The Register

Upgrade eliminates Atlantis from Google Earth

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:34:51 GMT

Data glitch explanation won’t satisfy true believers

The latest update to Google Earth has resolved the software error that caused some to suspect the lost city of Atlantis had been found in the Atlantic Ocean.…

Shrunken Intel process boosts SSD performance

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:17:50 GMT

The new 520 Series more than doubles 510's IOPS

Intel has announced a boosted follow-on to its 510 SSD: the 520 Series, with more than double the IOPS performance and a top-end model with almost twice the capacity.…

Symantec: 'NetBackup 7.5 speeds backup 100X'

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:03:00 GMT

Cuts 25-hour chore down to 15 minutes

Symantec says backup is a multi-point product mess, with big data blowing backup-window timing out of the water, and so it has souped up both BackupExec and NetBackup to cover more backup and restore use cases. The sexy news – well, as sexy as backup news can be – is that the latest release of NetBackup is said to be 100 times faster, theoretically shrinking a 25-hour backup window to 15 minutes.…

Cisco recalls suicidal UCS blade servers

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:36:56 GMT

Goodness gracious, great MOSFETs afire

Cisco Systems warns that its high-end B440 blades for its "California" Unified Computing System have a potentially disastrous defect that could result in one or more board failures, and emit a flash of light that could perhaps give system administrators heart attacks.…

Resellers smack down Microsoft's 'single-digit' price rise claim

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:18:12 GMT

Channel sources: Volume licensing lift will be closer to 20 per cent

Microsoft says that a planned overhaul of volume licensing pricing due in the summer will be capped at single digit percentage rises.…

Anonymous releases law firm's emails about Haditha killings

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:58:09 GMT

Hacked lawyers who defended Marine over Iraqi deaths

Anonymous has leaked a trove of emails relating to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha after hacking into a law firm's systems.…

Avast false alarm hits Steam's weekend gamers

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:23:09 GMT

'I am sworn to carry your burdens'

Freebie anti-virus scanner Avast falsely identified an executable associated with the popular Steam gaming platform as a Trojan on Sunday.…

iPhone 4 incapable of handling Siri, says chip chap

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:59:05 GMT

Cough up for 4$ or somehow stagger on without blabberware

Siri won't run on iPhone 4 because the phone's chip can't handle it, an analyst at the Linley Group has said. The news is a blow to iPhone 4-ers hoping for an upgrade to the voice-activated virtual assistant and is also a surprise to anyone familiar with the I-hacked-my-iPhone-4-to-run-Siri stories.…

UK gov rejects call to posthumously pardon Alan Turing

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:23:05 GMT

Wartime codebreaker's 'absurd' conviction must stand

The UK government has turned down a call to posthumously pardon Alan Turing.…

Android dominates first-time smartphone buyer biz

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:04:06 GMT

Apple strong in upgrade arena

Punters picking their first smartphone are more likely to select an Android handset. When they come to upgrade, however, there's a good chance they'll defect to the opposition.…

An NT-powered Windows Phone? Not so fast...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:57:03 GMT

MS mulls partying like it's 1996....

Sources close to Microsoft have confirmed the veracity of last week's Windows Phone leaks – but say no decision has been taken to base the mobile platform on the Windows 8 kernel.…

Google tells French watchdog 'non' on privacy tweak halt

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:36:05 GMT

'At no stage did any DPA suggest pause was necessary'

Google has rejected calls from the European Union's watchdog to delay imminent changes to the Chocolate Factory's privacy policy.…

Printed jaw lets woman swallow again

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:19:40 GMT

Let's eat, Grandma

3D printing techniques have been taken to jaw-dropping heights after an 83-year-old woman was given a replacement mandible. She becomes the first patient ever to be fitted with a printed lower jaw.…

Apple kicks China's most popular browser out of iTunes

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:01:12 GMT

Bans Qihoo apps from its store ...

