Thursday 27 December 2012

Israel plots gigabit fibre-to-home rollout

Seven years, 25,000 km of fibre


The Israeli government, via state-owned electricity utility Israel Electric Corp (IEC), is taking tentative steps towards deploying a gigabit-capable fibre-to-the-home network it hopes will cover two-thirds of the country.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/27/israel_plots_nbn/

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Amazon outage whacked Netflix US customers on Christmas Eve

Clouds descend


Netflix is pointing the finger at Amazon’s cloud for the terribly-timed outage that left millions of US customers unable to access the service on Christmas Eve.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/26/netflix_whacked_by_amazon/

Monday 24 December 2012

West Antarctic Ice Sheet one of the fastest-warming places on Earth

West Antarctic Ice Shelf

Temperature records for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) are nearly double that suggested by previous research and suggest the ice sheet is undergoing nearly twice as much warming as predicted.


The readings taken from the Byrd Station on the WAIS reveal a 2.4C increase in temperature since 1958. That increase is enough to mark the region as one of the fastest-warming places on Earth as well as triggering concerns about rising sea levels.


By: Philippa Warr,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/24/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-melt

A closer look at Gary Farlow's ornate boro­silicate glass sculptures

Heart of glass

Gary Farlow can make art out of arteries. He and his team at Farlow's ­Scientific Glassblowing Inc in California can transform the body's vasculature into an ornate boro­silicate glass sculpture, from the heart's ventricles to the brain's circle of Willis. "We do almost every part of the body," Farlow says. "It can take an artistic mind to make some of these things."


With the help of cardiologists, the team creates see-through systems for science and medical training.


By: Bryan Gardiner, Edited by: David Cornish


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/12/start/heart-of-glass

Trust the cloud with my PRECIOUS? You gotta be joking

Violated, deleted... put your data up there and bad sh*t HAPPENS


Being a hardcore music geek of a certain age, I own several thousand LPs, CDs, and cassettes that I accumulated over the course of several decades. But as any serious record buff knows, collections like this are not remotely scaleable. I have several closets bursting with music in assorted physical media and I know people who literally need to rent separate spaces just to store their LPs. So at a certain point, making the move to the digital realm can be too tempting to resist.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/24/cloud_storage_reliability/

Wireless ICU armband reveals your vital signs

Visi Mobile

A wireless armband designed for use in hospitals is capable of tracking multiple vital signs while allowing patients to remain mobile.


The ViSi Mobile Patient Safety System connects to a set of sensors attached to the body and monitors variables including heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure, skin temperature and respiration rate.


By: Philippa Warr,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/24/wireless-vital-signs

AWS’ gift to sysadmins: a cloudy command line

Bah humbug! The documentation is scanty


With Christmas all-but upon us, Amazon Web Services has issued a gift to a certain type of Sysadmin: a command line interface for its cloud computing services.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/24/aws_command_line/

Sunday 23 December 2012

Softwalks mounts seats and flowers on New York scaffolding

Softwalks

An initiative aimed at improving the lives of New York pedestrians has come up with a method of making scaffolding a little nicer to have around. It's called Softwalks.


Bland Hoke and Howard Chambers designed a DIY kit that allows people to turn any unsightly local scaffolding into a temporary place to hang out. It includes chairs, tables and even hanging baskets for plants.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/23/softwalks

Pinball Pianola makes terrible, beautiful music

Pinball Pianola

An Australian audio artist named Lucas Abela has combined a pinball machine with a piano to make a hybrid instrument whose resonating wires replace high score tables.


Pinball Pianola is constructed by placing a pinball cabinet between the keyboard, hammers and front panel of an upright piano and its exposed strings.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/23/pinball-pianola

Saturday 22 December 2012

Darpa_2013 calendar stars Boston Dynamics' LS3 bots

LS3

Looking for a last-minute gift for a robotics fan? This Legged Squad Support System (LS3) calendar stars BigDogs, rather than dogs.


It's the creation of Daan van Dijk, a Dutch designer who spotted some images of the Boston Dynamics robots on Twitter. "Here are military robots (with still unknown future goals) on one hand, and on the other the images reminded me of something else; the pictures I take of my cats," he said on his Tumblr. "The makers had formed a relation of some sorts with these LS3s, reminiscent of a living dog with its owner."


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/22/darpa_2013

Steve Jobs' yacht impounded by Philippe Starck

Venus

The yacht belonging to the late Steve Jobs has been impounded in the Port of Amsterdam by debt collectors working for French designer Philippe Starck.


According to Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, Starck claims that the heirs of Steve Jobs still owe him a third of the eight million pound fee for the yacht, which is named Venus. The port of Amsterdam confirmed that the boat is not allowed to leave the dock.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/22/steve-jobs-yacht

Friday 21 December 2012

Amazon fluffs up fat EC2 images for big data munching

Flips switch on Data Pipeline automagic bit shifter


The big fat storage instances that Amazon Web Services was promising to deliver back at its re:Invent user conference in November are now shipping, and we now know a few more things about them – such as how expensive they are.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/amazon_ec2_fat_storage_data_pipeline/

iPhone tops US market, but trounced by Android in world+dog

UK smartphoners prefer Android, but not as much as their EU brethren


Apple's iPhone now accounts for over half of US smartphone sales, but in the UK and the rest of Europe – and the rest of the world, for that matter – Android phones still hold a healthy lead.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/iphone_and_android_global_stats/

'Shake to charge', similar crapps foul up Amazon Android store

Thrown out of Google Play, now back in another bazaar


Security researchers have sniffed out dodgy apps floating around the Amazon App Store for Android-powered devices.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/amazon_app_store_dodgy_app/

Ferrari reorganise design office with eye on 2014

Team principal Stefano Domenicali has said that Ferrari will use separate design coordinators for their 2013 and 2014 Formula One cars in a bid to make its technical department more efficient. There will be major changes to the technical regulations in 2014, including the introduction of V6 turbo engines, and Domenicali has said that this was a key reason for the Italian squad splitting development programmes

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14173.html

BT ordered to pay £95m to rivals it overcharged for FIVE years

Backhaul rates unjustified, rules Ofcom


BT overcharged its rivals £95m between 2006 and 2011 - and will pay the excess back to TalkTalk, Virgin Media and others following an Ofcom probe.…





via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/bt_overcharges/

How to measure the global bee decline

Dead bee

Biologists searching for an effective way to monitor the world's bee population may have found their answer in simple pan traps.


