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25th February 2013 Archive

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  • Mobile operators look to Firefox to beat back Google, Apple

    MWC 2013 18 carriers announce plans to adopt Firefox OS

    Jumping into bed with Apple was a mistake for the mobile operators. Firefox is their second attempt at a solution. Apple was a mistake because operators gave away all their apps revenue to Cupertino, and that cash would have come in handy as voice and SMS cashflow declined. Instead, Apple was allowed to break all the rules – …

    Mobile 25 Feb 00:28

  • Quantum computer one step closer after ‘true’ quantum calculation

    Baby steps

    An international group of physicists has had an important “first” acknowledged by the journal Nature Photonics: they built the first complete single-qubit system to implement a key algorithm in quantum computing. The research, abstract here, is an end-to-end implementation of a quantum phase estimation algorithm. Quantum phase …

    Science 25 Feb 01:08

  • Firefox to spit out third-party cookies

    Mozilla says Apple's got it more or less right

    The Mozilla Foundation has set up camp alongside Apple in the “cookies are bad” section of the Internet, decreeing that three versions hence its flagship Firefox browser won't accept cookies from anyone other than the publisher of websites it visits. That version will be number 22 and is due for release on June 25th, 2013. …

    Software 25 Feb 02:25

  • Wikipedia to TXT articles to the developing world

    Knowledge for the next billion net users

    Wikipedia will shortly become available to readers in the developing world as text messages. Writing on the blog of the The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation's head of mobile and business development Kul Takanao Wadhwa said “We’re very excited about delivering Wikipedia via text, which we expect to …

    Networks 25 Feb 04:03

  • Toshiba boffins claim battery life boost with SRAM tweaks

    Standby power consumption reduction of 85 PER CENT in tests

    Japanese electronics giant Toshiba claims to have found a technology solution to the perennial problem of mobile device battery life, offering a reduction in standby power consumption of up to 85 per cent. Announced at the 2013 International Solid-State Circuit Conference in San Francisco last week, the innovation in embedded …

    Hardware 25 Feb 05:23

  • Microsoft latest to 'fess up to Java-based Mac attack

    Redmond experiences 'similar intrusion' to Facebook and Apple

    Microsoft appears to be the latest big tech firm to have been hit by cyber attackers targeting Macs with a zero-day Java vulnerability, following a sophisticated campaign which has already infected developers at Facebook and Apple. In a blog post published late last Friday, Microsoft’s GM of Trustworthy Computing Security, …

    Security 25 Feb 05:26

  • Unwearable tech: Five ways IT garb's gone HORRIBLY WRONG

    Yeah, um, good luck with those glasses, Google

    The Chocolate Factory has the technology for its Google Glass locked down in a patent but it has to collaborate with fashion retailer Warby Parker to make its artificial eye tech look cool, says the New York Times. The augmented reality spectacles are supposed to change the world, but currently they look too dorky to catch on …

    Hardware 25 Feb 06:03

  • Bouncing into Norks any time soon? At least you'll get 3G

    Mobe web data for visitors, citizens stuck in the dark

    Foreigners and tourists visiting North Korea will soon take advantage of wireless data connectivity closed to those who actually live there. The world's least-connected state has had a 3G network since 2008, under the Koryolink brand, but only offering voice, SMS and MMS services. This is a restriction that will remain for …

    Mobile 25 Feb 07:04

  • Itsy-bitsy Wi-Fi brings pay-by-bonk to all

    We don't need no stinkin' NFC

    Desperate to pay-by-bonk but bored of waiting for the hardware? Then Podifi can help by providing a tiny Wi-Fi access point which turns any smartphone into a bonking wallet. Podifi comes from 2ergo, which has spent the last couple of years trying to flog the tech as being ideal for vouchers and loyalty schemes. The payment …

    Networks 25 Feb 08:02

  • Yahoo! and! Microsoft! have! long! way! to! go! in! account! hijack! fight!

    Google hardly ever spaffs out spam anymore - researchers

    Microsoft and Yahoo! are way behind Google in fighting account hijacking, according to security experts. Earlier this week Google said that "complex risk analysis" featuring "more than 120 variables" had reduced the number of compromised accounts on its system by 99.7 per cent, since the problem peaked in 2011. The claim is …

    Security 25 Feb 08:27

  • Review: Britain's 4G smartphones

    Product Round-up Nine handsets, one network - is it time at last to invest in LTE?

