17th April 2008 Archive

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eBay defies 'softening' economy

Profits leap 22 per cent

eBay says that a softening economy has slowed its online auctions on both sides of the Atlantic. But the company still made an awful lot of money during the year's first quarter. And it still has high hopes for the future. "We are encouraged by what we are seeing," brand-spanking-new CEO John Donahoe told investors during a …

Financial News 17 Apr 00:56
IBM grows profits, raises outlook

'We feel good'

IBM posted first-quarter financial results that blew past analyst estimates, providing the second indication in as many days that some IT outfits aren't getting dragged into a slumping US economy that some say already is in recession. The company also raised its earnings estimates for the remainder of 2008. "We feel good about …

Financial News 17 Apr 01:00
The iPhone learns to read

Let your fingers do the writing

Apple's iPhone can now understand hand-written letters, after an application initially developed to allow input of Chinese characters was tweaked to make it understand English. The application is very much an alpha release, and users are advised to take backups before installing. Once installed it offers an interface that will …

Mobile 17 Apr 06:02
Pump some IronPython with Studio IDE

Hands on part 2 Visual Studio stripped for action

When I looked at IronPython in part one, I focussed on how it marries the Python language and libraries with Microsoft's .NET framework. The sample code that was developed used the Python console (ipy) and a text editor - in other words with simple text-based tools for writing short scripts. But for bigger projects, or when …

Applications 17 Apr 06:02
Hauppauge pitches PC TV tuner at Freesat punters

Freeview by satellite

With Freesat, the satellite telly answer to Freeview, just weeks from launch, TV tuner specialist Hauppauge has begun punting a USB-connected box capable of picking up the free content - even Freesat's HD broadcasts. The WinTV Nova-S USB2 bridges the gap between a Windows PC and the feed from a standard satellite dish - …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 07:02
eBay Australia faces competition probe

PayPal only policy backfires

eBay Australia's decision to only accept PayPal, which it owns, is being investigated by Aussie competition regulators. eBay Australia will force sellers to accept PayPal, and PayPal only, from 17 June. The decision has met with outrage from users of the site Down Under and is being closely watched because it is expected to be …

Applications 17 Apr 09:01
French Colonial Marines to get Aliens medic-datalink

Nukez-les de l'orbite - c'est la seule manière d'être sûr

Who remembers the movie Aliens, in which Sigourney Weaver and a team of spacegoing marines got stuck into the eponymous acid-blooded homicidal monsters? Anyone who does will be pleased to hear that one of the cunning technologies of the fictional Colonial Marines will soon be available to the French army. The particular tech …

Government 17 Apr 09:05
Man proposes to prospective partner with games console

Wii'll you marry me?

Many women secretly dream of their hubby-to-be proposing on a secluded island as the sun goes down. But gaming buff Brain Klima went a step further and popped the question with a little help from Mario and Luigi. According to a report by gaming website Kotaku, Brian created his own custom level within Super Smash Bros Brawl …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 09:14
Intel: laptop/desktop crossover coming sooner than expected

Small, Cheap Computers™ driving demand

Intel will sell more mobile CPUs than desktop processors this year, the chip giant's CEO claimed this week. "The crossover from the desktop to the notebook [is] happening essentially a year sooner than we first had thought," said Paul Otellini at Intel's earnings conference. It's not that long ago that Intel and others were …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 09:32
Anti-paedophile group targets child abuse sites

Calls for 'global attack'

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has called for international cooperation to tackle a core of 2,755 foreign-hosted abuse sites that it says are responsible for the majority of images of children obtained by UK paedophiles. In its annual report, released today, the consortium of ISPs and content providers argues that the …

Government 17 Apr 09:52
BT's secret Phorm trials open door to corporate eavesdropping

Government bumbling exposes oversight gap

The government has refused to investigate BT's covert wiretapping of thousands of its customers in 2006 and 2007, despite its own expert's view that without consent Phorm's advertising targeting technology is a breach of criminal law. Whitehall's willingness to turn a blind eye to the fact that tens of thousands of people were …

Telecoms 17 Apr 09:54
US law makers seek ban on in-flight calls

'Noisome disruption in search of further revenue'

A group of US congressmen have introduced legislation which would ban the use of mobile phones on US aircraft, attempting to "ensure a relative amount of peace for the American public as they take to an increasingly crowded sky". The particularly stupidly-named HANG UP Act (Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace) seeks to ban …

Government 17 Apr 10:05
Firefox and Safari updates tackle alternative browser bugs

Mozilla garbage function gets trashed

There's patching work ahead for users of alternative browsers. Mozilla updated its Firefox web browser on Wednesday in response to the discovery of a vulnerability involving its Javascript Garbage Collector function. The security bug means that memory corruption might be caused through specially-crafted Javascript code. …

Enterprise Security 17 Apr 10:38
Intempo Rebel DJ and ad-zapping FM radio

Review Most definitely with a cause

Ever wanted to tell Chris Moyles to shut his piehole? Or longed for Christian O'Connell to get permanent laryngitis? Intempo’s Rebel radio records all your favourite FM stations and cuts out all the DJ drivel and adverts. In a compact glossy package - it measures 195 x 80 x 70mm and weighs in at 1kg - the Rebel is a standard …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 11:02
Red Hat scurries away from consumer desktop market