Changes to global bee populations have been of particular concern recently due to the rise of colony collapse disorder -- a phenomenon where worker bees disappear from hives. With around 35 percent of the world's food supply dependent on pollinators like bees, decreases in their number could lead to significant problems with human food crops.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/bee-monitoring

BT's 4G bid WON'T lead to mobile network launch

It's a low-powered red herring


BT is among the bidders registered with Ofcom as hoping for a slice of 4G spectrum, prompting speculation of a return to mobility and a contested auction, but the truth is almost certainly a good deal less interesting.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/4g_bidders/

Nasa releases stunning new image of Saturn

Stunning new Saturn image

The imaging wizards working on the Cassini mission have delivered a Christmas gift to space fans in the shape of this astonishing new view of planet Saturn.


It looks unusual because the giant world and its spectacular rings were backlit with the Sun behind them while the Nasa probe was in Saturn's shadow.


That is a line-up that happens rarely for the orbiter, which has been studying the planet and its retinue of moons since 2004. The last time it delivered such a view was in September 2006 with a picture that was named In Saturn's Shadow.


By: Paul Sutherland, Sen.com, Edited by: David Cornish


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/saturn-images

Quora wants to be internet's Library of Alexandria

Boston Public Library

Question-and-answer website Quora hopes to become "an internet-scale Library of Alexandria" catering to hundreds of millions of people.


Quora's CEO, Adam D'Angelo, announced the intention to create a digital, slightly less flammable version of the ancient world's famous library via the official blog as part of an end-of-year mission statement.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/quora-library-of-alexandria

Scientific doomsdays that could actually end the world

Asteroid accident

The 21 December is sure to be filled with too many end-of-the-world jokes, and probably a fair amount of genuine fear as well.


Given that the doomsayers were wrong, you may be wondering how the world as we know it might really end. Wired.com collected several scientifically valid scenarios for you to worry about.


By: Daniela Hernandez, Edited by: David Cornish


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/scientific-doomsday

Take a number, says new social network

Anonymous colonises 'Social Number', where you're a number not a name


If you're tired of old schoolmates looking you up on Facebook and then bombarding you with endless inspirational junk and/or heart-tugging slactivism but still crave online interaction, a new social network on which you are just a number might be for you.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/social_number/

Samsung still faces EU antitrust charges, says official

Dropping its anti-Apple injunction requests didn't distract regulators


Samsung may have dropped its injunction requests against Apple in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, but that move won't stop the EU from pursuing antitrust charges against the South Korean electronics giant.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/samsung_still_to_face_eu_antitrust_charges/

Red Hat ups cloud control freakage with $104m ManageIQ buy

Novadigm redux, and another solid quarter turned in


Red Hat is still mostly a commercial Linux distributor, but it is also a key application middleware supplier and is working on building out its server virtualization and clustered storage. But it wants to – like so many others – be the Red Hat of The Cloud, and despite appearances to the contrary in recent announcements, it does not yet have all of the tools that it needs to do for the cloud what it did for Linux.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/21/redhat_manageiq_buy_q3_financials/

Thursday 20 December 2012

Aussies in 'don't understand location services, just use them' shock!

What, you can turn location off?


The most frequent users of mobile location services are the most clueless, according to research conducted for Australia’s telecommunications and media regulator.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/consumers_do_not_understand_location/

Cloud Sherpas bags $40m for cloud consulting expansion

Gearing up for high-altitude money-making


The opportunity represented by cloud computing is not just in infrastructure hardware and virtualization, orchestration, and other kinds of software. There is also a services angle, and companies far and wide are scrambling to get in on the action so that the big IT suppliers and consultancies don't get to the top of the mountain first.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/cloud_sherpas_funding_cloudtrigger_buy/

Oracle's Ellison wanted an NBA team for Xmas - instead he got Eloqua

Database giant whips out $871m to buy cloud biz


Larry Ellison has made no secret that he wants to own a professional basketball team. Now he owns a company called Eloqua, which does the marketing for some NBA teams and about 1,200 large corporations.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/oracle_buys_eloqua/

McLaren to launch 2013 car on January 31

McLaren have confirmed that they will launch their new car, the MP4-28, on January 31 in the UK. The Woking-based squad, who won seven races and finished third in the constructors' championship in 2012, are the second team to announce a 2013 car launch date

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14171.html

Cameron defends U-turn on web filth ban, leaves it up to parents

'Crude' ISP-level censorship WON'T work, says PM


Prime Minister David Cameron today reminded British families that they will be nudged by ISPs to consider blocking online pornography, self-harm websites and similar material at home.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/david_cameron_filtering_smut_online/

Startup of the Week: Blaze Components



Blaze Components creates products for urban cyclists, launching with the Blaze Bike Light, a front light that projects a symbol of a bike down onto the road ahead. This aims to be visible to drivers slightly ahead of the bike to make them more wary of turning across its path. The company was set up by Emily Brooke, who started reading physics at Oxford University but quit to pursue a more creative career, studying product design at Brighton. The Blaze light was her final year project, and the buzz around the concept triggered her to start her own company. Brooke is currently raising money to put the Blaze light into production through Kickstarter. Wired.co.uk caught up with her.


By: Wired.co.uk Staff, Edited by: Olivia Solon


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/20/startup-of-the-week-blaze

US patent office: Nice try Apple, but pinch-to-zoom is NOT a new invention

MMMM...How'd that rounded corners thing get through?


