17th > August > 2010 Archive
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US fanbois await freedom from Big Phone
If, as is rumored, Verizon will end AT&T's exclusive US hold on Apple's iPhone beginning in January, it may mean big trouble for Big Phone.
DARPA funds Mr Spock on a Chip
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency financed the basic research necessary to create a processor that thinks in terms of probabilities instead of the certainties of ones and zeros. And now Lyric Semiconductor, the spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the work was done, is going to spend the next couple of years building a commercial probability processor called the GP5.
Chair maker punts $6,000 iPad recliner
What might an obscenely rich, profoundly indolent fanboi choose as the ultimate iPad accessory? Might we suggest the six-thousand dollar Elite Home Theater Seating iPad Chair?
MS to Kinect up UK in November
Microsoft's Kinect will come to Blighty on 10 November, the Xbox maker revealed this morning.
Fujifilm readies revamped 'true' 3D camera
Fujifilm has taken the wraps off its latest two-lens, two-sensor 3D-capable compact camera.
iPod meltdown strands Tokyo commuters
Apple's iPod flame-out woes continue. The latest victims: Tokyo commuters.
Nikon revamps projector cam
Nikon has updated its projector-equipped compact camera with a new look and a higher resolution sensor.
Acer Liquid E Android smartphone
Review
Acer has been a bit of a late starter in the smartphone game but has been working hard to catch up and gain a similar reputation to what it has with computers – decent quality machines that deliver the specs without excessive prices.
Disney sued for spying on kids with 'zombie cookies'
Walt Disney's internet subsidiary and several of its partners have been sued for allegedly using cookies based on Adobe's Flash Player to track highly personal information about their users, many of whom were minors.
MS lists Windows Phone 7 gaming launch line-up
Microsoft has listed the Xbox Live games that will run on Windows Phone 7 handsets when the smartphone platform launches later this year. Among them, some well known titles.
Alleged bad Appler pleads not guilty
Paul Shim Devine, a 37-year old Apple manager, has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges related to accusations that he took a series of bribes from suppliers to help them win work from the computer and phone maker.
Dell, 3PAR and legal parasites
The simple clarity and straightforwardness of the 3PAR and Dell deal is being muddied by the activities of US law firms that are as beneficial in many people's eyes as an HIV infection.
Paris jub-flash mugger busted
Police have busted the Paris jub-flash mugger who, along with an accomplice, earlier this month relieved a man of €300 after distracting him with her chesticles.
Cynicism, grumpiness cause heart attacks, strokes
Irascible, grumpy cynics have a significantly higher risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes compared to mellow, amiable, trusting people, according to a new study.
Nokia intros keypad, touchscreen combo candybar
Nokia has revamped its X3 sliderphone as... a candybar.
India puts threatened BlackBerry ban on paper
RIM will be talking to the Indian government this week - trying to explain just how difficult it is to intercept encrypted communications, while promising to do just that.
Network Solutions pulls widget that tainted up to 5m websites
Network Solutions has admitted that a software widget designed to help small business to build websites was contaminated with malware.
Symantec knits VMware safety net
Symantec says you will be able to virtualise the most critical business applications with confidence because it's providing the necessary safety net, Application HA. It's also sorted the virtual desktop image provisioning and storage problem with VirtualStore.
Oracle dumping HPC: Genius or foolhardy?
Blog
Quietly - very quietly – Oracle has been dropping out of the HPC market. We’re finally seeing some outward reaction to the company's internal moves with news stories (The Reg here and HPCwire here) discussing Oracle’s retreat from HPC. No comments from Oracle either confirm or deny the move, of course.
Vodafone tunes Wi-Fi hotspot dongle
It's got a Micro SDHC slot and the ability to share an HSDPA 3G connection with up to five devices over 802.11b/g Wi-Fi - yes, it's Vodafone's Wi-Fi R201 mobile hotspot.
STEC's magic MLC sauce
STEC, IBM and EMC's favourite enterprise flash drive supplier, says it has cracked the multi-level cell (MLC) flash conundrum, making it a viable enterprise choice by dealing with its poor write endurance and reliability.
Microsoft's volume licensing site goes titsup - again
Microsoft’s volume licensing site once again went titsup on Friday and was out for several days with very little explanation from the software vendor about what had gone wrong.
WiMAX forum touts version 2. Again
The WiMAX forum has again announced that its version 2 specification will be available later this year, as it seems no-one was listening last time around.
America's top model fights off 'pervert' at Star Wars convention
America's ex next top model Adrianne Curry has taken to the social networks to detail her alleged molestation at a Star Wars convention in Miami over the weekend.
