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reghardwareFrom the lab to the living room
Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak
iDevice jailbreakers: you can now take almost all of Apple's iOS 5.1.1 gadgets out of the walled garden, thanks to hacking tool Absinthe 2.0, released today.…
35 years, six movies, 120 games
Round-up Star Wars - there was no 'A New Hope' or 'Episode IV' back then - shot onto cinema screens on 25 May 1977, which means the franchise celebrates its 35th birthday today.…
Want a small laptop? Get an Ultrabook
Another sure sign the netbook's day is done: Toshiba's US wing has confirmed it will no longer offer new versions of the laptop-lite machines.…
Security is an illusion
Something for the Weekend, Sir? When did you reach burnout? For me, it was spring 2009. Looking back, I did well to last as long as I did but the constant pressure of coming up with something new, again and again, became too much.…
Time to kill
Review With a tip of the hat to director John Woo and The Matrix, Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne wowed the gaming world in 2001 with its unique slow-mo shooting action. And since Max Payne 2 appeared in 2003, I've been holding my breath in anticipation of the third in the series.…
Stove jobs
Aga, oven maker by appointment to the rural chattering classes, has turned up the heat of technology on famously basic ranges to create the iTotal Control Oven, a stove equipped with a cellular modem to allow chefs to command their cooker remotely.…
Trebles and Skillrunes all round
Diablo III has become the fastest selling PC game of all time, publisher Blizzard has claimed, after shifting 3.5m copies within 24 hours of release.…
E-book readers, media streamers too
It won't surprise anyone to learn that Brits are buying more tablets than ever before, but they're increasingly keen on e-book readers and set-top media players too.…
Laptop conversion kit
Accessory of the Week There’s no shortage of iPad keyboard cases to choose from, but this one from Belkin, designed for the new iPad, has a neat trick up its sleeve: the keyboard is detachable, held in place by Velcro.…
Computers for kids
Google is to indirectly equip 102 UK schools with Raspberry Pi devices.…
Under-10s' social network spreads
Monstro city, the social network frequented by all the coolest kids in the playground, is going mobile and has signed a deal with Gree to deploy at least two games on that platform.…
Exercise motivate-urgh, urgh
iOS App of the Week There are dozens of apps aimed at joggers that can plot a route for you, and measure your speed, progress and calories burned. Yet none of them deal with the fundamental fact that jogging is the most boring form of exercise known to humanity.…
OMAP out, Tegra 3 in
Toshiba has taken its very thin AT200 tablet, ripped out the 1.2GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 CPU and flung in an Nvidia Tegra 3 penta-core processor instead.…
Thin telly requires fat wallet
LG showed off its 55in OLED TV at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, and despite demo'ing the device again this week, this time over here, it's still vague about the release date.…
Screen-inflation nation
We're not speaking to people on our phones, these days, we're mostly browsing the web. And that, says market watcher ABI Research, is driving demand for devices that lie in the grey area between smartphones and tablets.…
Optical data transfer's new leading light?
Eugene Polley took the knobs off technology
The man who took the knobs off the TV set and made a significant innovation in wireless technology, Eugene Polley, died yesterday in Illinois, aged 96.…
Quad-core and a whole lot more?
Nvidia has let slip 'Kai', the quad-core ARM-architecture system-on-a-chip it hopes will get powerful tablets into World+Dog's hands for $199 (£127) a pop.…
Protection for head-in-clouds texters
Volvo has devised an automobile airbag for pedestrians.…
Competition Commission U-turns at sight of LoveFilm, Netflix
The Competition Commission has called off the attack dogs against Sky's movie business, for now. The regulator has revised its views following the entry of Amazon's LoveFilm and Netflix into the pay-movie market.…
Orange and T-Mobile finally complete network love-in
Customers of Orange and T-Mobile are now using one network, with handsets switching seamlessly to the nearest cell tower, though the company still refuses to say exactly where those cell towers are.…
Ex the Axis
Antique Code Show As a nipper during the 1970s and early 80s, there can't be a war movie I haven't seen, either at the cinema or on telly on a rain Sunday afternoon. You can surely say the same of Grey Matter Interactive, because its Return to Castle Wolfenstein lets you play pretty much every famous war film scene.…
Even zombies are baffled
Every year a handful of critically-acclaimed videogames are re-released as a "GOTY Edition", which signifies they've been awarded a Game of the Year gong by a respected publication.…
Lagging in laptops, mind
The usual caveat applies: these numbers only work if you factor in tablet sales. Do, says market watcher DisplaySearch, and Apple is once more the world's top-selling maker of mobile computers.…
DIY hotspots
Ale Caesar
Pub chain Greene King will soon offer free Wi-Fi access in all of its 2400 boozers and eateries, courtesy of The Cloud.…
'Bicycle for your mind', apparently
El Reg hasn't written about VIA for yonks, but it's one of the original x86 CPU makers, thanks to its purchase of processor design firm Centaur in 1999. VIA has long pitched low-cost, low-power CPUs, and now it's trying to do so again, this time with ARM technology, in a bid to take a bite out of Raspberry Pi.…
Aliens in autumn
2K Games has announced the UK release date for X-Com: Enemy Unknown. The anticipated franchise refresh is set to shoot onto shelves this October.…
While Microsoft is the McDonalds of the tech world
Technology companies dominate a listing of the hottest worldwide brands with Apple and IBM taking the top slots, though how much of a benefit this is for resellers might be open to question.…
Destined to make big bucks?
