Thursday, 28 August 2008

• Larry Ellison gets huge pay rise — The Register
  What else can you give California's richest man?
  The richest boss in tech just got a little bit richer, and this time it's not his customers squeaking. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, California's richest man, has been awarded a 38 per cent pay rise, taking his salary to an estimated $72m. The award makes Ellison the second-highest paid CEO of a US public company, …
• DARPA develops zap-bomb electropulse countermeasures — The Register
  First, get pulse bombs to work
  US military boffins are preparing highly sophisticated technical defences against the dreaded electromagnetic pulse bomb, a weapon which has long been anticipated but never successfully built. We know about the counter-electropulse defence technology because the company which will develop it - HRL Labs of Malibu, California - …
• Acer H1 revs jump but profits slump — The Register
  Market share up
  Acer increased sales in the first half of 2008 by 31 per cent to $8.14bn. Operating income was up 39 per cent to $175.85m but profit after tax was $189.98m - down 23 per cent on the same time last year. In July Acer said it had increased market share in Europe and Asia. For the second quarter of 2008 Acer grew group revenue …
• Bloomberg kills Steve Jobs — The Register
  Apple big cheese obit cock-up
  Bloomberg yesterday dispatched Apple supremo Steve Jobs to the hereafter with a 17-page obit inadvertently published during an apparent update, Gawker reports. The short-lived homage - quickly pulled - contained a heartwarming tribute from Bill Gates who described Jobs as the best inspirational leader he'd ever met, while the …
• Philips pitches black with monster contrast LED backlight — Reg Hardware
  IFA More black than black is our motto here...
  In move to take on the likes of the Pioneer Kuro and Panasonic's Viera, Philips has announced the 42PFL9803 TV with black-enhancing LED backlight technology. The 42in display features what Philips calls "2D dimming control" covering 128 individual areas, enabling the LCD TV to compete with the best plasmas TV sets, the company …
• Philips unveils 38mm-thick HD TV — Reg Hardware
  IFA Essence of skinny?
  Measuring a super-slim 38mm at its thinnest point, the Essence HD LCD TV boasts a refresh rate of just 2ms and a full 1080p resolution. It also offers three HDMI ports, a DLNA network streaming link, a, removable 2x 15W sound bar and sleek-looking remote control. Philips' Essence: free of cable clutter Along with the …
• Toshiba cooks up kitchen-ready HD TV/DVD combo — Reg Hardware
  IFA Together again
  Toshiba has unveiled a range of HD LCD TVs with integrated DVD players. Toshiba's DV series TV/DVD combo The DV series is said to be suitable for the bedroom or the kitchen, which explains why Toshiba only offers 19in and 22in models. Full HD fans will be disappointed by the DV series’ 720p resolution, but the integrated …
• Sharp previews 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio LCD TV — Reg Hardware
  IFA Stunner
  The future of LCD TV technology is a contrast ratio of one million to one - so Sharp reckons, at least. It announced two such tellies today in an attempt to prove it. The Aquos XS1 full HD screens are 52in and 65in jobs - that's the actually viewing size, Sharp said - and both feature three-colour LED backlighting to generate …
• Sony launches 200Hz telly technology — Reg Hardware
  IFA 100Hz? Pah!
  Sony has gone one better than 100Hz motion display, and launched a TV with exactly double that frame rate. Sony's Z4500 with 200Hz Motion Plus: the difference is visible in real life, honest Sony's Z4500 TV with "200Hz Motion Plus" technology will, the company claied, yield the “smoothest and crispest LCD image ever”. …
• Password pants-off at Lloyds Bank — The Register
  Rogue staffer tinkers with login trousers
  Set yourself a rude password at Lloyds TSB, and it is just possible that you might find it changed to something politer. That was the experience of Lloyds customer Steve Jetley, who attempted to set "Lloyds is pants" as his telephone banking password. According to Mr Jetley, this was then changed by a member of staff to "no it …
• Toshiba unveils SD-to-HD resolution revolution — Reg Hardware
  IFA Upscale everything
  Toshiba has launched the first TV that incorporates its own image upscaling system. Toshiba's ZF set will upscale SD automatically Dubbed Resolution Plus, the technology features in the firm’s new Regza ZF series of screens and allows the 40in and 46in tellies to enhance the quality of standard definition content to “near …
• McKinnon loses extradition fight — The Register
  European court clears injunction, washes hands of hacker case
  The European Court of Human Rights has refused to intervene in preventing the US extradition of accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon. The ruling by the seven judge court, made Thursday, kills off McKinnon's last hope to avoid extradition to the US to face charges of hacking into US military and NASA systems, following the …
• Sikorsky announces first flight of 'X2' triplex supercopter — The Register
  Talk about a spin machine
  The X2 prototype superhelicopter had a successful first flight yesterday, according to its makers Sikorsky. The revolutionary (cough) aircraft hovered and manoeuvred using its twin main rotors without problems, but trials of its tail propulsor will take place on a future flight. “Today’s achievement is the result of dedicated …
• Microsoft, Nikon release shutter on patents — The Register
  Darkroom Knight
  Microsoft has inked a cross-licensing patent deal with camera maker Nikon. Under the agreement, the two companies get access to the other’s patents. It covers Nikon digital cameras and other consumer products both firms manufacture and sell. However, Microsoft and Nikon haven’t announced which products and features would …
• Roberts Stream 202 DAB/FM/net radio — Reg Hardware
  Review Full stream ahead or does this digital radio run out of puff?
  In what Roberts claims to be a world first, this unit delivers DAB, FM as well as Wi-Fi connected internet radio and music streaming all in a traditional kitchen-style portable. A more modern look than perhaps Roberts is known for greeted us when we opened the box. The exterior is attractive enough, with a metallic grille and …
• Panasonic intros 'world's slimmest' Blu-ray players — Reg Hardware
  IFA Europe's first BD Recorder too
  Panasonic today punted what it claimed is the world's lowest-profile Blu-ray Disc player. It also unveiled Europe's first BD recorder. The skinny model's the DMP-BD55 and it's about half the height of the chunky BD players that have been launched to date: 85mm down to 49mm, compared to Panasonic's current models. Panasonic's …
• 'Googlebomb' blows up in Daily Mail hack's face — The Register
  'Julie Moult is an idiot'
  A hapless Daily Mail hack's failure to understand Googlebombing has led to her becoming victim of her own twisted definition of the mischief-making practice. In her piece last Friday, "Blears falls prey to 'Google Bomb' Attack Of The 50-inch Woman", Julie Moult hung a tissue-thin story about an alleged "Googlebombing" of Hazel …
• French train tickets go USB — The Register
  We don't need no stinkin' ISO7816
  The French National Railway Company is trialling contactless tickets with USB connections, replacing the ubiquitous ISO7816 for online top-ups and data storage. The trial, which involves 1,000 tickets, is to start in the autumn in four as-yet-undisclosed regions of France, reports the RFID Journal. SNCF already uses …
• Coming soon: Facebook - The Movie! — The Register
  West Wing creator to pen epic internet tale
  Be afraid, be very afraid - Sony has asked West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin to write a movie about how internet superphenomenon Facebook was spawned, and by way of research he's waded straight in with a group page down at the social networking website. Sorkin admits the page was actually created by his researcher "because my …
• LG prices up HSDPA-equipped mini laptop — Reg Hardware
  IFA Autumn debut
  LG's not going be left out of the Small, Cheap Computer arena - it'll be releasing its own would-be Eee beater, the 3G-integrated X110, in October. LG's X110: 3G built in Built-in HSDPA costs, and the SCC is set to be priced at €399 ($589/£320), an LG spokesman said. That also buys you Windows XP SP3 and 160GB of hard drive …
• BBC fixes BT Home Hub auto-vomit bug — The Register
  Olympic delay for iPlayer tweak
  BBC engineers have solved a mysterious, long-running bug that has meant iPlayer and live TV streams have frequently prompted the BT Home Hub, UK's most common router, to reset itself. The source of the problem has been identified after a lengthy, "tricky" search and a fix is currently working its way through the BBC's back-end …
• McKinnon heads for the last chance saloon — The Register
  Pentagon hacker's final appeal
  Accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon is approaching his own D-Day, with his fate due to be sealed in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Court represents McKinnon's last chance of avoiding extradition to the US to face charges of hacking into military and NASA systems, following the rejection of his appeal …
• Best Buy removes craplets for $30 — Channel Register
  PC makers
  Best Buy, America's biggest electronics retailer, will remove the preloaded rubbish software installed with new PCs, for $30. Best Buy sells billions of dollars of PCs a year, so this could be a game changer. Margins in the the PC industry are skinny, and fees from software makers for pre-installing craplets on consumer-" …
• Panasonic to bring IPTV into the mainstream — Reg Hardware
  IFA Telly integration
  Panasonic today pledged to bring IPTV to the masses: it's going to build net-delivered video right into its HD TVs. Dubbed VieraCast, the system's an on-screen menu page that presents Panasonic partners' content that can be selected and set to play straight from the TV's remote control. Think of an AppleTV built into a TV. …
• Europe's Tesla will be first with full performance — The Register
  British-built model gets full fat transmission
  Tesla Motors, darling of the electric vehicle industry, has confirmed that it will produce a European "special edition" of the famous Roadster sports car. European buyers will be the first to get Roadsters with full-performance transmissions - early US cars now being delivered have "intermediate" lower-performance machinery …
• Computacenter down on falling profits — Channel Register
  Interims disappoint
  Computacenter shares are down more than seven per cent this morning after the firm reported a 14 per cent fall in profits in the first six months of the year. Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2008 showed the reseller increased revenues by 7.8 per cent to £1.25bn, thanks mainly to currency movements. But profit …
• Tosh on top for laptop reliability — Reg Hardware
  Our survey says...
