My Little Pony in-app payment row

6 December 2012 Last updated at 12:36 ET

Complaints have prompted mobile phone game developer Gameloft to reduce the cost of playing My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

The "freemium" game is free to play or gamers can pay to progress faster. But some players say it can take years to finish without spending cash.

Campaigners worry about the number of such freemium games aimed at children.

But Gameloft said the complaints were from older users known as "bronies", not from children or their parents.

A "brony" is the term used to describe the adult fans of the My Little Pony game and of the TV show of the same title.

The game can be downloaded free from Apple's App store or the Android equivalent, Google Play.

It involves building and managing the town of Ponyville. Despite being free, players have the option to pay to progress faster, using the game's premium currency, gems.

'Frustrated' users

The last pony, needed to finish the game, used to cost 500 gems - the equivalent of £34 ($44) - and some users complained on forums that it was extremely difficult and took too long to get the amount of gems required without paying.

Continue reading the main story

People confuse free games and freemium"

End Quote Lewis Digby Gameloft UK

"Looking at the ponies it seems it would take over 100 dollars in cash to unlock everything, which seems utterly ridiculous," said one player, pinkuchuu, on a web forum.

The complaints were first described in an article on technology blog CNET, which was then approached by Gameloft.

Lewis Digby from Gameloft's UK branch told the BBC the company responded to comments of "a selected few hardcore older fans of My Little Pony who were wanting to progress through the game very quickly".

Free or freemium?

He said the company dropped the price for the most expensive pony, Rainbow Dash, from 500 gems to 50 gems (£5, $8).

But he added that the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic game had had excellent feedback from its main audience, young girls.

"People confuse free games and freemium," he said.

"We are not creating free games here, these are games with a free access, but we have to sell in-game content if we want to be profitable.

"But you can enjoy our games for free - it's about giving our customers the option. It's up to them to decide if they want to play more regularly and progress through the game quicker. They can pay for in-game content, but you can enjoy it very much without paying anything."

Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said that it was not uncommon to see costs pop up in mobile games for children that parents at first thought were free.

"I think that any parent who is suddenly faced with having to say 'No' to their child or else foot the bill for what they thought was a free game would be justified in feeling that they had been mugged," he said.

Earlier this year, Apple was sued by parents over another freemium app, Smurfs' Village, arguing that it was too easy to rack up huge bills on iPhones without parents' consent. The case is still active.

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Spotify deal ends Metallica feud

6 December 2012 Last updated at 14:21 ET By Dave Lee Technology Reporter, BBC News

Metallica has announced its entire back catalogue is to be made available on music streaming service Spotify, ending a 12-year feud with Napster co-founder Sean Parker.

Drummer Lars Ulrich appeared on stage with Mr Parker, a Spotify investor, to discuss their bitter legal battle that took place in 2000.

Spotify also announced a range of new features for its service.

It said it now had more than 5 million paid subscribers worldwide.

The UK-headquartered company said it had paid out over $500m (£311m) to record labels since the service launched. It has 20 million active users.

It announced the ability to "follow" influential artists and their tastes. Among the artists and personalities signed up to the "follow" feature are the likes of Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney and US President Barack Obama.

Continue reading the main story

It turned into a street fight. Let's meet them in the back alley!"

End Quote Lars Ulrich Metallica

Chief executive Daniel Ek showed off other features designed to aid in discovering new music, and added that the service's browser-based client, which is currently being tested, will be released next year.

Spotify's browser strategy - which allows a user to listen to music within a tab of their browser like Chrome or Firefox - is considered key for the company to gain users from rival sites like Deezer that already offer a full browser-based service.

Piracy boom

As co-creator of peer-to-peer music pioneer Napster, Mr Parker is considered to have been instrumental in fuelling the online music download boom - and the boom in music piracy.

The metal band Metallica sued Napster in 2000 on copyright infringement claims, and Napster was forced to remove users who had downloaded the band's music.

The battle divided the music industry, with Metallica receiving criticism from some music lovers who felt they were wrongly targeting their own fans.

Mr Parker told the audience at the event that Napster acted in good faith, and regretted the dispute.

"Back in 1999 we were depicted as these greedy pirates that basically were just trying to create a free-for-all and enable the stealing of music," said Mr Parker. "We just wanted to make music more free as in freedom, not free as in theft.

"When the media, led by the labels, began to mount this publicity campaign against us, we were really taken aback by it. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into."

Napster was forced into bankruptcy, relaunched in 2011 and is now a legal music subscription site.