Halo developer Bungie's lucrative ten-year deal with games publisher Activision has been made public, revealing the coder is set to receive an unprecedented bonus should its next title win critical acclaim.…
Whatever NXT
Sony's latest Android smartphone, the Xperia U, hit retail today, completing the first trio of handsets in the company's NXT collection.…
Popular app gets Ice Cream Sarnie treatment
Android App of the Week As a long-time user of Catch Notes it was going to take something quite impressive to get me to jump ship to arch-rival Evernote but a recent update and integration with the latest versions of HTC's Sense have persuaded me to do so.…
Bare bones computing
Review No review is ever written in isolation, absent from context. Usually, you can guess the reviewer's bias within a few paragraphs, and compensate accordingly. He hates LCD display quality, she dislikes proprietary software, they yearn for the days of full bandwidth vinyl. You get the idea.…
Apple, Sony, to pounce as connectivity craze catches
3D television is not exciting global TV buyers, says analyst firm NPD.…
CPU assisted wheelies, anyone?
Audi has revealed what it believes to be the future of e-bikes: the Wörthersee, a electric bicycle that features smartphone connectivity and a built-in computer system.…
Kindle deal to fire up bookseller's bottom line
UK bookshop chain Waterstones will start stocking Amazon's Kindle ereaders in an attempt to revamp its stores for the digital age.…
Drive up the M5 and Travelmate
Acer has revealed a pair of Ivy Bridgers through a new addition to its TravelMate laptop range and another Aspire M-series Ultrabook with dedicated graphics and an optical drive.…
AirPlay exemplar
Geek Treat of the Week There are AirPlay speakers and there are AirPlay speakers. This unit from Danish hi-fi gods Bang & Olufsen is eye-wateringly expensive but has plenty of features, including a built-in re-chargeable battery which, B&O says, will give you eight hours play time on one charge.…
Say cheese
While the the Raspberry Pi foundation continues to struggle to meet the demand for its £16 Linux machine, it has already revealed improvements. The latest: a prototype camera add-on.…
Ready to play... on release
Gamers can now pre-order upcoming titles through the PlayStation Store and have content downloaded automatically on release - or ahead of it, with the activation code coming through on the big day.…
Network vs network
Where did all the fanbois go?
Microsoft is claiming something of a PR win over arch rival Apple, after a senior exec reportedly revealed that its Windows Phone devices are outselling the iPhone in China after just two months.…
Pushy types
Product round-up As the speedy texter generation grows longer in the Bluetooth and touchscreen technologies improve, the range of Qwerty phones on offer gets smaller by the day. But for many, they wouldn't use anything else. Indeed, for RIM, Qwerty keys have been the hallmark of it BlackBerry handsets.…
Duo dump Nokia to end SIM war with Apple - report
RIM and Motorola reportedly hope to break the deadlock over the design of future SIM cards by offering a blueprint that'll either appease every party or alienate all sides equally.…
Marathon runner
First look In the time since Motorola's Razr was launched in 2011, rivals have released powerhouse handsets that make the Razr feel more Bic than Wilkinson Sword.…
Oi vapour
Amazon, it has been claimed, will be dropping a version of the Kindle Fire it might, maybe, put into production in favour of a different model that it could, possibly make in the future.…
But don't ask your dentist for oral sex, OK?
Something for the Weekend, Sir? It barely warranted a mention in Reg Hardware's recent Retro Week, but mobile telephony will be celebrating a couple of anniversaries this year. Groupe Spécial Mobil (GSM) was founded 30 years ago and the first commercial GSM networks came into service ten years later.…
Pick-up trick
Accessory of the Week IK Multimedia’s newest microphone is aimed squarely at podcasters. The package comes with a plastic stand which props up an iPhone at just the right angle for talking into the mic. You can use it with an iPod Touch too, though you’ll have to turn it upside down in order to plug the Mic Cast into its headphone jack.…
Hell’s bells
Review Back in 1997, I worked in a youth centre and some fool gave me the keys to the place. So I would sneak in every night to continue a degrading tryst with Diablo I, cutting down waves of monsters in anticipation of a loot splurge. It was a while before I worked out the portal system – I used to moan about the amount of walking – until someone pointed out I was a noob. Luckily, in Diablo III, the portal is shown as a small blue vagina on the user interface, so there's no risking sore feet now.…
