Euro MPs warn of UN net control

22 November 2012 Last updated at 13:26 ET

The UN should not be allowed to take over control of the internet, Euro MPs have warned.

International governments are set to agree a new information and communications treaty next month.

Reports in the Russian press have suggested the Kremlin and others wanted control of key internet systems passed to a UN agency.

Internet control currently lies largely with US-based groups such as Icann, which regulates the web address system.

The European Parliament has said the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was "not the appropriate body" to have authority.

The ITU has said a new treaty was needed to ensure "the free flow of information around the world, promoting affordable and equitable access for all and laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and market growth".

The UN agency is hosting the conference to draw up the treaty between 3 and 14 December in Dubai.

Members of the European Parliament backed a resolution which urged member states to reject changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) which would "negatively impact the internet, its architecture, operations, content and security, business relations, internet governance and the free flow of information online".

'Equal rights'

The ITRs are designed to ensure interoperability of telecoms equipment and services across the world. The last major revision was in 1988.

Continue reading the main story

Whatever one single country does not accept will not pass"

End Quote Dr Hamadoun Toure Secretary-general, ITU

The negotiation process surrounding a new treaty has been criticised for being conducted largely out of the public's eye.

However, a site called Wcitleaks, run by researchers at George Mason University, has published several documents relating to the new treaty.

Among them was a proposal from Russia suggesting that the US should have less control over the internet's operation.

"Member states shall have equal rights to manage the internet, including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources and to support for the operation and development of basic internet infrastructure," it said in a document submitted on 17 November.

'Limited access'

The European Parliament's objection follows loud opposition from search giant Google, which has invited concerned internet users to sign a petition.

"The International Telecommunication Union is bringing together regulators from around the world to renegotiate a decades-old communications treaty," the company wrote.

"Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech - or even allow them to cut off internet access.

"Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders. This could limit access to information - particularly in emerging markets."

ITU secretary-general Dr Hamadoun Toure has signalled that if there were any serious disagreements he would try to avoid putting an issue to a majority vote.

"We never vote because voting means winners and losers and you can't afford that," he told the BBC in July.

"Whatever one single country does not accept will not pass."

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Hi-tech desk 'boosts maths'

23 November 2012 Last updated at 06:39 ET

Interactive hi-tech desks could help boost the maths skills of primary school pupils, researchers have said.

The multi-touch, multi-user interactive 'smart' desks were designed, built and tested by Durham University.

The desks help children work together without any one individual dominating, the three-year project involving 400 children aged eight to 10 suggests.

Researchers said high costs mean the desks are "some way off" being a regular feature in schools.

However, they said they have already found a number of ways of reducing the cost of the technology.

Researcher Emma Mercier said the desks help pupils "find a range of solutions to arithmetic questions".

They act like multi-touch interactive white boards so that several students can use any desk at once.

This makes it is easier for students to collaborate on finding solutions to problems, according to the study, published in the journal Learning and Instruction.

Mathematical 'flexibility'

The classroom teacher gets a live feed of the desks and can intervene if any pupil needs help.

The researchers claim the desks can encourage pupils to use their mathematical skills to solve problems more effectively than traditional practice on paper.

"We can achieve fluency in maths through practice, however, boosting a pupil's ability to find a range of solutions to arithmetic questions is harder to teach.

This classroom can help teachers to use collaborative learning to improve their pupils' flexibility in maths," said Dr Mercier.

"Co-operative learning works very well in the new classroom because pupils interact and learn in a different way. The children really enjoy doing maths in this way and are always disappointed when you turn the desks off," she added.

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Court row over US pupil tracker

23 November 2012 Last updated at 06:59 ET

A court challenge has delayed plans to expel a Texan student for refusing to wear a radio tag that tracked her movements.

Religious reasons led Andrea Hernandez to stop wearing the tag that revealed where she was on her school campus.

The tags were introduced to track students and help tighten control of school funding.

A Texan court has granted a restraining order filed by a civil rights group pending a hearing on use of the tags.

ID badges containing radio tags started to be introduced at the start of the 2012 school year to schools run by San Antonio's Northside Independent School District (NISD). The tracking tags gave NISD a better idea of the numbers of students attending classes each day - the daily average of which dictates how much cash it gets from state coffers.

'Mark of the beast'

Introducing the tags led to protests by some school students at John Jay High School - one of two schools out of 112 in the NISD catchment area piloting the tags.

Ms Hernandez refused to wear the tag because it conflicted with her religious beliefs, according to court papers. Wearing such a barcoded tag can be seen as a mark of the beast as described in Revelation 13 in the Bible, Ms Hernandez's father told Wired magazine in an interview.

NISD suspended Ms Hernandez and said she would no longer be able to attend the John Jay High School unless she wore the ID badge bearing the radio tag. Alternatively it said Ms Hernandez could attend other schools in the district that had not yet joined the radio tagging project.

The Rutherford Institute, a liberties campaign group, joined the protests and went to court to get a restraining order to stop NISD suspending Ms Hernandez.

A district court judge has granted the restraining order so Ms Hernandez can go back to school and ordered a hearing next week on the NISD radio tag project.

The Rutherford Institute said the NISD's suspension violated Texan laws on religious freedom as well as free speech amendments to the US constitution.

"The court's willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go - not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset, in general, that everyone needs to be monitored and controlled," said John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute in a statement.

Mr Whitehead said student tagging and locating projects were the first step in producing a "compliant citizenry".

"These 'student locator' programmes are ultimately aimed at getting students used to living in a total surveillance state where there will be no privacy, and wherever you go and whatever you text or email will be watched by the government," he said.

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Trust lacking in comparison sites

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:23 ET

Consumers' lack of trust in some price comparison websites means that they miss out on potential savings, a regulator has said.

A previous study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said that consumers could collectively save up to £240m a year by using these websites effectively.

But the OFT has now written to 100 leading operators asking them to make information on websites clearer.

One consumer group recently called for comparison websites to be regulated.

'Step forward'

The use of price comparison websites has grown significantly as more and more consumers gain internet access.

For example, the majority of motor insurance policies are now bought by drivers who search through price comparison sites.

In its latest report, the OFT said these websites had brought a "major step forward" for consumers in getting better value for money.

Yet it said that a review of 55 different sites had shown that many could improve on their privacy settings, their complaints process, the way results were displayed, and clear identification of who was operating the site.

The Data Protection Act requires that all businesses collecting personal data explain to consumers who is collecting their information, what they intend to do with it and who it will be shared with.

The report also urged consumers to:

• Look for opt-out options if they do not want their information to be shared
• Be aware of how results are displayed - by relevance, price or popularity
• Use different websites, rather than relying on a claim that the website has "found the best deal"
• Check who runs the site, not just the name, and use accredited websites if possible

"Price comparison websites help busy shoppers find a good deal, but people might not realise that by being a bit savvier they can get even more out of these websites," said Clive Maxwell, chief executive of the OFT.

"Not all price comparison websites have the same standards."

Watchdog Consumer Focus, which runs an accreditation service, said that these websites needed to trade fairly and openly to be regarded as trustworthy brokers between consumers and markets.

"An open and honest relationship with customers is vital given the consumer distrust of many of the markets they use comparison sites to shop around," said chief executive Mike O'Connor.

The consumers' association Which? has previously called for price comparison websites to be regulated because the information they provided was not always fair.

It said that initial prices could seem very cheap because sites automatically pre-selected certain options for insurance products.

That led to some quotes being misleading and could cause customers to spend more than necessary - a claim that was disputed by one comparison site.

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Time-lapse code wins Pi contest

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:42 ET

Software that turns a Raspberry Pi computer into a time-lapse camera has won a contest for teenage programmers.

PySnap was written by 12-year-old Aaron Hill and took first prize in the 13 and under category of the Raspberry Pi summer coding contest.

The software allows Pi owners to connect a USB camera to the device and fine-tune the interval at which it takes pictures.

For his coding prowess Aaron wins a cash prize of $1,000 (£627).

The Raspberry Pi is about the size of a credit card but is a fully working computer created to help young people get started with programming.

The two-month long competition was run by the foundation behind the Raspberry Pi and intended to find the best young programmers working with the bare-bones computer. Entries were sought in two categories: 13 and under and 14-18.

Writing about the competition entries on the Raspberry Pi blog, community manager Liz Upton said PySnap was "well thought out and designed". Runners up prizes of $200 (£125) went to two other programs; SerPint, by Louis Goessling, aged 11, made it easier to control more devices via the Pi and The Matrix by Conner Foxley, also 12, was a text-based world simulator.

Ashley Newson, 17, took the top prize in the 14-18 category for SmartSim which is a digital circuit and simulation package for the Pi. The four runners up in this category included a game called Neutron Craft by Bradley Pollard, aged 18,, a web server called Pancake by Yussuf Khalil (15), a file synchroniser built by Hannes Westermann, also 17, called BerryBox and a music player called RasPod from 17-year-old Aneesh Dogra.

