2nd December 2011 Archive
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High Court reinstates Oz Galaxy 10.1 ban
Turn around again, Samsung
Samsung, which was hoping that it could kick of Australian sales of its Galaxy 10.1 Tab next week, has again been thwarted – this time by Australia’s High Court. As reported in The Register on November 30, the full bench of the Federal Court lifted the injunction against sale of the tablet. This order, however, was stayed …
Law 2 Dec 03:55
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Apple Thunderbolt Display 27in monitor
Review Dream screen?
After Apple’s hoo-ha about the Thunderbolt port on its newest Macs and MacBook Pros, it’s great to finally have something to plug into it. But I began testing this monitor with tainted expectations: less ‘OK show me what you can do’ and more ‘oh lordy, yet another locked-in connectivity standard’. It ended with tainted love …
reghardware 2 Dec 07:00
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Software copied functions, but didn't infringe copyright
ECJ advisor: No source-code sauciness in software smackdown
A computer program does not infringe the copyright of another one just because it performs the same function as it, but it could do if it copies the means by which the other program works, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said. Advocate General Yves Bot said that computer programs that have the same …
Law 2 Dec 08:01
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Dell cooks up new HPC strategy
HPC blog Not just a box-slinger anymore
As I trudged toward a swanky hotel for a meeting with Dell, the Seattle sky was spitting cold rain like an old man realising the soup in his mouth is way too hot. (Adding more drama to these intros, nice, right?) I expected two things that day: “It’s Seattle in November; it’s going to rain,” and “It’s Dell at Supercomputing; …
HPC Blog 2 Dec 08:35
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Top beak: Ignorant lawyers fumble electronic evidence
Handling emails and files sends legal bills soaring
Lawyers and judges must be properly trained on how best to examine electronic documents and email evidence or risk wasting vast sums of money in legal costs, a senior judge has warned. Lord Justice Jackson, author of last year's in-depth report on legal costs in civil litigation, told a construction disputes conference in a …
Law 2 Dec 09:03
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College sticks cloud into geothermal igloo data centre
Investing in Iceland. What could go wrong?
It's cold, it's bleak, and it's best known economically for its fisheries industry and the 2008 banking crisis, but Iceland is also the source of a radical solution in managing data centres that has led an English further education college to do a deal that will be available for the education sector throughout the UK. Hertford …
Servers 2 Dec 09:21
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UK lays carbon plan before Earth Goddess
Better buy a sweater, though
The planet is a little safer today after Britain's envoy to Gaia (and energy minister) Chris Huhne confirmed that the UK is on course to meet its CO2 emissions target. "Meeting the fourth carbon budget of a 50 per cent cut in emissions by the mid-2020s will not have any additional cost implications during this Parliament," …
Energy 2 Dec 09:42
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WD My Passport Studio 1TB external hard drive
Accessory of the Week Metal storage for Macs
Despite the prevalence of online sync'n'store services like Dropbox, and of cheap USB thumb drives, fast, high-capacity hard drives are still favoured by those who need to store photographs, video or large graphics files. A full back-up of your computer's hard drive is beyond those lesser forms of storage than external hard …
reghardware 2 Dec 10:00
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Vodafone releases Samsung Android 4.0 smartphone
Audio bug fixed, operator offers Ice Cream Sarnie phone
Confirmation - if it was really needed - that Vodafone was holding back the Samsung Galaxy Nexus because of the infamous volume drop glitch: the day after Google and Samsung fix the bug, Vodafone starts selling the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich handset. The operator is offering the dual-core smartphone free on a £41-a-month …
reghardware 2 Dec 10:01
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Dutch delay wireless wallets: T-Mobile waves, doesn't pay
NFC rollout pushed back
The Dutch consortium which promised to deliver NFC payments to the Netherlands in 2012 will now deliver in 2013, and without T-Mobile, but it's the EU's fault. The Dutch will spend another year getting EU approval for the planned joint venture, a body comprised of network operators and banks to which ultimate authority for NFC …
Small Biz 2 Dec 10:18
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Antarctic ice formed at CO2 levels much higher than today's
Not going to melt any time soon, says boffin
New research has shown that the mighty ice sheet covering the Antarctic froze into being when the world had a much higher level of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere than it does today. By analysing ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples, Professor Matthew Huber and his colleagues determined that the mile-thick ice which …
Energy 2 Dec 10:27
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Facebook now has 1,000 times the referrals of Google+
Numbers dropping fast as Google plans major upgrades
The amount of activity on Google+ is falling, according to the latest data from web monitoring firm NetApplications, with Facebook massively ahead of the competition. The data showed that Google+ was outpaced not only by Facebook, but also sites like YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn. While Google+ is still relatively news to the …
Music and Media 2 Dec 10:42
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Supercomputer helps boffins crack 3D material sims...
