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23rd January 2013 Archive

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  • ‘That’s not art’ says Apple as it pulls nudes from AppStore

    I don't care what your friends download, you’re not going out like that young lady

    Cupertino’s prudery has struck again, after photography market 500px’s app was pulled from the AppStore over its depiction of nudity. According to the company’s COO Evgeny Tchebotarev, the app disappeared at around 1am (US Eastern time) on January 22. The million-download app has reportedly been spiked because it allows users …

    Mobile 23 Jan 00:02

  • IBM continues to squeeze blue blood from IT stones

    Mainframe boost more than covers Power dive

    As has been the case for so many quarters that it has become normal, IBM has managed to boost its profits even as its revenues were down a smidgen in the fourth quarter ended in December. Sales across IBM's vast portfolio of IT hard and softwares was off six-tenths of a point, to $29.3bn. But thanks to Big Blue's constant …

    Financial News 23 Jan 00:07

  • Big Data about to bottom out, says Gartner

    Users can't get no 'satisfiction', but they try, but they try, but they try ...

    Big Data hype has peaked and adopters are about to enter Gartner’s dread trough of disillusionment, says one of the firm’s analysts, Svetlana Sicular. Hype about Big Data is certainly prevalent: here at Vulture South the term is often thrown around by vendors who in past years were content to describe their data-crunching …

    CIO 23 Jan 01:13

  • Your eyeballs bagged Google $50 BEEELLION in 2012

    Estimate-beating Q4 capped record revenue year

    Haters who gloated over the surprise dip in Google's revenues last quarter can stop now, as the Chocolate Factory has posted strong results for its fourth quarter and for fiscal 2012 as a whole. For the twelve months that ended on December 31, 2012, Google brought in an impressive $50.2bn in revenue, the company said in a …

    Financial News 23 Jan 01:21

  • AMD alllllmost promises profitability by year end

    Parsing the fine distinction between 'expectations' and 'goals'

    AMD, slapped around by what CEO Rory Read and other corporate honchos like to refer to as "the challenging macro environment," looks to regain profitability in the second half of this year. On a conference call with analysts and reporters after announcing its weak financial results for its fourth quarter of 2012, AMD CFO …

    Financial News 23 Jan 01:48

  • HotLink punts freebie SuperVisor virty control freak

    Update adds EC2, ESXi 5.1, and vCloud hooks

    The SuperVisor control freak that lets VMware vCenter to do unnatural things to non-VMware hypervisors and clouds is getting a 2.0 rev with a bunch of new features. This update comes just as HotLink, the company behind the tool, has decided to make it up in volume and provide a full and freebie version of SuperVisor that we can …

    Virtualization 23 Jan 01:50

  • Google's Native Client browser tech now works on ARM

    Updated Next up: making it work on every CPU

    Native Client (NaCl), the Google technology that allows developers to write client-side web application modules in compiled languages like C and C++, has been updated to work on devices based on the ARM processor architecture. Earlier versions of the technology, which enables running native binary code inside a browser window …

    Developer 23 Jan 02:35

  • Australia puts digital frontier at heart of national security plan

    Prepares for ‘long, persistent fight’ online with new national Cyber Security Centre

    Australia is tooling up for a “long, persistent fight” online, and believes digital combat will be as important to the nation’s future security as involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan were in the last decade. No less a figure that Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed that opinion today in a speech billed as a landmark …

    Government 23 Jan 03:06

  • Hydrogen on demand from silicon nanospheres - just add water

    Buffalo boffins tout ‘instant energy’ for portable devices

    “Instant energy, just add water” – you might expect the expression under an ACME label in an old Warner Bros cartoon, but not from a University. However, researchers at the University of Buffalo in New York have demonstrated that nano-particles of silicon react with water to produce the non-toxic silicic acid and release …

    Science 23 Jan 03:38

  • Google to devs: Fork with our cloudy code

    Github code trove eases entry to Chocolate Factory’s Cloud Platform

    Google has released a substantial trove of code for its Cloud Platform to github. Don’t connect the dots between github, cloud and a large web company and assume this is all about generosity. Facebook and Twitter may have offered production code to the open source world so anyone can learn from their innovations. Google has …

    Cloud 23 Jan 05:06

  • Chinese boffins crack cloaking tech for camouflage

    Bend light here and hey presto, your aircraft becomes a bird

    Chinese boffins have invented new cloaking technology which distorts light in a way that could be used to disguise soldiers, or even aircraft, during combat. Transformation optics scientists have made great leaps in recent years towards bending light in such a way as to make objects invisible, however, thus far they’ve been …

