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• Mediatek unveils its first ARMv9 smartphone chip for advanced handsets

  It's moving on up now
  Agam Shah Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 20:29 UTC

  Mediatek rolled out what could be the first chip based on the Armv9, which is the ARM's first architectural upgrade in a decade.

  The Dimensity 9000 is, as Mediatek company's CEO Rick Tsai previously stated, the company's "entry in the flagship segment." The chip is also the company's first aimed at pricey smartphones.

  Mediatek's chips are seen mostly in low- to mid-range Android smartphones. The Dimensity 9000 will compete in top-line smartphones, meaning customers in the high-end market may have more options outside Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 888 chips. Qualcomm is announcing a new flagship chip by year end.

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• Intel audio drivers give Windows 11 the blues and Microsoft Installer borked following security update

  Known issues list continues to grow
  Richard Speed Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 19:45 UTC 1

  Windows 11 has continued to notch up known issues as Microsoft admitted to problems in the Intel Smart Sound department and Microsoft Installer following a security update.

  The former turned up earlier this week, when Microsoft realised that "certain versions" of drivers for Intel Smart Sound Technology (SST) could tip Windows 11 into a blue screen (of death). The driver involved is IntcAudioBus.sys and file versions 10.29.0.5152 and earlier or 10.30.0.5152 and earlier are affected.

  The workaround is, unsurprisingly, to get an updated driver from one's OEM. 10.30.00.5714 and later or 10.29.00.5714 and later should do it, according to Microsoft. Slightly confusingly, "for addressing this issue, 10.30.x versions are not newer than 10.29.x versions." The key bit is the last of the version number.

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• Workday subscription revenue forecasts leave investors cold, wiping 9% off company value

  SaaSy vendor takes comfort in contingent workforce software acquisition
  Lindsay Clark Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 18:59 UTC

  Workday has swallowed vendor management SaaS type VNDLY for over half a billion dollars, just as 9 per cent of the company's value was wiped off after moderately positive financial results failed to impress investors.

  The US-based business application company, which specialises in finance and HR, posted calendar third-quarter revenues of $1.33bn, up 20 per cent from the same quarter last year. Subscription revenue was $1.17bn, an increase of 21 per cent over the same period.

  Meanwhile, it turned in an operating income of $23.9m, a turnaround from last year's third-quarter operating loss of $14.1m.

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• We asked you how your biz introduces new IT systems – and here are the results

  Who’d have thought that there could be so many approaches to putting new stuff in?
  Dave Cartwright Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 18:00 UTC 1

  Reg Reader Survey Our recent survey into how we go about introducing new systems threw up a set of responses that were positively multifarious. Who’d have thought that there could be so many approaches to putting new stuff in? Thank-you to everyone who participated. Now let's take a gander at the results.

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• Psst. Hey kid. Want a lipstick? Huawei slips new earbuds into cosmetics case

  New products out as firm attempts to stay relevant in face of US sanctions
  Laura Dobberstein Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 17:15 UTC 1

  Marketing strategies have taken an interesting turn for Huawei this week as it launched a wireless noise-cancelling earbud in the Chinese market that is designed to look like a lipstick.

  The Chinese tech giant announced the Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick last month, hawking it as combining "luxury design with cutting-edge technology." The company said the gold-accented cylinder was designed by a multinational crew from the fashion, automotive and digital industries.

  The product itself has AI-adaptive audio technology pitched as intelligently optimizing sound quality for the price of ¥1,699 ($266, £198, €235). Other aspects of the earbuds include an ergonomic shape designed through extensive stress testing, support for EMUI 12+ device OS, proximity Bluetooth pairing, dual device connections, on-ear touch controls via the Huawei AI Life App, up to 48 kHz HD recording, and up to 22 hours of music playback when the noise cancellation feature is disengaged.

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• EU digital sovereignty project Gaia-X opens its summit with the departure of Scaleway

  French hosting outfit not keen on status quo, leaving to spend more time with its servers
  Richard Speed Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 16:32 UTC

  French cloud hosting outfit Scaleway is to depart the EU's data sovereignty project, Gaia-X, with CEO Yann Lechelle worrying that what began with splendid ideals is getting increasingly mired in the status quo.

  Scaleway's announcement came as the second Gaia-X summit got under way, titled "Here to deliver", and amid rumblings from members over the sponsorship of the gathering by the likes of Huawei and Alibaba as well as the involvement of US cloud giants such as Microsoft and AWS.