SC11 Tokyo Tech nabs Gordon Bell Prize and $10k for metal materials work
So who cares about dendrites and dendrite solidification? If you’re an auto manufacturer facing a mandate to radically increase the fuel economy of your cars, you care a lot. Or if you’re working on new jet engines and need to cut some pounds while increasing durability. Actually, if you rely on any alloy that has to have those …
HPC 2 Dec 11:00
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Man's phone burns, toasts trouser region
Samsung Galaxy S II goes up in smoke
It's not just iPhones that have their incendiary moments - some fellow's Samsung Galaxy S II went up in smoke too. In his trouser pocket. Pictures of the handset after the event were posted on the XDA Developers forum yesterday. The handset pictured was, it's claimed, less than two weeks old. Source: Silly22, XDA Developers …
reghardware 2 Dec 11:06
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WD dries out flood-trashed fab, pumps out first disks
Deadly Thai disaster cost biz at least $50m to clean up
WD has partially restored hard disk production at one of its flood-hit fabs in Thailand and expects to start pumping water from its second facility within ten days. The drive maker said that power at one of its buildings in Bang Pa-In - which had been under six feet of water since 15 October - was restored on 26 November and …
Channel Register 2 Dec 11:16
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Cyber-war law would expose customer privates to spies
Big biz and US govt propose info sharing
US lawmakers are backing a bill that will let spy agencies share top-secret information on cyber threats with certain pre-approved companies, and allow firms to give out data on their customers to the spies. The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted to put forward the legislation (PDF), which would build on a pilot …
Government 2 Dec 11:31
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Facebook disses Effin Irishwoman
Bans 'offensive' village
An Irishwoman from the picturesque village of Effin is a bit put out that Facebook has unkindly dubbed her place of birth "offensive". Ann Marie Kennedy, 47, says she and several chums have repeatedly tried to enter the name of the hamlet, some 20 miles south of Limerick, as their "Hometown" on the social network, only to be …
Networks 2 Dec 11:48
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Happy birthday, Apple QuickTime
Released 20 years ago today
Apple's multimedia foundation, QuickTime, was released to the public 20 years ago today. Initially provided as an Extension for the classic Mac OS – folk were running System 6 back then – QuickTime's ability to show tiny windows of video was premiered in May 1991 at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. About …
reghardware 2 Dec 12:00
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Brussels' statement of objections against Google is MEATY
Antitrust probe to deliver 400-page wad detailing complaints
Google will be hit with a statement of objections document from the antitrust wing of the European Commission that is reportedly more than 400 pages in length. According to the Financial Times, that tome – detailing complaints from a variety of outfits that allege Google abused its dominant position in the search engine market …
Government 2 Dec 12:14
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Couldn't be there? Our conference vids for you
The Register and Intel LIVE 2011
Last week The Register teamed up with Intel to put on an all-day conference in Millbank, central London. We had a great line-up of speakers, which included Professor Brian Cox and security God Bruce Schneier - for me a stand-out. We filmed the proceedings for those of you who couldn't be there. The event went down a storm with …
Enterprise Tech 2 Dec 12:14
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Greatest ever first-person shooter* brought back to life
Halo forebear Marathon is back
Bungie's Marathon series was ground-breaking. Not the first ever first-person shooter, not even on the Mac, but certainly the game that showed there's more to the genre than the 'kill monsters, open doors' gameplay of Doom and its followers. Marathon was all as much about the story, told not through cut-scenes and dialogue - …
reghardware 2 Dec 12:24
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OpRobinHood more likely to stiff punters than bankers
Stealing from the rich, giving grief to the poor