"We had entries from all over the world which really delighted us," Ms Upton told the BBC.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans to run regular competitions to recognise and reward young programmers.

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Microsoft looks at smart glasses

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:57 ET

Work on digital glasses that overlay information on top of the user's view of the world has been carried out by Microsoft.

A patent applied for by the US tech firm describes how the eyewear could be used to bring up statistics over a wearer's view of a baseball game or details of characters in a play.

The newly-released document was filed in May 2011 and is highly detailed.

If a product comes to market it could challenge Google's Project Glass.

Google is planning to deliver its augmented reality glasses to developers early next year and then follow with a release to consumers in 2014.

Smaller firms - such as Vuzix, TTP and Explore Engage - are also working on rival systems.

Although some have questioned how many people would want to wear such devices, a recent report by Juniper Research indicated that the market for smart glasses and other next-generation wearable tech could be worth $1.5bn (£940m) by 2014 and would multiply over following years.

No missed moments

Microsoft's patent was filed by Kathryn Stone Perez, executive producer of the Xbox Incubation unit which earlier developed the Kinect sensor; and John Tardiff, an audio-video engineer who previously worked at Apple.

It notes that entertainment organisers often provide screens showing information to enhance audience's enjoyment of their events. But looking at these displays forces the user to turn their head away from the action - for example looking at the scoreboard at a baseball game, or translated lyrics at the side of the stage at an opera.

Microsoft suggests augmented reality headwear would avoid the risk of missing a key moment and also make it possible to see effects otherwise reserved for people watching on TV - for example a computer-drawn line superimposed over an American Football pitch showing the minimum 10-yard distance a team needs to advance the ball.

The patent suggests the key to making this work would be to vary the transparency of the glasses lens.

"[It would be] capable of generating display elements on various portions of a user's display while remaining portions of the head mounted display are transparent to allow the user to continue to view events or occurrences within the live event," it says.

"Other alternatives allow the display to become completely opaque, in order for the display to provide, for example, a display of a video such as an instant replay of the live event."

Anticipated events

Microsoft suggests a wrist-worn computer could be used to operate the device, or alternatively the user might control it through voice-commands and flicking their eyes to a certain spot.

It indicates that most of the processing work - identifying people and other objects in view, and deciding what information to show about them - would likely be carried out by remote computer servers in order to keep the equipment slimline.

The firm adds that many entertainment events follow a set course - such as a character always appearing at the same point in a play - and this could be used to ready information in advance to ensure it is brought up quickly.

Microsoft suggests a wide range of sensors would need to be built into the eyewear - including a microphone, video camera, gyroscope, eye gaze-trackers, infra-red detector and magnetometer as well as wi-fi and/or bluetooth connectivity - to provide the functionality it describes.

The document also describes some of the technologies it could license that have been developed by other firms, suggesting Microsoft has explored the possibility of putting its ideas into practice.

Nitin Bhas, senior analyst at Juniper research said he would not be surprised to see the the Windows-maker release a device over the coming years.

"We think smart glasses and other head-worn displays will be the next major form-factor for computing with adoption by consumers beginning around late-2014 to 2017," he told the BBC.

"The devices will help integrate technology into human life, making things like augmented reality more seamless than it is on smartphones at present.

"Compared to other devices we think the adoption rate will be low and price points high in the medium-term, but they will catch on eventually."

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Bug inspires self-filling bottle

23 November 2012 Last updated at 10:46 ET

A US start-up has turned to nature to help bring water to arid areas by drawing moisture from the air.

NBD Nano aims to mimic the way a beetle survives in an African desert to create a self-filling water bottle capable of storing up to three litres every hour.

The insect harvests moisture from the air by first getting it to condense on its back and then storing the water.

Using nature as an inspiration for technology, known as biomimicry, is increasingly widespread.

NBD Nano, which consists of four recent university graduates and was formed in May, looked at the Namib Desert beetle that lives in a region that gets about half an inch of rainfall per year.

Using a similar approach, the firm wants to cover the surface of a bottle with hydrophilic (water-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) materials.

The work is still in its early stages, but it is the latest example of researchers looking at nature to find inspiration for sustainable technology.

"It was important to apply [biomimicry] to our design and we have developed a proof of concept and [are] currently creating our first fully-functional prototype," Miguel Galvez, a co-founder, told the BBC.

"We think our initial prototype will collect anywhere from half a litre of water to three litres per hour, depending on local environments."

Continue reading the main story

The founders want to use a fan to get the surrounding air to pass over the surface of the bottle. The air would then condense and get stored inside the device.

"Dry places like the Atacama Desert or Gobi Desert don't have access to a lot of sources of water," said Mr Galvez.

"So if we're creating [several] litres per day in a cost-effective manner, you can get this to a community of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and other dry regions of the world. And if you can do it cheaply enough, then you can really create an impact on the local environment."

About three billion people on Earth - almost one in two - live in water-scarce conditions, with demand growing drastically, while supply remains constant, according to the World Health Organization.

Energy efficiency

In some countries, condensation devices on rooftops already harvest water from the air - but these technologies consume large amounts of energy to produce small amounts of water.

NBD Nano's prototype seems to be more energy-efficient, but it still would not be able to satisfy the needs of an entire community, Erik Harvey from WaterAid charity told the BBC.

"Even in water-scarce areas, communities need more water than what they would consume for themselves - livestock and agriculture in arid environments are very important," he said.

But it does not mean the start-up is wasting time developing a water bottle, he said.

"There is a range of viable markets for them, like the military or the outdoors market, people going camping, and the advantage that they may have is a much lower energy input device," said Mr Harvey.

Nature copycats

A number of companies have recently been researching nature-inspired solutions to real-life problems.

Electronics firm Qualcomm studied light reflection on butterfly wings to design its Mirasol e-reader display.

And Canadian company Whalepower mimics humpback whale flippers in its wind turbines and fans to reduce drag.

San Diego Zoo in California recently opened a Centre for Bioinspiration.

And there is a Biomimicry Institute in Montana, US, where consultants work with companies, helping them to apply nature-inspired solutions to particular problems.

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Saudi women 'monitored by SMS'

23 November 2012 Last updated at 12:31 ET

A discovery that Saudi male guardians are automatically getting text messages about cross-border movements of female dependants has caused a Twitter uproar.

"Hello Taliban, herewith some tips from the Saudi e-government!" read one post, while another suggested microchips.

Attention was drawn to the system when a man travelling with his wife got an alert as they left Riyadh airport.

Saudi women are denied the right to travel without their guardian's consent and are also banned from driving.

Reform attempts

Saudi men earlier had the option of requesting alert messages about their dependants' cross-border movement, but it appears that since last week such notifications are being sent automatically.

Some Twitter users have mocked the move, suggesting also the use of microchips and ankle bracelets to track women.

Another tweet read: "If I need an SMS to let me know my wife is leaving Saudi Arabia, then I'm either married to the wrong woman or need a psychiatrist."

The text alerts are part of an electronic passport system launched by the Saudi authorities last year.

The government argues that e-passports make it easier for citizens to deal with their travel arrangements "without having to visit the passport office".

Saudi Arabia remains a deeply conservative country, however King Abdullah has recently introduced some cautious political and social reforms.

In September 2011, he announced that women would be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections.

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Games firm cuts workforce by 75%

24 November 2012 Last updated at 06:09 ET

A Derbyshire computer games company is shedding 150 jobs from its 200-strong workforce after a steep decline in sales.

Eurocom, in Mackworth, has designed a series of games including ones featuring James Bond, Harry Potter and the Olympic Games.

A spokesman said a number of projects had fallen through forcing it to make the redundancies.

The firm said it hoped to retain 50 employees and restructure the business.

A statement from the firm said it regretted having to lay off "very experienced, talented and highly skilled employees".

Founded in 1988, the company has developed dozens of computer and video games for most major platforms, including games based on Pirates of the Caribbean and Batman Begins.

The firm said it would now concentrate on developing games for mobile phones.

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Gangnam Style 'most viewed video'

24 November 2012 Last updated at 20:35 ET

Gangnam Style, the dance track by South Korean pop phenomenon Psy, has become YouTube's most-watched video of all time.

It has notched up more than 808m views since it was posted in July.

The video pokes fun at the consumerism of Gangnam, an affluent suburb of the South Korean capital Seoul.

In it, the portly Psy dances as though he is trotting on a horse, holding the reins and spinning a lasso in a manner that has sparked a global dance craze.

The video also features the 34-year-old singer reclining on a sun lounger in tight pink shorts, gazing longingly at a girl dancing on an underground train in tight shorts and gesticulating at a woman working out on a beach - in tight shorts.

