Yahoo wins Prism court-papers battle

16 July 2013 Last updated at 07:06 ET

Details of the official justification for the US National Security Agency's wide-ranging Prism surveillance programme look set to be revealed.

Yahoo has won a legal fight that will see papers from a key 2008 court case declassified and published.

The 2008 case is widely seen as pivotal in letting the NSA establish Prism and start gathering data on web use.

The US government has been given until 29 July to say how long it will need to prepare the documents for publication.

Earlier this month, Yahoo filed papers with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisc), seeking permission to publicise the documents it had filed in the original case and the government's response. The Fisc decides whether official applications to carry out surveillance should go ahead.

Yahoo took the legal action to show how vehemently it had objected to government requests to hand over data.

In addition, it said, the transcript of the 2008 case would reveal more about how the US government had justified its wide-ranging surveillance plan known as Prism.

In a statement, Yahoo said the release of the documents would "contribute constructively to the ongoing public discussion around online privacy".

Details about Prism were revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has now fled the US.

The US government has not filed any objections to the plan to disclose the court documents but will review the papers before publication so it can redact information it does not want published.

"The administration has said they want a debate about the propriety of the surveillance, but they haven't really provided information to inform that debate," Mark Rumold, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation rights group, said.

"So declassifying these opinions is a very important place to start."

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Nasa tests 3D-printed engine part

15 July 2013 Last updated at 08:24 ET

Nasa has announced it has successfully tested a 3D-printed rocket engine part.

The US space agency said that the injector component could be made more quickly and cheaply using the technique.

The part is used to deliver liquid oxygen and hydrogen gas to an engine's combustion chamber.

The news follows General Electric's revelation that it planned to use 3D printing technology to make fuel nozzles for its jet engines.

Nasa said that California-based Aerojet Rocketdyne had made the injector using a method called selective laser melting (SLM).

The technique involves turning a computer-designed object into a real-world part by controlling a high-powered laser beam which melts and fuses thin layers of metallic powders into the preordained shape.

The test part was smaller than would be used in a full-size rocket, but large enough to test it could withstand the heat and pressure involved.

Nasa said the component would normally have taken a year to make because of the exact measurements involved, but by using SLM the manufacturing time was cut to less than four months and the price reduced by more than 70%.

"Nasa recognises that on Earth and potentially in space, additive manufacturing can be game-changing for new mission opportunities, significantly reducing production time and cost by 'printing' tools, engine parts or even entire spacecraft," said Michael Gazarik, Nasa's associate administrator for space technology.

SLM is not the only unusual manufacturing technique being explored by Nasa.

The agency has also asked researchers at Washington State University to see whether it would be possible to 3D-print objects out of powder made from lunar rocks.

It is also testing a process called electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3) which uses a computer-controlled electron beam gun placed in a vacuum that welds metal wires into complex shapes and patterns.

It has suggested the process could be used by astronauts to make spare parts in space.

Design competition

Nasa's announcement comes a month after General Electric announced a competition for third-parties to create the best 3D-printable design for an aircraft engine bracket - the part used to support the engine when it needs to be serviced.

The firm will divide a $20,000 (£13,300) cash prize pool between the eight best performing designs after they are built and tested between August and November.

The US company has already used SLM to produce parts for its upcoming Leap (Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion) family of turbofan engines, made in conjunction with France's Snecma.

It has said the process allowed it to make a single widget rather than having to solder 15 to 20 parts together, helping cut its weight and boost the engine's fuel efficiency.

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Microsoft and Blackberry cut prices

15 July 2013 Last updated at 10:18 ET

Microsoft and Blackberry have both cut prices on their flagship products in a bid to boost sales.

Microsoft dropped the price of the 32GB Surface RT to £279 from £400 in the UK, with the 64GB model's price down by the same amount to £359.

And in the US, Blackberry has cut the price of the Z10 phone to as low as $49 with a contract - down from $199 four months ago.

Both firms have developed the devices to show off their latest software.