Pesky Microsoft just won't play ball

Linux and open source software giant Red Hat has abandoned plans to develop a consumer desktop product because it cannot compete with the might of Microsoft. The firm said in a statement yesterday: “As a public, for-profit company, Red Hat must create products and technologies with an eye on the bottom line, and with desktops …

Operating Systems 17 Apr 11:04
YouTube divorce rant vid wows the crowd

Missus lays into Broadway exec, and then some

A video showing one Tricia Walsh-Smith bemoaning her treatment at the hands of her estranged husband, Broadway executive Philip Smith, has delighted YouTubers and struck fear into the hearts of lawyers who've described the outburst as a "scary, new step" in acrimonious divorces: Crikey. According to Local6.com, Walsh-Smith' …

Bootnotes 17 Apr 11:05
Pirate Bay offers uncensored, ad-backed blog hole

Vows to protect 'uncomfortable thoughts'

The Pirate Bay has opened a blogging site, and is promising not to remove anything as long as it doesn't break Swedish laws. Baywords.com opened yesterday issuing secure hosting and freedom of speech to all. A posting from administrator brokep said: "Many blogs are being shut down for uncomfortable thoughts and ideas. We will …

Music and Media 17 Apr 11:24
Apple pushes past Toshiba in US

But not on the world stage

Apple grabbed 6.6 per cent of the US personal computer market during Q1 on the back of a leading year-on-year 32.5 per cent jump in unit shipments, research company Gartner said yesterday. The move saw Apple push past Toshiba to become the quarter's fourth most successful computer maker in terms of units shipped. Dell and HP …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 12:10
Brit tourist blags his way onto Iron Man set

Lands a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow

A Brit tourist who blagged his way onto the set of Iron Man managed to land a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow, the Times reports. Salesman Carl Kelly, 29, of Knebworth, was in the US last June to watch Light Welterweight pugilist Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton's scrap with Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas when he apparently decided he'd …

Entertainment 17 Apr 12:13
Orange eyes up TeliaSonera

Superpower or super bloat?

France Telecom (Orange) has confirmed it's looking at linking up with Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera, after rumours of a possible merger surfaced in the Le Figaro newspaper yesterday. TeliaSonera is partly owned by the Swedish and Finish governments, who have 37 per cent and 14 per cent stakes, respectively, and was created …

Mobile 17 Apr 12:30
Microsoft soothes Vista pain with Bossploitation flick

Tired of being taken seriously

Microsoft may not excel at delivering software on-time, but it does make one hell of a lame video. Witness an internal promotional flick about the firm's Vista operating system which turned up on YouTube. Those crazy cats from Redmond have mocked The Boss in the video in which some Microsoft employees perform as Bruce …

Operating Systems 17 Apr 12:50
Miserly marks get smart to UK phishing fraudsters

Attacks up, but losses down

Incidents of phishing targeted against holders of UK bank accounts are up, but losses are down. UK banking association APACS cites more than 10,000 reported phishing incidents in the first quarter of 2008, a more than 200 per cent rise from the same period last year. Online banking fraud losses, however, decreased by a third …

Crime 17 Apr 13:13
Hitachi to go it alone on discs after all

Hard driving to self-sufficiency

Hitachi has done an about turn and decided it won't be selling its struggling hard drive division. The division was formed when Hitachi bought IBM's disk business in 2002 and has made losses for almost every quarter since. In late 2007 Hitachi was trying to sell the business to private equity group Silver Lake. But, updating …

Storage 17 Apr 13:24
Music biz proposes 'iPod tax' in return for format-shift freedom

Pay for the CD, pay again to rip it

A UK music industry trade body has proposed a tax on MP3 players that would not only ensure musicians and labels are paid their dues, but also that consumers who pay their way effectively have to cough up twice. The tax has been suggested by the Music Business Group (MBG), an umbrella body that lists as its members …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 13:28
The telly's an Armani, dahling

Smashing! Super! Sweetie!

Samsung and Armani aren’t talking to one another today, because the electronics giant and the fashion house are too busy watching the co-branded LCD TV they’ve paraded down a Milan catwalk. The two companies announced plans to create an Armani telly back in September, when the pair launched the Armani-branded Samsung P520 …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 13:49
Nokia's Comes With Music 'comes without profits'

Has world's biggest paytard left brain in sauna?

