The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided not to take legal action against Google at the end of a 19-month investigation into the search giant.

 It found Google had not biased its search results to favour its products. Google has agreed to give advertisers access to more information about their campaigns and has agreed not to use other providers' material such as product reviews in its search results. Google is still awaiting a competition ruling from the European Commission. Another key concession applies to how Google uses the patents it bought when it acquired Motorola Mobility last year for $12.5bn (£7.9bn). Google has said it will charge "fair and reasonable" rates to companies that need to use its standard essential patents. Standard essential patents are ones that are critical to industry standards, for example, the technology that allows devices such as smartphones and tablets to connect to the internet over wi-fi. It has agreed not to take out injunctions forcing licensees to remove their products from sale if there are disagreements about how much a fair rate should be. 'Disappointing and premature' Rivals had called for stronger sanctions to be taken against Google. Fairsearch, an organisation representing several of Google's critics such as Microsoft, said in a statement: "The FTC's decision to close its investigation with only voluntary commitments from Google is disappointing and premature, coming just weeks before the company is expected to make a formal and detailed proposal to resolve the four abuses of dominance identified by the European Commission, first among them biased display of its own properties in search results." The FTC was asked to investigate whether Google was favouring its own products in search results. FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz told a press conference that the commission had found no evidence that Google's search engine was biased towards its own services.

 "Some may believe the commission should have done more, but for our part we do follow the facts where they lead," he said. "We do it with appropriate rigour. This brings to an end the investigation. It is good for consumers, it is good for competition and it is the right thing to do." One of the biggest changes to be implemented by Google will allow advertisers to copy ad campaign data to other search engines, such as Microsoft's Bing. Google is also promising that it will stop copying content from other websites to use in its summaries, even though the company had insisted the practice was legal under the fair-use provisions of US copyright law. In response to the settlement, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post: "The US Federal Trade Commission today announced it has closed its investigation into Google after an exhaustive 19-month review that covered millions of pages of documents and involved many hours of testimony. "The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition." Big fine It does not mean that the search giant is out of the woods on the issue of anti-competitive practices. Alongside the FTC investigation, Google is still under scrutiny from the European Union. In December, the EU's Competition Commission gave the search giant a month to address four key areas: the manner in which Google displays "its own vertical search services differently" from other, competing products how Google "copies content" from other websites - such as restaurant reviews - to include within its own services the "exclusivity" Google has to sell advertising around search terms people use restrictions on advertisers from moving their online ad campaigns to rival search engines Google is expected to respond to these concerns shortly. If found guilty of breaching EU anti-trust rules, Google would face a fine of up to $4bn (£2.5bn).












3 January 2013 Last updated at 22:14
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20899032

An ambitious plan to update classic space trading game Elite has hit its funding target.

The game first appeared on the BBC Micro in 1984 but one of the game's original creators wanted to make a modern PC version. David Braben sought £1.25m via crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter to fund the 21st century update. A last minute surge of pledges helped it reach its goal about 48 hours before Friday's funding deadline. Funding squeeze Elite: Dangerous debuted on Kickstarter on 5 November and set itself 60 days to raise £1.25m. In November, Mr Braben said Elite was a game he had wanted to come back to for a "long, long time". Although some early work on the multiplayer title had been done at Mr Braben's game studio Frontier Developments, but needed the cash to turn the code into a finished playable product. If the game did not hit its funding target then development work would stop.

 Getting the cash via Kickstarter was preferable to using an established publisher because it gave Frontier and those who backed it total control over how the final game would turn out, said Mr Braben, The finished game, he said, would keep the central trading, travel and spaceship combat elements of the original but add far better graphics, physics and feature a much larger chunk of the universe for people to play in. Fund tracking site Kicktraq showed that after an initial surge the number of people backing the project tailed off dramatically. On its second day on Kickstarter raised more than £271,000. However, soon after pledge totals rarely got over £10,000. A surge of pledges came forward in the closing few days of Elite's fund-raising drive thanks to an appearance on social news site Reddit by Mr Braben and with the help of comedian Dara O Briain who urged his 1.2 million Twitter followers to back it. "It is really great to have exceeded the goal already," Mr Braben told the BBC. "I was delighted and touched by how many people really want this game to be made, and it was doubly good that it happened on my birthday!" He said the Elite team were now pushing to reach "stretch" goals which would produce a Mac version of the game and add more ships to the game. "It was an ambitious target but that is so that it was set at a realistic level to be able to make the game," he said adding that watching the total pledges get close to the target made for a "tense time".












3 January 2013 Last updated at 11:41
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20897768

Online loans company Wonga has begun offering "buy now, pay later" services directly on retailers' websites.