  Which?, the UK consumer organisation, has ranked the UK's most reliable laptops. Top of the reliability list is Sony and Toshiba with 93 per cent of Which? members surveyed saying their laptop had not needed repair. Fujitsu-Siemens got 91 per cent and Apple and Dell scored 87 per cent. Next were Acer and HP with 84 per cent, …
• Acorn alumni to toast tech pioneer's 30th anniversary — Reg Hardware
  Reunion bash planned
  Some 400 staffers from that flag bearer of the 1980s UK home computing revolution, Acorn, are to gather next month to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the firm's foundation. The original Acorn no longer exists, of course, but the company it ultimately evolved into, ARM, is hosting the gig, which will take place in Cambridge, …
• Dabs.com courier goes titsup — Channel Register
  BT insists orders will be delivered
  Online retailer Dabs.com has told customers to hang fire for a few days while orders due to be delivered by Amtrak are reassigned to another courier. Netfold Ltd, trading as Amtrak, went into administration last Friday (22 August). It’s the second time in two years that the company has ceased trading. The Aldridge, West …
• Google stretching underwater comms cable? — The Register
  To Guam and beyond
  It looks like Google is prepping another underwater comms cable. In February, the search giant finally admitted it was partnering with five Far Eastern outfits to stretch a cable from the US to Japan. And now, says a comms-happy research outfit dubbed TeleGeography, Eric Schmidt and crew are planning a second cable system that …
• Judah 'Visual Voicemail' Klausner sues Google, Verizon, Citrix... — The Register
  Rent due again?
  Suing communication providers over alleged patent infringements has worked pretty well for Judah Klausner. The inventor, who owns the company Klausner Technologies, has already reached lucrative settlements and subsequent licensing deals with AOL, AT&T, eBay, Comcast, and others. This round Klausner is gunning for six more …

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

• Microsoft and Immersion settle settlement settlement — The Register
  The semantics of force feedback
  Microsoft and the force-feedback technology firm, Immersion, appear to have come to final terms after six years of suing each other. In the end, Immersion has agreed to pay $21m to settle its legal dispute with Redmond, and will join Microsoft's Certified Partner Program. By our count, today's settlement settles a settlement …
• Hijacking huge chunks of the internet - a new How To — The Register
  It's easy. Those tubes are busted
  More evidence that the intertubes are fundamentally broken has been served up by Wired.com in an article laying out a technique to surreptitiously hijack huge chunks of the internet and monitor or even modify unencrypted traffic before it reaches its intended destination. The exploit of the routing protocol known as BGP, short …
• Feds cuff blogger for Guns N' Roses leak — The Register
  Chinese Democracy, American Extremism
  The FBI has arrested a 27-year-old American blogger for leaking some unreleased Guns N' Roses tunes to the internet. According to The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times, the Feds cuffed Culver City, California's Kevin Cogill on Wednesday morning, two months after his web site Antiquiet served up nine tunes from "Chinese …
• Google's MapReduce suddenly not so backward — The Register
  SQL tools plug gaps
  What was seen as a major hole in Google's MapReduce database technology has been plugged, not once but twice. In the same week. Californian start-up Aster Data and its more established rival Greenplum have both launched SQL integration for MapReduce. The lack of SQL tools was one of the main criticisms levelled at MapReduce …
• AMD's dual-core 'Kuma' specs listed? — Reg Hardware
  German spies Phenom X2
  Quite contrary to rumors AMD scrapped its plans to bring dual-core K10 parts to the market, the chip maker may have already begun selling the line to its partners on the sly. German tech site Hardware-Infos says its snooped out what appears to be the primary lineup of the processors (codenamed "Kuma") from a listing on the …
• Finnish blogger amputates Google from Google — The Register
  A road map for regulators of the future
  Getting a head start on the world's antitrust regulators, an astute Finn is offering a bastardized version of Google's search engine that ignores sites served up by Google itself. Inspired by a recent New York Times piece that questioned whether the Mountain View search monopoly is morphing into a media company - which it is …
• Android's missing Bluetooth: Limitations laid out — The Register
  Parlez-vous GoogleTalk? Er, no
  Android developers have admitted that Google's mobile phone platform won't support GoogleTalk in its first version, and that Bluetooth support will be severely limited. The revelations come as no great surprise - version 0.9 of the SDK was launched last week with the same omissions - but the Android Developers Blog has now …
• Brit firm to demo serious flying robo-saucer in 2009 — The Register
  Peterborough Attacks
  A small British company developing a unique form of hovering aircraft says it will soon demonstrate a new and much more serious version of its technology. Saucer technology in action. GFS Projects of Peterborough was registered in 2002, following early efforts by former hovercraft engineer Geoff Hatton to develop a working …
• MS beefs up WinXP Pro's anti-piracy nagware — The Register
  More false positives ahoy?
  Microsoft wants to rein in more Windows XP pirates over the coming weeks, by pushing out a new version of its “nagware” which detects when a machine is running a fake copy of the OS. The company’s Genuine Windows director Alex Kochis said yesterday that Redmond will release the latest version of its Windows Genuine Advantage ( …
• British boffins perfect process to make any item '100% waterproof' — Reg Hardware
  Gore-Tex killer?
  UK company Plasma Product Innovations (P2i) today demonstrated a chemical process it claims can render any material 100 per cent waterproof. Grappling at an ungodly hour this morning with words like 'hydrophobic', 'nanotechnology' and 'submicroscopic-surface-enhancement', a small number of journalists were shown how a material …
• Tech repair shop to the UK flees Manchester — Channel Register
  130 redundancies at A Novo UK
  A Novo UK, which services mobile phones, monitors and set-top boxes, is laying off at least 130 staff and closing its Manchester repair centre. The company provides after-sales support and repairs for lots of tech companies including BT Vision, Sky, Dell and Philips. The redundancy plan, part of a strategic review of UK sites …
• Crayola colours keyboard... you know... for kids — Reg Hardware
  Crayon crafter Crayola has created a colourful keyboard designed to prepare kids for a lifetime spent mindlessly tapping numbers and text into computers. Crayola's USB EZ Type Keyboard Each of the USB EZ Type Keyboard’s numerical keys is painted orange, while the Qwerty key arrangement is a sickly lime green. Special- …
• Election watchdog makes ID card U-turn — The Register
  Unnecessary for fraud clampdown
  UK election scrutineers are pushing for polling stations to require tougher proof of identity to reduce the risk of ballot-rigging, but do not want voters to be forced to bring photo ID. The stance is a reversal of statements made by Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger just a year ago. Launching the Electoral Commission …
• Credit crunch bites into mobile sales — Reg Hardware
  Handset sales continue to soar
  Global mobile phone sales will exceed 1.2bn handsets this year, although tough economic conditions are already biting into phone sales, market watcher Gartner has warned. The analyst discovered that approximately 305m handsets were sold worldwide during Q2 - some 86m of them into Europe and North America - up just 3.7 per cent …
• Which is the best Linux for laptops? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  I have been a user of Windows for ages now, literally using WinXP Pro since its first public release, and I have a fairly good understanding of how the OS works. I have been starting to venture into the Linux/Unix world, currently using the Ubuntu 8.04 on my ThinkPad X60. But is there a distribution that would fit best my …
• SanDisk pitches SDHCs at Nikon D90 — Reg Hardware
  Anyone smell cross-sell?