Back alley brawl

Mr Ulrich said the legal action happened while the band existed in a "bubble".

"When you live in a bubble the main thing you want is complete control over what you do," Mr Ulrich said.

"That was taken away. The control option had been taken away from us - and then it turned into a street fight. Let's meet them in the back alley!"

Mr Ulrich told the audience that his band now owned its back catalogue for the first time - a day it has been waiting for for over 15 years.

Mr Parker agreed with the street-fight analogy, adding that more negotiations should have taken place.

He added: "The lesson of the story is that, when you have two parties that are set up in opposition to each other, you start to think of the other person's perspective being much more polarised than it actually is."

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BBC Radio Times archive digitised

6 December 2012 Last updated at 19:37 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

The BBC has completed its effort to digitise programme listings from old copies of the Radio Times magazine.

The BBC Genome project is designed to help the organisation identify shows missing from its archive.

Most early output was not recorded and many later tapes were destroyed.

It will be used to create an online database allowing, where possible, the public access to old broadcasts - or available photos, scripts and other materials for missing shows.

The scheme was given its name because the corporation likens each of it programmes to "tiny pieces of BBC DNA" that will form a "data spine" once reassembled.

Missing material

The project has involved scanning in the pages of about 4,500 copies of the Radio Times. They date from its first issue in 1923 to 2009. For later dates records generated by the iPlayer catch-up service are used.

The BBC archive development team has identified about five million programme records involving 8.5 million contributors.

That compares with roughly one and a half million shows listed in the current archive database - the numbers are not completely comparable as the listings include repeats.

The data must also be treated with care as the magazines only reveal what the BBC planned to broadcast and not late changes to the schedules.

Information is also missing for the first nine months of broadcast before the magazine was launched. Other records will be used at a later point to fill this gap.

The researchers hope the project will lead to shows being recovered if the public realises they have audio or video recordings of missing programmes.

"Clearly not all the material will exist out there anyway just because lots of the programmes in the early days weren't even recorded - they were just broadcast live," said project manager Helen Papadopoulos.

"Lots of things were also recycled or disposed of.

"Part of it is to recover some of the lost programmes but it's really about having a comprehensive history of the BBC and its schedules."

Delayed data

Part of the digitisation effort was outsourced to a French team that scanned in the magazines' pages and then used optical character recognition (OCR) software to extract the information.

It used specially designed software to make sense of the Radio Times's changing layouts so that the information could be presented in a uniform fashion in a database where it could be checked and validated by Ms Papadopoulos and a small team of workers dedicated to the project,

The work was originally due for completion by August 2011, but proved more complicated than envisaged because the team had not accounted for issues raised by listings showing stations broadcasting different material at the same time. Examples included when BBC Radio 4 split its schedule to put the news on its FM radio frequency, but the cricket on long wave.

Other one-off issues also had to be checked.

"One of the last few files that we checked showed that there was a whole day of listings missing - the date was Tuesday 28 January 1936," said Ms Papadopoulos.

"It was the King's funeral and so we kept thinking our suppliers had somehow missed all the listings or that there was a page missing from the Radio Times for that issue.

"But when we went back and looked at the magazine it said something to the effect that 'The King's funeral arrangements would be announced over the microphone'."

Online shop

The BBC Genome database will initially be restricted to the corporation's staff, but the project team said if all goes well it could be accessible to the public online by the end of 2013.

It will then feed into another scheme called Project Barcelona, which plans to offer BBC archive content via an online shop.

The BBC Trust has still to decide whether to allow it to go ahead.

Other broadcasters may be concerned about the disruptive effect that providing so much content online would have on the market.

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Judge revisits Apple v Samsung

6 December 2012 Last updated at 23:06 ET

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Samsung is appealing on grounds that the jury foreman was 'dishonest'

A US federal judge has urged Apple and Samsung to end their ongoing worldwide legal battle over patents, as she reviews the $1.05bn (£652m) awarded to Apple in damages in an August ruling.

"I think it's time for global peace," Judge Lucy Koh said at the end of a hearing in San Jose.

Samsung is seeking a new trial, or reduced sum, after a jury said it had violated Apple patents.

Judge Koh said she would issue a series of rulings over several weeks.

Apple, for its part, has asked for an increase in the award and for a permanent ban on the US sales of eight Samsung smartphones the jury said illegally used Apple's patented technology.

The two companies are embroiled in several lawsuits in many different countries.

Analysis by product

Samsung called into question the legality and soundness of the jury's calculations when deciding the amount of damages.