The dance has sparked numerous copycat versions, being performed by a diverse fan-base including Filipino prison inmates, prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a Chinese robot.

Popular parodies include one performed by Eton College schoolboys and another in the Star Trek language Klingon.

Gangnam Style, which won best video at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards, has also been number one in 28 countries.

It holds the Guinness World Record for the most "liked" song ever - currently with a little under 5.4m likes on YouTube.

Previously, Justin Bieber's 2010 teenybopper hit Baby held the record for the most YouTube views.

Bieber's manager Scooter Braun was the first person in the US to tweet a link to the Gangnam Style video.

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Nasa acts to tackle lost laptops

15 November 2012 Last updated at 09:09 ET

US space agency Nasa has ordered that the data on all its laptops must be encrypted, after losing another one of its portable computers.

Until the process is complete, it has forbidden staff from removing Nasa-issued laptops containing sensitive information from its facilities.

The order follows the loss of a device containing "sensitive personally identifiable information".

There have been several similar incidents over recent years.

Nasa said the latest incident had occurred on 31 October, when a laptop and documents were stolen from a locked vehicle of one of its employees at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.

The machine was password protected, but the agency acknowledged that the information might still be accessible to hackers since it was not encrypted.

Encryption would have scrambled the data, requiring a complicated code to make it understandable again.

As a result, Nasa has warned its workers to watch out for bogus messages.

"All employees should be aware of any phone calls, emails, and other communications from individuals claiming to be from Nasa or other official sources that ask for personal information or verification of it," an agency-wide email published by news site Spaceref stated.

"Because of the amount of information that must be reviewed and validated electronically and manually, it may take up to 60 days for all individuals impacted by this breach to be identified and contacted."

Encryption order

As a result of the security breach, Nasa's chief information officer, Linda Cureton, has said that with immediate effect laptops containing information about the following topics could only leave its buildings if the relevant data was encrypted:

• the international sale or transport of weapons, nuclear equipment or other materials that fall under the US's export administration regulations
• information about Nasa's human resources
• other "sensitive but unclassified" data

She said that she wanted the maximum possible number of laptops to be encrypted by Wednesday and a target of all laptops a month later. In addition employees have been banned from storing sensitive data on mobile phones, tablets and other portable devices.

The Nasa Watch blog, which comments on affairs at the agency, had previously criticised it for a series of other data losses.

It noted that the organisation had been warned in 2009 that it was not taking enough steps to sufficiently protect information and had reported the loss or theft of 48 of its mobile computing devices between April 2009 and April 2011.

This is not the first time Nasa has promised action to address the problem.

In March, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden told the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Commerce that that he was going to sign a directive ordering all portable devices to use encryption, after acknowledging the agency was "woefully deficient" when compared to other government departments.

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Google TVs to get gaming service

15 November 2012 Last updated at 10:18 ET

The OnLive gaming service is to be made available to Google TV users, following a deal with electronics firm LG.

One of a handful of firms making hardware for Google TV. LG's G2 series sets have Google's TV service built in.

Rather than using a dedicated device, OnLive's cloud-based gaming service relies on fast net links to let people play popular video games on demand.

People using Google TV via an LG set will get OnLive via an update and it will be standard on all future devices.

The deal was unveiled after Google itself revealed a broader update for its TV service. This added voice searching and updated other applications to make it easier to find programmes.

To be able to play games users will also need to buy a wireless controller that, in the US, costs about $50 (£31). A demonstration of the gaming service running on Google TV was first given at the Electronic Entertainment Expo held in Los Angeles in June.

Games available via OnLive include Sleeping Dogs, Darksiders II and Civilisation V. Rather than use disks or downloads, OnLive streams game data to users as they play.

OnLive was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when its founder, Steve Perlman, sold the firm's assets to a venture capital firm for $5m (£3m). The deal meant early investors in OnLive got almost nothing and it also wiped out any return for employees from staff share deals. Mr Perlman left the company soon after.

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Hi-tech school kit 'lying unused'

16 November 2012 Last updated at 03:57 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter

Costly digital technology that has the power to transform education often sits in boxes because teachers do not know how best to use it, a study claims.

Researchers for the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) say there is clear evidence that technology can boost learning.

Their report sets out examples of best practice from all over the world.

Chief executive Geoff Mulgan said: "The emphasis is too often on shiny hardware rather than how it is to be used."

The researchers estimate that schools in England alone spent more than £1.4bn on technology in the past three years but they claim that all too often it is not being used to its "full promise and potential".

The team, from the University of Nottingham and the London-based Institute of Education Knowledge Lab, looked at evidence from hundreds of academic papers, blogs and reviews from all over the globe.

Right training

They found there was no question that hardware such as interactive whiteboards, digital tablets or software such as educational games could help improve pupils' learning if used properly.

But they say that too often they are used without a strong understanding of their power to transform education, and many schools still use technology to support 20th Century teaching methods and learning objectives.

Associate professor Shaaron Ainsworth from the University of Nottingham told BBC News: "We are saying that technology could be much more effective if teachers and learners are given the right sort of training and use it in the right sort of ways.

"We have lots of examples of brilliant use of technology from all over the world and this report brings them all together."

Mr Mulgan said: "A tablet replacing an exercise book is not innovation, it's just a different way to make notes.

"There is incredible potential for digital technology in and beyond the classroom but it is vital to rethink how learning is organised if we are to reap the rewards."

For example, he said that digital technology offered vast opportunities for pupils to learn with others but these ideas were simply not filtering through to the education system where tests and examinations still focus on individual attainment.

'Victorian system'

The report, Decoding Learning, says that for the past decade technology has been put ahead of teaching, and excitement at innovation has been put ahead of what actually helps children learn.

It calls on experts from industry and education to work together to harness technology to "put learning first".

Dominic Savage of the British Educational Suppliers Association welcomed the report: "Schools should only invest in technology when they understand what they want to do with it and what it will achieve."

He said that while money had been wasted in the past, there was now plenty of information available to help schools understand what technology to buy and how best to use it.

Valerie Thompson of the E-learning foundation called for the education system to embrace technology. "Consider the consequences of continuing to subject young people to an education system rooted in the Victorian era as a preparation for a post-school period of study and work in a digital age," she said.

"If Nesta can use their significant financial clout to accelerate the adoption of best practice in schools across the country, and make sure that our education ministers are made aware of the extraordinary things that teachers are doing so that they are encouraged and not criticised, then perhaps this report will have made a positive contribution."

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Spotify nets Coca-Cola cash

16 November 2012 Last updated at 04:24 ET

Spotify, the Swedish music streaming service, has attracted fresh investment from Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity.

The $100m (£63m) of new money gives Spotify a valuation of about $3bn.

But the private, loss-making company is facing increased competition from rival music streaming companies, such as French company Deezer, which raised $130m in new funding last month.

Microsoft and Apple have also said they will be entering the market.

Spotify, which launched in the US in 2011, charges a monthly fee for unlimited access to its digital library of 18 million songs, and limited access for free, supported by advertising.

Rivals, such as Rhapsody, Rdio and Deezer, do not offer any free listening beyond trial periods.

Spotify now has more than 15 million active users and about four million paying subscribers, but still lost 45.4m euros (£37m) in 2011, 59% more than in 2010, despite a doubling of revenues.

The recent funding round also raised less than the $200m Spotify was originally hoping for, indicating a more cautious approach from investors following the Facebook flotation debacle and worries about growing competition in the sector.

For example, Microsoft is offering ad-supported free streaming via its Xbox Music service, but only for computers and smartphones running its Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems.

Users of the Xbox 360 video game console will also get access.

Spotify is beta-testing a browser-based version of its music streaming service, allowing users to play music without having to download an app.

The company hopes this will increase the accessibility of the service and widen its appeal.

But music streaming providers face growing opposition from artists disgruntled at the low royalties they receive.

Pandora Media, the leading internet radio brand measured by listener hours, which pays about half its annual revenues in royalties to artists, has been lobbying the US Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act, which could see royalties cut by up to 85%.

The move prompted 125 artists, including Bryan Adams, Billy Joel and Ne-Yo, to write an open letter in protest, branding Pandora's proposal "not fair".

Artists' songs often need millions of plays before they make any significant royalty money.

In a feature for music site Pitchfork , Damon Krukowski, of US band Galaxie 500, revealed how 5,960 plays of their song Tugboat over three months on Spotify netted the three songwriters just 35 cents each.

Pandora paid them even less.

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Rat heart cells power 'bio-bots'

16 November 2012 Last updated at 05:53 ET

Tiny biological robots that walk to the beat of a thin sheet of rat heart cells have been created by US scientists.

The "bio-bots" were fabricated using a 3D printer and then seeded with the cardiac cells.

