Texan team paints batteries onto beer steins

Texan team paints batteries onto beer steins


Texan team paints batteries onto beer steins

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:55 PM PDT

Flexible future power storage in the offing

Researchers in Texas have discovered a way to break down the components of a battery into liquid form and paint power cells onto everyday objects.…

Apple hardware fixer Bob Mansfield retires from Cupertino

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 12:58 PM PDT

Walks away from fortune in share options

Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, has announced his retirement from the company after 13 years in situ, and it seems he's also walking away from ten of millions in unclaimed share options.…

Mac-based Trojan targets Uyghur activists

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 09:27 AM PDT

Human rights attacked online

Security researchers have intercepted a Mac-based Trojan attack targeting Uyghur human rights activists.…

Two weeks 'til the internet disappears, for 58 Fortune 500 companies

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:52 AM PDT

Stand by for 4 per cent of the US gov to go dark, too

Even though the DNSChanger safety net deadline expires in just two weeks, 12 per cent of Fortune 500 firms still have at least one infected machine on their network, according to a new survey.…

Jaw-jaw no more-more as calls fall down tally of phone tasks

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:48 AM PDT

Talk to people on it? Don't make me laugh

You think phones are for making calls? No longer, if a poll conducted by O2 is anything to go by. Talking to people is not even in the top three activities folk spend most time doing on their handsets.…

Capita ITS asks to-be-axed staffers to pose for marketing pic

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:41 AM PDT

Want to present realistic image of company

Capita IT Services staff waiting to hear if they have a future at the integrator-cum-reseller have been invited to attend a photo shoot to be used in marketing material.…

Gov IT buying body: Mega hardware gig to save £6.5m in 2013

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:37 AM PDT

Margins driven to the bone, claims GPS

The forthcoming mega IT Hardware & Services public sector framework is expected to yield savings of £6.5m this year, according to Government Procurement Services (GPS).…

IBM chiefs order pay freeze at US services tentacle

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:29 AM PDT

Big Blue shivers - rumours that even bosses will be hit

Update  The employees at the Global Technology Services unit of Big Blue got some unwelcome but probably not unexpected news that there would not be a broad-based salary increase at the unit this year. There are also reports that IBM has frozen salaries of higher-level executives across the company, which the company has not confirmed.…

Behold: Today marks Year Five of the iPhone Era

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Fire. The Wheel. Steam engines. Just trinkets

Apple has been credited with the first smartphone, with creating the mobile application business and pioneering touch interfacing. None of these things are true: but actually the launch of the iPhone, five years ago, was a much bigger revolution than that.…

Stratfor settles class-action over Anon megahack with freebies

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 07:31 AM PDT

You want fries with that bucket-o-geopolitical-intel?

Stratfor has agreed to forgo $1.75m in income to settle a class action lawsuit arising from a high-profile hack by hacktivist group Anonymous against the global intelligence firm's systems last December.…

Mad fan-fitted mouse keeps mitts moisture-free

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 07:23 AM PDT

Play for hours, no sweat

Suffer from excessively sweaty palms when you're gaming on your PC? Accessory maker Thermaltake has a - rather bizarre, IMHO - answer: a mouse with its own tiny clip-on fan.…

Berkshire bigboy 2e2 in the pink - apart from crushing debt burden

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 07:14 AM PDT

Amphibious workforce gets its feet wet

Integrator 2e2 recorded steep losses in calendar 2011 caused by crippling interest repayments, discontinued operations and restructuring costs, but despite all this, healthy progress was made in the underlying operations.…

Ethiopia: we are not jailing Skype users

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 07:02 AM PDT

Western media 'mistaken'

The Ethiopian government has refuted reports that anyone caught using Skype in the country will go to jail. It insists the claims publicised by western media are completely groundless.…

HPC cloud belches from top UK universities

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 07:02 AM PDT

Rent yourself a rack at the (tera)FLOPhouse

At last, one can rent tens of thousands of cores-worth of HPC teraFLOPS on demand from an HPC cloud.…

Apple's Mountain Lion to offer automatic security updates

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:27 AM PDT

Crikey - now there's a thought

Apple is building in automatic update checking into the next version of Mac OS X – Mountain Lion.…

Do you work in IT at RBS? Or at the next place to get hit ...?

