The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

7th November 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Data-matching won't help much with electoral registration

    Report: Addresses may not match between records

    Data-matching will be of limited use to the government in introducing individual electoral registration, especially in identifying potential electors, says a report by Parliament's political and constitutional reform committee. The document, titled Individual Electoral Registration and Electoral Administration, recommends that …

    Government 7 Nov 08:01

  • HP to pipe dole queue data into clouds

    DWP system to be punted to rest of UK.gov

    A records management system is being developed for the Department of Work and Pensions that could be used by other government agencies. HP is doing the work under its contract for application services with the department. Graham Lay, vice-president of HP Enterprise Solutions, said the company is making the investment in the …

    Cloud 7 Nov 08:19

  • OMG - It's raining raw fish in tasty little packages

    YO Sushi! goes into the cloud

    Fast fishy food chain YO Sushi! plans to buy servers no more as it heads into the cloud, according to IT manager Billy Waters. A much needed infrastructure refresh was looming for the firm which carves up raw fish and serves it on conveyer belts for punters, as it was using Microsoft Exchange, Office and other apps on seven …

    Cloud Business 7 Nov 08:38

  • iPhone gets NFC tap-cash tech

    Externally, though, in 500-user trial

    Discover is to run trials of pay-by-wave for iPhones in Chicago and Salt Lake City, despite having to strap the requisite radios to the outside of the Jesus mobes' cases. Apple's iPhone doesn't have the required Near-Field Communication hardware, and NFC Times reports that for the trials Discover will be using the iCarte case …

    Small Biz 7 Nov 08:59

  • Iceberg DEATHMATCH: Berlin vs Manhattan

    Battle for supremacy in measuring big ice

    The BBC has challenged ScienceDaily's Manhattan as the unit of measurement for icebergs – presenting the Berlin as an alternative quantifying the surface area of whopping pieces of ice. Back in August, ScienceDaily explained that a piece of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf dislodged by the Tohoku Tsunami "was about four by six miles [ …

    Science 7 Nov 09:11

  • 'Insatiable' Brits gobble Blu-Ray, deserve reward

    Fox bigwig says HD discs will be key to cloud lockers

    Britain's appetite for buying movies makes it a lively laboratory for Hollywood's marketing experiments. One of these is the "triple play" bundling of a Blu-Ray disc, regular DVD and digital file in the same package - a practice now standard here. Unfortunately, however, we won't be at the forefront of UltraViolet just yet, …

    Cloud Business 7 Nov 09:21

  • Colossal dead black neo-sphere approaching Earth

    Aircraft-carrier size ball to pass inside Moon on Tuesday

    A gigantic, spinning, dead black spherical object dubbed YU55 and approximately of the same bulk as a nuclear aircraft carrier is expected to make a close pass by planet Earth on Tuesday night, coming well inside the orbit of the Moon. Looks a bit like that thing from The Fifth Element NASA boffins have been tracking YU55 …

    Space 7 Nov 09:29

  • If thine brown eye offend thee, blast it with a laser

    And it will turn blue. And still work, for sure!

    Those who wish they'd been born with blue eyes may shortly have access to a innovative laser technique that will burn the melanin off the front of their irises and turn them blue. Dr Gregg Homer of Laguna Beach in California is seeking funding of £500,000 to start a human trial of the eye colour changing procedure which he has …

    Biology 7 Nov 09:41

  • Ex-IBM CEO John Opel dies aged 86

    Obit Ended up managing a much bigger hardware store

    John Opel, one of the most successful leaders of IBM, died on 3 November at the age of 86. Opel climbed through the executive ranks as Big Blue transitioned from a peddler of tabulating machines and typewriters to the mainframe giant most people still perceive it to be today, and he took the helm of the company when the PC …

    Hardware 7 Nov 10:02

  • Shale gas: If we've got it, flaunt it

    Energy minister warms to UK fuel

    The shale gas revolution was given a guarded welcome by Parliament yesterday, with the economic and security benefits to the UK judged to outweigh environmental reservations. Exploration consortium Cuadrilla reckons that the UK could be self-sufficient for 15 years using cheap gas extracted from the Bowland shale alone - and …