    It’s been a good few months since the first 4G LTE network fired up in the UK, and wiser men than I have already tossed their orbs about the what and the how of EE’s monopoly 4G network. Time then to consider the 4G handsets now available for use in Blighty, and in the process cast a beady eye on speeds and coverage outside the …

    MWC 25 Feb 09:02

  • HP's ElitePad 900 now so elite, you've probably not heard of it

    Few thousand biz fondleslabs to slip into Blighty

    HP has taken a cautious step back into the world of slab computing: its ElitePad 900 has finally landed in the UK distribution channel albeit in relatively low volumes. Fewer than 30,000 units of the Windows 8-powered tablets were shipped into Blighty, say industry sources, and it seems the tech giant has yet to convince the …

    The Channel 25 Feb 09:33

  • You've made an app for Android, iOS, Windows - what about the user interface?

    Where to find a sane design for all platforms

    Cross-platform development is a big deal, and will continue to be so until a day comes when everyone uses the same platform. Android? HTML? WebKit? iOS? Windows? Maybe one day, but for now the world is multi-platform, and unless you can afford to ignore all platforms but one, or to develop independent projects for each …

    Developer 25 Feb 10:04

  • Microsoft's own code should prevent an Azure SSL fail: So what went wrong?

    Sysadmin blog Cloud service fell over despite cert automation in Server 2012

    Server 2012 is the Microsoft operating system that, in my opinion, makes cloud computing a reality. As far as I am concerned it is as big a leap over Server 2008 R2 as that OS was over Server 2003. With it you can build anything from a small cluster to a service as big as Microsoft's own Azure platform. Which is why I am …

    Operating Systems 25 Feb 10:31

  • Drilling into a half-decent gigabit small-biz switch... from D-Link

    Review The DGS-3420-28TC isn't from Cisco and I'm OK with this

    I have a confession to make, dear readers. While I'm aware that this admission opens me up to virtually unlimited heckling from the Cisco-indoctrinated crowd, the truth of the matter is that D-Link switches have served me in good stead for over a decade. After having spent the past month reviewing D-Link's DGS-3420-28TC, I've …

    Data Networking 25 Feb 11:04

  • Microsoft coughs up compensation for Azure cloud cock-up

    Embarrassing SSL cert snafu probe launched

    Microsoft has vowed to compensate users of its Azure cloud after an expired SSL certificate took the service offline. Victims of the Blue Sky of Death, which lasted 12 hours, will get credits as per their service-level agreement (SLA), the Redmond giant confirmed on its website. Windows Azure was knocked offline globally …

    Cloud 25 Feb 11:18

  • BT argues Ofcom is 'mistaken' on Ethernet price capping plan

    Plenty of competition, says national telco

    BT has hit out at Ofcom over its plans to tighten control of pricing of the national telco's wholesale Ethernet services outside London and Hull by describing the decision to regulate high speed data links as a "mistake". The move came as Britain's communications watchdog notified the European Commission of its proposals to …

    Broadband 25 Feb 11:44

  • Hadoop Hive stung into action, swarms around SQL

    More relational, more useful to humans, we're promised

    Hortonworks has unveiled the Stinger Initiative, a project to make Hadoop’s Hive data warehouse friendlier with SQL and faster. Hortonworks has also unveiled two accompanying Hadoop projects, which it’s submitted to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) in the hope they become community-supported projects. They are a runtime …

    Software 25 Feb 12:04

  • Razzie voters drive stake through Twilight

    Seven awards for cinematic undertainment

    The 33rd Razzie Awards honoured Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 over the weekend with no less than seven statuettes for outrages against the cinematic art, with the final installment of the teen vampire franchise picking up Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Kristen Stewart) Worst Supporting Actor (Taylor Lautner), Worst Screen Couple …

    Media 25 Feb 12:13

  • Nokia opens Maps to rivals, flogs uber-budget €15 phone

    MWC 2013 Saves 'best' of Maps for Nokia mobes

    A Linux phone running Mozilla OS can be found on Nokia’s stand at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week – but it’s not a "Plan B". It’s more a statement of intent from the Finnish handset company about its Maps platform, which Nokia is opening up and licensing more aggressively to non-Nokia mobile devices. CEO Stephen …

    MWC 25 Feb 12:27

  • UK distie boss: My brush with death in rapper's drive-by killing

    You know what they say, Price is right

    A twist of fate saved the boss of a UK IT distributor from a hail of bullets that killed rapper Kenny Clutch on the Las Vegas Strip. The drama unfolded early on Thursday morning when a gunman in a black Range Rover opened fire on the hip-hop star's Maserati. Clutch, who was at the wheel of the flash motor, was fatally shot and …

    The Channel 25 Feb 12:48

  • Unisys re-ups $650m deal to look after US taxman's big iron

    IRS slurps over $2 TREEELLION a year of taxpayers' cash

    National tax collection agencies were among the first organizations in the world to use IBM, Sperry, Burroughs, and other mainframes, and despite all the grumbling and grousing over the high costs of these venerable box, they have invested a fortune in COBOL applications and it is not so easy to ditch the mainframe as it might …

