11th April 2005 Archive

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Seven snaps up Smartner

Mobile mail wars heat up

White-label mobile email vendor Seven has snapped up Smartner for an undisclosed sum. Seven provides middleware software that networks use to deliver email to mobile phones, although it also offers a consumer service. Customers include Vodafone, Cingular, DoCoMo and O2, and around half the Treos in the world use Seven software …

Mobile 11 Apr 2005, 07:07
Computacenter wins £8m Highways Agency deal

Patrolling England's motorways

Computacenter has picked up the gig to manage the command, control and communication services for the UK's Highways Agency. The five-year-deal is worth £8m and sees the reseller giant working in tandem with Vivista, the Chippenham, Wilts computer services firm which was bought by Sungard earlier this year. They won the …

Public Sector 11 Apr 2005, 07:45
Indian call centre staff nicked for fraud

'Go on, tell us your Pin number...'

Three workers from an Indian call centre have been arrested for defrauding US bank customers. In total twelve people have been arrested for cheating Citibank customers out of $350,000. Three of the men worked for Mphasis, an offshoring firm which runs call centres in Bangalore and Pune. They are accused of charming PIN numbers …

IT Director 11 Apr 2005, 08:15
Google bosses work for a buck. A year

Pity the poor billionaires...

The founders of Google are getting a pay cut - they'll get just a dollar each this year. Sergey Brin and Larry Page will get the nominal payment and no other bonuses or share options according to a regulatory filing made late last week. Company chief executive Eric Schmidt also took the pay cut in spring last year - just …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 08:19
Asian century dawns for IT industry

It's like two pagodas apparently...

India and China can take a leading role in the technology industry if they put aside their historic differences and work together. The comments came from China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as he visited Bangalore. "Cooperation is just like two pagodas, one hardware and one software. Combined, we can take the leadership position …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 09:29
Swansea IT staff warn of 'done deal'

Threaten strike action

IT staff at Swansea city council are up in arms over the future of their jobs as the council ties up an outsourcing deal with Capgemini. They claim that the council has already decided to shunt jobs to IT services outfit Capgemini even before senior council officials have voted on the matter. Last autumn more than 100 IT …

IT Director 11 Apr 2005, 10:09
Intel to launch dual-core Pentium 'next week'

Grabbing AMD by the dualies?

Intel may launch its upcoming dual-core Pentium processors and their supporting chipsets sooner than anticipated, with the products now set to debut this month, possibly as early as next week. That's rather sooner than the late Q2 date that the chip giant was previously expected to have scheduled for the debut of the Pentium …

PCs 11 Apr 2005, 10:24
Scientists go mad for optical sensors

How to tell if your building is exploding

Physicists at Heriot-Watt university have developed a robust new type of sensor that could help engineers design buildings capable of withstanding huge explosions. Professor Julian Jones, who led the research, presented the findings at the Physics 2005 conference in Warwick today. The specially engineered optical fibres can …

Science 11 Apr 2005, 10:40
Intel confirms 'Conroe'

Names chip but refuses to spill beans

Intel has confirmed its 'Conroe' microprocessor, believed to be a desktop version of its upcoming 'Merom' mobile chip, will ship as part of the chip giant's 'Averill' desktop platform due next year. Averill's existence was revealed last February at Intel Developer Forum as the basis of NetBurst processors 'Presler' and 'Cedar …

PCs 11 Apr 2005, 10:45
US hospital loses patient info

Oh dear, oh dear

Patients from the San Jose Medical Group are feeling even sicker this morning - the organisation has lost personal and confidential information on 185,000 current and ex-patients. Patient records and financial details were downloaded from secure servers and put on two Dell desktop machines. The information was related to …

ID 11 Apr 2005, 10:48
Access buys Irish reseller

Access all areas

Access Accounting has bought its Irish reseller, called, appropriately enough, Access Ireland. Terms are undisclosed. The accountancy software firm is calling its new baby Access Accounting Ireland and plans to triple staff over three years. ®