The regular twitching motion of the heart cells makes the tiny structure flex and slowly inch along.

The project could lead to bio-bots with different shapes, seeded with all sorts of cells, that find a role in medicine or as sensors, said the researchers.

The 7mm long bio-bots were fabricated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and resemble a diving board. They have one long leg supported towards one end by a broad stumpy foot.

A 3D printing process was used to build up layers to form the board and foot of the bio-bot from hydrogel - a biologically inert goo often used in tissue engineering work.

Cleaning up

A separate procedure was used to coat the underside of the long board with a single sheet of living rat cardiac cells. When the heart cells twitch in unison they make the long board curl and act as a lever to push the bio-bot a tiny distance forward. The bio-bot's top speed has been clocked at about 1mm every four seconds.

Prof Rashid Bashir, who led the research at the University of Illinois, said the team's tiny bio-bots could find a role as sensors or in environmental reclamation projects.

"Our goal is to see if we can get this thing to move toward chemical gradients, so we could eventually design something that can look for a specific toxin and then try to neutralise it," said Prof Bashir in a statement. "Now you can think about a sensor that's moving and constantly sampling and doing something useful, in medicine and the environment."

The research team is now making bio-bots of many shapes to find other ways for them to move and coating them with different types of cells to give them new abilities. They could be seeded with nerve cells or light-sensitive cells to give them more control over where they went.

"We have the design rules to make these millimetre-scale shapes and different physical architectures, which hasn't been done with this level of control," said Prof Bashir. "What we want to do now is add more functionality to it."

A paper describing the Illinois research appeared in Nature's Scientific Reports.

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Data jam threat to UK networks

16 November 2012 Last updated at 07:36 ET

Steps need to be taken now to head off a looming "capacity crunch" on the UK's mobile networks, says regulator Ofcom.

As more people use broadband-connected smartphones and tablets, the amount of data Britons consume on the move each month has hit 20 million gigabytes.

The main reason for the data explosion is users' love of video, TV and films while on the move.

Without swift action, mobile networks will gradually grind to a halt, warned the agency.

If current trends play out, said Ofcom, demand for mobile data would grow by 80 times by 2030.

To cope with the data tsunami Ofcom has drawn up plans to release more radio spectrum and make the industry's use of existing spectrum more efficient.

The 700MHz frequency band, currently used by digital terrestrial television, will be opened up to mobile services by 2018 as part of a global plan to harmonise frequencies for mobile users.

Digital television will eventually migrate to the 600MHz frequency under Ofcom's plans.

'Migration'

Consumers worried that this will mean new set-top box equipment and yet more upheaval need not be alarmed, said Ofcom.

"This will not be a new digital switch over; all it will need is a simple retune," said Ed Richards, Ofcom chief executive. "It's a migration."

Initial industry concerns about the migration plans had "substantially diminished", he added.

By making better use of the UK's existing 16,000 wi-fi hotspots, which are significantly underused at the moment, and introducing new transmission and compression technologies, Ofcom believes there will be plenty of new capacity to cope with the expected increase in mobile data usage.

The mobile industry is currently collaborating on a new wi-fi protocol called PassPoint which will allow consumers to use one sign-in to join any public wi-fi network, wherever they happen to be.

Ofcom hopes this will encourage more mobile users to make use of the existing public wi-fi network and help lighten the load on mobile networks.

"The overall outcome for the UK, the economy, and consumers is a positive one," said Mr Richards. "The public cost of this will be utterly marginal, but there will be a massive benefit to the public."

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Hackers attack Israeli websites

16 November 2012 Last updated at 08:13 ET

Hacking group Anonymous has launched a series of cyber attacks against websites in Israel.

Data bombardments briefly knocked some sites offline and led to others being defaced with pro-Palestinian messages.

The OpIsrael campaign was launched by the hacking collective in retaliation for attacks on Gaza.

The cyber attacks come as the Israeli army updates its web campaign adding "achievements" and "badges" for regular visitors.

Propaganda war

Anonymous said it had launched the OpIsrael campaign following threats by the Israeli government to cut all Gaza's telecommunication links. This, said the group in a statement posted to the AnonRelations website, "crossed a line in the sand".

"We are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch," it said.

The group warned the Israeli government not to cut off telecom and web links and urged it to end military operations in Gaza. If the attacks did not end, Israel would feel the group's "full and unbridled wrath".

Hours after the statement was launched, Anonymous posted a list of 87 sites it claimed had been defaced or attacked as part of OpIsrael. Many of the sites had their homepages replaced with messages in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Anonymous also produced a package of information for people in Gaza detailing alternative ways for them to communicate if net and other telecommunication links were cut.

At the same time as the Anonymous attacks were being carried out, the Israeli Defence Force re-started tools on its blog that reward people for repeat visits and interacting with the site.

Called IDF Ranks, the tools add a "game" element to the blog and reward repeat visitors with points. When visitors have amassed enough points they get a virtual military rank.

A visitor who goes to the site 10 times gets a "consistent" badge and someone who does lots of searches gets rewarded with the "research officer" rank.

The army said the rank system was turned off briefly as its social media sites had received very heavy traffic. On Wednesday, it began a live feed about its military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Similarly, Hamas has been giving running commentaries on its mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli targets via Twitter.

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Verizon chokes pirates' bandwidth

16 November 2012 Last updated at 11:10 ET

US net firm Verizon has declared war on illegal downloaders, or pirates, who use technologies such as BitTorrent to steal copyrighted material.

Verizon has said it will first warn repeat offenders by email and voicemail.

Then it will restrict or "throttle" their internet connection speeds.

Time Warner Cable, another US internet service provider (ISP) pledging to tackle piracy, says it will use pop-up warnings to deter repeat offenders.

Private enforcers

After that it will restrict subscribers' web browsing activities by redirecting them to a landing page.

The moves come as part of a concerted effort by five major US ISPs - AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon - to bear down on illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material.

In September 2011, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) teamed up with the ISPs to launch the Center for Copyright Information, a body dedicated to deterring copyright infringement and advising consumers on legal file sharing options.

Verizon and Time Warner unveiled their latest anti-piracy plans at a panel discussion hosted by the Internet Society in New York on Thursday.

Continue reading the main story

1. Avatar

2. Batman: The Dark Knight

3. Transformers

4. Inception

5. The Hangover

6. Star Trek

7. Kick-Ass

8. The Departed

9. The Incredible Hulk

10. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Source: TorrentFreak

Dubbed the "six-strikes" policy, referring to the number of warnings pirates may receive, the campaign is due to kick off in full from the end of November, according to file-sharing news site TorrentFreak.

But the industry freely admits that the campaign is unlikely to deter "hardcore" pirates, who can easily circumvent the copyright alert system by setting up virtual private networks.

It claims the campaign is aimed at educating mainstream consumers who may not even realise they are doing something illegal.

While the industry maintains it has no plans to take legal action against persistent offenders, observers believe it remains the ultimate sanction.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns for digital freedom, is highly critical of the imminent campaign, saying: "Big media companies are launching a massive peer-to-peer surveillance scheme to snoop on subscribers."

ISPs will be acting as "Hollywood's private enforcement arm", it added.

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Help wanted on porn piracy cases

16 November 2012 Last updated at 11:32 ET

A digital rights group is seeking financial help to stop an adult film-maker contacting Britons suspected of pirating pornographic movies.

The Digital Rights Group has applied to intervene in a legal battle between O2 and Golden Eye International.

In 2011, Golden Eye started legal action to make O2 reveal the names of about 9,000 suspected porn pirates.

A successful court challenge meant it only got details on 2,845 people and now it wants to pursue the others.

Cash offer

The UK's Consumer Focus group intervened in the original case saying the adult film-maker had no grounds to pursue 6,155 of them as they were suspected of pirating films for which Golden Eye did not hold the copyright.

The Consumer Focus intervention also changed the wording of letters sent out to suspected pirates to make it clear what penalties people faced. In the letters sent to suspected pirates, Golden Eye said payment of a settlement fee would head off a potential court case.

Golden Eye has now gone to court to get personal details of the 6,155 people released by O2. The Open Rights Group (ORG) has applied to intervene to stop this.

The ORG said it wanted to intervene because Golden Eye had no specific mandate from the 12 other porn studios whose works are believed to have been pirated. Instead, it said, Golden Eye had an "enforcement only" licence which would see it hand over 25% of the cash it got from those it contacted to the studios. Golden Eye would keep the remaining cash.

The ORG has appealed for cash to help pay £5,000 for legal fees and mount the court challenge. If it successfully intervened, said the ORG, O2 would not have to hand over any names and future schemes that try to get cash from suspected pirates may be shelved.

Golden Eye has yet to comment on the case and the ORG's intervention.