The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent because prior patents covered the invention.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/apple_pinch_to_zoom_patent_rejected/

There’s more to selling email than meets the eye

Providers, set out your stalls


Cloud is a broad term for several different approaches to delivering IT services. There is currently much discussion about the role of managed service providers (MSPs) in delivering this type of offering to business customers.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/email_providers/

Sharp-elbowed BT dives into 4G spectrum auction

Oi, mobile players, gerroff


BT is among the bidders in the 4G auction, communications regulator Ofcom confirmed today.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/4g_auction_bidders_announced/

High-powered luvvies given new radio home: 'But DON'T disturb the neighbours'

Stars on the ground outrank stars in the sky


Production companies will be allowed to operate 10-watt radio links in Channel 38, now that Ofcom has established it won't annoy the radio telescopes operated by nearby countries.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/ofcom_pmse/

Apple: What do our Maps need? Stalk-yer-buddies Foursquare tech, NATCH!

Why go down the old 'make better maps' route?


Apple has been talking to location-based social network Foursquare in a bid to sex up Apple Maps, it has been reported.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/apple_foursquare_maps/

Google Maps becomes Apple's most popular app

Users seek a proper sense of direction


Less than a day after its release, Google's Maps app has become the most popular download in the iTunes store.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/google_maps_top_apple_app/

Yahoo! China! kills! music! search! service!

Plans to sink pirates’ deep links


Yahoo! China has finally decided to follow the lead of rival Google and shut its online music service, ostensibly as part of an overall strategy change but in a move which will also remove a service known for deep linking to pirated content.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/yahoo_china_kills_music_service/

AWS stops some EC2 servers without warning

‘Retirement’ notifications not entirely accurate or reliable


If you’re thinking about heading to the cloud for über-reliability and an environment in which anything that happens to hardware is someone else’s problem, think again: Amazon Web Services sometimes replaces the hardware virtual servers run on and switches those servers off without elegant or accurate notifications of what’s about to happen.…







via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/aws_ec2_servers_retired_with_little_warning/

Wednesday 19 December 2012

ICANN'T believe it's not Apple: Vatican wins domain-handout lottery

Cupertino must wait a year as GTLD application order announced


The Catholic Church will be the first institution to register a new top level domain name, internet addressing overlord ICANN announced yesterday.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/catholic_church_first_for_icann_top_level_domain_registration/

Speaking in Tech: Like Kinect - only a THOUSAND times better

This year in tech... plus the team grills another American VC






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/speaking_in_tech_episode_39/

Samsung grabs 'World's biggest handset-maker' title off Nokia

'The coffee mugs too, mate. Hand 'em over...'


Nokia’s 14-year reign as world’s largest handset maker is finished. The Finnish mobile firm must now hand the crown to Samsung following the publication of preliminary market numbers.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/nokia_loses_phone_crown/

Microsoft 'surprised' by Google Gmail 'winter cleaning'

Dump their free email for ours!


Microsoft has shot back at Google’s termination of Exchange syncing for free Gmail as part of “winter cleaning” with a call to throw out Gmail for Outlook.com.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/microsoft_google_winter_cleaning/

Pitcher plant traps ants with deadly water slide

Heliamphora

A pitcher plant in Venezuela uses wettable hairs to capture ants by turning its inside surface into an insect water slide.


The hairs on the Heliamphora nutans pitcher plant unusually appeared to attract rather than repel water prompting zoologists at the University of Cambridge to investigate whether they were involved in trapping the plants' prey -- most commonly ants.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/19/water-slide-traps-ants

Nasdaq's RIM shot: BlackBerry maker ejected from top 100

Canadians forced to hang out with Netflix, EA


A US index of top performing non-financial companies has booted out RIM, Netflix and Electronic Arts after the trio's fortunes fell too far.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/rim_nasdaq/

Swedish teens TRASH CITY in Instagram sex pic slut riot

School swarmed by kids enraged by web slurs, dodgy filters


Swedish kids rioted and blockaded a school after someone uploaded photos of Gothenburg's teens to Instagram and tagged them as "sluts".…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/swedish_teen_instagram_slut_riot/

Kim Dotcom flashes his rack

Rack can even be yours if you send money and servers


Kim Dotcom has shown off his rack – in IT parlance, not with reference to his ample frame – by posting the picture below which he says depicts a node of mega.co.nz.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/19/kim_dotcoms_rack/

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Instagram back-pedals in face of user outrage

Seeks to stem flood of users from the service


Instagram has responded to the storm of protests from its users over proposed changes to its terms and conditions by promising to alter the language it uses and guaranteeing that it won't sell user's photos.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/instagram_withdraws_terms_changes/

EU launches formal Microsoft privacy policy probe

Wants proof that Redmond's terms are better than Google's


The European Union has opened a formal investigation into whether recent changes to Microsoft's Services Agreement are in violation of EU data privacy law.…







via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/microsoft_eu_privacy_policy_probe/

Report: US telcos cashing in on data caps and poor competition

Internet development hurt by artificial scarcity


The increasing use of data-capping and high data charges on US networks is less about easing network congestion or funding investment and more about increasing profits, according to a new analysis by the non-partisan New America Foundation think tank.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/us_telcos_data_caps/

Samsung drops six European anti-Apple injunction requests

Legal maneuvers circle $346bn pie


Samsung has withdrawn its request for injunctions to ban sales of Apple's iDevices in six European countries.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/samsung_drops_six_european_injunction_requests_against_apple/

Force India to launch 2013 car on February 1

Force India have announced that they will unveil their 2013 car at Silverstone on February 1. The team, whose factory is situated next to the British Grand Prix venue, are the first squad to confirm the date of their new car launch

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14165.html

How to waste a lot of money trying to survive 'the apocalypse'



Lets be clear about this. On 21 December 2012, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar will begin the next b'ak'tun, and the world will not end.


