Liquidators called in to Blipfoto

17 March 2015 Last updated at 14:30

Online photo-sharing firm Blipfoto has gone into liquidation, it has been confirmed.

Business services firm FRP Advisory were appointed as liquidators of the Edinburgh-based firm on 11 March.

Eleven staff were laid off at the company before FRP was called in.

Liquidators said Blipfoto's website continued to operate and they were "in discussions with an interested party" over the sale of the site and intellectual property.

In recent days, as rumours of the company's collapse spread, worried users have been asking what might happen to the photos stored on Blipfoto's servers.

In a statement FRP said: "A sale of the assets will protect subscribers and ensure continuity of the service.

"FRP Advisory hopes to progress matters quickly and will update as soon as possible."

Blipfoto is a website where users document their lives daily with a single photo and some text.

It was founded in 2004 by Joe Tree and now reaches half a million people every month, in 175 countries.

In January, it entered a partnership with Polaroid. The website was then relaunched as Polaroid Blipfoto.

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Facebook revamps removal rules

16 March 2015 Last updated at 04:00 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Facebook is providing the public with more information about what material is banned on the social network.

Its revamped community standards now include a separate section on "dangerous organisations" and give more details about what types of nudity it allows to be posted.

The US firm said it hoped the new guidelines would provide "clarity".

One of its safety advisers praised the move but said that it was "frustrating" other steps had not been taken.

Facebook says about 1.4 billion people use its service at least once a month

Confused users

The new guide will replace the old one on the firm's website, and will be sent to users who complain about others' posts.

Monika Bicket, Facebook's global head of content policy, said the rewrite was intended to address confusion about why some takedown requests were rejected.

"We [would] send them a message saying we're not removing it because it doesn't violate our standards, and they would write in and say I'm confused about this, so we would certainly hear that kind of feedback," she told the BBC.

"And people had questions about what we meant when we said we don't allow bullying, or exactly what our policy was on terrorism.

"[For example] we now make clear that not only do we not allow terrorist organisations or their members within the Facebook community, but we also don't permit praise or support for terror groups or their acts or their leaders, which wasn't something that was detailed before."

Ms Bicket stressed, however, that the policies themselves had not changed.

Buttocks ban

The new version of the guidelines runs to nearly 2,500 words, nearly three times as long as before.

The section on nudity, in particular, is much more detailed than the vague talk of "limitations" that featured previously.

Facebook now states that images "focusing in on fully exposed buttocks" are banned, as are "images of female breasts if they include the nipple".

It adds that the restrictions extend to digitally-created content, unless posts are for educational or satirical purposes. Likewise, text-based descriptions of sexual acts that contain "vivid detail" are forbidden.

However, Facebook adds that it will "always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring".

Other sections with new details include:

• Bullying - images altered to "degrade" an individual and videos of physical bullying posted to shame the victim are now expressly forbidden
• Hate speech - while the site maintains the same list of banned topics, it now adds that people are allowed to share examples of others' hate speech in order to raise awareness of the issue, but they must "clearly indicate" that this is their purpose
• Criminal activity - the network now states that users are prohibited from celebrating any crimes they have committed, but adds that they are allowed to propose that an illegal activity should be legalised
• Self-injury - the site says that it will remove content that identifies victims and targets them for attack, even if done humorously. But it says that it does not consider "body modification" to be a type of self-injury

Graphic violence

The changes have been welcomed by the Family Online Safety Institute (Fosi), one of five independent organisations that make up Facebook's safety advisory board.

"I think it's great that Facebook has revamped its community standards page to make it both more readable and accessible," the body's chief executive Stephen Balkam told the BBC.

"I wish more social media sites and apps would follow suit."

But he expressed concern that Facebook was still not doing enough to protect youngsters from seeing disturbing videos.

While Facebook's new guidelines state that users should "warn their audience about what they are about to see if it includes graphic violence", it provides no way for members to add cover pages to clips to prevent them from auto-playing.

In January, after months of pressure from Fosi and others, Facebook revealed it had introduced a way for its own staff to add such "interstitial" warnings. They have been used over clips showing the murder of a French policeman in the Charlie Hebdo attacks among other material.

