Google Fiber connects Kansas City

14 November 2012 Last updated at 07:42 ET

Google has begun to connect US homes in Kansas City to super-fast broadband, offering residents speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second).

People living in the "fibrehood" area of Hanover Heights are among the first to use the service.

They are reporting speeds of about 700Mbps (megabits per second).

The product poses a challenge to established cable companies which typically charge more money with slower connections.

Google says it hopes its package will persuade people to spend longer on the web and try out new services.

However, it will need to convince consumers that they would benefit from access to such fast speeds.

In a blog post, Google Fiber's director of service delivery Alana Karen promised a "great service" for residents in Kansas City - which straddles the border between the states of Kansas and Missouri.

Curiosity project

Google is able to make the foray into broadband installation because it has been buying up so-called dark fibre from telecoms firms in the US in order to link up its data centres which are dotted around the US.

It has also been investing in cheap fibre that has been laid by companies that have subsequently gone bankrupt before completing rollouts.

The service offers Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and is delivered via overhead cables on the poles that also bring power to homes.

Most analysts agree that the service has been competitively priced. The gigabit service is being offered at $70 (£44) per month with no installation charge. This package also comes with 1TB (terabyte) of storage on Google Drive.

Alternatively subscribers can opt for a broadband plus TV service at a price of $120 (£75).

The third option is to pay a one-off $300 (£189) installation fee in return for free broadband at speeds of 5Mbps.

"One could be unkind and suggest that the TV side of Google Fiber shows that TV over broadband is the rather mundane killer app, when for over decade we have had IPTV in the UK," said Andrew Ferguson, founder of news site ThinkBroadband.

As well as offering residents fast speeds, Google is also hoping to score points for excellent customer service.

"We'll show up when we're supposed to... we'll clean up any mess; each installer carries a vacuum clean. And we'll answer your questions and teach you about your devices - don't be afraid to ask us questions, or ask us to explain something again in simple language," said Ms Karen, in a blog post.

Sci-fi future

Some have questioned whether the project represents a serious commitment to broadband infrastructure.

Continue reading the main story

There are probably people who would sell their soul to be living in a neighbourhood of Kansas City that has access to the service"

End Quote Andrew Ferguson ThinkBroadband

"If Google Fiber has an ambition to roll out its fibre and TV services to more cities across the US then the project becomes much more than a curiosity, but with Google so far not connecting businesses it has the hallmarks of a grand experiment," said Mr Ferguson.

Steven Hartley, an analyst with research firm Ovum, thinks it is most likely that Google will use the city as a test-bed.

"This isn't the start of Google launching fibre networks all around the world. But it can use it to test how people use these networks," he said.

The project was first announced in 2010. Interest in the idea was huge with more than 1,000 towns and cities applying to be part of it.

Since Kansas City was selected, web and digital entrepreneur have moved into the city in the hope of benefiting from the new super-fast speeds.

"There are probably people who would sell their soul to be living in a neighbourhood of Kansas City that has access to the service, as they see fibre connectivity as part of the sci-fi future," said Mr Ferguson.

But whether such a project can be repeated in other cities around the globe remains to be seen.

"Fibre to the Home is certainly the gold-plated standard that to the best of our current knowledge is future proof, the problem being that unless every city in the world can find another 'Google' sitting on mountains of cash we will have to wait a few more years," he said.

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Enigma tops its auction estimate

14 November 2012 Last updated at 09:37 ET

A rare Enigma encoding machine has sold at auction in London for £85,250.

That is more than its £40,000-£60,000 estimate, but less than the £131,180 price an Enigma sold for last year.

The typewriter-like devices were used by the Nazis in World War II to encrypt and decode messages sent between the military and their commanders.

Interest has been high as this is the centenary year of Alan Turing's birth - the British mathematician who played a key role in breaking the Enigma code.

Auctioneer Bonhams said that the version sold was a three-rotor model used in Germany between 1938 and 1944.

"This particular example is in working order, completely untouched and un-restored," said Laurence Fisher, specialist head of technical apparatus at the auctioneer, ahead of the sale.

"Many machines were picked up by the allies as souvenirs during the final stages of the Second World War and as such, in later years, tended to be 'mixed and matched', where rotors, outer cases and head blocks were replaced with another machine's parts.