  The Nikon D90 DLSR has only just been announced, but SanDisk is already punting a compatible SDHC on the back of the camera-cum-camcorder's launch. SanDisk's Extreme III SDHC cards: 4, 8 and 16GB SanDisk’s Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC reads data at - you've guessed it - 30MB/s, enabling each of the 4GB, 8GB and 16GB …
• Euro guidelines will allow Bluetooth spam — Reg Hardware
  But UK punters still protected
  The Mobile Marketing Association has published its guidelines for advertising pushed over Bluetooth connections, and considers anyone who hasn't opted out to be fair game for spammers. The guidelines are now available for public review until 26 September, and take a distinct step beyond the UK's Direct Marketing Association ( …
• Nokia 6210 Navigator phone — Reg Hardware
  Review Modest GPS-enabled mobile from Nokia
  The upgraded successor to last year’s 6110 Navigator, the 6210 is a tidy slider-design handset, bearing more than a passing resemblance in looks and specs to the recently-launched 6220 Classic. It’s another of Nokia’s S60 3.2 smartphones, packing in much of the functionality and applications found on Nokia’s higher-end N …
• Microsoft dishes dirt on IE8 'pr0n mode' — The Register
  Updated 'Off the record' browsing is go
  Microsoft has outlined the new privacy tools available in its forthcoming browser Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Earlier this week the company’s program manager Andy Zeigler confirmed rumours from last week that Microsoft would include a privacy browsing feature affectionately known as "porn mode". He said four new controls with …
• Portsmouth punts naval boy-on-boy to innocent kiddies — The Register
  Rum, sodomy and the lash
  Avast there and unfurl the Twat-O-Tron ye scurvy landlubbers of Middle England, lest Portsmouth Historic Dockyard make barrel boys of ye all, damn their eyes: Yes indeed, me buckaroos, that's how Portsmouth punts Blighty's nautical heritage, as a suitably shaken Igor Z can attest. Mr Z admits his gasts were well and truly …
• iPhone passwords not worth the paper they're written on — Reg Hardware
  Push two keys to bypass password
  iPhones protected by a password aren't actually protected at all, as just by pressing a few keys a miscreant can access all the phone's functions without needing the password at all. The trick, reported by MacRumours, is simply a press of the "Emergency Call" key from the passcode entry screen, followed by a double-tap on the …
• Freesat signs fourth hardware maker — Reg Hardware
  Not a big name
  UK free-to-air satellite TV service Freesat has recruited another hardware maker: French digital TV receiver specialist Metronic. The manufacturer will offer Freesat HD set-top boxes and put them on sale by the end of the year, Freesat said today. Freesat launched back in May with standard-definition receiver hardware from …
• Serco buys US government reseller — Channel Register
  Playing with the big boys now
  Serco is to acquire SI International, an IT reseller specialising in the US federal market, for $423m cash - a 40 per cent premium on SI's closing price on NASDAQ yesterday. Serco is also asssuming net debt of $87.3m, so the enterprise value of the deal is $510m - a multiple of 12.3 on forecast EBITDA for 2008. Serco is …
• McCain: Keep Shuttle flying, don't trust Russia — The Register
  Show us the money, says NASA
  Presidential contender John McCain and two other bigshot Republican senators have written to George Bush urging that NASA keep the Space Shuttle fleet alive beyond 2010. The politicians are concerned about US reliance on Russia for manned space transport in the early years of the next decade. According to the Orlando Sentinel …
• Samsung samples SSDs for SCCs — Reg Hardware
  32GB unit offers speed boost
  Samsung has begun punting a compact 32GB solid-state drive card at makers of Small, Cheap Computers. The SSD - which is also sampling in 8GB and 16GB versions - incorporates Samsung's multi-level cell (MLC) Flash chips. MLCs are usually held to be less responsive than single-level cell chips, but they're key to getting as much …
• Electoral officers oppose edited register — The Register
  Local gov hates marketeers
  Most local authority electoral officers support the information commissioner's recommendation to scrap the edited electoral roll, according to a new survey. The survey of 204 councils, taken during August by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Electoral Administrators, found that 98 per cent of …
• Nikon debuts D90 DSLR... and short-shooting camcorder — Reg Hardware
  720p recording
  Nikon has unveiled a digital SLR snapper that lets you shoot HD video - provided you like short movies. Nikon's D90: shoots 720p video The D90’s ability to capture video at resolutions up to 720p and at a 24 frames per second in Motion JPEG format is, according to Nikon, a world’s first for a DSLR camera. It’s worth noting …
• Dell turns to Linux, Atom for budget biz boxes — Reg Hardware
  Vostro revamped
  Dell still hasn't formally announced its Eee PC rival but it did at least unveil some cheap Linux machines today based on Intel's Atom processor - the forecast revamp to its Vostro budget business box line-up. Dell's Vostro A860 Centre-stage were two new notebooks: the 15.6in A860 and the 14.1in A840, both set to be offered …
• Apple slapped for dodgy ads — Reg Hardware
  Jesusphone fails ASA test
  The Advertising Standards Authority has told Apple UK not to show an advert which suggested the iPhone contained "all parts of the internet" any more. The iPhone cannot access websites which use Java or Flash despite its claim that "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone". Two members of the public complained about the TV …
• iPhone hackers post latest jailbreak tool — Reg Hardware
  Problems solved?
  The iPhone Dev Team has posted PwnageTool 2.0.3.1, a revised version of the iPhone hacking utility released yesterday then quickly removed. The earlier release had mis-set file-access permissions, preventing upgraded iPod Touch - the code works with the music player as well as Apple's phone - from retaining Wi-Fi passwords and …
• Nvidia rolls out budget GeForce 9 chip — Reg Hardware
  Low, low cost
  Nvidia has introduced its latest GeForce 9 graphics chip, punting the part as an ultra-low cost alternative to integrated GPUs. Nvidia's GeForce 9400 GT: cheap, cheerful The GeForce 9400 GT is expected to appear in cards costing as little as $59 (£32/€40). That buys you just 16 unified shader pixel-processing cores, all …
• UK etailer punts bovine coitus thumb drive — The Register
  'A niche market'
  An army of online deal seekers has called for a boycott of Boffer.co.uk, after the "daily deal" site fooled them into coveting a non-existent bovine sex device. With each new day, Boffer offers up a single "amazingly low priced" piece of consumer merchandise, and late last night, at 11:59pm Greenwich Mean Time, it tempted …
• US data breaches booming in '08 — The Register
  Have you seen my identity?