Until now, loans from Wonga, which have been highly criticised due to an annual interest rate of 4,214%, have been available only through its own site. The company has partnered with furniture firm Cotswold Company to launch its Paylater service. A spokesman for Wonga said it intended to roll out the service to other retailers soon. "Essentially, Paylater is providing an alternative to credit cards," he said. "It takes the cost of your purchase, you pay an upfront fee of 7%, then there are three payments over subsequent months that cover the outstanding costs." It means for an item that costs £100, a buyer will pay an initial fee of £7, followed by three monthly payments of £33.33. 'Legal loan shark' The interest rates on Paylater are considerably lower than on its core business - short-term "pay-day" loans. This side of Wonga's business has been highly criticised, with one MP calling the company a "legal loan shark". Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, also led a campaign to have the firm's advertisements taken off the websites of teams in the Football League. In May, Wonga was criticised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for using aggressive and misleading debt collection methods.

Speaking on Wonga's latest offering, debt advice charity StepChange told the BBC: "As with any form of credit, StepChange debt charity would urge people to carefully consider whether they absolutely need to use it. "Crucially, consumers should familiarise themselves with exactly how much they may have to pay back in charges, interest and fees, and whether they can afford to make those repayments." US expansion Wonga's move will see it come into direct competition with the likes of Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies that have taken their services online. The planned expansion comes ahead of speculation that Wonga has its sights set on breaking into the US market as soon as possible. A report in the Times newspaper earlier this month suggested Wonga had made a swoop to buy On Deck Capital, a US specialist online retailer. But a Wonga spokesman dismissed the report as "rumours and speculation". In 2011, Wonga chief executive Errol Damelin signalled his intent to expand the loan service worldwide. "We built a platform that is definitely extendable and over time we will definitely be expanding the reach of the business to bring the service to customers around the world," he said during an interview with financial news service Bloomberg. "The US has very particular regulatory constraints which make it an awkward market at the moment. We continue to look at the space and we will try and find a way to be able to bring the service to US consumers whenever we can."












17 December 2012 Last updated at 12:57
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20754976

Nasa is to test colour-changing lights on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of efforts to help astronauts on board sleep.

The US space agency will initially swap a fluorescent panel with a solid-state lighting module (SSLM) containing LEDs which produces a blue, whitish or red-coloured light depending on the time. It says the move may help combat insomnia which can make depression, sickness and mistakes more likely. The test is due to take place in 2016. News site Space.com reported that the equipment is being made by Boeing and the project has a $11.2m (£6.9m) budget. Body clock Studies on Earth suggest humans and other creatures follow what is known as a circadian rhythm - a 24-hour biological cycle involving cell regeneration, urine production and other functions critical to health. Research indicates that it is regulated by a group of cells in a portion of the brain called the hypothalamus which respond to light information sent by the eye's optic nerve, which in turn controls hormones, body temperature and other functions than influence whether people feel sleepy or wide awake. The aim of the experiment is to simulate a night-day cycle to minimise sleep disruption caused by the loss of its natural equivalent on the station. When the SSLMs are coloured blue the aim is to stimulate melanopsin - a pigment found in cells in the eye's retina which send nerve impulses to parts of the brain thought to make a person feel alert. Blue light is also believed to suppress melatonin - a hormone made by the brain's pineal gland which makes a person feel sleepy when its levels rise in their blood. By switching from blue to red light - via an intermediary white stage - this process should be reversed, encouraging a feeling of sleepiness.

 Nasa has previously warned sleep problems among its crews on other missions were also common. "On some space shuttle missions up to 50% of the crew take sleeping pills, and, over all, nearly half of all medication used in orbit is intended to help astronauts sleep," it said in 2001. "Even so, space travellers average about two hours sleep less each night in space than they do on the ground." Evidence from Earth Derk-Jan Dijk, professor of sleep and physiology at the University of Surrey, said Nasa's test reflects the latest findings closer to home. "It hasn't been until recently that we started to realise that artificial light, as we see it or are exposed to it in the evening, will have an effect on our alertness and subsequent sleep. "It turns out there are receptors in the eye which are tuned toward blue light. Adding blue light to artificial lights visible during the day can actually help us to be alert, but if there is too much blue light in the artificial lights at night that may disrupt sleep. "So, varying the spectral composition of light does make sense from a circadian perspective, and better regulating artificial sleep-wake cycles may indeed benefit astronauts' sleep in space." Nasa adds there could be spin-off benefits for the population at large. "A significant proportion of the global population suffers from chronic sleep loss," said Daniel Shultz at the Kennedy Space Center. "By refining multipurpose lights for astronauts safety, health and well-being in spaceflight, the door is opened for new lighting strategies that can be evolved for use on Earth."










17 December 2012 Last updated at 13:01
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20753888

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. 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 document's 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."













 22 November 2012 Last updated at 18:26
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20445637

In an email to all members, Facebook said it wanted a "more meaningful" way for users to give feedback. The site has also proposed combining information across its other services, such as photo-sharing app Instagram. Facebook said a vote into the changes could take place, but more than 300m users would need to participate. Under the site's rules, votes have an effect only if 30% of the user base has taken part. The site recently announced its one billionth sign-up. A campaign opposing the changes and calling for more transparency has been launched. The Our-Policy.org website is urging users to comment on the announcement in order to trigger a user vote on Facebook's plans. Under current rules, if there are 7,000 comments on an issue it will be voted upon. At the time of writing, 3,000 members had commented. 'Accountable' In explaining the changes, Facebook said it was looking for ways to more "effectively engage" with its users over changes to the network. "That commitment guided our decision in 2009 to launch an unprecedented process for user feedback," wrote Elliot Schrage, a vice-president of communications. "When we held our second global site governance vote in June, we indicated that we would review our site governance process in light of the growth of both our community - to over one billion users - and our company, which is now publicly traded and accountable to regulators around the world.