However, Facebook only adds the alerts if it has received a complaint, rather than letting the original posters do so.

"It is frustrating that after all this time, Facebook users are still not able to put up interstitials on violent or controversial images and videos," said Mr Balkam.

"Facebook has done the right thing to place interstitials themselves once a user has reported an image or extreme content, but my hope is that they will bring this to ordinary users sooner rather than later."

Facebook has acknowledged the point.

"We are always looking to provide more tools for people to use themselves," responded Ms Bicket.

"Right now we are not in a position to provide those tools to people, but we are always looking at ways to do better."

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Blackberry firm unveils new tablet

16 March 2015 Last updated at 13:18 By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

Blackberry-owned company Secusmart has unveiled a new tablet in collaboration with Samsung and IBM.

The Secutablet is "based on" the Samsung Galaxy 10.5 and runs on Samsung hardware, the firm said.

The additional security it offers is aimed at businesses and governments, but less vigorously protected social media and video platforms can also be used on the device, Secusmart added.

The tablet is likely to be priced at $2,380 (£1,609), according to reports.

The Secutablet is compatible with Blackberry 10 and is currently undergoing security certification at the German Federal Office for Information Security.

It incorporates IBM's "app wrapping" technology which adds extra layers of security to sensitive data.

"Security is ingrained in every part of Blackberry's portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions," said Dr Hans-Christoph Quelle, CEO of Secusmart GmbH, a Blackberry company.

"Subject to certification of the Secutablet, German government agencies will have a new way to access Blackberry's most secure and complete communications network in the world."

Blackberry has struggled in the tablet market, and its PlayBook device did not hit sales targets when it was launched in 2010.

It acquired German voice and data encryption firm Secusmart, in December 2014, and the Secutablet was unveiled at tech fair CeBit in Hanover at the weekend.

"Historically Blackberry has been strong in Germany because of its high-end security offerings," said analyst Nick McQuire, vice-president of enterprise at analyst CCS Insight.

'Very specific'

"Clearly the Secutablet is designed to play into Blackberry's core focus of high grade security.

"The price point is quite expensive - part of the target base is going to be people who can afford to deploy a tablet at that price," Mr McQuire added.

"It's aimed at businesses and sectors where security is paramount. Let's not fool ourselves, this is a very limited solution for a very specific area of the marketplace."

There has also been speculation that the device will be Android-powered because of the Samsung hardware.

Android speculation

"It is highly likely - but not confirmed - that it will run on Android given that Samsung is a partner, and given Blackberry's focus on becoming more of a cross-platform security company," Mr McQuire said.

"One of the things they will want to be known for is to be a mobile security company. Even in the Secusmart business, you can't be entirely platform specific.

"You want to be as secure as you possibly can but you also want to be user friendly."

The Secutablet might face competition from the likes of privacy platform Silent Circle, which unveiled the next generation of its security-focused smartphone Blackphone 2 at Mobile World Congress in March, Mr McQuire said.

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Cuba approves first public wi-fi hub

16 March 2015 Last updated at 13:51

Cuba's state telecom agency Etecsa has granted approval to the artist Kcho to open the country's first public wireless hub at his cultural centre.

Kcho, who has close ties to the Cuban government, is operating the hub using his own, government-approved internet connection, and paying approximately $900 (£600) per month to run it.

Only an estimated 5% - 25% of Cubans have any type of internet service.

That is because internet access is incredibly expensive.

For instance, an hour of internet access at a cafe can cost $4.50 - nearly a week's wages for the average Cuban.

Kcho told the Associated Press he decided to offer free internet at the centre, which opened in western Havana in January, in order to encourage Cubans to familiarise themselves with the internet.

Analysis: Will Grant, Cuba correspondent

The sculptor Kcho is perhaps the only artist the government would permit to run a public access wi-fi service. The last time Fidel Castro was seen in public was at an exhibition by the contemporary artist.

Many analysts in Cuba see this as a small but potentially significant step. What seems clear is that no such internet access could happen without the tacit approval of the authorities, who may well be using Kcho's initiative to test the waters of allowing greater internet access on the island.

But this move is still far from universal internet access for Cubans.

