and VCs fills air

    Suppliers wouldn't fill warehouse for Xmas on tick

    Beleaguered bricks and mortar retailer Comet is lurching toward administration with Deloite understood to be waiting in the wings. Parent Kesa Electricals offloaded Comet to OpCapita in November 2011 for a nominal fee of £2 but it was forced to hand over a £63m dowry for working capital purposes and retain the pension scheme …

    The Channel 1 Nov 10:14

  • Samsung states sales date for Galaxy S III Mini

    Sims free

    Samsung's Galaxy S III Mini hits UK shelves next week with a couple of free games and 50GB of Dropbox space. The bijou brother of the Korean giant's flagship smartphone features a 4in, 800 x 480 display; a dual-core 1GHz ST-Ericsson Novathor U8420 chipset all running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Customers have the choice of of 8GB …

    Mobile 1 Nov 10:33

  • Dell Latitude 6430u set to be first Ultrabook with gigabit wireless

    60GHz 7Gb/s HDMI, USB cable replacement tech, anyone?

    Dell’s upcoming Windows 8 Ultrabook, the Latitude 6430u, look set to be one of the first - if not the very first - notebook computer to incorporate high-speed WiGig wireless networking technology. The PC giant’s Latitude 6430u page doesn’t yet mention WiGig or 802.11ad, the yet-to-be ratified standard on which WiGig is based. …

    Hardware 1 Nov 10:39

  • Samsung reveals Galaxy Premier smartphone

    S III's closest sibling?

    Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Premier this week, another member of its smartphone family which looks to be a trimmed-down marginally more affordable version of the Galaxy S III. The Samsung Galaxy Premier features a slightly smaller, 4.65in, 1280 x 720 display. Innards are trimmed from the S III's quad-core processor to a 1. …

    Phones 1 Nov 10:41

  • Huawei reaches out to critical German hacker over router flaws

    'Sometimes one needs a quick slap in the chops'

    Huawei’s efforts to improve its information security credentials have appeared to receive a boost after CISO John Suffolk revealed the Chinese tech giant is engaging with a researcher who exposed flaws in some of its routers. Former UK government CIO Suffolk told Reuters at a security summit in New Delhi that he's sending a …

    Data Networking 1 Nov 10:44

  • WiMAX Forum runs up white flag, concedes 4G battle to LTE

    'What, were those guys still around?' asks world

    The WiMAX forum, on the losing side in the race to 4G, has given up on WiMAX 2.0 and is instead promoting integration with LTE - or "the competition" as it used to be known. Not that one would guess that from the press release, which talks a lot about "harmonization" and "coexistence" with WiMAX's now dominant competitor, but …

    Mobile 1 Nov 10:58

  • Somebody give BT a brolly: National telco blames RAIN for its pain

    Adds regulation, recession moans to drizzle grizzle

    BT took a revenues pummeling during its second quarter ended 30 September by posting a 9 per cent decline to £4.47bn this morning. The national telco blamed the recession, regulation and even rain for its drop in sales during the three-month period. Apparently bad weather has meant a lot of expensive repairs. BT said pre-tax …

    Networks 1 Nov 11:19

  • SMARTPHONES make TEENS have SEX with STRANGERS

    Pocket-stroker mobes and rumpy pumpy linked yet again

    Teens with internet-enabled phones will have more sex with fewer condoms, research at the University of Southern California has found. And the mobe-inspired jigjig was more likely to be with a stranger they met on the internet. Having a smartphone opened up "a risky avenue" said the researchers: finding a correlation between …

    Hardware 1 Nov 11:29

  • Android games console jumps to Jelly Bean for penultimate test phase

    Development pace steps up as Ouya games box nears releases

    Android-based games console Ouya has entered the Engineering Verification Testing phase, which essentially means the team is evaluating how the box runs ahead of the planned shipment of developer kits this coming December. The hotly-anticipated games console - which made a big splash in the gaming world after a high-profile …

    Hardware 1 Nov 11:42

  • Mozilla: Windows 7 browser bungle cost us nine MILLION downloads

    And look who's more and more popular - IE!

