15th October 2004 Archive

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Apple iTunes tops 150m downloads

Can it make 200m by year-end?

Some 150m songs have been downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the Mac maker has announced. And, just in time for the upcoming festive season, the company said it was now selling its gift certificates through BestBuy stores across North America. The certificates are already available at Target stores and Apple's own …

Financial News 15 Oct 2004, 07:27
Netflix delays UK launch

Profits up, churn up too

Netflix is synonymous with online DVD rental, but its pioneer status hasn't been much help in fending off ferocious competition Stateside. On worse than expected US figures, stock crashed by 35 per cent and the company said it's cutting fees and delaying its UK launch. All this despite turning in its best ever profit: $22.6m …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2004, 07:39
PeopleSoft begged for earnings help

Please! Make us look good!

PeopleSoft asked its key customers to pony up early for large software buys in a bid to make its earnings look stronger than they might have been. PeopleSoft's CFO Kevin Parker this week gave the gory details on the company's aggressive moves to offset Oracle's takeover bid during testimony in front of a Delaware court. Most …

Applications 15 Oct 2004, 07:42
Sharp to ship world's first HDD-based PDA

Linux-based Zaurus SL-C3000 sports 4GB storage

Sharp will next month ship its latest Zaurus PDA into the Japanese market, the consumer electronics company announced this week. The device will be the first PDA to sport a hard drive. The Linux-based SL-C3000 adopts the clamshell casing of Sharp's other Japanese PDAs, with a flip-around display reminiscent of Sony's high-end …

Mobile 15 Oct 2004, 08:33
NetSuite's new offering joins up the dots

Analysis Mature solutions

Over the past few years, CRM implementations have come in for much criticism, especially in the elusive area of ROI. This has caused many companies to re-evaluate their technology implementations and heralded the success of new services delivering CRM functionality over the web – rather than making expensive technology …

Applications 15 Oct 2004, 09:02
Hydrogen-powered cars creep forward

All thanks to a 'molecular cat-flap'

Fuel-cell-powered cars moved another step closer yesterday with the announcement that a group of British scientists have developed a material that can safely store and release hydrogen. Although fuel cell technology is reasonably well developed, scientists have struggled to find a way of storing enough hydrogen fuel to make …

Science 15 Oct 2004, 09:17
US air traffic control open to attack

Computers not adequately secured

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has agreed to examine computer security at air traffic control centers around the country, following a government audit that found the systems insufficiently secured against cyber attacks. Auditors found that the FAA hadn't adequately secured computers running at the 20 "en route …

Enterprise Security 15 Oct 2004, 09:23
Reg road tests the BioNav™ in-car nav wonder

Sophisticated kit - at a price

Let's face it - you're no-one these days unless you've got an onboard satnav system in your motor - preferably one that speaks, can guide you to any location to within one centimetre and will tell you when your road tax has expired. Indeed, so impressed were we by the ALK CoPilot Smartphone - as recently reviewed by Tony Smith …

Mobile 15 Oct 2004, 09:24
Rambus sales, earnings rise on royalties

Licences signed in 2003 start to pay off

Memory technology developer Rambus saw last year's XDR licences start to pay off during the third quarter of its 2004 fiscal year, the company reported last night. Q3 yielded revenues of $38.8m, generating income of $10.4m. Both figures mark sequential and year-on-year gains. Revenues were up 10.0 per cent on Q2 and 35.7 per …

Financial News 15 Oct 2004, 09:39
BOFH: Seek, locate and destroy

Episode 35 Black ops

BOFH 2004 There are times in a professional Systems Administrator's life when he must ignore the opinion of Managers and even cast aside the sage advice of his assistant. For from his experience he knows what all others do not - that this is a pivotal situation with issues at stake that others are unaware of. In these …

BOFH 15 Oct 2004, 09:39
US plugs into power-line broadband

FCC gives go-ahead

US telecoms regulator - the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - has given the green light for operators to provide broadband over power lines in a move which it hopes will increase the availability of high-speed net access and increase competition. In a ruling yesterday the FCC said it wanted to "encourage the development …

