Top Twenty Stories

Rogue Nokia splinter cell drops its Jolla phone A-BOMB

Ota tuo, vihreä robotti Google!

Smartphone upstart Jolla - founded by a bunch of ex-Nokia engineers - has finally unveiled a device. The gadget's technical details are few and far between at this moment. The handset itself won't be available until the end of the year, but anyone willing to plonk down €100 can get get in line early for the €399 phone and bag …
BT Tower is just a relic? Wrong: It relays 18,000hrs of telly daily

Geek's Guide Reg goes inside and up Blighty's telecoms spire

The Post Office Tower in London, adorned with microwave dishes and resembling a gigantic Star Trek gadget, symbolised the UK's white heat for technology in the 1960s. The tower in 2009 before the dishes were removed (Credit: David Castor) In an era of transistor radios as a fashion accessory, the space race, and the …
So you want to be a contractor? Well, here's how it works

Free advice from Reg headhunter Dominic Connor

Back in the heady days of 1984, working on the development of Microsoft Unix (yes, that was a real product, AKA Xenix), we needed to write an Ethernet driver, but none of us really felt up to that. We needed to hire an expensive specialist. And so I met my first contractor, who turned up in a far better car than anyone else …
Dell's PC-on-a-stick landing in July: report

Wyse up, suckers, could this be a new set-side-stick?

Dell's project Ophelia, an Android-PC-on-a-stick effort revealed at CES last January, is apparently set to debut in July. PC World brings us news that Dell will bring the product to the world in a few short weeks at around $US100. The idea behind the device is to offer user a very lightweight client device that users can …
Review: Sony Xperia SP

The new mid-range marvel? Oh yes.

Sony’s flagship Android smartphones have been a bit of a disappointment to me. But if the Xperia S and Xperia T didn’t quite cut the Colman’s, the cheaper follow-ups, the Xperias P and V, were more convincing. Sony, it seems, is better in the middle than at the top. Now the new Xperia Z - another high-end Sony that didn't …
Space dogs and Dragons: A brief history of reentry tech

How a flying Frenchman paved the way for space exploration

In August 1960, Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka1 - accompanied by several mice - became the first animals to travel into space and return alive. Belka and Strelka seen inside the Vostok capsule Packed into their Vostok spacecraft, the space canines relied on some venerable technology to return to terra firma - technology …
Gay marriage? We'll put a stop to that 'human BUG', says Nintendo

Sayōnara, Mr and Mr Robotto

A bug that permitted same-sex marriage in a Nintendo game was a mistake by the developer rather than a victory for equality, we're told. Gamers playing Tomodachi Collection: New Life - the latest version of The Sims-like role-playing game for the 3DS handheld - noticed they had the option of allowing male characters to marry …
The iWatch is coming! The iWatch is coming!

Reports: Apple's wrister to have 1.5-inch OLED, test units being built

The Apple iWatch rumor mill has rumbled to life yet again, with one report that Apple is sampling 1.5-inch OLED displays for the li'l fellow, and a second that long-time iKit assembler Foxconn has received orders for a test batch of the "wearable computing" device. On Monday, MacRumors spotted an article in the Japanese Apple- …
Intel's answer to ARM: Customisable x86 chips with HIDDEN POWERS

Let's all play find the secret hardware register

With new CEO Brian Krzanich and new president Renée James in control of Intel, all kinds of changes are very likely in store: the chip giant wants to expand beyond its dominance in PCs (a declining market) and servers (one that is profitable but not growing very much) to other aspects of the computing landscape. And one such …
They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER - welcome your ANT overlords

Whole corner of America faces life without computers

A massive horde of computer-killing "crazy ants" are invading the southeastern US, killing other species as they go. New research released today in the journal Biological Invasions warns the aliens have wiped out at least one other ant invader, the exotic fire ant, but are also targeting local ants with deadly precision. More …
MYSTERY Nokia Lumia with gazillion-pixel camera 'spotted'

With 20Mp sensor - NOW will you try Windows Phone 8?

Nokia will plug the boffinry behind the 41-megapixel camera in its 808 PureView phone into a new Lumia smartmobe, it is rumoured. The technology involves a gigantic sensor capable of taking gazillion-pixel photographs and clever software to refine the image into a sharp 3MP, 5MP or 8MP shot. The results can match the output of …
New 4TB drive spaffs half a telly season into your eyes AT ONCE

You like ~~porn~~ Game of Thrones, right? How about 16 eps simultaneously?

Seagate has a new 4TB 3.5in hard disk for digital video recorders, TV set-top boxes and other such entertainment gear. The Video 3.5 HDD can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an initial 0.55 per cent chance of drive failure per year. It has a wide range of capacity points - 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and …
Chocolate Factory chucks out Checkout

Stick your stuff in our Wallet

Google Checkout is the latest product to check into the Chocolate Factory's hospice, with merchants told it will be farewelled in six months. Merchants using the service are being encouraged to switch to Google Wallet Instant Buy or find another payment processor – a move which involves a lot more disruption to the small …
AT&T to relax restrictions on FaceTime, video chat

New contractual shenanigans to arrive in June?

AT&T Wireless plans to lift some of its restrictions on the use of mobile video chat apps by the end of this year, according to a statement the carrier released on Monday. AT&T started limiting its customers' access to bandwidth-heavy chat apps in 2012, when Apple first enabled the use of its FaceTime video chat over mobile …
WTF is... LTE Advanced?

Feature Data download speeds up to 1Gbps and 500Mbps uploads - but how is it done...

Britain now has a 4G network, run by EE, and others are being rolled out. We’re behind the curve, though. The world’s first 4G network, based on the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) specification defined by mobile telecommunications standards-setter 3GPP (Third-Generation Partnership Project), went live at the very end of 2009, and …
Canadian regulators welcome US Bitcoin refugees with open arms

Money laundering not a problem here, eh

Canadian Bitcoin traders will not be clobbered by laws similar to those being used to target virtual currency exchanges in America, according to a leaked letter from the country's financial investigations unit. The Register has seen a letter from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) which …
Stephen Hawking nixes Intel voice upgrade plan

Physics luminary 'quite upset'

Stephen Hawking scuppered an Intel plan to upgrade his voice, sending researchers at the chip giant into a desperate effort to emulate a defunct speech-synthesis chip. The A Brief History of Time author's nixing of Intel efforts to bring his robotic voice up-to-date was revealed at an innovation awards ceremony hosted by the …
Microsoft reveals Xbox One, the console that can read your heartbeat

Upgrades Live service – and no always-on requirement

Microsoft has shown off its next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One, with an upgraded Kinect and voice-recognition system, Skype integration, seamless switching between viewing modes, and a massive ramp-up in server support for the Live online community. One console to rule them all "We've designed an all-in-one system …
Petshop iPad fanboi charged with filming up young model's skirt

LAPD throws book at fondleslabber

A Los Angeles fanboi has been charged (PDF) with using an iPad to take upskirt footage of an underwear model. Julio Mario Medal, 38, stands accused of using his big shiny fondleslab to gaze up 22-year-old Brittanie Weaver's skirt and shoot a film about her naughty bits. Brittanie Weaver The blonde beauty claimed he had …
A backdoor into Skype for the Feds? You're joking...

Gov-enhanced hacking capability is bad, says PGP dude

Heavyweights of the cryptographic world have lined up behind a campaign against proposed US wiretapping laws that could require IT vendors to place new backdoors in digital communications services. Technical details are vague at present, but the planned law could mandate putting wiretap capabilities in endpoints to cover …