Quick fix for Hotmail password bug
Microsoft has rushed out a fix for a serious bug in its Hotmail webmail services. The bug allowed a hacker to reset the password for a Hotmail account, locking out its owner and giving the attacker access to the inbox. The fix was put together because the bug was starting to be actively exploited online. One security news site reported that some hackers were offering to hack Hotmail...full article >>
Watchdog finds undeleted data on second-hand disk drives
One-in-10 second-hand hard drives still contain the original user's personal information, suggests an investigation by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It purchased devices from auction sites such as eBay and computer fairs. Of the 200 hard disks collected, 11% contained personal information. At least two of the drives had enough information to enable so...full article >>
The Raspberry Pi computer goes on general sale
A credit-card sized computer designed to help teach children to code has gone on sale for the first time. The Raspberry Pi is a bare-bones, low-cost computer created by volunteers mostly drawn from academia and the UK tech industry. Sold uncased without keyboard or monitor, the Pi has drawn interest from educators and enthusiasts. Supporters hope the machines could help reverse a la...full article >>
Google implements privacy policy despite EU warning
Internet company Google has gone ahead with its new privacy policy despite warnings from the EU that it might violate European law. The change means private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger. Google said the new set-up would enable it to tailor search results better. But data regulators in France have cas...full article >>
Mac demand helps Apple business bloom in Blighty
Apple was the only major computer maker to increase its shipments into the UK PC market during the final three months of 2011. Figures posted today by Gartner, a market watcher, noted shipment declines for the four remaining players in the UK top five. Apple's shipments rose 17.2 per cent from 228,000 units in Q4 2010 to 267,000 in Q4 2011. That growth lifted it above Acer, which ex...full article >>
Whitehall hopes to shave 'conservative' £100m off PC bill
The government expects to cut at least £100m off its annual personal computing bill under an HMRC led standardisation program. The savings are expected in procurement, services and management, as departments eliminate waste, duplication and overspend, HM Revenue and Customs' Nigel Green told the Government ICT Conference in London on Tuesday. ...full article >>
Make yourself heard in Suffolk
Another County Council and another survey, Better Broadband For Suffolk Campaign The survey while mainly online, can be downloaded, printed and posted back to the council, and they are looking at distributing copies via Parish Councils and Libraries. For those wanting to find out more about the project, and a chance to discuss current broadband speeds, where broadband is used etc then a...full article >>
A phone call for Mr Sellan
The phone rang at home the other day, and when I picked it up a voice down a crackly line asked if a "Mr Sellan" was there. He then proceeded to tell me that a problem had been detected with my Windows computer. Having had similar calls before, I thought I knew what was coming. So instead of putting the phone down, I decided to play along and record the call. The man at the other ...full article >>
UK faces superfast digital divide say network providers
Broadband firms have warned that a new digital divide is emerging. Speakers at the Westminster eForum said that around 10% of the UK will not be able to get superfast broadband in the next decade. Government funds set aside to address so-called notspots were insufficient, they said. BT said that EU targets for all citizens to have speeds of at least 30Mbps (megabits per second) by 2...full article >>
Superfast broadband digital divide - will we or won't we?
Future gazing is always difficult, but if asking enough people who are involved in that future you can often get a pretty good idea. At the Westminster eForum, the consensus appeared to be that the UK is set for a digital divide in 2015, with the last 10% of homes and businesses stuck with a basic 2 Mbps broadband connection, while others enjoy a fast, reliable, content rich 25 Mbps or faster. ...full article >>
Apple flat-screen TV rumor rises yet again
A perennial Apple rumor is making the rounds yet again: that Cupertino is preparing to launch its own flat-screen TV. If you've been reading The Reg for any amount of time, you have heard that prediction before – and the source has often been Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster Well, Munster is back with another Apple-branded television prediction, but this time he has a new so...full article >>
WHSmith launches e-book reader rivals to Amazon Kindle
WHSmith will next week launch against Amazon's Kindle with a pair of e-book readers of its own. The UK newsagent will begin selling the Kobo reader from the Canadian company of the same name on 17 October. Kobo has e-book stores in Canada and Australia, and the WHSmith deal will bring its 2.2m - of which 1m are freebies: out-of-copyright classics and the like - to UK high streets. ...full article >>
Apple loses bid to trademark 'multi-touch'
The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Apple's appeal to obtain a trademark for the term "multi-touch". "Simply because the applied-for term has been used in association with a highly successful product does not mean the term has acquired distinctiveness," concludes the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in an 18-page review of Apple's appeal t...full article >>
TalkTalk still the most complained about broadband provider