" Mr Schrage said the review of the procedure highlighted issues which required a restructuring of the feedback process. "We found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivised the quantity of comments over their quality. "Therefore, we're proposing to end the voting component of the process in favour of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement." Data merge The new proposals also outlined details of Facebook's plans to combine information across various services it owns. This could potentially include Instagram, the photo-sharing app which the social network acquired for £440m ($700m) earlier this year. As well as a vast library of user-uploaded photographs, Instagram also holds location data on its users - a highly valuable resource. The Reuters news agency has speculated that Facebook intended to unify user data profiles in a way similar to Google's controversial policy changes which took place earlier this year. The move made it easier for Google to serve targeted advertising to its users. The search giant was heavily criticised by EU data regulators, and told that it must do more to explain to users how their information was being used. Facebook has told the BBC that there are currently no plans to merge its services in this way - but did not rule it out from happening in the future. Aside from the privacy-related changes, Facebook also told users it plans to: Add new tools for filtering incoming messages, in response to user complaints that messages from friends were being lost in the "Other" folder. Give better indicators of where posts can be viewed - and by whom. Offer more guidance on managing profiles, including how to request deletion of posts a user has been "tagged" in by a friend. As part of a lengthy list of demands, the Our Policy website criticises the proposal as being too vague. "We want Facebook to use clear and understandable language," the group says. "We oppose that Facebook is using 'like', 'may' or 'could' instead of clear statements. This makes it impossible to clearly know what we consent to."
















 22 November 2012 Last updated at 13:26
 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20444678

Twitter resets 'hacked' passwords after being compromised

 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.










8 November 2012 Last updated at 17:48
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20256682

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. 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 this 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.










9 November 2012 Last updated at 11:10
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20266427 

Microsoft's chief boss has confirmed he plans to release more devices.


Steve Ballmer told the BBC: "Is it fair to say we're going to do more hardware? Obviously we are... Where we see important opportunities to set a new standard, yeah we'll dive in." The chief executive's comments came ahead of a Windows 8 launch event in New York, following which Microsoft's Surface tablet will go on sale. News other devices are likely to follow may worry some of the firm's partners. Mr Ballmer caused a stir when he revealed in June that his company was making its own family of tablet computers - one offering extended battery-life powered by an Arm-based chip, the other using Intel's technology to offer a deeper Windows experience. Until now Microsoft had focused on software and relied on third-parties to make hardware, with a few exceptions such as its Xbox games consoles and Kinect gesture sensors. The chief executive of Taiwanese PC-maker Acer told the Financial Times in August that the Surface would have "a huge negative impact for the [PC] ecosystem and other brands" adding that he had been in touch with Microsoft to discuss his concerns. But Dell - the world's third largest computer maker - was less bothered by the move. "The announcement of Surface was necessary to have a proof of concept and to get people excited about what was coming to push application development and create some buzz out there," Kirk Schell, vice president of Dell's client and consumer product group, recently told the BBC. "They've invested so much in Windows 8 it was important to make it work, so I felt Surface was the logical thing to do." Touch-controlled tiles Windows 8 is a radical update to Microsoft's core product. The operating system introduces a touchscreen-controlled interface featuring tiles. As well as acting as buttons to launch individual apps, the tiles allow installed software to provide status updates on a computer's home screen. These can include details about the latest emails received, news headlines or social network posts created by friends. Users can also switch into a more traditional desktop mode. Devices running the Windows RT version of the new software will only be allowed to install third-party software from Microsoft's curated Windows Store. But other machines will give users the ability to launch programs sourced from elsewhere. Windows RT is designed to run on machines powered by CPUs (central processing units) based on designs by the British firm ARM, while more fully-featured versions of Windows 8 will run on the x86-based architecture chips used by Intel and AMD. The strategy allows Windows to compete against both iPads and Android-based tablets as well as higher-end laptops and desktop computers. Analysts warn the move carries both risks and rewards. "Buyers craving a Windows tablet, touch laptop, or a touch all-in-one PC will jump for Windows 8, once they work through the processor choice confusion," said Frank Gillett from consultants Forrester Research. "[But] for some the prospect of learning a new interface will cause them to consider alternatives, most likely Apple's Mac; although some will also check out Google's Chrome OS offerings." Other Linux-based competitors are also hoping to gain ground including free-to-use alternatives Ubuntu and Debian. Research In Motion may also attempt to revitalise its own tablet sales when it launches Blackberry 10 next year. Surface phone? Before smartphones arrived Microsoft dominated the market, powering about 95% of personal computing device sales, according to Forrester. It says that figure has now shrunk to 30%. Surface addresses the software's firm's need to jumpstart demand for Windows-powered tablets. There is growing speculation that Mr Ballmer's next step could be to order the launch of Microsoft's own mobile phone. Despite positive reviews, devices running the Windows Phone 7 operating system captured less than a 4% share of global shipments in the July-to-September quarter, according to a study by IDC. Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe, is convinced work is already underway on a Surface Phone but added that it might never go on sale. "Microsoft is hedging its bets," he said.