To be clearer still, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is just one calendar system that was used throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, by civilizations including the Maya. Within the Long Count calendar, 20 days make an uinal, 18 uinals make a tun, 20 tuns make a k'atun, and 20 k'atuns make a b'ak'tun (a period of 394 years).


By: David Cornish, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/18/surviving-the-apocalypse

Facebook: 'No merit' to claim we broke German privacy law

You don't like our real-names rule? Tough cookies, bitch


Facebook has hit back at a watchdog that claimed the website broke German law by requiring users to reveal their real names. The independent privacy protection agency ULD in Kiel, north Germany, yesterday ordered an end to the social network's policy on real names.…





via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/facebook_real_name_policy_upsets_germans/

Dutch operators: Ugh, we really overdid it on the 4G last night...

Punters wake up with empty wallets after spectrum auction


Dutch operators are waking with something of a hangover following panicked bidding on 4G telephony licences in the overcrowded Netherlands market. The country’s 4G spectrum auction altogether generated nearly €3.8bn.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/dutch_auction/

Morgan Stanley cops $5m fine over Facebook IPOcalypse

Lead bank buddy settles improper conduct claims


Morgan Stanley has been fined $5m for allegedly coaching Facebook on how to selectively release its financial information before its market debut.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/facebook_underwriter_fine/

New Year's resolution: Don't use Instagram, it'll SELL your latte pics

New T&Cs allow admen to flog tat using your arty photos


Social network Instagram has provoked uproar among its latte-photographing users: It has changed its terms and conditions to grant itself licensing rights to sell all photographs taken with the app.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/instagram_terms_and_conditions/

Judge: There'll be no US Samsung ban, BUT no new trial with Apple either

Lucy 'the Enforcer' Koh - Now you kids behave yourselves now...


Apple has failed in its attempt to obtain a permanent ban on several Samsung products in the US, but Samsung's accusations of jury misconduct have also been rejected.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/apple_samsung_ban_denied_jury_misconduct_rejected/

Max Chilton seals 2013 Marussia drive

Marussia have announced that Max Chilton will race for them in 2013. The 21-year-old British rookie takes the second seat at the team alongside Timo Glock. Chilton, who acted as Marussia's reserve driver for the final six races of 2012, made his Formula One race weekend debut with the team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, driving in FP1. That followed a successful campaign in GP2 in which he finished fourth in the series with two wins

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14164.html

New moon missions considered as Apollo 17 marks 40th anniversary

Eugene Cernan during Apollo 17

To many, the Apollo programme retired at the peak of its powers. It was 40 years ago this month that human bootprints last left their mark on the lunar surface, in the valley of Taurus-Littrow.


The anniversary is prompting laments of a time long past, and questions about when humanity will return. However, private companies are stepping to the fore. The Golden Spike Company recently outlined plans for a return to the moon in seven years. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Virgin Galactic are tackling the concept of Mars landings, although that is far further off.


By: Elizabeth Howell, Edited by: David Cornish


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/18/new-moon-missions

THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH: TalkTalk no longer worst ISP in UK

This just in... Mayans really were onto something


Even Ofcom was surprised to report today that TalkTalk is no longer the UK's number one most bitched about broadband provider. In a sign that the world may actually end this Friday, TalkTalk was ingloriously pushed into second place by Orange.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/talktalk_not_quite_as_bad_as_usual/

Hard-up UK bankers bag endless free Wi-Fi during cig breaks

Slickers know how to spend other people's money


The City of London will get free unlimited Wi-Fi internet access from The Cloud following a successful six-month trial.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/city_wifi/

BT wins another HUGE gov broadband contract as BDUK delay looms large

2016 waiting game for 140k homes, biz in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire


Multi-billion pound telecoms giant BT has landed another broadband government subsidy to lay fibre in the countryside - this time for a £56.6m joint local authority project between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire that won't be completed until 2016. That's a whole year behind Whitehall's 2015 "challenging target".…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/bt_wins_herefordshire_and_gloucestershire_bduk_contract_but_work_wont_be_complete_until_2016/

DARPA planning 100 Gbps wireless

Seeks interest in development and demonstrations


DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has decided that the 200-276 Mbps wireless technology currently used for military communications, known as the Common Data Link, is not going to live forever, and is inviting companies to submit proposals to boost battlefield wireless to an impressive-if-achieved 100 Gbps.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/darpa_100g_wireless/

Monday 17 December 2012

Lotus retain Grosjean for 2013

Lotus have announced that Romain Grosjean will again partner Kimi Raikkonen next year, giving the team an unchanged driver line-up for the 2013 season. Grosjean made his return to F1 competition with Lotus in 2012, having won the GP2 Series title in 2011, and scored three podium results - in Bahrain (P3), Canada (P2) and Hungary (P3) - en route to eighth place in the drivers' championship

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14163.html

Hedge fund Elliott offers $2.3bn for Compuware

Hot on the heels of Covisint subsidiary IPO plan


New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management has been on the hunt for undervalued software companies in which to invest. A few years back, it tried to buy Novell but failed in the attempt, but last month, Elliott started amassing shares in Compuware, a systems and application management software maker, and now it wants the whole enchilada.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/elliott_buy_offer_compuware/

Sorry, Apple - China's just not that into your iPhone 5

Still, 2 million sales in 3 days nothing to sneer at


Apple sold 2 million iPhone 5s in the three days in China after the device went on official sale on Friday. It's a sales figure that is solid, but will not see buyers in the east Asian country replacing Apple's lucrative markets of Europe and the US in a hurry.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/iphone_5_sales_china/

Beacons of light guide FARC defectors to safe destinations



Colombian advertising agency Lowe SSP3 has launched a Christmas campaign to encourage wavering FARC guerrilla soldiers to defect in time for Christmas using beacons of light.


Operation Bethlehem marks the third year of activity from the agency designed to encourage demobilisation of the FARC guerrilla army, which plays a central role in perpetuating Colombia's civil conflict. There are around 8,000 current members of FARC and their mission is to overthrow the current democratic government of Colombia. It funds itself through ransom kidnappings, extortion and taxation of the illegal drug trade. The initiative has been spearheaded by the agency's chief creative officer, Jose Miguel Sokoloff.


