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3rd December 2012 Archive

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  • ‘Hyperspectral’ camera surprises aurora researchers

    41-band snapper spots Northern Lights interacting with airglow

    Astronomers from the Kjell Henriksen Observatory at Svalbard have released the first images from the NORUSCA II camera, showing the Northern Lights captured across 41 spectral bands. NORUSCA II is designed to switch between all of its optical bands “in a matter of microseconds”, explains this announcement. A standard camera …

    Science 3 Dec 00:20

  • IETF bakes Google's SPDY protocol into HTTP 2.0

    Chocolate Factory's web accelerator looks to be going mainstream

    Google's SPDY (speedy) protocol has been adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for use in the forthcoming HTTP 2.0 standard. Google developed SPDY as part of its ongoing efforts to speed up the Web. While its work to do so isn't entirely altruistic – a faster web means more users doing more on Google – the …

    Networks 3 Dec 01:52

  • Flash memory made immortal by fiery heat

    Macronix's 'Thermal annealing' process extends SSD life from 10k to 100m read/write cycles

    Taiwanese flash memory non-volatile memory manufacturer Macronix is set to reveal technologies is says will make it possible for flash memory to survive 100 million read/write cycles. Today's flash memory wears out over time, because moving electrons in and out of transistors wears them down. That problem has led manufacturers …

    Science 3 Dec 03:02

  • Xero gets $NZ60m to account for

    Kiwi accounting software house expands

    Kiwi tech entrepreneur Rod Drury’s accounting software company Xero has attracted a further $NZ60m from existing backers Matrix Capital and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. The new cash is the third round of investment from the SaaS accounting outfit's US supporters and will go towards further expanding service, support and …

    Financial News 3 Dec 03:24

  • Speak2Tweet resurrected after Syria goes offline

    Google and Twitter dust down phone tweet platform

    Google and Twitter have resurrected their Speak2Tweet service, in order to help Syrian web users have their voices heard despite the Assad regime’s decision to halt the country’s internet services. The service, which allows users to send a tweet by phone, was first rolled out last year in order to help netizens in Egypt …

    Networks 3 Dec 03:59

  • Microsoft claims £3.6m piracy scalp in China

    Shanghai retailer apologises after reaching settlement

    Microsoft’s anti-piracy efforts in China chalked up a big win last week when Shanghai retailer Ruichuang Network Technology agreed to pay 36 million yuan (£3.6m) to the software giant in compensation for several infringements. The firm posted a statement on its popular 2345.com portal site expressing “profound apologies” to …

    Business 3 Dec 05:21

  • Saucy Star Wars strip show - sorry, burlesque - to tour Down Under

    'Wookierotica', sexy stormtroopers and yes, gold bikini

    Disney's acquisition of all things Star Wars has some fans in a lather at the prospect of new films set in the Lucasverse. Here at Vulture South, The Reg's Australian outpost, some are in a lather for an entirely different reason, namely the return of the revue Star Wars Burlesque: The Empire Strips Back. The show's creator …

    Bootnotes 3 Dec 06:01

  • Don't worry, Apple: iPad still dominant in China

    Cupertino approach suits the People's Republic

    Apple may be struggling to maintain its huge market share in the tablet space globally, but it remains top dog by some margin in China, where the latest stats show it on 71.4 per cent. Beijing-based analyst house Analysys International’s figures reveal that the tablet market in the People’s Republic is booming, with 2.6 …

    Hardware 3 Dec 06:58

  • Adobe's revenge on Steve Jobs: HTML5

    Open ... and Shut Bloated Flash daddy offers web a new hope

    Despite significant investments from Microsoft, Google, and others, HTML5 remains not quite good enough for a range of apps. So says Mark Zuckerberg, but I also heard that this week from the chief technology officer of a large media company. Rather than gloat over HTML5's long road to native app parity, though, he fretted about …

    Software 3 Dec 08:00

  • Ready for ANOTHER patent war? Apple 'invents' wireless charging

    Wait, it's already a thing? Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of our lawyers

    Apple is trying to patent wireless charging, claiming its magnetic resonance tech is new and that it can do it better than anyone else. This would be cool if its assertions were true. Apple's application, numbered 20120303980, makes much of its ability to charge a device over the air at a distance of up to a metre, rather than …