    Servers 25 Feb 13:05

  • Best Buy takes axe to touchy Windows 8 PCs - lops $100 off price

    Sit down, Surface, you don't count

    Best Buy will slash $100 off the price of touchscreen Windows 8 PCs. From Monday the US retail chain will cut the cost of Sony, Acer, Toshiba, Dell and HP touch-driven laptops plus two models of Samsung's all-in-ones to shift stock. You can see the full range of discounted gear here. Best Buy’s discount will not apply to …

    Laptops 25 Feb 13:24

  • IBM skips BladeCenter chassis with Power7+ rollout

    End of the line for Power blades – PureFlex or bust

    Even before IBM launched its Power7+ entry and midrange servers in early February, El Reg told you that it was suspicious, although not yet alarming, that no rumors were going around that Big Blue was working on Power7+ kickers to its PS7XX series of blade servers for its BladeCenter enclosures. Well, it looks like the Power …

    Servers 25 Feb 13:37

  • Dell takes aim at iPad, uncloaks enterprise-level Win8 tablet

    MWC 2013 Latitude 10 Enhanced Security: the fondleslab grows up, gets a job

    Dell has updated its Windows 8 tablet line, and in doing so has juiced the industry's increasing realization that fondleslabs are here to stay, belong in the enterprise, require enterprise-level security features, and are not just for playing Angry Birds. "At Dell, we have – unequivocally – the most secure, most manageable, …

    MWC 25 Feb 14:00

  • Ancient lost continent discovered lounging on Mauritian beach

    Boffins turn up trace of sunken Atlantis-like place at holiday spot

    Fragments of an ancient microcontinent lie beneath holiday destinations Mauritius and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, experts say. The pair of isles are thought to sit on top of the hidden continent, dubbed Mauritia by scientists. The boffins believe the splinter of buried land became a separate landmass 60 million years …

    Science 25 Feb 14:28

  • Mobile TV is BACK: Ericsson launches broadcast video for 4G

    MWC 2013 Must-watch TV - literally: NO pausing, skipping or stopping

    Broadcast mobile TV is back again, this time on Verizon's 4G network with better quality than ever, because it's obviously merely inferior technology which has prevented the success of mobile broadcasting in the past. Ericsson is going large at Mobile World Congress. It is now the largest provider of mobile infrastructure …

    MWC 25 Feb 15:04

  • Barnes & Noble to sling their Nook - report

    Insider sheds light on B&N moves ahead of Q3 results on Thursday

    As Barnes & Noble prepare investors for disappointing quarterly results on Thursday, the company will move away from making hardware and put more emphasis on shifting digital books, a New York Times source says. The company - America's biggest bookseller and the maker of the Nook tablet - has announced that yearly revenue for …

    Financial News 25 Feb 15:37

  • The Register Guide to Windows Server 2012: A short extract

    Another chapter in Microsoft licensing

    Two weeks ago, we published the The Register Guide to Windows Server 2012 as a free ebook. (You can get it here via our ebooks page.) To date there has been about 6,000 downloads, which is cool. To give you a flavour of the book, co-written by Trevor Pott and Liam Proven, we are republishing two extracts - but to read it all …

    Datacenter 25 Feb 15:58

  • Not so fast, BlackBerry. Now Samsung wants your tasty biz mobe pie

    MWC 2013 KNOX Android: Business at the front, party in the back

    Samsung is touting a new package called KNOX that attempts to split an Android device in two separate halves, one for business and the other for personal use. Fresh from tussling with Apple for global smartphone supremacy, the South Koreans are now ready to tear into BlackBerry and invade its home turf of enterprise users. …

    MWC 25 Feb 15:58

  • Mellanox pumps up channel for InfiniBand, Ethernet pushes

    Trying to pull in more biz to fill in revenue hole

    Switch and server adapter maker Mellanox Technologies gave Wall Street a bit of a shock with some cable issues and a big revenue shortfall in its most recent quarter and a projected one for the current quarter after one of its OEM customers bought more product in the latter part of 2012 than they could sell even into the first …

    Data Networking 25 Feb 16:32

  • Wages frozen, jobs at risk. Now Capita ITS shifts pay reviews to 1 April

    Staff need a laugh, but this is no time for pranks

    Workers at Capita IT Services (CITS) have been warned their annual reviews could be moved to the same date... April Fool's Day. After an austerity-focussed 2012, during which salaries were frozen, bonuses shelved and 1,000 staff put at risk of redundancy, the upcoming pay review for employees is no laughing matter for many. …

    The Channel 25 Feb 16:59

  • Muscles-from-Brussels Vanhamme crams into Dell EMEA role

    'I've been in training' says new networking biz boss

    The IT channel's very own muscles from Brussels Dominique Vanhamme has pitched up at Dell to run its networking business across EMEA. The tech industry veteran left Huawei Technologies in September after a year on board, claiming stifling bureaucracy and a lack of empowerment by China HQ hastened his exit. "I've been in …

