24th January 2006 Archive

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3G boosts Texas Instruments

But outlook disappoints

Texas Instruments earned a profit of $2.3bn on revenues of $13.39bn for 2005, the company reported yesterday, up from $1.8bn and $12.58bn for 2004. Sequential revenue remained flat, but higher profit margins and lower R&D costs helped the DSP giant to a $655m profit on revenues of $3.59bn for the final quarter, boosting the …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 08:45
Java Opera poses smartphone challenge

Mini me

Opera, which owes much of its success to its smart-phone browsers, today offers a reason not to buy a smart phone. The Norwegian company will take the wraps off its Mini browser: a Java applet that can run on around 700m phones. Opera Mini uses a proxy server to format the content to low power, small-screen devices. The company …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 09:10
Supremes shun RIM - again

No review of NTP appeal court win

The US Supreme Court has rejected Research in Motion's latest request that it weigh in on the Blackberry maker's battle with US intellectual property holding company NTP. The Court this week said it would not review the US Court of Appeals' August 2005 verdict that RIM had indeed infringed NTP's patents and which sent the case …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 09:40
T-Mobile preps UK launch for Blackberry 8700g

Coming to Spain through Telefónica Móviles, Vodafone too

T-Mobile will next month begin shipping Research in Motion's latest Blackberry, the 8700, in the UK, marking the device's debut in Britain. The cellco will offer the device as the 8700g. The machine is the first Blackberry based on an Intel processor - the XScale PXA901 - and includes 64MB of Flash memory and 16MB of SDRAM. …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 09:56
Nokia and Intel turn on mobile TV alliance

Phone potatoes

Intel, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments are teaming up to promote the use of TV on mobile phones and other devices. The Mobile DTV alliance will work to promote the Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld (DVB-H) standard and encourage best practice. There are currently DVB-H trials in the UK and Europe with most markets in …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 10:10
MS spends large to appear small

It's counter-intuitive, man...

Microsoft is spending $120m to persuade the world it is not a big American company. The new advertising will be more tightly tied to local markets and will enhance the work Microsoft is doing in education and security. Group advertising manager Mike Lucero told the Seattle Post Intelligencer: "We are often perceived as a huge …

Software 24 Jan 2006, 10:38
ECS readies budget CrossFire Socket 939 mobo

'Enormous overclocking potential'

Elitegroup has pledged to ship a budget ATI CrossFire-enabled motherboard for AMD's Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors by the end of the month. The RD480-A939 joins ECS' other Socket 939/CrossFire combo mobo, the KA1 MVP. Like the older board, the new model is based on ATI's Radeon Xpress 200-class RD480 North Bridge and SB480 …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 10:44
Intel ships low-spec P4s for low-cost PCs

Cut-price dual-core part coming soon, too

Intel has begun shipping a pair of low-cost Pentium 4 5xx class CPUs that have yet to be added to its public price list. The chip giant is also preparing to offer a low-price dual-core Pentium D 8xx processor in two months' time. The chip, the PD 805, will be clocked at 2.66GHz and support a maximum frontside bus speed of …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 11:10
EC grants MS fine delay

And US gov says it's foot-dragging

Microsoft has asked the European Commission for an extension to the deadline for it to comply with the anti-trust ruling reached in 2004. The EC originally gave Microsoft until Wednesday to improve access to its server software. A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told IDG: "Microsoft has requested an …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 11:14
Bot herder pleads guilty to 'zombie' sales

Botnets used for profit in 'first of its kind' case

A 20-year-old California man has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he sold access to networks of compromised PCs and made money from illicitly installed adware, prosecutors announced on Monday. Jeanson James Ancheta of Downey, California, entered a plea of guilty to four of the original 17 charges in the case, according to …

Security 24 Jan 2006, 11:15
Gut feelings drive firms' IT decisions

Start-up companies more likely to shun expert advice

Over a tenth of UK small businesses are making uninformed IT decisions based on "gut feelings", a new study has revealed. Research by Cisco Systems found that 13 per cent of small companies are making major IT decisions without conducting sound research or seeking advice. The trend is most prevalent among start-up businesses, …

Small Biz 24 Jan 2006, 11:36
The 'f' in framework

Comment Now we know what it stands for ...