Telecoms 15 Oct 2004, 09:57
Intel readies updated 90nm Celeron cores

Socket 478 parts to get E-0 core

Intel's programme to upgrade the cores of its 90nm 'Prescott'-derived processors will continue with the Socket 478 Celeron line-up, it has emerged. The chip giant will ship low-end chips based on the E-0 90nm core on 20 December, according to documents seen by The Register. As with other D-0 to E-0 upgrades - most recently of …

System Builder 15 Oct 2004, 09:58
Corel snaps up Jasc

Digging deeper into digital imaging

Corel has acquired Jasc software, the company responsible for the Paint Shop software range, for an undisclosed sum. The company indicated the deal was the start of a new growth strategy, saying that other acquisition deals are "on the horizon". Corel will add the Paint Shop Pro, Paint Shop Pro Studio and Paint Shop Photo Album …

Financial News 15 Oct 2004, 09:59
6m South Koreans exposed in slam and spam scam

Identity theft on an epic scale

South Korean police want to question 15 mobile phone workers and brokers over allegations they traded the personal information of an estimated six million people in the northeast Asian country. The group netted 360m South Korean Won ($314,0000) by allegedly selling the personal details of an estimated one in five of south Koreas …

ID 15 Oct 2004, 10:12
Exabyte slashes media costs

Storage Expo Hopes to cut losses through cheaper tapes

Tape drive pioneer Exabyte reckons it has worked out why it doesn't have much market share anymore - its media was too expensive. That's a bit of a bummer for media company Imation, which last year paid $20m for five per cent of Exabyte Corp and the exclusive rights to distribute Exabyte media. However, Exabyte's European MD …

Storage 15 Oct 2004, 10:36
The risks of remote back-up

Storage Expo Simple? Ooooh no...

If you're shopping for remote back-up services or software, make sure the storage behind it is up to the job, because choosing the right hardware is not as simple as it might seem. "We started out with two ATA arrays and it worked, but it didn't mirror fast enough," warns Michael Tremblath, a director of online back-up company …

Storage 15 Oct 2004, 10:46
Colourful US PC company calls it quits

Liebermann logs off

Controversial US PC vendor Liebermann has shut its doors. According to an open letter to customers posted on the company's web site, it is "no longer in a position, from a financial standpoint, to continue doing business". "[With] a lack of investors, venture capital groups, angel investors, or someone to take a solid founding …

PCs 15 Oct 2004, 10:49
JetGroove culls songs as music biz says 'cease, desist'

Already made licensing overtures

Controversial music download site JetGroove has removed more than 50,000 songs from its database after receiving cease and desist requests from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) and its UK wing, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The move comes after it emerged that the website had contacted …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2004, 11:00
Electronic underwear warns of heart attack

Life-saving cardiopants

Electronic underwear sensitive to fluctuations in the wearer's heart rate has been developed by the Philips Research facility in Aachen, Germany. The garment will automatically call emergency services when necessary, for example if the wearer suffers a cardiac arrest. This represents a considerable advance on the mobile phones …

Science 15 Oct 2004, 11:27
China jails four for running mucky site

Porn clampdown continues

Four men have been jailed for peddling porn as China continues to wage its war against online smut. The four men - Liang Hongbin, Li Yufei, Yu Jianhong, and Chen Dong who are all in their twenties - have been jailed for between 12 months and two-and-a-half years. According to state media, the men rang up a profit of 16,000 yuan …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2004, 11:29
Four charged in landmark UK phishing case

Eastern Europeans in the dock

Four eastern Europeans appeared in a London court yesterday charged with defrauding online banks of hundreds of thousands through an elaborate 'phishing' scam. The two men and two women from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine are allegedly leading members of a gang that siphoned cash from ebanking accounts after conning consumers into …