    Hardware 3 Dec 08:31

  • British biz gets one in five of its pounds from the INTERNET

    Even though 1 in 5 firms still don't have a website

    Almost one in five pounds pulled in by UK business came through an online sale, the Office of National Statistics has found. Nineteen per cent of UK sales revenues came through ecommerce, states the ONS's report on E-commerce and ICT activity in 2011. That means that e-sales pulled in £483 billion to the British economy in …

    Small Biz 3 Dec 09:03

  • EU joins Google, hippies, Uncle T Cobbleigh in fight against ITU

    We'll stop the UN doing a thing it can't and won't do!

    The EU is now set to fight for internet freedoms, voicing its concerns that the ITU plans to restrict the international flow of data despite the way the body keeps denying any such intent. Yesterday the ITU adopted a resolution asking member states not to impede international internet use, specifically calling for "non- …

    Networks 3 Dec 09:17

  • China Mobile to reveal how 10 MILLION people will BONK

    Will slip new NFC platform into pockets in 2013

    The world's largest mobile operator, China Mobile, will launch its NFC platform on 5 December, showing the technology it plans to push into 10 million Chinese palms next year. The SIM-based platform will, according to NFC World, be launched at the operator's Worldwide Developers Conference next week, and get into punters' …

    Mobile 3 Dec 09:39

  • Tech titans lose our loyalty: Are fanbois a dying breed?

    Sysadmin blog Apple, Microsoft, Google? Whatever does the job...

    We've hit an inflection point in computing this year; one where which company makes your widget, operating system or office package finally matters less than it did the year before. Windows 8, Android, the latest iWidget and so forth are becoming interchangeable for an increasing number of people. As I compose this article, I …

    Hardware 3 Dec 10:01

  • Google buys parcel storage service for Christmas

    'We have made rage a thing of the past'. Except at Amazon

    Google has acquired Canadian startup Bufferbox for an undisclosed sum. The self-serve parcel pick-up station outfit, which started life at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, announced it had been scooped up by the advertising giant on Friday. "As online shopping becomes a bigger part of how you buy products, we look …

    Media 3 Dec 10:18

  • Clap Google, Amazon in irons to end tax shenanigans - MPs

    Influential panel demands change in law

    New laws and prosecutions could be necessary to force Amazon, Google and other multinationals pay a fairer amount of corporation tax in the UK, according to MPs. The Public Accounts Select Committee today published its report after holding hearings with Amazon, Google and Starbucks on the tiny amount of tax they pay in Blighty …

    Government 3 Dec 10:37

  • Piracy haven Newzbin2 gives up, can't pay the bills

    No more downloads, but hey, we may start a blog!

    Downloads search engine Newzbin2, formerly Newzbin, has thrown in the towel. The Usenet-scouring website was the centre of a landmark legal judgment brought by Hollywood studios against BT, which resulted in the website being blocked by UK ISPs for copyright infringement. Now the operators at newzbin2.es have blamed a variety …

    Media 3 Dec 11:03

  • Council techie and top reseller talk Windows Server 2012

    Join us for a range of tips and advice

    Join us on December 7 at 11:00 GMT, when we’ll be broadcasting live from our London studio with Reg readers Chris Losch, from Newham Council, and Gary Collins, from Intercept IT. Between them, they’re going to run through a raft of real-world projects and deployment scenarios where they’ve been using and abusing Windows Server …

    Datacenter 3 Dec 11:19

  • News International big boss flings himself overboard

    Murdoch: 'Absolutely and entirely his own decision to quit'

    News International boss Tom Mockridge resigned on Sunday less than two years after taking the chief exec role following the departure of Rebekah Brooks. Her exit in July 2011 marked the height of the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed the Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper biz. He will move on from News Int'l at the end …

    Media 3 Dec 11:26

  • TomTom for Android with hands-free kit review

    A step in the right direction?