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Warning over hidden customer data

16 November 2012 Last updated at 18:47 ET

The UK government has repeated its threat to legislate if businesses do not voluntarily release data gathered on customers who ask to see it.

An initiative called Midata calls on firms to provide details to the public in a "machine-readable" format.

Ministers had warned in August they would introduce a new law if utilities, web firms and shops did not voluntarily comply with their request.

Consumer Affairs Minister Jo Swinson will provide more details on Monday.

Under the existing Data Protection Act consumers already have the power to make a "subject access request" to see the personal information companies and other organisations hold on them.

But doing this can incur a fee of up to £10 and not all data has to be handed over.

The government is hoping that the Midata scheme will make the process easier and help consumers make more informed decisions about issues such as which energy deal or mobile subscription would best match their habits.

"Many businesses reap huge commercial benefits from the information they gather from consumers' daily spending patterns", said Ms Swinson ahead of next week's announcement.

"Why shouldn't consumers also benefit from this by having access to their own data to enable them to make better choices?"

Security concerns

Consumer advocacy group Which? believes the information transparency encouraged by the Midata scheme could boost competition to the benefit of consumers.

Executive director Richard Lloyd said: "Giving consumers more power with their personal data will help them make better use of their money, and that's not only good for customer-friendly businesses, but good for growth in the economy."

But several details of the scheme still need to be fleshed out.

The government talks of third-party developers making apps that could access the data on consumers' behalf, but has not specified which formats companies need to provide the information in to ensure the software could make like-for-like comparisons.

Consumer Focus has also cautioned that collating data in this way could pose a security risk, telling the Financial Times it could open a new avenue for personal information to be leaked or become the subject of a hack attack.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says 20 businesses in the energy, finance and telecoms sectors have already signed up to the voluntary scheme.

But it is holding out the threat of legislation should insufficient numbers of companies comply.

If secondary legislation is needed, the department suggested new powers could come into force by early 2014.

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Credit card has built-in keyboard

8 November 2012 Last updated at 06:22 ET

A credit card with an LCD display and built-in keyboard has been launched in Singapore by Mastercard.

The card has touch-sensitive buttons and the ability to create a "one-time password" - doing away with the need for a separate device sometimes needed to log in to online banking.

Future versions of the card could display added information such as the remaining balance.

The card will be available from January before being rolled out globally.

Many of the world's banks require customers to log in to online banking by using a small security device to generate a one-off password.

Bulky token

While considerably more secure than typical static username and password log-in systems, many people find using security tokens cumbersome given the need to keep it with them in order to use online banking.

Mastercard's interactive card aims to solve that issue.

"We brainstormed on ways to make it convenient and yet secure for customers," said V Subba from Standard Chartered Bank, which is collaborating with Mastercard.

"The question was: instead of sending customers another bulky token, could we replace something which already exists in the customer's wallet? That was when credit, debit and ATM cards immediately came to mind."

Eventually, the card could display information such as loyalty or reward points or recent transaction history.

Improving the portability of secure banking is a continuing priority for the world's credit card firms.

Last year, Visa announced a similar card with interactive functions.

However, smartphone manufacturers will be hoping that enhanced credit cards will be quickly replaced by NFC - near-field communication - alleviating the need for physical payment cards altogether.

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Bid to block ad-skipping TV fails

8 November 2012 Last updated at 09:38 ET

A bid to block a TV service that allows viewers to automatically skip adverts on recorded shows has been rejected.

Fox had called for a preliminary injunction on Dish Network's Autohop ahead of a copyright ruling.

Broadcasters Fox, Comcast, NBC and CBS have each sued Dish Networks, saying the show recordings are unauthorised.

Fox said it would appeal against the ruling. It says Autohop is "destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem".

But Dish called the decision not to grant a preliminary injunction a "victory for common sense".

Its Hopper digital video recorder can record and store prime-time content from the four major networks for up to eight days.

And the Autohop feature lets viewers skip advertisements completely - rather than fast-forwarding through them - at the press of a button.

Copyright infringement

Fox had sought a preliminary injunction on Autohop ahead of a ruling on whether the Hopper service was infringing copyright by enabling unauthorised copies of the shows to be made.

The ruling has not been released publicly in order to give the companies involved time to remove confidential commercial information.

However, according to a statement released by Dish Networks, Judge Dolly Gee ruled that Fox was unlikely to be able to prove that it had suffered irreparable harm from the copies Dish's service made.

Fox said it was "gratified" the judge had ruled that the stored programmes did constitute copyright infringement.

"Dish is marketing and benefiting from an unauthorized [video on demand] service that illegally copies Fox's valuable programming," it added.

Dish, which has 14 million customers, argued that Autohop was simply making it easier for viewers to do something most do already - fast-forward through unwanted adverts.

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Twitter resets 'hacked' passwords

8 November 2012 Last updated at 12:48 ET

Thousands of Twitter users have received emails warning their account has been compromised by a third party.

Some accounts had been compromised, but other users had received the emails after Twitter had unintentionally reset unaffected passwords, the company said.

The mass email coincided with incidents involving several high-profile accounts, including at least one account belonging to the BBC.

Other media organisations, such as the TechCrunch blog, reported being warned.

Twitter gave no indication of the cause or source of the compromise, and would not share details of the size of the issue.

In a statement, it said: "When we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.

"In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised.

"We apologise for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused."

Deletions and spam

Some users who received the email noticed that some of their tweets had been deleted, while others said spam links had been posted without their knowledge - a typical characteristic of a compromised account.

The Twitter account belonging to BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier told followers it was "trying to get to the bottom" of problems relating to their feed.

Other BBC accounts have received the warning email - but it is not yet clear if any more were compromised.

Comedian David Mitchell tweeted that he had received the email, and that a tweet he had written publicising his column in the Observer newspaper had been removed.

Some users criticised Twitter's email, suggesting it looked like a "phishing scam" - a message that impersonates an official email in an attempt to trick users into giving up personal details.

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Bin Laden unit punished for leak

8 November 2012 Last updated at 23:40 ET

Seven US Navy Seals have been disciplined for revealing secrets during work as paid consultants on a video game, officials say.

They received reprimand letters and had half of their pay docked for two months for work on Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

The active-duty commandos reportedly include one member of the team that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

The game, published by Electronic Arts, does not recreate the Bin Laden mission but purports to show realistic raids.

Those punished were two Senior Chief Special Operators and five Chief Special Operators.

They were charged with violation of orders, misuse of command gear, dereliction of duty and disclosure of classified material.

The seven soldiers worked for two days during the spring and summer on the recently released video game, according to CBS News.

The game's maker has boasted that real commandos, both on active duty and retired, were involved with the process of designing the game to make it as realistic as possible.

Continue reading the main story

We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do"

End Quote Rear Adm Garry Bonelli Dep Cmdr of Naval Special Warfare Command

It is not clear what classified secrets were divulged by the soldiers while they were consulting for Electronic Arts. But they reportedly used material from the US Navy.

"We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy," Deputy Commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli told the Associated Press.

He added that the disciplinary action would "send a clear message throughout our force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability".

Four other Navy Seals are also under investigation, US reports said. They are said to have left Team Six but are still said to be on active duty.

Unit in demand

The Navy Seals usually respect an unwritten code of staying out of the public eye.

But the BBC's Jane Little, in Washington, says Seal Team Six is now a household name, celebrated on T-shirts and immortalised in film.

The unit was the subject of a recent TV movie about the Bin Laden raid in Pakistan and will feature in another film, about the rescue of a ship's captain kidnapped by Somali pirates.

Meanwhile, another member of the team on the Bin Laden raid wrote a book, No Easy Day, giving his account of that operation.

Some details of Bin Laden's death offered in the book differed from the official version of events.

The content of the book was not reviewed first by the Pentagon, and officials warned that criminal charges could have resulted from the improper disclosure of secret information.

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Armchair auditors 'don't exist'

9 November 2012 Last updated at 04:10 ET By Brian Wheeler Political reporter, BBC News

Ministers were "naive" to believe an army of "brilliant people" would spring up to analyse raw spending data for them, a think tank chief says.

The coalition published vast amounts of previously secret data online in the hope that "armchair auditors" would pore over it to discover waste.

But Neil O'Brien, of Policy Exchange, said the new industry never took off as the data was largely "unusable".

The Cabinet Office is attempting to make the data more user-friendly.

Within weeks of coming to power in 2010, the coalition released all items of local authority spending over £500.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, speaking at the time, said the move would "unleash an army of armchair auditors and quite rightly make those charged with doling out the pennies stop and think twice about whether they are getting value for money".

'Transparency'

The government also published the salaries of thousands of civil servants, naming individuals earning more than £82,900 for the first time, and put online the Combined Online Information System (Coins) database of government spending, which ran to millions of lines of raw data.

