17th October 2006 Archive

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PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 Pro

Review Way better price:performance than its predecessor?

ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX proved to be an excellent performer, but the price tag was high, which put it out of reach for most of us. Today, ATI launches the X1950 Pro, a cut down version of the X1950 XTX. It comes in at an amazing price point and it's also got a couple of new features, in particular internal CrossFire connectors. …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 06:02
US DoJ SRAM probe takes in Mitsubishi

Renesas co-founder approached

Mitsubishi has become the third company to confess it has been approached by the US Department of Justice regarding the anti-trust agency's investigation into the US SRAM market. The DoJ has itself yet to confirm it is looking into the SRAM business, or why. Mitsubishi didn't say much either, but it did admit the probe might …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 08:53
Swiss banks broke privacy laws over SWIFT transfers: data chief

'Serious error of judgement'

Swiss banks broke the law by passing customer bank details to US authorities, Switzerland's top data protection official has said. The banks should have told customers that international transaction company SWIFT was passing details to the US, he said. Hanspeter Thür, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner of Switzerland, …

Music and Media 17 Oct 2006, 08:54
Irish chip firm secures $8.2m outlay

Cash injection to fund HDMI research

Microchip design company RedMere Technology has secured venture capital investment to fund research into chipsets for high definition TVs. The Drogheda-headquartered company has attracted $8.2m in first round funding led by Canadian investment vehicle Celtic House Venture Partners. Enterprise Ireland, 4th Level Ventures, …

Business 17 Oct 2006, 09:05
Transcend touts fastest SDHC card

Fast and capacious

Taiwan's Transcend has launched what appears to be the world's first Class 6 SDHC device, less than a month after rival Elecom began touting the first ever Class 4 high-capacity SD 2.0 memory card. The 4GB card has a guaranteed speed of up to 6MBps - hence Class 6. The base level is Class 2 - 2MBps. The part goes on sale next …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 09:11
£1bn of OGC business up for grabs

Integrated systems suppliers come on down

The government is looking for suppliers of integrated systems to help with its efficiency and transformation programmes The Office of Government Commerce's (OGC) procurement agency has issued a tender for £1bn of ICT services. OGCbuying.solutions published its Integrated Solutions framework on 16 October 2006 in the Official …

Public Sector 17 Oct 2006, 09:15
HDD stackers offered stackable 'naked' 3.5in drive case

How big's the part in your Lunch Box?

Following the trend of stacking internal hard drives externally? Japanese storage accessory specialist Century may have come up with a system to make stacking more simple. Dubbed the Naked Lunch Box - whether in homage to William Burroughs, or because the unit's see-through isn't clear - it's a plastic casing for 3.5in HDDs that …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 09:38
3G Motorola Q smart phone to ship as the 'Q Pro'?

Release timing suggests it will

Motorola announced it was working on a 3G UMTS version of its Q Windows Mobile-based smart phone way back in February this year. It promised to ship the product in Q4. So why are smart-phone watchers getting into such a fuss about the Motorola Q Pro? Motorola mentioned the name 'Q Pro' at market-watcher Gartner's Symposium …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 10:08
Orange broadband is down and out

Updated: The future's bright...but the present is dark...

Orange Broadband went down yesterday leaving customers with no access. One L'Orange customer who contacted us said: "Technical support had a recorded message yesterday saying it would take at least 24 hours to fix and that it's hit most of the country." According to a enlightening statement from L'Orange: "“We are currently …

Networks 17 Oct 2006, 10:15
Europe's banks Target payments upgrade

Changing the way they move money around

When the Euro was created, the European banks had to create a real-time payments settlement system to handle it. Not unnaturally, this was built on top of the existing systems. Now, however, they're upgrading it to a new system that turns those decentralised systems into a single centralised one. Leading the way is Target2, an …

Data Networking 17 Oct 2006, 10:21
RIAA drops file sharing case

Lack of evidence convinces them...