Ofcom have released their latest data on complaints about broadband, phone and mobile providers and TalkTalk have come out as the most complained about provider again in both the landline phone service and fixed broadband categories. Ofcom receive around 350 complaints a day from consumers about telecoms providers and is now releasing stats from these in a quarterly publication. Only providers ...full article >>
Third of adults 'use smartphone' says Ofcom report
One in three adults in the UK now uses a smartphone, according to a report by the telecoms regulator Ofcom. Apple's iPhone was said to be the most popular brand. However, teenagers appeared to favour RIM's Blackberry devices. The report notes that the increased uptake of smartphones has led to a dramatic rise in mobile internet use. Facebook was the most visited website on h...full article >>
Apple iCloud pricing revealed
Apple has lifted the covers from its UK and US pricing model for the iCloud with a bunch of options for fanbois to suck up additional storage space. And there were no surprises as our friends across the Atlantic are once again getting a better deal. A beta version of the web-based service went live today, giving users 5GB of capacity to house content – not including music or photo...full article >>
ISPs 'still mislead' on broadband
Broadband speeds in the UK now average 6.8Mbps (megabits per second) but there is still a huge gap between advertised and actual speeds, according to Ofcom. Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but few achieve this. Ofcom's biannual report into the state of the broadband market urged changes to advertising. Virgin Media, which fa...full article >>
BBC to survey UK mobile coverage
The BBC is conducting a major survey into the state of mobile phone coverage in the UK. Over the course of the next month, the project will attempt to chart the availability of 3G and 2G services up and down the country. Mobile operators offer their own coverage maps but no independent survey has yet been carried out. Measurements will be made using an app developed by network analy...full article >>
Facebook adds Skype video chat feature
Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site. The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling. This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up - they already share some instant messaging tools. Skype is in the process of be...full article >>
Facebook's 'awesome' plan to hook up with Skype?
MicroSoftFaceSkypeBook vidchat deal rumoured Facebook is reportedly about to launch a new video chat product powered by Microsoft-owned Skype. The move follows on from the company founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments last week that Facebook would have an "awesome" new feature to shout about on 6 July. TechCrunch, citing an insider with knowledge of the partnership, is no...full article >>
Who'll keep taking Windows Tablets in the iPad era?
Andrew's Review Notes I have a lot of sympathy for people who steal their technology from the hearse, just as its driving through the gates of the great technology knackers' yard. While it is obligatory to be savoir faire with the latest in design and innovation, when it comes to my personal spending I'm right there with the laggards, on the extreme right of the Technology Adopt...full article >>
Microsoft bags two more Android patent deals
Microsoft has inked two more patent licensing agreements with Android hardware manufacturers. Onkyo Corp and Velocity Micro have each signed agreements with Redmond that will mean Microsoft receives royalties on Android tablets sold by the two companies. Details of the agreements were not revealed, but it's standard practice for Microsoft to license part of its patent portfolio ...full article >>
dabs.com says sorry for delivery debacle
dabs.com has apologised to customers for months of delivery delays following the replacement of its back-end purchasing systems. The BT-owned online reseller dragged itself into the 21st century by replacing its DEC Alpha monster - running software reputedly designed by founder and previous owner Dave Atherton - with one running Microsoft Dynamix but this threw its order systems into a spin...full article >>
Microsoft warns on support scams
Thousands still falling for old-school tech support swindle A survey from Microsoft reveals just how widespread the fake tech support call scam is becoming. The crooks cold-call people at home and claim to be calling from Microsoft or a well-known security firm and offering "free security checks". The software giant surveyed 7,000 computer users in the UK, Ireland...full article >>
National Express deploy Wi-Fi on Stansted to London coaches
National Express have installed free Wi-Fi on Stansted Airport Coach services which run between the airport and London. Using the Icomera Moovbox, travellers will be able to gain access to the Internet through an HSPA link installed on the coaches which connects with T-Mobile. This offers a 7.2Mbps link to be shared between passengers. Whilst not astoundingly fast, it will be available for free...full article >>
Nintendo unveils new Wii console
Gaming giant Nintendo has been showing off its next-generation Wii game console, at the E3 games show in Los Angeles. The much-anticipated console, dubbed Wii U, comes with a controller that features a touchscreen and camera. The original Wii console was hugely popular but Nintendo has faced pressure from rivals with similar devices. Nintendo hopes the new console will create a new ...full article >>
Web giants promote new IPv6 internet address system
he biggest ever test of the internet's new address system is taking place. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing and Facebook are among the companies switching-on IPv6 versions of their websites for the one day trial. The technology is gradually being introduced because the world is running out of older IPv4 addresses as more devices come online. Companies and home users may need new ne...full article >>