"This one has all elements bearing the same serial number, making this totally complete and original throughout."

Bonhams was unable to reveal the names of the parties involved, but said that the seller was from Europe and the buyer from the US.

The winning bid was made over the internet.

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YouView embroiled in name dispute

14 November 2012 Last updated at 14:20 ET

UK internet TV provider YouView has become embroiled in a trademark dispute with a Cheltenham-based tech firm.

The High Court in London has upheld an earlier ruling that the TV platform's name was "confusingly similar" to YourView, a name filed by Total Ltd with the UK's Intellectual Property Office in June 2009.

YouView's name was filed with the IPO just over nine months later, prompting a legal challenge.

The row looks set to return to court.

Despite the latest ruling, the TV service - which is headed up by Lord Sugar - has said it intends to keep its brand.

"YouView has no intention of changing its name," said the firm in a statement.

"This matter is complex and subject to a number of ongoing legal actions and will be settled in the courts."

But Total Ltd's managing director Stuart Balkie said he was now considering the best way to force his opponent's hand.

"We are looking to take further action and may be looking to seek an injunction," he told the BBC. "We're currently considering our options."

A statement from the company added that it might also seek damages.

"We see that the success of the YouView business must to a large degree rely on brand recognition, also accounting for the fact that there are other businesses out there in the marketplace providing similar services," it said.

"We are aware that they have informed the public that they have a near £50m marketing budget. If the Court provides us with the relief we will be seeking then one way that this may impact on YouView may well be that they may have no other option than to re-brand."

The High Court ruling was issued last Friday, but only emerged after Total Ltd published a press release.

Brand awareness

YouView is a joint venture involving the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk and media services firm Arqiva.

It offers viewers access to 70 live Freeview channels and a seven-day catch-up service.

The project had originally been set to launch in 2010 but was delayed until July this year.

By contrast, YourView is the name of an online service offered by Total Ltd.

It allows the firm's business clients to monitor their staff's use of telephone calls and internet use in order to work out what would be the best tariffs and bolt-ons to sign up to as part of efforts to minimise their bills.

One observer said it was unsurprising YouView was resisting a change to its name.

"It would be a serious setback in the sense that they have now developed a brand presence among the public and within the business itself," said Toby Syfret, a TV expert at consultants Enders Analysis.

"Having built awareness of YouView there would now be extra publicity costs for the partners involved if they had to fund the exercise of introducing another name."

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Israel and Hamas in Twitter war

15 November 2012 Last updated at 09:24 ET

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have opened a new front in the propaganda war, via Twitter.

On Wednesday, the IDF began live-tweeting and blogging about its current military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, head of Hamas' military wing, was killed in the initial air strike.

The IDF uploaded a video of the attack and an "eliminated" poster on Twitter.

Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, responded: "Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)".

In a thinly-veiled threat, the IDF warned: "We recommend no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead."

Meanwhile, over the last 20 hours, Hamas has been giving a running commentary on its mortar and rocket attacks on various Israeli targets, including what it said were military bases.

On Thursday, it posted a YouTube video purportedly showing the launch of a Fajr 5 missile towards Tel Aviv for the first time.

In its turn, the IDF tweeted a link to a video purportedly showing an Israeli air force attack on a "rocket warehouse in #Gaza", on day two of its "Pillar of Defense" operation.

The use of social media to announce and comment on military operations, almost in real time, is a significant departure for the social networking platform.

And it potentially brings the warring parties into conflict with Twitter's own rules, which state: "Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others."

Benedict Evans, analyst at media research company Enders Analysis, told the BBC: "This clearly puts Twitter in a difficult position. They want to preserve their position as a carrier service that doesn't editorialise.

"On the other hand, they have terms and conditions that must be adhered to.

"This is not a decision a couple of hundred engineers in North California want to be making."

It remains to be seen whether Twitter intervenes in the online warfare and bans either of both of the combatants.

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John McAfee denies Belize murder

14 November 2012 Last updated at 18:35 ET

The founder of the anti-virus software firm McAfee has denied murdering one of his neighbours in Belize.

