An original Apple 1 computer from 1976 - one of only six still in working order - has sold at auction in Germany for more than 500,000 euros ($650,000).

The Apple 1 was one of the first 50 built by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Jobs' parents' garage.

The computer - consisting only of a motherboard, signed by Mr Wozniak - went to an anonymous buyer from Asia.

Last year, an Apple 1 sold for 490,000 euros (£418,000; $633,000).

Only about 200 Apple 1s were ever made. About 46 remain in existence, but only six of those are still in working order.

Bob Luther, author of The First Apple, called the Apple 1 the "holy grail of collectable technology".

The one sold at auction in the German city of Cologne on Saturday was purchased together with an original monitor, tape-player, keyboard. The documentation was signed by Steve Jobs.

Read it from the source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22667353

The European launch of the "Facebook phone" has been delayed following disappointing US sales and negative feedback.

The HTC handset runs Facebook's enhanced Home software, designed to be more integrated into the smartphone than a normal app.

UK mobile operator EE confirmed that "following customer feedback" the Europe launch had been stalled.

It follows a raft of high-profile employee departures from HTC.

In recent months, chief product officer Kouji Koudera, Asian chief executive Lennard Hoornik and the firm's director of global communications Jason Gordon have all departed.

Five other senior figures have also left the company.

Signs of discontent were played out in public when Eric Lin, an ex-HTC product strategy manager, tweeted: "To all my friends still at @HTC - just quit. Leave now.

"It's tough to do, but you'll be so much happier, I swear."

Mr Lin had left HTC in February to join Microsoft-owned Skype.

Despite being one of the industry's top players several years ago, the smartphone maker's market share has fallen sharply and its income fell to the lowest level in eight years towards the end of 2012.

Read it from the source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22654037

Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been and gone, giving the mobile community a chance to come together and show off their latest products in Barcelona, while no doubt enjoying the odd tapas or two.

We here at V3 were at the show to see what was announced, grabbing hands-on with numerous devices that were unveiled and hearing what those on stage had to say about their company's plans and their future-gazing for the mobile market.

Now, having returning home and enjoyed some hearty British food again, the V3 team sat down to discuss the key announcements and insights from the show that we think will have an impact on the market in the months ahead.

10. Nokia is seeking salvation in the mid-market

MWC Nokia Lumia 720 home screenNokia used to rule the roost in the smartphone world but these days it has to watch as its rivals running Android, like Samsung, and Apple with its iPhone, dominate the market. However, the firm has a plan to fight back.

With one billion people still to come online with smartphone the firm has moved to flood this market with cheap, but high-quality devices, such as the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, both unveiled at MWC this year.

While they may be budget smartphones, costing around £150, there's nothing budget about their capabilities, and we were left impressed by their speed and features when we had a play on the show floor.

Certainly, with Apple refusing to go anywhere near the mid and low tier markets, and Samsung preferring to concentrate at the high end, this strategy could work for Nokia.




Source : www.v3.co.uk

Burger King's Twitter account appeared to have fallen victim to hackers on Monday as it began sending out pro-McDonald's messages and the occasional rap video.

The company's Twitter feed was decked out with McDonald's promotions, implanting golden arches into the @BurgerKing account's masthead and setting the background graphic to a photo of the rival chain's popular Chicken McNuggets.

The hackers also changed the company's address to "in a hood near you."

Phony tweets included a link to one photo of unsanitary working conditions in an unidentifiable kitchen, and another of man injecting himself with a syringe. Other tweets promoted rap artists and provided links to their respective music videos on YouTube.

Twitter users responded gleefully, with one onlooker writing: "Somebody needs to tell Burgerking that 'whopper123' isn't a secure password."

News Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9878724/Burger-Kings-Twitter-account-hacked.html

Facebook has added a feature in its mobile phone app that allows free calling for US iPhone users.


Users can now make calls to each other via the Facebook Messenger app anywhere they have a wi-fi or a cellular-data connection. The feature could be a boon for heavy talkers as they would avoid carrier call charges. Facebook said it was working on adding the feature to its Messenger app for Android and BlackBerry users. Within the app, all a person needs to do is open a conversation with a partner, tap the "i" icon in the upper right hand corner and select "Free Call". The calls, however, can only be made to another user who has Messenger installed on their iPhone. Users can neither call a Facebook friend who is logged in through the website or call a landline. The latest mobile-to-mobile development was independent of the free video-calling software Skype, which was already integrated into Facebook's website, a spokesman said. The Messenger app is limited to voice calling. The official said Facebook was expected to roll out the feature in its Messenger app for other operating systems and expand it overseas. On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled a smart search engine - called Graph Search - that allows users to make "natural" searches of content shared by their friends.







17 January 2013 Last updated at 11:41
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21059611

Anger over huge phone bills caused by purchases made within mobile applications has grown.

Regulator PhonepayPlus has noted a 300% increase in complaints from consumers faced with an unexpectedly large phone bill. Many apps can be downloaded for free, but users are then encouraged to buy extra items. Other free apps contained malware that tricked users into running up bills, the regulator added. Children's "naivety" on social media was also causing concern among parents, PhonepayPlus said. The regulator said it was working with Facebook to make sure rogue offers and promotions were removed from the site as quickly as possible. In most mobile app stores, it is free games that make their way to the top of the most downloaded charts, so many games makers have opted for the in-app sales business model. Burning holes Many titles, such as the massively popular Angry Birds, give players the chance to progress more quickly in the game by spending small amounts of money. PhonepayPlus said its figures suggested that two in three 11- to 16-year-olds had downloaded their own apps. The regulator warned that parents could see bills of "hundreds or even thousands of pounds" as a result of these in-app purchases. In one of the more extreme cases, it was reported that children had downloaded counterfeit versions of games from Google's Android app store. These games were infected with malware which, whenever opened, billed £15 to the user's phone bill without their knowledge. PhonepayPlus' chief executive Paul Whiteing said parents must be vigilant. "Connected devices will define the age in which today's children live and we are determined to ensure that they can receive the benefits while being protected from the risks," he said. "Smartphones in children's pockets can burn holes in parents' wallets, so we are working with partners across industry and other agencies to prevent this. "This is a real challenge for parents and for us as a regulator, but this plan meets that challenge head on."











16 January 2013 Last updated at 12:11
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21042379

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