    Science 23 Jan 05:26

  • APAC PC shipments FALL for first time ever in 2012

    Ultrabooks, Windows 8, no match for tablet fever

    The launch of more shiny new ultrabooks, Microsoft’s much-anticipated Windows 8 and the APAC region's often-strong growth all failed to stop PC sales receding over 2012, the first time the region has experienced a full year drop in PC shipments. IDC says sales fell two per cent over the year, to 121 million units. The analyst …

    Business 23 Jan 06:24

  • Storage firms can win big if they buy the RIGHT trendy tech

    Blocks and Files: Grab The Next Big Thing early enough and the sky's the limit

    Three weeks into 2013, not even the end of January, and three storage companies have been bought. Are we seeing the first stirrings of a buying frenzy as mainstream suppliers get better placed for flash, software-defined data centres and the cloud? The first of the acquisitions was that of struggling storage media supplier …

    Storage 23 Jan 07:03

  • DARPA shells out $194m for 'phase 6' of STARnet chip project

    Nothing like SkyNet – we hope

    War tech agency DARPA is not happy with the pace of progress in semiconductors, so it has been funding primary research through a program called Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network - or STARnet for short, for the past several years. And it has now announced that it is kicking in another $194m over the next five …

    Government 23 Jan 07:27

  • Speaking in Tech: 'VCs hate open source because the path to money is longer'

    Podcast The big Dell bet, OpenStack, stalk tech on Facebook and more...

    This week's enterprise techcast has Neanderthal babies, bets with vice presidents, arguing about taxes ... and even mixes in the odd bit of tech. It doesn't have any guests either, but it hardly needs those, as we have the full complement of the Speaking In Tech crew this week. Join your hosts - the Dude of Tech, Greg …

    CIO 23 Jan 08:02

  • The perfect Data Centre vision

    Live today How can you manage to see it fulfilled?

    On paper the benefits of data centre automation are easy to see. But we don't build data centres on paper. Our Regcast today at 11:00 GMT will examine how to build a data centre and maintain it throughout its life in the private cloud environment. What, if anything, has the cloud changed? What are the costs of running a sub- …

    Datacenter 23 Jan 08:16

  • Jocks strap into new gov-funded White Space boffinry base

    Silicon Glen is after Silicon Fen's smart radio tech

    The Scottish Funding Council has bunged Strathclyde University cash to set up a boffinry base to develop cunning uses of spare radio frequencies known as White Space. The technology aims to put unused spectrum to good use by dynamically assigning empty airwaves to wireless microphones and such things. It is hoped to enable …

    Mobile 23 Jan 08:33

  • Cautious Brits less likely than US firms to puff on clouds - survey

    'The UK attitude is it is inherently less safe with a third party'

    A "fragmented" legal framework, the "attitude" of regulators and a naturally cautious approach to security issues are among the reasons why UK businesses have made less use of cloud computing than US counterparts, according to experts. IT law and cloud computing specialists Charles Park and Christopher Mann of Pinsent Masons …

    Cloud 23 Jan 09:04

  • Liferay's not dead yet - but what's keeping it alive?

    Open ... and Shut Enterprise portals: U iz doin' it right

    The enterprise portal market should have died years ago. With new-school collaboration tools like Yammer and newfangled integration frameworks like MuleSoft (ESB in the cloud) and Apigee (APIs), the market was being written off almost as soon as it began. More bluntly, in a market that was limping to single-digit growth in 2008 …

    Applications 23 Jan 09:32

  • EU-wide mega-Leveson 'needed' to silence Press, bloggers

    Now write some nice stories about Europe, please - new report

    A group reporting to the European Commission has recommended the regulation of the media and bloggers. It also called for the creation of several new regulatory apparatus for fining, monitoring and chivvying the Press. The tiny team - two law experts and "new media" attention-seeker Ben Hammersley - are billed as the "High- …

    Media 23 Jan 10:09

  • Hackers on anti-Egypt spree bury Egyptology journal in the sand

    Bystanders in online war blasted offline

    Hackers waging war against Egyptian websites have forced the closure of Egyptological, a journal on Egyptology. Egyptologist Kate Phizackerley, who published the web periodical with Andrea Byrnes, has also closed down her personal blog for the same reason. Egyptological was shut down after it was "targeted by a professional …

    Security 23 Jan 10:57

  • Flash, cloud boom flings storage startups into piles of money

    Cloud gateway, flash = storage slingshots for suppliers

    Nasuni, Nimbus, TwinStrata and Whiptail have all announced flying starts to 2013, suggesting it's going to be a quite a year for both cloud storage and flash array technology. Cloud storage gateway supplier Nasuni said its 2012 business performance featured: 200 per cent growth in bookings Quadruped the size of the …