    Energy 7 Nov 10:14

  • Kaspersky defends 'unworkable' web passports

    Internet driving licence stuck in first gear

    Flamboyant anti-virus guru Eugene Kaspersky has defended his controversial internet passport plans. Kaspersky, chief exec of malware exterminators Kaspersky Lab, first outlined plans to mandate use of a hardware token-based passport to get online around two years ago. The scheme is designed to deter abusive use of internet …

    ID 7 Nov 10:21

  • Doctor Who and the Unsatisfactory Five Hole Tape Punch

    Stob Early world-dominating computers of the series

    This sentence is false... As soon as I heard about the sponsored Doctor Who-themed parties, I just knew that they would want an article on the early years of Doctor Who IT to include in the special pack. However, since nobody has actually asked me for it yet, you get first dibs. W.O.T.A.N. for Will Operating Thought ANalogue …

    Verity Stob 7 Nov 10:30

  • IBM: record web sales by phones, tablets this month

    iPhone, iPad owners keenest to buy

    As many as 15 per cent of web purchases may be made using a mobile device this month - three times the percentage a year ago. The key caveat is that these are numbers from the States, culled from traffic data taken by IBM from "500 leading US retailers". That said, we'd expect the UK to be not so very far behind, given the …

    reghardware 7 Nov 10:41

  • Best Buy to shutter all UK megastores

    Dixons sent 'em packing

    Best Buy's big box experiment in Europe is over: the US retailer is set to close its megastores and retreat into Carphone Warehouse (CPW) shops. In a joint venture with CPW launched last year, Best Buy opened 11 giant outlets in the UK, employing some 1,100 staff, all of which will be shuttered. The battered retail sector …

    Channel Register 7 Nov 10:43

  • Panasonic outs world's smallest 3D camera

    Fresh micro four thirds snapper too

    Panasonic today launched what it claims is the world's smallest 3D snapper with video capabilities. It also outed its latest micro four thirds camera, kitted-out with impressive specs. The 3D-oriented DMC-3D1 sports a 12Mp resolution and rocks up with two 25mm wide angle lenses featuring 4x optical zoom. The 3D1 handles 8Mp …

    reghardware 7 Nov 10:55

  • Elgato EyeTV Mobile

    Geek Treat of the Week iDevice digital telly on the go

    The sooner 2012 has been and gone, the better. By the time next year is out, Britain will no longer be transmitting terrestrial telly signals in analogue, and products like Elgato's EyeTV Mobile will be considerably more useful than they are now. True, that largely depends on Arqiva, the business that runs the terrestrial …

    reghardware 7 Nov 11:00

  • Common brain parasite 'can affect host's actions'

    One-in-five chance your mind is being manipulated

    Boffins here in Blighty say that a brain parasite which is carried by up to 20 per cent of the population is capable of affecting its host's actions for its own benefit – but against the interests of the host. The parasite in question, Toxoplasma gondii, has now been found to "directly affect" the production of dopamine, a key …

    Biology 7 Nov 11:12

  • HTC to release first Ice Cream Sandwich updates 'early 2012'

    First wave of handset upgrades announced

    HTC will be bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to four of its handsets early next year in what it described today as "the first wave of HTC phones that will receive upgrades". Up for ICS updates are the Sensation, the Sensation XL, the Sensation XE and the Evo 3D. Three other phones are getting Android 4.0 too - the …

    reghardware 7 Nov 11:14

  • Anonymous backs off in clash with Mexican drug cartel

    'Kidnap victim released' claim backpedalling hacktivists

    On-again-off-again plans by the Anonymous collective to publish details of the infamous Zetas drug cartel and their associates were finally cancelled over the weekend, following the supposed release of a kidnapped member of the hacktivist collective. A statement from Anonymous Iberoamerica states that the still unnamed member …