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:15 AM PDT

Here's a handy guide to riding out the storm

Those nice people at RBS have provided me with a worked example for how you can best get through fan-hitting situations without having to take up minicab driving or going to work in local government.…

Gouged by cloud - but it's <i>so</i> convenient

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Last to know, first to pay

Open ... and Shut  Most everyone believes that cloud computing is taking off in a big way. Finding agreement on why it's booming is a bit more problematic. The issue becomes particularly nettlesome for private cloud adoption, which is either heavily driven by public cloud cost management... or the exact opposite, depending on whom you ask.…

Chrome hits iPhone and iPad, storms to top of download chart

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 05:43 AM PDT

Google slips new tentacle into fanbois' walled garden

Google's new Chrome browser for iOS has stormed the iTunes download charts - hitting the top spot for free apps worldwide. Announced at a dev meeting yesterday, the mobile browser was quietly released in Apple's App Store on 26 June.…

Tsinghua, NUDT flatten rivals in ISC cluster smackdown

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 05:29 AM PDT

Teraflop barrier busted across the board

ISC 2012  The 2012 ISC Student Cluster Challenge ended last week, and it's high time we take a look at the winners, the awards and some of the results.…

Ultrabook demand soars Stateside

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 05:08 AM PDT

But they're still a tiny percentage of the market

That Ultrabooks have grabbed almost 11 per cent of the $700-and-up Windows notebook market in the US during the first five months of the year sounds impressive, until you realise how small that market segment is.…

War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Will you stop turning the TV off at the wall

Analysis  The War On Standby rumbles on: this week, courtesy of the UK government and "third sector" quangocracy, we heard yet again that gadgets left on standby suck vast, planet-wrecking, expensive amounts of energy from our electricity sockets.…

Android Jelly Bean won't get Flash Player

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 04:38 AM PDT

Never mind, there's lots of HTML5 porn content now

As part of the slow death of Adobe's Flash Player, the company has announced it won't be making a certified version for Android's new 4.1 OS – aka Jelly Bean.…

BMW, Toyota to build fuel cells for sports cars

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 04:19 AM PDT

Next-gen e-car tech partnership struck

BMW and Toyota are to work together on the development of fuel cell and electric powertrains, the two automotive giants said today.…

Just how do you build the perfect Olympic stadium?

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 04:15 AM PDT

What have the Romans ever done for us....

London Olympics  On 27 July, London will be transformed as the biggest celebration of sports in the world kicks off in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Stratford.…

Dimming the lights on smart(arse) TV

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 04:00 AM PDT

When consumer devices go bzzzt

Something for the weekend, Sir?  "The TV has stopped working."…

Governments probe domain land-snatch: many.gTLDs.suck

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:48 AM PDT

Patagonia? You mean that's a place?

Governments have started to put ICANN's massive top-level domain name expansion under scrutiny, after the revelation of 1,930 applications for new naming suffixes two weeks ago.…

Apple patent may foretell an end to iPhone autocorrect Tourette's

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:31 AM PDT

Intriguing new special asshole filing

An Apple patent application just published by the US Patent Office shows that the masterminds of Cupertino have figured out (or hope to figure out) a cunning way to work out what words you're going to tap into your little Jesus mobe before you type it.…

Open-source password keeper to get 'minor' weekend security fix

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:14 AM PDT

You'd need to make several dumbass moves to get bitten

The developer of KeePass, the popular open-source password management utility, has promised an update this weekend following the discovery of a "minor" security bug in the tool.…

B&O Beoplay A3

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:00 AM PDT

iPad entertainment centre

Accessory of the Week  Stick an iPad in B&O's Beoplay A3, take a step or two back and look at it square on. It looks like a mini B&O TV. Put it down on a kitchen worktop or office shelf and you have a video player or jukebox capable of producing rich, full-bodied audio which does iPad far more justice than its own tiny speaker.…

First lady taikonaut and pals plunge into the dirt after space mating

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:43 AM PDT

Smack down after withdrawing from Heavenly Palace

The three taikonauts aboard Shenzhou-9 have returned safely to Earth, touching down in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region as planned.…

Vodafone to let you roam in Europe at UK prices

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:41 AM PDT

Plus, of course, a small daily consideration

New European Commission-imposed EU mobile data roaming price regulations kick in on Sunday, and Vodafone has announced a modification of its European roaming package.…

<i>Reg</i> hack attempts gutsiest expenses claim EVER

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:28 AM PDT

Napkin hieroglyphs leave top beancounter ROFLing in tears

We're certain that plenty of Reg readers have at one time or another been given short shrift by the company finance department for presenting a dodgy receipt as part of an expenses claim.…