  The number of personal information leaks reported in the US this year have already exceeded the total amount in all of 2007, San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center said today. With four months left in 2008, the firm found that 449 US businesses and government agencies have thus far reported lost or stolen customer and …
• CERT: Linux servers under 'Phalanx' attack — The Register
  Stolen keys unlock back door
  Attacks in the wild are under way against Linux systems with compromised SSH keys, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team is warning. The attacks appear to use stolen SSH keys to take hold of a targeted machine and then gain root access by exploiting weaknesses in the kernel. The attacks then install a rootkit known as …

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

• Houston, we have a virus — The Register
  Worm infects International Space Station laptops
  A computer worm that ferrets out passwords managed to stow away on laptops aboard the International Space Station, NASA has confirmed. It is not the first time a NASA computer has become infected. SpaceReg.com identified the infection as W32.TGammima.AG, a worm that spreads by copying itself to removable media devices. Once in …
• Hackintosh maker bites back at Apple — Channel Register
  Calls for death of Mac EULA
  Psystar, the company that sells open systems capable of running Mac OS X, plans to fight back against the copyright infringement lawsuit Apple has filed against it. The Miami-based firm said during a press conference this afternoon it plans to challenge Apple's long-standing licensing ban on running the Mac operating system on …
• Embarcadero rallies on Windows and web with CodeGear — The Register
  Microsoft not the only fruit
  Embarcadero Technologies has updated its recently acquired CodeGear Rapid Application Development (RAD) suite and languages for Windows. Delphi 2009 and C++Builder 2009 feature the first merging of previously separate development environments from CodeGear and Embarcadero, sharpening the focus on database development. The …
• Hardware hackers get second Bugs bite — The Register
  Modular Linux goodies return
  Hardware hackers can soon start building their own Linux gadgets with a fresh batch of Lego-like building blocks from Bug Labs. Bug Labs told The Reg it's targeting "late September/early October" for a second release of BUGmodules, version 1.3. Bug Labs had said earlier this month it hoped for release this week, but also …
• AT&T freshens tourist-trapping iPhone data plans — The Register
  'You want savings? Pay us an extra hundred'
  US telco giant AT&T has announced two new international data plans for the Jesus Phone, saying they'll save Americans "hundreds of dollars" on journeys abroad. But we all know this is just another way for the company to hold your wallet hostage. Tomorrow, AT&T will begin offering a 100MB per month international plan for $119. …
• EMC's Celerra starts smaller and gets cheaper — The Register
  Entry-level replaces Fibre Channel with SAS
  Just 12 months after introducing the Celerra NS20, EMC has increased its capacity by 50 percent, and replaced its entry level role with a cheaper NX4 model. The 6-60-drive NS20 came into the scene in July 2007 as a Clariion mixed Fibre Channel and SATA drive array topped by a Celerra NAS (network-attached storage) head also …
• China pardons iTunes (but not Sting) — The Register
  Music store returns - minus 'Songs for Tibet'
  The People's Republic has pardoned iTunes after access to the online music store was apparently blocked in reaction to selling a new Tibet-themed album during the Olympic games. Apple customers in China can once again access the iTunes store, although the contested "Songs for Tibet" album released by the US-based activist …
• Crypto guru thinks outside the box with Cube attack — The Register
  Stream ciphers easily split (maybe)
  Senior cryptologist Adi Shamir is developing a new attack for rooting out potential weaknesses in encryption ciphers, dubbed the Cube Attack. Shamir, the S in RSA, explained at a talk at the Crypto2008 conference earlier this month that the attack methodology would succeed against cypher schemes providing that they can be …
• Scumbags punt Trojan with baby kidnap lure — The Register
  A new low
  With a sick email malware campaign, pond dwelling scumbags are claiming to have kidnapped the children of would-be targets of infection. The contemptible junk mail messages attempt to panic recipients into opening email attachment supposedly carrying images of abducted infants but in reality loaded with a variant of the Resex …
• Apple goes auntie over slasher comic — The Register
  Murders Murderdrome
  Murderdrome is a comic published exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which makes its removal from iTunes something of a problem for publishers Infurious and bodes badly for their comic-rendering application. It should come as no surprise that a product called Murderdrome has found itself removed from a channel that …
• DARPA in Tom'n'Jerry robo-brain quest — The Register
  First they came for the mice; and I said nothing
  Pentagon boffinry chiefs are on the verge of inking a deal which could see US forces equipped with "neuromorphic" imitation brain modules, each potentially as intelligent as a cat. Wired magazine reports that HRL Labs of Malibu initially announced a firm deal on the feline-grade artibrain contract, referred to by the US …
• Fringe box office FAIL pushes sales down 10% — The Register
  Bad weather, Olympics, leaves on line credit crunch blamed
  Ticket sales at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe were down ten per cent this year, in part because of the technical failure of its box office system. Organisers at the arts fest admitted 2008 has been a very difficult year for the festival. The Fringe launched its new Liquid Box Office electronic system in June, but it failed to …
• Casio and Hitachi pair on 8Mp cameraphone — Reg Hardware
  Super-snapping, 3G style
  In these days of megapixel madness, manufacturers don’t last long if they fall behind the benchmark. So Hitachi and Casio have teamed-up to create an 8Mp phone, according to FCC documents. The Hitachi/Casio phone's based on 8Mp Exilim technology The phone’s based on a clamshell design and called the W63CA. It’s branded as a …
• Pure develops 'interactive' DAB radio — Reg Hardware
  If you thought "listener interactivity" was just a reference to men who shout at radios, think again, says DAB hand Pure. Next month, it'll launch an Evoke DAB radio that links to its online portal. In what sounds suspiciously like an attempt to make DAB exciting and relevant to today's media-savvy listener, Pure today said …
• Minister warns of national grid hack threat — The Register
  And theft of commercial secrets
  A UK government minister has warned that cyber-terrorists were attempting to take out the national grid. Security Minister Lord West of Spithead also said that state-sponsored hackers are attempting to infiltrate corporate networks to steal commercial secrets. Much of this could have been said at any time over the last four or …
• Amazon goes on Shelfari — The Register
  Acquires facebooky wooky start-up?
  Amazon.com is buying Shelfari – that is, according to the Seattle social networking start-up, but for now the online retail giant is keeping mum about the deal. Shelfari is a community and review site for books, or rather book readers. Co-founder and CEO Josh Hug cheerily announced the agreement in a blog post yesterday in …
• Medion punts £599 Blu-ray PC — Reg Hardware
  Want a Blu-ray quad-core PC on the cheap? Tesco is selling Medion's Akoya P36888 for a mere pound under 600 quid. £599 gets you a big shiny black box containg a 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6660, 3GB of memory, 1TB of hard drive storage, an Nvidia GeForce 9300 GS graphics card and of course said Blu-ray Disc drive. Medion's Akoya …
• Joss-sticks increase cancer risk: Official — The Register
  Scientists issue incense fug health warning
  Researchers have warned that burning joss-sticks and incense is associated with "an increase in some types of lung cancer, and cancers of the upper respiratory tract, such as throat and mouth cancer", the Guardian reports. In what represents a terrible blow for hippies and Strategy Boutiques*, a 12-year study by Dr Jeppe …
• Cowon shows off super-sexy PMP — Reg Hardware
  The new iPod beater?
  Many of you are desperately trying to discover if Apple’s about to release a new curvy iPod. But rival Cowon has jumped in before it and launched a sexier, more curvaceous multimedia player. Cowon's S9: would it rock? It’s hard to define the S9’s looks. Apart from 'Cor yeah, it looks good', the player appears as though it …
• Wind turbines put bats under (low) pressure — The Register
  Scientists probe barotrauma fatalities
  A research team from the University of Calgary has found that a large percentage of bat fatalities at wind turbine sites are caused by a sudden drop in air pressure around the turbine blades, the BBC reports. Reports of bat deaths at wind farms had previously been documented in Europe and the US, but quite why these generally …
• Citrix tries to woo crowds with XenApp 5 — The Register
  Lands next month
  Citrix Systems yesterday announced the imminent release of XenApp 5, in its latest attempt to strengthen its hold on the data centre and desktop virtualisation market. XenApp 5, XenServer and XenDesktop will all be slotted into what the company has dubbed the Citrix Delivery Centre product line to create an “end-to-end …
• Geek tech takes hoovering to new heights — Reg Hardware
  Extreme ironing anyone?