John McAfee said he did not kill fellow American Gregory Faull, who was found shot dead on Sunday on Ambergris Caye island, off the Belize coast, where both men lived.

Police in Belize say he is a "person of interest" in their inquiries into Mr Faull's murder.

Mr McAfee says he is hiding from police out of fear they want to kill him.

He was detained earlier this year over the alleged possession of guns and drugs, but was released without charge.

Mr McAfee told the Associated Press news agency in a telephone interview that he was in hiding somewhere in Belize in the company of a young woman.

He said Gregory Faull had been "an annoyance" but denied killing him. Mr McAfee told AP he was unarmed and changing locations frequently to stay one step ahead of the police.

The police say they want to question him over the murder of Mr Faull, who was found lying in a pool of his own blood on Sunday morning.

Belize's Prime Minister Dean Barrow has urged Mr McAfee to help police with their inquiries. He said Mr McAfee was being paranoid.

"I don't want to be unkind, but he seems to be extremely paranoid, I would go as far as to say bonkers," Mr Barrow said.

Mr McAfee, who made millions selling his software firm in the early 1990s, settled in the Central American country around four years ago.

Now a yoga aficionado, he no longer has any role in the anti-virus software company he founded.

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India 2G auction short of target

14 November 2012 Last updated at 22:57 ET

India's latest auction of mobile phone licences has fallen flat, raising less than a quarter of the money the government had targeted.

The auction for second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences raised 94bn rupees ($1.7bn; £1bn). The government had wanted closer to 400bn rupees.

Many companies had complained that prices were set too high.

An earlier sale of the licences was annulled by the Supreme Court after a corruption probe.

The previous licences were issued by former minister A Raja, who is accused of mis-selling the bandwidth in what has been called India's biggest corruption scandal. Mr Raja, who is currently on trial for fraud, has denied any wrongdoing.

Government auditors say the scandal cost the country about $40bn (£24.5bn).

'A big embarrassment'

Continue reading the main story

ll in all, a big embarrassment for the Indian government, but one could see it coming"

End Quote Prashant Singhal Ernst & Young

The auction has been marred with controversy as firms not only complained about the high base prices, but also alleged that the limited amount of bandwidth being offered had deterred many bidders.

"The limited amount of spectrum... was guaranteed to have a very detrimental impact on the auction," said Rajan Mathews, secretary general of the Cellular Operators Association of India.

"We said that the high reserve price would ensure that limited players come into the bid and that is exactly what we have seen."

In a big blow to the government, four circles, including Mumbai and Delhi did not attract any bids.

There were also no takers for the all-India licence.

"All in all, a big embarrassment for the Indian government, but one could see it coming," said Prashant Singhal, telecom industry leader, at Ernst & Young India.

The lacklustre response to the 2G auction contrasts with the 2010 sale of faster third-generation (3G) licences that fetched the government nearly $15bn.

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UK leads civilian drones charge

15 November 2012 Last updated at 02:47 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The "Pandora's box" of unmanned aircraft in the UK has been opened, according to the Astraea consortium.

Yet many technology and ethics issues surrounding civilian drones are yet to be solved, journalists at London's Science Media Centre were told.

The UK-led, £62m Astraea project - which has participation of the UK Civil Aviation Authority - is attempting to tackle all facets of the idea.

Later in November, they will carry out a crucial collision-avoidance test.

Unmanned aircraft or UAs is something of a new name for drones, which have gained notoriety principally in the theatre of war where remotely operated aircraft are used for surveillance or air strikes.

But the same technology put to use for civilian purposes is already a hot topic of debate in the UK and abroad, most recently surrounding their use by London's Metropolitan Police.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It's not just the technology, we're trying to think about the social impact of this"

End Quote Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal Astraea project director

A recent report by the UK's Aerospace, Aviation and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) found that applications for unmanned aircraft are said to be worth some £260bn - replacing costly or dangerous work done by manned planes, or opening up new applications that are currently out of reach.

Crop or wildlife stock monitoring, search and rescue, and check-ups on railway lines are some of the envisioned uses of UAs.

"All these things are currently done by manned aircraft, and they're done in currently quite hazardous environments," said Ruth Mallors, director of the Aerospace KTN.

