ODM firmware allows code to run from USB sticks Scores of Blu-ray players from the biggest names in the industry contain security vulnerabilities that allow region coding to be unlocked, hardware hacker Matthew Garrett says.… |
Scanning? We've heard of it, says Google Product Roundup If you’re thinking of getting a new printer and already have Macs or Window PCs then selecting a model that will work isn’t exactly a challenge. But - what if you add a Chromebook to the mix? Increasingly popular and likely to be under the tree for many this Christmas, have you stopped to think about how you will print from one? Trust me, you will need to print at some stage and most will look to Google’s Cloud Print service to handle this for them.… |
But will the EU take a dim view of things? Breaking Fad The future of television’s so bright you’ll have to wear shades. At least, that might be the case if plans to evolve television to a High Dynamic Range (HDR) future gather traction. HDR has been exciting the creative community for some time now.… |
PC giant so sorry for sparking, melting cords Lenovo is recalling about 500,000 AC power cords for its B, G, and V-series laptops and IdeaPads – after 15 cases were reported of the cables overheating, sparking, melting and burning.… |
Sorry, eh? Watchdogs in Canada are investigating Apple over concerns the iPhone giant violated antitrust laws in its dealings with Canadian telcos.… |
BlackBerry's exit ramp from smartmobes is approaching As foreshadowed in February, Ford has announced a new in-car entertainment and communications system that will run on BlackBerry's QNX real-time operating system, not Windows as is the case for the company's current efforts.… |
Fatten up your fat telly audio Product round-up As much as we love our flatscreens, there’s no getting away from the fact that 99 per cent of them sound atrocious. The good news is there are plenty of ways to liven up living room TV audio, from soundbars with wireless subwoofers to pedestal-style soundbases. We've had a good look and listen to what's out there and the prices you'd expect to pay when shopping around. Time to plump up the volume…… |
Don't know or like kids? Still look Product Roundup It's that time again. Get ready to dig deep into your pockets, and spend your hard earned cash on gifts for the kids, the nieces and nephews, the neighbour's sprog and just about everyone else who's flung their arms round your knees and cooed "Unkle" appealingly. If you're torn between bankruptcy and a whole string of people never speaking to you again because you failed to buy something for their offspring, we're here to help. Well, sort of.… |
Boxed in fandroids get fresh round of updates Google's virtual reality headset Cardboard has now been shipped to 500,000 customers, after the ad giant unveiled the gadget earlier this year.… |
You wouldn't know it was an EV ... except it might use NO petrol Vulture at the Wheel It would have been difficult for Audi to launch an electric car differentiated more from BMW's. Whilst the BMW i3 has been styled and engineered to look and perform like something from another planet, the new A3 e-tron most definitely has not.… |
Bizarrely, no 3D printing was involved Downrange We here on the El Reg gun sensation desk considered getting Gaz to make an unimportant part or accessory for his Lee Enfield out of 3D printed plastic, or in some other fashion involve a computer, which would probably have led to excited writeups in the world's media about Brit GUN NUT 3D PRINTS working SNIPER RIFLE in SHED, defying nation's gun laws etc etc. But then we decided to go to the pub instead. -Ed… |
Enough functionality to fight YouView et al? Review Television's a lot smarter than it used to be, and there's an ever-increasing number of ways that the basic experience can be enhanced, whether it's by providing extra Over-The-Top (OTT) content with services such as Netflix, or convenient features, such as the ability to set recordings when you're out and about, using text messages or a smartphone app.… |
Rare filing shows cheap handsets mean teeny profits Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi is operating on the thinnest of margins to keep its handset prices low, according to a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.… |
Xiaomi, rivals gnawing at Korean firm's lunch It was more bad news for Samsung in the third quarter of 2014, as the Korean smartphone maker saw its global market share shrink by nearly 8 per cent, year on year, with most of it going to Chinese rivals.… |
Dolby Atmos enabled fondleslab, anyone? Review Before you all take to the comments page and start asking why in the name of hell it has taken us more than six months to review the Fire 8.9 HDX, let me clarify one thing. This is the new, refreshed winter 2014 model. Yes, I know it looks very similar, OK, make that identical, to the previous (3rd) generation 8.9 HDX but trust me, it has been improved.… |