    A TomTom satnav app has been available for iOS since 2009 and its success has not just been due to the software but also to the bespoke iPhone windshield mount. Android users have now been let in on the deal thanks to the launch of an Android app and a generic smartphone version of the screen mount. Smart move: TomTom's …

    Science 3 Dec 12:00

  • Twenty years of text messages: We've reached Peak SMS

    Expensive, truncated emails finally plateau

    The first SMS text message was sent twenty years ago, when Neil Papworth sent a Merry Christmas to a mobile phone, an innovation which went almost unnoticed for the next half-decade. The Short Message Service took a while to take hold, longer still before network operators realised what a cash cow SMS could be, and longer …

    Apps 3 Dec 12:19

  • Who's using 'password' as a password? TOO MANY OF YOU

    Study of hacked websites reveals top 25 common passphrases

    A study to find the top 25 leaked passwords of 2012 has revealed too many people are still using "password", "123456" and "12345678" for their login credentials. The table was compiled from plain-text passwords and weak unsalted password hashes lifted from compromised databases and dumped online by Anonymous hacktivists and …

    Security 3 Dec 12:37

  • Children increasingly named after Apple products

    The fanboi doesn't fall too far from the tree, eh, Mac?

    Not only are the kids desperately keen to get Apple products, their parents are also naming them after Apple products - we learn from the latest yearly analysis of baby names. The moniker Apple, though still an unusual choice, rose 15 percent for girls, vaulting a whopping 585 spots. For boys, the name Mac jumped 12 percent. …

    Bootnotes 3 Dec 13:05

  • Home Sec: Let us have Snoop Charter or PEOPLE WILL DIE

    Do what I want or bad things will happen to children

    Home Secretary Theresa May today claimed in The Sun that her draft law to massively ramp up online surveillance of Brits will "save lives". The Tory minister managed to squeeze in a bit of last-minute lobbying ahead of the publication of a report by peers and MPs scrutinising her controversial communications data bill. In an …

    Government 3 Dec 13:29

  • HP lunges at EMC's midrange with new 3PAR StoreServ 7000s

    Discover 2012 Bruised from Autonomy bashing, but not kissing the canvas just yet

    The Autonomy acquisition a year ago left Hewlett-Packard with a hangover, but buying storage suppliers 3PAR and IBRIX seems to have worked out without many hitches - and it's revitalized HP's storage biz. This time last year at the HP Discover customer and partner extravaganza in Vienna, the 3PAR, IBRIX, StoreOnce, and …

    Storage 3 Dec 14:02

  • NetApp's dangerous dance with the killer brontosaurus - Amazon

    Blocks+Files One wrong step and you're paste

    What is NetApp up to, partnering with a cloud IT provider, Amazon, that's positioned long-term to try and annihilate NetApp's business? Let's start from the position that you are a NetApp customer with your own FAS array and you want to use Amazon Web Services, the AWS cloud computing facility, on some data in that array. How …

    Cloud 3 Dec 14:28

  • Windows 8: Great for media PCs...

    ...But what else?

    From time to time, we dip into El Reg Forums to highlight questions raised and experiences recounted by our commentards. Today we republish this post from Steve Knox, who writes: My media center PC at home was a discarded work PC with Windows Vista Business on it. It was slow and flaky, as Vista can be, but since an upgrade …

    Windows 8 3 Dec 14:40

  • EMC mixes database upstart into its Greenplum pudding

    Allow more users to run queries simultaneously? Now there's an idea

    EMC has snapped up Israeli database control and monitoring software MoreVRP, and will integrate it into its Greenplum big data offering. The product was developed by privately held More IT Resources, and EMC has bought the company for an undisclosed amount. More IT Resources was founded in 2006 and VRP stands for Virtual …

    Storage 3 Dec 15:33

  • Hold the front page for ETERNITY: Murdoch kills The Daily

    Nobody wanted an iPad full of Rupert

    Rupert Murdoch is closing The Daily, the world's first iPad-only newspaper, less than two years after its grand launch. The press baron's News Corp worked closely with Apple to develop the title, which went on sale in February 2011 some nine months after the iPad itself made its debut. The original circulation target was 500, …

    Media 3 Dec 15:54

  • Ericsson asks for unlikely ITC import ban on raft of Samsung stuff

    Mob of pygmies hacking at Korean giant's shins grows

    Ericsson has asked for a ban on Samsung imports to the USA, following last week's patent filing which claimed just about every Samsung device with a radio was infringing. The legal case, filed in the ever-popular Eastern District of Texas, is based on patents which, according to Ericsson, Samsung licensed in 2001 and 2007, but …

    Hardware 3 Dec 16:27

  • Stone Group: Beancounter Harbridge to replace flown Bird as CEO

    Can the public sector afford British computers?