Channel Register 11 Apr 2005, 11:10
Pipex reports magic year

Just like that

Pipex pulled off a little bit of magic last year, turning a loss into a profit. Turnover at the UK broadband ISP and telco increased from £35.2m in 2003 to £102.3m in the 12 months to the end of December. During the same period pre-tax profit hit £6.2m - a bright turnaround compared to the £7.2m loss made in 2003. And the …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 11:11
Verizon buys slice of MCI

It's not hostile but it's not exactly friendly

Verizon is buying a piece of MCI direct from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim for $1.1bn to fend off competing bids for the company formerly known as WorldCom from Qwest Communications. The 13 per cent stake cost Verizon slightly more than it is offering other MCI shareholders. By buying such a large slice of the firm Verizon …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 11:14
MIT and Quanta want to take seams out of computing

Automating the boring bits

MIT and Taiwanese laptop maker Quanta Computer have begun a joint five-year, $20m research project to develop an new generation of platforms for computing and communications that they say will change the way we interact with technology. The project, called TParty, aims to take the work of maintaining, upgrading and patching all …

PCs 11 Apr 2005, 11:20
Microsoft sues eight resellers over counterfeiting

'Hurts the honest businesses'

Microsoft today filed suit against eight PC builders and resellers in the US for alleged distribution of “counterfeit, illicit and unlicensed software and software components”. In a statement, the firm said the distribution of counterfeit software “software hurts the honest businesses that distribute legitimate software and the …

Software 11 Apr 2005, 11:48
Sanyo, IBM develop ThinkPad fuel cell

Prototype today, shipping product... when?

Sanyo and IBM today said they will jointly research and develop a fuel-cell power system for notebook PCs. The two companies said they will develop a hybrid system. Essentially, the direct methanol fuel cell will work alongside a slimline lithium-polymer rechargeable battery. That's presumably because of the bulk of the fuel …

PCs 11 Apr 2005, 12:33
MS, Sony pick 16 May for next-gen console launches

PS3 to beat Xbox 2 by three hours

The waiting will be over on 16 May. On that day, at 3PM PST, Sony will take the wraps off PlayStation 3. Three hours later, Microsoft will unveil Xbox 2. Well, that's the hope. Certainly, Sony has scheduled a press event at its Culver City, Los Angeles Sony Pictures facility on that date and time. Microsoft, meanwhile, has …

Consoles 11 Apr 2005, 12:42
WiMAX summit: 'Standards-plus' could harm 802.16 roadmap

But which roadmap will be followed?

This week saw the WiMAX community gathered in force at the WiMAX Summit in Paris, France. It quickly emerged that the issue preoccupying both vendors and potential operators is the road to mobility and exactly how the transition to the forthcoming 802.l6e mobile standard will be achieved. With a key WiMAX Forum meeting to be …

Wireless 11 Apr 2005, 13:22
Fiona Apple saga shows Sony's core dilemma

Comment Disc rejected, online distribution too

You think that record companies are all geared up for the 21st century, and that the fact that online downloads will count towards the Official Chart Countdown means that they're au fait with the online future - right? That they realise that you can make a profit by continually selling a small number of digital copies of songs, …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 13:48
Microsoft goes after Blackberry with Magneto

Takes RIMshot

We have seen before how mobile email infrastructure is the first key battlefield in the fight to control the wireless enterprise market. Recently, Microsoft has backed away from ambitions to make Windows devices universal in the corporate sector, recognizing the presence of new clients such as smartphones, but it is relentless …

Software 11 Apr 2005, 13:49
Porn, Dubai and Bluetooth phone hacking...