Continue reading the main story

It didn't lead to a whole band of armchair accountants doing the work for you"

End Quote Margaret Hodge Labour MP

But the army of volunteer auditors predicted by Mr Pickles and Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude - and the boom in "businesses and social entrepreneurs building new applications and services using previously locked-up government data" predicted by the Conservative Party in its 2010 Technology Manifesto - have so far failed to materialise.

Mr O'Brien, whose think tank has been highly influential on Conservative Party policy, said: "I think when they were in opposition the Conservatives were a bit naive about the way they thought they could just stick data out there and brilliant people would come and cut it up and make it very useable.

"That was a bit naive. Things like the Coins database are out there, but in a basically unusable format and if they want that to be a serious driver of transparency they need to enable users to use it in a simpler way."

But, he added, it was a "good thing" to begin government by "forcing" data into the open as it established the principle that it should be publicly available.

Mr O'Brien was speaking at a follow up to the launch of The Big Data Opportunity, a Policy Exchange report claiming the government could save as much as £33bn a year through better data analysis, supported by technology firm EMC.

Airport queues

The report recommends setting up an "advanced analytics team" in the Cabinet Office to identify ways of sharing data across departments, enabling users of public services to save time and money by, for example, accessing data on queue times at airports or doctor's surgeries in real time.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, chairman of the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee, said "dumping data doesn't help accountability or choice", echoing Mr O'Brien's point that it "didn't lead to a whole band of armchair accountants doing the work for you".

But she said she was in favour of greater transparency - and accused the government of dragging its heels over the promised release of progress reports on major projects, claiming they were worried about revealing problems with the new universal credit system.

The Cabinet Office has been working with data experts at the Open Knowledge Foundation, which recently released an online tool to help journalists and the public search all items of government expenditure over £25,000, to make data more user-friendly and searchable.

Subsequent stages of the project will monitor local councils and other governmental bodies.

It comes as the Cabinet Office released a new strategy for making government websites less confusing and easier for the public to use.

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Microsoft demos speech translator

9 November 2012 Last updated at 06:10 ET

Software that can translate spoken English into spoken Chinese almost instantly has been demonstrated by Microsoft.

The software preserves intonation and cadence so the translated speech still sounds like the original speaker.

Microsoft said research breakthroughs had reduced the number of errors made by the instant translation system.

It said it modelled the system on the way brains work to improve its accuracy.

Details about the project were given by Microsoft research boss Rick Rashid in a blogpost following a presentation he gave in Tianjin, China, in late October that had, he said, started to "generate a bit of attention".

In the final few minutes of that presentation the words of Mr Rashid were almost instantly turned into Chinese by piping the spoken English through Microsoft's translation system. In addition, the machine-generated version of his words maintained some of his spoken style.

'Dramatic change'

This translation became possible, he said, thanks to research done in Microsoft labs that built on earlier breakthroughs.

Continue reading the main story

The results can sometimes be humorous"

End Quote Rick Rashid

That earlier work ditched the pattern matching approach of the first speech translation systems in favour of statistical models that did a better job of capturing the range of human vocal ability.

Improvements in computer technology that can crunch data faster had improved this further but error rates were still running at about 20-25%, he said.

In 2010, wrote Mr Rashid, Microsoft researchers working with scientists at the University of Toronto improved translation further using deep neural networks that learn to recognise sound in much the same way as brains do.

Applying this technology to speech translation cut error rates to about 15%, said Mr Rashid, calling the improvement a "dramatic change". As the networks were trained for longer error rates were likely to fall further, he said.

The improved speech recognition system was used by Mr Rashid during his presentation. First, the audio of his speech was translated into English text. Next this was converted into Chinese and the words reordered so they made sense. Finally, the Chinese characters were piped through a text-to-speech system to emerge sounding like Mr Rashid.

"Of course, there are still likely to be errors in both the English text and the translation into Chinese, and the results can sometimes be humorous," said Mr Rashid in the blogpost. "Still, the technology has developed to be quite useful."

Many different technology companies, including AT&T and Google, have similar projects under way that are attempting to do simultaneous translation. NTT Docomo has shown off a smartphone app that lets Japanese people call foreigners and lets both speak in their native tongue.

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US finance staff in data blunder

9 November 2012 Last updated at 07:04 ET

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has spent $200,000 (£125,190) investigating security blunders made by staff.

The SEC, which oversees US financial markets, was forced to investigate when it found out that staff were not encrypting sensitive data.

It feared that data had gone missing after realising unencrypted laptops were taken to a hacker conference.

The probe suggested no data had been lost as a result of the mistake.

The unprotected computers at the heart of the investigation were being used by staff in the SEC's Trading and Markets Division, Reuters reported.

One of the responsibilities of that division is advising US financial exchanges about dangers from hackers and ensuring they follow guidelines to steer clear of cyberthreats.

Hacker chat

The employees were found to be flouting standard procedure within the SEC that demands that data on laptops be encrypted to protect it in the event of that device being lost or stolen. The laptops contained sensitive information about the inner workings of many US financial markets.

To compound the mistake, the unprotected laptops were taken when some SEC staff travelled to the Black Hat convention which gathers security hackers together to talk about the latest security threats.

The $200,000 bill was run up as the SEC paid a security firm to carry out forensic tests to ensure that the data had not been tampered with or booby-trapped.

The report into the security lapse was co-ordinated by the Jon Rymer, the SEC's interim inspector general. The SEC has declined to comment on Reuter's findings.

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US army builds its own 3D printer

9 November 2012 Last updated at 07:52 ET

The US military is developing its own 3D printer that it can use to produce spare parts for spacecraft.

By putting 3D printers behind the front line it hopes to be able to produce spares more cheaply and quickly than it can get them from manufacturers.

The army embarked on the project to produce its own printer as commercial devices were too expensive.

Early versions of the printer cost $695 (£436) compared to $3,000 (£1,880) for a commercial model.

The 3D printer has been developed by the Future Warfare centre at the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) in Alabama.

3D printers are gadgets that form objects by melting and shaping plastic into a design dictated by a data file. They are becoming increasingly common and many engineering and research firms use them for rapid prototyping.

"The ability to replicate parts quickly and cheaply is a huge benefit to the warfighter," said D Shannon Berry, an operations research analyst at the Future Warfare office, in a statement. Eventually, it is hoped the printer will find a larger role with US forces deployed overseas.

"Instead of needing a massive manufacturing logistics chain, a device that generates replacement parts is now small and light enough to be easily carried in a backpack or on a truck," he said.

The key reason to develop the printer, said Mr Berry, was to produce cheap spare parts for the sensitive instruments it develops. SMDC systems are typically deployed in space, but prototypes are tested terrestrially on drones and other small aircraft.

"Parts for these systems break frequently, and many of them are produced overseas, so there's a long lead time for replacement parts," he said. By developing its own 3D printer it could end reliance on manufacturers and speed up the replacement process.

SMDC engineers have already used the device to produce custom sensor housings and casings.

Even better, said Mr Berry, the device can even be used to fix itself if it breaks as many of its parts are built to be duplicable by 3D printers.

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Space net used to control robot

9 November 2012 Last updated at 09:33 ET

The interplanetary internet has been used by an astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) to send commands to a robot on Earth.

The experimental technology, called Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol, could be a future way to communicate with astronauts on Mars.

Currently, if there is a problem when data is sent between Earth and Mars rovers, information can be lost.

The DTN could offer a more robust way to send data over the vast distances.

The European Space Agency (Esa) and Nasa conducted the experiment in late October.

ISS Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams used a laptop with DTN software to control a rover in Germany.

The DTN is similar to the internet on Earth, but is much more tolerant to the delays and disruptions that are likely to occur when data is shuttling between planets, satellites, space stations and distant spacecraft.

The delays can be due to solar storms or when spacecraft are behind a planet.

"It's all about communicating over large distances, because the 'normal' internet doesn't expect that it may take minutes before something is sent for it to arrive," Kim Nergaard from Esa told the BBC.

The work on the DTN was first proposed a decade ago by Vint Cerf - one of the creators of the internet on Earth.

The technology was first tested in November 2008, when Nasa successfully transmitted images to and from a spacecraft 20 million miles away with a communications system based on the net.

Space network

The system uses a network of nodes - connection points - to cope with delays. If there is a disruption, the data gets stored at one of the nodes until the communication is available again to send it further.

This "store and forward" mechanism ensures data is not lost and gradually works its way towards its destination.

"With the internet on Earth, if something is disconnected, the source has to retransmit everything, or you lose your data," said Mr Nergaard.

"But the DTN has this disruption tolerance, and that's the difference - it has to be much more robust over the kind of distances and the kind of networks we're talking about."