There are a number of areas in Havana where informal users have found ways to access business wi-fi connections as well as a number of illegal wi-fi networks operating in some neighbourhoods.

While together they may be seen as examples of greater tolerance towards internet connectivity by the authorities, the next step - reducing the costs and increasing the availability of connections in private homes - has yet to be announced.

Growing network

The Cuban government has expressed a keen desire to upgrade its dilapidated or non-existent telecommunications infrastructure.

Although Cuba's connectivity to the internet was greatly expanded with the completion of an undersea cable between the island and Venezuela in January 2013, the country still has some of the lowest internet connectivity rates in the world.

On 15 January, the US announced new rules that ease long-running sanctions against Cuba. A trade embargo has been in place since 1962.

A key part of that decision by the Obama administration was a stated desire to help boost telecommunications on the island.

Last week, Etecsa said it had established a direct telephone connection between the US and Cuba for the first time in 15 years, as relations between the two countries continue to thaw.

Netflix, the streaming television and film service, said in February that it had launched its site in Cuba, although it remains unclear how many Cubans actually have internet connections fast enough to operate the service.

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Web servers stage Pratchett tribute

16 March 2015 Last updated at 14:33

A long-running tribute to late fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett is being staged with the help of some of the web's servers.

Many administrators have added an entry to the text sent to every visitor that includes the writer's name.

Instructions about how to include it in software for more than a dozen server operating systems are being shared widely online.

The tribute is inspired by a scene in one of the late writer's books.

Unseen code

In the Discworld novel Going Postal, Sir Terry, who died aged 66 on Thursday, wrote about the way that the murder of an operator of a semaphore tower, John Dearheart, was marked by his colleagues.

His name was included in admin messages (known as overhead) sent around the semaphore or "clacks", network prefixed with three control characters, GNU, that kept it circulating forever.

In a similar way, many net server and website administrators are adding the text "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" to the headers their machines share with every computer that requests web pages from them.

Headers give web-browsing programs valuable information about the data they are about to be sent but are generally not seen when people visit a site.

An extension for the Chrome browser has been made that can spot when people visit a site taking part in the tribute.

The idea to mimic the Discworld tribute was first floated on social news site Reddit, which has acted as a hub for supporters of the idea.

There is also now a subreddit dedicated to gathering information about it.

Instructions of how to include it in the most popular operating systems for web servers are now available.

"His name will live on for a long time, buried in the code of the very internet itself," wrote Adrian Kennard, founder and managing director of ISP Andrews and Arnold, in a blog about the tribute.

"There is no harm, or waste in it being this string - so why not?"

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French government orders site block

16 March 2015 Last updated at 18:35

The French authorities have used new powers to block five websites, which they claim condone terrorism, without a court order.

Internet service providers have 24 hours to comply.

The chairman of European Internet Service Provider OVH tweeted that his firm had not been given any warning.

The new powers apply to sites suspected of commissioning or advocating terrorism or distributing indecent images of children.

The rules were approved along with other counter-terrorism measures by the French parliament last year.

It is the first time they have been put to use to block websites without going through a court process.

Visitors to the sites affected are now directed to a page from the French Interior Ministry, containing a graphic of a big red hand.

Following the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January, interior ministers from 11 European countries including France expressed concern in a joint statement at "the increasingly frequent use of the internet to fuel hatred and violence".

They added that they were determined to ensure that "the internet is not abused to this end, while safeguarding that it remains... a forum for free expression."

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Nintendo to develop mobile games

17 March 2015 Last updated at 12:02

Nintendo is collaborating with Japanese developer DeNA to create new games for smartphones, it has been announced.

The gaming giant said that existing games built for other Nintendo platforms like the Wii U and 3DS will not be transferred.

While the emphasis will be on making new games for mobile handsets, all of Nintendo's intellectual property will be "eligible for development".

This includes popular game characters such as Super Mario, Zelda and Pokemon.

The two firms also announced plans to launch an online membership service in the autumn of 2015 which will give members access to their accounts across multiple platforms, including smartphones and PCs.

"Nintendo's decision to partner with DeNA is a recognition of the importance of the games app audience to the future of its business," said Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at analysts IHS.