    Microsoft's Internet Explorer clawed back some of its share of the desktop web-browser market in October, as it stood accused of costing rival Firefox valuable downloads by Windows users. Meanwhile, both Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome have slipped in the browser rankings. Firefox-maker Mozilla blamed its dip on the …

    Applications 1 Nov 11:44

  • A history of personal computing in 20 objects part 1

    Feature From the 17th Century to the 1970s

    Personal computing. Personal. Computing. We take both aspects so completely for granted these days, it's almost impossible to think of a time when computing wasn't personal - or when there was no electronic or mechanical computing. To get from there to here, we've gone from a time when 'computers' were people able to do perform …

    Vintage 1 Nov 12:00

  • Cisco stretches UCS uber-control-freak across larger clouds

    How's 10,000 nodes grab ya?

    Cisco's software engineers have cooked up an uber-control-freak called UCS Central to manage server profiles, templates, and settings for up to 10,000 rack or blade machines. You can't sell customers a true cloud if your integrated control freak in your blade-network mashup only spans 160 nodes in a single management domain, …

    Servers 1 Nov 12:10

  • Arrow Electric CEO: Sales dip, profits fall but it's no 'overall disaster'

    Keeps the champers in the fridge, for now

    Arrow Electronics stopped well short of saying the recession has bottomed out as its components arm continues to wrestle with a tough biz climate, but an air of optimism hung over senior management. Sales at the distie titan fell 4 per cent to $4.96bn, but this excluded $176.5m of services contracts now to be recognised on an …

    The Channel 1 Nov 12:11

  • Uh-oh! Kim Dotcom is back with a brand new Megaupload site

    'Ha ha, kiss my shiny encryption keys, Agent Smith'

    Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has announced that he will launch a new file-sharing website called Mega in January. Despite the fact that he's fending off the US authorities' allegations of industrial-scale copyright infringement, Dotcom has made it clear to the Feds that he couldn't give a toss. His previous file-sharing …

    Media 1 Nov 12:18

  • BlackBerry 10: Dozens of networks probe the final RIM shot

    Phone maker VERY EXCITED about mega mobe probe

    RIM reckons more than 50 network operators are testing its BlackBerry 10 handsets, which sounds impressive until one remembers that testing is just a first step on the long journey to market. Nonetheless, the trouble mobe maker is keen to prove its radio electronics and phone performance are up to scratch. "We have passed a …

    Mobile 1 Nov 12:29

  • Hardware hacker proves Apple Fusion Drive works on older Macs

    New role for OS X 10.7 Lion's CoreStorage logical volume manager

    Top marks to hardware hacker Patrick Stein who has discovered that Apple’s Fusion Drive technology, which combines separate SSD and HDD storage into a single volume, can be added to old Macs. And he’s added one to his own Mac Pro. Patrick’s test set-up included a 120GB SSD linked into the desktop’s internal Sata connector plus …

    Hardware 1 Nov 12:32

  • Sky squeezes even more money from customers, gets fewer new ones

    £550 pa? Who said satellite dishes were for poor people

    BSkyB attracted fewer new subscribers to its TV, broadband and phone products in its last quarter even though the company enjoyed a healthy increase in sales. The broadcaster, which is 39 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and lost its chairman James Murdoch in April, said its total subscriber base rose by 48,000 …

    Media 1 Nov 12:44

  • AMD, Samsung must be ARMed to the teeth to oust Intel servers

    Analysis The attack always comes from below - and at the edges

    Let's start with the obvious. Everyone is spoiling for a fight to end Intel's hegemony in the server processor racket. But two decades ago we backed Intel to oust that arena's ruling silicon families kicking - and the chip giant successfully invaded servers around the world. The question we now face is this: can ARM do to Intel …

    Servers 1 Nov 13:00

  • O2 touts OTT tariffs for Nexus 4 exclusive

    Offers strong incentive to buy an unlocked handset

    O2 has upped the price of Google's anticipated LG-made Nexus 4 smartphone - for which the UK operator has a month-long exclusive - and customers have raised their eyebrows in disgust. While Google will sell the 16GB version Sim-free and unlocked for a generous £279, or an 8GB version for £239, in order to get the blower free, …