Join the gov consultation on net porn ... and have your identity revealed

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:14 AM PDT

Tick 'confidential' if you like: it means simply nothing

A parental internet controls consultation document released by the Department for Education yesterday is currently exposing the email addresses, unencrypted passwords and sensitive answers of members of the public who fill in the associated form.…

Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:56 AM PDT

The fish aren't going to get on the bicycles

Comment  It would be charitable (that is, untrue) to call the consumer electronics strategies of Microsoft and Google coherent today. But what they lack in coherence they make up for in er, … sheer recklessness. That's OK, then.…

Teleconferencing 'shifts hundreds of NHS bed-blockers out the door'

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:47 AM PDT

Virtual meeting re-ablement triumph saves £150m

The Whittington hospital NHS trust is speeding its discharge rates and saving about £150,000 a year by using teleconferencing, according to Jar O'Brien, team leader for Islington's community rehabilitation services.…

'Backing out of a failed update really ought to be a trivial matter...'

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:30 AM PDT

Plus: 'I'm not panicking AT ALL about Surface. No'

QuotW  This was the week when there was an almighty tech disaster at RBS and Natwest that froze millions out of their bank accounts. Stories abounded of houses lost because sales hadn't gone through, people stuck in prison because their bail hadn't been paid and legions of folks just plain old p***ed off because they couldn't put their hands on their own money.…

PS3 fans buy more digital content than Xbox buffs do

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:22 AM PDT

Sony supporters splash out

British PS3 owners are more willing to splash the cash on digital content than their Xbox 360 counterparts, it has been claimed.…

UK spectrum row: What we need is more national disasters

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:14 AM PDT

Only that way will there be proper emergency comms

Future of Wireless  The problem with UK radio spectrum policy, apparently, is that we have too much competition and not enough proper disasters, which means our emergency services won't get enough radio spectrum until people start dying.…

The Open Rights Group gets rights wrong again

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Defender of parody is becoming a self-parody

Opinion  When Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock opens his mouth, his foot soon disappears inside. The UK's leading digital rights advocate has just demonstrated still more difficulty understanding the "rights" the group campaigns about.…

DataCore orchestra tunes up for the Ninth SANsymphony

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 12:38 AM PDT

Thats SANsymphony, not sans symphony

DataCore has pushed out its ninth SANsymphony release, which is orchestrated for the cloud, large data centre deployments, and storage-as-a-service.…

Free tool inspects all your personal 'ware automatically

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 12:17 AM PDT

Can't tell your wife you're doing updates any more

Secunia has taken the wraps off a new version of its consumer patch management tool, Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) version 3.0.…

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 12:00 AM PDT

Gotham bricky

Review  The only Batman I have ever cared about is the cynical desperate anti-hero of Frank Miller's The Dark Night Returns but Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes may have just changed my mind.…

Pigment powered gadgets

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 08:32 PM PDT

Queensland Uni trailblazers in melanin infused electronics

The natural pigment, melanin, which endows humans and animals eye, skin and hair colour is set to be the driving force behind a new generation of bio-powered gadgets.…

RIM delays BlackBerry 10 launch, bins 5000 bods

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 04:59 PM PDT

What's that smell? Yes, it's death

RIM has reported disastrous quarterly results and is delaying the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system until next year. The company will also shed 5,000 staff.…

Nextgen connects data centres for cloud boom

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 03:55 PM PDT

Australia loves big, fat data

The rise of cloud based services and data centre proliferation has prompted Nextgen Networks to launch a premium grade transmission service connecting nominated data centres in mainland capital cities.…

Ex-NASA group plans private, crowd-funded asteroid hunter

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 03:34 PM PDT

Sentinel sparks space hypegasm

A group of former astronauts, astronomers, engineers, and the ubiquitous Tim O'Reilly (presumably for the publishing rights) are getting together to try and punt a privately-funded space telescope to scan for dangerous asteroids.…

Dixons and Best Buy start selling Google Chromebooks

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 03:13 PM PDT

Whether people will buy them is another issue

Google I/O  Google is trying to get its Chromebook into the mainstream and is starting to push it in retail stores, signing up Best Buy in the US and Dixons in the UK to distribute the ChromeOS systems.…

Google downshifts App Engine to infrastructure cloud

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 03:11 PM PDT

Half the cost of the competition

Google I/O  Microsoft just downshifted its Azure platform cloud so it could support raw virtual machines and any old applications companies want to cram into them, and now Google has followed suit with Compute Engine.…

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