2009 October

October 31, 2009

Telefonica claims 260 million customers

by Jan Harris
Spain-based Telefonica SA has expanded its global customer base to over 260 million, compared with 242.2 million at the end of June. Telefonica is Spain's largest telecommunications company by market value and customers. It is about to embark on a rebranding campaign and is seeking an advertising agency to run the campaign across key markets. The company’s roster networks and its non-roster shops ...

October 30, 2009

Samsung reveals world’s thinnest LCD TV

by Janet Harris
Samsung reveals world’s thinnest LCD TV

Samsung has reclaimed the thinnest LCD TV title with its ‘Needle Slim’ model which is based on LED technology and measures just 3.9mm thick, although it is still a prototype at the moment. The Full HD model is 2mm thinner than LG’s previous title holder, yet still offers a 5000:1 ...

Screen Digest predicts Project Canvas’s future

by Janet Harris
Project Canvas is expected to be a serious rival to existing IPTV, cable and satellite by 2014, according to Screen Digest. With the platform set to offer free broadband content alongside broadcast content, on digital TV, it isn’t surprising that it is expected to be a big hit with consumers. Screen Digest forecasts that Canvas could be in 3.5 million homes by ...

Napatech announces WinPCAP support

by Napatech
Napatech recently released WinPCAP support on its intelligent real-time network adapters. WinPCAP is an additional feature to the previously released Windows driver, believed to be the world’s fastest Windows driver for Ethernet applications. The same packet capture feature set and high performance can now be supported across Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. WinPCAP is Windows support for PCAP, the popular open source ...

CREDANT Technologies Reports Strongest Quarter Ever

by CREDANT Technologies
CREDANT Technologies, the market leader in endpoint data protection solutions today announced their best quarterly revenue bookings in the history of the company. CREDANT enjoyed great success across the board in achieving these numbers, and particular success internationally, where they recorded 577% growth compared with the same quarter last year. CREDANT also signed a multi-million dollar deal, their biggest ever ...

356 big reasons for UK CIOs to switch to encrypted drives revealed

by Origin Storage
Reports that UK chief information officers reported a whacking 356 data loss incidents in the last 12 months - approaching double that of the year previous - should sent shivers down the spine of any self- respecting IT security professional, says Andy Cordial, managing director of Origin Storage, the storage systems integration specialist. "If you research into the figures, which were ...

Finjan says controlled access Web portals now prime target of cybercriminals

by Finjan
As news of the Guardian web site hack broke on Sunday, Finjan, the business Internet security specialist, said that identity information on consumers and companies continues to be a prime target for criminal hackers. "As we identified back in May of last year (http://preview.tinyurl.com/ykml7ef) - when our researchers discovered a Crimeserver containing more than 1.4 gigs of data on individual and ...

Finjan warns companies as China prepares for cyber-espionage

by Finjan
A report commissioned by a US Congressional advisory panel monitoring the security implications of trading with China has warned that China has started spying on the US government and major companies. And, says Finjan, the business Internet security specialist, now is the time for companies to start beefing up their IT security defences to stop them falling victim to what appears ...

CREDANT Technologies Gains Two Recognitions

by CREDANT Technologies
CREDANT Technologies, the market leader in endpoint data protection solutions, today announced it has been ranked number 93 on Technology Fast 500™, and is a finalist in GSN: Government Security News Homeland Security Awards competition. Technology Fast 500 is Deloitte LLP’s ranking of 500 of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are ...

Survey: Employees spend work time shopping

by ISACA
Employees plan to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) on average shopping online from a work computer this holiday season, according to a survey conducted on behalf of ISACA, a nonprofit association of 86,000 information technology (IT) professionals. One in 10 plans to spend at least 30 hours shopping online at work. Convenience (34%) and boredom (23%) are ...

SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise Flash Drives Earn Certification

by Security News
SanDisk Corporation, the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced that the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise FIPS edition secure USB flash drive has received Common Criteria EAL2 certification, making it the only USB flash drive to earn both Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 certification and Common Criteria certification. The Common Criteria is an internationally recognized ISO standard (ISO/IEC ...

Check Point Adds Windows 7 OS Support To Endpoint Security

by Security News
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced Windows 7 Microsoft operating system support for Check Point Endpoint Security, the first and only single agent that combines all the critical components for total security on the endpoint. Businesses with a mixed environment of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 based desktops and laptops gain through ...