    Cloud 23 Jan 11:22

  • Dead Steve Jobs' patent war threat to Palm over 'no-hire pact'

    New twist in court claims Apple, Google and pals conspired to keep wages low

    Steve Jobs threatened the CEO of Palm with a patent bash-up if he didn't stop nicking Apple employees, a court filing in an antitrust lawsuit has revealed. Apple and other tech defendants, including Google and Intel, are the subject of a civil suit brought by five tech workers alleging that the firms conspired to eliminate …

    Law 23 Jan 11:49

  • Raytheon to build low-orbit, disposable satellites for DARPA

    Battlefield viewing from the edge of space

    The fighter-deployed satellites in DARPA's latest plan - which will deploy them in orbits so low they burn up in a month - will be built by Raytheon, which reckons it can do the job for $2m a pop. SeeMe* was announced last March, as an intermediate step between surveillance drones, which have limited airtime, and spy …

    Science 23 Jan 12:04

  • WHOMP! Micron drops middle ground server and storage SSD

    Outstanding? Well, er...

    Micron has launched the P400M solid state drive targeted at the data centre server and storage array market. With a 7PB written endurance level, it's not an outstanding drive performance-wise, but let's have a look at its overall features. The P400M is a follow-on to the 2011 vintage P400E, an entry-level enterprise SSD …

    Storage 23 Jan 12:22

  • UK 4G auction kicks off in total silence

    Money is on the table, but no details 'til the fat lady sings

    The UK has opened its auction of radio frequencies suitable for high-speed 4G mobile internet services. Who exactly is bidding in which bands will remain a secret until the sale ends. The auction includes chunks of spectrum cleared by the switch-off of analogue telly and the move to digital TV, known as the 800MHz band, and …

    Mobile 23 Jan 12:43

  • National Audit Office tears government's savings claims in HALF

    Not sure how many SMEs suppliers working with gov either

    The National Audit Office has questioned the Cabinet Office's weighty ICT savings claims and revealed it still does not know how many small biz suppliers are winning public sector contracts. Minister Francis Maude's merry band claims it saved taxpayers £702m on tech and comms spending in fiscal 2012 ended March - £354m through …

    The Channel 23 Jan 12:55

  • Wad of BlackBerry OS 10 pics 'leaks' from RIM's inner circle

    Hundreds of screenshots overflow the web

    A "leak" of more than a hundred screenshots purporting to be from the release version of BlackBerry OS 10 has washed up on a blog. For those readers fascinated by setup screens, user licence agreements and configuration dialogue boxes, a treat awaits you here. For those of you who are not, we can summarise: it's very much as …

    Mobile 23 Jan 13:22

  • BT in £52m contract tussle: West Country bumpkins hit with broadband delay

    Somerset and Devon still trying to agree terms with telco

    A £52m government-subsidised superfast broadband project in rural parts of Somerset and Devon that was won by national telco BT has been delayed over "contract issues". "Significant" problems have arisen between the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme and the telecoms giant that are yet to be resolved by either party …

    Broadband 23 Jan 13:43

  • Telefónica slapped with €67m anti-competitive fine from EU

    Portugal Telecom gets €12m penalty for deal with 'mate'

    Spanish communications giant Telefónica has been fined €66.8m by the European Commission for agreeing not to compete with Portugal Telecom, which was slapped with a lighter €12m penalty by Brussels officials. The two companies were found to be in breach of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ( …

    Networks 23 Jan 14:04

  • Dotcom's Mega smacks back: Our crypto's not crap

    'The '90s called... they want their password security back'

    Kim Dotcom's comeback cloud storage service, Mega, has responded to criticism about its approach to cryptography and password security after security researcher Steve Thomas (@Sc00bz) released his MegaCracker tool, which cracks hashes embedded in emailed password confirmation links. In a blog post designed to reassure users, …

    Cloud 23 Jan 14:38

  • Ofcom: You like to make CALLS, yeah? Tell us what you want from mobiles

    Watchdog asks users for metrics to help it rate operators

    Ofcom has discovered that mobile phones are used for making calls, and that mobile data is generally used to access the internet, so now it wants help deciding what to find out next. The shock revelation that calls and text remain the killer feature of a mobile phone is contained in Ofcom's study of the mobile experience, …

    Networks 23 Jan 15:07

  • UK malls use Google in desperate stab at luring shoppers off the web

    Shopping centre management firm signs up to Product Search

    The UK's largest commercial property company Land Securities has signed a deal with Google to try to stem the flow of shoppers from its managed malls. Land Securities manages more than 29 million square feet of property - including 17 shopping centres across Britain that, like most retail outlets, are suffering from the rising …