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: David Cornish


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/17/farc-guerrilla-campaign

Look out, Flash! Phase-change RAM IS HERE ... in Nokia mobiles

I, for one, welcome our new amorphous blob overlords


Micron is shipping phase-change memory to Nokia for use in its Asha smartphones.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/micron_pcm_asha/

Grinchy Google to shut down another batch of services

Calendar, Sync features fall prey to 'winter cleaning'


As part of its ongoing process of pruning and streamlining its engineering efforts, Google has decided to terminate yet another batch of unloved and little-used services, in what it's calling its "winter cleaning."…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/15/google_winter_cleaning/

Startup of the Week: We Are Pop Up

Samantha Oh for Openhouse NYC

London-based We Are Pop Up connects brands and businesses with empty retail properties in the UK. We Are Pop Up asks the potential tenants to put together a proposal for what they would like to do -- be it create a pop-up store or a art project -- and landlords can choose which businesses they are interested in. The company was set up by retail strategy consultant Nick Russell, computer scientist Alastair Moore and studio artist Mike Salter. Wired.co.uk caught up with Russell.


By: Wired.co.uk Staff, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/17/startup-of-the-week-we-are-pop-up

Massa: I'm more motivated than ever for 2013

Ferrari's Felipe Massa says that his motivation is stronger than ever ahead of the 2013 season after finishing the second half of 2012 in impressive fashion. After scoring just 23 points in the first ten races of the year, Massa picked up 99 points and two podium finishes in the remaining ten to lift himself to seventh in the final drivers' standings

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14162.html

Meet the world's stingiest venture capitalist

Maciej Ceglowski, CEO of Pinboard and creator of the Pinboard Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud fund

Maciej Cegłowski's new startup fund was the toast of Silicon Valley on 14 December, lighting up Twitter, winning top billing on the elite Hacker News forum, and drawing dozens of applications from would-be portfolio companies. The fund's draw: extreme stinginess.


The Pinboard Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud, as the fund is called, offers chosen startups all of $37 (£23) in venture capital. Not $37 million, like you might get from the uber-investors on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road, or $37,000, like YCombinator and other incubators offer. Just $37.


By: Ryan Tate, Edited by: David Cornish


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/17/cheapest-venture-capitalist

Grosjean triumphs in 2012 Race of Champions

Lotus's Romain Grosjean emerged victorious at the 2012 Race of Champions (ROC) on Sunday after a dominant performance in the multi-discipline event in Thailand. The 26-year-old Frenchman proved unbeatable as he defeated eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in the final of the competition

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14161.html

Security flaw found in Samsung's system-on-chip

Cluster of Exynos-powered Galaxy devices could be rooted by apps


A member of an XDA developers forum who calls him-or-herself alephzain claims to have found a flaw in several Samsung handsets and tablets that could allow attackers to enjoy access to their RAM.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/samsung_exynos_flaw/

Report says Cisco offloading Linksys

Barclays hired to do the deed


Cisco's long and inglorious retreat from the consumer business may be about to reach another miserable milestone, after Bloomberg reported Linksys is up for sale.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/cisco_selling_linksys_again/

Sunday 16 December 2012

Terrible reception for Oz spectrum auction

Conroy calls it 'waterfront property', telcos call it a rip-off


Australia's spectrum auction has found a terrible reception from those hoped to be most interested in access to the airwaves, with local carriers deciding not to bid.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/16/spectrum_auction_set_for_april/

British record industry threatens to sue politicians

Pirate Flag

The organisation that represents the interests of British record labels has threatened to individually sue six members of the UK Pirate Party in a spat over a proxy.


The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) is seeking to personally bankrupt the leader of the party, as well as four members of its national executive and the party's head of IT, after the party created a proxy server that bypasses a court-ordered block of The Pirate Bay.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/16/bpi-sues-politicians

British universities collaborate on massive open online courses

Education

A consortium of universities in the UK will partner to offer massive open online courses, or MOOCs, from 2013.


MOOCs are a relatively new phenomenon in higher education. They allow anyone around the world to access course materials, usually for free. They include websites like Coursera and Khan Academy.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/16/futurelearn

Saturday 15 December 2012

GeekDad eases data headaches with Toshiba Stor.e ALU 2S

Stor.e ALU 2S

Sorting out my family data storage is something that seems to be forever slipping down my to-do list. The problem I find is that there are simply too many options these days. Should I simply back up everything with a big NAS or series of distributed hard-drives, or maybe simply pump everything into the cloud?


While I procrastinated over a longer term solution I decided to go for a portable external hard drive. The mobile nature of these devices means that I can back-up family files that are the most important and either store them in a separate room from the main computer, or potentially in another house. Maybe I'm just a worrier, but the scenario I'm considering with this is mainly theft or fire.


By: Andy Robertson, Edited by: Olivia Solon


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/15/geekdad-eases-storeage-headaches-with-toshiba-store-alu-2s

Major climate change report leaks online

Climate Change

The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been leaked to the web by a climate skeptic named Alec Rawls.


The IPCC's latest assessment report, which are released every seven years, was not due to be published until September 2013 but a draft was uploaded to a website called Stop Green Suicide on 13 December 2012. The PCC has confirmed the draft is genuine.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/15/ipcc-ar5-leak

Gary McKinnon will face no UK charges

Extradition

Hacker Gary McKinnon will face no charges in the UK after his extradition to the United States was blocked, marking an end to his ten-year legal battle.


The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has announced that the government will not seek to prosecute McKinnon, saying that the changes of successfully convicting him were "not high".


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/15/mckinnon-no-uk-charges

Friday 14 December 2012

Dutch script kiddie pwns 20,000 Twitter profiles

How much do you have in common with the other lusers?