    Mobile 1 Nov 13:11

  • Apple axed Brit retail boss for doing his job well - TOO well, perhaps

    Comment Browett was used to selling value-for-money products

    John Browett must be pinching himself after his stint as Apple's retail veep came to an abrupt and unceremonious end this week, despite stellar numbers from his division of the firm. Just seven months into the prestigious role, the Brit was shown the door for an unspecified reason at the same time as Scott Forstall, senior …

    The Channel 1 Nov 13:30

  • MPs slam Europe's plan for rejig of data protection law

    Such rigidity will never be acceptable to us

    A proposal to overhaul data protection law in Europe came under attack today from a panel of British MPs. The politicians have urged Brussels' justice commissioner Viviane Reding to rewrite her plan. A scathing report published this morning by the House of Commons Justice Select Committee warned that Reding's proposed …

    Law 1 Nov 13:44

  • 5 Tokyo devs cuffed over 'The Movie' Android app scam

    Record records reaper slurped 90,000 mobes

    Japanese cops have arrested five developers accused of planting malware in smartphone applications. A video app for Android phones created by the group allegedly harvested information from 90,000 smartphones. Details in early reports are sketchy but thehackernews.com reports that the apps were marketed to customers by adding …

    Security 1 Nov 13:57

  • JDA Software finds a RedPrairie home companion

    $1.9bn merger agreed

    JDA Software is selling itself to RedPrairie, a privately equity-backed enterprise software firm, for $1.9bn in cash. The $45 a share deal is 33 per cent higher than JDA's closing price on October 26, the day before Reuters told the world that the company was exploring a sale. JDA and RedPrairie specialise in different areas …

    Financial News 1 Nov 14:02

  • Google stiffs Samsung on price, now wireless charging too

    Boy, these Android guys are mean

    Not content with undercutting Samsung's Galaxy S III mobile by two hundred quid, Google's Nexus 4 handset is using the Qi charging standard to provide the wireless charging Samsung still can't offer. Sammy's handset was announced with support for wireless power charging, and will get it eventually, but in the meantime Google ( …

    Hardware 1 Nov 14:17

  • Microsoft reveals Windows Phone 8 support for Mac

    Connector overhaul

    Microsoft has refreshed its Windows Phone application for Macs, which now enables data transfer between Apple computers and Redmond's latest mobile platform. The Windows Phone 3.0 update - previously dubbed Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac - has seen a massive overhaul, with support for Retina Display Macs, iPhoto 9.3.2, …

    Mobile 1 Nov 14:37

  • Sony admits PSPs will not fly off shelves, says phones and PS3s will

    Single-purpose devices down all round for troubled giant

    Sony has said that it doesn't think it will be able to sell as many of its portable game devices - PSP and Vita - as it had hoped. In August, the Japanese electronics firm said it reckoned it could shift 12 million game devices this fiscal year, but it reduced its forecast to 10 million in its quarterly earnings announcement …

    Hardware 1 Nov 14:39

  • Flash slash at OCZ: New CEO cuts nearly 200 jobs, 150 products

    Bonfire of flash vanities

    OCZ, the flash storage start-up that over-extended itself by pumping out new SSDs before securing a reliable flash NAND chip supplier, has had excess products - and 198 staffers - dumped by incoming CEO Ralph Schmitt. Founder and CEO Ryan Petersen resigned back in September, Schmitt was appointed in October to clean up OCZ's …

    Storage 1 Nov 14:49

  • Free Android apps often secretly make calls, use the camera

    Free: it isn't, in mobile and in lunches

    Freebie mobile applications come with a higher privacy and security risk, according to an 18-month long study by Juniper Networks. The networking giant ran an audit of 1.7 million applications on the Android market and discovered that free applications are five times more likely to track user location and a whopping 314 per …

    Security 1 Nov 15:03

  • Orange data network recovers after Monday morning titsuppening

    Your call is important to us. But not your emails

    A number of Orange UK customers lost connectivity this morning - mobile data access was knackered for at least an hour until the network struggled back to its feet. The outage started at 10.30am, and was reportedly fixed by noon, although some customers were complaining much earlier and it's far from clear how many people were …