 "The firm is heavily invested in Nokia succeeding with its Windows Phone handsets but can't allow for its failure to torpedo the platform." Nokia, HTC and Samsung have announced they will sell new handsets based on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system which launches next week. The product resembles and is based on the same kernel - or software core - as its PC equivalent. "At the very least Microsoft will be developing its own handset to go to market in case Nokia and others don't do better," Mr Green added. 'Whatever is required' Nokia's own chief executive Stephen Elop appears fairly relaxed about the prospect of competing with his former employer. "[It would be] a stimulant to the ecosystem," he told analysts on a recent conference call transcribed by news site Seeking Alpha. "We're encouraging HTC, and Samsung, and Microsoft or whomever, to have devices in the market and to be making whatever investments that help spur the ecosystem on." Mr Ballmer would not be drawn on the exact nature of his future plans. "We have committed ourselves on a path where we will do whatever is required from both a hardware and a software innovation perspective and the cloud innovation perspective in order to propel the vision that we have," was all he would tell the BBC. For now the only confirmed hardware on the horizon is a Pro version of the Surface tablet, set to go on sale in January.













25 October 2012 Last updated at 05:01
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20072497

Microsoft has reported a 22% fall in quarterly profits, after deferring some revenue ahead of the upcoming releases of its Windows 8 operating system and its latest version of Office.






Net profit for the three months to September fell to $4.47bn (£2.79bn), from $5.74bn a year earlier, and missed expectations. Total revenues fell 8% to $16bn. PC sales fell as consumers either put off new purchases in a tight economy or opted for tablet devices instead. Microsoft deferred a total of $1.36bn of revenue, which it will regain in the following quarter. This included $783m in licence fees for PCs pre-loaded with Windows 8, because it cannot recognise the revenue until the units go on sale on 26 October. It also deferred $384m for PCs that shipped with Windows 7 but are eligible for a $15 upgrade to Windows 8, and $189m for PCs that shipped with the new version of Office or are eligible for an upgrade. Microsoft shares fell 3% in extended trading.










18 October 2012 Last updated at 23:22
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19999901

A US court is to consider a case that could determine whether digital media files can be resold.

One-year-old start-up ReDigi is battling music giant EMI over whether digital music can be retraded after it has been legally purchased. ReDigi says that its software is designed to comply with existing United States copyright laws. But EMI argues a legal principle which allows consumers to resell purchased material goods does not apply. A judge at the district court in Manhattan, New York, will hear opening arguments in the case on Friday after EMI sued ReDigi for copyright infringement earlier this year. Legal precedent Launched in October 2011, ReDigi bills itself as the first legal online marketplace for second-hand digital material. The company says thousands of people downloaded its software in the weeks after launch, but it says growth slowed after Capitol Records, a subset of EMI, sued in January. EMI argues that digital music is not the same as CDs or books, meaning that the "first sale doctrine" does not apply. It says that the only way to move music around involves making duplicates, and there is is no way to guarantee all the original owner's copies of the files have been deleted. The lawsuit will be closely watched by the wider media industry as it could set a precedent. Search giant Google has written a letter to the judge arguing that the company had a "specific and vital interest" in the outcome. "I think it could absolutely transform the industry," Benjamin Shiller, a professor in economics at Brandeis University, told the BBC. Switch to digital US digital music sales are set to surpass CD and vinyl sales for the first time ever this year, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It estimates that digital sales will rise to $3.4bn (£2.1bn), compared to $3.38bn for physical sales. "Most lawful users of music and books have hundreds of dollars of lawfully obtained things on their computers and right now the value of that is zero dollars," said ReDigi's chief executive John Ossenmacher. "ReDigi takes zero dollars and we create billions of dollars in wealth overnight." ReDigi asks users to download proprietary software, which verifies if a file was bought legally. If the song checks out, it is then erased from the seller's hard drive and uploaded to ReDigi's computer servers. ReDigi's software is designed to prevent sellers from reinstalling a sold song to their computer, and offers users the chance to check their libraries for illegal music. Mr Ossenmacher said that with all of the checks in place:

"We were surprised by the lawsuit." Disruptive model EMI's lawyer Richard Mandel, declined to comment on the pending case. In court documents the firm acknowledges that it had held discussions with ReDigi, but adds that it "certainly did not provide any approval of [its] concept". EMI's suit demands ReDigi pay a penalty of $150,000 for each song in EMI's catalogue that was sold via the service since its launch. It may seem like a large sum, but legal experts note that the financial impact of ReDigi's business model could be larger if it is judged to be legal. "What this case points out is that the copyright statutes were written in an era when works of authorship were only available in tangible form," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney at TroyGould. "The copyright statute looks at the world through a lens of atoms not bits." Europe has already issued a ruling on a related case. In July, a European Union court sided in favour of UsedSoft, a German company that resold Oracle software, arguing that "an author of a software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences". Regardless of the outcome of the US suit, Mr Ossenmacher insists that ReDigi will continue to exist, with or without the record labels' permission. He has already announced plans to expand into the ebook market. It could be a potentially lucrative step bearing in mind that digital books cost more than digital songs, and are likely to be resold sooner after purchase.