There are but 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand the binary numbering system and those who don't. Sadly, I think that's probably the funniest programmer joke I've ever heard. Underlying it, however, is something that has important ramifications in the world of software development - the tendency for human …

Developer 24 Jan 2006, 11:47
3G demand grows, says Voda

Which is nice

Demand for 3G phones is beginning to take off, Vodafone reported today, echoing claims by mobile phone retailer Phones4U that 2005 was "a 3G Christmas". Publishing its latest trading update, Vodafone confirmed that it added a further 3.1m 3G punters in the last quarter, taking its total 3G user base to 8m. In the UK, sales of …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 11:54
Yahoo! phishing warning

Be careful out there...

Websense is warning internet users of a new phishing scam targeting Yahoo! users. Users get a message via Yahoo!'s instant messenger asking them to "click on this website". Following the link takes you to what appears to be Yahoo!'s photo service. But the site, hosted in the US, has nothing to do with Yahoo!. If users enter …

ID 24 Jan 2006, 11:56
PlusNet swells broadband numbers

Revs up too

PlusNet racked up 176,000 broadband punters at the end of 2005, helping to boost turnover by 27 per cent. In a brief trading update, the Sheffield-based ISP said broadband numbers had grown by 96 per cent over the last 12 months, helped by the addition of 16,000 DSL punters from its acquisition of Metronet for £1.7m in November …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 12:17
Vodafone readies HSDPA 3G card for notebooks

Made by Option, supplied by Dell

Vodafone is gearing up to extend its Mobile Connect Card notebook mobile phone connectivity add-in line-up with a card that supports the High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) bandwidth-boosting upgrade to 3G networks. Separately, Dell this week said it was partnerning with Vodafone to bring HSPDA connectivity to future notebook …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 12:19
EMC meets Wall St in Q4

Pays for bringing income home, sending workers home

Storage giant EMC spared Wall Street any shocks with its Q4 numbers this morning. The storage vendor turned in revenues of $2.71bn, up 15 per cent on the year. Net income was $148m, well down on last year's $321m. However, once a raft of charges were stripped out, net income was up 27 per cent to $409m, or $0.17 per share, in …

Storage 24 Jan 2006, 12:37
CCSS gets IBM badge of approval

Big Blue's blessing

Systems management firm CCSS is celebrating today because IBM has renewed its "ServerProven" status of its products and renewed the firm's Advanced Partner status. For applications to get "ServerProven" they must run properly in a real world environment - so customers can be confident they can be installed without causing …

Channel Register 24 Jan 2006, 12:38
Council clamps down on kids using mobile phones

Schools support ban too

Schools on Merseyside are being urged to ban the use of mobile phone among school kids. Knowsley Council wants to ban all mobiles in primary schools and restrict the use of handsets in secondary schools during the day. Councillors have introduced the proposals in response to concerns that mobile phone might damage children's …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 13:17
Walsall escapes scrutiny of scuppered Fujitsu deal

But auditor is sceptical of public rationale

The District Auditor has refused a request to investigate Walsall Council Cabinet's secret negotiations over an aborted £500m outsourcing deal with Fujitsu. Opposition council leaders wrote to the auditor in December, requesting an investigation because there had been no open negotiations of the plan, despite at least two years …

Public Sector 24 Jan 2006, 13:24
Oz flying car takes reader flak

Letters Sceptics cry foul

Our piece yesterday on the Oz flying car spotted over Perth shortly before making the transdimensional leap to hyper light speed provoked a large number of sceptics among you to question our judgement in the matter: First up, we have this from Andy Robins: those pictures have been edited, it doesnt look anything like a car …

Letters 24 Jan 2006, 13:26
ATI ships Radeon X1900 XT, XTX and CrossFire Edn

Next-gen graphics chip goes on sale

ATI has launched its Radeon X1900 graphics chip, aka the R580, offering the 90nm part as the X1900 CrossFire Edition (CFE), X1900 XT and X1900 XTX, as anticipated. This time, however, it lined up a stack of UK board suppliers to confirm they have product ready to ship should anyone worry that today's events mark nothing more …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 14:02
Murdoch to bring MySpace to UK

Hey, Rupert, leave those kids alone

News International has sent the social networking world into a tizz by saying its US-based MySpace.com will hit the UK within a month. According to the BBC, Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinson told a conference in Las Vegas that the UK launch was on track, and that the initial plan was to “tap into the music scene". …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 14:41
Ofcom probes roaming charges

And the advice to consumers?