Nokia will be handing over its entire handset profit margin - and more - to the record industry for its "Comes With Music" progamme, according to media analysts. The Hollywood Reporter this week reports that Nokia is paying the world's biggest label, Universal Music Group, $35 per handset to bundle access to the label's …

Mobile 17 Apr 14:06
Sony shaves OLED panel to 0.3mm

Non-fattening TV

Sony has put the display panel used in its 3mm-thick 11in OLED TV on a crash diet and produced a version that's less than a third of the thickness - not much beefier than a sheet of A4 paper, in fact. Sony's OLED panel: just 0.3mm thick Image courtesy Impress The new panel is just 0.3mm thick - rather less than the 1.4mm- …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 14:23
US courts erode protections for online publishers

Liability for user-posted content in question

Two recent judgments could erode vital protections for web publishers in the US. The rulings could undermine protections from liability for user-posted material previously enjoyed by publishers. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) has been taken to mean that a content publisher cannot be held responsible for …

Music and Media 17 Apr 14:34
Oldham murders owl with whalesong

LogoWatch Spunks £100k on 'circle of unity' logo

Oldham Council has failed to follow its own motto - "Sapere Aude", or "dare to be wise" in the local dialect - and has spunked £100k on a couple of circles and its own name. Yup, the consultants behind the radical rebrand must have worn out a few whalesong CDs brainstorming their way to the new brand frontage for the …

Bootnotes 17 Apr 14:38
Nokia takes a Q1 tumble

Blames everything it can think of for mobile woes

Handset maker Nokia missed targets for the first quarter today and saw its shares fall more than ten per cent. Sales were up 28 per cent to €12.6bn in the first quarter ended 31 March 2008, and net profit grew 25 per cent to €1.2bn. But analysts were expecting profits of closer to €1.38bn, so Nokia shares were down 10.5 per …

Financial News 17 Apr 14:47
Harvard bitch seeks to strip Zuckerberg's Facebook trademark

De-friending your classmates

A former classmate of social networking bitch-in-chief Mark Zuckerberg is bidding to strip Facebook of its trademark, alleging Zuck had no right to claim ownership of the term in 2005. Aaron Greenspan's petition, filed on Tuesday to the US Patent and Trademark Office, is the latest legal salvo in a battle over his book on the …

Music and Media 17 Apr 15:13
Sun may shut off high-end MySQL features

Pay-to-play fires up grassroots hoots

Less than two months into Sun Microsystems' MySQL acquisition, Sun has succeeded in upsetting the grassroots types with plans to close off features to the community. It's emerged Sun may release extra data back-up features in the Enterprise Edition of the next version of MySQL, due in Q4, to paying enterprise subscribers only …

Applications 17 Apr 15:31
Fujitsu and friends arm four-core Opteron servers

Volume turned up

Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) is the latest hardware vendor to punt servers loaded with AMD’s four-core Opteron processor chip, which finally hit the channel – following months of production delays – last week. The firm said today that the quad job is available in its Primergy RX330 S1, BX630 S2 blade servers and its entry- …

Servers 17 Apr 16:19
Google and Yahoo! 'move closer' to ad wedlock

Microhoo Know Ballmer is watching

Pleased with its test of Google's ad engine, Yahoo! is considering a more extensive partnership with its search rival/large weapon against Microsoft. Citing "people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo! has "moved closer to outsourcing its search advertising to Google." According to the these …

Financial News 17 Apr 17:36
Yes! It's the sawed-off USB key!

Practical IT jokes

Ripping a USB cable in half is an achievement, but your friends will be even more impressed when they discover it still performs data transfers. Evil Mad Science Laboratories’ inserted a flash drive into the USB jack The sawed-off USB key features in the Evil Mad Science Laboratories’ (EMSL) online IT destruction bible, …

Reg Hardware 17 Apr 18:37
This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours

It's smokin'!

A German company has introduced a disposable DVD that can be viewed for 48 hours, then thrown away. The DVDs will sell for just €3.99 ($6.44 /£3.20). So, it's about the same price as a new video rental in Europe - and it used to be about the same price as in the US, before the Mighty Dollar shrank into the Pygmy Dollar. But …

Music and Media 17 Apr 20:07
Feds to collect DNA of every person they arrest

Creepy mission creep

In a major expansion of the US government's DNA collection practices, officials plan to collect DNA samples of every citizen arrested by a federal law enforcement agency and all immigrants detained by a federal authority. The move will add 1.2 million people's genetic blueprints to the federal database every year. Until now, …

Policing 17 Apr 20:14
Truphone adds £16.5m to global operator hope chest

I wish I were big

Truphone, the British VoIP-on-a-handset firm, has raised another £16.5m to fund its transformation into a grown-up telecoms company. The Series B round comes from private VC investors, with all Truphone's existing backers stumping up more cash. The company raised £12.5m less than two years ago. Truphone has setting its sights …

Mobile 17 Apr 20:32
Microsoft teases mobile developers with 'big' Silverlight deals

ReMix 08 Proof/pudding scenario

Microsoft aims to nail deals with major handset on Silverlight in the next few months, taking the media player software beyond the beachhead it has established with Nokia. The company today said its goal is for "big" deals with manufacturers porting Silverlight to and distributing Silverlight with Windows and non-Windows …

Mobile 17 Apr 22:24
SQL string in URL exposes sex offender data

And much more, in Oklahoma coding fiasco

Better known for its presentation of stunning examples of how not to develop code, The Daily WTF this week exposed a horrendous case of information loss when it published an article on a critical flaw in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections website. Thanks to developers seeding browser GET requests with the SQL queries …

Security 17 Apr 23:01