Apple urged Judge Koh not to try to figure out the jury's reasoning on a device-by-device basis.

"I don't see how you can look at the aggregate verdict without looking at the pieces put together to make that verdict," Judge Koh said.

"If there is a basis to uphold the damages award, by the record, then I am going to uphold it," she continued. "But I think it is appropriate to do analysis by product."

'Tenuous connection'

Samsung has asked for the verdict to be entirely dismissed and for a new trial to be held.

One of Samsung's main arguments centres around the impartiality of foreman Velvin Hogan.

Samsung said it was misconduct on his part not to disclose that he had been sued by his former employer, Seagate Technology, in 1993. Samsung now holds a stake in Seagate.

Mr Hogan has said that according to court instructions he only needed to disclose litigation within the previous 10 years.

Although Judge Koh did not indicate what she thought of Samsung's argument in court, legal experts said it was unlikely to be reason enough for a whole new trial.

"The connection here is tenuous," said Christopher Carani, a patent lawyer in Chicago. "I would be surprised if Judge Koh accepted this argument and scrapped the jury's entire finding."

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Tracking ads jump across gadgets

7 December 2012 Last updated at 07:22 ET

Adverts could soon be following people around the different gadgets they use.

Although tracking ads follow people as they browse different websites, Drawbridge uses statistics to do the same across devices.

It gathers information on which gadgets are being used and what is being done with them to build up "anonymous" profiles of different users.

The statistics generate a probability for which profiled user might be on that smartphone, tablet or laptop.

So far, said Drawbridge, it has drawn up profiles connecting 200 million users to the different electronic gadgets and applications they use during the day and in separate locations.

Drawbridge's technology is based around cookies - small text files widely used by websites to identify visitors and tailor what they see. Drawbridge puts cookies on a device when its browser on it is used to visit a particular website. That cookie logs which browser is being used to access which site as well as the time of the visit.

The firm then compares data gathered by many different cookies placed on many different devices and employs information theory to work out activity patterns of particular users.

Anonymous data

A technique from information theory known as "triangulation" allows Drawbridge to be confident of spotting people even though it uses no personally identifiable data such as login names or location information.

Once people are profiled, adverts can be tailored to their browsing habits and piped to the separate gadgets they use.

A spokesman for the UK's Information Commissioners Office, which oversees what is done with personal data, said two factors would govern whether Drawbridge could launch in the UK.

First, Drawbridge would have to be sure that its data was truly anonymised and that there were no flaws in its approach that inadvertently revealed individual identities. A new code of practice covering the use and preparation of anonymous data was released in November.

If the data was truly anonymised, he said, then it would fall outside UK data protection regulations.

In addition, he said, Drawbridge and any advertiser using its service would also have to do a good job of telling people why they were seeing particular adverts.

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Game sales 'dip' despite launches

7 December 2012 Last updated at 07:27 ET

Strong sales of the latest Call of Duty and Halo sequels were not enough to prevent a drop in annual US video game sales, according to research firm NPD.

It suggests sales of hardware and software sold by retailers were down 11% on the year in November.

Nintendo's Wii U also launched that month and Assassin's Creed 3 had just gone on sale. The figure does not include digital downloads.

NPD linked the drop to weaker sales of titles outside the top five.

"Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11%, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year," it said in a statement.

"Overall entertainment software units decreased by 15%, however, when comparing the performance of the top five titles from this year to last, we see a rise in unit sales of 5% - games outside of the top five sold less, leading to overall declines."

Figures may also have been depressed by the fact there were fewer releases this November than a year earlier when Uncharted 3, Skyrim, Lego Harry Potter 5-7 and Modern Warfare 3 were among titles that went on sale.

Blockbuster sales

Activision, Microsoft and Nintendo have all been touting the success of their new products over recent days.

Continue reading the main story

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

2. Halo 4

3. Assassin's Creed 3

4. Just Dance 4

5. Madden NFL 13

6. Skylander Giants

7. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

8. NBA 2K13

9. WWE 13

10. Fifa Soccer 13

(Source: NPD)

Black Ops 2 - the first in the Call of Duty series to be part-set in the future - topped $1bn (£624m; 773m euros) worth of global sales in its first 15 days of release, said Activision Publishing.

It said it had achieved the milestone a day quicker than the movie Avatar did in 2009 - albeit with fewer individual units sold.

Microsoft has not provided a comparable figure for its Xbox-exclusive Halo 4, but has said that more than 50 million games in the franchise had now been sold.