Qihoo, maker of the most popular web browser in China, has had all of its products kicked out of iTunes, though it's far from clear which breach of the rules is responsible.…

Apple tells authors: All your books iBook files are belong to us

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:39:03 GMT

But you can export them as PDFs if you want

In a legal rewrite pushed out Friday, Apple has made its iBooks publishing agreement sound slightly less evil by clarifying just what you can do with the content you create on its iBook Author software.…

Ofcom proposes fall in BT Openreach charges to rivals

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:18:02 GMT

Just wait for that nice Brussels man to agree

Updated BT will be forced to cut the prices of the access charges it applies to the company's broadband and telephone lines when leasing them out to other providers, Ofcom said today.…

Windows Phone 8 to get NFC, HD and Skype

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:58:07 GMT

Rumours confirmed, details emerge

Following a leaked video which showed Windows Phone top dog Joe Belfiore listing the features adorning the next version of Windows Phone, beta testers have come clean on what we should expect.…

BTJunkie closes shooting gallery

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:44:08 GMT

'My life is officially ruined'

Popular torrent search engine BTJunkie – nothing to do with BT – is voluntarily closing, according to a notice posted on the site, without offering a reason. The site has indexed other torrent trackers since 2005, and was the fifth most popular Torrent site.…

Schools IT supplier RM swings to full year loss after sales dive

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:17:04 GMT

We knew about gov budget cuts but we didn't really get it...

Ailing specialist education IT supplier RM has admitted it reacted too slowly to government budget cuts in schools after revealing massive losses in fiscal 2011 ended 30 November.…

Job-seeking Marriott hacker gets 30 months' porridge

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:03:03 GMT

Nabbed and jailed after Secret Service sting

A job-seeking Hungarian hacker who tried to land work with Marriott by hacking into the hotel chain's network before "offering" to sort out the resulting mess has been found guilty of hacking and attempted extortion and jailed for 30 months.…

Google and Facebook remove 'offensive' content from Indian sites

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:47:03 GMT

Internet firms comply with court order

Facebook and Google have removed content from Indian domain websites in response to a court order to get rid of "objectionable content".…

Scientists weave battery into clothing

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:41:21 GMT

Uses jumper leads?

Scientists charged into the fashion industry this week, unveiling a flexible battery that can be woven into fabric and used to boost the juice of everyday gadgets.…

Apple vs Amazon in ereader format smackdown

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:34:03 GMT

iBooks enlists kiddies on the EPUB3 front

Format wars are a mixed blessing for consumers. Whether it's Betamax versus VHS or Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD, the consumer ultimately wins because companies have to advance superior technologies. But problems arise if the format you backed loses the war - and your device becomes next year's expensive doorstop.…

Analyst touts iPad 'transformer' after CEO confab

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:19:07 GMT

Dual dock ports, clip-on keyboard for laptop-like use?

Will the Apple iPad 3 be an 'homage' to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, complete with clever clip-on keyboard accessory? One financial analysts comments, posted after a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, suggests it might be.…

MPs rattle telcos to help kill extremist material online

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:13:09 GMT

ISPs once again asked to police interwebs

Update Internet service providers must do better at removing violent material from websites, a group of MPs thundered today.…

Samsung Series 7 Chonos 15.6in Core i7 notebook

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:09 GMT

NOT a MacBook clone

Review Surely someone is having a laugh. Having read nothing but five-star reviews of this luxury notebook on other sources, I find myself surprised to be staring at a four-star product on my desk. Four stars is pretty good, you know, but that’s one less than five.…

Amazon lures Microsoft WinPhone chief with Kindle

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:47:03 GMT

Etailer claims third Redmond scalp

Microsoft's man rallying developers and partners to buy into Windows Phone is reportedly jumping ship to help push Amazon's cross-platform Kindle push.…

Apple TV surfaces on Best Buy

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:37:54 GMT

Spec leak - or fishing expedition?

US electronics retailer Best Buy has begun asking punters if they'd be interested coughing up $1499 for a 42in HD TV from Apple.…

Micron grabs almost-retired COO for chief

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:35:12 GMT

Mark Durcan will take over as CEO after death of Steve Appleton

Chip-maker Micron Technology has named a new CEO following the death of Steve Appleton on Friday in a plane crash.…

iOS 5 'crashes more apps' than Android

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:32:04 GMT

Is it an upgrade problem, or a user problem?

Recent data has shown that iOS apps crash more often than apps running on the Android platform.…

IT budgets plunge in North America, Europe

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:14:12 GMT

Rise in the East and Latin America

If you were expecting for IT spending to go up this year and for new projects to get going – and perhaps to get a pay raise – the consensus is building that this is not going to happen. That's the bad news. The good news would seem to be that instead of being asked to do more with less, IT shops will be asked to do a lot more with a tiny bit more dough. But it's not that simple, so don't jump to conclusions.…

EMC server flash rival slams VFCache

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:02:12 GMT

Fusion-io thinks Lightning misses target

EMC's VFCache server cache doesn't quite hit the mark. Although it validates server flash use, caching is not enough.…

Twitter snaps up Google Asia exec

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:44:11 GMT

Service could be set for greater expansion in the region

Micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter is stepping up its efforts at international expansion and has pinched a senior Google executive in a clear sign the company could be looking to target Asia in the coming months.…

PSN renamed Sony Entertainment Network

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:30:36 GMT

SEN-sible name change?

