Updated: 17:55 Sat, May 19 2012. (fresh!) |
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Dish Networks locks horns with broadcasters over ad skipping - (11:00:10 GMT)Auto Hop has content industry hopping madIn the latest episode of the US ad-skipping saga, Dish Networks is facing the wrath of broadcasters such as NBC and Fox, but winning praise from customers and no doubt causing a little churn among competitors. That at least is the intention of the Dish PVR ad skipping feature called Auto Hop, with the company gambling that the gain in subscription revenue will make the pain of having to defend a possibly protracted case against it from broadcasters worthwhile.… |
SpaceX Dragon chokes at the last second - (09:31:03 GMT)Computer said no: New attempt expected on TuesdayThe Falcon 9 rocket from private space company SpaceX, intended to launch this morning and send a Dragon capsule loaded with supplies to the International Space Station, has failed to take off. The rocket's computer aborted the launch automatically at almost the final possible moment, when its engines had already ignited but the vehicle had not yet been released from the pad.… |
Ten... Qwerty mobiles - (07:00:08 GMT)Pushy typesProduct round-up As the speedy texter generation grows longer in the Bluetooth and touchscreen technologies improve, the range of Qwerty phones on offer gets smaller by the day. But for many, they wouldn't use anything else. Indeed, for RIM, Qwerty keys have been the hallmark of it BlackBerry handsets.… |
Microsoft to devs: Don't ruin Win 8 launch with crap code - (18:04:10 GMT)Unofficial APIs are the new fruit of temptationMicrosoft has urged developers to only use approved Windows 8 software interfaces to avoid spoiling the launch of its new operating system with dodgy code.… |
Apache OpenOffice security fixes emerge - (17:33:11 GMT)Under new management: First revamp passes one million downloadsDetails have emerged about the security fixes that came bundled with Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0, the latest version of the open-source productivity suite.… |
Facebook jumps then slumps in first few minutes day's trade - (17:18:27 GMT)Round and round she goes, where she stops....Facebook's shares debuted on the Nasdaq today at $42 and immediately skidded downwards to the original IPO price of $38.…  |
What's on the cards at EMC's casino royale next week? - (17:02:05 GMT)EMC World is not enough - time to live and let Flash dieWhat news will be revealed to the 13,000 people attending EMC World in Las Vegas next Monday?… |
Call of Duty hacker jailed after meatspace burglary - (16:34:08 GMT)18 months' porridge for banking malware-spreaderA Brit who distributed a Trojan horse that posed as a patch for popular shoot-em-up game Call of Duty has been jailed for 18 months.… |
Next UK gov CloudStore lumbers online - (16:01:05 GMT)Digital Dunkirk spiritThe second incarnation of CloudStore has floated, but don’t get too excited.… |
Does Britain really need a space port? - (15:27:10 GMT)Plus: Sky TV accounts for most of UK's 'space sector'Analysis Everyone knows about Britain's soaraway space sector. It turns over £8bn a year – the same sort of money as the remaining automotive industry – it employs tens of thousands of people, and it's growing faster than the Chinese economy. And, famously, it has done all this without any significant government help.… |
HP pumps cash into EVA range capacity boost - (15:03:05 GMT)May refresh time unaffected by 3PAR buyIt's May and an time for HP to refresh its evergreen EVA storage line. HP said it would keep investing in the EVA when it bought 3PAR and has kept its promise, with two new models being announced, with larger drive support and better management SW.… |
RIM-Moto sketch THIRD nanoSIM design as peace offering - (14:27:04 GMT)Duo dump Nokia to end SIM war with Apple - reportRIM and Motorola reportedly hope to break the deadlock over the design of future SIM cards by offering a blueprint that'll either appease every party or alienate all sides equally.… |
Ethernet sales slump punches Brocade in the wallet - (13:59:06 GMT)Business not so goodEthernet sales slumped a bit and caused Brocade's second 2012 quarter results to stumble.… |
ICO on new Cookie Law: 'Don't expect torrent of enforcement action' - (13:31:19 GMT)Plans to wait for user complaints as the law comes into effectAmid criticism that hardly any UK government websites comply with the new EU-mandated "Cookie Law" that comes into force on 27 May, the ICO has announced that it will be sending out some letters, and then waiting for people to complain.… |
UK.gov: ICT in schools ain't dead, it's just resting - (13:19:12 GMT)And there'll be tech contracts for the kids when they grow up, honestThe UK government denied today that it was dropping IT entirely from the national curriculum while adding that tech contracts would be more bite-sized and flexible at some point soon.… |
UK prosecutions for hacking appear to be be dropping - (13:02:07 GMT)But plenty of caveats applyThe number of prosecutions under the UK's computer hacking laws may have declined over recent years, according to the latest available government figures.… |
Big Issue sellers could soon be flogging QR Codes - (12:35:03 GMT)Homeless move into digital downloadsGlasgow-based INSP, which represents magazines distributed by the homeless, is planning to go digital - assuming it can raise enough cash to pay for some trials.… |