    Stone Group has named its chief bean counter Simon Harbridge as CEO to try to fill the hole left by predecessor James Bird. Bird flew the coop back in October over a disagreement with VC backers RJD Partners, believed to hinge upon the timing of an exit strategy - he wanted out sooner than they did. In a statement issued …

    The Channel 3 Dec 16:34

  • VMware ships embiggened vCloud Suite after price brouhaha

    Discount chop looms; how many dollars per socket?

    VMware suffered a cacophony of complaints over its pricing for its software in 2011, and as part of the latest round of product launches this summer the company moved away from per-VM or VRAM capacity pricing as customers wanted. But to get the more attractive pricing, you have to buy a whole bundle of cloudy tools, called the …

    Virtualization 3 Dec 16:58

  • Curiosity finds organics on Mars, but possibly not of Mars

    Mission director vows to hold his tongue in future

    NASA says that no, it hasn't found definite proof that Mars has its own organic compounds, but that it has found some very interesting indications that need to be checked. Everyone just hold your horses (click to enlarge) At a press conference on Monday morning at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San …

    Science 3 Dec 20:38

  • World's largest miner spooked by climate change

    BHP Biliton rebuilds coal loader to cope with hurricanes, rising sea levels

    BHP Billiton – the mining giant with massive coal interests – is laying out its own cash rebuilding a coastal facility to cope with climate change. Vulture South can’t claim any scoop on this – it was announced in an investor presentation on Monday December 3, so about half the world knows about it if they’re paying attention …

    Business 3 Dec 22:10

  • Apple's new 'Assembled in USA' iMac a bear to upgrade, repair

    Photos Want to add more RAM? Break out your heat gun and guitar picks

    Apple's 21.5-inch iMac, which went on sale in the US last Friday, has revealed two of its secrets: first, that it's a collosal pain to get inside should you want to upgrade its RAM or its hard drives; and second, that at least some of the units currently on store shelves are labeled as being "Assembled in USA". The new iMac – …

    Hardware 3 Dec 22:19

  • Australian telco in $20m robot moon shot bid

    PlusComms joins Lunar X Prize team, plans for Sydney mission control

    Australian telecommunications and satellite communications company PlusComms has emerged as a key partner in a space consortium planning to send a robotic spacecraft to the moon. PlusComms, which is backed by telco industry stalwart Robert Brand, is part of Team Stellar one of the teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize …

    Science 3 Dec 22:24

  • John McAfee remains on the run, but outside Belize

    'Drug crazed madman' apologizes for 'silence and misdirection'

    Reports of John McAfee arrest on the Mexico-Belize border have turned out to be a false positive. The eccentric tech millionaire, named by Belize police as "person of interest" in the murder of his neighbour Gregory Faull three weeks ago, was reported to have been arrested by his own The Hinterland blog on Saturday. The same …

    Law 3 Dec 22:28

  • His Holiness Benedict XVI to tweet to his Catholic flock

    First papal Twitter feed will take Q&A format

    The leader of the Catholic Church has communicated with his followers using various media over the years, including radio and television, but come December 12, Pope Benedict XVI will be the first to voice the Church's message in 140 characters or fewer, when he inaugurates the official papal Twitter account. Posting as @ …

    Bootnotes 3 Dec 22:43

  • Office 2013 now on sale for business customers

    Non-subscription version available through volume licensing

    Office 2013, the latest version of Microsoft's desktop productivity suite, is now available for purchase by business customers, even though individual users won't be able to order it until next year. The final versions of the Office application suite have been available to members of Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet subscription …

    Applications 3 Dec 23:38

  • Forget fluorescents, plastic lighting strips coming out next year

    Glowing plastic mimics natural light

    The blinking, buzzing fluorescent lighting tubes that have blighted office buildings for over 70 years could be on their way out, now that US scientists think they've cracked a system to replace them with glowing plastic. "People often complain that fluorescent lights bother their eyes, and the hum from the fluorescent tubes …

    Science 3 Dec 23:41