By Kim Gittleson BBC News, New York
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842851

Facebook now has more than one billion people using it every month, the company has said.

The passing of the milestone was announced by founder Mark Zuckerberg on US television on Thursday. The company said that those billion users were to date responsible for 1.13 trillion "likes", 219 billion photos and 17 billion location check-ins. The site, which was launched in 2004, is now looking towards emerging markets to build its user base further. "If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you," Mr Zuckerberg wrote in a status update. "Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life." Statistics released to coincide with the announcement revealed there were now 600 million users accessing the site via a mobile device - up 48 million from 552 million in June this year. Since its early beginnings at Harvard University, Facebook users have befriended each other 140.3 billion times. Sustained growth is seen as crucial if Facebook is to maintain its value - the company has seen its share price drop to about $22 (£17) from a starting price of $38. Investors will expect the company to look at ways to make more from the users it already has as well as seeking to attract new users in areas of the world where it does not yet dominate. "For Facebook the main challenge is not just to grow in terms of numbers, but more importantly to deepen and enrich engagements," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at tech research firm Ovum. TV chat show Although the service is by far the world's biggest social network, there are key areas, such as China and Russia, where local competitors still remain the online networking tool of choice. Last month, Mr Zuckerberg visited Moscow, where he made his first TV chat show appearance, as well as a highly publicised meeting with the Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev. It was a public-relations exercise designed to unsettle VKontakte - a network that boasts in excess of 300 million members, compared with Facebook's seven million, in the country. In the same trip, Mr Zuckerberg made a "surprise" visit to one of the company's arranged hack-a-thons to meet local developers. Other trips include to China, where the company said it was busy "watching and learning" from other internet firms. Google, which launched in China in 2005, faced fierce criticism when it agreed to allow censorship of search results. It later changed its stance, and now directs all of its traffic through its Hong Kong-based site. Success for Facebook in China would mean unseating RenRen (more than 30 million users) and possibly the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo (more than 300 million users). 'Every phone' In Africa, Facebook has targeted the use of basic phones - known widely as "feature phones" - which are unable to display the full-featured site, but instead can use specially created variations of the network. Specifically, a project called Facebook for Every Phone, which was launched following the company's acquisition of feature-phone specialists Snaptu, is central to its growth strategy in the region. "Facebook is doing very well in Africa," said Erik Hersman, a Kenyan-based blogger. "You even see people using it in the rural areas - often people will ask for a phone with Facebook on it, not caring/knowing about the internet at all." There are considerable monetisation opportunities too. The continent has, at a pace far outstripping the west, adopted mobile payment systems in huge numbers - more than 15 million in Kenya alone. In developed markets, one path to better engagement with users could be through new features that make use of Facebook's vast quantities of personal data about each of its members. In recent weeks, Facebook has been looking to monitor the real-world effects of advertising on the platform. These efforts are key if the company is to convince businesses that investing in the platform is not a waste of money - recent admissions over "fake" users and have dented the site's credibility. It has enlisted the help of US market research firm Datalogix to try to produce evidence that seeing an advert on Facebook - without necessarily clicking on it - is enough of an engagement to get people buying products in shops. Data 'goldmine' However, this vast data bank is tricky to utilise, according to Ovum's Ms Zoller.

"There's no doubt that Facebook is sitting on a potential goldmine of customer data," she said. "But that goldmine can also be a minefield. We know that Facebook, despite its claims to the contrary, constantly pushes the boundaries of what's seen as acceptable in regards to data privacy." This goldmine could swell further. In the UK, ministers are said to be considering using Facebook, among other services, to act as official identification for accessing public services online. Such advancements are being noted by data regulators. In Europe in particular, Facebook has been faced with increased demands to tighten data privacy practices. The company, which has based its European headquarters in Ireland, was last month told by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes, that it must amend its Phototag feature - a tool powered by facial recognition software. Following an extensive audit, the commission also sought extra assurances from Facebook over issues surrounding account deletion and targeted advertising. As it continues to innovate and evolve, the company would need to get used to finding itself audited and investigated, said Ms Zoller. "They're so high-profile," she said. "They're a bit of a poster boy, but they could be a whipping boy if they're not careful."
















By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709

Iran has restricted access to Google's email service, Gmail, and search engine.

