Tesla hints at technology giveaway

6 June 2014 Last updated at 21:06

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Tesla boss Elon Musk: "It is possible to create a compelling electric car"

Tesla boss Elon Musk has given the strongest hint yet that the firm is considering "freeing" its patents to help speed up electric car development.

When asked by the BBC's Theo Leggett if he was considering giving technology away, Mr Musk said "you're on the right track".

Mr Musk said he hoped to break down technological barriers to help speed up electric car adoption.

The firm will deliver the first five of its Model S cars to the UK on Saturday.

Mr Musk told the BBC: "We don't want to cut a path through the jungle and then lay a bunch of landmines behind us."

Earlier this week, Mr Musk told Tesla shareholders that in order to speed up the pace of adoption of electric cars, Tesla was "playing with doing something fairly significant on this front which would be kind of controversial with respect to Tesla's patents".

Continue reading the main story Different strategy

The company's Model S sports car will cost approximately £70,000 and be able to travel 300 miles (480km) on a single charge, according to reports.

Last year, the firm sold 22,500 vehicles and says it is on track to sell 35,000 this year.

However, it has come under fire for its mileage claims as well as concerns about battery fires.

Tesla - which has seen its share price rise by more than 112% in the past year - has a stated goal of making "an electric car that's better than any petrol car".

However, adoption has been slow, which is perhaps a reason why the firm is considering ways to offer its technology to other firms in the space.

It is a departure from the technology strategy of Space X, another firm founded by Mr Musk.

Space X is trying to commercialise space both through missions to the moon for NASA and through private space travel.

Mr Musk has said in the past that Space X does not patent its technologies for fear that they could be stolen by competitors.

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Google blunder over D-Day doodle

6 June 2014 Last updated at 13:16

Google has hurriedly rushed out a link to D-Day material after failing to honour the 70th anniversary in its famous daily doodle.

Initially the UK homepage of the search engine had a doodle honouring a Japanese Go player.

It admitted to the Daily Telegraph that that had been uploaded in error, and quickly removed it.

Beneath its logo there is a now a link to letters, photos and maps of the Normandy landings.

There was anger on Twitter about the goof.

"What were you thinking #Google?" asked one.

In response Google's director of communication Peter Barron said: "We always intended to highlight a new exhibition of imagery and archive material commemorating D-Day on our homepage.

"Unfortunately a technical error crept in and for a short period this morning an international doodle also appeared. We're sorry for the mistake, and we're proud to honour those who took part in D-Day"

The link to D-Day material takes users to the Google Cultural Institute, which has content on the Normandy landings and access to more than 400 records, some of them published for the first time.

The idea of marking cultural moments via the Google logo was born in 1998 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, placed a stick figure drawing behind the second 'o' in Google as a message to users that they were out of the office.

Later in the year a turkey was added on Thanksgiving Day, and two pumpkins were made out of the o's in October 1999.

Since 1998 there have been over 2,000 doodles on its home pages around the world, honouring major anniversaries and the birthdays of famous people including Albert Einstein and Michelangelo.

Google now has a full time doodle team of illustrators, animators and artists.

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BBC to stream World Cup matches in 4K

5 June 2014 Last updated at 11:14 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

Three World Cup football matches being played in Brazil this summer will be streamed in ultra high-definition (UHD), the BBC has announced.

The format, also known as 4K, offers four times the resolution of 1080p high definition video.

The matches - including a quarter final and the final - mark one of the first times a live event has been streamed over the air in UHD in the UK.

They will only be made available to a limited number of TVs at BBC sites.

But it could pave the way for more widespread use of the technology.

One of the biggest challenges of distributing UHD TV to the home is how to make it compatible with existing broadcast and broadband capacities.

Users need speeds of around 20Mbps (megabits per second) in order to watch 4K content without glitches, experts say.

"It's a good idea for the BBC to trial these things and the results on a large screen look impressive but it also needs to be realistic about the potential to push this across current broadcast networks," said Toby Syfret, an analyst at Enders research group.

Previously the BBC has worked with Japanese broadcaster NHK on such trials. Rival broadcaster Sky has also run 4K trials.

The live streams will be sent via satellite from Brazil, and then distributed via Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) and Internet Protocol (IP) but only to a handful of UHD TV sets in selected BBC Research and Development facilities.

