Earlier Hardware
Mystery Sony big-screen ereader to sport E Ink bender
E Ink reckons its "Mobius" flexible epaper screen will be the first of its kind to go into mass production, an event the company claims will take place some time later this year.
The Mobius will make its debut as a 13.3-inch panel built into a unnamed “digital paper product” made by Sony, which co-developed the panel with E Ink …
Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief
Comment Android looks unstoppable, and it's a mess. The first fact tends to eclipse the second observation, but Android's new supremo diplomatically acknowledges as much in an interview.
"Here’s the challenge: without changing the open nature of Android, how do we help improve the whole world’s end-user experience?" Chrome chief Sundar …
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Cupertino is reportedly planning changes to Applecare with a move towards shop-based iDevice repairs and a lucrative subscription service scheme.
The AppleCare and AppleCare+ schemes look likely to be overhauled in America this autumn, with the altered services rolled out across the world afterwards.
Tara Bunch, an Apple vice …
NYC attorney seeks mobe-makers' help to curb muggings
In a series of letters, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has called upon smartphone makers to explain what they are doing to combat the growing problem of handset theft.
"Cracking down on violent and dangerous cell phone thefts is important for New Yorkers," Schneiderman said in a canned statement. "The …
Report: AT&T dropping Facebook phone after dismal sales
Facebook's experiment with branded hardware may be coming to an abrupt end, according to a report that AT&T is discontinuing sales of the HTC First handset after finding that people won't buy it – even for 99 cents.
The First is Facebook's showpiece for its Home application, the mobile application that Mark Zuckerberg said at …
Review: Samsung Galaxy S4
In purely commercial terms, the Samsung Galaxy S III was always going to be a tough act to follow. After all, it established and then cemented Samsung’s position as the number one smartphone maker by volume - and the only one to give Apple the collywobbles.
I suspect that’s why Samsung has played it safe and opted for evolution …
Which petite model likes a fondle and GETTING WET? Sony's Xperia ZR
Pics Sony has come up with a new waterproof smartphone: the Xperia ZR, which is essentially an Xperia Z with a slightly smaller screen.
The gadget giant's other hydrophilic phone, the Z, is, our reviewer thought, “a bit of a slab”. Thankfully, the Japanese manufacturer has launched a slightly more compact model.
The Xperia ZR's …
Notebook sales to surge, says notebook seller
Global notebook sales may be in the crapper, but according to the chairman of the company manufacturing notebooks for Acer, Dell, Toshiba, HP, and others, the bluebird of sales-revenue happiness will sing again in the second half of this year.
On Thursday, Compal Electronics chairman Ray Chen told an investors conference that …
Global nappy hawker trials TweetPee moist-baby monitor
Twitter is preparing for an IPO, casting around for business plans to sell to investors, and so may be relieved to know Kimberly-Clark, maker of the popular Huggies diaper brand, is suggesting a solid (or in this case, liquid) idea for them to take to market.
The TweetPee is a bird-shaped humidity sensor and wireless antenna …
New Ubuntu for phones due 'by end of May' – usable this time
When Canonical released the Developer Preview of the smartphone version of its Ubuntu Linux OS, it warned users that it was only an experimental snapshot and that it couldn't replace their current handsets. That could change soon, however, as one Canonical exec has vowed to make an Ubuntu device his day-to-day phone by the end …
'Ultimate nerd chick’ prompts C64 clone cancellation
A damning tweet from one Jeri Ellsworth, described by a Register reader as “the ultimate Commodore 64 nerd chick”, has put the mockers on Project Bread Bin, one retro-tech fan’s dream to build a cut-price Commodore 64-compatible computer in a keyboard case.
Earlier this week, C64 fan Daniel Biehl called out to the crowd to …
Excess all areas
Something for the Weekend, Sir? My career is taking a turn for the worse. No doubt some of you consider that getting paid to bash off 750 ill-judged and frequently inaccurate words every Friday morning about one’s inability to use a computer correctly is an obstacle that you might suffer to stumble over as you stagger along your own rocky career path. I’m …
Fighting Fantasy and fantastic fights in tights
Game Theory This month’s column has been unceremoniously cleft in twain. Why? Because, while May’s big news will undoubtedly revolve around Microsoft’s unveiling of its Xbox 360 successor, there are still a fine number of new releases to discuss.
Expect the second part of this month’s Games Theory right after the dust has settled on all …
Stroke my sexy see-through backside, says Jobs from BEYOND THE GRAVE
Apple has successfully patented a new invisible button designed to be placed on the back of iDevices or used in computers.
Filed back in 2008, the design is a major broadside fired during Steve Jobs' war on visible buttons.