 A firewall already prevents Iranians from accessing many Western sites. The latest move coincides with protests throughout the Muslim world - including some in Tehran - against an anti-Islamic film posted on Google's video-sharing site YouTube. A government deputy minister announced the upcoming ban on Sunday on state television. "Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide, and will remain filtered until further notice," said an adviser to Iran's public prosecutor's office Abdul Samad Khoramabadi. The announcement was also sent out as a text message on mobile phones. The unsecured version of the search engine, which is much easier to eavesdrop on, remains accessible. The BBC Persian service says: "Google search website is accessible, but is not functioning properly. Google services which need a secure SSL [Secure Sockets Layer] connection are out of reach in Iran. "Any attempt to get access to those services leads the user to a never-ending waiting phase, where nothing comes up." Users can only access Gmail accounts by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow web surfing behind heavily encrypted firewalls. Many Iranians already use VPNs to bypass the government's restrictions on other blocked Western websites, said Mahmood Tajali Mehr, an Iranian telecommunications consultant living in Germany. "This is just a move by the Iranian governement towards a so-called nationwide intranet, to control all the traffic from the outside, and authorities are saying they will implement it in about three years. "But every school child knows how to bypass restrictions by using VPNs, it's very common in Iran." Temporary block? It is not the first time Iranian authorities have cut access to Google services. Both Google Search and Gmail were restricted in February, ahead of parliamentary elections in March. Mr Mehr said that he did not think the services were going to stay restricted for long. "This is just a propaganda tool to demonstrate that Iran is doing something against the US, but it is unlikely to last longer than a few days. "The current trouble with the anti-Islamic film is helping the government with this propaganda. "The state is saying that the people are asking to block these services because of the film, but there haven't been such protests as in Pakistan and elsewhere, only small organised protests, so my personal feeling is that it has nothing to do with the film. "Especially keeping in mind that YouTube has been blocked for some time already." Google's YouTube site has been censored since mid-2009, following protests and allegations of vote fraud after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The websites of several Western media organisations such as the Guardian, BBC and CNN are also blocked in the country, and a number of other web services, including Facebook and Twitter, are often censored. In March, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered officials to set up a body tasked with defining policy and co-ordinating decisions regarding the internet, called the Supreme Council of Virtual Space.












24 September 2012 Last updated at 11:37 GMT
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19700910

Microsoft has released a temporary software fix for a bug in its Internet Explorer web browser.





Cybercriminals used the flaw to install the Poison Ivy trojan on users' computers. This piece of malware can steal data or take remote control of a PC. Microsoft said in a blog the Fix It tool was "an easy, one-click solution that will help protect your computer right away" but "not intended to be a replacement for any security update". Microsoft said there had been an "extremely limited number of attacks". Before releasing the fix, the company had suggested workarounds such as disabling Active X controls and Active Scripting or downloading its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit. Another suggestion had been to change the security-zone settings on the browser to "high" and run IE in a restricted mode. So-called zero-day, or newly discovered, vulnerabilities are rare. According to security company Symantec, only eight such bugs were spotted in 2011. Symantec research manager Liam O Murchu said their novelty made them dangerous. "Any time you see a zero-day like this, it is concerning," he said. "There are no patches available. It is very difficult for people to protect themselves." The flaw, present in all versions of Internet Explorer except IE 10, was spotted by Luxembourg-based security expert Eric Romang, when his PC was infected by Poison Ivy last week.










 21 September 2012 Last updated at 12:49
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19674761

The UK's first fourth generation (4G) mobile service will launch in 16 UK cities before the end of the year.

Everything Everywhere, which will now be known as just EE, will continue the rollout into the new year, and aims to provide 4G to 98% of the UK by 2014. 4G coverage in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol is currently being tested ahead of launching in "weeks". Rivals have voiced concerns that EE had been given an unfair headstart by launching first. Other cities to get the high-speed connectivity are Belfast, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and Southampton. 'Spout unstoppably' 4G mobile technology will mean all of these locations will benefit from improved network access speeds, even indoors. Speaking at the event, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "I barely understand it, but information will spout unstoppably from these gizmos. "It will bring huge advantages to anyone living or working in London." Further rollout could prove a boon to rural areas where fixed line broadband speeds are poor. EE will offer several handsets to use with the service. Within the year, these will be Samsung's Galaxy S III LTE; HTC's One XL and Huawei's Ascend P1 LTE. The company will also offer Nokia's Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 - the latter of which the company has as an exclusive deal. In addition, other devices will be launched to allow customers to connect existing equipment - such as a laptop - to the 4G network. "4G will bring a more reliable connection," EE chief executive Olaf Swantee told the BBC. "When you see that it can do so much more than the current network, people will have a great appetite for it." The use of 4G will create a huge demand for data, he said - meaning networks would need to be updated. "Our networks can cope for now but they are not future-proofed." However, he refused to be drawn on media reports that Ofcom had brokered a peace deal between operators who were said to be angry at EE's early access to the 4G spectrum. But he did say that threats of legal action were shortsighted. "Stop using lawyers. We need to move on and get 4G infrastructure in place."













11 September 2012 Last updated at 12:21
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19543042

Sweden has topped a new global index evaluating the state of the web in 61 countries, with the US coming second and the UK third.