  If the Missus always nags you to help her clean, she’ll faint when you offer to vacuum the whole house. Thankfully, technology’s found a way to liven up this chore – but you’ll need a Wii Balance Board. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Wii and vacuuming nerd “Ron” Tajima of Japan has developed a way …
• Kindle fails to set light to unsold e-book pile — The Register
  Rumours of death of paper greatly exaggerated
  The humble paper-based book isn't burnt just yet. Amazon is keeping schtum as to how many e-books it has sold, but evidence is mounting that predictions of iPod-grade sales and billion-dollar revenues were a smidge optimistic. Earlier this month CitiGroup predicted that Amazon would shift 380,000 electronic books during 2008, …
• Yahoo! reinvades! Iran! — The Register
  Tech giants forge Axis of Email™
  Yahoo! has reinstated its free webmail services in Iran, less than a year after the firm blocked new registrations from the country citing tighter US sanctions. Iran has also reappeared in the registration country list of Microsoft's Hotmail service. Last November we reported how both had blocked new webmail and instant …
• Colonel: Bowman army comms 'astonishingly bad' — The Register
  Battery life & range crap - but at least it's heavy
  The long-bedevilled Bowman digital comms infrastructure for the British army is continuing to enrage and frustrate its users - a British commander in Afghanistan has described Bowman as "broken" and "astonishingly bad". Bowman was finally forced through acceptance trials in 2004, after a nightmare 14-year gestation period. The …
• Council clamps down on 'man on the street' — The Register
  He won't be manning the switchboard, that's for sure
  Chichester District Council has provoked the wrath of Middle England by suggesting to staff and members that the phrase "man on the street" would better be expressed by "general public", since the former is "based on the assumption that the world is male and makes the views or work of women invisible". The West Sussex …
• EC misleading EU on copyright extension, says boffin — The Register
  'Wilfully ignored' studies that disagreed
  A leading academic has warned that the European Commission "wilfully ignored" studies that it paid for whose conclusions disagreed with its policy, and that the Commission is misleading the European Union Council, Parliament and citizens over copyright extension. Professor Bernt Hugenholtz is the director of the University of …
• How can I run Windows apps on a Linux Acer Aspire One? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  It just read your review of the Acer Aspire One. I've had one for a week or so and find that I can't load up windows files (*.EXE), which is a bit of a blow as I wanted to be able to do basic Autocad drawings. Is there an easy way to get it to run windows files? And what are the basic hacks needed to be able to install …
• iPhone 2.0.2 crack posted then pulled — Reg Hardware
  Update promised
  Hours after the latest version of the iPhone Dev Team's PwnageTool iPhone cracking utility hit the servers, the group appears to have pulled the app. However, it promised the app will return later today. PwnageTool 2.0.3 was announced late last night. This morning, attempts to grab it using PwnageTool 2.0.2's on-board update …
• Sony designs photo frames for the digital age — Reg Hardware
  Printed photos? Pah!
  If you’ve recently splashed out on a new digital SLR, such as the Olympus E-420 we've reviewed here, then you’ll need some where to show off your snaps. Sony knows this, so it’s unveiled two LCD photo frames. Sony's 10.2in D100 frame... The main difference between the D80 and the D100 is display size. Whilst the D80 has a …
• IT pay jumps as skills gap widens — The Register
  Offshoring blamed for cash bonanaza
  The IT skills shortage in the UK is being made worse by the routine offshoring of entry-level tech jobs. Income Data Services’ (IDC) latest findings on IT pay for 2008 shows that offshoring low-levels IT jobs to the likes of China and India has led to fewer graduate opportunities because firms are reluctant to invest in their …
• US utilities plot remote switch off — The Register
  I'm sorry Dave, I can't turn that kettle on
  HomePlug, the networking standard for sending data over mains wires, is to implement ZigBee's Smart Energy protocol, allowing utilities to reach out and the thermostat turn down, or up, when power is short. An array of US utility companies is pushing the initiative, which sees HomePlug extending ZigBee Smart Energy to work …
• Street View spycars need some TLC — The Register
  And percussive maintenance, evidently
  Our Street View spycar Google Maps Web 0.2 mashup has proved a spectacular success, with around 85 sightings to date submitted by sharp-eyed readers and 400,000 hits down there at the search monolith's cartographical tentacle... View Larger Map (opens in new window) The two latest submissions in particular caught our eye, …
• MessageLabs takes smut-blocking tech in-house — Channel Register
  We liked it, so we bought the company
  Web security services outfit MessageLabs has acquired image analysis technology firm Fortium ICA Limited. Fortium Technologies, the parent company of Fortium ICA, will continue to market and develop video copy control and fingerprint detection technologies as an independent company. Terms of the technology acquisition deal, …
• Nokia unveils N79 and N85 smartphones — Reg Hardware
  'Let us entertain you,' shout new N-series talkers
  The iPhone 3G may be hogging all the limelight, but Nokia’s bounced back with two new N series multimedia handsets to liven up your days. Nokia's N85: well-equipped, sexy slider The N85 slider has a 2.6in OLED display that sits within an iPhone-esque body. It comes with ten N-Gage games and a five-megapixel camera that’s …
• Tories want data loss prosecutions — The Register
  Knowing or reckless heads on spikes, please
  The Conservatives have repeated their call for those involved in data losses to face criminal charges, following the Home Office's loss of data on all prisoners. The party said the government should make it a criminal offence for someone to "knowingly or recklessly" cause the loss of data, reports the Observer. The opposition …
• Mobile broadband: What's it for? — The Register
  Don't ask the operators
  In the next few weeks (hint: CTIA is in three weeks) I'm expecting mobile operators to be offered a new tool, which will allow them to work out what on earth their mobile broadband customers are doing. The mystery, however, is not "what is this tool, Guy?" - all will become clear quite quickly. What is mysterious is the answer …
• Beeb to resurrect Reggie Perrin — The Register
  Martin Clunes in frame for Rossiter role
  The BBC is planning to resurrect The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, with Martin Clunes in the frame to take the lead role made famous by the late Leonard Rossiter, the Guardian reports. Speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, new BBC1 supremo Jay Hunt professed her love of the original show - …
• Olympus E-420 digital SLR — Reg Hardware
  Review It’s dinky and it delivers good pictures
  Many of us want the slimmest, lightest, most portable camera we can afford. No surprise, then, that Olympus is making a lot of noise about the E-420, claimed to be the “world’s most compact DSLR”. The E-420 is certainly a tiddler when compared with most other DSLRs on the market, measuring 129.5 x 91 x 53mm and weighing just …
• Qinetiq trumpets midsummer robo solar-plane 'record' — The Register
  Now let's see it work at winter solstice
  Controversial warboffinry spinoff firm Qinetiq claimed a new world record over the weekend, saying that its "Zephyr" unmanned solar-powered plane had made a 3-day flight earlier this summer. However, the test took place in uniquely favourable circumstances. The Zephyr, a large lightweight electrically-powered aircraft, …
• TomTom goes upper class — Reg Hardware
  Pro satnav range driven in
  TomTom has shifted into fifth gear and is chasing down business executives with a taste for high-end satnavs. TomTom's Pro 8000: the Duo's daddy The Pro range comprises the 4000 and 8000, which have the edge over existing TomTom satnavs by coming with a selection of additional services that ‘lower class’ models don’t have …
• MSI touts 'first' mobo for Intel Core i7 — Reg Hardware
  Full three-channel memory supported
  Want a peek at Intel's 'Nehalem'-oriented X58 chipset? Well here it is, courtesy of mobo maker MSI, which today announced its first board for Core i7 processors. MSI's Eclipse: awaiting Core i7 MSI's X58 Eclipse is equipped with the Socket B - LGA-1366 - interconnect to support the likes of 'Bloofield', Intel's upcoming …
• Best Western plays down impact of hack attack — The Register
  8 million records? Huh, more like 10
  Hotel chain Best Western has denied falling victim to a large-scale hacking attack. A report in the Scotland's Glasgow Sunday Herald claims that the hotel chain has been turned over by a hacker who lifted eight million customer records. It reports that the Indian hacker who carried out the heist sold on the information to …
• HTC's big-talking talker — Reg Hardware
  All the features, and two keyboards
  The design of HTC’s latest slider handset may hark back to early smartphone formats, but the S740 still packs in all the technology necessary to make it a leading contender in the modern mobile market, its maker claims. HTC's S740: how you type is your decision The HTC S740 can be used in either a vertical format, giving …
• Nuns face off in online beauty contest — The Register
  Updated! Sine qua nun?