    Crime 7 Nov 11:23

  • HTC confirms Ice Cream Sandwich tablet for 2012

    Android 4.0 fondleslab inbound

    HTC has confirmed it plans to take another stab at the tablet market in 2012 after officially announcing a new fondleslab with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich early next year. HTC CEO Peter Chou revealed the plan to Reuters, saying the company wants "to see whether we can make ourselves stand out" by creating a slab that isn't …

    reghardware 7 Nov 11:39

  • Boffins spy on iPhone screens from 200ft away

    Vid Shoulder surfing goes high-tech

    North Carolina boffins have been watching text entered into iPhones from 60 meters (197ft) behind the shoulders of users – or from the front, by reading the reflections in the users' glasses. The process uses a standard video camera. It is even possible using an iPhone's camera, though the range decreases and relies on the …

    Security 7 Nov 11:44

  • Drug cops log Nigerian star's 24 bowel movements

    Law made to look an ass

    Nigerian authorities have been forced to release an actor they suspected of drug smuggling after he produced no less than 24 narco-free bowel movements. Babatunde Omidina, better known in Nollywood circles as Baba Suwe, was nabbed at Lagos airport last month by officers from Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. …

    Policing 7 Nov 11:51

  • HP offers devs £130 32GB TouchPad tablets

    App encouragement, or warehouse clearance attempt?

    Want a cheap HP TouchPad? The computer giant is offering "for a limited time" the 32GB version of its WebOS-based fondleslab for £130. The catch: you have to be a registered WebOS developer. The offer comes to an end on 18 November. Successful applicants are sent a voucher that entitles them to a TouchPad for £130 - €150 in …

    reghardware 7 Nov 11:56

  • Sony Alpha SLT-A35 translucent mirror camera

    Review Great shot

    Sony’s Alpha SLT-35 expands on its translucent mirror camera models that offer similar handling to a DSLR and compatibility with its A mount Alpha range of lenses. The catch with this magic mirror tech is that to keep things compact, you end up with an electronic viewfinder, rather than an optical one. The gains are fast AF and …

    reghardware 7 Nov 12:02

  • It's time to rethink storage management

    So say the experts

    In these cash-strapped times spending you way out of a data boom isn't as easy as it was so last week we packed our studio with 3 storage experts to talk through the alternatives. Jon Collins from Inter Orbis hosted the gig and he was joined by Tony Lock from Freeform Dynamics and Ian Shave from IBM. They look at the challenge …

    Storage 7 Nov 12:12

  • Samsung offers Galaxy Nexus pre-orders through Phones4U

    Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone nears release

    Samsung has begun taking advance orders for its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Or, rather, Phones4U has, but it's the supplier Samsung is flagging up on its Facebook page, effectively making the yoof-centric chain Samsung's official Nexus seller. Last week, Samsung said the Galaxy Nexus will …

    reghardware 7 Nov 12:17

  • Billions on mobe broadband in Ericsson's dystopian future

    Metropolis now

    In the grim, urban future, over half of the planet will have a mobile broadband subscription, according to a report from Ericsson. The new Traffic and Market Data report (PDF) is predicting that there'll be 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by 2016 out of a US-Census-Bureau projected population of 7.3 billion (although …

    Mobile 7 Nov 12:23

  • Adventures in Tech: Dive on in, the IPv6 is lovely

    Part 2 Blub blub blub, no really it's great

    In the previous part I explored why you should limber up to IPv6 sooner rather than later, and now here's my experience actually walking the talk. Importantly, mine is not a big-bang approach. I'm not trying to have everything perfect for IPv6 immediately, but rather I want to do just enough to be visible in the brave new …

    Small Biz 7 Nov 12:31

  • US.gov: We aren't hiding any space aliens

    We can handle the truth

    The American government is not in contact with aliens and is not aware of any living on Earth, the White House revealed today in response to 12,000 American citizens who told the government "they could handle the truth". The official statement from Phil Larson, a research assistant from the White House's Office of Science and …

    Space 7 Nov 12:42

  • Hard disk famine shaping up as predicted after floods

    Would you steal or kill if your family needed storage?

