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Apple fanbois not as data hungry as Big Phone says

Verizonites munch more

When AT&T's wireless service buckles and chokes, defenders say that Big Phone's infrastructure is being overloaded by iPhone users — but a new study shows that Jobsian handheld owners' data hunger is handily eclipsed by that of users of Verizon data plans. Average monthly data dining for Verizon smartphones is 421MB, versus …
Armed with exploits, ATM hacker hits the jackpot

Black Hat 'Game over' vulns spew cash on demand

A startling percentage of the world's automated teller machines are vulnerable to physical and remote attacks that can steal administrative passwords and personal identification numbers to say nothing of huge amounts of cash, a security researcher said Wednesday. At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Barnaby Jack, …
Cell phone eavesdropping enters script-kiddie phase

Black Hat Get your GSM snooping tools here

Independent researchers have made good on a promise to release a comprehensive set of tools needed to eavesdrop on cell phone calls that use the world's most widely deployed mobile technology. “The whole topic of GSM hacking now enters the script-kiddie stage, similar to Wi-Fi hacking a couple years ago, where people started …
Apple coughs to iPhone 3G IOS 4 upgrade problems

Where are we now?

iPhone 3G users who've upgraded to iOS 4 are discovering that the roaming switch isn't working any more, for those on O2's network at least. Apple's new OS isn't running as smoothly as intended; users report the upgrade causes slow-downs and freezes, not to mention draining the battery and running up unexpected roaming bills, …
Supercomputer geek builds Cray-1 around home PC

More powerful than the original?

Daryl Brach, known as pfaffen online, has built a scale model of the Cray-1 supercomputer to house a PC. The Cray-1, (pictured above) the world's first supercomputer, was launched in 1976. It was rated at a peak performance of 250MFLOPS and had "200,000 integrated circuits, 3,400 printed circuit boards, 60 miles of wire, and …
Google sets Android on pirates

Phone-home copy protection

Android now comes with an API allowing applications to phone home to check for a licence when launched, locking out pirates and anyone with an unreliable data connection. The "Licensing Verification Library" does allow the developer to permit caching of responses, so an application shouldn't stop working when one gets on a …
NoScript 2.0 beefs border patrol

'Saves your router's ass'

NoScript daddy Giorgio Maone has released version 2.0 of his popular Firefox add-on, a means of blocking JavaScript, Java, Flash, and other plug-in or script content from untrusted websites. Maone is particularly pleased with a change to NoScript's Application Boundaries Enforcer (ABE) module, designed to guard against router …
DfT 'unwittingly' bigged-up speed camera benefits

Exclusive Rumours of their awesomeness exaggerated, dept admits to Reg

The Department for Transport (DfT) has "unwittingly" misled the public over the benefits of speed cameras for the last four years. That was the shock admission yesterday by a DfT spokeswoman, when finally cornered by the Department’s own research. She also told us that they have finally agreed to put matters right by adding an …
Swiss do lady-friendly iPhone 4 launch

Mildly diverting breakfasty promo shenanigans

The iPhone 4 gets its Swiss launch on Friday, with an odd choice of attendant gender-related promotional faff. The "Orange at Globus" stores will be opening at 06.00 and offering coffee and croissants to girls, but blokes hungry for the latest Apple handset will need to find a female accomplice or look good in drag - they won' …
ID card astroturf - No2ID beats the truth out of IPS

Er yes, nearly all the happy campers did work for us

A cackling Phil Booth, No2ID National Coordinator, writes to tell us that six months after he first pestered the Identity & Passport Service about its quotes from ID card-toting happy campers in its publicity material, it has confessed - um yes, all but one of those quoted worked for the government. "We can confirm that eight …
Google brews (another) Facebook rival, says report

'Beyond' Buzz

Google is in talks with various online gaming companies as part of an effort to develop (another) Facebook competitor, according to a report citing people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is in discussions with Playdom Inc. (recently purchased by Disney), Electronic Arts's Playfish, and the …
iPads for hospitals: is this a good idea?

Can you wash it, drop it, stop your patients from stealing it?

Next year, 500 doctors and nurses in Victoria hospitals, will trial the use of iPads. Graduate doctors, rather than crusty consultants, will get the devices, as the "younger group of students and graduates of the health professions have grown up with technology all around them," Daniel Andrews, Victoria's health minister said …
.NET for Android prepares to get probed

Port from Windows help

Microsoft's .NET for Android - dubbed MonoDroid - has come a step closer. The Novell-backed MonoTouch project is about to start beta tests of a version of its open-source implementation of Microsoft's framework for use on Google's Linux operating system for devices. Final product for MonoDroid is expected in the fall, Novell …
Turkish pranksters load Facebook Translate with swears

The rudeness of crowds

Facebook's attempts to crowdsource translations have gone awry in Turkey. A group of Turkish pranksters banded together to submit bogus translations so that a Facebook IM error message was rendered in Turkish as "Your message could not be sent because of your tiny penis". The correct version should say the message could not be …
UK population to be guaranteed mobile 768Kb/sec service

Plus new-for-old deal for PMSE

The government has endorsed the plan to pass organisation of the digital dividend mega auction back to Ofcom, with universal service guarantees, and promises a new-for-old deal for the Programme Makers and Special Events (PMSE) crowd. Minister for Communications Ed Vaizey drafted a statutory instrument covering the plan, which …
Courts bar dodgy documents from divorce cases

Hildebrand rules hustled out

People involved in divorce wrangles will no longer be able to use dodgily-obtained documents to prove their spouse is hiding money, following a landmark Court of Appeal ruling. Previously courts would consider information obtained by the poorer party about the other's finances, even if it was secretly copied from a …
Scareware victims seldom fight back

Too embarrassed or too ignorant?

Victims of rogue anti-virus scams rarely attempt to claw back fraudulent credit card payments for worthless software packages, according to new research. Security blogger Brian Krebs contacted victims of scareware scams after coming into possession of a list of users duped into buying rogue anti-virus packages. The data came …
Fragrant tech thief stalks Whitehall

Public servants' purses exposed

Civil servants at the Department for Communities and Local Government are living in fear of a sweet smelling mobile technology thief who carries a ladies' purse. That is the inescapable conclusion after a minister in the department detailed the terrifying catalogue of thefts within the department in a commons answer. Pete …
Nokia goes after Opera Mini

It'll have you in interstitials

Nokia has unveiled a knock-off of Opera's Mini phone browser, intended for use on its low-end handsets in emerging markets. It's the first manifestation of Nokia's own ad engine. Like Opera Mini, Ovi Browser is a Java client that uses a compression proxy to reduce bandwidth. The browser is a crude 0.1 affair, but it's the ad …
Russian city blocks YouTube

Clampdown on 'extremist' material

The Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur has ordered ISP Rosnet to "restrict access" to YouTube and four other websites containing "extremist" material, Pravda reports. Prosecutors in the far eastern Khabarovsk region city trawled cyberspace and unearthed several examples of restricted material, including excerpts from Hitler's …

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