Ofcom has published a guide to help consumers avoid being ripped off when they use their mobile phones abroad. The guide provides advice on how to cut costs and sets out the prices that most UK users are likely to pay when making or receiving calls or text messages overseas. One of the tips highlighted by the communications …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 14:45
Orange all a-quiver over 'vibro-tactile' mobile phone

Samsung E770 shakes - but does it stir?

In a bid to put the buzz back into the mobile phone market, Orange UK has launched a version of Samsung's E770 handset that sports what inventor Immersion calls "vibro-tactile sensations". Yes, rather than merely vibrate when a call comes through or you achieve a high score in one of the phone's bundled games, the VibeTonz- …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 14:49
Wally watering can heads for £10K

Whale-wetting container surfaces on eBay

We needn't have worried about the poor old British Divers Marine Life Rescue group (BDMLR) who - as we reported yesterday - were facing 300 quid in parking fines and around another £5k in expenses related to the heroic but ultimately ill-fated mission to save Wally the bottle-nosed whale. The reason? The enterprising charity …

Bootnotes 24 Jan 2006, 14:58
Cingular sensation claimed for Q4

Customers up, churn down

Cingular is crowing over a fourth quarter in which customer churn - people fleeing to other providers - fell to a new low (2.1 per cent). The US cellco recorded a net customer increase of 1.8m for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, to 54.1 million subscribers. Net income was $204m (Q4 2004, $495m) on revenue up 24 per cent to …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 15:12
Hey Bill, why am I still getting spam?

Junk mail outlives MS mortality prediction

Two years ago today Bill Gates predicted that spam email would be eradicated as a problem within 24 months. The Microsoft chairman predicted the death of spam in a speech at the World Economic Forum on 24 January 2004. Gates outlined a three-stage plan to eradicate spam within two years. Microsoft's scheme calls for better …

Spam 24 Jan 2006, 15:23
Verizon Wireless edges closer to Cingular

My churn is smaller than yours

Verizon Wireless did a little strip-tease for Wall Street today, offering a sneak peek at key performance indicators for Q4, ahead of Thursday's results announcement. The US cellco was hot on the heels of leader Cingular for the three months ended December 31, 2005, recording a net gain of 2m customers for the quarter, compared …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 15:49
Russians to hold Thomas C. Greene for two years

Letters Plus: 70,000 alcoholics fear online fraud

This Tuesday's quick peruse of the Vulture Central mail bag kicks off with a couple of comments about Thomas C. Greene's Windows Back door musings. Technically sound, was the consensus, but what about the comments regarding Steve Gibson?: I've realized WHY I dont read your site more often. The article slamming Steve Gibson …

Letters 24 Jan 2006, 15:57
No Sony PS3 in UK until 2007, says analyst

But Xbox 360 hard drives on the way

It's been a fairly tough start to the year for both Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, but it looks like Sony's woe may be a touch worse. Industry speculation that Sony's projected release date for its PlayStation 3 console of "Spring 2006" was looking unlikely turned into open ridicule when a Sony source told a journalist …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 16:15
US calls sale scandal picks up steam

Writs fly as lawmakers take action

The scandal over the sale of mobile phone call records to data brokers in the US is gaining momentum. T-Mobile, the number four US mobile operator, has obtained an injunction against two firms - Data Find Solutions and 1st Source Information Specialists - that it alleges have illegally obtained customer records, Reuters reports …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 16:34
Lexmark delivers jobs blow for Scotland