    Flooding in Thailand is causing disk drive supplies to dry up and prices to rise. There is lots of anecdotal evidence confirming channel information about flooding-caused drive shortages. One example; blogger Zorinaq shows a chart from price-tracker Camelegg depicting a 180 per cent rise in Samsung SpinPoint 1TB SATA drive …

    Channel Register 7 Nov 12:53

  • China's web biz bosses crank up gossip crackdown

    Stoke the Great Firewall ... or else

    Chinese tech firms have agreed to add more bricks to the Great Firewall of China at the end of a summit hosted by the country's government. The chiefs of 40 or so companies, including search behemoth Baidu and Yahoo! suitor Alibaba, as well as Sina (owner of microblogging site Weibo) and IM service Tencent, agreed to " …

    Hosting 7 Nov 13:02

  • Robbers steal £1m worth of Modern Warfare 3 packs

    Call of booty

    Just one day before it launches, Activision's Modern Warfare 3 has already got people pulling out real weapons and committing crimes. Two French lawbreakers held a delivery truck up, stealing 6000 copies of the game worth an estimated €400,000 (£342,770), local newsagency Agence France Presse reports. The van, crewed by two …

    reghardware 7 Nov 13:07

  • Apple faces Germany ban after court no-show

    Did its lawyer get stuck in traffic?

    Sales of iPhones and iPads are on the brink of being banned in Germany as a result of a court battle over Apple's alleged infringement of Motorola patents - but the fruity fondleslab maker reckons it can get the injunction suspended even though it failed to turn up. The German hearing on Friday was brought about by Motorola …

    Mobile 7 Nov 13:11

  • Japan develops powered armour suit for nuke workers

    Motorised limbs allow heavy rad shielding to be worn

    A splendid Japanese professor has offered his "HAL" powered exoskeleton suit for use by nuclear powerplant workers at Fukushima, pointing out that the suit's motorised limbs would allow users to lift radiation-proof armour which would otherwise be prohibitively heavy. Tsukuba-based firm "Cyberdyne" said in a statement: "This …

    Science 7 Nov 13:22

  • Google: We're not pushing our gear over rivals

    Antitrust probe told everything is a search result

    Eric Schmidt claimed in a letter to the US Senate's antitrust subcommittee that Google's huge array of web properties are not "separate products and services" offered by the company. The Chocolate Factory's chairman made that assertion in a follow-up missive to questions lobbed at him during his testimony to on Capitol Hill in …

    Networks 7 Nov 13:34

  • Gallery mulls 'damage' after cleaner scrubs modern art

    Mistook rainwater installation for rainwater

    A German museum is continuing to show a controversial $1.1m modern art installation after one of its cleaners deciding what the piece really needed was a good going over with some Cilit Bang. Martin Kippenberger's "When it Starts Dripping from the Ceiling" was on loan to Dortmund's Ostwall Gallery from a private collector. The …

    Bootnotes 7 Nov 13:41

  • Drive chip biz warns of flash-disk hybrid boom

    'Most' HDD makers will follow Seagate's lead

    Marvell, the main supplier of disk drive controller system chips, says most disk drive vendors will have hybrid flash-disk products in a few months. Marvell ships SoCs (system-on-chip) to the hard disk drive (HDD) vendors and reckons it has about 60 per cent of the market. It also ships SoCs for solid-state drives – such as …

    Channel Register 7 Nov 13:53

  • Goldeneye 007: Reloaded

    Review Yesterday never dies

    Here we go again. Back to bungie jumping from the dam at Arkhangelsk. Back to sneaking across the snowy fields around the Severnaya satellite installation. And back to dodging fierce crossfire on the gantries of an antenna cradle. The sound of silencer After almost 15 years, these sequences remain some of gaming's most …

    reghardware 7 Nov 14:01

  • Greens threaten to sue over solar 'leccy cash slash

    FiT hit leaves FoE in a fit

    While there's been growing discussion of a "Robin Hood Tax" recently, its very antithesis was quietly introduced last year: a Reverse Robin Hood Tax. This entails a wealth transfer from the poor to the middle classes – and the means is a market-rigging mechanism that ensures that the energy we use is much more expensive than it …