And both have tried to compete with Apple, Google and Samsung on smartphones and tablets - with limited success.

"It's a big deal for both companies," Tony Cripps, a telecoms analyst at Ovum, told the BBC. "Competing with the Apples and Samsungs of this world is tough, and it's a difficult climate to put out high-end products when the market is so dominated by a couple of players."

In the US, the cheapest Surface tablet went down to $349 (£230) from $499.

'Bet the farm'

Blackberry in particular is battling to revive its share of the smartphone market with the touchscreen-only Z10, which shows off its new BB10 operating system.

Users can get the Z10 through US carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless, for $99 with a two-year contract, but the phone costs $49 with a contract at retailers Amazon and Best Buy.

It is not clear whether the price cut has been implemented to people looking to get the phone on contract in the UK.

The company reported an $84m loss for its last quarter and refused to say how many devices running BB10 it sold - but it sold fewer phones in those three months than in the same period the year before.

Blackberry has said it shipped one million Z10s in the first three months of 2013.

"For Blackberry, it really bet the farm on its new BB10 operating system and it needs to regain market share in smartphones," Mr Cripps said.

"In that sense, the Surface's success is perhaps not quite as important for Microsoft but if they want Windows 8 to be a key driver for the future, they need to get it into the hands of as many people as possible."

Microsoft's Surface tablet is intended to challenge the iPad and Android-based tablets and runs Windows RT, a slimmed-down version of its latest Windows 8 operating system.

Recent figures from analysts IDC show that 49.2 million tablets shipped in January, February and March - and about 900,000 of those were Surfaces.

Other Windows-powered tablets totalled 1.8 million units sold across all vendors. Apple's iPad and iPad Mini accounted for 19.5 million of tablets sold.

"We've been seeing great success with pricing and cover promotions over the past several months on Surface RT in the US and other markets," a Microsoft spokeswoman said. "People who buy Surface love Surface, and we're excited about all those additional people out sharing their excitement for Surface with other people."

Microsoft also offers the Surface Pro, which runs the full version of Windows 8 and starts at $899 for the 64GB model. It has not had its price cut.

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Apple probes electrocution report

15 July 2013 Last updated at 11:07 ET

Apple has said it will "fully investigate" reports that a woman was electrocuted in China while trying to use an iPhone while it was recharging.

The 23-year-old's brother has given an interview saying that her family believes she received a shock when trying to answer a call on the handset.

News agency Xinhua says police are investigating the death of Ma Ailun in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

But it said they had not verified if a mobile phone was the cause.

Ms Ma's older sister posted a message on the micro-blogging service Sina Weibo following her death on Thursday.

"[I] hope that Apple Inc can give us an explanation. I also hope that all of you will refrain from using your mobile devices while charging," it read.

Xinhua said the message had been reposted more than 3,000 times.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family," Apple said in a statement.

"We will fully investigate and co-operate with authorities in this matter."

Safety advice

According to local reports Ms Ma had been a flight attendant with China Southern Airlines and had been planning to get married in August.

Her sister said she had bought the iPhone 5 shortly after it launched in the country in December and had been using it with the original charger at the time of the incident.

Xinhua said the China Consumers Associations had previously reported a man had been killed in 2010 while making a phone call using a handset connected to the mains with an unauthorised charger.

However, one UK-based expert said that under normal circumstances mobile phone owners had no reason to be concerned.

"Using a handset while it's recharging should be completely safe," Prof Will Stewart, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC.

"The charger output is low voltage - it's about five volts - much too unpowerful to be dangerous, therefore there should be no risk at all.

"Having said that, something in the charger could have had a fault on it and/or the mains wiring it was connected to might have been faulty.

"Owners should also avoid using mains-connected equipment whilst in the bath or if they are extremely wet, because water could run down the wire and into the plug."

Apple reported that it had sold $8.8bn (£5.8bn) of goods in China over the January-to-March quarter, with iPhones sold from its 11 stores in the country in addition to 19,000 other third-party retailers.