Matthew Postgate, controller of BBC Research and Development said: "The trials will prove hugely valuable in furthering our understanding of UHD technology, and potential distribution models for the future."

4K is the next great hope for TV manufacturers hoping to persuade viewers to upgrade their sets but like any fledging technology it has experienced teething problems.

There is not a great deal of content available yet in the format and the costs of 4K TV sets remain high.

Netflix recently made some of its TV shows - including House of Cards and Breaking Bad - available in the new technology but the decoder required to view the content was not compatible with some early 4K televisions.

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Apple in row over HealthKit name

5 June 2014 Last updated at 15:04

An Australian start-up has taken Apple to task for using the name HealthKit for its new fitness platform, announced at its developer conference this week.

Apple's version will allow users to run health and fitness apps and share data on upcoming operating system iOS 8.

But an Australian start-up of the same name said it has already laid claim to the title.

It has begun a Twitter campaign urging users to contact Apple about the "naming fiasco".

On the firm's blog, co-founder Alison Hardacre said that she had found out about the name clash when, at 04:30 "someone emailed me to ask whether Apple stomped all over your name or did we do a secret deal with them".

"HealthKit is already in use, by us! As an Apple fan, I feel let down. They didn't feel that they had to do a quick domain search - it would have taken five seconds to type www.healthkit.com into their browser and discover us," she added.

The service it offers is very similar to the one Apple plans to launch, a health platform connecting doctors and patients.

The firm bought the HealthKit domain name in 2012. It also uses the Twitter name @HealthKit.

It is unclear yet whether the start-up will sue Apple over the name clash or indeed whether it has a case to answer as some commentators have pointed out that Apple's Healthkit is the name of the application programming interface (API) rather than a product name.

Apple did not immediately respond to the BBC about the issue. According to Healthkit, Apple has also not yet contacted it.

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Verizon and Netflix in streaming row

5 June 2014 Last updated at 22:16

US telecommunications giant Verizon has issued Netflix with a "cease and desist" letter.

The letter came after the streaming video service reportedly told consumers Verizon was behind slow connections.

"There is no basis for Netflix to assert that issues with respect to playback... are attributable solely to the Verizon network," Verizon wrote.

Netflix responded that the firm was trying to "provide more transparency" to consumers.

"This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider," said Netflix.

In March, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings hit out against internet service providers (ISPs) such as Verizon for demanding a fee to maintain video quality.

Nonetheless, in April, Neflix agreed to pay Verizon to establish a direct connection to its network to ensure content was delivered to users' homes.

Pawns

Verizon's letter came in response to media reports showing screenshots that Netflix users said they were shown in which a message blaming poor connections was attributed to Verizon.

However, Verizon noted that Netflix chooses how it connects to internet service providers and said the blame for faulty streaming was due to Netflix.

It said that Netflix's claims could damage its business.

"The potential harm is broader than only the experience of a customer viewing Netflix content," wrote Verizon.

"This could cause a customer to think any attempted viewing of video...would yield a similarly 'crowded' experience."

Verizon added that it had recently inked a deal with Netflix to bring the firm's content onto its network, and hinted Netflix's behaviour could call future deals into question.

It threatened legal action if Netflix did not stop displaying the message.

In a blog post, Verizon wrote: "It is sad that Netflix is willing to deliberately mislead its customers so they can be used as pawns in business negotiations and regulatory proceedings."

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Tinder introduces photo sharing

5 June 2014 Last updated at 22:58 By Kim Gittleson BBC reporter, New York

Dating app Tinder has introduced a photo sharing feature called Moments to encourage people to use it for more than just hooking up.

The feature lets users send temporary picture messages which will expire after 24 hours.

It marks an attempt by Tinder to expand beyond its dating base into the more lucrative social messaging sector.

The 18-month-old app has not yet generated any revenue, although monetisation schemes are being planned.

"We realised making a connection is not enough," Tinder's co-founder Sean Rad told the BBC.

"We needed to help our users come up with better ways to get to know their matches."

Mr Rad said that that picture messaging - which has proven incredibly popular, as Tinder's Los Angeles neighbour Snapchat has demonstrated - would allow users to form more "meaningful relationships".

Increasing competition

The move into photo sharing comes as Tinder is facing increasing competition from established dating firms such as OkCupid as well as newer entrants such as Hinge.

It has also suffered from a series of security issues involving fake accounts and spambots.