The PlayStation Network is to undergo a major rebranding this week when it is integrated into an all-new Sony Entertainment Network.…

Boffins find prehistoric croc species with 'mate-attracting' skin helmet

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:17:03 GMT

'Shieldcrocs' mingled with dinosaurs

Bone-bothering US boffins have identified a new species of prehistoric crocodile, nicknamed "Shieldcroc" because of a flat ornamental skin shield on its ginormous head.…

Motorola: refurb tablets shipped with former owners' data intact

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:05:27 GMT

Whoops

Motorola Mobility has admitted that some refurbished Xoom tablets were sent out to their new owners with previous users' data still present in the gadgets' memory banks.…

Facebook's IPO unveils plans to invade China

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:58:10 GMT

Social network would love to tap that

Not content with almost total domination in Western markets, social networking behemoth Facebook could be planning an assault on China if it can just do a deal with the authorities there, its latest regulatory filing has revealed.…

New dole system is 'digital by default', like it or not

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:39:09 GMT

Claimants who do not comply will be 'nudged' by 'back office' workers

Universal credit – the government's "new and improved" benefits system – will be the first major government service to be digital by default.…

Doctors sick of anonymous-coward NHS feedback commentards

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:58:08 GMT

Welcome to the internet, doc

A leading GP has declared that the general public are too rude about doctors on the internet in a complaint that may amuse those of us more familiar with the culture of "Internet feedback".…

Huawei-Symantec sneaks out of US back door

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:29:12 GMT

Has it been booted out?

Huawei-Symantec, the joint venture between Huawei and Symantec, has effectively stopped trading and is leaving the United States.…

Hackers may be able to 'outwit' online banking security devices

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:01:24 GMT

Investigators probe malware threat to 2-factor authentication

Hackers may already able to use malware to outwit the latest generation of online banking security devices, security watchers warn.…

MYSTERY as QLogic hurls InfiniBand from train

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:30:11 GMT

Reg storage desk baffled in the case of the fibre fracas

Comment Storage networking and InfiniBand supplier is giving up on InfiniBand and selling that business line to Intel for $125 million.…

Indian court grabs back 122 GSM licences from operators

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:02:08 GMT

Firms devalue to the tune of $25bn

India's Supreme Court has ruled that the 2G licences awarded in 2008 were not fairly distributed, and has snatched 122 of them back from the operators who were using them.…

EMC crashes the server flash party

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:01:03 GMT

Lightning strike with thunder to follow

The perfect server flash storm hitting storage arrays has generated EMC's well-signalled Lightning strike; VFCache has arrived, extending FAST technology from the array to the server. Project Thunder is following close behind, promising an EMC server-networked flash array.…

CA wins copyright wrangle against ISI

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:00:04 GMT

Don't nick the source code kids

Computer Associates has won a protracted legal battle against Sydney based software company Independent Systems Integrators ( ISI).…

TV giant HBO invests $AU10m in Quickflix

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:01:47 GMT

'Hug it out b***h' downunder

Ambitious Australian IPTV company Quickflix has secured an international investment coup with a $AU10 million cash infusion from Home Box Office (HBO).…

Some coral reefs growing in a warming world

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:00:08 GMT

Cooler, marginal reefs don’t mind warmer water

While Austraia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef has been suffering bleaching and damage, the combined impact of warmer oceans agricultural runoff, a few thousand kilometers to the west, coral growth seems to be enjoying the changing climate.…

Boffins embed electronics into fibres

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:30:03 GMT

Hope for cheaper telecoms kit

University of Southampton and Penn State researchers have demonstrated a technique to embed electronics into optical fibres, which if commercialised would enable simpler and cheaper telecommuniations kit.…

Hollywood gathers to pick over Limewire’s corpse

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:49:37 GMT

Whip? Check. Dead horse? Check.

Movies studios are moving on the defunct Limewire, filing a complaint in a US Federal Court to take their cut from the company’s copyright infringments.…

Can Sony's new supremo make the sacrifices to save his biz?

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:30:05 GMT

We drill into the uphill battle ex-Playstation boss Hirai faces

Comment When Faultline first began following Sony in 2003, it was worth $36 billion on the stock market. At the time Apple was worth $9.8 billion and it was about to launch the iTunes Music Store. We said that Sony should buy Apple and put Steve Jobs in charge.…