    Energy 7 Nov 14:22

  • Anonymous runs amock in Israel, Finland, Portugal

    Spook sites downed, citizens' data revealed

    Anonymous activists marked the 5 November anniversary of the Gunpowder Treason Plot to get up to all sorts of mischief over the weekend. The websites of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence services as well as the Israel Defence Force were reportedly offline for a brief period over the weekend following a 4 November …

    ID 7 Nov 14:43

  • Gartner: Eurozone crisis will bash IT spending

    Ahoy, recession, we meet again

    Enterprise IT spending will stagger and fall this year but may back on one leg in 2012 despite swingeing public sector cuts and the looming Eurozone financial catastrophe. This is according to Gartner, which kicked off its annual Symposium and IT Expo with more talk of a double-dip recession. “The second recession is about to …

    Channel Register 7 Nov 15:02

  • Longhorns on top in kid cluster compo

    SC11 We look at the odds in computer sport smackdown

    There have been some big changes in the odds since we opened up the Student Cluster Competition (SCC) 2011 betting pool to the public. (For details on the SCC and the teams, click here.) The betting has tightened up the field as SCC fans pick their favorites to win both the Overall Prize and the LINPACK portions of the fight …

    SC 2011 7 Nov 15:22

  • Adidas pulls down sites hit in 'sophisticated' hack

    Gymwear biz given a right shoeing

    Adidas has taken some of its websites offline as a precaution following the discovery of a "sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack". The sportswear manufacturer said it decided to take potentially affected websites offline, as a precaution, following the discovery last Thursday of a hack attack. It reassured customers that it …

    Enterprise Security 7 Nov 15:44

  • Compact Disc death foretold for 2012

    Major record labels to kill format?

    The major record labels are planning to kill off the CD format by the end of next year to make way for digital downloads only. That's the claim made by music site Side-Line which says it heard whispers that the end of the CD is nigh from music industry insiders. That said, it has failed to get any official confirmation from …

    reghardware 7 Nov 15:45

  • B&N fans fondleslab flames following Kindle Fire

    Bookshop chain's Nook Tablet unveiled

    US bookseller Barnes and Noble has caught fondleslab fever, unveiling its Nook Tablet today to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire. The Nook ebook reader has been Amazon's hottest competition in the US, with 27 per cent of books sold in the country coming from Barnes and Noble, the company said. And it looks like the one-time …

    Music and Media 7 Nov 16:01

  • Barnes & Noble launches 7in tablet e-book reader

    Bookseller opens fire on Amazon Kindle

    US bookseller Barnes & Noble has caught fondleslab fever, introducing its Nook Tablet today to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire. The Nook e-book reader has been Amazon's hottest competition in the US, with 27 per cent of books sold in the country coming from Barnes and Noble, the company said. And it looks like the one-time …

    reghardware 7 Nov 16:03

  • Google's legal boss is fed up with patent warfare

    But who doesn't think the system is broken?

    Legal tangles over patents are stifling innovation and will lead to stagnation in the tech industry, said Google's chief patent lawyer in a newspaper interview in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The concern is that the more people get distracted with litigation, the less they'll be inventing," said Tim Porter, Google's patent …

    Law 7 Nov 16:24

  • VIP Computer Centre swallows CMS Computers

    Traditional channel boundaries blur as distie buys PC maker

    PC and components distie VIP Computer Centre has acquired system assembler CMS Computers in a move that takes it into competition with trade clients. Liverpool-based CMS employed 68 staff in fiscal 2010 ended 31 December and made a profit of £417,000 – flat with the previous year – on the back of a 10 per cent sales climb to £ …