Sony offers successor to PSP and hacking apology
Sony has taken the wraps off its long awaited update to the PlayStation Portable. The company launched its next generation handheld, PlayStation Vita at the E3 video games show in LA. Jack Tretton, the boss of Sony's US gaming division used the opportunity to apologise to for the recent attack on the PlayStation Network. Around 77 million user accounts were compromised when hack...full article >>
HP issues annual exploding battery recall
HP came thiiis close to getting out of the month without its traditional May laptop-battery recall – but it didn't quite make it.The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that HP is recalling another 162,600 lithium-ion batteries that shipped with HP- and Compaq-branded laptops. These new recalls are in addition to the70,000 that it recalled ...full article >>
Apple ships removal tool for Mac-menacing malware
Apple has updated its Mac operating system to protect against a malicious application that has been hoodwinked untold numbers of users by masquerading as legitimate security software that warns they have serious infections on their machines. Apple issued Security Update 2011-003 on Tuesday to update Mac OS X to detect for MacDefender, one of several trojans that gets installed through an el...full article >>
Cisco predicts internet device boom
The number of internet connected devices is set to explode in the next four years to over 15 billion - twice the world's population by 2015. Technology giant Cisco predicts the proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines will drive this growth. The company said consumer video will continue to dominate internet traffic. It predicts that ...full article >>
Seagate, WD should put a gun to Brussels' head
Opinion What if the European Commission's competition authority finds against Seagate and Western Digital in its acquisition investigations? Could it ban their products from Europe? The EC thinks it possible that both acquisitions run the risk of reducing competition in the hard disk drive market, and that this is "likely to harm consumers through higher prices, reduced choic...full article >>
Mozilla to shift 12m surfers off 2-year-old Firefox 3.5
Mozilla is planning to shunt 12 million users, who are still surfing the web on its aged Firefox 3.5 browser, over to a more recent version. "We need a plan to obsolete [sic] Firefox 3.5 as we can't support it into perpetuity," said Mozilla. "We have been frustrated with our efforts to move users off of old releases and are worried too many people do not upgrade a...full article >>
Skype bug gives attackers access to Mac OS X machines
Mac users running Skype are vulnerable to self-propagating exploits that allow an attacker to gain unfettered system access by sending a specially manipulated attachment in an instant message, a hacker said. “The long and the short of it is that an attacker needs only to send a victim a message and they can gain remote control of the victim's Mac,” Gordon Maddern of Australi...full article >>
Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype
Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype. The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (£5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition. Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold. Internet auction house eBay bought Skyp...full article >>
HTC Facebook branded, buttoned phones appear online
HTC will have two Facebook-branded phones out next month, according to Amazon.co.uk, which has now posted pages for the handsets. Both will go on sale on 26 June, the retailer reckons, Sim free and complete with a dedicated Facebook button. HTC ChaCha The £250 ChaCha is a BlackBerry-style boy with a fixed Qwerty keyboard and a 2.6in, 480 x 320 screen. It&...full article >>
Intel debuts '3D transistors' with 22nm chip recipe
How do ya like them, Apple? Intel has unveiled its 22nm manufacturing process. The process marks the debut of Intel's "Tri-Gate" transistors, first revealed as a research project over eight years ago, and the company has demonstrated its first microprocessor built with the new process, a chip codenamed "Ivy Bridge". Equip...full article >>
PlayStation Network credit cards protected by encryption
All credit card information stored on Sony's PlayStation Network was encrypted, the company said one day after warning users their user names, passwords, birth dates and home addresses were stolen in a security breach. “The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken,” Sony representatives wrote in the update, which was post...full article >>
Wireless devices to break one-billion barrier in 2011
Tiny ticking time bombs? This year, devices with embedded wireless local area networking (WLAN) capability will top one billion for the first time. By 2015, that number will double – and some people are terrified that their ubiquity will spark an electromagnetic apocalypse. These figures come from a study published on Friday by IHS iSuppli. According to that research group's p...full article >>
UK is 15th best place in the world to do IT
Blighty has been ranked as the 15th best country in the world in which to try to make use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Sweden is top, just barely pipping Singapore to the post, and other Nordic and Asian Tiger nations dominated the top 10. The rankings in question are those on the Networked Readiness Index produced by the World Economic Forum. According to the WEF: ...full article >>
Openreach announce 156 new FTTC locations to be enabled
156 new locations for fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband have been unveiled today as as Openreach continues the roll-out of it's service which can offer up to 40Mbps download speeds. More than 1.5 million consumer and business premises will be able to connect up to the service through the newly announced sites which should largely be enabled during 2011. Around 50 are set ...full article >>