SwissDisk cloud has more holes than the cheese says Origin Storage

by Origin Storage
Reports that SwissDisk, the US cloud storage service provider has been hit by a data access outage, indicates that - even with a high level of service uptime - cloud data storage options have yet to reach the maturity of more conventional technology, says Origin Storage. "In the wake of its cloud storage outage, SwissDisk has rolled out the big guns ...

Fallout 3 victorious at Golden Joystick awards

by Darren Allan

The Golden Joystick awards, the video game accolades voted for by the gaming public, have crowned post-apocalyptic shooter/rpg Fallout 3 as the ultimate game of the year. The level of voting was impressively high, with well over a million gamers making their opinions known. Call of Duty did very well too, picking up Nintendo game of the year and best ...

Michael Jackson tweets from beyond the grave

by Darren Allan

So what's the latest crazy happening on Twitter? The “tweance”, or séance via Twitter, with users lining up to fire questions over to the other side. Angel Fancy Dress (a fancy dress shop) organised the first ever tweance today, with a psychic contacting Michael Jackson amongst other dead celebrities. Jackson answered various questions, such as: Did we ever see the ...

Christmas party for Sky+HD subscribers

by Darren Allan

Sky is offering HD customers a chance to host a party for friends, featuring a free showing of a High Definition film, plus bonus nibbles. The party weekend is December 11th to 13th, and you can choose to watch one of three films: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Angels & Demons or The Hangover. The nibbles come in the ...

Sony says PS Home isn’t where the heart is

by Darren Allan

Sony has admitted that PlayStation Home, its social gaming network, isn't a priority for the company. According to a report in Edge, Director of PS Home Pete Edwards said that it was financially viable, but not something the company was currently concentrating on. “It’s been a long road,” Edwards commented at the London Games Conference. “We've proved there is a ...

ICANN approves non-latin domain names

by Darren Allan

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has sanctioned a move to introduce non-latin characters to domain names. This means the worldwide web is going properly global, with countries able to have addresses in their native script, whether that's Chinese or Greek. Non-latin characters can already be used in a web address save for the final section, which ...

Virgin Media produces a good result

by David Allen

The cable TV, broadband and phone provider, Virgin Media, is reporting that around sixty per cent of its customers are now on a triple play bundle. The company is upgrading its customers to the up-to-10 Mbps broadband service, and reports that around seventy two per cent are now able get a broadband connection speed of 10 Mbps, and in ...

Oranges see customers numbers fall

by David Allen

With some internet service providers gaining new customers there has to be an ISP that is losing out, and it looks like Orange UK is one such firm. The number of customers using the Orange UK service has fallen to 899,000. At the same time last year the Orange UK's customer base stood at 1.023 million, which is a ...

Sky and BT in scrap over adverts

by David Allen

It seems that once again an advert run by Sky Broadband has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), and once again the advert has been banned. The adverts in question cover satellite TV, broadband and phone bundles. According to the ASA, some of the claims made by Sky could be misleading and therefore the ads cannot be ...

Saturday is kill a zombie day

by David Allen

To many kids around the world tomorrow is Halloween and it is a licence to go around terrorising the neighbours. However, for the grown-ups, Halloween this year could mean going out into the big world and killing a few zombies. The 31st October has officially been declared “Kill a Zombie Day” This is a marketing initiative being set ...

Google launches OneBox service

by David Allen

The search giant Google is getting into the online music business with the launch of its OneBox service. The music search business helps users find and buy music online and in order to provide this service Google has partnered with some of the industry's finest such as Lala, iLike, Pandora, Imeem and Rhapsody, to provide a free steaming service. Users ...

Free broadband offer extended by Aquiss

by David Allen

The internet service provider Aquiss is offering new customers, whether they are small businesses or home customers, the opportunity to have their first two months of broadband completely free of charge. The broadband provider is offering this service to any customer that signs up for the Premier Option 1 or Option 2 broadband packages. This must be done ...

Sky takes on Ofcom once more

by David Allen

It is well known that Ofcom is looking into the apparent stranglehold that satellite provider BSkyB has over the UK’s pay TV market. In order to put its case forward BSkyB has presented a 277 page document to the regulator, complete with additional information provided by industry experts, on what it sees as remedies for the current situation and ...