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App plays music from infinite phones

15 July 2013 Last updated at 12:56 ET

A team of students from Exeter University has won $50,000 (£33,100) for developing an app that allows an infinite number of devices to play music simultaneously.

The team behind the app, SoundSynk, won first prize in innovation at the Imagine Cup, a student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft.

The team has so far tested it on 75 devices.

The app will be available across all platforms in August.

Edward Noel, Rob Parker, Alex Bochenski and Jonathan Neuman were presented with their prize by Doctor Who star Matt Smith in St Petersburg.

"With this technology, we can create hyper-local social networks," said Mr Parker.

"SoundSynk is the first practical use of this technology and we are all very excited about its future applications."

Artificial mesh

The app will get its biggest test at the end of August when it will be showcased at a performance at the Reading Festival of up to 80,000 people.

SoundSynk connects phones and other devices through a so-called artificial mesh network, allowing them to play the same song on all devices in perfect harmony.

The students came up with the idea late on a Saturday night in February. They were playing Sweet Nothings by the DJ, Calvin Harris, on a laptop and they wanted to have it louder as they brainstormed.

"Being students we wanted to have a little rave but the volume was not sufficient," Alex Bochenski said.

"At this point we did the age-old technique of lining up all of our phones, laptops, tablets and trying to play the song at the same time."

It didn't work - but it sparked the germ of an idea that would eventually see them compete in Russia, beating teams from Slovenia and Thailand in the innovation category.

"We developed a prototype of the product in 24 hours for the regionals of the Imagine Cup," Mr Bochenski said.

Eighty-seven student teams from 71 countries competed in the worldwide finals.

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Baidu in China app store deal

16 July 2013 Last updated at 00:49 ET

China's largest internet search engine company, Baidu, says it has agreed to pay $1.9bn (£1.25bn) to buy a major developer of app stores in China.

The proposed deal is to take over 91 Wireless owned by NetDragon Websoft, a Hong Kong-list company.

Baidu is looking to go beyond its search offering and compete against rivals Alibaba and Tencent.

China's mobile internet market is a huge opportunity with the number of active mobile users set to rise.

Baidu said it will pay $1.09bn for a 57.4% stake in 91 Wireless, which which was established in 2007. It operates two app stores in China, 91 Assistant and HiMarket, which run on Google's Android operating system. It also develops its own apps.

Baidu will offer $800m to the owners of the remaining 42.6% stake, who were not named.

Analysts said the move would help Baidu compete for the growing number of smart-phone users in China.

"It's good for Baidu because if you look at mobile, currently apps are more popular than mobile sites because Internet download speeds are slow. So with the acquisition of this appstore, Baidu can work more closely with the apps developer and be able to enhance further their search capabilities," said Elinor Leung, an analyst with CLSA in Hong Kong.

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Virtual adults 'turn into' children

16 July 2013 Last updated at 04:23 ET By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC News Continue reading the main story

In a virtual world adults in a child-like body start to perceive the world more like a child, a study has shown.

Adults were either placed in a virtual four-year-old body or an adult body scaled down to the same size.

It was found that participants in the child's body overestimated the size of objects and identified better with child-like attributes.

Scientists say their work, published in PNAS, could help unlock hidden memories.

Wearing a head mounted display and a motion capture suit that tracks body movements, adults were able to move in a virtual world just as they would in the real world.

Previous research has already shown that the brain is amenable to accepting such illusory changes. So if a person moves at the same time their virtual body does, they feel as if they are really moving.

Body illusion

A team led by Mel Slater from the University of Barcelona found three situations in which adult participants reacted differently depending on what virtual body they were in.

Embodiment illusions have already established that when placed in a small virtual body, surrounding objects seem larger. What was unexpected was that those in a child's body overestimated the sizes of objects to a greater extent.

The participants were also asked to do an implicit association test, which requires participants to categorise themselves with child-like or adult-like attributes. Those in the child's body reacted faster to child-like attributes to those in the adult body.

