'Generation Xbox' to get spy jobs

18 October 2012 Last updated at 10:29 ET

Up to 100 members of "generation Xbox" will be offered a career in the secret services, under a scheme announced by Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The recruitment drive was aimed at "the young innovators of this generation who will help keep our country safe in years to come", Mr Hague said.

The 18-year-olds will be trained in advanced IT skills and then expected to work on tackling cybercrime.

Their task was "every bit as serious" as conventional warfare, Mr Hague said.

Speaking at Bletchley Park, the home of Britain's Second World War codebreakers, the foreign secretary said: "Today we are not at war, but I see evidence every day of deliberate, organised attacks against intellectual property and government networks in the United Kingdom from cyber criminals or foreign actors with the potential to undermine our security and economic competitiveness.

"This is one of the great challenges of our time, and we must confront it to ensure that Britain remains a world leader in cyber security and a pre-eminent safe space for e-commerce and intellectual property online."

'Slightly naughty'

Successful applicants to the Single Intelligence Account apprenticeship will pursue a foundation degree course in communications, security and engineering over two years at De Montfort University in Leicester.

They will also study for a level 4 diploma in IT, software, web and telecommunications professional competence, and will be expected to work predominantly at GCHQ, the electronic communications agency - although some will go on to work for MI5, the security service, or MI6 intelligence agency.

Mr Hague also used his visit to announce a boost in funding for the preservation of Bletchley Park, the forerunner to GCHQ.

The cyber security minister in the previous Labour government, Lord West, said in 2009 that the government had recruited a team of former hackers for its new Cyber Security Operations Centre, based at GCHQ in Cheltenham.

They had not employed any "ultra, ultra criminals" but needed the expertise of former "naughty boys", he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"You need youngsters who are deep into this stuff... If they have been slightly naughty boys, very often they really enjoy stopping other naughty boys," he said.

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Group discount websites warned

By Adina Campbell
Newsbeat reporter

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Yanxia Han on her deal site 'nightmare'

The group responsible for advertising standards in the UK says it is concerned about a rise in complaints about deals on group discount websites.

New figures show four of the UK's biggest sites have been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) since 2011.

The sites are Groupon, LivingSocial, kgbdeals and Wowcher.

Continue reading the main story

We have various steps in the deal process to make sure that when a deal goes live, we're 100% confident it's a very good deal

Richard Jones Groupon

From January to September 2011 there were 244 complaints compared to 391 during the same time this year.

Some of the most common complaints have been about exaggerated promotions and unclear terms and conditions.

Matt Wilson from the ASA says group discount websites need to take notice.

"If there's a continual breach of our rules, these sites could face further action," he said. "They may even face fines."

'Stress'

Yanxia Han, 27 and from south London, bought two laptops from kgbdeals two months ago.

"The whole experience was a nightmare," she said. "I saw a deal for a laptop for £89 reduced from £200.

Continue reading the main story

• Groupon - 197 to 228
• LivingSocial - 34 to 40
• kgbdeals - 13 to 93
• Wowcher - 0 to 30

Figures from the ASA

"Once I purchased the deal, I then tried to redeem the voucher online but it didn't work.

"I couldn't find any contact deals for kgb so I then got in touch with the vendor.

"He told me he wouldn't send out any laptops until he'd been paid from kgb.

"I finally got a refund but all that grief and stress was for nothing."

Kgbdeals sent Newsbeat a statement about Yanxia's purchase.

"We are disappointed the supplier couldn't supply and tried hard to find an alternative," it said.

"In the event, it was necessary to refund all our customers, which we did as quickly as possible.

"Under the circumstances we believe kgbdeals has acted promptly."

'Consumer friendly'

The other sites insist they do lots of specialist checks to make sure their deals are fair.

Continue reading the main story

We have a deal quality team that's vetting every deal. Nothing goes out without the business approval or merchant services approval

Peter Briffett LivingSocial Deals UK

"We have a deal quality team that's vetting every deal," said Peter Briffett, managing director of LivingSocial Deals UK.

"Nothing goes out without the business approval or merchant services approval."

Richard Jones, a director at Groupon, said: "We have various steps in the deal process to make sure that when a deal goes live, we're 100% confident it's a very good deal."

Wowcher sent Newsbeat a statement that said: "Wowcher takes any complaints made about our advertising very seriously and we strive to work closely with the ASA to ensure that our advertising is honest and consumer friendly."