"The Nintendo-DeNA alliance is a good fit and offers up a number of important synergies for two companies that are no longer leaders in their respective segments."

Last year, gaming apps were worth $26bn in consumer spend but handheld console games accounted for just 3% of that market, according to IHS figures.

"The main challenge will be knitting together the cultures of both companies and aligning the speed of development and iteration that is needed in the mobile space with Nintendo's more patient and systematic approach to games content production," added Mr Harding-Rolls.

"How the new games are monetised may also provide a challenge considering the general differences in models used in retail for Nintendo and through in-app purchases for DeNA."

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Will British consumers follow Microsoft's Band?

17 March 2015 Last updated at 13:00

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WATCH: Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Microsoft's Matt Barlow about the firm's new wearable tracking band

In recent days, I've been looking like a walking - or sometimes jogging - advert for wearable technology.

On one wrist I've been wearing a smart watch, the Moto 360, on the other a fitness tracker, the Nike FuelBand - plus a device which supposedly combines the best of both in one package.

That device is called the Microsoft Band, on sale in the US for some months and now coming to the UK in April. It's a very clever product with a lot of smart technology on board. It will be a lot cheaper than the Apple Watch, while doing many of the same things. But will it put Microsoft in the lead when it comes to wearables? That may depend on what matters most to potential Band buyers - utility or design.

The device is really targeted at the fitness crowd. It measures your steps, calories burned, and your heart rate, all of them displayed with a tap on the Band's rectangular screen. You can also opt to have a run, a cycle ride or a workout tracked. I tried a run, which involves switching on the Band's GPS. It struggled at first to connect, then eventually delivered a record of my run, with split times and route - and a rather unlikely average heart rate of 165.

So just how accurate is it? Well, what I liked about it was that it showed me being more active than my other devices. Halfway through my day the Band said I'd taken 6480 steps, while the Nike Fuelband had me at 5,998 and the Moto360 reading was 5,714 steps.

Who knows which one got it right - though what I've found after wearing the Nike device for a year is that what really motivates you to exercise is simply hitting an arbitrary target.

As well as fitness tracking, the Band gives you the same kind of notifications you get on a smartwatch, throbbing and buzzing when you get emails and texts or an incoming call. If you're the kind of person who urgently needs to know when another email has arrived, this could be useful. But I found that, just as with the Moto 360, knowing that I've got more email or Twitter messages did not improve my life.

What makes the Band stand out is the software, and the fact that it is a cross-platform device. Microsoft's Health app, which gives you a wealth of data from the device, is available for iOS and Android as well as Windows Phone. You can connect other apps, such as the calorie-counting myfitnesspal, to get a more rounded picture of your health and fitness.

All in all, an impressive device which does quite a bit more than most of the simple fitness trackers on the market - and which competes with Apple's Watch in terms of functionality.

But will it appeal to a market beyond those people obsessed with measuring their every move?

Microsoft's achilles' heel is design - and the Band is never going to win prizes for its looks. Even the setup guide tells you that you may choose to wear the device on the inside of your wrist, as if ashamed to show it off.

I put it to Matt Barlow, who runs Microsoft's devices division, that the Band is, well, a little ugly. He laughs off my rudeness about his baby: "Compared to a chest strap or a really large GPS watch, it's elegant and rugged." But he agrees that the software and the data it will deliver, rather than the device itself, is at the heart of Microsoft's strategy. "We want to take that data and turn it into insights," he explains, "and share it with any health or wellness service that a customer would choose."

Don't expect the Band to outsell the Apple Watch, even if it is at least £130 cheaper. But Microsoft is betting that our interest in our own health will be what makes wearable technology take off - and it's determined that its software will play a key role.

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Sotheby's auctions to stream on eBay

17 March 2015 Last updated at 13:18

Auctions at Sotheby's New York are to be streamed live on eBay, it has been announced.

The first auction on the new platform will have a New York theme, with Yankee Stadium memorabilia on sale.

It will take place on 1 April and will include the giant letters from the New York baseball stadium, which could fetch up to $600,000 (£406,500).

However, evening sales of high-value artworks and other specialist items will not be included, Sotheby's said.