    Mobile 1 Nov 15:30

  • Qualcomm chip puts 60GHz wireless gigabit into Dell Ultrabook

    WiGig delivered through Wi-Fi kit

    Wireless chip maker Wilocity has confirmed not only that Dell’s Latitude 6430u Ultrabook will incorporate WiGig, the 60GHz gigabit wireless spec, but that the machine uses its tri-band tech courtesy of a chipset from Qualcomm’s Atheros subsidiary. WiGig, which is based on the IEEE 802.11ad specification and tacks on some cable …

    Hardware 1 Nov 15:56

  • iPhone 5 imperilled by Sharp's 'huge' problems with tellies

    Japanese elecronics woes - at last, a reason to care

    Japanese electronics firm Sharp has warned that it might not be able to keep going as a company, a situation that could put pressure on supply of iPhone 5s. Sharp's consumer electronics division is dragging it down and growth in its components business won't be enough to save it on its own, financial results show. "As …

    Hardware 1 Nov 15:58

  • Felix Baumgartner sadly turns out to be blinkered FOOL

    Comment That's it. Nobody drink Red Bull any more

    How disappointing. Felix Baumgartner, the steely-sphered Austrian who recently supplied us all with much quality entertainment by leaping out of a balloon 128,000 feet above New Mexico to break the all-time world altitude skydiving record, turns out to be a blinkered fool. In an interview with the Telegraph last week which has …

    Science 1 Nov 16:09

  • ISS 'nauts pop out to fix a radiator... in SPACE

    Six hours to fix coolant leak in solar array

    International Space Station crew members are currently spacewalking around outside the cosmic laboratory to configure one of its solar arrays. Commander Suni Williams and flight engineer Aki Hoshide started their space stroll at 12.30 (GMT) and will spend 6.5 hours taking care of the station's port side 2B solar array power …

    Science 1 Nov 16:22

  • British judge: Say you're sorry Apple... this time like you MEAN it

    Smackdown for surly 8-yr-old style Samsung copy statement

    Apple was told to apologise properly to Samsung by three British judges at the UK Court of Appeals this morning. Judge Robin Jacob reprimanded Apple for putting up an "incorrect" and "non-compliant" statement about the patent lawsuit and said it had 48 hours to publish a better one. In line with a court order from July, Apple …

    Law 1 Nov 16:22

  • Sony turned off by CEA's 'Ultra HD' TV label

    Respectfully, honoured American trade body, we prefer '4K'

    Sony has metaphorically given the US trade body the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) the finger, saying it will continue to brand its 3840 x 2160 TVs ‘4K’, thank you very much. The Japanese giant briefly said this afternoon: “We laud the CEA’s efforts to come up with a common language to describe the next generation [of …

    Media 1 Nov 16:27

  • Windows Server 2012: Microsoft's other Big Push

    Liam Proven walks us through the technical launch

    In 1985, Commodore held the UK launch of the Amiga 1000 at the World of Commodore Show at the Novotel in Hammersmith. Twenty-seven years later, Microsoft used the same venue to host the Technical Launch of Windows Server 2012. The Amiga was Commodore's response to the radical – but very expensive – Apple Macintosh, and your …

    Servers 1 Nov 16:28

  • Analyst slams Apple innovation FAIL

    Why can't you put touchscreens on iMacs and MacBooks, eh? EH?

    One Wall Street analyst has lashed out at Apple, claiming the Mac maker's innovation is "sputtering" on the back of its failure to introduce touchscreen notebooks and desktop all-in-ones. Despite anticipation of a record holiday quarter, the Cupertino firm lacks the inventive touch it once had, Global Equities Research MD Trip …

    Hardware 1 Nov 16:39

  • Windows 8 'penetrated' says firm which sells to world's spy agencies

    Various spooks now have secret keys to Redmond's kingdom

    French security researcher firm Vupen claim to have already developed a reliable windows 8 exploit, just days after the launch of latest edition of Microsoft's flagship operating system. The sometimes controversial firm, which sells the exploits it develops to Western government agencies and deliberately avoids sharing …