Introduction to NAS storage
This article is about NAS or as it is otherwise known as Network Attachted Storage. Basically is a external hard drive that you can plug into your router and once setup can save your files to it so other people on your home network can see. This could be word documents or itines music library if supported. The past two decades have seen the emergence of Ethernet as a storage networkin...full article >>
Microsoft takes Google complaint to EU
Microsoft is to take an anti-competition complaint against Google to the European Commission. The software maker claims that Google used its dominant position in the search market to restrict the growth of Microsoft services. It cites a number of practices, including Google limiting the ability of Microsoft Bing to index web content. Google said it was not surprised by the move and ...full article >>
London Underground to have Wi-Fi by 2012 Olympics
Just under half of all the tube stations in London could have Wi-Fi enabled by 2012. Transport for London has issued a tender to install 120 Wi-Fi connections in stations to be completed in time for the 2012 olympic games. 120 of the 260 tube stations are to receive the technology which follows a trial at Charing Cross tube stations which has enabled the site as a BT Openzone. London Underg...full article >>
World Broadband subscribers reach 523 million at end of 2010
The latest update from Point Topic and the Broadband Forum on world broadband statistics reveals there were 523 million broadband subscribers at the end of 2010, a 12% increase from the end of the previous year. This works out at a 9% penetration in to the worlds population. Although the number of broadband subscribers is continuing to grow, the net additions were slightly lower than previously...full article >>
Apple Mac OS X: ten years old today
ac OS X is - formally - ten years old today. The first full release, then simply codenamed 'Cheetah' - only later did the cat branding become part of Apple's marketing drive - was made available to Mac users on 24 March 2001, six months after the operating system made an appearance in public beta test form OS X was the product of Apple's 1996 purchase of NeXT, a move that no...full article >>
Low take-up of FTTC broadband services frustrating BT
BT Openreach have stated their frustration at the low take up of next-generation fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology in Wales despite an intensive advertising campaign promoting BT Infinity to customers. Cardiff is one area that the company has highlighted as seeing poor adoption of the new faster services which it is rolling out through a £2.5bn investm...full article >>
Mozilla delivers first Firefox 4 release candidate
Mozilla has announced the first Firefox 4 release candidate, after eight months of beta testing on the latest version of its open source browser. The RC is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac in 79 different languages. You can download it here. If you're already testing the beta, you'll be automatically updated. The...full article >>
Apple Launch the iPad 2
Apple have finally unveilled the iPad 2. It was annouced by Steve Jobs Apples CEO. Who is on a leave of absence but made a special apperance for this event. Speaking on stage, he said: "We have been working on this product for a while and I just didn't want to miss today." The iPad 2 has a host of new features including Faster CPU (A5 1ghz Dual ...full article >>
Ofcom wants to ban misleading broadband speed ads
Ofcom is seeking to stop internet service providers from advertising unrealistic broadband speeds. Currently most ISPs advertise services as 'up to' a certain speed - for instance, 20Mbps (megabits per second). But Ofcom's latest research finds that very few consumers actually get these headline speeds. "There is a substantial gap between advertised speeds and the a...full article >>
Thousands of Gmail accounts accidentally wiped
Thousands of Gmail users have been left with empty inboxes after their accounts were accidentally wiped clean. As well as missing e-mails, many reported that their contacts had also disappeared. Google, which operates Gmail, said that a small percentage of its users had been affected. Some accounts have already been restored, suggesting the data was not permanently deleted. In a...full article >>
TalkTalk and Tiscali pay £2.5m refunds for bogus bills
Two telecoms firms, TalkTalk and Tiscali, have repaid nearly £2.5m to customers who were billed for services that had been cancelled. The regulator Ofcom received more than 1,000 complaints but estimated some 62,000 could have been affected. The customers had typically complained about aggressive demands for the payment of bills they did not owe. TalkTalk blamed a new billing ...full article >>
Apple brings multi-touch, full-disk crypto to latest OS X
Apple has released a developer version of its next-generation Mac operating system, which the company says brings many of the features found in the iPad to its popular line of desktop and laptop computers. The preview of Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, is available from the Mac App Store now to members of the Mac Developer Program and will ship to customers sometime around the third qua...full article >>
Light Peak - Light Peak is a new high-speed optical cable
Light Peak is a new high-speed optical cable technology designed to connect your electronic devices to each other. Light Peak delivers high bandwidth starting at 10Gb/s with the potential ability to scale to 100Gb/s over the next decade. At 10Gb/s, you could transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds. Optical technology also allows for smaller connectors and longer, thinner, a...full article >>
Is your computer dirty as this?