    Channel Register 7 Nov 16:28

  • NASA tells Voyager 2 to save its strength

    Agency wants ship to explore the outer limits for 10 more years

    Voyager 2 is conserving energy by using its back-up thrusters as it continues to boldly go where no spaceship has gone before. The second of NASA's explorers of the space beyond our solar system has accepted commands from the space agency's Deep Space Network personnel to switch to the back-up thrusters that control the roll …

    Space 7 Nov 16:42

  • US IT sector gains jobs

    Unemployment rate inches down

    The job situation in the United States has improved in the past three months, but the growth in the workforce is still not sufficient to keep up with population growth, much less make much of a dent in the unemployment rate, which remains stubbornly at high levels. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly …

    Small Biz 7 Nov 17:04

  • UK Home Sec: 'I authorised biometric bypass pilot'

    MPs told passport checks 'abandoned on occasion'

    Home Secretary Theresa May fought for her political life in Parliament on Monday after it was revealed that immigration border guards were told to ignore biometric chips on the passports of non-eurozone citizens. The head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, "authorised the wider relaxation of border controls without …

    Government 7 Nov 17:23

  • Goodyear introduces new concept of 'Blimpworthiness'

    'Zeppelinworthiness' presumably coming soon

    US tyre company and former airship builder Goodyear has come up with a new word as part of a marketing ploy. The firm, introducing online polls to determine which sporting events its iconic airships should attend, has framed the question: is a given event "blimpworthy"? Still actually a blimp. But not for long. US sports …

    Science 7 Nov 17:39

  • Fujitsu readies 23 petaflops Sparc FX10 super beast

    16-core Sparc64-IXfx chip on deck

    Ahead of the SC11 supercomputing conference in Seattle next week, Japanese IT conglomerate Fujitsu says it's not only going to commercialize the K supercomputer that just busted through the 10 petaflops barrier, but that early next year it will double-stuff the design with a new Sparc64 chip, and sell it to entities other than …

    HPC 7 Nov 17:46

  • AT&T survey: Cloud computing saves cash, planet

    Biz spends 69% less after move to the cloud, says cloud services provider

    Putting your data in the cloud could save carbon as well as cash, says a new survey (PDF) on the advantages of the cloud from the Carbon Disclosure Project, funded by US telco AT&T. The report concluded that a large US company that made the switch now could be achieving annual savings of $12.3bn and annual carbon reductions …

    Cloud 7 Nov 18:03

  • US pols sack Santa Claus in cost-cutting drive

    'Happy Holidays, now p*ss off', 2,000-year-old worker told

    A local government in New York state has cut Father Christmas from the county payroll as part of a vicious cost-cutting program. Suffolk County in New York state gave the popular red-suited character the boot on Friday as they grappled to trim their budget and fill a $135m hole, Reuters reports. Some 750 county employees are …

    Government 7 Nov 18:31

  • Router glitch causes widespread net outages

    Level 3, Time Warner, BlackBerry reported to see problems

    Internet services throughout North America and Europe saw widespread outages and slowdowns on Monday after backbone provider Level 3 Communications suffered a global failure, network providers said. Time Warner Cable in the US, Research in Motion services for BlackBerry subscribers, and UK ISPs Eclipse Internet, Easynet, and …

    Networks 7 Nov 19:01

  • White space database trial points to 2011 launch

    Technology is able, users less so

    The first trial of a live white space database has completed, and demonstrated that the technology works – even if the people using it need a little more work. The 45-day trial was run by Spectrum Bridge, and is a necessary precursor to FCC certification as an official white space database. With the trial completed, the FCC …

    Wireless 7 Nov 19:04

  • Google launches Google+ Pages for businesses

    'Hangout' on Monday with Kermit and Ms. Piggy

    Google has unveiled some enhancements to Google+ aimed at expanding that people-to-people social networking service to people-to-businesses and people-to-organizations. "So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people," Google's engineering headman Vic Gundotra wrote in a blog post on Monday. "But we want to …