"We want to use unmanned aircraft in these applications, but to be able to do that we have to demonstrate that were complying with the Civil Aviation Authority regulations, which are for manned aircraft.

"There's not going to be any new regulations - we'll comply with the regulations in place."

That is what brings about the technological challenge. The project involves sensors to be the "eyes" of a UA, the software to carry out manoeuvres and collision avoidance, and the aircraft themselves.

Points of debate

Plans for UAs envision that a pilot will always be on the ground controlling them, but they must have on-board technology that can perform in an emergency - in the eyes of aviation law - as well as a pilot.

"These things are going to have a level of self-determinism, particularly if you ever lose the communication link with the ground control," said Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, Astraea project director. "They've got to be able to operate fully safely and take the right decisions.

Continue reading the main story

Drones and the UK

• It is legal to fly your own drone in the UK without any special permission if it weighs less than 20kg and flies more than 150m from a congested area
• CAA permission is required if it is used for a commercial activity such as aerial photography
• Permission has been given for inspecting power lines, police use and crop surveillance
• Direct visual contact with the drone is currently required at all times
• Drones larger than 20kg would have to be approved for use by the CAA for use in UK airspace in the same way as commercial aircraft
• The CAA has made clear that it will not approve their use until it is convinced the drone can automatically "sense and avoid" other aircraft

"But we're not talking about unthinking drones, we're not talking about irrational and unpredictable behaviour, and we're not talking about something that gets itself up in the morning, goes off and does its own things and comes home without any human oversight."

The project has the participation of major contractors including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Thales UK. But they are also working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority, who will ultimately control the licensing for UAs when they pass stringent safety tests.

Gary Clayton, head of research and technology for EADS Cassidian, another project partner, said the CAA's publication CAP722 is being held up internationally as a template for aviation legislation around UAs.

But Mr Dopping-Hepenstal said the project is aiming much further than the technology and safety legislation.

"What this programme is trying to do is look at this holistically," he said. "It's not just the technology, we're trying to think about the social impact of this and the ethical and legal things associated with it. You've got to solve all this lot if you're going to make it happen, enable it to happen affordably."

Chris Elliot, an aerospace engineer and barrister, is acting as consultant to the project. He told reporters that the licensing and privacy questions were points "to debate, not to pontificate".

"We have a very robust privacy regime now for aviation, and I don't see much very different. A lot of it comes down to what society thinks is acceptable," he said.

"I find it interesting that Google has got away with its [Streetview] because we love Google and we all use it. If this technology positioned to something that is good for us, that we like, then people will accept that kind of behaviour.

"Pandora's box is open - these things are going to fly. What we need is to engage everybody, the public and the specialists, with understanding the good and bad sides."

For now, though, safety is paramount. The Astraea project will carry out real-world collision-avoidance tests using three planes in two weeks' time, putting their autonomous control software through its paces and ensuring that unmanned aircraft can independently avoid a crash.

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Regulator targets online shopping

15 November 2012 Last updated at 07:56 ET

UK regulators have begun seeking information on how firms may be monitoring online shoppers in order to target them with different prices.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will consider how consumer data is collected and if any activities could be illegal.

The OFT said it wanted to gather more information in order to assess if the area needs investigating.

OFT chief executive Clive Maxwell said the ways in which data is collected and used was evolving rapidly.

"It is important we understand what control shoppers have over their profile and whether firms are using shoppers' profiles to charge different prices for goods or services," he said.

The OFT said it wanted to hear from any interested parties, including online retailers and software providers, and would publish its findings in spring 2013.

It will be consulting with international regulators, including the US Federal Trade Commission, on commercial uses of consumer data.

Businesses have sophisticated technology to monitor online behaviour, collect information about shopping habits and websites visited, and the services consumers have looked at.

Internet shopping is one of the retail sector's few growth areas, with the Office for National Statistics reporting on Thursday that online sales were 11% higher in October than a year earlier.

The OFT said it wanted to consider whether consumers understood and were aware of how their information was used when they go online, and whether some firms' activities were illegal.

Mr Maxwell said: "Innovation online is an important driver of economic growth. Our call for information forms part of our ongoing commitment to build trust in online shopping so that consumers can be confident that businesses are treating them fairly.