Apple scrubs dirty iCloud data centre with second solar wash - (12:19:06 GMT)2012 clean date statedApple is flying the green flag on the North Carolina data centre that will power iCloud – the very same one that was slammed by Greenpeace for being dirty.… |
Iran threatens to chuck sueball at Google over missing gulf - (12:01:09 GMT)State unhappy that 'Persian Gulf' name is goneIran's Foreign Ministry has threatened to take legal action against Google because the web firm removed the name Persian Gulf from its Maps and left the stretch of water nameless.… |
Vulture 2 trigger triggers serious head-scratching - (11:44:12 GMT)Just how do we fire that LOHAN rocket motor?It's fair to say that the question of just how we fire the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane rocket motor is a touch thorny.… |
GM snatchback of $10m Facebook ad cash = amateur move - (11:29:09 GMT)When a sell is more than a saleOpen ... and Shut Talk about bad timing. Right before Wall Street set up to open the curtain on Facebook's $100bn IPO, General Motors (GM), which spends $40m on its Facebook presence, announced that it's pulling the plug on Facebook advertising. The reason? Advertising on Facebook apparently hasn't worked.… |
Shoreditch's sparkle smokescreen leaves BBC journo 'tech-struck' - (11:14:11 GMT)Why is Auntie (literally, this time) in bed with Google?Analysis “I haven’t felt so good having spoken to a businessman for ten minutes in about 25 years. That’s not normally how I feel! So thanks very much!” And thanks to you, BBC presenter Fi Glover, for sharing the feel-good factor with us.… |
Facebook's Eduardo Saverin: I'm not a tax-dodger - (11:04:12 GMT)Meanwhile, US senators try to get him banned from the USFacebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has insisted that he will pay taxes in the US and his decision to change his citizenship to Singapore had nothing to do with the country's more hospitable tax environment.… |
The Register is rocking on Windows Phone 7 - (11:00:26 GMT)App of the week?We’re gradually updating our mobile app efforts. First out of the gate is this beauty for Windows Phone 7.… |
Can SMEs score those big gov contracts? - (11:00:10 GMT)Public sector doesn't make it easy for smaller suppliersThe UK public sector spends £230bn on goods and services a year, roughly 15 per cent of the UK economy and £1 for every £7 spent in Britain. The procurement of these goods and services is a massively complex undertaking, fraught with inefficiency accumulated over successive governments.… |
Hands on with the Motorola Razr Maxx - (10:56:28 GMT)Marathon runnerFirst look In the time since Motorola's Razr was launched in 2011, rivals have released powerhouse handsets that make the Razr feel more Bic than Wilkinson Sword.… |
'Facebook ads are very boring and not very imaginative' - (10:46:04 GMT)Plus: 'IT boys, hiss it through your teeth – Shut up, bitch!'Quotw This was the week when investor interest hit ever higher feverish pitches as (not sure if you heard about this or not) Facebook prepares to go public.… |
Amazon drops planned 8.9in Kindle Fire for 10.1in job - (10:36:42 GMT)Oi vapourAmazon, it has been claimed, will be dropping a version of the Kindle Fire it might, maybe, put into production in favour of a different model that it could, possibly make in the future.… |
Senator probes NASA airfield deal for Google's jets - (10:32:09 GMT)Is space agency giving Larry a break on government's jet fuel?A US senator has asked NASA (PDF) to cough up five years of data about Larry Page and Sergey Brin's personal jets – in the latest flare-up in the rumbling controversy over whether NASA is cutting Google bosses a soft deal by storing their private airplanes in a government-funded research airport.… |
Post-pub nosh deathmatch: Mealy pudding v migas - (10:14:07 GMT)Hispano-Caledonian full-fat fryfestFollowing a long winter hibernation burning the fat reserves gained from a generous serving of Dutch delicacy kapsalon, our Special Projects Bureau post-pub nosh team has emerged blinking into the spring sunshine to bring you a further selection of quality international cuisine designed to soak up the excesses of a night on the town.… |
Txt-speak is a sign of humanity 4 U - (10:00:05 GMT)But don't ask your dentist for oral sex, OK?Something for the Weekend, Sir? It barely warranted a mention in Reg Hardware's recent Retro Week, but mobile telephony will be celebrating a couple of anniversaries this year. Groupe Spécial Mobil (GSM) was founded 30 years ago and the first commercial GSM networks came into service ten years later.… |
The Great El Reg Private Cloud survey: Results are in! - (09:56:13 GMT)Applications must work for the cloud to floatWe were surprised at the strength of positive feedback from the 570 readers who participated in our recent Reg reader survey on private cloud.… |
Inside Nvidia's GK110 monster GPU - (09:42:08 GMT)Fermi, Tesla, and Maxwell would all want oneAt the tail end of the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose this week, graphics chip juggernaut and compute wannabe Nvidia divulged the salient characteristics of the high-end "Kepler2" GK110 GPU chips that are going to be the foundation of the two largest supercomputers in the world and that are no doubt going to make their way into plenty of workstations and clusters in the next several years.… |