Compiled by Sir Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation, it ranked both the social and political impact of the web. It found that only one in three people are using the web globally and fewer than one in six in Africa. It highlighted censorship and high broadband prices as barriers to a "web for all". Using data from the past five years, it scored nations in seven different categories. These were: communications infrastructure - the state and availability of web-enabling infrastructure; institutional infrastructure - education, laws, regulation and censorship; web content - what relevant and useful content is available; web use - the extent to which the web is used in a country; political impact; economic impact and social impact. According to the index, Iceland has the greatest web use, with 95% of its population online. Ireland, which overall ranked 10th, gained the highest score for economic impact with 14.8% of its gross domestic product coming from ICT service exports between 2007 and 2010. Yemen came bottom of the index in three categories, including social and economic impact of the web.

 Sir Tim Berners-Lee explained why he thought such an index was important: "By shining a light on the barriers to web for everyone, the index is a powerful tool that will empower individuals, government and organisations to improve their societies." 'Global conversation' According to the index, 30% of countries face moderate to severe government restrictions on access to websites, while about half of them show increasing threats to press freedom. "The web is a global conversation. Growing suppression of free speech, both online and offline, is possibly the single biggest challenge to the future of the web," warned Sir Tim. Despite falling costs in western Europe, internet access remains a luxury in most countries, it suggested. Across the 61 countries surveyed, broadband connections still cost almost half of monthly income per capita. "The high price of connectivity is stopping billions of people from achieving their rights to to knowledge and participation. Costs have got to come down dramatically," said Sir Tim.












 5 September 2012 Last updated at 08:30
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19478298

Humans are being asked to help robots recognise the multitude of objects found in the average home.

Swedish researchers are asking people to use their Xbox's Kinect sensor as a scanner to grab detailed 3D images of the stuff in their homes. The Kinect@home project requires mass participation to accumulate many examples of common household objects. The scans will build into a library of objects robots can consult as they navigate around homes. Slow scan Co-ordinator Alper Aydemir said: "Factory floors can be custom built and the tools the robots will use can be known precisely in minute detail. This is not the case with everyday living spaces and objects." While humans have no trouble recognising objects such as a tea mug even if it is a different colour, shape and size to those they have seen before, robots struggle to complete such a mundane task. "One of the best ways for robots to accomplish all these tasks is to make them learn how to recognise a sofa, a chair, or a refrigerator by feeding them lots of data," Mr Aydemir told the BBC.

Rather than building up the database of objects by themselves, the team from the Center for Autonomous Systems at Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology have turned for help to the many people who have bought a Kinect game sensor for their Xbox console. The Kinect sensor uses a combination of an infra-red sensor, camera and customised computer chip to spot and interpret the movements of gamers, letting them play without a traditional hand-held controller. Mr Aydemir and colleagues Rasmus Goransson and Prof Patric Jensfelt have created software that uses information captured by the infra-red camera, and collected via the Kinect@home webpage, to create scans of objects. "This way, people get easy access to the ever improving state-of-the-art 3D modelling techniques for free and researchers gain insights as to what works and what doesn't by using the data," he said. The project has only been running a few days and already 141 objects , including shoes, mugs and guitars, have been scanned. Using the Kinect as a 3D scanner was as easy as making a video for YouTube, Mr Aydemir said. Those wishing to get involved would need to install an add-on for their web browser, he said, and take a little care when scanning objects. "When capturing data, one should move rather slowly and avoid big empty spaces," he said. "Aside from that, it's as easy as hitting a button on the recording page." The trio are planning to make their data widely available for robot and computer-vision researchers.














 31 August 2012 Last updated at 11:33
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19434922

26 teams from around the world are currently competing in the FIRA RoboWorld Cup They are taking part in a range of games, including football, basketball and weightlifting. It is the first time that the event has been hosted in the UK and organisers say that they have had a record number of entries. The robots have also smashed a few world records along the way. Marathon hopes The Usain Bolt of the robot world comes from Singapore. "The sprint world record was 42 seconds but Singapore has smashed that with 31 seconds," organiser Dr Guido Herrmann told the BBC. Unlike their human counterparts, the robots do not run 100 metres. "It is three metres [9ft 10in] forward and three metres back," explained Dr Herrmann. Homegrown pre-tournament favourites from Plymouth University will compete against Singapore in the sprint final on Saturday and "still have a very good chance", he said. It could be shaping up to be the robot equivalent of super Saturday. Another local team, from Bristol University's robotics laboratory, is competing in the final of the marathon. The event - a gruelling 42 metres - is going to be a challenge for Team Panther, as the entry is dubbed. "To be honest we'd just be happy to finish the race. At the moment our robot isn't walking very well," confessed team member David Pollard. The competition is made more difficult by the fact the teams have not been told in advance where the race will take place. "A table-top is easier than a floor or carpet but the surface is yet to be decided," he added.