"We know that businesses use information about individual consumers for marketing purposes. This has some important potential benefits to consumers and firms. But the ways in which data is collected and used is evolving rapidly."

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Firm finds TV-recycling process

15 November 2012 Last updated at 09:05 ET

A Kent firm has found a way of tackling the growing mountain of unrecyclable leaded glass from old-style TVs.

Sweeep Kuusakoski is recycling glass from more than 4,000 cathode ray TVs each day, and recovering up to 1kg (2.2lb) of lead from each set.

The leaded glass tubes were previously re-used in the production of new TV sets by firms in Malaysia.

But, after global demand for cathode ray TVs dried up, the firms re-using them closed leaving the glass unusable.

Sweeep Kuusakoski, in Sittingbourne, worked with a British inventor, Simon Greer, to build what it claims is the first furnace capable of extracting lead from the glass tubes to produce pure lead ingots and inert glass.

'Only solution'

A Sweeep spokeswoman said: "It is the only solution available as we stand today. In five years no one else has come up with anything else.

"All over Europe, and the US glass stocks are piling up."

The furnace heats up the glass to over 1,000C.

Mr Greer said: "At that temperature we can chemically separate the lead from the glass and get the lead to fall from the bottom of the furnace and let the glass to continue on its journey.

"The glass is now good for turning into aggregates for road use. You wouldn't want to make drinking glasses out of it, but it's not hazardous any more."

'Valuable commodity'

Much of the recycled lead is used for car batteries.

Justin Greenaway, of Sweeep Kuusakoski, said: "Out of every waste TV we get 1 kg of lead. It's a valuable rare-earth commodity which would otherwise have had to have been dug up."

About 2 tonnes of lead are extracted each day by the Sittingbourne plant, fetching £1,300 per tonne.

The company employs about 200 people, including 18 from Thamesteel on Sheppey which went into administration in January with the loss of 350 jobs.

The company has now begun negotiations to build a furnace in the United States.

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Nasa acts to tackle lost laptops

15 November 2012 Last updated at 09:09 ET

US space agency Nasa has ordered that the data on all its laptops must be encrypted, after losing another one of its portable computers.

Until the process is complete, it has forbidden staff from removing Nasa-issued laptops containing sensitive information from its facilities.

The order follows the loss of a device containing "sensitive personally identifiable information".

There have been several similar incidents over recent years.

Nasa said the latest incident had occurred on 31 October, when a laptop and documents were stolen from a locked vehicle of one of its employees at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.

The machine was password protected, but the agency acknowledged that the information might still be accessible to hackers since it was not encrypted.

Encryption would have scrambled the data, requiring a complicated code to make it understandable again.

As a result, Nasa has warned its workers to watch out for bogus messages.

"All employees should be aware of any phone calls, emails, and other communications from individuals claiming to be from Nasa or other official sources that ask for personal information or verification of it," an agency-wide email published by news site Spaceref stated.

"Because of the amount of information that must be reviewed and validated electronically and manually, it may take up to 60 days for all individuals impacted by this breach to be identified and contacted."

Encryption order

As a result of the security breach, Nasa's chief information officer, Linda Cureton, has said that with immediate effect laptops containing information about the following topics could only leave its buildings if the relevant data was encrypted:

• the international sale or transport of weapons, nuclear equipment or other materials that fall under the US's export administration regulations
• information about Nasa's human resources
• other "sensitive but unclassified" data

She said that she wanted the maximum possible number of laptops to be encrypted by Wednesday and a target of all laptops a month later. In addition employees have been banned from storing sensitive data on mobile phones, tablets and other portable devices.

The Nasa Watch blog, which comments on affairs at the agency, had previously criticised it for a series of other data losses.

It noted that the organisation had been warned in 2009 that it was not taking enough steps to sufficiently protect information and had reported the loss or theft of 48 of its mobile computing devices between April 2009 and April 2011.

This is not the first time Nasa has promised action to address the problem.

In March, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden told the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Commerce that that he was going to sign a directive ordering all portable devices to use encryption, after acknowledging the agency was "woefully deficient" when compared to other government departments.

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