    The Channel 25 Feb 17:17

  • Obama cybersecurity order mandates better information sharing

    RSA 2013 DHS gets ready to open up to private sector

    President Obama's executive order on cybersecurity means security officers at critical infrastructure companies will get greater clearances from the government to access its information, says a Department of Homeland Security honcho. The "unprecedented" executive order, which Obama revealed during his State of the Union …

    Security 25 Feb 19:03

  • Telecom bigwigs: 'We're all friends – really'

    MWC 2013 Being overcharged for using the airwaves? Blame regulators

    A gaggle of the world's top telecom grandees put on a show of smiling unanimity as the Mobile World Congress got underway in a kumbaya-fest that masked the intense competition among them. Get the bosses of Telefonica, Vodafone, AT&T, Telecom Italia, and China Mobile together – five men who have a significant majority of the …

    MWC 25 Feb 19:48

  • Open source port-a-thon brings Ubuntu to more phones, tablets

    Now runs (badly) on more than just Nexus kit

    Curious to try out Ubuntu Touch but don't have any Nexus kit to install it on? You may soon be in luck, thanks to the efforts of the Ubuntu open source community. When Canonical launched its new, Linux-based phone and tablet platform on Thursday, it made installation images available for only a few of Google's flagship Nexus …

    Developer 25 Feb 20:23

  • It begins: Six-strikes copyright smackdown starts in US

    Carrot and stick policies begin this week

    Five of the biggest US internet service providers will begin rolling out a Copyright Alert System (CAS) this week as part of a new six-strikes policy of restricting internet access designed to "educate rather than punish." Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, Cablevision, and Time Warner have all signed up to the plan from the Center for …

    Media 25 Feb 20:46

  • Poor leadership, tech, hold back Australian open government

    Australian Information Commissioner calls for rebuild of data.gov.au

    Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan has released the results of a survey into government attitudes towards, and adoption of, open government and found more needs to be done to embrace the content. He also calls for a substantial redevelopment of data.gov.au to realise open government policy. Available …

    Policy 25 Feb 21:08

  • LG acquires webOS from HP – but not for mobile kit

    Palm remnant to be reincarnated in 21st century boob tube

    Foster-child operating system webOS has been placed in yet another home – but not one in which it will be used for its original smartphone raison d'être. LG Electronics will acquire the peripatetic OS from HP, which got its hands on webOS when it acquired Palm in April 2010 for a cool $1.2bn. Palm had used webOS for its ill- …

    Mobile 25 Feb 21:46

  • Elon Musk: 'Fudged' NYT article cost Tesla $100m

    Not many orders canceled, though

    Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk says a recent negative review of his company's Model S electric car by The New York Times may have cost his company as much as $100m. "It probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions if not maybe on the order of $100m, so it's not trivial," Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg TV's …

    Hardware 25 Feb 22:06

  • Skyhigh Networks lets bosses snoop on employee cloud use

    RSA 2013 Big Brother for the (secure) common good

    People have a tendency to skirt corporate IT policy and use their own applications on the network, and Skyhigh Networks thinks it has a way for IT admins to stop this from happening. The company came out of stealth on Monday to announce the general availability of its Skyhigh Networks software, which can monitor any of 2,000 …

    Cloud 25 Feb 22:13

  • EMC morphs Hadoop elephant into SQL database Hawq

    Learning to live with HDFS instead of kicking it to the curb

    EMC has accomplished a remarkable bit of inter-species husbandry, marrying the Hadoop elephant to a Greenplum to birth an SQL-speaking Hawq. The Hadoop big-data muncher has been sitting side-by-side with relational databases used in transaction processing and data warehousing systems, but they speak very different languages. …

    Datacenter 25 Feb 23:05

  • Australian supercomputer to use geothermal cooling

    CSIRO starts drilling to ready petascale super for SKA data-crunching duty

    As Australia’s Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope takes shape, CSIRO has begun drilling in an unusual approach to cooling supercomputers. The petascale powerhouse needed by ASKAP is being built in water-short Perth, so instead of sucking nearly 40 million litres of water from the city’s supply, CSIRO plans a …

    HPC 25 Feb 23:13

  • Samsung, Visa in pay-by-bonk tie up

    Mastercard responds with rebadged PayPass

    Samsung and Visa have inked an agreement to pre-load the card giant’s payWave application on selected Samsung devices, with the upcoming Galaxy S4 slated to be the first built-in pay-by-bonk Visa device. The deal would enable NFC-based mobile payments without involvement from carriers. Instead, the Visa provisioning service …

    Business 25 Feb 23:25