Cook & Co defeat long-running suit over scrubbed MP3s Apple has prevailed in an almost decade-long antitrust legal battle over the way its iPod gadgets handled music not obtained through iTunes.… |
GPS-free parking proposed thanks to carpark plans baked into beemers Auto-maker BMW has announced a park-by-wristjob demo at January 2015's CES electronics extravaganza.… |
Less really is more this time Review This has been a year of pain for Android phone makers, and Sony has suffered as much in this over-saturated market as anyone. But manufacturers' pain is your gain. Sony's overlooked Z3 Compact is, for you if not Sony, the happy result.… |
This mobe is all tool belt and braces Hands on How can a phone maker sell out of its new smartmobe in advance when no one even knew what was inside? BlackBerry has somehow managed that feat.… |
Electronics giant wants to clip a computer to your specs Sony has unveiled a headset display that snaps on to a pair of glasses a la Google Glass.… |
From wristbands to smart watches Product roundup Under the tree this Christmas, wearables beyond woolly socks, gloves and tasteless jumpers will be in abundance. Wristbands and smartwatches that track our activity now cover a diverse range of prices and functions. Most offer ‘lifelogging’, the latest buzzword used to describe monitoring everything you do from exercise to sleep.… |
The magic of MDM As I have said before, bring your own device (BYOD) can be a difficult concept to sell. After all, you are basically saying to users: “We want you to supply your own IT equipment but we want to be able to control the corporate data and applications that go on it.”… |
Mojang says an epic narrative-mode is in the works Minecraft's maker says it's working on a new "narrative-driven" follow up to the ultra-addictive world-building game.… |
Tosser alert: Diamond-encrusted Apple gold watch out next summer The wait is almost over for footballers, Arab oil magnates, the fanbois elite, Croydon-based lottery winners, or anyone else with a money to burn: a diamond-encrusted Apple Watch will hit the shops next year with an eye-popping price tag.… |
Festive family video gaming fun Game Theory Christmas is all about interacting with people whether you like it or not. If you can’t convince your family to succumb to the new board gaming fad, here are three multiplayer video gaming options you can play as a family or that are more suitable for a younger audience than the forthcoming PC release of GTA V.… |
For now, revenues still spiraling toward drain In a conference call with financial analysts on Friday, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said the firm kept costs under control and even eked out a meager profit in the third quarter of its fiscal 2015, but he couldn't hide that the ailing mobe-maker's revenues continued their steady decline.… |
Free charge or a fast battery switch – take your pick Tesla Motors has a Christmas present for a few owners of its Model S all-electric cars, in the form of a pilot program for its new battery-swapping technology beginning in California next week.… |
Mobe software tweak released amid Fire Mark II rumor Amazon hasn't learned its lesson from the thundering belly flop of its Fire Phone, and according to some accounts it's apparently beavering away at a second version.… |
Just in case you’re bored this Xmas Product Roundup There’s nothing cooler than board games at the moment, whether they are being referenced by the Marsh family in South Park, or popularised by one of the pop-up gaming bars in East London. Board games are now selling in droves. Often produced by independent companies, they can be intellectually rigorous and visually stunning.… |
Elite: Dangerous launches but offline mode rebels have gone guerilla Elite: Dangerous, the re-boot of the hit eighties space combat and trading game Elite, launched last week, but the biggest buzz in the wake of its arrival is from disgruntled fans who want a refund.… |
Car-dodging tech for cyclists unveiled Volvos will soon be capable of squawking their presence to cyclists wearing a helmet from cycling brand POC, letting the Lycra louts get out of the way of the four-wheeled Scandinavian middle lane hoggers.… |
Music on the move Product Roundup The arrival of Bluetooth 4, with its reduced hunger for power and support for audio codecs like aptX and A2DP means that there has been an explosion in the availability of Bluetooth speakers which connect to computers, tablets and smartphones, and are often small enough to be chucked in a bag and taken to the park or beach.… |
No steering wheel, no brakes; Total Recall's Johnny Cab has arrived The engineering wizards in Google's workshops have unveiled the Chocolate Factory's first attempt at a completely control-free robot car, where passengers entrust themselves entirely to the machine.… |
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before Hope springs eternal for Samsung and its Linux-based Tizen OS, which reportedly will find its way onto a smartphone early next year, despite repeated delays.… |