1,000 jobs at risk

Lexmark, the printer maker, is ending production of inkjet cartridges in Rosyth, Scotland and is transferring manufacture to a cheaper, unnamed country. Up to 1,000 jobs could be affected. Lexmark's Scottish play is part of a sweeping re-org announced today which sees 825 job losses and 525 jobs relocated, and its US pension …

IT Director 24 Jan 2006, 16:38
PC use gives students an advantage in school

OECD study says computer access linked to performance

Students who use computers regularly are getting a headstart on their peers when it comes to school subjects, according to a new OECD study. The report, "Are students ready for a technology-rich world?", claims that school students who use computers regularly perform better in key school subjects than those with limited …

Public Sector 24 Jan 2006, 16:43
Code Complete, Second Edition

Book review At last, a good book about writing code

This is a book about a sorely neglected part of software development: writing code. It's not a book about the specifics of a particular language, programming paradigm or development methodology. Nor is it about UML, design patterns or data structures. It's about coding. About low-level design, about naming conventions, about all …

Developer 24 Jan 2006, 16:57
Boo.com dusts down website for June relaunch

Can't be right, can it?

Boo.com - the high profile fashion flop that blew megabucks before going titsup within months of launching - could be about to make a dotcom comeback. A short message on boo.com's homepage claims that a new site will be launched in June and that a "new website is coming soon". Attempts to contact fashionmall.com - which …

Financial News 24 Jan 2006, 17:01
Decoupling from passports added to ID Card Bill's woes

And more cards, less fingerprints?

Government suffered further defeats on ID Cards last night, as the House of Lords voted to make the scheme voluntary, and to require a further Act of Parliament before ID cards can be made compulsory. The Government has already stated that it intends to reverse the Lords' amendments in the Commons, but as it now has to deal with …

Music and Media 24 Jan 2006, 17:08
UK.gov repels zero day WMF attack

The Manchurian (malware) Candidate

Chinese hackers attacked UK Government targets during the Christmas holidays using the Microsoft Windows Meta File (WMF) exploit. The attacks - initiated before Microsoft's patch against the vulnerability was released on January 5 - came in the form of contamination emails that originated in China, according to email filtering …

Anti-Virus 24 Jan 2006, 17:33
ATI Radeon X1900 XT and XTX

Review The world's fastest graphics cards?

The smart money says that most other articles on the launch of ATI Radeon X1900 XT and XTX - aka the R580 - will start with chatter about R5xx being late. It's a valid way to kick off the copy on a new ATI high-end GPU product. The delays in getting the silicon into a shipping state - mostly due to a problem in the wafer …

Reg Hardware 24 Jan 2006, 20:18
77% of Google users don't know it records personal data

Stat of the week

More than three quarters of web surfers don't realize Google records and stores information that may identify them, results of a new opinion poll show. The phone poll, which sampled over 1000 internet users, was conducted by the Ponemon Institute following the DoJ subpoenas last week. This suggests that the battle for internet …

Music and Media 24 Jan 2006, 21:20
One in three Europeans pick 3G contracts

The big mo

A third of new mobile contracts in western Europe during Q405 were for 3G services. Western Europe saw 4m new WCDMA subscribers in 4Q05, equivalent to 32.3 per cent of the region's 12.39m total net subscriber additions for the period, according to Informa Telecoms, the market research firm. It says its figures give the …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 21:26
Oracle rebuffs Sun's NetBeans

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Weeks after the companies pledged their software love for another 10 years, Oracle has quietly - but firmly - rejected Sun Microsystems' NetBeans open source Java technology. In a Q&A published on the Oracle website, Thomas Kurian, Oracle senior veep for server technologies development, paid due respects to NetBeans, but said …

Developer 24 Jan 2006, 21:52
Opera on Palm OS? Sort of...

With a little Java

Spare a thought for poor old Palm. Nokia has succeeded in convincing analysts, and portions of the press, that its $399 Linux Wi-Fi tablet, the Nokia 770, is "an entirely new device category". Even the Wall Street Journal said so. But for a hundred dollars less, Palm will also sell you a Wi-Fi tablet, only one with a vast range …

Mobile 24 Jan 2006, 22:06