Hacked Axl Rose Twitter account spreads false tour news
Axl Rose's Twitter account was hacked on Sunday to spread false rumours that Guns N' Roses was cancelling an upcoming European tour.
Google seeks UK privacy lobbyist
Are you a privacy lawyer? Would you take pride in working for a company with "a real soul"? Is your brain impervious to cognitive dissonance? Could you grow a brass neck?
Electric mass-driver catapults to beat Royal Navy cuts?
Hints are emerging that the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers may be equipped with innovative electromagnetic catapults in order to operate cheaper aircraft as part of the ongoing, behind-closed-doors UK defence and security review/cuts process.
Microsoft goes double bubble with server beta releases
Microsoft slung out a brace of server betas yesterday for its home and cloud biz customers.
Pink Floyd wipe albums from web
Long-playing records by Pink Floyd have vanished from the iTunes and Amazon stores, the result of a dispute with record label EMI.
BT mulls upping apprentice numbers
BT is considering increasing the number of apprentices it employs after receiving over 100 applications for each place.
Ikea forecasts fluffy, fully teched kitchen of the future
Thirty years from now, your kitchen will be "almost alive" and "respond actively" to your culinary needs "like only a mother could".
Storage big three to define HDD way ahead
Comment
Is the future of hard disk drive (HDD) technology bit-patterning or heat-assist?
iPad hits Asus Eee PC sales
Still not convinced that Apple's iPad is eating into sales of netbooks? Just ask netbook supremo Asus.
Spurs soothsayer predicts Young Boys thrashing on Twitter
Spurs has apologised over a misguided update to the club's Twitter account that predicted the North London club would thrash Euro opponents Young Boys on Tuesday night.
Americans demand Twitter-watching police
Americans expect their emergency services to respond to postings on their web sites and Twittered messages, but more than half would give them a call just to make sure.
Best Buy slaps 'God Squad' priest with cease-and-desist order
Best Buy is pursuing an American god botherer who ripped off the company’s Geek Squad logo.
Local councils will carry on splurging on IT
Despite the recession Kable believes UK local government ICT budgets will rise to nearly £4bn by 2016.
HP slurps up security software firm
HP has bought Fortify Software, strengthening its application security software portfolio.
Apple fans drool over Liquidmetal widget
It should come as no surprise that Apple fanboys are moistened by their favourite vendor's use of novel materials, and you can understand that excitement when a device uses a clever new compound in its construction.
Intel and Micron expose 3-bit flash
No sooner has a leaked Intel flash roadmap shown enterprise-grade multi-level cell (MLC) flash than Intel and Micron announce they are sampling 3-bit MLC product.
New US swarmsats will scatter to avoid space-war strikes
The USA's new "fractionated" swarm satellites - in which groups of small wirelessly-linked modules in orbit will replace today's large spacecraft - will be able to scatter to avoid enemy attacks and then reform into operational clusters.
IBM completes Power7 server arsenal
The roll-out of the Power7-based rack, blade, and tower servers finishes up today with the debut of five Power Systems machines. Big Blue is launching four itty bitty boxes and one behemoth.
Verizon demos 1Gbps over existing fiber network
Verizon has conducted a demo in which it pumped nearly a gigabit per second to a remote customer over its existing fiber infrastructure.
SGI previews Q4 financials
Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics is implementing a new revenue-accounting method in the fourth quarter, and the changes to the way it keeps its books have forced it to push out its financial results for two more weeks. SGI had been expected to report its numbers after Wall Street closed Tuesday.
Mozilla eases fears over phishy URL alert
Mozilla developers have eased concerns about the severity of a security feature in Firefox that often fails to warn users when they've encountered obfuscated URLs that might lead to malicious websites.
Java daddy says Sun engineers ran 'goofiest patent' contest
Sun engineers once ran an unofficial competition to see who could get the "goofiest" invention past the US patent office, according to former Sun man and Java founder James Gosling.
Apple.com hit in latest mass hack attack
A hack attack that can expose users to malware exploits has infected more than 1 million webpages, at least two of which belong to Apple.
Top lawmakers slam Google-Verizon 'net neut' scheme
The "suggested legislative framework" for internet regulation proposed last week by Google and Verizon has run into a buzz saw of opposition from four well-connected US Congressfolks.
Yahoo! begins Bingification in North America
Later this week in the US and Canada, Yahoo! will begin moving its back-end search infrastructure to Microsoft's Bing platform. When using Yahoo! search, North American netizens will soon see a “Powered by Bing” logo at bottom of results pages.
Oracle, Google, and the survival of the fittest Java
Sun Microsystems regularly boasted that Java ran on the most ubiquitous and the fastest growing of computing platforms: two billion cell phones.