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Nissan to sell steer-by-wire cars

17 October 2012 Last updated at 09:07 ET

Nissan plans to sell cars controlled by steer-by-wire technology within a year.

The innovation works by sending electronic signals from the steering wheel to a computerised unit that then controls the movement of the tyres, rather than using mechanical links.

The tech is commonly used in aeroplanes, but the Japanese firm said it would be the first to apply it to mass-produced cars.

However, it might need to overcome motorists' safety concerns.

Although the vehicles would still be controlled by a human, one analyst said the development could eventually be incorporated into driverless cars.

Controlled feedback

Nissan said that users would benefit from an improved driving experience since their intentions would be transmitted to the wheels faster than by using a hydraulic and mechanical system.

In addition it suggested that the development would "insulate" motorists from disturbances caused by unnecessary feedback.

"For example, even on a road surface with minor ridges or furrows, the driver no longer has to grip the steering wheel tightly and make detailed adjustments, so travelling on the intended path becomes easier," it said in a statement.

Some car buyers may be wary about the idea of putting their lives in the hands of a computer system after other related efforts proved problematic.

In 2004 Mercedes-Benz faced customers complaints that its Sensotronic brake-by-wire system - which used an electrical link to control vehicles' brake pads - sometimes failed.

Although the vehicles had a hydraulic back-up it meant some owners had experienced longer stopping distances.

The firm ultimately recalled about two million vehicles and dropped the feature.

More recently Toyota had to ask Prius owners to take their cars into garages to install a software update after reports some models had suffered from "inconsistent brake feel".

Nissan appears to have borne these issues in mind by deciding to install a back-up clutch system in its steer-by-wire vehicles, to link up their steering wheels and tyres in the event of a problem.

However, it signalled it hoped to be able to ditch the safety measure in the long term.

"If we are freed from that, we would be able to place the steering wheel wherever we like," said Masaharu Satou, a Nissan engineer.

"Such as in the back seat, or it would be possible to steer the car with a joystick."

For the time being the addition of the clutch system adds back weight to the vehicles, undermining another potential benefit of the technology - better fuel efficiency.

Driverless cars

Jay Nagley, managing director of the Redspy auto consultancy, said he thought the development would catch on.

"I think initially people will find it a bit spooky but will be reassured by the fact there is a mechanical back-up if required," he told the BBC.

"But over time I'm sure people will get used to it as its part of the bigger picture of self-driving cars where drivers don't have to be in control at all times."

Volkswagen has already tested drive-by-wire technology in a modified version of its Passat model that has driven itself along Berlin's roads.

Volvo has also incorporated the facility in tests of its self-drive "road train" concept, which involves a convoy of cars using drive-by-wire tech to mimic the actions of a lead vehicle.

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The Pirate Bay moves to the cloud

17 October 2012 Last updated at 12:01 ET

File-sharing website The Pirate Bay has moved its servers to the cloud to frustrate attempts to take it offline.

The site, which has been blamed for encouraging illegal file-sharing, will now operate from cloud-hosting providers around the world.

It says the move will save money and make it harder for law-enforcement agencies to shut it down.

"All attempts to attack [us] from now on is an attack on everything and nothing," it says.

In 2006, police in Sweden raided The Pirate Bay, shutting down its servers and taking the site offline.

The Pirate Bay (TPB) now says its new cloud-based servers, which use the internet for storage, do not have to be hosted with the same provider, or even on the same continent - making it impervious to attempts to close it down.

Its statement continues: "The site that you're at will still be here, for as long as we want it to. Only in a higher form of being. A reality to us. A ghost to those who wish to harm us."

A TPB representative told the TorrentFreak website: "Moving to the cloud lets TPB move from country to country, crossing borders seamlessly without downtime.

"The hosting providers have no idea that they're hosting The Pirate Bay, and even in the event they found out it would be impossible for them to gather data on the users."

TPB says it will retain control of the technology - transit routers and load balancers - which allows it to distribute file-sharing requests across multiple computers, and also hide the identity of both the cloud-provider and its users.

The statement said: "If the police decide to raid us again there are no servers to take, just a transit router.

"If they follow the trail to the next country and find the load balancer, there is just a disk-less server there. In case they find out where the cloud provider is, all they can get are encrypted disk-images."