Currently, to communicate with Curiosity, the latest rover that landed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet on 6 August, Nasa and Esa use what is called "point-to-point communication".

"Normally, the rover on the surface of Mars is commanded directly from Earth, or in some cases using spacecraft orbiting Mars as data relay satellites - but it's still considered single point-to-point communication," said Mr Nergaard.

"It's not built-up as a network. There are several rovers on the surface of Mars, many spacecraft orbiting Mars, but they are all seen as individual items.

"But the idea is that in the future rovers on Mars and spacecraft orbiting it will be treated as a network, so that you can send things to the network just as you send things using the internet on Earth.

"It will still be via radio waves, but over different frequencies, to allow you higher data rate communication than the ones used today."

Nasa's Badri Younes said that the test was a success, and it demonstrated "the feasibility of using a new communications infrastructure to send commands to a surface robot from an orbiting spacecraft and receive images and data back from the robot".

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Apple and HTC settle patent cases

11 November 2012 Last updated at 06:01 ET

Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010.

The two firms also signed a 10-year licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one other.

HTC competes with Apple, Samsung and others in phones and tablets.

Apple has been embroiled in a series of "patent wars" with phone makers and with arch-rival Google.

Unlike its rivals, HTC's sales have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself to Google's Android platform.

The firm has upgraded its HTC One flagship phone and introduced two new models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.

"HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," said Peter Chou, the head of HTC.

The firm said recently it expects sales will be lower than had been expected at the end of the year as the Taiwanese smartphone maker has been finding it hard to emulate the success of its rivals.

HTC and Apple were fighting more than 20 cases in the world, according to the AFP news agency.

Apple won an order almost a year ago from the US International Trade Commission, which issued a "limited exclusion order" directing that HTC stop bringing offending smartphones into the US from April.

And in May, the US mobile carrier Sprint had to delay the introduction of a smartphone using Google's Android operating system after the devices were blocked by US customs due to an Apple complaint.

Ongoing cases

Apple and its rivals have been suing and countersuing for the past several years, accusing each other of copying designs and ideas in the lucrative smartphone space.

Apple and Samsung, for example, have filed legal cases against each other in more than 10 countries, each accusing the other of violating its patents.

A California court earlier this year awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages against Samsung, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed, but the Korean firm is calling for a retrial.

And last week, a US judge dismissed Apple's case in which it alleged that Google's Motorola unit was seeking excessive royalty payments for patents.

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Russia blacklist law takes effect

31 October 2012 Last updated at 20:06 ET

A law that aims to protect children from harmful internet content by allowing the government to take sites offline has taken effect in Russia.

The authorities are now able to blacklist and force offline certain websites without a trial.

The law was approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin in July.

Human rights groups have said the legislation might increase censorship in the country.

The law is the amendment to the current Act for Information.

The authorities say the goal is to protect minors from websites featuring sexual abuse of children, offering details about how to commit suicide, encouraging users to take drugs and sites that solicit children for pornography.

If the websites themselves cannot be shut down, internet service providers (ISPs) and web hosting companies can be forced to block access to the offending material.

The list of banned website will be managed by Roskomnadzor (Russia's Federal Service for Supervision in Telecommunications, Information Technology and Mass Communications). It is meant to be updated daily, but its contents are not available to the general public.

Continue reading the main story

It will be [an attack on] the freedom of speech on the internet"

End Quote Yuri Vdovin Citizens' Watch

Critics have described it another attempt by President Vladimir Putin to exercise control over the population.

"Of course there are websites that should not be accessible to children, but I don't think it will be limited to that," Yuri Vdovin, vice-president of Citizens' Watch, a human rights organisation based in Saint-Petersburg, told the BBC.

"The government will start closing other sites - any democracy-oriented sites are at risk of being taken offline.

"It will be [an attack on] the freedom of speech on the internet."

Mr Vdovin said that to close a website, the government would simply have to say that its content was "harmful to children".

"But there are lots of harmful websites out there already, for example, fascist sites - and they could have easily been closed down by now - but no, [the government] doesn't care, there are no attempts to do so," he added.

A risk for websites?

Besides NGOs and human rights campaigners, websites including the Russian search engine giant Yandex, social media portal Mail.ru and the Russian-language version of Wikipedia have all protested against the law.

The latter, for instance, took its content offline for a day ahead of the vote in July, claiming the law "could lead to the creation of extra-judicial censorship of the entire internet in Russia, including banning access to Wikipedia in the Russian language".

Yandex temporarily crossed out the word "everything" in its "everything will be found" logo.

"The way the new law will work depends on the enforcement practice," said a spokesman.

"Yandex, along with other key Russian market players, is ready to discuss with lawmakers the way it is going to work."

In July, the Russian social networking site Vkontakte posted messages on users' homepages warning that the law posed a risk to its future.

However, the country's telecom minister Nikolai Nikiforov, suggested that such concerns were overblown when he spoke at the NeForum blogging conference this week.

"Internet has always been a free territory," he said, according to a report by Russian news agency Tass.

"The government is not aimed at enforcing censorship there. LiveJournal, YouTube and Facebook showcase socially responsible companies.

"That means that they will be blocked only if they refuse to follow Russian laws, which is unlikely, in my opinion."

There is also evidence suggesting public support for the move.

A survey conducted by pollster Levada Centre in late July indicated that about 62% of those asked supported the idea of a blacklist, with only 16% opposing it.

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Dotcom reveals Mega download site

1 November 2012 Last updated at 07:04 ET

Kim Dotcom has announced plans for Mega, a service to replace his shut down file-sharing website Megaupload.

Mega is expected to use encryption methods which will mean only users will know what they are uploading.

It will be decided in March whether Mr Dotcom should be extradited from New Zealand to the US to face charges relating to copyright theft.

The 38-year-old said he would launch Mega on 20 January 2013 - a year to the day since his arrest.

By keeping details of files uploaded on Mega secret from the site's administrators, Mr Dotcom said he believed this would mean the site was not in violation of US laws.

"The new Mega will not be threatened by US prosecutors," he said.

"The new Mega avoids any dealings with US hosters, US domains and US backbone providers and has changed the way it operates to avoid another takedown."

'LOL!!!'

Announcing the new site on Twitter, Mr Dotcom said the holding page - hosted at Me.ga - was already getting "millions" of hits.

He said many of the visits were from US authorities themselves, tweeting: "All FBI agents pressing reload hahaha... We see their IP addresses. LOL!!!"

Exact details of the encryption methods on the upcoming site have not been released. However, it appears to look to shift responsibility for unlawful content onto the users, rather than the site's owners.

"In the past, securely storing and transferring confidential information required the installation of dedicated software," a message on Mega's holding page said.

"The new Mega encrypts and decrypts your data transparently in your browser, on the fly. You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud, not us."

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Dotcom suggested that content owners might even get direct access to users' uploaded files "if they agree not to make us responsible for actions of users".

The site's servers will not be hosted in the US, Mr Dotcom added. A page on the Mega site makes a plea to encourage more investors for the service.

"We have raised sufficient funds to cover the launch," the message reads, "but we would like to provide Mega free of charge for as long as possible."

Mr Dotcom had previously released details of a sister service, Megabox, which will offer music-related downloads.

Unlawful raid

Mr Dotcom - formerly Kim Schmitz - currently resides in his New Zealand mansion which was raided by local authorities at the start of this year.

The raid and seizure of assets was later deemed illegal by a New Zealand court.

It was also later ruled that intelligence agencies had illegally spied on Mr Dotcom - an incident which drew an apology from New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

"We failed to provide that appropriate protection for him," he said.

"It is the GCSB's [Government Communications Security Bureau] responsibility to act within the law, and it is hugely disappointing that in this case its actions fell outside the law."

If extradited and convicted in the US, Mr Dotcom faces up to 20 years in prison.

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Man beats robot car on race track

1 November 2012 Last updated at 08:26 ET

A race between a robot car and a human has ended with a win for the humans - but only just.

The race was run on Thunderhill Raceway in California between an Audi TTS that can drive itself and a racing car driver familiar with the circuit.

The human driver completed a lap around the circuit a few seconds faster than the robotic car.

The race was part of research to develop control systems that will help to make domestic cars more autonomous.

Human race

The robot car in the race has been developed by researchers at the Centre for Automotive Research at Stanford University (Cars).

Called Shelley, the autonomous vehicle is fitted with sensors that work out its position on the road, feed back information about the grip of its tyres and help it plot the best route around the circuit.

Prof Chris Gerdes, head of the Cars Lab at Stanford, said Thunderhill was chosen because its 15 turns present the car's control systems with a wide variety of challenges. Some corners can be taken at high speed, some are chicanes, others are sharp and come at the end of long straights down which the car hit a top speed of 115mph (185kph).