    Windows 8 1 Nov 16:58

  • Sony promotes Vita with QUAD-JUBBED WOMAN

    Over-endowed French femme proves quite an Eiffel

    Sony has begun advertising the PlayStation Vita in French magazines by comparing the device to a woman with four breasts. "Deux faces tactiles, deux fois plus de sensations,” breathes the Gallic ad - photographed and posted on Twitter - to promote of the handheld's front touchscreen and rear touchpad. Translation: two …

    Hardware 1 Nov 17:06

  • Microsoft price hikes start to bite down on EMEA partners

    'Reasonable show from all vendors - except the biggest'

    Microsoft's UK price rise at the start of the summer is starting to dampen the financials of partners on this side of the Atlantic, certainly if Insight Enterprise's EMEA results are a metric. The reseller giant navigated through through a choppy Q3 to report growth in profits despite a slide in sales led by weaker demand for …

    The Channel 1 Nov 17:13

  • Teradata customers plead: 'Stop, we can't buy any more stuff!'

    Oh go on, it's only wafer thin

    Data warehousing pioneer Teradata has grown in leaps and bounds during the past two and a half years. However the database biz took a little pause for breath in the third quarter of 2012, causing it to come up at the low end of its guidance range for revenues and profits - and coming in shy of Wall Street's expectations. In …

    Datacenter 1 Nov 17:27

  • Daily Telegraph punishes expats with paywall

    Take that, traitors!

    There'll be grumbling in Costa del Sol tonight after the Daily Telegraph started charging expats and other folk overseas to read its website. The broadsheet newspaper today introduced a porous, or "metered", paywall similar to the schemes successfully operated by the Financial Times and the New York Times. The Telegraph will …

    Media 1 Nov 17:28

  • Comet confesses: The receivers are among us even now

    Dixons shareholders skip and clap their hands for joy

    Comet has finally confirmed that administrative receivers will be landing on its door step early next week. It is understood that Deloitte will review the options for the ailing retailer which include selling it as a going concern, scaling it back or liquidating it. A spinner at the chain told The Channel: "Comet Group Limited …

    The Channel 1 Nov 17:30

  • Tokyo court says Micron can wed Elpida, birth world No.2 chipmaker

    Mem warrior wants into bed of penniless DRAMurai princess

    White knight Micron is close to winning the hand of its damsel in distress, Japanese chipmaker Elpida Technology: a Tokyo court has approved Micron's acquisition of Elpida and thrown out a rival proposal from a squad of Elpida bondholders. The stakeholders claimed that Micron's offer to rescue the bankrupt DRAMurai warrior was …

    Storage 1 Nov 17:51

  • Oldest town of the Old World found in Bulgaria

    Cut their dead up and buried them with pots - as you do

    The earliest Europeans spent hours making salt bricks behind huge stone walls, archaeologists reckon after excavating the oldest known town in Europe. These early metropolitan Europeans also tended to cut their dead in half before burying them with pottery and copper artifacts in "ritual pits" found outside the modern-day town …

    Science 1 Nov 18:06

  • Russia launches internet blacklist to protect the kiddies

    And you thought SOPA was bad

    The Russian government has opened a blacklist of websites that will be blocked from domestic internet users to avoid them harming themselves with too much information. The new rules mean that ISPs will automatically block websites that the courts have deemed inappropriate. The law was introduced with the usual caveats about it …

    Government 1 Nov 18:30

  • Big Switch Networks stuffs $25m more down its trousers

    Like VMware's Nicira SDN biz, but still for sale

    Quasi-stealth virtual networking startup Big Switch Networks has bagged its second pile of cash from venture capitalists, who hope to rake in the big bucks from the software-defined networks (SDN) craze – particularly after they missed the money train that was Nicira, which server-virtualization juggernaut VMware shelled out $1. …