German Sky adds more HD channels

by David Allen

The Germany-based pay TV service, Sky Deutschland, is planning to add additional high definition channels to its service over the next year. Currently the satellite broadcaster is showing Discovery HD, History HD, National Geographic HD, Sky Cinema HD, Disney Cinemagic HD, Sky Sport HD and Eurosport HD. It plans to launch a further four HD channels during 2010, following a ...

STMicroelectronics to use ARM’s chips in next-gen STB

by David Allen

The Cortex A9 MPCore processor and the Mali 400 Graphics Processor made by ARM will be used in the production of STMicroelectronics' next generation of set top boxes and digital TV system-on-chip ICs. ARM already provides STMicroelectronics with processor technology, but the difference with this latest deal is that the equipment is capable of processing high bandwidth broadband and ...

October 29, 2009

Internet has mid-life crisis: Reaches 40th birthday

by Darren Allan

The Internet celebrates the 40th anniversary of its birth today, or at least the predecessor of the net which was known as Arpanet. On October 29th 1969, the very first message was sent from one computer to another several hundred miles away via the Pentagon funded Arpanet. And that very first message was “lo”. Not short for “hello”, rather the ...

ARM releases first mobile multicore processor

by Jan Harris
Chip designer ARM has released its first multicore processor for mobiles, the ARM Cortex-A5 MPCore. The company expects smartphones to be running on multicore processors by October 2010. The ARM Cortex-A5 gamma offers a range of CPUs, from one to 4-cores, all of which will offer better performance and power-efficiency than the ARM11. It is fully application compatible with the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 ...

Sipera enables secure VoIP over WiFi

by Jan Harris
Sipera Systems has announced the availability of Sipera Secure Live Communications (SLiC), a solution to ensure the security of VoIP calls over WiFi. Sipera SLiC is the first security solution for enterprises using VoIP, UC, and cloud telephony on mobile devices. It provides smart-card card authentication for workers using mobile VoIP calls to access enterprise resources, controlling access to confidential data and ...

TV Everywhere updates VidZapper

by Janet Harris
VidZapper, TV Everywhere’s enterprise video platform, has been updated with a more powerful API. The upgrade follows the recent launch of new channels on the platform, including Moviebeat.tv which features celebrity interviews, movie trailers and exclusive red carpet premier coverage. TV Everywhere CEO, Iolo Jones said: “We’re seeing more and more live events featured on the platform, and many more varied channels, ...

TalkTalk will resist government file sharing crackdown

by Darren Allan

TalkTalk has taken a further step in its ongoing campaign against Mandelson's file sharing crackdown with a statement of resistance on its blog page. The ISP said it was “dismayed” at the government pushing ahead with its three-strikes-and-you're-out policy, which will see persistent illegal downloaders disconnected from the net. The problem that TalkTalk (and many other campaigners) have is the ...

Virgin Media slows down sale of UKTV

by David Allen

It was meant to be the sale of century down at Virgin Media, but it appears that the sale of its fifty per cent stake in UKTV is about to be put on hold for the time being. Back in April, Virgin Media opened up its doors for bids on its share of the digital TV channels under the ...

Mobile broadband laptop deals too expensive

by David Allen

A recent study by the comparison site Broadband Genie, found that consumers are realising that some of the laptop and mobile broadband deals around do not, in fact, offer good value for money. The free laptop or netbook deals have been around for a few years now and many consumers have signed up, thinking that getting a free computer ...

Survey reveals the surfing habits of Brits

by David Allen

A new study, conducted by VistitBritain and BT Mobile Broadband, reveals the holiday surfing habits of UK broadband users. One thing that has come to light will not go down well with all of the romantics out there, for it seems that almost two thirds of Brits would rather be online than spending a passionate evening with their ...

Switchover moves to North-West Wales

by David Allen

The digital switchover continues its relentless move around the country and it is Wales that currently has the pleasure of waiting for the analogue signal to be switched off and for digital TV to brighten up its residents' lives. Currently the signals in Denbighshire and Flintshire are in the process of being switch off, with BBC2 already gone. There ...

Motorola Droid smartphone unveiled

by Darren Allan
Over in the US, Motorola has launched its Droid handset which will carry Android 2.0. The Droid features a 3.7 inch display, sliding Qwerty keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 16GB of memory plus wi-fi and 3G. As it runs Android 2.0, the phone will be able to utilise Google's free sat-nav service, Google Maps Navigation. But most importantly, the smartphone's funky name will ...