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Twitter bans German Nazi account

18 October 2012 Last updated at 06:29 ET

Twitter has blocked access to a neo-Nazi account at the request of the German government.

The tweets will no longer be visible to users in Germany although the rest of the world will be able to view them.

It is the first time the social networking site has implemented its local censorship policy, which came into force in January.

That policy allows it to block content in specific countries if tweets violate local laws.

Announcing the decision, Twitter's general counsel Alex Macgillivray said: "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently."

In the tweet, he published links to the letter sent by German police, requesting the account be closed.

The letter outlined how the government had banned the organisation Besseres Hannover, (Better Hannover), a right-wing extremist group from Lower Saxony.

"It is disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately," the letter read.

It was unclear whether the group had a Facebook page but a spokesman for the social network said: "We work with anti-Nazi organisations and would encourage anyone who finds content like this to report it to Facebook."

Members of the group have been charged with inciting racial hatred and creating a criminal organisation.

Besseres Hannover is accused of issuing threats against immigrants and distributing racist pamphlets at schools in Lower Saxony.

It is also suspected of sending a threatening video to the state's social affairs minister Aygul Ozkan, a German-born conservative politician whose family comes from Turkey.

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Nokia shares rise despite losses

18 October 2012 Last updated at 07:10 ET

Nokia shares have risen sharply in Helsinki despite the release of another set of quarterly losses.

The mobile phone company reported a net loss of 969m euros ($1.27bn; £787m) for the three months to the end of September, compared with a 68m euro loss in the same quarter last year.

But the shares rose 9% as the results were still better than had been expected.

The Finnish company's sales were down 19% from the same period last year.

Nokia was the world's leading mobile phone maker for more than a decade, but has struggled in the face of competition from Apple and Samsung.

Its third-quarter results were boosted by record profits from its telecoms equipment company, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Nokia is releasing new Lumia 820 and 920 phones next month, which will use Microsoft's latest Windows 8 software.

"We expected that Nokia's third quarter was going to be tough for its smartphone business due to the announcement of Windows Phone 8," said Pete Cunningham at Canalys.

"The fourth quarter will be a tough one as it will take a couple of quarters to ramp up Windows Phone 8 volumes due to the competitive landscape."

The introduction of Windows smartphones has been the big change under chief executive Stephen Elop, who phased out the Symbian operating system shortly after he took control of the company in 2010.

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Apple loses appeal versus Samsung

18 October 2012 Last updated at 07:15 ET

Apple has lost its appeal against a UK ruling that Samsung had not infringed its design rights.

A judge at the High Court in London had originally ruled in July that the look of Samsung's Galaxy Tab computers was not too similar to designs registered in connection with the iPad.

He said at the time that Samsung's devices were not as "cool" because they lacked Apple's "extreme simplicity".

Apple still needs to run ads saying Samsung had not infringed its rights.

The US firm had previously been ordered to place a notice to that effect - with a link to the original judgement - on its website and place other adverts in the Daily Mail, Financial Times, T3 Magazine and other publications to "correct the damaging impression" that Samsung was a copycat.

The appeal judges decided not to overturn the decision on the basis that a related Apple design-rights battle in the German courts risked causing confusion in consumers' minds.

"The acknowledgment must come from the horse's mouth," they said. "Nothing short of that will be sure to do the job completely."

However, they added that the move need not "clutter" Apple's homepage as it would only have to add a link entitled "Samsung/Apple judgement" for a one-month period.

A spokeswoman for Samsung said it welcomed the latest ruling.

"We continue to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners and that the origins of Apple's registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art.

"Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited."

Apple declined to comment. It can still appeal to the UK Supreme Court, otherwise the ruling applies across the European Union.

Registered design

Three judges were involved in the Court of Appeal review of the case.

Apple had reasserted its claim saying that the front face and overall shape of the tablets was the most important factor - rather than the overall design - because users would spend most of their time looking at a tablet's screen and holding it.

One of the judges - who noted he owned an iPad himself - explained why Apple had lost the appeal in his ruling.

"Because this case (and parallel cases in other countries) has generated much publicity, it will avoid confusion to say what this case is about and not about," wrote Sir Robin Jacob.

"It is not about whether Samsung copied Apple's iPad. Infringement of a registered design does not involve any question of whether there was copying: the issue is simply whether the accused design is too close to the registered design according to the tests laid down in the law."