SpaceX Dragon to smuggle SECRET package to the ISS - (09:23:04 GMT)Mysterious cargo buried in the belly of the beastJust to add some icing to the SpaceX Dragon launch cake, the cargoship may be carrying a secret payload that nobody knows about.… |
IK Multimedia iRig Mic Cast - (09:00:05 GMT)Pick-up trickAccessory of the Week IK Multimedia’s newest microphone is aimed squarely at podcasters. The package comes with a plastic stand which props up an iPhone at just the right angle for talking into the mic. You can use it with an iPod Touch too, though you’ll have to turn it upside down in order to plug the Mic Cast into its headphone jack.… |
Scotland considers dishing out more iPads to schoolkids - (08:33:06 GMT)Maybe, if it's 'promoting new teaching behaviours' elsewhereThe Scottish government has announced plans to "explore" the option of rolling out more mobile devices to education institutions in the country.… |
CSC's UK techies get one extra month to find new jobs - (08:03:05 GMT)Unite says US biz has taken its finger off the triggerThe Unite union claims it has succeeded in postponing compulsory layoffs by CSC in the UK in the aftermath of the NHS IT project fiasco.… |
iPad factory towns in China to finally get Apple Stores - (07:32:08 GMT)Need to send money to California may puzzle localsApple will start selling fondleslabs in the Chinese cities where they are made, a job advert reveals.… |
Will UK.gov crack down on itself for missing Cookie Law deadline? - (07:03:06 GMT)In other news - Pope actually JewishMost government websites will fail to comply with new laws on cookies when the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) begins formally enforcing them next week, the Cabinet Office has said, according to reports.… |
Atlassian warns of critical security flaw - (06:50:16 GMT)Confluence customers urged to upgradeAtlassian has warned of a critical security flaw in its Confluence product.… |
Diablo III - (06:00:07 GMT)Hell’s bellsReview Back in 1997, I worked in a youth centre and some fool gave me the keys to the place. So I would sneak in every night to continue a degrading tryst with Diablo I, cutting down waves of monsters in anticipation of a loot splurge. It was a while before I worked out the portal system – I used to moan about the amount of walking – until someone pointed out I was a noob. Luckily, in Diablo III, the portal is shown as a small blue vagina on the user interface, so there's no risking sore feet now.… |
Hey big spender: China set to take Asian IT spending crown - (05:52:53 GMT)US safe as global leader ... for nowChina’s ascent to the top of every conceivable tech rankings list is set to continue in 2013 when it becomes the biggest IT spender in Asia, leapfrogging ailing Japan as it prepares to fork out $173bn (£110bn) on tech kit, according to IDC.… |
Chinese 3G users top 150 MILLION but most still on 2G - (04:50:31 GMT)Operators launch HSPA+, cheap deals to snare more puntersChina may boast staggeringly large internet and mobile phone user numbers but the latest government figures show that the quality and speed of the services most are receiving still leave a lot to be desired.… |
Twitter signs up for Do Not Track - (04:48:28 GMT)Small print refreshed after data-ignoring pledgeTwitter has signed up to the US Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Track (DNT) initiative and now offers its users the chance to avoid having their data shared with third parties.… |
Anonymous turns its DDoS cannons on India - (03:28:25 GMT)Takes out government, court and political party sitesHacktivist collective Anonymous has turned its attention to India, taking down the web sites of the Supreme Court, the country’s two major political parties and several government sites in retaliation for a court injunction which led to the blocking of several video sharing and bit torrent sites.… |
$US38 share price values Facebook at US$104b - (02:27:44 GMT)Each member worth about $115Facebook has decided it is worth US$104b, valuing each of the shares that will go on sale early Friday US time at US$38.… |
Stanford boffins create light-powered artificial retina - (01:27:12 GMT)Prosthetic works without batteriesA group of researchers led by Stanford University has created a prosthetic retina that works without an external power source. Instead, by combining a light sensor with photovoltaics, the implant is driven by light.… |
Governments may hit social networks with cyber attacks - (23:50:01 GMT)Arab Spring alerted governments to power of Facebook, Twitter et alSocial networking operators like Facebook and Twitter need to consider themselves much more vulnerable to attacks – not because they are more vulnerable or more attractive to criminals than previously, but because states are now actors in security threats.… |
Hybrid computing just like FLESH-EATING bacteria - (22:01:13 GMT)A scholarly comparisonHPC blog Hybrid computing (using CPUs plus GPUs to accelerate processing speed/throughput) and necrotizing faciitis (a flesh-eating bacterial* infection) have more in common than is typically thought. Both exhibit high growth rates, and both are incredibly difficult to stop once they get started.… |
Symantec releases software as Amazon Machine Image - (21:00:12 GMT)Getting cloudy with managed servicesSymantec has made its new O3 cloud identity and access control suite available as an Amazon Machine Image (AMIs), the company's first foray into selling software as a hosted virtual machine.… |