A scam that is long in the tooth

The latest Bluetooth scare is that if you go to the United Arab Emirates, someone might hack your phone, implant porn on it, and you'd end up in jail. Here's the origin of this story: an article by reporter Lana Mahdi, saying: "People who use mobile phones, particularly with bluetooth technology, to send pornographic images or …

Mobile 11 Apr 2005, 14:05
Business Serve hops on VoIP bandwagon

Cheap calls etc

Lancaster-based ISP Business Serve is launching a broadband telephony service next month after teaming up with broadband hardware manufacturer Zyxel Communications UK. Exact details of the service, which is aimed at home users, should be announced later this month but it's understood that the subscription to the VoIP service …

VoIP 11 Apr 2005, 14:14
Ingram Micro cuts jobs and costs

Cutting $25m a year

Distributor Ingram Micro is looking for annual savings of $25m a year at its North American operation and will offshore some processes and cut jobs to make it happen. Ingram Micro is making a final decision between two offshoring providers. It expects to have reached a decision by the end of the month. Transaction processing, …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 14:36
Heise ordered to remove link to Slysoft.com

'Aider and abettor' to CD ripping

A Munich court has ruled that German news site Heise Online was wrong to publish a link to Slysoft.com, a company that advertises software that can play, copy and rip protected audio CDs. In January the German IT site received a writ from the German music industry preventing it from publishing links to the company. A court last …

Music and Media 11 Apr 2005, 15:18
Two bidders for stricken Scottish games maker

SOE firm may be saved

Two possible bidders have emerged for Scottish games company Vis Entertainment after it went into administration last week. A spokesman for Tenon Recovery told Reuters it had already received two "expressions of interest". Administrators are looking at the state of the company's finances before talking to potential suitors. …

Financial News 11 Apr 2005, 15:23
MS to launch Xbox 2 on 12 May

TV spectacular planned for console's debut

Microsoft won't play second fiddle to Sony next month, the company tacitly said today. It will launch Xbox 2 in a half-hour show on MTV four days before its rival reveals the PlayStation 3. Late last week it appeared both companies had planned to launch their respective next-generation consoles on 16 May - a day before the …

Consoles 11 Apr 2005, 15:28
Microsoft pays Gateway to go away

Legal action settled

Ailing computer maker Gateway got some good news today - Microsoft agreed to pay the firm $150m. Microsoft will make the payments over the next four years. In exchange Gateway is dropping legal action brought against Microsoft as a result of the US anti-trust case of the mid-90s. During the trial it emerged that Gateway was …

Software 11 Apr 2005, 15:40
Green light for tests on really big telescope designs

More mirrors than Stringfellows

European scientists have been given the green light to go ahead with testing designs for a new generation of ground-based telescopes that will be capable of seeing the universe in more detail than Hubble can. Project ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) aims to build a ground-based optical 'scope up to ten-times the size of current …

Science 11 Apr 2005, 15:54
Broadband under a tenner at UK Online

Proves LLU competition works

UK Online - EasyNet's ISP - is cutting the cost of its unbundled broadband service. The ISP says it's not a gimmick, a loss-leader or a short-term time limited offer. Instead, UK Online - which declined to reveal subscriber numbers - is able to offer an entry-level 512k service for just £9.99 (compared to £19.99 a month via BT …

Telecoms 11 Apr 2005, 16:02
Stern response to Otto's HP musings

Letters Is he for real?

Some of you may have noticed that El Reg has appointed a new regular columnist, the inimitable Otto Z. Stern. He certainly made an impression with his opening salvo: a slightly controversial analysis of the departure of the equally unique Carly Fiorina. Your reactions ranged from the confused and amused, right through to …

Letters 11 Apr 2005, 16:18
Linus Torvalds in bizarre attack on open source

Do as I say, not do as I do

Normally we expect an attack on free software to come from one of the usual suspects: payola analysts, right wing "think tanks", or Steve Ballmer. So it's an odd day when Linus Torvalds himself weighs in against the principles of the movement. Torvalds launched a blast against OpenOffice.org, and defended Microsoft's right to …

Software 11 Apr 2005, 21:18
Sun's Becky Box four-pack leaks

Founder's Opteron designs emerge

The first details of Sun Microsystems "Becky Boxes" have emerged. Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim rejoined the company, via an acquisition, last year. A lengthy Sun presentation briefly popped up on a company web site and was spotted by a trade newswire. It showed that Sun expects to roll out four servers, stretching from a …

Servers 11 Apr 2005, 21:52