The Recording Industry Ass. of America has dropped a case against Paul Wilke who was accused of sharing music files over a peer-to-peer network. Wilkes denied the charges and said he'd never used a file sharing application. He said The Recording Industry Ass. of America did not have sufficient evidence and that he was not the …

Music and Media 17 Oct 2006, 10:29
iSoft predicts fall in revenue and offers itself for sale

NPfIT provider in intensive care

Troubled health provider iSoft is up for sale and expects revenues to fall between 10 and 15 per cent for the year. iSoft is supposed to be playing a central role in the world's largest public sector IT project - Blair's National Programme for IT (NPfIT) - to transform technology use in the NHS. The company is being …

Channel Register 17 Oct 2006, 10:47
Sony begins Vaio battery recall

Toshiba ponders compensation-seeking lawsuit

Sony has announced details of the Vaio laptop battery recall it admitted last month it was going to initiate. And Toshiba has indicated it may sue the Japanese giant in order to gain recompense for any damage it alleges may have been done to its brand by its own battery recall. Sony's Vaio division announced on 29 September …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 10:49
Sun touts boxed-up data centres

It could have been a contender

Sun has looked to the future and has, we assume, seen that it is metal, and box-shaped. The company has developed a data centre in-a-box (actually a 20-foot shipping container) that it says can be deployed virtually anywhere, provided there is water and electricity to plug it into. The idea is that companies will be able to …

Servers 17 Oct 2006, 10:51
EU mulls RFID privacy laws

Brussels ready to roll on chips

Concern about the privacy implications of using RFID tags need to be overcome if the technology is to gain public acceptance, according to a new EU study. The study, based on a six-month consultation exercise by Brussels, highlighted the need to reassure the public that use of the technology would not herald large-scale …

IT Director 17 Oct 2006, 10:56
The keys to mobile success

Mobile workshop roundup Pulling it all together

As many of you will have noticed, we have been running an online workshop on the site over the past month or so gathering reader views on the way things are unfolding in the mobile space. As part of the exercise, we kicked off discussions in the following areas: Mobile email options and use Security and mobile working …

Mobile 17 Oct 2006, 10:56
TV causes autism - study

Just as you suspected

Researchers at Cornell University and Purdue University have claim to have found a link between childhood TV watching and autism, confirming what everyone had already surmised. The study, by Michael Waldman, Sean Nicholson and Nodir Adilov, is based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey, which …

Biology 17 Oct 2006, 11:00
Vodafone to serve up LG's 3G Chocolate phone

Xmas line-up beefed up with Motorola KRZR, RAZR Maxx

Vodafone will bring the 3G version of LG's Chocolate slider phone to the UK this Christmas, the carrier revealed yesterday. The KU800 will join LG's low-end 3G clamshell phone the L600V as the first two LG handsets the network has offered to UK buyers. While Vodafone has the L600V as an exclusive, other networks will offer …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 11:11
Be-ez parades autumn collection MacBook cases

Laptop couture

Shiny white Apple MacBook now in your possession? Want to keep it spotless and safe from scratches? Of course you do, and a slip-case is just the thing. French laptop bag designer Be-ez has extended its LArobe range of zip-up slip-cases for MacBooks and MacBook Pros with a trio of "autumn colours": purple, khaki and blue. …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 11:14
Nvidia rooted by Linux graphics bug

Updated Binary blob malaise

Security researchers have published an exploit that highlights a long-standing security bug in Nvidia graphic drivers for Linux. Nvidia Driver For Linux v8774 and v8762 are subject to a buffer overflow bug that creates a means for hackers to inject hostile code as root. The bug might be exploited locally or remotely, providing …

Enterprise Security 17 Oct 2006, 11:54
Fayrewood flogs UMD

Board approves...

Distie Fayrewood is selling UMD, part of its Niche Distribution division, to Italian firm Esprinet for €79m. Fayrewood gets €53.5m in cash plus a €3m divi, which has already been paid. Esprinet is also taking on debts of €25.5m. The board decided the difficulty of finding an acquisition in order to create a pan-European …

Channel Register 17 Oct 2006, 11:58
Slingbox to get Symbian smart-phone playback app

SlingPlayer coming to Nokia, Sony Ericsson handsets

Slingbox TV-over-the-net maker Sling Media today confirmed that it is indeed working on a version of its SlingPlayer application for Symbian-based handsets. The software is scheduled to ship by the end of the year. Sling said the software will initially be pitched at European and Asian consumers, though it pledged a US …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 12:13
Medion brings Berlitz City Guides to sat nav trio

Berlitz City Guides on board

Medion today widened its route-planning hardware line-up with three widescreen sat nav units ready for the bamboozled, unwilling-to-ask-for-dircections motorist in your life. The three models all incorporate Berlitz city guides to provide useful travel information typically missing from maps and places-of-interest lists. The …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 12:59
Galactic collision captured in stunning detail

When galaxies collide

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have snapped the most detailed image ever of a pair of colliding galaxies, known as the Antenna galaxy. The galaxies are the nearest merging pair to Earth, and the youngest too: the collision began about 500m years ago. As the two galaxies smash into one another, they create ideal …

Space 17 Oct 2006, 13:05
BenQ models 'world's thinnest' 7Mp compact digicam

Not including the extendible zoom lens, of course...