The patent is for a "disappearing button or slider", which is little more than a series of holes with …
ZX Spectrum cassette player lost? There's an app for that
Those with a working ZX Spectrum in their cupboards but lacking a working cassette deck with which to load programs need fret no more: there's an app for that.
The app in question, Speccy Tape for iOS, allows users to access the World of Spectrum database of abandonware. Once loaded into an iOS device, it then plays back the …
Thongs of praise: Slip on Japan's skimpy mobe knickers
Pics The Japanese adult male is widely considered to be utterly obsessed with young women’s small clothing. While we’d rather not pander to this particular stereotype, we have to admit the Land of the Rising Sun doesn’t do itself any favours.
Well, not with products like these coming out of it.
Exhibit A is a set of “panties for …
AT&T drops Facebook phone to 99 cents
Facebook's long game looks to be an attempt to create a shadow web by making the site a reasonable substitute for almost anything one does online.
Why wade through Reddit when your friends share content on Facebook? Or bother with Flickr or Picasa when Facebook will store your snaps? Messaging also happens quite happily within …
Amazon readying smartphone with 3D DISPLAY – report
If Amazon does release its own smartphone, it won't be just another me-too number, according to a new report that says the online retailer is working on a handset with a 3D holographic display.
Citing anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon's device will use "retina-tracking technology" to make images …
40,000 Chinese workers say low-cost iPhone coming soon
The manufacturer of the still-popular iPhone 4S has said that it plans to add 40,000 workers, boosting rumors that Apple plans to release an entry-level iPhone soon.
Taiwan-based Pegatron, which has manufacturing plants in Taiwan, mainland China, Mexico, and the Czech Republic, told Reuters that it plans to increase its Chinese …
NEW ITV Player app IS HERE ... for Samsung fandroids only. Ha ha
A new version of the Android app to watch ITV's online telly is now available - exclusively for Samsung gadgets.
But eager viewers with or without Sammy gear may want to stick with the earlier build of the ITV Player software until the bugs are squashed.
The app exclusive lasts until the end of August, and applies to the new …
Nokia's debuts new 'Fastlane' UI in $99 flagship Asha 501
Nokia has unveiled a new UI in the flagship $99 Asha 501 to help fend off a dramatic collapse in sales of the low-end devices.
Strong sales of cheap but decent quality Asha in growth markets like China and Africa had helped the fallen Finnish giant weather a tumultuous transition to Windows Phone, which saw its smartphone sales …
Retro-tech fan seeks cash for Commodore 64 clones
A brand new 1982-style Commodore 64 for just $75 (£48)? Yes, it is crazy, but that’s not stopping one enterprising retro-tech fan from trying to make it happen.
Daniel Biehl has a Commodore 64 - a real one - but he knows it won’t last forever. So he wants to build a machine that will run all the C64 software out there and work …
How smart does your desk phone need to be?
The business IP telephone market has spent more than a decade trying to establish exactly how much intelligence the market wants in its telephones. The customer's answer has almost always been “less than the vendors want to sell us.” Anyone looking for an albino pachyderm can therefore point to the CPUs and APIs baked into IP …
Don't use Google+? Tough, Google Glass will inject it INTO YOUR EYES
Google's techno-specs Google Glass can now deliver Google+ notifications direct to the eyeball - while consuming less power and also reporting back to the Chocolate Factory when things go pear-shaped.
The firmware update is being sent out to those selected by the advertising giant for early access to Glass, which still lacks a …
Review: BlackBerry Q10
One of my four-year-olds pointed to a BlackBerry Bold recently and exclaimed "It's HALF A PHONE!". She was pointing at the screen. And the other half? The answer, I elicited later, was that it was some kind of letters game.
Just think about that for a moment. Every day of your life you've seen adults pawing at a phone, but only …
Speaking in Tech: 'You can't NOT look like a douche wearing Google Glass'
Podcast speaking_in_tech Greg Knieriemen podcast enterprise
It's another episode of El Reg's weekly enterprise tech podcast, hosted by Ed Saipetch, Greg Knieriemen and Sarah Vela. Do only white guys wear Google Glass? Just what did Sarah get up to at school with Reid Hoffman? And what the hell kind of weirdo endorses people for " …
Review: Crucial M500 960GB SSD
When Intel entered the personal computer solid-state drive market it was with the stated aim of making SSDs something more than an expensive luxury.
It implied it would drive prices down to a point where SSDs would become a viable alternative to the standard rattling old mechanical disk drive.
But even the blue-hued chip giant …
Oz chap blows his own Google Glass
A 20 year old Australian tech support chap named Nathan Myers has built his own version of Google Glass.
Dubbed “FLASS”, a contraction of “fake Google Glass”, the device uses a screen pinched from a MyVu Crystal 701, a short-lived late noughties gadget that tried to convince the world to watch video in a pair of glasses whose …
Deep inside Intel's new ARM killer: Silvermont
Intel has released details about its new Silvermont Atom processor microarchitecture, and — on paper, at least – it appears that Chipzilla has a mobile market winner on its hands.