The auctions will be streamed on a new eBay platform: ebay.com/sothebys. The first will include photographs, alongside the baseball memorabilia from the famous player Reggie Jackson, who won the World Series five times.

"What this partnership is about is leveraging eBay's audience and ability to target that audience and find clients that have the means to participate in a Sotheby's auction," Josh Pullan, senior vice-president, director of e-commerce at Sotheby's, said.

One of the lots available is Andy Warhol's first studio lease, which it is estimated will sell for between $8,000 and $12,000.

"Official City of New York, Department of Real Estate lease, printed on blue paper, annotated and signed by Andy Warhol and Don Schrader as witness," reads the description.

The lot with the highest estimate was number 17: Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's clay design model for the Statue of Liberty, which he presented for approval. It was expected to sell for as much as $1.2m.

Sotheby's and its rival Christie's already conduct online art sales. But the link with eBay will bring the auctioneer's inventory to a potential new audience of more than 155 million active users worldwide.

Online sales of art and antiques are estimated to have reached $3.5bn, equivalent to around 6% of global sales in 2014, according to a report commissioned by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Foundation.

The majority of online sales, it added, were in the $1,000 to $50,000 range.

While the partnership is between Sotheby's New York and eBay, it will also be available to bidders outside the US. Most auctions will be streamed on the platform, except for high-priced sales of contemporary, modern and Impressionist art.

It was made available for browsing and advance bidding immediately, the companies said in a joint statement.

Sotheby's has seen a nearly 25% rise in online bidding in 2014 over the previous year. In an auction of Picasso Ceramics, 75% of the lots offered attracted online bids.

The online version was designed to emulate the auction catalogue in a digital format and to replicate the experience of seeing art in a museum before taking bidders to the live auction where they could bid in real time, the companies said.

Megan Ford, director, emerging verticals and live auctions at eBay, said technology is changing and people have become more comfortable purchasing high-ticket items online in the past few years.

The premier tier of inventory for art and collectables, she added, was previously only available in the live-sale format at auction houses.

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'Terminator' printer 'grows' objects

17 March 2015 Last updated at 13:52 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, Vancouver

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WATCH: The Carbon3D printer uses a pool of resin to make its objects 'grow'

A 3D printing process that harnesses light and oxygen has been demonstrated at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver.

Carbon3D said its "game-changing" process could make objects such as car parts, medical devices or shoes.

The technique was inspired by the film Terminator 2, in which the T-1000 robot rises from a pool of metallic liquid.

One independent expert told the BBC the technology showed huge potential, if the company's assertions stood up.

"It's not unusual for huge claims like this to be made," said James Woodcock, group editor for TCT Magazine.

"But as it's renowned experts working on it, it gives it some gravitas."

Mushroom growing

On the Ted stage, the Carbon3D machine produced a plastic ball from a pool of resin in 10 minutes.

"It would traditionally take up to 10 hours to print this," Carbon3D chief executive Prof Joseph DeSimone told the audience.

He said that current 3D printing methods had some fundamental flaws.

"First up, the name is a misnomer. It is really 2D printing over and over again," he said.

The process is also often very slow.

"There are mushrooms that grow faster than some 3D-printed parts," he joked.

And finally the objects created by traditional 3D printing are often mechanically weak because they are made up of multiple layers.

His method is 25 to 100 times faster and can print solid final parts. It can, he said, potentially be up to 1,000 times faster.

It works by applying different levels of light and oxygen to a pool of resin. Light hardens the resin, while oxygen stops hardening.

By intricately controlling levels of each, the resin can be forced into complex shapes.

In the field

Possible uses for objects include medical stents that could be made-to-measure in medical rooms and teeth printed "while the patient sits in the dentist's chair", he said.

Currently the printer can only work with polymer-based materials but Prof DeSimone told the BBC his firm is "working on" materials beyond that.

There are already several printers being tested in the field - by an unnamed automotive firm, an athletic apparel company and a research lab.

Carbon3D hopes to have its product out commercially "within a year".

Mr Woodcock from TCT Magazine said the demonstration showed the need for companies in the industry to continually work on new technology.

"The whole 3D printing industry is on a knife edge - there' so much still to come. Even the biggest and most established companies are only a couple of announcements away from being redundant."

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