"So this case is all about, and only about, Apple's registered design and the Samsung products."

Sir Robin noted that Samsung's decision to place its logo on the front of its devices distinguished them from Apple's registered design which said there should be "no ornamentation".

He also highlighted the fact that the sides of the iPad's design - which featured a "sharp edge" - were significantly different from those of the Galaxy Tabs.

In addition, Sir Robin wrote that Samsung's designs were "altogether busier" with a more varied use of colour on the devices' rear and their inclusion of a thicker section to house a camera.

International lawsuits

Apple has now lost a series of lawsuits against Samsung based on the design of their tablets.

These include cases in the Netherlands, Australia and US - despite sometimes winning temporary sales bans.

However, the California-based company has been more successful with other claims.

Most notably a US jury proposed Samsung should pay Apple a $1.05bn (£650m) fine for infringing several software patents, and the look and feel of the iPhone. Samsung is appealing the verdict.

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'No evidence' of Huawei espionage

18 October 2012 Last updated at 07:25 ET

A US government security review has found no evidence telecoms equipment firm Huawei Technology spies for China.

The 18-month review, details of which were leaked to the Reuters news agency, suggests security vulnerabilities posed a greater threat than any links between the firm and the Chinese government.

Last week a US congressional report warned against allowing Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE Corp to supply critical telecom infrastructure.

The firms have always denied espionage.

The classified inquiry was a thorough review of how Huawei worked, involving nearly 1,000 telecom equipment buyers.

One of the government employees involved with the inquiry told Reuters: "We knew certain parts of government really wanted evidence of active spying. We would have found it if it were there."

Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer said: "Huawei is not familiar with the review, but we are not surprised to hear that the White House has concluded there is no evidence of any Huawei involvement with any espionage or other non-commercial activities.

"Huawei is a $32bn [£19bn] independent multinational that would not jeopardise its success or the integrity of its customers' networks for any government or third party - ever," he added.

ZTE's senior vice president of Europe and North America, Zhu Jiny, told the BBC: "The security issues should not be focused on the Chinese companies. These are problems of the world situation. It's not only Chinese companies - it's a global issue."

Sloppy code

Last week at a conference in Malaysia, Felix Lindner, an expert in network equipment security, said he had discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Huawei's routers.

"I'd say it was five times easier to find one in a Huawei router than in a Cisco one," he said.

He blamed sloppy coding rather than any deliberate attempt to leave backdoors open for spying purposes.

Questions about the relationship between Huawei, ZTC and the Chinese government circulated last week following a report from the US House Intelligence Committee.

While the report did not present concrete evidence that either Huawei or ZTE had stolen US data, it said had classified information that provided "significantly more information adding to the committee's concerns" about the risk to the United States.

It also criticised Huawei for failing to provide details about its relationship with the Chinese government.

Attitudes about Huawei differ from nation to nation.

Canada said last week that the firm could not bid to help build a secure national network. In Britain, however, a spokesman for the Cabinet Office said Huawei's products were fully vetted and did not represent a security concern.

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Uganda social media policing plan

18 October 2012 Last updated at 09:58 ET

Ugandan police are to increase social-media monitoring because of fears about the spread of "dangerous" information, according to reports.

The country's highest ranking police officer spoke at a gathering of East African police chiefs.

Gen Kale Kayihura called on forces to ensure social media "is not misused for crime, worse still for terrorism".

It comes as opposition supporters in Uganda are increasingly using social media to communicate.

"Social media is a good thing, but can also be a bad thing because it is so quick in terms of dissemination of information," Gen Kayihura said, according to the Ugandan Observer.

He was addressing a gathering of police chiefs from across East Africa, with delegates from Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Seychelles, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

"If it's good information that is nice," he is reported as saying, "but if it's dangerous information like genocide information… somebody tells lies like, you remember, the Kayunga riots, then you know how much damage it can do."

In 2009, 21 people died following violence in the Ugandan town of Kayunga over a dispute surrounding a controversial planned visit from a traditional king.

Egypt-style uprisings

Last year, political demonstrations resulted in minor disorder and multiple arrests.

A walk-to-work protest was prompted by opposition leader Kizza Besigye - who had earlier called for Egypt-style uprisings.

"At the peak of the walk-to-work campaign last year, social media was just starting to be used," said Ignatius Bahizi, a BBC reporter based in Uganda.