Well, you lovely people, it's time to pour yourselves a stiff brandy before entering the circus of horrors that is Ventblockers II. We have just found the most brilliant link to some of peoples most dirtest computers Good work by all those readers who sent in evidence demonstrating that it really is a good idea to keep your computer spick and span. The consequences of poor PC hygiene ...full article >>
Only 40% of cabinets may get enabled in a BT fibre broadband area
BT's roll out of fibre broadband is well publicised with lists of exchanges to receive the new fibre technology often published on our news, much to the delight or dismay of our readers at news that their area is or isn't to be enabled. The information that is not published by BT, and is perhaps equally important, is the number of cabinets that will be enabled in a fibre-to-the-cabinet ...full article >>
Google unveils One Pass system for online content
Google has launched a new payment system that allows users to subscribe to online content for a 10% commission fee. The move comes after rival Apple was criticised over its payment system which takes 30% of the sale price. One Pass will work on tablets and smartphones, as well as Google-related websites. One Pass will launch initially in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Sp...full article >>
Why universal broadband is important
Many of us in towns and cities often take broadband for granted, not realising how reliant we all are on this vital communications service. Our lives are often so connected, that a significant part of society arranges their social lives online. Others use the Internet for work, something the government is keen to promote. As of this year, most businesses, including all new businesses, are r...full article >>
Government encouraged to invest in broadband for farms
A new report from the Commons environment audit committee has claimed that providing faster broadband services to farmers would help their businesses and encourage young people to stay and work on the farm. A fast Internet connection is vital to farmers to aid them in running their business as paperwork such as VAT returns needs to be submitted online. "Government must ensure farm ...full article >>
FTTH Council Europe reveal 3.9m FTTH Subscribers in Europe
At the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Conference today in Milan, the FTTH Council Europe have announced that there are now nearly 3.9 million FTTH subscribers in Europe, an 18% increase in just six months. Including Russia in the figures increases this to 8.1 million (adding 895,000 subscribers in six months). The top 5 countries remain unchanged in their order with Lithuania still out in front, foll...full article >>
Mozilla plans four Firefoxes in 2011
Mozilla is planning to release four new versions of Firefox this year, shortening the browser's traditional release cycle considerably. To date, the open source outfit has released a new version of the browser every 12 to 18 months or so. Presumably, the proposed move is a response to Google, which now releases a new version of Chrome every six to eight weeks. According to a draft o...full article >>
AOL Huffington Post deal is latest media merger
US internet firm AOL has agreed to a buyout of the Huffington Post online newspaper. The $315m (£222m) deal will create an internet media group with 270 million users, including 117 million in the US. The purchase price - $300m of which will be in cash - will be paid to co-founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer and a few minority shareholders. Ms Huffington - currently ...full article >>
Silent calls face threat of £2m fine, says Ofcom
Companies that use automated telephone calls that leave householders hearing nothing can now be fined up to £2m. So-called silent calls often occur when firms dial several numbers at once but then fail to have a staff member lined up to speak when a call is answered. Ofcom has fined nine businesses for making such calls, with Barclaycard receiving the biggest penalty allowed under...full article >>
BBC cuts online budget
The BBC will be cutting its online services budget by twenty five per cent from the current £137 million to the lower figure of £103 million by February 2013. This may appear to be good news for public spending cutbacks, but it will result in the loss of around three hundred and sixty jobs and the closure of around a hundred and eighty websites! According to the director gen...full article >>
Virus phone scam being run from call centres in India
The scam always starts the same way: the phone rings at someone's home, and the caller – usually with an Indian accent – asks for the householder, quoting their name and address before saying "I'm calling for Microsoft. We've had a report from your internet service provider of serious virus problems from your computer." Dire forecasts are made that if the p...full article >>
Legislation progresses on cost-sharing set out in the Digital Economy Act
The government have set out secondary legislation (a statutory instrument to introduce law that has been made possible, in this case, by the Digital Economy Act) to tackle online copyright infringement which will see the cost-sharing parts of the Digital Economy Act be debated by both Houses of Parliament. "The Digital Economy Act sets out to protect our creative economy from onli...full article >>