ID 15 Oct 2004, 11:48
Dell to ship iPod Mini rival next month

Pocket DJ to fly MS' PlaysForSure flag

Dell launched its anticipated iPod Mini challenger, the Pocket DJ 5, yesterday, along with an updated version of its higher-end model in matching livery. The Pocket DJ 5 provides 5GB of storage, measures 8.8 x 5.3 x 1.3cm and weighs 125g. Dell hasn't given much else away: the DJ 5 will cost $199 in the US, and supports …

Mobile 15 Oct 2004, 12:33
Archos unveils 20GB iPod Mini-sized player

Miniature marvel?

French media player maker Archos has launched what may the world's smallest 20GB hard drive-based music player. The Gmini XS200 measures just 7.6 x 5.9 x 1.9cm and weighs 120g. That's comparable to Apple's iPod Mini, Dell's Pocket DJ 5 and Creative's Zen Micro - all of which offer a storage capacity that's a quarter or a fifth …

Mobile 15 Oct 2004, 12:50
US science alliance eyes artificial retina

Collective effort

Nine US research institutions, including five of the Department of Energy's (DOE) laboratories, have forged an alliance in a bid to speed development of an artificial retina. The deal specifies that all institutions involved in the programme will share any intellectual property rights and resulting royalties. In this way, the …

Science 15 Oct 2004, 13:32
Schools, patents and the future of Linux

LinuxWorld debate chews the fat

Open source activists need to get Linux into schools if Windows' pre-eminance on the desktop is ever to be seriously challenged, a panel discussion at LinuxWorld conference in London last week concluded. StarOffice is offered free to schools and has made significant progress as an alternative to Microsoft Office. But Windows …

Operating Systems 15 Oct 2004, 14:16
Sprint to shed another 700 jobs

On your marks, get set...

US telecoms giant Sprint is to shed 700 sales and support jobs as it continues to jiggle its business about. In a statement issued today the company said that the job losses would be achieved "through attrition, voluntary separations and layoffs". However, those facing the chop can expect to receive a wedge and other benefits …

Telecoms 15 Oct 2004, 14:20
Wobbly footballs and electronic pants

Letters A typical haul from the postbag...

You know what? Writing a story about open source stuff is a bit like poking at a beehive with a stick. You know you'll get some kind of response, but it is often hard to tell whether it be a load of honey, or an angry bee sitting on your nose: What exactly do you mean by "circumvent some of the commercial difficulties of the …

Letters 15 Oct 2004, 15:03
Motorola pilots 'digital wallet' phone trials

Hello Moto, goodbye wonga

Motorola has teamed up with Mastercard to conduct US trials of technology that allows mobile phones to act as "digital wallets". The phones in the field trial will be equipped with MasterCard's PayPass, a contactless payment technology touted as making it far more convenient for users to pay for goods and services based on …

Mobile 15 Oct 2004, 15:43
IBM's Power5 beast takes on Sun, HP - and IBM

Hitting the 64-way barrier

IBM is set to start shipping the biggest, baddest Unix servers in its history. Come November, customers will see the Power5-based p5-590 and p5-595 servers hit the market. The 32-way 590 is a direct replacement for the current Power4+-based p690. The 595, however, breaks new ground for IBM, as the company has finally delivered …

Servers 15 Oct 2004, 16:29
Boffin channels god, scares students

Feel the rage!

A physics professor at a Louisiana university has been suspended and is being held for evaluation after allegedly flying into a fit of rage in front of his students. Louis Houston, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette boffin, apparently let his emotions get the best of him during a Wednesday class. The professor is said to …

Bootnotes 15 Oct 2004, 18:02
Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable'

The Goo that knows you

Google's Desktop represents a privacy disaster just waiting to happen, a rival has warned. David Burns, Copernic CEO, says users should know that the giant ad broker intends to mix public and private queries in the future, leveraging its key moneyspinning product: contextual advertising. "If you lined people and said, 'Stick …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2004, 22:47