"But because not very many people at the time were using it, it did not have much effect.

"The sorts of people who used social media are the types of people you might categorise as middle-class or people who are working and can access internet at any time."

However, more recently, young people were beginning to use social media to discuss political issues - drawing parallels with social media use during the Arab Spring, in which sites like Facebook were seen as a key catalyst for mobilising groups of protesters.

"There is a lot of youth this time around who have finished school and are jobless," added Mr Bahizi, "and who are now users of social media to some extent so that the fear [from the police] might be there."

Gen Kayihura's comments hinted at the police force's nervousness over similar gatherings in Uganda.

"This is something we have to think about," he said, "these opportunists taking advantage of unemployed youth to use them against the stability of the country."

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HTC and Sharp's next-gen screens

18 October 2012 Last updated at 12:23 ET

HTC and Sharp have unveiled devices featuring next-generation screens.

HTC's J Butterfly phone has a 5in (12.7cm) display offering an industry-leading 440 pixels per inch.

This offers 25-40% higher resolution - meaning more detail - than comparable devices from Samsung, Apple, Nokia and LG.

Sharp's new Aquos Pad tablet is the first to use its new Igzo technology which promises sharper images while using less power.

Sharp has previously said at least one of its customers also planned to incorporate the innovation in its devices.

Several device makers have signalled plans to announce new tablets over the coming weeks.

HD phablet

HTC's Android-based device is set to go on sale in Japan in December.

/Its size places it somewhere between a typical smartphone and tablet in a category some term a "phablet".

The Taiwanese firm is marketing both the size and resolution of its screen as being ideal to watch 1080p movies.

Smaller, densely packed pixels mean users can hold a device to their face without being able to distinguish the individual blocks of colour used to make up an image.

HTC's 440ppi - pixels per inch - resolution offers a performance-boost over rival flagship devices including Samsung's similarly-sized Galaxy Note 2 with a 267ppi screen.

Apple's iPhone 5 offers 326ppi, Nokia's upcoming Lumia 920 332ppi and LG's Optimus G 318ppi.

To support the facility, HTC has included Qualcomm's top-end Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.

However, it has not yet disclosed what toll supporting the feature will have on its battery.

Longer lasting

Sharp's new tablet takes a more radical approach by being the first device if its kind to incorporate a new kind of LCD (liquid crystal display) technology.

Igzo (indium gallium zinc oxide) screens have higher translucency than standard TFT (thin film transistor) LCDs, meaning they are better at letting light pass through them.

As a result devices that use them need fewer LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to provide backlighting, allowing the screen to take up less room and use less power.

Sharp boasts its new Aquos Pad SHT 21 tablet can last two and a half times longer than its predecessor.

The company also suggests it has better touch accuracy than rivals, making it easier to write notes with a stylus.

The product has a 7in screen, but Sharp has said that it would also make panels in 10in and 32in varieties, suggesting its use in other tablets and desktop computers.

Continue reading the main story

23 Oct: Apple (San Jose)

Expected to unveil a 7-8in iPad

24 Oct: Samsung (New York)

Will give details of US launch of Galaxy Note 2

25 Oct: Microsoft (New York)

Launch event for Windows 8 which goes on sale, alongside Surface tablets, the next day

29 Oct: Google (New York)

Android-themed event, may include new Nexus devices

29 Oct: Microsoft (San Francisco)

Launch of Windows Phone 8 operating system

30 Oct: Arm (London)

Mobile device chip designer and "partners" announce news

The firm said its new tablet would launch in Japan in December, but has not released details of plans elsewhere.

Battery drain

The announcements come ahead of a flurry of new releases.

Over the next fortnight Microsoft, Apple and Google have all scheduled major product launches.

Several Windows 8 tablets - including Microsoft's own Surface - have already been unveiled and will go on sale next week. There is also the expectation of an "iPad Mini" and new Nexus-branded devices.

One analyst said that with so many competing products on offer, display quality was become a deciding factor for some consumers.

"Screen resolution has become a differential point for many manufacturers," Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe, told the BBC.

"Given that many people now use their devices to stream video, having a high-resolution that can best show off HD video is far more important than it was two years ago.

"There is still a trade-off though as some of these displays consume more power as a result, and battery technologies have not kept pace with other advances. Since screens are the biggest power drain on mobile devices, that's why a lot of research is going into how to reduce their energy needs."

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