A third scenario they were presented with was to pick a child or adult-like room. Those in a child's body preferred the child's room.

"This illusion of body ownership was responsible for these findings," Prof Slater told BBC News.

"Somehow the brain thinks 'this is my body' which makes the whole experience consistent. You see the world bigger, have more childlike attributes and prefer a child's environment rather than an adult one."

The researchers propose that their work has numerous applications, particularly for therapy or remembering childhood memories.

"You're putting yourself in the shoes of someone else, so you can get some aspect of how they feel to be in this position.

"To some extent you could revert people to a child-like experience, so they may be able to remember things from their childhood better or to empathise more with their own children."

Rehabilitate prisoners

He added that longer term studies were needed to discover if these changes still had an effect after the experiment.

Thomas Metzinger from the Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany, said the findings could have numerous applications.

"Virtual reality could help us take the perspective of victims, of young children and could help rehabilitate prisoners.

"It could help us understand how people really feel, maybe even in a crime scene to see what perspectives they had," Prof Metzinger told BBC News.

He added that it was not surprising that people easily identified with avatars as people increasingly live their day-to-day lives in a 'virtual world' of the internet, TV and computer games.

But like Prof Slater, he said it was unclear if a momentary insight into a virtual world could help facilitate empathy in the the long-term.

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Tech firms target pirate ad cash

16 July 2013 Last updated at 06:13 ET

Websites that profit from piracy are being targeted by an initiative that aims to cut off the cash they get from adverts.

The initiative could mean ads being withdrawn from sites pirating music and movies or selling fake goods.

Many such sites only survive because cash generated by ads helps them pay their high bandwidth bills.

Tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that pipe adverts to sites have signed up to the initiative.

Before now, many rights holders have tried to deal with sites that infringe copyright with take-down notices that seek to get copyrighted content removed from the web.

The new scheme gives them another avenue as they can now target adverts that run on webpages found to be offering counterfeit goods or pirated media. Under the scheme, they will be able to inform an ad network that their adverts are appearing on a pirate site. It will then be up to the ad network to investigate and pull the ads if they agree the site is engaged in copyright theft.

Sites accused of piracy are also allowed to file evidence in their defence if they believe the accusation is wrong.

The scheme takes the form of a series of "best practice guidelines" that those who supply ads have agreed to uphold. The initiative was brokered by the US government's Intellectual Property Enforcement Co-ordinator.

"Ultimately, we want to create and maintain a healthy online space, promote innovation, and protect intellectual property," said Linda Covington, Yahoo's IP policy head, in a statement.

Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Google, 24/7 Media, Adtegrity, Conde Nast and SpotXchange have all pledged to back the guidelines.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was critical of the scheme and said it that it would not make much difference.

In a statement, Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA, said it was an "incremental step forward that addresses only a narrow subset of the problem and places a disproportionate amount of the burden on rights holders."

It is also not clear how much effect it will have on bigger sites that generally use ad networks that have not signed up to the initiative. None of the top 10 ad firms that supply the majority of adverts to illicit file-sharing sites is involved with the scheme.

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BBC to launch five new HD channels

16 July 2013 Last updated at 06:31 ET

The BBC has announced it plans to launch five new high definition channels by early 2014.

There will be HD versions of BBC News, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBeebies and CBBC.

They will be available over rooftop aerials via Freeview receivers as well as satellite and cable services.

The news coincides with regulator Ofcom's announcement that is making it possible to launch a total of 10 new HD channels using airwaves freed up by the switch off of analogue TV.

"BBC One HD and BBC Two HD have already proved to be highly valued by our audiences and I'm delighted that we're able to follow this with the launch of five new subscription-free BBC HD channels by early 2014," said the BBC's director general Tony Hall.

"These new channels will allow us to showcase more of our programming at its very best."

At present there are only four HD channels offered over Freeview, which launched its HD service in 2010.