Charities are unlikely to benefit from an Anonymous-led operation attempting to use stolen credit card details to make donations to worthwhile causes. OpRobinHood aims to defraud banks for the benefit of the majority and comes as a response by hacktivists to the crackdown on the Occupy movement. Anonymous has joined forces …
Enterprise Security 2 Dec 12:36
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Acer releases second-gen Android tablet
Updated Pledges Ice Cream Sarnie update next month
Acer has taken the wraps off its next-gen Android tablet, the 10.1in Iconia Tab A200, oddly numbered successor to the Iconia Tab A500. Announced in Taiwan today, the A200 will initially come with Android 3.2 Honeycomb pre-installed, but will gain Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in January 2012, Acer promised. However, the …
reghardware 2 Dec 12:40
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Quantum computing comes closer as diamonds get spooky
Boffins 'entangle' synthi-gems at room temperature
International boffins are chuffed today to publish cunning research in which they demonstrate quantum entanglement - the "spooky action at a distance" so disliked by Einstein - between a pair of small synthetic diamonds: and, this is the clever bit, at room temperature rather than in a cryogenic chamber or similar, so bringing …
Physics 2 Dec 12:40
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Germany gloomy over AT&T merger
Fears T-Mobile deal is kaput
The German government, the largest shareholder in Deutsche Telekom, is not sharing the telco's optimism that the deal to merge its US mobile operations – T-Mobile USA – with AT&T will go through. Officials have told (paywall) the Financial Times that Berlin is increasingly worried that the deal will go down the tubes because …
Financial News 2 Dec 12:52
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'I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes'
Quotw Plus 'The last Kardashian clan I heard of were on Star Trek'
This was the week when an Android app developer claimed he had conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly logging key presses, locations and even messages. And Best Buy hoped to smack Dixons around a little before it runs back overseas with its tail between its legs, with a big closing down sale. This was also …
Bootnotes 2 Dec 13:03
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YouTube morphs into TV-wannabe with a splat of social goo
Google badly wants to cash in on YOUR VIEWING EYES
Identity farmer Google has redesigned its YouTube product to bring it more into line with the rest of the company's online estate. Mountain View is also hoping to morph the service into a broadcaster that might eventually compete with other TV networks. "Today we're introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat …
Music and Media 2 Dec 13:19
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RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook rooted
Hackers plan to unleash tool to penetrate tablet
The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has been rooted, just like the Amazon Kindle Fire and other fondleslabs before it, in a development that promises tech enthusiasts the ability to install apps of their choosing, rather than being stuck with those already pre-loaded onto the device. Gadget enthusiasts have posted a video as …
PCs & Chips 2 Dec 13:39
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TV writer quells rumours of Doctor Who movie
Moffatt says no film yet ... but if there was one, it'd be British
TV writer Steven Moffat has dismissed rumours of a Doctor Who movie coming soon, despite comments from director David Yates, supposedly in the driving seat for the adaptation. MTV News quizzed Yates, director of four Harry Potter films, on the red carpet last night about Doctor Who's silver screen incarnation, which he had …
Entertainment 2 Dec 13:59
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UK cops seek boffins to build handheld DNA sniffer kit
Just zoom and enhance - like CSI on the telly
The National Policing Improvement Agency wants to hear from companies that can supply Blighty's cops with mobile tech that spots DNA. Apparently the cops are spending millions sending samples off for DNA analysis, only to discover that there's no human DNA present. The NPIA wants to equip investigators with handheld kit that …
Policing 2 Dec 14:22
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Just who are you and why does it matter?