Project Canvas could be in 3.5 million homes by 2014

by David Allen

The internet-based TV platform Canvas, which is being developed by terrestrial TV companies based in the UK, could reach around 3.5 million households by 2014. According to a report by Screen Digest, the BBC has a great record in building new platforms such as the iPlayer and Freeview, and all the BBC has to wait for with Canvas is ...

BT launches VPN service

by David Allen

A new service has been launched by BT which will help businesses allow more of their employees to work remotely from home. The BT Hybrid Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that enables firms to access VPNs through the normal broadband network, yet it is very cost effective and offers a high level of security. This service can easily ...

Pay TV sports on the line

by David Allen

With Ofcom looking into Sky TV’s dominance of the pay TV market, and in particular film and sport, it seems that the satellite provider has some serious allies within the sport market, and they are coming to BSkyB’s defence. Some of the bodies behind sport in the UK claim that Ofcom's plans to change the pay-TV market are flawed. ...

Ariane 5 ready for launch

by David Allen

The Ariane 5 rocket is for launch today, the 29th October, from the French Spaceport at Kourou, on the edge of the Amazon forest in French Guiana. With only two VIPs on board the rocket is set to launch at 5.00 pm local time. The passengers will be the NSS-12 and Thor 6 satellites. The latter has the lower bunk ...

HG Wells novel made into drama

by David Allen

Following recent drama successes, digital TV based BBC Four is in the process of producing one of HG Wells's science fiction romances, 'The First Men In The Moon'. Starring Mark Gatiss, who also adapted the story for TV, it will be a ninety minute long drama that will also see Rory Kinnear taking a lead role. Similar to the storyline ...

Google’s searches go musical

by Darren Allan

Google has announced that new music search options are to be available on its US site. When a user types in a song name, the search engine will automatically produce a streamed preview of that track delivered by partners such as MySpace and LaLa. If you type in a band, Google will point to previews of the outfit's most popular ...

Brits surf Internet, not waves, on holiday

by Darren Allan

A new survey from BT Mobile Broadband and VisitBritain has declared that two-thirds of holidaying Britons would rather spend time on the web than with their nearest and dearest. It's a sad state of affairs when people prefer tweeting about what they had for lunch or putting up holiday snaps and updates on FaceBook, rather than actually relaxing and ...

Nintendo DSi LL launches with bigger display

by Darren Allan

Rumours that Nintendo is going to launch a bigger screen DSi have proven true with an announcement today. The DSi LL will come with dual 4.2 inch screens, considerably larger than the current handheld's 3.25 inch displays. The launch date is planned to be November 21st in Japan, and it's expected that the handheld will cost around the $200 mark. It's ...

HTC HD2 pricing revealed

by Darren Allan
The HTC HD2 Windows Mobile powered phone has had its pricing confirmed, with 18 month tariffs starting from £25 a month. Mobiles.co.uk has the handset on pre-order and you can pick it up from O2 on an 18 month contract from £25 per month, although the unit itself will set you back £185. If you want the HD2 free, then you'll have ...

Netflix Video Streaming will appear on the Nintendo Wii

by Franz Bicar
The net was abuzz with reports of Netflix coming to the PlayStation 3 via a Blu-ray Disc. But they're not the only ones who will get new Netflix streaming capabilities. Reports have circulated that the Nintendo Wii will get a similar feature real soon. Although no official word came out of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' mouth, reports are saying that the ...

Motorola Droid Unveiled

by Franz Bicar
Motorola's much anticipated handset is finally here. The Motorola Droid was officially announced by its maker along with its official carrier, Verizon and will be available to customers starting November 6. Some of the devices' much anticipated feature include a voice-activated search that allows users to speak a search query and its search engine, of course, powered by Google, will display ...

October 28, 2009

Download game sales to outperform retail in three years

by Darren Allan

The UK National Gamers Survey 2009 has produced some interesting findings regarding the average UK gamer. The survey, which was conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com, revealed that 73% of respondents said they regularly played games, with many admitting gaming is their favourite pastime ahead of TV and the Internet. It also found that a quarter of gamers had downloaded content ...

Android 2.0 features Google Maps Navigation

by Darren Allan
Google has announced something of a killer feature for Android 2.0 in the form of satellite navigation for free. Google Maps Navigation turns any Android 2.0 phone into a sat-nav device with turn-by-turn instructions. It offers some very cool features too, such as voice activation – you can simply say where you want to go to your phone. The latest data from ...

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