A Dutch teenager successfully hijacked 20,000 Twitter profiles to post a message dissing their owners for being slack with security.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/twitter_hijack_prank/

UK.gov backs away from ISP level filtering plan to protect kids

Parents, keeping your broadband clean is up to you


The government has decided to stop short of forcing telcos to filter websites at a network level, after discovering that there wasn't a major "appetite" for such a system among parents who want to prevent their kids from accessing supposedly inappropriate material online.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/government_response_to_consultation_on_online_parental_controls/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 105: North Korean rocket, helium scarcity, Patrick Moore

Wired podcast

This week we find out whether we should be worried about North Korea's rocket launch, why chemists are warning against buying helium party balloons, how to make neurons from urine and the rest of the week in Wired news


By: Nate Lanxon,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-105

The best smartphones for Christmas

So many great handsets, so little time...


This was the year the smartphone wars really got hot, both on the high street and in the courts. Of course the former was a driving force behind the latter: neither Apple nor Microsoft gave a toss about Android’s alleged patent infringements - real or imaginary, reasonable or ridiculous - until handsets running Google’s mobile OS started selling like cheeseburgers in a famine zone.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.reghardware.com/2012/12/14/best_smartphones_for_christmas/

Google gives fat fingers the flick before they click

Mobile ads are often a mistake


Google has admitted what an awful lot of people have learned first-hand (or perhaps first-finger): in the cramped environs of a smartphone's screen, it’s easy to mistakenly click on an ad.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/google_fat_finger_ad_fix/

Thursday 13 December 2012

US Immigration service won't drop BlackBerry after all

BlackBerry 10 pilot program could save RIM jobs


In a surprising about-face, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that it will test-drive Research in Motion's new BlackBerry 10 operating system in January, having earlier said that it planned to drop RIM's platform in favor of iOS.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/us_immigration_blackberry_10_pilot/

Apple debuts detailed failure gauge page

Bookmark it, frustrated fanbois, for when iCloud evaporates


Apple has quietly unveiled a more detailed way for users to check on the health of its various and sundry iServices.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/apple_debuts_new_status_page/

Yet another eavesdrop vulnerability in Cisco phones

Security groundhog day


A university student presenting at the Amphion Forum has demonstrated turning a Cisco VoIP phone into a listening device, even when it’s on the hook.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/cisco_voip_phones_vulnerable/

Haug to leave Mercedes post

Norbert Haug will leave his position as head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport at the end of 2012, it has been announced. After spending more than 22 years in the role his contract will come to an end by mutual agreement with Mercedes' board of management.

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14158.html

Sleepy North Yorkshire village is first to get gov-subsidised BT fibre

90 bumpkins get speeds of up to 80Mbps


After a long delay, the Ministry of Fun has finally signed off the first BT broadband cabinet - supported by BDUK funds - to deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbit/s to residents in a North Yorkshire village.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/first_bduk_fibre_to_the_cabinet_box_unveiled_by_ed_vaizey/

In a mobile data eating contest, Brits would win - Ofcom

What's that smeared around your mouth?


Brits like to splurge more on the internet than any other major country, according to regulator Ofcom.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/brits_comms_spending_using/

BT broadband goes TITSUP - cripples Scots, Geordies, Northern Irish

A man walks into a bar complaining about his multiple nodes


Some of the telcos which depend on BT's network to offer broadband services to their customers have been reporting a major outage affecting thousands of people in the North of England, Northern Ireland and the two biggest cities in Scotland.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/bt_outage_edinburgh_newcastle_preston_glasgow/

Punters rate Apple, Samsung more highly than ever

And turn their backs on other tech titans


Are we all becoming fanboys? If you broaden the term beyond those who favour Apple products to encompass folk keen on Samsung kit, the answer appears to be yes.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/consumers_rate_samsung_and_apple_says_brand_survey/

Londoners can bonk their way to work without Oyster cards TODAY

Buses first to siphon cash from NFC bank cards, mobes


Ticket machines on London buses are set to accept pay-by-tap credit and debit cards from today, it has been announced. The capital's Underground system is expected to follow suit sometime later, wirelessly siphoning cash from commuters and bypassing the Oyster card system.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/13/tfl_nfc/

Apptio puffs up freebie cost control freak for public clouds

Hooks into the full-tilt-boogie, SaaSy IT bean counter


For the past five years, Apptio has been building and expanding a cloudy service to manage your IT the way the CFO wants you to: by counting the beans as well as the clocks and bytes so you can figure out what the services your data center provides actually cost lines of business. Now Apptio wants to count the cost of your public cloud capacity.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/apptio_cloud_express/

Wednesday 12 December 2012

WCIT settles into a long night as deadlocks solidify ... into logjam

Names, numbers and addresses, but not the internet


With the asterisk debate postponed, the delegates in Dubai have arrived at the meat of the proposed treaty on international telecoms and are hitting deadlocks which make one wonder if any of them have seen the proposals before.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/wcit_two/

Engineer builds gingerbread house using lasers

Gingerbread house

An engineer has used his expertise to create an accurate and festive 3D gingerbread model of his summer house using a laser.


Working on the project with his wife, Johan von Konow used a CAD program to a generate the necessary shapes for the construction before using a 50 watt laser engraver to cut them out of a flat sheet of gingerbread.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/12/laser-cut-gingerbread-house

Speaking in Tech: The day Dell's server guys said 'Cloud is bulls**t'

Hunger Games meets IT: 'Not everyone is going to make it through'






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/speaking_in_tech_episode_38/

The biggest disappointments we saw in gaming in 2012

Playstation Vita

The game industry keeps changing, and the games we play along with it. Each year turns out to be more tumultuous than the one before, with no end in sight. Some gamemakers are able to navigate these waters better than others. But even if they are generally able to make the transition from old models to new ones, there are still going to be bumps in the road -- many of which affect players.