  Father Jack would dribble into his drink - a rather open-minded Italian priest is running a beauty contest for nuns. The pageant, which is the brainchild of Father Antonio Rungi of Mondragone near Naples, is intended to challenge the stereotype of the nun as plain at best and grotesque at worst. According to the Times, Father …
• 'Child protection' database slammed as plod data mine — The Register
  Troubled kids' pasts open to investigators
  A new database purporting to help protect vulnerable children could be used by authorities to gather evidence against them for criminal prosecutions, it has emerged. The ContactPoint database is being promoted as a tool to ease cooperation between schools, social services and other authorites who hold information on kids. The …
• Grazing cattle display animal magnetism — The Register
  Bodies align to north-south axis
  Researchers have explained why cattle will tend to face the same direction when grazing - a behaviour long known to herdsmen and hunters but previously attributed to either prevailing winds or the sun's position. In fact, Reuters reports, they align their bodies along a north-south axis, suggesting the Earth's magnetic field …
• Reader comments bigger legal risk than forums — The Register
  Mod squad issues dire warning
  Media sites which ask readers to comment on news stories are at greater risk of bearing responsibility for those comments than for comments in online forums or discussion groups, leading web moderators have warned. Though there are few verdicts to help lawyers and site moderators come up with hard and fast rules, it is …
• Infosys swoops on Axon — Channel Register
  Snaps up SAP firm
  Shares in computer software firm Axon Group jumped more than 20 per cent this morning after it agreed a £407.1m takeover from Infosys Technologies. Infosys announced yesterday (pdf) that it planned to buy the UK-based SAP consultant for a recommended cash offer. Axon consults with multinationals that use SAP as their …
• World+Dog predicts new iPods, Macs imminent — Reg Hardware
  Announcement in two weeks' time?
  The net's abuzz with anticipation as to what Apple's going to announce at an event said to be taking place on 9 September. At the very least, new iPods seem certain to be unveiled shortly, and quite likely new laptops Macs too. First, it's important to note that Apple usually announces iPod refreshes late August/early …
• Million bank details sold on eBay — The Register
  And a few more gone AWOL
  A computer hard disc containing one million sets of bank details was bought on eBay for just £35. The secondhand PC contained details of customers from American Express, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland. The files included names, addresses, sort codes, account numbers, credit card numbers, mobile phone numbers, mothers' …
• Asus readies fourth incarnation of Eee 900 — Reg Hardware
  Hard drive model coming soon?
  This is getting silly. Asus is planning another variant of the Eee PC 900 in addition to the three models already carrying the 900 moniker - and the nine other Eee-branded mini laptops Asus currently lists. This time it's the 900HD, a hard drive equipped model that's just turned up on the US Federal Communications Commission …
• E-voting outfit confesses vote-dropping software bug — The Register
  Ten years later
  Electronic voting machine manufacturer Premier Elections Solutions has warned government officials of a critical programming error that can drop votes before they are tallied. The logic error is present on Premier's touch screen and optical scan equipment and occurs when votes are being transferred from memory cards to a …
• Breakup with Sadville lion ends in kidnap plot, duct-taped dog — The Register
  Happiness is a warm laser sighted taser
  In Sadville, they were close. But in our world, the relationship quickly took a turn for the worse. He dumped her. She walked into his office with a gun and tried to kidnap him. And when that failed, she broke into his apartment with handcuffs, some duct tape, a taser, a BB gun, and a dog named Gogi, shining some sort of "laser …
• Amazon sending Kindle to college — The Register
  What price bong waterproofing?
  Amazon is planning a new student-friendly version of its Kindle e-book reader, according to McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman. He recently told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Amazon has high hopes for the device in the lucrative college textbook market. The book vendor is reportedly now working on at least one …

Monday, 25 August 2008

• Newegg plays chicken with New York 'Amazon Tax' — Channel Register
  Out-Byrnes Patrick Byrne
  Defying New York lawmakers, "egg-cellent" electronics etailer Newegg.com has suddenly ceased collecting sales tax from the Empire State's online shoppers. Under Governor David Patterson's new $122bn budget, online retailers with New York-based affiliate marketers are considered to have a "physical presence" in the state, and …
• Facebook summarily denies undeniable user-menacing security hole — The Register
  Exclusive 'It doesn't exist...bitch'
  Facebook's hip new application platform contains a gaping hole that allows attackers to run malicious javascript on unsuspecting users' machines, a developer has demonstrated. Proof of concept code examined by El Reg shows how the platform can be used to steal Facebook user's session identification cookies, deliver pop-up …
• San Jose decides it's 'Visual Computing Week' — The Register
  And just where does that leave National Bowling Week?
  The heat rising from San Jose isn't merely an effect of a convention center full of GTX 280 cards being flipped on at once. Nvidia's decision to host its inaugural computing conference, Nvision 08, this week in the company's home town has fanned the flames of passion inside city officials. Mayor Chuck Reed along with the San …
• AMD offloads TV chip unit on Broadcom for $193m — The Register
  You ought not to be in pictures
  As AMD struggles to gain altitude against Intel, the distant second rival chip maker is tossing excess weight where it can. Today, AMD said it intends to sell its digital television business to Broadcom for $192.8m cash. AMD's chief Dirk Meyer said the sale will help the company focus on its primary market of PC processors. " …
• gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum — The Register
  Review Mac-like Linux serves the Windows crowd
  What's free, looks like Mac OS X, just works and is actually Linux? The answer is gOS, which recently launched a new beta that builds on the distro's initial success and adds new tools like integrated Google Gadgets for Linux. When it launched onto the scene late last year, gOS (which stands for good OS) made quite a splash …
• Dancing Baby v. Universal: Baby wins! — The Register
  Assess fair use first, US court warns copyright holders
  Copyright holders must assess whether material has been used fairly before they demand that it be taken off the internet, a US court has ruled. The case involved a YouTube video clip of a baby dancing to a Prince song. Rights holders who demand that material be taken offline without such an assessment risk paying out damages …
• Cloud computing: A catchphrase in puberty — The Register
  Fail and You How Google and Amazon will take your money and step on your dreams
  It's been called a lot of things: utility computing, grid computing, distributed computing, and now cloud computing. You can come up with any CTO-friendly name you like, but they all mean the same shit: Renting your quickly depreciating physical assets out because your software company is out of ideas for computer programs. …
• Aussie school trials use of gadgets in exams — Reg Hardware
  I don't know the answer - can I phone a friend?