BenQ has popped a flash on what it claims is the world's slimmest seven megapixel digital camera. The BenQ X720 is a mere 1.3cm front to back, excluding, of course, the extending Pentax lens mechanism with its 3x optical zoom facility. There's a 2.5in LCD viewfinder on the back, and all the customary camera features are a …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 13:10
Sony Ericsson to bring LocationFree TV to P990i

Tune into your telly via 3G, Wi-Fi

Sony Ericsson is to ship a version of Sony's LocationFree TV-over-the-net software for its P990i 3G UMTS-equipped smart phone, the handset maker said today. Sony shipped its LF-PK1 LocationFree box in Europe in May this year. The unit hooks up to a range of living-room gadgets to transmit audio and video content across local …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 13:37
EMC's profit drops, along with the spirits of 1,250 staff

Sales surge

Despite strong third quarter storage and software sales, EMC plans to do away with 1,250 staff over the next year. EMC today disclosed the job cuts as it handed in third quarter results. Revenue surged 19 per cent during the period to $2.82bn. Even when excluding the help of recent acquisitions RSA and Network Intelligence, EMC …

Storage 17 Oct 2006, 14:03
Samsung Flash drives win WHQL thumbs-up

Windows compatible - official

It's official - Samsung's Solid-State Disk (SSD) products are Windows compatible. Yes, the South Korean giant's three Flash-based hard drives - two 32GB models and a 16GB unit - have passed Microsoft's WHQL certification, the manufacturer said today. Samsung was quick to tout the units' benefits - read and write speeds of …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 14:17
Europe's mobile operators flex their muscles

Balance of power shifts

Phones4U's announcement that it will be only independent retailer to sell Vodafone contracts has had an immediate impact on the whole mobile phone retail business. Shares in Carphone Warehouse slumped on the news, and even pointing out that Vodafone contracts only accounted for 10 per cent of its business didn't make much …

Mobile 17 Oct 2006, 14:31
E-passport launched in Ireland

In the nick of time

Ireland has launched its e-passport, just days ahead of a US deadline to bring in biometric passports or risk being booted from the visa waiver scheme. The new, high-tech document includes a secure, contactless electronic chip to store encrypted digital information on the holder's identity, biographical information, and a …

ID 17 Oct 2006, 14:45
Carphone Warehouse takes on eBay

Trying to make up for loss of Vodafone?

Second-hand phones are dime a dozen, and while the trade in second-hand handsets might not be good for manufacturers, it is good for network operators who see greater deployment of advanced handsets as driving new revenue opportunities. Carphone Warehouse reckons it can be good for them too, and has launched a new auction site …

Mobile 17 Oct 2006, 14:59
Boffins brew up new element

Say hi to 118, aka ununoctium

Russian and American scientists yesterday announced they'd "discovered" a new superheavy element - 118, aka ununoctium. According to Reuters, teams at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, "bombarded californium with calcium ions" to create the …

Physics 17 Oct 2006, 15:03
MPs condemn school fingerprinting

After parents threaten action

Shadow ministers for the Libdems and Conservatives have condemned schools that fingerprint children. Liberal Democrat shadow education secretary Sarah Teather and Conservative shadow minister for schools Nick Gibb spoke out on Teachers TV. The issue is coming to a head because parents are preparing a case against schools that …

Music and Media 17 Oct 2006, 15:16
Mac OS X 10.5 to support HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc?

Why not?

Apple may be preparing to support not only Blu-ray Disc but also HD DVD, it has emerged. The next major relase of the Mac OS X operating system, 'Leopard' may allow users to play and burn both types of high-definition media - making it a sort of Hi-Def Leppard, we suppose... oh well... - it has be claimed. According to Think …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 15:22
Linux-on-Mac team to ship PS3 release

Yellow Dog coming to Sony's next-gen console

Terra Soft Solutions is to port its PowerPC-based Yellow Dog Linux distribution over to the PlayStation 3, the company claimed today. PS3 support will come courtesy of YDL 5.0, which is due to ship mid-November - as is the PS3. YDL has been around since the late 1990s, when it was aimed at PowerPC-based Macs as an alternative …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 15:47
Comets, free range info and Reuters' Second Life

Letters Stuff that matters to you

We have LOTS of silly letters this week, but a few sensible ones too. Let's get straight to the important stuff, so we can finish off with the daftness for dessert. Firstly, this week the government patted itself on the back for the success of the Freedom of Information Act. But while it was hailing as heros those who provided …