Team Panther's robot has been built from scratch but it will be competing against shop-bought robots which, according to Mr Pollard, are currently outperforming the home-made versions. But he doesn't think this is unfair. "Essentially you should be able to build a better robot than one off the shelf but this is our first year," he said. Weighlifting DVDs The main focus of the competition is football, but competition in other disciplines has also been intense. The weightlifing record is one of several expected to fall. "The current world record is to lift 89 DVDs which is quite a bit for a small robot. But already in training a couple have lifted 100 DVDs," said Dr Herrmann. Many of the robots compete in multiple sports. The organiser described them as "decathletes" rather than single-event specialists. Fun is at the heart of the competition but all entrants must observe one important rule. "The robots must be autonomous. Once they start the humans must be hands-off," Dr Herrmann said. It is a coup for Bristol to have won the bid to host the event which has been running since 1996. But Dr Herrmann admitted that competition was "fierce". "I had to submit a bid in 2010 and go to Bangalore to present it," he said. "Putting the dates between the Olympics and the paralympics may have helped." The competition ends on Saturday.











By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19359372

Developers and users of Twitter have reacted angrily to changes made by the social network to restrict creation of third-party applications.

 Any new app that wants to serve more than 100,000 users must now seek the company's explicit permission. Apps which already have more than 100,000 users are allowed to expand by 200% before having to get Twitter's go-ahead to grow further. Critics said it would stifle the development of innovative products. Revoked key The changes came as part of Twitter's overhaul of its Application Programming Interface (API). An API allows different parts of a program to communicate together, as well as letting one application share content with another. In Twitter's case, its API has allowed for the development of extremely popular third-party services like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Twitpic. Twitter says the new rules, announced by its director of consumer product Michael Sippey, aim to "deliver a consistent Twitter experience". Mr Sippey wrote: "If you are building a Twitter client application that is accessing the home timeline, account settings or direct messages API endpoints (typically used by traditional client applications) or are using our User Streams product, you will need our permission if your application will require more than 100,000 individual user tokens." In this context, "tokens" are individual users.

 The guidelines also covered how tweets are displayed within apps. "If your application displays Tweets to users, and it doesn't adhere to our Display Requirements, we reserve the right to revoke your application key," Mr Sippey explained. 'Wiggle room' The changes are not expected to have an immediate impact on users. However, the announcement was heavily criticised by developers. Marco Arment, creator of popular reading service Instapaper, advised developers who were building on Twitter to "start working on another product". "Twitter has left themselves a lot of wiggle room with the rules," he wrote in a blog post. "Effectively, Twitter can decide your app is breaking a (potentially vague) rule at any time, or they can add a new rule that your app inadvertently breaks, and revoke your API access at any time. "Of course, they've always had this power. But now we know that they'll use it in ways that we really don't agree with. "I sure as hell wouldn't build a business on Twitter, and I don't think I'll even build any nontrivial features on it anymore." Twitter is not the only service to put such restrictions in place. Last year, Google announced that it would begin charging companies that made heavy use of its Maps product.












 17 August 2012 Last updated at 11:03
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19293793

An unexplained charge on a phone bill has led a mobile user to uncover a loophole in the sign-up system for some premium rate services.

Consultant Mark Hole found he could sign up anyone for some premium rate services from content maker Buongiorno. All he needed to know was a potential victim's mobile number and whether they used the Orange network. Buongiorno said it quickly closed the loophole once it was discovered and had no evidence it had been exploited. Browser spoof Mr Hole's suspicions were aroused when charges for a premium rate fortune-telling service turned up on the bill for the mobile phones linked to his computer consultancy business. "I went online, got the bill up and there were weekly charges coming up on it," he said. He complained to operator Orange about the charge but it said he must have signed up for it despite his insistence that he was "scrupulous" about keeping the numbers private and that they were only used for business calls. Mr Hole also contacted mobile content firm Buongiorno which ran the iFortune service he was being billed for. It asked him to send details of the disputed charge. At the same time Mr Hole looked for ways that the phantom charge could have applied.

He discovered that it was possible to convince the iFortune site it was being visited by an iPhone. Using add-ons for the Firefox web browser this let him sign up any Orange customer for the service. All he needed to do this was their mobile phone number. Mr Hole demonstrated the loophole by signing up a BBC correspondent's phone for a weekly fortune reading. Gareth Maclachlan, head of mobile security firm Adaptive Mobile, said the loophole arose because Buongiorno was not doing a good enough job of checking which net addresses were making sign-up requests. "There's a potentially criminal opportunity here," he said. If the loophole became widely known, he said, hi-tech thieves could set up a fake premium rate service, sign people up and then sit back and wait for cash to roll in. Information about Mr Hole's findings have been circulated to the GSMA security working group to ensure other operators are aware of the loophole. "There was a bug in the system," said a spokesman for Buongiorno. "When that was found out, we very quickly moved to pin it down, find out what happened and stop it from happening again." The spokesman added that exploiting the loophole required a "certain amount of technical knowledge". As far as Buongiorno could tell, he said, there had only been one "billed event" that had arisen as a result of the loophole. The money wrongly taken for this event had now been refunded, he said. What is not clear yet is how many people were at risk of being signed up for premium rate services. Buongiorno said it closed down the bug quickly but Mr Hole's investigations suggest it was open for perhaps as long as 14 days.














13 August 2012 Last updated at 09:34
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19210215