    Music and Media 7 Nov 19:25

  • Linux Mint moves to Gnome 3, keeps Gnome 2 MATEy

    Lisa goes both ways, with shell to ease transition

    The forthcoming release of Linux Mint will see it shift to the Gnome 3 desktop for the first time, but it will continue to support Gnome 2 users with a separate root, and has a shell to ease the transition between the platforms. The Linux Mint team does see Gnome 3 as the way forward, it explained in a blog post, but …

    Operating Systems 7 Nov 20:40

  • Apple shovels $400m in stock grants to top execs

    Updated 'Stick around, guys, and we'll make it worth your while'

    Apple CEO Tim Cook and his board of directors appear keen on keeping their executive brain trust intact – so much so that they have just shelled out around $400m worth of stock options* to their top talent. "Our executive team is incredibly talented and they are all dedicated to Apple’s continued success," Apple spokesman …

    Financial News 7 Nov 20:40

  • DNS cache poisonings foist malware attacks on Brazilians

    'Desperate cries' from those visiting innocent sites

    An attack on several Brazilian ISPs has exposed large numbers of their subscribers to malware attacks when they attempt to visit Hotmail, Gmail, and other trusted websites, security researchers have warned. The attacks work by poisoning the domain name system cache that the service providers use to translate domain names such …

    Malware 7 Nov 21:18

  • Microsoft gives Phone 7 Mango jailbreak its blessing

    If it's good enough for ChevronWP7, it’s good enough for hobbyists

    Microsoft has shifted its stance on the jailbreaking of its Phone 7 operating system, and seems to be embracing – rather than trying to crush – such developments. Redmond has had an ongoing feud with the developers at ChevronWP7 ever since the group put out a jailbreak for Phone 7 a year ago, allowing users to run applications …

    Mobile 7 Nov 21:32

  • BlackRock takes $NZ250m taste of Telecom NZ

    Bigger bite or placeholder for coming attractions?

    New York investment giant BlackRock Inc has stepped into the New Zealand telecos market taking a five per cent stake in Telecom New Zealand. The $NZ250 million stake was revealed on Friday via a stock exchange filing and involved 96 million shares built up through 16 subsidiaries. BlackRock is now part of the top five largest …

    Business 7 Nov 21:48

  • Australia Network tender shut down

    Government afflicted with Joyce Syndrome*

    The Australian government has terminated the protracted and controversial tender process for the $AU223 million Australia Network broadcasting contract. The Minister for Broadband,Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy said that the government came to the decision acting on the advice of the Australian …

    Business 7 Nov 22:30

  • Internode adds Darwin POP

    Expanded Oz backhaul makes far north feasible

    The expansion of Australia’s backhaul networks is paying off for Darwin residents, with ISP Internode announcing that it’s going to add its own POP in the country’s northernmost state capital. The company says its Darwin POP will be switched on early in 2012. Darwin’s remoteness from the rest of the country, and its …

    Business 7 Nov 23:00

  • Can 24/7 porn rescue Google TV?

    'Cheap Trixxx', 'Feet First', and more – all Vivid, all the time

    Google TV has not exactly set the world on fire, but a time-tested treat that catapulted such technologies as DVD, VHS, and even Super 8 into millions of homes is now available on the sputtering service. You guessed right: porn. And not just any ol' porn, but a 24/7 outpouring of smut from one of the giants in the industry, …

    Music and Media 7 Nov 23:03

  • Killer smart meters torch Aussie homes!

    Three of them, actually

    Victoria’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade has announced an investigation whether smart meters are responsible for three fires that started in switchboards. In a move that’s bound to spark a fear-mongers’ feeding frenzy (for reasons I will get to in a minute), the MFB said that while there’s no evidence of a connection between the …

    Bootnotes 7 Nov 23:30

  • Shift to clouds pumps up Rackspace Hosting

    Managed hosting growing, too

    The customers and money keep rolling in for OpenStack cloud fabric co-sponsor Rackspace Hosting. In the third quarter ended in September, revenues at Rackspace grew by 32.5 per cent to $264.6m. Managed hosting, the traditional unvirtualized hosting business that the company was founded to do, still represents the largest piece …

    Financial News 7 Nov 23:46