Book review World's latest endangered species: our private lives
After a year spent watching people use the internet, and questioning more than 5,000 of them, two Alcatel Lucent staff have distilled into a modest-sized book their conclusions on how we balance online privacy with web identities. Identity Shift, written by Allison Cerra and Christine James, paints a picture of America's …
Music and Media 2 Dec 14:41
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Azlan inserts temporary head at HP biz unit
John Ward on board until permanent replacement found
Azlan has made John Ward the caretaker of its HP business unit as a search for a permanent head continues. The enterprise distribution arm of Basingstoke-based Computer 2000 went through a restructure some weeks ago and parted with some senior heads including Mark Walker, director of the converged infrastructure unit. The …
Channel Register 2 Dec 15:01
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Micron's glass memory monster chews up slowcoach flash
Chip's got the write stuff
Micron has demonstrated Phase-Change Memory (PCM), enabling an app to run around 50 times faster than it would on NOR memory. PCM is a post-NAND and post-NOR contender in the non-volatile memory arena; it's said to combine the speed and simple data access of DRAM and the non-volatility of NAND and NOR flash memory. It stores …
Storage 2 Dec 15:18
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Capita signs £560m deal with BBC
Auntie spends big to make savings
The Beeb has signed a £560m eight-year deal with Capita to manage TV licences, deploying tech and analytics in a bid to cut costs and boost revenues. The renewal of the previous gig £500m gig signed in 2002 comes as Auntie faces pressure from government austerity measures, with the licence fee frozen until 2015 – which …
Channel Register 2 Dec 15:42
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RIM swallows $485m charge to clear PlayBook tablet mountain
Lowers Q3 sales outlook, takes $50m hit from service outage
A troubled RIM has written down the value of its little loved PlayBook tablet, taking a $485m charge on the nose in a bid to clear inventory. At the same time, the firm cut revenue forecasts for the third quarter and revealed that it had also taken a revenues charge of $50 due to the service outage in October. As exclusively …
Channel Register 2 Dec 16:01
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Dead at 13: Napster 1998-2011
P2P pioneer, later online music shop, closed in US
So, farewell then, Napster. The company founded by Shawn Fanning - who named it after his close-crop haircut, apparently - when his peer-to-peer file-sharing app of the same name took off, is no more. The firm that now owns it, Rhapsody, will fold the online music shop that Napster became into its own store, in the US at …
reghardware 2 Dec 16:15
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Yahoo! 0-day! exploit! hijacks! status! updates!
Right now I'm: spamming my contacts with malware links
Security researchers have discovered an unpatched flaw in Yahoo! Messenger that allows miscreants to change any user's status message. Hijacked status updates are a handy way to persuade a victim's contacts to click on a link and lead them to a dangerous website. Worse still, the bug in version 11.x of the Messenger client …
Malware 2 Dec 16:23
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Distie Stordis plans to steer clear of Acer server biz
Server shortages and lead times 'not a pleasant experience'
Stordis, distributor of the soon to be murdered Gateway brand wants to play no part in Acer's server business when it relaunches early next year. The German-owned HPC components minnow says it had a pan-European contract with the Taiwanese firm but enduring such an unpredictable working relationship that it decided to call it …
Channel Register 2 Dec 16:27
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Groupon grotty grotto rage forces Santa's chief elf to quit
How the Groupon voucher stole Christmas
Santa Claus won't have to look too hard to fill out his naughty list this year: seriously irate parents have been yelling abuse at his staff in a Christmas grotto in York over a dodgy Groupon deal. The small city centre grotto didn't exactly live up to the description in the Groupon offer, and the decorated present bunker's …
Small Biz 2 Dec 16:42
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Java tops for hackers, warns Microsoft
Apply patches to known holes
Patch up warmly this winter if you’re running Java. That’s the advice from .NET shop Microsoft, which reckons Oracle’s platform is the single biggest target for hackers. Java proved the single most popular target in the 12-month period to the end of June, according to Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report has found …
Developer 2 Dec 17:03
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Cloudy servers find their niches
Minimalist boxes for hyperscale cheapskates
The cookie-sheet servers created by Google for its own use – recently commercialized by all the top-tier vendors in one form or another as hybrid rack-blade boxes – have become a sizeable and important part of the server business. In the third quarter ended in September, the box counters at IDC reckon that end users snapped up …
Servers 2 Dec 17:16
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Apache: Old, out of touch, but worth it...