Yes, yes, we know: you've heard it all before, from Menlow to Moorestown to Medfield. Intel has made promise after promise that its next Atom-based …
Peak Apple: Foxconn contemplating life after Cupertino
Foxconn is reportedly planning for an Apple-free future after a massive slump in orders from Cupertino.
Apple's favourite production company is moving away from simply building other people's designs and trying to break into a new market with the introduction of a range of flatscreen televisions.
However, since their …
Asus: PC market still burning, but folks are guzzling our tablets
Asustek Computer Inc is surfing the slabbie sales swell better than most of its peers, if calendar Q1 financials are a decent metric.
The Taiwanese producer of own-branded tabs - it also makes Google's Nexus 7 - pushed up turnover 16 per cent to NT$105,157bn (£2.29bn) in the first three months of 2013.
The bottom line also …
Nokia teases world+dog with snap of new 4G Lumia 928
Pic Nokia nerds are all aquiver about the Finnish giant’s latest smartphone, the Lumia 928 - but it appears to be little more than a Lumia 920 for US operator Verizon.
The 928 model now has a page on the Nokia website albeit with little information beyond a picture of the device which, with the page’s URL, confirms the phone’s …
First, the bad news: EA bags Star Wars games rights
Disney has made good on its promise to farm out future Star Wars games to an outside developer after scrapping LucasArts - and picked much-loved EA.
Electronic Arts will be able to build on its Jedi-inspired online multiplayer game Star Wars: The Old Republic now that the two entertainment giants have signed a multi-year …
Google's Page, LG boss's SECRET confab sparks Nexus 5 rumour
The smartphone rumour mill is in overdrive again after reports that mobe maker LG is prepping a new Nexus phone with Google.
Meanwhile, separate leaked photos have led to rumours that an LG Optimus 2 handset is in the works.
The South Korean electronics firm's CEO Koo Bon-joon met Google boss Larry Page on his visit to Seoul …
TV gesture patent bombshell: El Reg punts tech into public domain
Pics Gesture control to operate next-gen home electronics is the next patent battleground - so last month we asked you lot for hand movements you'd like to see protected from the lawyers as prior art. Here are the most popular, and practical, suggestions.
Many of the gestures submitted were anatomically impossible, or at least …
Don't bake your Raspberry Pi - now you can WATER COOL it
Pic The Raspberry Pi is supposed to help teach kids how to code, but one Londoner has used it to learn how to fabricate a water-cooling rig, after building a liquid-filled radiator to cool his Pi.
Does a Pi need water cooling? The device can certainly be overclocked, and its designers, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, last year added a …
Amazon beats Google to open Chinese app store
Amazon has opened an Android app store in China before Google, with the Android Appstore open for business in the middle kingdom.
Google's Play store has technically been around for a while in the People’s Republic and its Android OS has a huge lead in the smartphone market, but Play has been subject to periodic blocking by the …
Politically-correct 'Fairphone' goes on pre-sale next week
Fairphone, a social enterprise aiming “to bring a fair smartphone to the market – one designed and produced with minimal harm to people and planet” will next week offer pre-sales of its first handset, and if it can find 5,000 buyers the phone will become a reality.
The Fairphone's design calls for it to use minerals sourced from …
VTOL hybrid flying car promises the skies
The flying-car designers at Terrafugia may be behind schedule getting their first commercial model off the ground, but they're already talking up their next big idea: a four-person hybrid car with tilting engines that allow for vertical takeoff and landing, which could be in production by 2025.
Terrafuiga TF-X VTOL flying car …
Next Xbox won't need always-on internet after all
Widespread fears that Microsoft's next Xbox gaming console will require an always-on network connection may be unfounded, if a memo purportedly leaked from Redmond proves authentic.
Ars Technica claims to have had a peek at an all-hands memo sent to every current staffer working on "Durango," the codename for the next Xbox, …
Movie review: Star Trek Into Darkness
You reboot a popular science fiction series, but you cleverly restart the series’ timeline too, to give you not only a fresh, clean page on which to begin writing a brand new mythology, but also a fan-friendly way to tie it all in to the established continuity.
That’s the trick director JJ Abrams - he of Lost fame - and …
Acer reveals 'floating' screen to save desktop, self
Taiwanese hardware giant Acer has made a bold bid to claw back some of the market share it’s been hemorraghing over the past few months, taking the wraps off the Aspire R7 – a tablet/notebook/desktop hybrid device complete with “floating” touchscreen.
The R7’s main talking point is what Acer has dubbed the “Ezel hinge”, which …