Nonetheless, its simple interface - which allows users to link their Facebook pictures to their profiles, and then look at other users' pictures - has proved winning. Users swipe left to decline a match, or right to begin messaging someone.

Although the firm would not provide specific user numbers, it did say it had more than 10 million users in the US alone.

Analytics firm Comscore put the number slightly lower, and said that as of April 2014, there were 2.7 million smartphones using the app in the US - a huge increase even from last July.

"The growth chart for Tinder looks pretty incredible," said Andrew Lipsman, vice-president of marketing and insights at Comscore.

Making money

Tinder's biggest investor is the media conglomerate InterActiveCorp (IAC).

Research firm IBIS World has estimated that the dating services industry should bring in $2.2bn (£1.3bn) in revenue in the US this year, with IAC, which also owns traditional dating sites Match.com and OKCupid, holding an estimated 27% share.

New York-based IAC has said that it was "just a matter of time" before Tinder started generating revenue.

"Given the unique nature of Tinder, we think it presents sort of its own unique monetisation opportunities," former chief executive Gregory Blatt briefed analysts in April.

IAC's chairman Barry Diller added that this could involve subscription fees, advertising or charging for add-on services.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We envision a world in which everyone is extracting value on Tinder"

End Quote Sean Rad Tinder co-founder

Mr Rad, however, declined to provide more details on these plans beyond saying that he was considering charging users to undo a swipe.

He also turned down the opportunity to elaborate on reports that Tinder could be worth several hundred million dollars.

"We don't even think about the valuation," he said.

Expanding brief

Analysts have noted that while Tinder seems to be more popular than its competitors, it has been lumped in the less-lucrative category of dating sites, which tend to have valuations in the low millions.

"Just to give some perspective, the whole mobile dating category had nine million users in [the US] in April," said Mr Lipsman.

"That's almost double what it was last year - but it's still a much smaller than social as a whole.

"WhatsApp alone is bigger than the entire dating category."

That is perhaps one reason why Tinder's founders have insisted that the app is about making "connections". They describe it as being in the social messaging sphere, alongside firms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, which have significantly higher valuations.

"We envision a world in which everyone is extracting value on Tinder," said Mr Rad, who insisted the app was never meant to be just about dating.

He also emphasised that it was not just used by young twenty-somethings in cities looking for a quick match.

"The oldest user whose identity we've been able to confirm and know of is 65 - and they've already met somebody," he said.

Top five US mobile dating apps as of April 2014
App name	Number of unique visitors	Growth from six months ago
Data courtesy comScore
Plenty of Fish sites	2.7 million	13%
Tinder	2.7 million	960%
SKOUT.com	1.7 million	18%
Match.com sites	1.5 million	87%
ZOOSK.com	1.3 million	20%

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Heartbleed fix finds security bugs

6 June 2014 Last updated at 11:41

More security holes have been uncovered in the same software that was found to harbour the dangerous "Heartbleed" bug.

Heartbleed was found in security software used on many websites to ensure data was not spied upon as it passed back and forth.

About 500,000 websites were believed to be vulnerable to attacks that exploited the Heartbleed vulnerability.

The newly discovered bugs are not thought to be as serious as Heartbleed and are harder to exploit.

The software package harbouring all the vulnerabilities is known as OpenSSL and is used to scramble, or encrypt, data as it is swapped between users and a site.

Tech companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Amazon and many others all use OpenSSL.

The fresh batch of vulnerabilities was found as a result of work done to close Heartbleed and ensure other parts of the software were secure. The discovery of Heartbleed led to many big firms pledging cash to the small organisation that developed OpenSSL to help it improve its bug finding and fixing efforts.

Updated versions of OpenSSL that have the bugs patched are now available and anyone running vulnerable versions are being urged to update as soon as possible.

"They are going to have to patch. This will take some time," Lee Weiner, a spokesman for security firm Rapid7 told Reuters.

If exploited the bugs would let attackers run their own programs on a target server or stop it working. The most serious bug would let an attacker interpose themselves between a victim and the server they were using and spy on the data as it passed back and forth.

Writing on the blog of security firm Sophos, Chester Wisniewski said there was no need to panic about the latest bug reports.

"Patch early and patch often," he said. "You will likely see updates for many of your programs on your computer and Android smartphones being updated over the next few weeks."

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