    Virtualization 1 Nov 18:35

  • Inside the iPad mini: Pray you never have to open one

    Teardown Stereo speakers, not mono as Amazon claims

    It's no wonder why the iPad mini assemblers at Foxconn rioted – its innards are fiendishly complex and tightly packed. Well, to be honest, we don't really know if the iPad mini's complexity contributed to those Chinese workers dissatisfaction, but if what the tool-parts-and-repair folks at iFixit discovered when they …

    Hardware 1 Nov 18:37

  • Apple puts less of its takings into R&D, hires more sales cultists

    Knows its own business model best

    Apple funnelled an extra billion dollars into research and development in 2012, but as a percentage of its takings in the last year, the spend on R&D actually went down. The iPhone maker spent $3.4bn on boffinry in the past twelve months, which is 2.18 per cent of its $156bn revenue for the year ended 29 September. In 2011, $2 …

    Financial News 1 Nov 19:02

  • Apple enables 'Superstorm Sandy' donations in iTunes Store

    No, Cupertino won't take its 30% cut – it all goes to the Red Cross

    Apple has added a button to the home page of its iTunes Store that clicks through to a page where you can use your iTunes account to donate money to "Help Superstorm Sandy survivors." The page lists six different donation amounts ranging from $5 to $200 – all you need to do is click the Donate button under each amount, and " …

    Applications 1 Nov 19:52

  • FTC shuts down five US robocall operations

    'This is Rachel from cardhol ... bzzzz'

    The Federal Trade Commission has successfully shut down five US robocall operations in Arizona and Florida that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from people desperate to cut down on their credit card repayments. The operators, Treasure Your Success, Ambrosia Web Design, A+ Financial Center, The Green Savers, and Key One …

    Government 1 Nov 19:57

  • US court dumps on “browserwrap” T&Cs

    Zappos’ customer contract tossed

    A Nevada court ruling against Zappos has reiterated what companies the world over should have worked out for themselves: “browserwrap” terms and conditions aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on. Zappos is being sued over a data breach which earlier this year exposed millions of customers’ names, e-mail addresses, phone …

    Law 1 Nov 21:39

  • Facebook’s “anti-bullying pledge” lands in Oz

    Urgers users to unbridge their trolls

    Following a string of high-profile cases that have seen The Social NetworkTM roundly criticised by politicians, police and punters, Facebook has brought its “Be Bold, Stop Bullying” campaign to Australia. Flicking the problem to users, the campaign asks members to pledge that they’ll “take a stand” if they see bullying, and to …

    Business 1 Nov 22:00

  • Hobbits enlisted to make punters look at the air-safety vid

    Fasten your sseat belt, preciouss

    Air New Zealand is trying to overcome passengers’ near-universal zone-out during the mandatory safety video by enlisting hobbits, elves and orcs. In a tie-in with Peter Jackson’s upcoming hobbit movie (which looks like ending up longer than the Lord of the Rings trilogy), the airline has this to offer on YouTube: And yes, …

    Media 1 Nov 22:30

  • African kids learn to read, hack Android on OLPC fondleslab

    Why your next sysadmin could be Ethiopian

    One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte has said children are not only teaching themselves to read without teachers by using fondleslabs he provided, but they are learning how to hack Android as well. In an experiment, the OLPC dropped off Motorola Xoom tablets with solar chargers in two Ethiopian villages and trained …

    Hardware 1 Nov 22:52

  • Businessweek: 'It's Global Warming, Stupid'

    Sandy's climate change supersizing is controversial 'only among the stupid'

    Bloomberg Businessweek threw a few litres of petrol on the blazing climate-change debate with this week's cover story, less-than-subtly entitled: "It's Global Warming, Stupid." "Yes, yes, it's unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change," the article begins, quite correctly. "Men and women in white lab coats …

    Science 1 Nov 23:04

  • Amazon fattens up EC2 compute cloud, chops prices

    Embiggened CPU and memory, but EBS storage only

    Cloud computing juggernaut Amazon Web Services has cut prices and fattened up its offerings. AWS was founded to sell raw compute and storage like any other kind of retail item like a CD or a can of beans, and as a subsidiary of the world's largest e-tailer it takes very seriously an ever-expanding shelf of products and price …

    Virtualization 1 Nov 23:15