This year, the things that disappointed the Wired.com staff weren't just bad games -- they included inelegant aspects of good games that dragged down the experience, questionable choices by game publishers that caused excellent games to get overlooked or damaged, and shaky launches of new gaming hardware that are either opening-night jitters or a sign the whole production's going to go under.


Here are Wired.com's picks of the biggest gaming disappointments of 2012.


By: Chris Kohler, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/12/2012s-biggest-gaming-disappointments

Another Apple maps death trap down under

'Mount Isa' is 141kms from the actual town


Just when Apple thought it couldn't get any worse for its beleaguered Maps app, which has been leading motorists deep into the desert when they try to find the town of Mildura, The Register can reveal another SNAFU that could send travellers to an even less hospitable destination.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/another_apple_maps_mess_in_mount_isa/

Asia’s chip giant MediaTek reveals quad core SoC

Analysts predict another price war


Taiwanese chip giant MediaTek is staking its claim to the high-end smartphone market with its first quad core offering which it hopes will give it an edge over rival Qualcomm in the high stakes China market and beyond.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/mediatek_quad_core_soc/

Netflix names Google Fiber the fastest ISP in the US

AT&T the slowest mobile provider


Content streamer Netflix has released the first in a planned monthly listing of the fastest internet service providers operating in the US, and so far Google Fiber is the top dog.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/12/netflix_fastest_isp/

Tuesday 11 December 2012

'Kids' apps STILL siphoning too much info from mobes' - FTC boss

Apple and Google under fire for poor standards


Mobile apps are lifting children's personal details from their phones, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned today in a report on privacy intrusions.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/11/ftc_privacy_concerns_kids_apps/

OMG: RIM adds VoIP to its stealth social network

You down with OTT? Yeah you know me


As of today teenagers and other BlackBerry users will be able to make free voice calls to each other - if they're on RIM's stealth 'social network in hardware', BBM.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/11/rim_bbm_voip_calls_land/

Apple maps still muddle Mildura

Directions now head in right direction, but Oz town still in wrong spot on the map


Travellers relying on their iPhones and iOS 6 to find the Australian town of Mildura are now in less danger finding themselves in a hostile, waterless, environment.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/11/apple_mildura_maps_fix/

Parliament: Snoop Charter plan 'too sweeping', 'misleading', 'suspicious'

'Goes much further than it need or should'


Theresa May's communications data draft bill is far too broad and needs to be slimmed down, concluded MPs and peers who have spent many months scrutinising the Home Secretary's lambasted plans to massively increase the surveillance of online activity in the UK.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/11/draft_communications_data_bill_joint_committee_report/

Bye Bye Moto: Google pulls plug on Motorola Korea

R&D job cuts in the offing as restructuring continues


Motorola Mobility has followed Taiwanese handset giant HTC out of the South Korean market, as parent company Google looks to streamline its operations and return the business to profitability.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/11/motorola_leaves_korea/

Monday 10 December 2012

Apple updates maps to remove Australia’s ghost-city in the desert

Register hack locates a source for the error


As Apple pushes out an update to iOS 6 maps to remove the now-notorious “desert Mildura”, I’m going to sound an unusual note of fairness to Cupertino for the mistake.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/apple_maps_ghost_mildura/

LOL: Twitter faces fines for late UK financial filings

Blabber ziggurat #notagoodwayofgettinginfo


Twitter UK Ltd faces an embarrassing fine of £375 after failing to file its latest company accounts on time. Twitter-owned British subsidiary Tweetdeck is also late on turning in its financials and also faces a penalty.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/twitter_uk_late_report_filing/

Parliament to unleash barrage of criticism on Snoopers' Charter

Unseen spook Farr back again with plan to tap the UK net


The joint parliamentary committee scrutinising the government’s Communications Data Bill - universally dubbed the “Snoopers' Charter” - is set to slate the draft law in its official report published tomorrow.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/communications_data_bill/

Sir Patrick Moore dies aged 89

National portrait gallery

Sir Patrick Moore, the astronomer, died at his home in Selsey, Sussex on Sunday 9 December. He was 89 years old.


Born on March 4 1923, Patrick became interested in space from a very early age, joining his first astronomy society at the age of 11 and publishing his first paper on the Moon aged 13. He went on to become one of the most famous astronomers in the world and inspired generations to look up at the stars with his books and BBC television show The Sky at Night.


By: Charles Black, Sen.com, Edited by: David Cornish


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/10/sir-patrick-moore

Pocket strokers will barely feel Qualcomm's new tiny bonk chip

40nm NFC tech easy on batteries, case sizes


Qualcomm's Atheros subsidiary has come up trumps again: this time in the form of a tiny NFC chip designed to use less power when transferring data over the airwaves.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/qualcomm_nfc/

New York invites designers to invent Future of Phone Booths

But where will Superman* change now?


The Mayor of New York has kicked off a competition for those with ideas on the future of the city's 11,000 phone boxes, with a view to deploying something new when the existing contract runs out in 2014.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/ny_payphones/

White Van Man could become a rolling radio relay

Vehicle-to-vehicle networks work better when tall vehicles shift data


The idea that cars should share data among each other to automate some aspects of driving and make more efficient use of roads is not new.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/tall_vehicle_relay_experiment/

Telecom NZ slashes cost of unexpected journeys

Flat rate roaming for Kiwis - now what about the rest of us?


Telecom New Zealand has announced flat-rate international roaming charges.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/tnz_joins_4g_world/

Telstra offers cash in flaming exchange afternath

Services still down in parts


Telstra has announced new compensation plans for beleaguered customers affected by a fire that swept through a telephone exchange in Warrnabool last month. Services in the area remain disrupted.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/telstra_gives_customers_money_back/

Australian Police say don't use iOS 6 Maps

'Distressed motorists stranded' in desert after Cupertino's directions miss by 70kms


Police in the Australian state of Victoria have issued a warning not to use iOS 6 maps, after “a number of motorists were directed off the beaten track in recent weeks.”…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/australian_police_say_dont_use_ios_maps_after_drivers_led_into_desert/

Sunday 9 December 2012

Kim Dotcom shows off new mega service

Reveals 2048-bit crypto, plans for Christmas panto


Kim Dotcom has shown off his forthcoming replacement for megaupload, posting three screen shots to Twitter.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/09/kim_dotcom_shows_off_new_service/

Gabe Newell confirms Valve-built 'Steam Box'

Steam Big Picture

Valve head honcho Gabe Newell has confirmed to Kotaku that the company is working on its own gaming hardware.