  Using notes during exams - aka cheating - usually gets you an instant 'F'. But at one Australian school the pupils can now use mobiles, iPods and the internet during their exams. Presbyterian Ladies' College in Sydney is running a trial among year nine English students, allowing them to access information from the net, speak …
• Suicide squirrel knocks out Swiss TV — The Register
  And the radio, and some trams
  TV and radio were knocked out for a couple of hours in Switzerland on Sunday - after a squirrel got itself electrocuted. The trams stopped running too for a short time in Zurich, the venue for the squirrel-short circuit action. Swiss TV's emergency power back-up was too puny to cope with demand - and many Swiss sports fans …
• Advent 4211 mini notebook — Reg Hardware
  Review Dixons tempts with cut-price Wind
  OK, so the Advent 4211 is MSI's Wind, sold under a different name, in this case DSG's in-house PC brand. But it's worth a look because of a couple of differences, most importantly the price. As the original notion of the Small, Cheap Computer, as embodied in the Asus Eee PC 701, has grown to take in bigger screens, better …
• Other smart phones are people too, says ex-Apple team — The Register
  Delivers media browser for all
  A team of former Apple engineers are promising to bring TV-like simplicity and some iPhone touches to the task of finding and consuming media on any smart phone. Their company, Kinoma, is today launching a smart media browser and player - Kinoma Play - to search video, photos, music, radio and podcasts on your phone and online …

Sunday, 24 August 2008

• Aussie has answer to save Earth from asteroid attack — The Register
  Proposed plan to protect planet with plastic film
  An PhD student with the University of Queensland's School of Engineering has won top prize in an international competition for her plan to wrap a giant asteroid with reflective sheeting to prevent a collision with the Earth. The asteroid, Apophis, is estimated to be perhaps 270 metres across and it will pass close to Earth in …
• Dabs founder released on £10m bail — Channel Register
  Checks in at The Priory
  David Atherton, the founder of Dabs.com who is charged with attempted rape and drugs offences, has been released on £10m bail surety. Atherton, 50, is checking into a Priory clinic in Cheshire, "where he has been ordered to follow an in-patient programme for one month", the Bolton News reports. He will then have to report to …

Saturday, 23 August 2008

• No snapping: Photographers get collars felt — The Register
  Watch where you point that thing this weekend
  Fancy getting your camera out this Bank Holiday weekend? Best be careful who you point it at. For instance, don’t go taking snaps of unmarked police cars. This was the mistake made by amateur photographer David Gates, who photographed a Police BMW parked illegally at a bus stop in Portsmouth, Hants. Before you could say “ …

Friday, 22 August 2008

• Actors paid to queue for Poland's iPhone launch — The Register
  A phoned-in performance
  Mobile phone carrier Orange Poland admitted today that it hired actors to stand in line for the country's iPhone debut. "It was a part of our marketing strategy, the concept was thought up at Orange Poland," the company told the Associated Press. "The aim was to 'warm up' the atmosphere around the launch of the iPhone." …
• MetaRAM now pumping 288GB of memory into Intel boxes — The Register
  Triple stuffed
  Super-charging memory shop MetaRAM has started talking up its beefy DDR3 modules. MetaRAM's top customer Hynix has already taken delivery of the DDR3 MetaSDRAM, which allows server customers to pack far more memory inside their standard systems. For example, Hynix is hyping "the world's first" 16GB 2-rank DIMMs, which it …
• Dell thrives in up server market — The Register
  Ugly economy fails to tarnish iron in Q2
  The server biz is still booming thanks to customers buying up x86 boxes. The current worldwide economic agitation doesn't seem to have affected with major vendors with all of the big names shipping more metal in the second quarter of 2008 than the same period last year, according to the latest bean counting from Gartner. …
• Anatomy of a malware scam — The Register
  The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008
  Anyone who has a blog has probably seen blog spam; comments to the blog that simply try to entice people to go to some other site. Most of the time the site being advertised is simply trying to boost its search engine rankings to generate more ad revenue. The more links there are to a site, the more popular the search engines …
• That password-protected site of yours - it ain't — The Register
  Google exposes the Net's dirty secrets
  It's one of the simplest hacks we've seen in a long time, and the more elite computer users have known about it for a while, but it's still kinda cool and just a little bit unnerving: A hacker has revealed a way to use Google and other search engines to gain unauthorized access to password-protected content on a dizzying number …
• UK spooks forced to hand Gitmo files to suspect's lawyers — The Register
  Dirty bombs, dirty hands for MI5
  The High Court has told British intelligence services to hand over relevant files to lawyers representing Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian and one-time UK resident, facing a US military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay. Mohamed is accused of plotting to trigger a radioactive "dirty bomb" on US soil, and could face the death penalty if …
• Red Hat hack prompts critical OpenSSH update — The Register
  Poisoned code never entered our bloodstream, says Linux distro
  Red Hat has warned that hackers were able to commandeer its systems and tamper with code - but said that since its content distribution was not hit, it is confident that polluted code has not served up to users. The first hint that something was wrong came last week when Fedora rebuilt its systems, a reconstruction that was …
• Sun loses MySQL Asia-Pac veteran — The Register
  Hunts for replacement
  The veteran head of MySQL's Japan business has quit less than six months after the completion of Sun Microsystems' acquisition of the database company. Larry Stefonic, the president of MySQL's Japanese unit, is now running his own company after more than five years working in MySQL's Asia-Pacific region. A Sun spokeswoman …
• LG confirms 8Mp cameraphone plan as details leak — Reg Hardware
  HSDPA, Wi-Fi, video capture, quad-band, but no kitchen sink
  LG has confirmed it will release an eight-megapixel cameraphone this year - even as details and juicy pictures emerged online of what the release is expected to be: the KC910. LG's 8Mp KC910 Image courtesy of Phonearena According to a report by Phonearena, "preliminary information" obtainted by the site states that the …
• Acer US prunes Aspire One mini laptop prices — Reg Hardware
  Rolls out new top-end model too
  Acer has cut the price of the Aspire One, making its Small, Cheap Computer even cheaper. In the US, at any rate. Stateside, the AA1 with an 8GB SSD, 512MB of memory and Linux pre-loaded will now cost $329 (£175/€221), down from $379 (£202/€255). The AA1 with a 120GB HDD, 1GB of DDR 2 and Windows XP is now priced at $349 (£186 …
• FCC votes to silence 700MHz lurkers — The Register
  Get your stuff and get out before Feb
  The Federal Communication Commission has voted unanimously to ban the use of low-power transmitters operating in the 700MHz band from February next year, but wireless microphone users aren't going to go down without a fight. The order (pdf) will particularly affect the 30 licensees who don't have anywhere else to go. The FCC …
• Higher, Further, Faster with the Beijing Bonanza — The Register
  Site Offer Hurry, while the show's in town
  The Olympic Games are coming to a close this weekend, and so does our Beijing Bonanza sale at Register Books. However, there is no need to miss out as you still have ample time to get stuck into our knockout discount of 50 per cent off* on over 1,600 books. It has also been brought to our attention by one of you (in typical …
• iPhone toolkit goes graphical — Reg Hardware
  Still no unlocking for 3G iPhones though
  The iPhone-dev team has announced the availability of the latest tools for the iPhone, allowing even the most technically illiterate iUser to install unapproved applications. The tools and techniques have been around for a while, but are now all bundled together into an easy-to-use package for Windows - a Mac version is under …
• Judge bans European-wide online music rights — The Register
  PRS versus Dutch Buma
  The UK's Performing Right Society has won a court case over its Dutch equivalent, Buma, preventing the issuing of a Europe-wide licence for online rights. On 19 July 2008, Buma announced that it had issued such a licence to US online music provider Beatport and claimed that it was for worldwide repertoire, including that …
• ARM elbows out Intel in Albatron's Eee beater — Reg Hardware
  Move over Eee PC - here's the... er... Tee PC
  Cheeky Taiwanese manufacturer Albatron has come up with a compact UMPC ready to take on Asus' Eee PC. Why cheeky? The new machine's called the Tee PC. Or maybe it's aimed at golfers, we don't know. What we do know is that it's based not on the usual x86 processor type but on a 400MHz ARM 926 running Windows CE 6.0. It has …
• OLPC kits out entire nation's kids with laptops — Reg Hardware
  But a small nation
  A small island in the South Pacific has become the world’s first nation to see all of its children equipped with laptops through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The entire 500-strong body of primary and secondary school children in the nation of Niue, which is located just north east of New Zealand, have each been …
• US made to wait for Quantum of Solace — The Register
  Next Bond outing pushed back a week
  The next outing for James Bond will not hit US cinema screens until 14 November - a week later than planned and well after the UK premiere in London on 29 October, the BBC reports. Sony's decision to shift the stateside release of Quantum of Solace is apparently based on Warner Bros' announcement last week that Harry Potter …
• Openstream implores you: Talk to your mobile browser — The Register
  Swearing won't make that page load any faster, you know
  Feel a pressing need to shout at your phone even when no one's listening? Openstream's Cue-me browser, launched yesterday, implements the latest draft of the W3C Multimodal Interaction Activity, allowing you to do just that. The browser runs on Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry devices, with the inevitable iPhone version …
• Cops cuff anti-drug ninja vigilantes — The Register
  Tooled up to deliver 'justified yet merciful force'
  Cops in Clifton, New Jersey, earlier this week cuffed two ninja vigilantes dressed in black SWAT-style vests and carrying knives, throwing stars, swords, nunchucks and a bow and arrows, who were apparently on their way to deliver cease-and-desist letters to local drug peddlers, AP reports. The self-styled "Shinobi warriors" …
• Asus' own Eee-beater spied on web — Reg Hardware
  Snaps reveals snazzy, top-end system
  Asus' Eee-beater mini laptop, the N series, has made its first appearance online after it emerged the Taiwanese manufacturer had decided to compete with itself. French-language site Blogeee.net has posted a stack of piccies of the 10.2in machine, all of which have clearly come direct from inside Asus' marketing department. …
• Alleged Brazilian botnet herder faces US extradition — The Register
  Zombie farmer suspects sent to the pen
  A Brazilian man who allegedly sold access to a huge network of compromised PCs has been charged with computer hacking offences in the US. Leni de Abreu Neto, 35, of Taubate, Brazil, allegedly maintained and leased access to a 100,000-strong botnet network of compromised PCs that he subsequently attempted to sell, according to …
• IT Security: Podium place or first round shame? — The Register
  Tech Panel The Reg Readers have spoken
  The results of our Security Poll are in, and like medal-toting 'Team GB', they show that being game counts a lot. The entire report is now available for consumption over in our whitepaper library - grab your very own copy today. A big thanks to the 1,100 fine folk who took part in the poll, the warm up to our forthcoming …
• iTunes, and Sting, banned from China — The Register
  Athletes blamed for rocking out to Tibetan protest songs
  The Chinese government has blocked access to Apple's iTunes store. Meanwhile, a US-based activist group has claimed that the People’s Republic did it to prevent anyone in the country from downloading a Tibet-themed album. The Art of Peace Foundation (APF) released Songs for Tibet last weekend. Sting, Alanis Morissette, …
• PSP-3000's LCD is 'berry' good — Reg Hardware
  Image highlights screen's clarity advantages
  When Sony announced the PlayStation Portable PSP-3000 yesterday, it didn’t show the new model’s “advanced” LCD in action. Thankfully, the web has come to the rescue. Sony's PSP-2000 (top) and the new PSP-3000 Pictures courtesy Famitsu Sony claimed the 4.3in, 480 x 272, 16:9 ratio LCD screen on the PSP-3000, which …
• Sony unveils wireless streaming iPod dock — Reg Hardware
  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. To that end, Sony has announced a wireless music system for Apple's iPod that can reach out to any rooms. Sony's S-Airplay: wireless iPod dock... As long as they're within 50m (164ft), that is. The S-Airplay streams songs sucked off a docked iPod out to one of Sony's S-Air speakers. You can …
• A PS3 price reduction? You must be kidding! — Reg Hardware
  SCEE President says: "Non!"