Open ... and Shut GitHub who?
The Apache Software Foundation has come under withering attacks lately, with accusations of its politics and bureaucracy getting in the way of its ability to foster open-source software. The common rallying cry of the Apache attackers is GitHub, a source-control system that has almost blossomed overnight into the industry's …
Developer 2 Dec 17:21
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NetApp loses ground again in IDC's Storage Tracker
Third quarter repetition
NetApp has lost ground for the second quarter in succession, Dell is pretty flat and HP growing steadily. These are the headlines from IDC's quarterly storage tracker for external disk storage. The tracker looks at worldwide external dusk storage systems factory revenue and IDC ranks suppliers, giving them tied positions if …
Storage 2 Dec 17:42
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ESA gives up on duff Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt
Russians vow to keep trying until it comes down burning
The European Space Agency has abandoned attempts to revive dud Martian probe Phobos-Grunt after days of trying to contact the clapped-out craft with no success. The agency, along with Russian space boffins at Roscosmos, has been trying to send commands to the craft to get it to raise its Earth orbit - but Phobos-Grunt has …
Space 2 Dec 17:44
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Baby-kissers battle over what to do with White Spaces
Politicians divided on free airwaves and broadcast TV
Two bills before the US government lay out plans for selling off broadcast TV channels, but one grabs the cash to pay for emergency services, while the other preserves licence-free options. On the Republican side we have "Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act", which insists that TV broadcast spectrum be …
Wireless 2 Dec 18:02
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NoSQL hopeful cozies up to Hadoop data-muncher
Big data love-in
NoSQL data store CouchDB has become Hadoop’s latest convert with delivery of a connector tying together the two big-data architectures. CouchDB user Couchbase has announced a certified Couchbase Hadoop Connector, developed with Hadoop shop Cloudera. The connector potentially simplifies movement of data between the Couchbase …
Developer 2 Dec 18:21
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iPhone banned in Steve Jobs' ancestral home
Syrian regime tightens respressive screws another turn
There may be a fine line between "administration" and "regime", but Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has definitely crossed it. His government's latest repressive move? Banning the iPhone. To be sure, Assad's regime has committed crimes far more serious, as the over 4,000 men, women and children killed since protests against …
Government 2 Dec 18:46
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Feds clear Google, AdMeld melding
Justice Department: 'Competitive'. Others may disagree
After nearly six months of deliberation, the US Department of Justice has cleared Google’s acquisition of online advertising firm AdMeld, saying that the market is still competitive. In June, Google made a $400m bid for the firm, which specializes in providing supply-side platform (SSP) support for online display advertisers, …
Business 2 Dec 19:19
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Verizon slips $3.6bn shiv into AT&T, T-Mobile ribs
Wireless pecking order exploded by massive spectrum purchase
In a surprise move that sent shivers through its competitors, Verizon announced on Friday that it will pay $3.6bn to acquire a broad swath of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from SpectrumCo, a consortium composed of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. "Spectrum is the raw material on which wireless …
Mobile 2 Dec 21:20
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Carrier IQ VP: App on millions of phones not a privacy risk
Like tiny fish through a net, key taps dropped from memory
More than 48 hours after a software developer posted evidence Carrier IQ monitored the key taps on more than 141 million smartphones, a company official has come forward to rebut the disturbing allegations. And he's provided enough technical detail to convince The Register the diagnostics software doesn't represent a privacy …
Security 2 Dec 23:48