Pakistan temporarily escapes Android One launch Three new emerging nations have been added to the list of places getting Google's budget phone version of Android.… |
Microsoft's stats for developers advise them to aim low … in Russian or Spanish Microsoft has revealed a new batch of data about Windows Phone's fortunes, and it seems Redmond's mobile efforts are doing best at the low end of the market.… |
Help! Muriel! Wolves are overhauling the ride-on! BT has launched a new cordless phone, named Elements, designed for challenging environments - notably your garden or a forecourt of some kind - and incorporating a range of 1km, or 0.625 of a mile, if you prefer.… |
Sony's new small slab pulls Nexus 9’s hair and steals its lunch money Review With small tablets getting bigger it came as quite a surprise to me when one of the main Android tablet wallah’s newest devices turned out to also be its smallest. Prior to the launch of the 8-inch Z3 Tablet Compact (sic) Sony’s smallest fondleslab packed a 9.4-inch screen.… |
You had to be elegant then, there was no brute force option Antique Code Show Given the choice, which 80s videogame star would you choose to have a friendly seasonal pint and chin-wag with? Pacman’s obviously got a personality defect, Mario’s breath probably stinks, and that bloke from Jet Set Willy is no doubt a pervert. But Q*bert? Well he’s one interesting individual – full of mumbled swear-word utterances, true, but also brimming with interesting tales born out of the constraints of that era’s technology. Just ignore the fact that he drinks through his nose.… |
Chinese customers won't pay Cupertino's 50 per cent markup Worstall on Wednesday The lads over at Business Insider seem to be getting a little over-excited about Xiaomi's latest fund raising exercise, claiming in their headline that it's the Apple of China. Well, no, not really, Apple is the Apple of China. Making cute kit and selling it in volume isn't the definitive point about Apple itself so a company that does merely that doesn't an Apple make.… |
2015 models to include built-in support for PlayStation Now Buyers of select Samsung Smart TVs in the first half of 2015 will be able to play Sony PlayStation games without buying a separate console.… |
Sunroof phone in curious big-market debut Japan's Au mobile network has launched a transparent-cased Firefox OS phone, in an unusual move for the free software community into an already well-established market.… |
ZX computers, Meccano and more Product Roundup It's fairly well accepted that events and things from our past help to make us the twisted, misanthropic people we are today. Or perhaps that's just Team Register. It being the season of festive excess, we wondered if there were perhaps some geeky gifts that, as a kid, helped you explore science, tech, and similar areas, and turned you into the dashing, sophisticated reader of IT news that you are today.… |
It may be a lovely orange but a Chromebook is NOT a PC We love our gadgets and phones and suchlike. Gadgets can also make great gifts, so long as you get the "right one".… |
Also: Bonky play tech for seamless cans handoff Aiming to compete more strongly with Sonos, LG Electronics is updating its streaming Wi-Fi loudspeaker/music-player product line with something that Sonos users have (so far fruitlessly) requested; a portable, battery-powered job.… |
Ditch the Christmas Radio Times, surf this lot Using toys to re-enact beloved movies is pretty much one of every nerdy kid's favorite playtime activities and Lego makes this easy, by providing minifigs of many of celluloid's leading characters. It's safe to say I had far more fun with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lego down the pub than I did watching Michael Bay's film.… |
Rotund baron pays off gang to end DDoS spree Updated A string of denial-of-service attacks that took down Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network on Christmas Day appear to have stopped – and New Zealand-based file-sharing baron Kim Dotcom claims the ceasefire is all thanks to him.… |
More power + less drag = 400-mile range between charges Elon Musk's Earth-bound transport company has upgraded its two-seater Roadster sports car design with a better battery – and a new body that will increase the range of the flash motors by up to 50 per cent, apparently.… |
A cluck, a whiff and a bluff Board game review I love bluffing games. Most games have an element of bluffing, even simple games like Uno can be played with a bit of deception – a sneaky tactic is to change the colour to something different from your last card, but generally that's a poor decision to do odds wise. Games that focus on deceit have that extra human layer to them. You're not just trying to beat a system, you're trying to outwit your friends.… |
'Tis the season to sit around in your pants and binge watch Product Roundup Blu-ray has become the bastion of the special edition boxset. And these are the most fantastical of all ...… |