  "Scaleway will not renew its GAIA-X membership," the company said. "The objectives of the Association, while initially laudable, are being sidetracked and slowed down by a polarization paradox which is reinforcing the status quo, that is an unbalanced playing field."

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• UK Department for Education to schools: Maybe delay signing that 3-year licensing deal for MIS with Education Software Solutions

  ESS boss says 'longer agreement terms... increasingly standard' in the sector
  Paul Kunert Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 15:42 UTC 5

  The UK government is advising schools in England to press pause before signing up to a three-year licensing agreement with Education Software Solutions (ESS).

  As we revealed earlier this week, ESS – formerly owned by Capita but sold to Montagu Private Equity last December for £400m and now in the same group as ParentPay – told clients it is making changes to its SIMS (schools information management systems) Annual Entitlement Plan by "extending" the agreement to 36 months.

  Some school techies were outraged by this and leapt on the Edugeek forum to discuss it. Now the Department for Education has stepped in to advise.

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• Nominet names new CEO as new chair promises real reform

  But won't be looking into pay deal
  Kieren McCarthy in San Francisco Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 13:40 UTC 5

  Updated Troubled .uk registry operator Nominet has named a new CEO to replace the one fired by members earlier this year.

  At its annual general meeting (AGM) this week, the current CEO of the IT industry's chartered institute BCS, Paul Fletcher, was named as the permanent replacement for Russell Haworth, starting in February.

  Fletcher will be joined on the board by two new non-executive directors elected by members this week, both of whom have vowed to maintain reform efforts at the not-for-profit company.

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• The ideal sat-nav is one that stops the car, winds down the window, and asks directions

  It's not quite a Jag-you-arr
  Alistair Dabbs Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 12:40 UTC 64

  Something for the Weekend, Sir? Turn left. Turn right. At the roundabout, take the fourth exit.

  Nobody enjoys being told what to do all the time but in the case of Google Maps I will make an exception. What I like about it best is that I can ignore her directions – should dissent take my fancy – and she doesn't get cross.

  This is in sharp contrast with all the classic sat-navs I have ever used, including the one embedded permanently into my current vehicle. Not only does it have a penchant for taking me on pointlessly circuitous routes, the wrong way up one-way streets, and along shortcuts too narrow for a bicycle, it grows angrier by the second when I refuse its orders.

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• The Rust Foundation gets ready to Rumbul (we're sure new CEO has never, ever heard that joke before)

  And while we're here, a quick look at why the language is taking off
  Liam Proven in Prague Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 11:33 UTC 3

  The Rust Foundation – the US non-profit behind the programming language since Mozilla let the team go – has picked a new CEO: Rebecca Rumbul, formerly director of research and engagement at digital democracy charity mySociety, and before that the Privacy Collective.

  Dr Rumbul's appointment at the relatively new foundation reflects the growing importance of the Rust language – which can be seen from the foundation's list of members. Facebook is using it, as is Google, Microsoft, various Linux kernel developers, and Linux lappy vendor System76. There are even a couple of Rust-based OSes, Redox and Theseus.

  One reason is of course speed – Rust is consistently one of the fastest languages, right after C and C++. But so are Ada and Fortran, which excite very few people these days. Arguably Rust's most significant rival in recent years is Google's Go language: last year, it was the language most developers said they wanted to learn next.

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• Netlify acquires OneGraph: One API to rule them all?

  Also: Funding for Jamstack startups, and why Twilio adopted the architecture
  Tim Anderson Fri 19 Nov 2021 // 10:27 UTC 1

  Interview Netlify has acquired OneGraph, which provides a GraphQL API that wraps the APIs of third-party services, as well as launching a new Jamstack innovation fund for startups.

  Jamstack is an architectural approach for web applications where static web pages retrieve dynamic content by calling APIs, hence "JavaScript, APIs and Markup." A web server is not required and Jamstack sites are amenable to acceleration via a content delivery network (CDN), but server-side logic still exists, in the APIs that are called, and these become the potential bottleneck.

  "The Jamstack and the architectural approach behind that has really changed the direction of the modern web, and this move towards decoupling the web UI layer from the back end infrastructure layer and… splitting up all these different APIs and services is an architectural tendency that's only getting stronger," Matt Biilmann, Netlify CEO and co-founder, tells The Register.

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