Letters 17 Oct 2006, 16:14
Nokia announces S60 challenge winners

The platform formally known as Series 60

Nokia has announced the winners of its annual developer's challenge competition. Only open to applications running on version 3 of S60, the challenge does carry €25K prizes for the four winners as well as a year’s free membership of Forum Nokia Pro and marketing assistance. In the Enterprise Applications QuickOffice won for …

Mobile 17 Oct 2006, 16:18
MacBook Pro bites Man... allegedly

Laptop singed my mitts, user claims

MacBook Pro owner Alfredo Melloni maintains his two-month-old 15in-screen notebook runs so hot it has burned his hands. He's posted piccies of his poached palms on the web and claims to have had the alleged injury verified by his doctor. Here are the shots, but you can see full-size versions here and here. Melloni made his …

Reg Hardware 17 Oct 2006, 16:38
Smartphones - cement or compost?

Symbian Show Day One

Symbian CEO played footsie with hubris when he predicted the end of the PC today. Nigel Clifford was speaking at a press conference at Symbian's Smartphone Show held in the London's docklands today and tomorrow. "A tipping point is arriving," he said. The death of the PC has been forecast many times, but Clifford reckons that …

Mobile 17 Oct 2006, 17:08
Microsoft promises to give away key virtualization spec

Even VMware is invited

Hoping to up interest in its virtualization wares, Microsoft today freed up one of its key specifications used to manipulate virtual servers and applications. Redmond has pushed the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Image Format specification under the umbrella of its Open Specification Promise (OSP). That means that Microsoft will …

Servers 17 Oct 2006, 17:24
US Defense Department pays $440m for HP's 'special services'

Spies like us

Nothing says, "We're reading your every word and listening to your every phone call" better than a $440m deal between HP and the US Department of Defense. In desperate need of some good news, HP fed reporters a statement today detailing two data center wins with the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). One deal for HP- …

IT Director 17 Oct 2006, 17:41
Microsoft goes R&D crazy, gets caught in analyst headlights

How much is that doggie in the Windows?

Microsoft is spending $1.3bn more than previously announced to take on internet rivals Google and Yahoo!. Says who? Says chief executive Steve Ballmer, who reportedly said Microsoft's R&D spend would hit $7.5bn for the current fiscal year 2007. In May Microsoft said it would spend $6.2bn for FY'07, a budget that sent Wall …

Financial News 17 Oct 2006, 18:39
E2E: even better than sliced bread?

Comment Think croissant

E2E Technologies, which stands for 'end-to-end', is a Swiss company in the application integration space and is not to be confused with either e2e Media, which is a marketing company, or E2E, which is a UK government educational initiative. Its product, the E2E Bridge, can do more than application integration, as we will …

Developer 17 Oct 2006, 18:53
Record industry uploads 8,000 lawsuits

If it's Tuesday it must be Poland

A recording industry lobby group has launched 8,000 new cases alleging illegal file sharing all over the world but none of them is British because the UK lobby group is focusing on its negotiations with internet service providers. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has begun the thousands of new …

Music and Media 17 Oct 2006, 19:03
Yahoo! not! satisfied! with! Q3!

Sets sail under Panama flag

Yahoo! today pumped out its Q3s and promptly said it was "not satisfied" with its performance. $158.5m net income (Q3 05: $253.7m) on $1.121bn net revenues, 20 per cent higher than Q3 '05. Revenues with traffic acquisition costs - We assume that the commission paid to Overture advertising partners accounts for most of this - …

Financial News 17 Oct 2006, 21:32
Intel beats Street by country mile

Slumpety plummety

Price cuts and inventory write-offs hit Intel's bottom line in Q3 with net income falling 35 per cent year on year to $1.3bn on revenues down 12 per cent. Still, the chip giant can afford to be a little cheerful - earlier gloom had led analysts to forecast net income of $1.02bn, excluding special items. Special items in Intel's …

Financial News 17 Oct 2006, 22:15
Software and taxes fuel IBM's big Q3

I did it buy-way

Money talks, but for IBM it's software - and the odd tax adjustment - that walks. IBM recorded a 46.5 per cent growth in net income to $2.22bn on revenue up 5.1 per cent to $22.6bn, and earnings per diluted share of $1.45, compared to $0.94, for the third quarter ended September 30. IBM beat analyst expectations of $22.08bn …

Financial News 17 Oct 2006, 23:25