They are BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD. These include variants of the BBC One HD service for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

BSkyB said it had no plans to launch an HD service on Freeview.

ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 had no statement at this time as to whether they intended to take advantage of Ofcom's move.

Temporary licence

Two of the BBC's new channels - BBC Three HD and CBBC HD - will utilise existing unused capacity, and CBeebies HD and BBC Four HD will share a channel since they will not be broadcast at the same time.

As a result there is still the potential for up to a further eight new HD channels to be offered over Freeview as a result of Ofcom's move.

Transmission company Arqiva will provide the infrastructure behind the new Freeview services, having being awarded a licence to do so by the regulator. It will handle other applications for the added capacity.

The company has indicated that up to 70% of the UK population should be able to receive the new channels over their aerials.

The 550-606MHz spectrum band being used was freed up as a result of the UK's digital TV switchover, which was completed last year.

Ofcom has said it reserves the right to take back the bandwidth from December 2018 if it needs to prevent a "capacity crunch" caused by the roll-out of future mobile broadband services.

The BBC has indicated it also wants to launch English regional variants of its existing BBC One HD service as well as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland editions of BBC Two HD. This would not need any of the new capacity. It would, however, need to be approved by the BBC Trust.

More than 50% of homes in the UK are already HD-enabled. The BBC said it expected that figure to grow to 90% by 2019.

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UK to road test driverless cars

16 July 2013 Last updated at 11:24 ET

Driverless cars will be tested on public roads by the end of 2013, says the UK government.

So far, UK trials of the autonomous vehicles have taken place only on private land.

Driverless cars are guided by a system of sensors and cameras and are seen as potentially safer and more efficient than regular vehicles.

As a safety measure, a back-up driver will ride along during tests who can take over in case of emergency.

Test track

The plans have been unveiled in a blueprint by the Department for Transport, as part of a £28bn investment in British roads to reduce congestion. The report says driverless vehicles are capable of driving on their own "using knowledge of the environment in which they are driving".

"They maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front at a set speed and without deviating from their lane - all without the driver's input," said the report.

For now, the cars will be driven on lightly-used rural and suburban roads in a "semi-autonomous" mode which gives human passengers the choice to intervene.

Continue reading the main story

It's early days and driverless cars won't be mainstream for a long time.""

End Quote Paul Watters The AA

They will be tested by the same team of Oxford University researchers who have been developing and testing autonomous car technology on an adapted Nissan Leaf around Oxford Science Park.

The technology uses lasers and small cameras to memorise regular journeys like the commute or the school run.

Prof Paul Newman, who leads the Oxford team, told the BBC he was excited by the public trials in the UK. "It's a great area to be working in because it's IT and computers and that's what changes things. The British government sees that engineering is important."

The UK announcement follows public trials in other parts of the world. The US is leading the way, with three states - Nevada, Florida and California - all passing legislation around autonomous cars.

"Far fetched"

Google has led efforts in the private sector, with its fleet of prototypes of a converted Toyota Prius covering more than 300,000 miles on public roads.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he believed the self-driving car would "dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone", and that it would be commercially available within the decade.

Prof Newman acknowledged that Google were "trailblazers" but added: "They're not the only game in town."

Although initiatives so far have focused on adapting existing cars, many leading car makers including Ford, Audi and Volvo have also expressed their interest in developing the technology as the cost comes down, potentially paving the way for widespread use in mid-range vehicles.

They link an array of technologies inside the vehicle such as lane keep assist, advanced intelligent cruise control and advanced emergency braking in a so-called "sensor fusion".

Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, urged caution.

"In the past our members have expressed concern about fully autonomous cars, preferring human interaction," he told the BBC.

"The notion of reading the newspapers and drinking a cup of coffee is a bit far-fetched. It's early days and driverless cars won't be mainstream for a long time."

"But we have a variety of in-car technologies already, including guided parking and adaptive cruise control, so fully driverless cars will be the culmination of a gradual evolution, not an overnight revolution."

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