The box would run the company's Steam digital distribution software, and be "a very controlled environment", Newell said on the red carpet at an industry awards event.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/09/valve-steam-box

Kyoto barely survives Doha climate negotiations

Climate

Delegates at the UN climate talks in Doha have managed to extend the Kyoto protocol until 2020, as well as promise compensation to developing countries for climate effects.


In a historic shift in principle, the summit established that developed nations should compensate developing countries for the effects of climate change.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/09/doha-climate-deal

Saturday 8 December 2012

Video - FIA Awards 2012 ceremony highlights

For the third successive year, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was the toast of the annual FIA Prize Giving Gala. Vettel was handed the coveted 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship trophy by FIA President Jean Todt at this year's event, which was held on Friday evening in Istanbul, Turkey. Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, meanwhile, was presented with the 2012 constructors' trophy

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14155.html

Vettel and Red Bull collect title trophies in Istanbul

The venue may change but the names are familiar, as once again Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing picked up their FIA Formula One World Championship trophies at the FIA Prize Giving Gala on Friday evening. With the Bosporus as a backdrop, Istanbul's magnificent Ciragan Palace played host as 2012 champions from across the world of FIA motorsports were honoured with their trophies

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/12/14154.html

Drag-and-drop drug targets brain cancer



A drug has been developed to combat a lethal brain cancer using a drag-and-drop DNA-self assembly technique.


A team from Parabon Nanolabs built the drug up, molecule by molecule, using a computer program called inSçquio. It combines computer-aided-design principles with nanoscale fabrication processes.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/08/drag-and-drop-drugs

Bitcoin exchange wins right to operate as a bank

BitCoin

A website that swaps real-world currencies for decentralised virtual bitcoins has been granted the status of a bank.


Bitcoin-Central made a deal with French financial companies Aqoba and Credit Mutuel to grant it the status of a "payment services provider". This makes it easier for its customers to use bitcoins, and gives the exchange a series of protections.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/08/bitcoin-bank

Friday 7 December 2012

US text-to-911 emergency SMS to go live by 2014

Top four carriers to start rollout next year


"Omg hlp nd a dr" may soon become a familiar phrase to emergency operators in the US, thanks to a plan to enable text messaging to the 911 emergency telephone number from anywhere in the country by 2014.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/07/us_text_to_911_emergency_rollout/

Battle of the Clouds: Azure goes lower

What will Amazon and Google do now?


Windows Azure pricing is dropping by up to 28 per cent as Microsoft goes head to head againstAmazon's cloud storage.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/07/azure_price_drop/

I've got the 'fastest growing THINGY ever', boasts Google+ chief

You could be in Plus and not even know it


Google veep Vic Gundotra has described Google+ as "the fastest-growing network thingy ever." He claimed that 135 million people were now actively using it, while 500 million users have been signed up to the site.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/07/google_plus_numbers_game/

Private cloud user in dialogue with Atmos, el Reg facilitating

It's a unique edge case, not a bug


Atmos user Michael Roney identified some difficulties he was having with an Atmos array on an EMC community website, saying he wanted to do ordinary-seeming things but couldn't. EMC has responded, saying he is trying to do things that are rarely, if ever done.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/07/atmos_aches/

Google kills free version of Apps for business

Goes back on 2007 blog saying Standard edition “will continue to be offered for free”


Google has killed off the free version of its Apps for business product.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/07/google_kills_free_apps/

Thursday 6 December 2012

T-Mobile USA inks deal with Apple, will offer iPhone in 2013

Last holdout among the Big Four US carriers


Fourth-ranked US wireless carrier T-Mobile has announced a new partnership with Apple, which should allow it to begin offering the iPhone on its network sometime next year.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/06/tmobile_usa_iphone_deal/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 104: Live from the Wired Pop-Up Store!

Wired podcast

This week we're live in front of an audience at a packed-out Wired Pop-Up Store on London's Regent Street. We discuss the weirdest experiments performed on insects, learn about the VFX industry of Soho and the rest of the week in Wired news.


By: Nate Lanxon,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-104

Amazon belches fragrant clouds of AWS Node.js for JavaScripters

Come scrawl your scripts across the digital skies


Node.JS is claiming another web giant, with official backing coming from Amazon’s cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/06/amazon_node_js_support/

Dutch army digs in on spare spectrum rest of Europe could use

Needs bands no one else uses to talk to itself


Early next year Ofcom is planning another consultation on two bands around 900MHz with a view to opening them up for unlicensed use, having established that only the Dutch care about them.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/06/srd_spectrum/

How to manipulate your dreams

How to lucid dream

You really can control your dreams. Keith Hearne, sleep researcher and author of The Dream Machine, explains how to make lucid dreams -- in which you are aware of your state and can control what happens -- a reality.


By: Mark Russell, Edited by: David Cornish


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/12/how-to/how-to-manipulate-your-dreams

John McAfee taken into custody in Guatemala

A photo of John McAfee in custody released on Twitter by the Guatemala National Civil Police

John McAfee was taken into police custody in Guatemala on 5 December for being in the country illegally, police there have confirmed.


The McAfee Security founder had fled to Guatemala to avoid authorities in neighbouring Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in the gunshot murder of his neighbour Greg Faull. McAfee has repeatedly claimed to be innocent. He was first reported detained by Robert King, a Vice photographer he was traveling with, who, oddly, likely contributed to McAfee's capture.


By: Mathew Honan, Edited by: David Cornish


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/06/john-mcafee-detained