Based on the firm's earlier announcements, that suggests about four million copies of Halo 4 were sold worldwide over its first 30 days.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has revealed that it sold 400,000 Wii Us and its bundled touchscreen controller during their first week of release in the US.

That compares to 600,000 units of the original Wii console during its first eight days on the market in North America.

The Japanese company has a target of 5.5 million Wii U sales worldwide by the end of its financial year in March.

Digital downloads

While NPD's figures provide a useful snapshot of console and disk-based games sales, critics have pointed out that they may not offer a true reflection of the wider market.

The Penny Arcade website ran an editorial last month describing Valve's online Steam store - which sells PC games - as a "blind spot".

It also noted that sales of smartphone and tablet games were missed out.

However, NPD does provide a separate estimate for non-traditional game sales including downloads, subscriptions, mobile apps, and used and rented games,

The research firm suggested this grouping accounted for $410m of sales in the US in November, taking the month's tally to more than $3.1bn.

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Blitz interactive map unveiled

7 December 2012 Last updated at 07:52 ET

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The year-long project, called Bomb Sight, reveals the devastation caused by the Blitz over eight months

An interactive map showing the location of bombs dropped on London during World War II has been created.

It reveals the devastation caused by the Blitz over eight months.

The year-long project, called Bomb Sight, was devised by a team from the University of Portsmouth using data from the National Archives.

The website and android app also allow people to find out the types of bombs that fell.

'Circle of fire'

Dr Kate Jones, the University of Portsmouth geographer who devised the project, said: "When you look at these maps and see the proliferation of bombs dropped on the capital, it does illustrate the meaning of the word Blitz, which comes from the German meaning lightning.

Continue reading the main story

• Blitz - German for lightning - was used by the British press to describe the heavy bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941
• 29 December 1940 marked one of the fiercest bombing raids of the Blitz - it caused what became known as the Second Great Fire of London
• The raids killed 43,000 civilians and lasted for eight months, petering out when Hitler began to focus on his plans for Russian invasion

Source: BBC History

"It seems astonishing that London survived the onslaught."

Users can zoom in to specific streets on the map, which uses red symbols to illustrate where each bomb landed.

The project was funded by education and research charity Jisc which offers resources and expertise to educational organisations.

More than 20,000 people were killed and 1.4m people made homeless during the Blitz, which took place between 7 September 1940 and 11 May 1941.

A spokesman from Bomb Sight said the project uses maps of the London bomb census, taken between October 1940 and June 1941.

The bombing locations were combined with geo-located photographs from the Imperial War Museum, and memories from the BBC's WWII People's War Archive.

Jisc programme manager Paola Marchionni said the project was "similar to a map sat-nav".

She said: "The original Blitz maps have been scanned and geo-referenced thanks to the National Archive and testimonials from the BBC have been incorporated together with historical images from the Imperial War Museum to create an interactive teaching and learning resource."

The website appeared to be experiencing problems due to high volumes of traffic earlier.

On 29 December 1940, air raids targeted the City of London, leaving the square mile in flames.

'Such bravery'

Bombs rained down on St Paul's Cathedral, which Prime Minister Winston Churchill said should be protected at all costs.

Volunteer firewatchers patrolled the cathedral's corridors, using sandbags and water pumps to douse the flames.

The cathedral was saved but many more buildings were lost.

The Reverend Canon Mark Oakley, treasurer at St Paul's Cathedral, said although made of stone, the cathedral also had a large amount of timber.

He said: "The brave 80 men and women who volunteered to be part of the St Paul's Watch, after finishing their day's work, helped save the cathedral from potentially devastating fires.

"The cathedral did suffer bomb damage but thankfully managed to remain a focus and encouragement to Londoners in their resistance to fascism.

"We must not forget Lieutenant Davies and Sapper Wyllie who removed an 8ft bomb from 27ft in the ground next to the cathedral without being able to defuse it," he added.

"They drove the bomb to Hackney Marshes where it exploded and made a crater 100 feet in diameter.

"Such bravery is humbling for those of us who take too much for granted."

In one of the bombing attacks, Felicity Edwards, who was 17 when the war broke out, was sitting with her mother in the kitchen of their home in Balham, south London, in October 1940 when a bomb fell in the High Road and through the roof of the Underground station on to the Northern Line.

More than 60 people were trampled and killed as they tried to escape.

The next day, Felicity saw a double-decker bus stuck in a crater on the High Road. The driver is believed to have driven into it in the dark.

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