Once familiar with the three-mile circuit the car was raced against one of Thunderhill's staff who was very familiar with the track and logged a slightly faster time.

"What human drivers do consistently well is feel out the limits of the car and push it just a little bit further and that is where they have an advantage," said Prof Gerdes.

He added that follow-up work had been done to record what the best human drivers did with the car's brakes, steering and throttle as they drove so this could be incorporated into the control systems the Stanford team is developing.

Continue reading the main story

"It's not so much the technology as the capability of the human that is our inspiration now."

End Quote Prof Chris Gerdes

For instance, he said, in situations where the car is being driven at the limit of the grip of its tyres, the car cannot be turned via the steering wheel. Instead, said Prof Gerdes, race drivers use the brake and the throttle to force a car round a corner.

"We're learning what they are doing and it's those counter-intuitive behaviours that we are planning to put in the algorithm," he said.

"Our ultimate objective is not really to robotify [car racing] but to take these sorts of technologies, learning from the very best human drivers and turn those into safety systems that can work on cars," he told the Big Science Summit, a conference organised by The Atlantic magazine.

Currently, he said, driver assistance systems in vehicles actively prevent them performing manoeuvres that the best drivers use to avoid or get out of trouble.

Driving fast on a race track was one way to expose those high level abilities, he said. The maths of making a car steer safely at high speed around a tight bend was very similar to that needed to keep a car on the road if it hits a patch of ice. Both, he said, involved a calculation based on how much friction there was between the road and the tyres.

"As we set up these systems in the future, it's important not to build autonomous vehicles that are merely a collection of systems designed for human support but to think a little bit more holistically about making them as good as the very best human drivers," said Prof Gerdes. "It's not so much the technology as the capability of the human that is our inspiration now."

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Apple slammed over Samsung notice

1 November 2012 Last updated at 10:39 ET

Apple has 48 hours to re-write a statement on its website relating to its design rights dispute with Samsung, UK judges have ruled.

Apple was forced on 18 October to publish a message making it clear that Samsung had not infringed the iPad's registered design.

However Samsung complained the statement Apple had posted did not comply with the court order.

Judges agreed and have told Apple it must be removed within 24 hours.

A new, compliant version must then be posted.

Michael Beloff QC, representing Apple, told judges that the company had thought that it had complied with the court order.

"It's not designed to punish," he said.

"It's not designed to make us grovel. The only purpose must be to dispel commercial uncertainty."

He asked that the company be given 14 days to post the replacement - but the request was firmly denied.

Lord Justice Longmore told Mr Beloff: "We are just amazed that you cannot put the right notice up at the same time as you take the other one down."

One of the other judges, Sir Robin Jacob, added: "I would like to see the head of Apple [Tim Cook] make an affidavit about why that is such a technical difficulty for the Apple company."

Apple told the BBC it did not want to comment further.

'Horse's mouth'

Samsung complained that the notice posted by Apple was "inaccurate and misleading" because it added comments about other rulings in Germany and the US that had gone in the iPad-maker's favour.

"This has received enormous publicity and has perpetuated confusion as to Samsung's entitlement to market the Galaxy tablet computers in issue," a Samsung lawyer said in a written statement to judges.

"It has created the impression that the UK court is out of step with other courts."

The UK's ruling applies to the whole of the EU.

The court order is the latest twist in an ongoing legal saga involving the two companies.

Apple brought the case to the UK courts, alleging that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10 had infringed the design of its iPad.

But in July, Judge Colin Birss disagreed on the grounds that Samsung's product was not as "cool".

His ruling meant that Apple was denied the opportunity to impose a sales ban on Samsung's products.

Apple was unsuccessful in appealing the ruling, and was ordered to place a notice on its website, newspapers and magazines explaining that Samsung had not infringed its designs.

The intention, judges said, was not to make Apple "grovel", but to remove "commercial uncertainty" surrounding Samsung's products.

"A consumer might well think: 'I had better not buy a Samsung - maybe it's illegal and if I buy one it may not be supported'," Sir Robin said.

"Apple itself must (having created the confusion) make the position clear: that it acknowledges that the court has decided that that these Samsung products do not infringe its registered design.

"The acknowledgement must come from the horse's mouth."

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Comet to go into administration

1 November 2012 Last updated at 12:26 ET

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Dan Wagner, Powa Technologies: "They failed to leverage their physical presence... ten years ago"

About 6,500 retail jobs are at risk after electrical chain Comet confirmed that it would be put into administration next week.

Private equity firm OpCapita, which owns the 240-store business, has lined up restructuring specialist Deloitte to act as administrator.

OpCapita bought Comet last year for the nominal sum of £2, but the business has struggled in the consumer downturn.

Comet's demise is one of the biggest High Street casualties of recent years.

Two weeks ago, OpCapita said it was examining a number of potential bids for the retailer.

The administrator will run the business as a going concern while it assesses options for sales, closures and liquidation.

Comet said it was "urgently working" on plans to secure the company's future. Customers with outstanding orders are being told it is "business as usual until further notice" and that the group intends to fulfil deliveries of products that have been paid for.

Comet's customer care team is handling customer inquiries on 0844 8009595.

Continue reading the main story

• Any customers with Comet vouchers or gift cards can use them in stores at present
• Administrators would decide whether they would be honoured were the business to enter administration
• Generally, gift card holders are fairly low on a list of creditors when a business folds
• Extended warranties are overseen by a separate business. If it ceased trading, then a trust fund would be set up to meet obligations to customers who hold extended warranties
• The Comet website is currently out of action
• Customer enquiries are being answered by its customer card team on 0844 8009595

Shares of Comet's rivals rose on news of the planned administration, with Dixons Retail, which owns PC World and Currys, jumping 15% as investors speculated that a major competitor could be removed from the market.

OpCapita bought Comet last February from Kesa Electricals, which had itself struggled to turn around the business. Comet is thought to have had operational losses of about £35m last year.

'Market failure'

The economic downturn and pressure on consumer spending has led many people to put off purchases of big-ticket items such as TVs and large appliances. But sales of such items have also moved increasingly online.

Dan Wagner, a technology entrepreneur who has backed several internet businesses, told the BBC that Comet "was an accident waiting to happen" because successive managements had failed to understand the online world.

Retailers must now offer multi-channel options - shops, a website, purchases via mobile phones - to be successful, he said. "Comet failed to understand the importance of this for driving business."

Jon Copestake, retail analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, also felt that Comet's problems "come as little surprise".

He said: "Not only has Comet faced deflationary pressures thanks to stiff competition and cheaper production costs, but core audio visual products are being undermined by combined platforms on smartphones and tablet computers."

Comet is one of the biggest retail casualties since the demise of Woolworths in 2008. Other recent High Street collapses have included JJB Sports, Clinton Cards, Blacks Leisure, Game, and Peacocks.

America's Best Buy recently pulled the plug on 11 giant electrical stores after failing to make inroads into the UK market.

Comet was founded in 1933 as a business charging batteries for wireless sets. It opened its first store in 1968, in Hull, and was bought by Kingfisher in 1984, which expanded the Comet brand into one of the most familiar names on the High Street.

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Huge fine for sharing pornography

2 November 2012 Last updated at 06:33 ET

An American man has been hit with a $1.5m (£932,000) fine for pirating 10 gay porn movies via BitTorrent.

A federal court in Illinois awarded the damages of $150,000 per movie to Flava Works - the creator of the pornographic films.

The figure is believed to the biggest awarded in a file-sharing case.

The award is thought to be so large because the accused, Kywan Fisher, did not defend himself against claims that he pirated the movies.

In court, Flava Works presented evidence which it said demonstrated that Mr Fisher was the person who put copies of its films on a BitTorrent site.

In its evidence, Flava revealed that it had embedded unique codes in the copies of its films that customers pay to view. Digital detective work connected the code in the pirated films back to Mr Fisher, who had earlier signed up as a customer of Flava and paid to view the movies.

Once shared via BitTorrent the films were downloaded or viewed 3,449 times, said Flava during its court statements.

Flava claimed Mr Fisher had exhibited "wilful copyright infringement" and violated the terms and conditions of the pay-to-view video service he signed up for.

US Judge John Lee noted Flava's evidence in his summary and said in light of that and the lack of any defence or objection by Mr Fisher, he had no choice but to issue a default judgement in favour of the adult movie maker.

It is not clear whether Mr Fisher will appeal against the judgement or whether he can pay the fine.

Mr Fisher was one of 15 people that Flava pursued for pirating its movies. However, the cases against all the others were dropped earlier this year for lack of evidence.

Many content creators, including movie studios and record labels, have pursued pirates in the courts using net, or IP, addresses as evidence.

However, many of these cases have been dropped as in May, a US federal judge ruled that an IP address was not sufficient evidence to accuse a person of being a pirate.

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