  Sony has no intention of helping cash-strapped gamers avoid the credit crunch. The firm has confirmed that there’ll be no UK PlayStation 3 price cut this year. David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), this week told website videogaming247 that SCEE is “not going to drop the price this year”. …
• NASA test rocket explodes — The Register
  Crash, bang at the Wallops
  A NASA rocket carrying two hypersonic experiments this morning exploded shortly after take-off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the agency reports. The Alliant Tech Systems ALV X-1 was carrying the HYBOLT experiment designed to "obtain unique high-speed flight data for fundamental boundary layer transition flow …
• Apple's MobileMe plays into hands of spammers — The Register
  Address harvesting all too easy
  Apple has inadvertently made it easy for spammers to create a database of MobileMe email addresses. The issue points to a future of more junk mail for Mac heads. They are already being targetted by MobileMe phishing scams. The email harvesting issue arises because every MobileMe user gets a public idisk file-sharing site. …
• Winehouse jibe wins Fringe's funniest gag — The Register
  'I can't believe Amy self-harms...'
  A tasteless jibe at the expense of galactically-talented bouffant platform Amy Winehouse has secured the Edinburgh Fringe festival's funniest gag crown for comedienne Zoe Lyons. Lyons (pictured) entertained the crowds during her Mangled Mantra of the Messed-up Modern Mind show with the winning: "I can't believe Amy Winehouse …
• Web app designers & developers can get into reMix08 cheap — The Register
  Rub shoulders with online gods
  Microsoft’s reMix08 lands on the golden beaches of Brighton next month and The Register can help you get there on the cheap. We’ve barracked the Microsoft marketing bods into giving Reg readers a tasty discount for the event. It normally costs £349 (including VAT), but by using the following claims code you and all of your …
• Asus M930 Windows Mobile smartphone — Reg Hardware
  Review Built like the proverbial brick dunny
  Asus has clearly decided that if it can't distinguish its phones from others in the market by way of software or styling, it'll do so by forging them out of solid granite. We thought the P750 was a well bolted together bit of kit. However, it feels like a badly assembled Airfix model next to the M930, a device that you could …
• Jeery Jerry loves Vista, y'know — The Register
  Microsoft scoops up funny man in OS ad crusade
  Microsoft has called on American comedian Jerry Seinfeld to big up Vista in its next Windows ad campaign. The software giant is keeping quiet on the details, even though world+dog have nicely spun out the firm’s plans over the past 24 hours. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is spending $300m on the ad crusade …
• El Reg salutes ultimate shed anthem — The Register
  'It's Rainham Sheds, hallelujah...'
  The musically-minded among you will be aware that we at El Reg have a soft spot for corporate anthems - especially those which provoke the desire to pull your teeth out with pliers. Today, however, we're delighted to announce that we've stumbled across what must be among the most inspired musical promotions ever - a radio ad …
• Card fraud-fearing Brit tourists carry cash — The Register
  Plastic ain't fantastic
  Four in five of Brits are worried about possible fraud if they use their cards overseas with many (60 per cent) choosing to carry cash instead. Card cloning tops the list of fraud worries (46 per cent) followed by card not present fraud (42 per cent) among a sample of 1,700 Brits quizzed on behalf of marketing and travel …
• Enterprise class mobility — The Register
  Blackberry v iPhone v Windows Mobile
  It used to be pretty simple. If you were a large organisation with a hard-core mobile email requirement, the only serious option from a security, robustness, manageability, usability and ease of deployment perspective was Blackberry. If you had a need to develop custom applications, then provided you were happy to construct your …
• BCS to review NHS IT for Tories — The Register
  Calls for public input
  Shadow health secretary Stephen O'Brien MP has commissioned an independent report from the British Computer Society on what English health service IT should look like in five years' time. Beyond that patient-based records will form the basis of NHS informatics, no assumptions are being made, according the review's chair Dr …
• UK White iPhone 3G availability boosted — Reg Hardware
  Carphone Warehouse now taking orders; O2 will sell it 'soon'
  Roll up! Roll up! Roll up to the Carphone Warehouse because the retailer’s begun taking pre-orders for the white iPhone 3G. Get your order in now The 16GB white-backed model has been extremely rare in the UK until now, but a CW spokeswoman confirmed to Register Hardware this morning that it will begin selling the white …
• Logitech rolls out Wii wheel, with feedback — Reg Hardware
  Driving Miss Daisy, it ain't
  Logitech wants you to feel the force, the Speed Force, that is, integrated into the first Wii driving wheel capable of providing feedback to vibration-addicted speed freaks. Logitech's Speed Force Wireless for Wii Accelerator and brake controls are positioned on the wheel itself, so there’s no need for pedals. A lap-rest …
• Intel talks up CPU+GPU system chippery — Reg Hardware
  IDF 'Ibex Peak' unpicked
  Intel's next major move in system intregration will be to bring its I/O technology and remaining northbridge functionality into a single chip, 'Ibex Peak', it revealed at its Developer Forum this week. Ibex Peak will target 2009's second-strand 'Nehalem' processor releases, 'Lynnfield', 'Clarksfield', 'Havendale' and ' …
• BBC iPlayer upgrade prompts new ISP complaints — The Register
  High definition network freezes out the little guy
  The BBC is facing more criticism that the way it delivers iPlayer traffic will make it harder for smaller ISPs to survive. The latest squeeze is a result of Auntie's decision to eschew its current content delivery network provider Akamai in favour of Level3. Content delivery networks are used to improve access to highly …
• Lag log leaks - Home Office contractor loses entire prison population — The Register
  Secure database + idiot + memory stick
  In a major coup in the government data loss stakes PA Consulting - which until Monday was one of the Home Office's favourite consulting outfits - has contrived to lose the entire prison population of England and Wales. Personal details of the 84,000 people behind bars, along with those of 10,000 prolific offenders, have vanished …