    Media 23 Jan 15:59

  • Red supergiant Betelgeuse heads for SMACKDOWN with 'dust bar'

    'Let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose'

    Earth's nearest supergiant red star Betelgeuse is on its way to a spectacular collision when it smacks into a "nearby" dust bar. The whole process will take thousands of years, however. The European Space Agency's Herschel telescope has snapped a new image of Betelgeuse, which is in the Orion constellation, in the visible …

    Science 23 Jan 16:45

  • VMware ponies up $30m for Puppet Labs partnership

    Getting down to serious – and heterogeneous – control freakage

    VMware injected a little money into systems management software upstart Puppet Labs in its third round of funding back in November 2011. But now the server virtualization juggernaut has its hands firmly up the backside of Puppet Labs as it has become one of the bigger investors in the company after doing the fourth round of …

    Cloud 23 Jan 17:09

  • 'Op! Op! Op!' Gangnam Style earns Google $8m

    De gustibus non est disputandum

    Google has pulled in $8m from the over one billion YouTube views of Korean rapper – or K-pop entertainer, your call – Psy's Gangnam Style (강남스타일) video. That stunning figure was revealed by Google senior VP and chief business officer Nikesh Arora during Tuesday's conference call with analysts and reporters after Google …

    Media 23 Jan 18:06

  • Tech firms face massive tax bill if Dutch vote to end loopholes

    'Dutch sandwich' may be past its sell-by date

    US corporations including Dell, Yahoo!, and Google could be facing an extra $90bn in taxes if the Dutch government presses ahead with plans to stop the country being used as a conduit for companies looking to avoid paying local revenue officials. "We should not be a tax haven," said Ed Groot, a parliament member from the …

    Business 23 Jan 20:13

  • Embiggened x86 servers help Super Micro set revenue records

    Profits on the mend after flood-driven disk drive pricing snafu

    Last year was not an easy one for whitebox king Super Micro, which makes a living selling x86 servers as well as the components for those who want to compete with it. But the latest record-breaking revenues and improving profit picture shows the company has overcome its setbacks. Last fiscal year, the company was hurt when …

    Financial News 23 Jan 20:57

  • Apple shares dive after quarterly report disappoints Wall Street

    Revenues up, but earnings flat

    Apple released its financial results for the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year after the markets closed on Wednesday, and disappointing results immediately drove its stock price down by over 5 per cent. Although Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5bn, a quarterly profit of $13.1bn, and earnings-per-share (EPS) of …

    Financial News 23 Jan 22:01

  • Telstra bets on a software future

    Protect your incumbency? There’s an app for that

    Telstra has announced a new software unit it hopes will deliver revenue streams to help replace the doomed old-telco income from fixed line services – and to protect its mobile business against the threat posed by app businesses. The fixed line network, once a river of gold, is already under pressure from mobile and naked DSL …

    Business 23 Jan 22:11

  • Samsung beat Apple for most chip purchases in 2012

    Meanwhile, PC and notebook makers cut back

    Samsung surpassed Apple as the leading consumer of semiconductors worldwide in 2012, while slumping demand for traditional PCs and notebooks caused several other competitors to reduce their demand, according to the latest figures from research firm Gartner. "The PC market still represented the largest sector for chip demand, …

    Business 23 Jan 22:12

  • Cisco pays $475m for Israeli mobile network firm Intucell

    Big payday as Chambers seeks mobile cloud control

    Cisco has bought Israeli mobile network traffic management software firm Intucell for $475m in cash as it seeks to expand its footprint on the mobile market. Intucell's special sauce is its self-optimizing network (SON) software, which dynamically shifts traffic between cell stations to even out the highs and lows of demand …

    Mobile 23 Jan 22:15

  • Squillions of bytes in one cup of DNA

    I/O is rubbish, but DNA will be around once the LTO standard is dust

    It’s not the first time that digital data has been encoded on DNA, but new research published today in Nature brings bio-storage a significant step closer to reality. Scientists have previously demonstrated that DNA is viable as a digital storage medium – for example, Stanford University demonstrated last year that a bit …

    Science 23 Jan 23:32

  • AMD to get dense about servers – but in a good way

    Hires two more chip hotshots to drive down the roadmaps

    Maybe SeaMicro, the upstart maker of low-power microservers that dragged Intel kicking and screaming into the market, should have bought AMD instead of the other way around. Or maybe after the AMD transformation is all done some years hence, it will look like that is what happened anyway so the difference will be moot. There's …

    Servers 23 Jan 23:59