Phone has second e-paper screen

12 December 2012 Last updated at 08:23 ET

A smartphone with two screens - one of which uses e-ink technology - has been announced by a Russian company.

Yota says having an added low-power screen will help users keep across social network updates and show critical information that stays visible even if the handsets run out of power.

It plans to put the 4G Android device on sale in the second half of 2013.

But one analyst said the innovation was a "gimmick" which might struggle to do well in western markets.

Saint Petersburg-based Yota is best known for making modems and router equipment.

If its plans come to fruition this would be its first mobile phone,

It says it plans to sell its handset at the premium end of the market which is currently occupied by phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X and Sony Xperia T.

E-ink displays are commonly used for e-book readers and are easier to read in the sun than their LCD equivalents, but offer a slower refresh rate making them unsuitable for videos or most games.

Dual display

Yota says both the colour LCD and black-and-white e-paper displays would be 4.3in (10.9cm) in size, and placed on opposite sides of the device's body.

Both would be protected by impact-resistant "gorilla glass" developed by the US company Corning to reduce the risk of breakage.

Yota's chief executive said he believed other companies had not previously launched similar devices because in the past there had not been a clear need for users to want a second screen.

But, he added, changing habits had created a gap in the market.

"Two years ago we were not so dependent on all the kinds of information we consume now, from Facebook and Twitter to news and other RSS feeds," Vlad Martynov told the BBC.

"The smartphone is now a window onto this virtual life, but today there's a lot of disappointment when you miss information.

"Our electronic paper display with our applications will remove this irritation."

In addition to letting users dedicate different tasks to different screens, Mr Martynov suggested users might want to display important information such as an airline boarding pass or a map on the e-ink screen to take advantage of the fact that the technology only uses power to refresh - and not maintain - its image.

As a consequence the phone keeps showing the last graphic or text sent to its second display even if its battery has died.

Hard sell

Yota says it has been working on the project for two years, but that it still needs to complete work on the five or six apps that will be bundled with the device to make use of its second screen.

Ultimately if the handset proves popular, it says it hopes third-party developers will customise their programs for the innovation.

However, one industry watcher cast doubt over whether that would happen.

"I don't see many users wanting this device in the US or Western Europe," said Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at consultants IDC.

"China may be different - they like more gimmicky phones that can handle several Sim cards and feature unusual types of display - but none of those devices have done well elsewhere.

"Brand is quite a strong purchasing decision factor in western markets as well, so unless this were being promoted by a company like Samsung or being sold at a very low price I can't see much demand."

Yota says it plans to debut its handset at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

It says it then aims to manufacture the device in Asia so that it can go on sale in Russia "in the summer", and in Europe and North America before the end of 2013.

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London bus fares go contactless

12 December 2012 Last updated at 12:00 ET

London buses are to start accepting contactless payments from Thursday.

Passengers on the city's 8,500 vehicles will be able to buy tickets by swiping a credit, debit or charge card by an NFC (near field communication) reader.

Transport for London follows Stagecoach which began installing NFC equipment on its buses in 2009.

TfL also operates the Oyster smartcard scheme which uses an earlier RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology.

The buses' Oyster card readers have been upgraded to be compatible with both types,

Smartphones that can mimic contactless cards should also work with the equipment,

However, users are being warned to be careful about swiping their wallet against readers if they own more than one NFC-enabled card.

"If you present two cards together, the reader will normally reject them both," an email to Oyster card users said.

"But there is a small possibility of payment being taken from a card which you did not intend to use."

TfL said it planned to introduce the technology to the London Underground Tube system at a later point.

Uneducated about NFC

The Oyster card touch-and-go system was first introduced in London in 2003 to help speed up passage through Tube gates and bus doors.

Dozens of other towns and cities in the UK have since introduced similar systems.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

New technology means you can 'touch in' with a bank card as well as an Oyster card

However, other types of contactless payments have been slower to take off despite Barclaycard issuing the first such credit card in the UK in 2007.

One expert suggested TfL's move might change that.

"There are now more than 23 million contactless cards in the UK," Windsor Holden, research director at Juniper Research told the BBC.

"But surveys that we've seen suggests only a very small minority of card holders are aware that they have an NFC-enabled card.

"Projects like this bus scheme are absolutely critical if the public is to be educated about the use of these cards as having them isn't enough - it's knowing how to use them, feeling confident about the security involved and then wanting to use them more."

TfL will announce more details about its NFC proposals on Thursday.

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UK 'nation of internet shoppers'

12 December 2012 Last updated at 19:53 ET

Internet shopping is more popular in the UK than in any other major country, a survey from regulator Ofcom suggests.

Consumers in the UK spend an average of £1,083 a year on internet shopping, compared with Australia which spends the second highest at £842, it said.

The UK's fondness for net shopping is, in part, driven by mobile devices.

UK consumers are also downloading more data from their mobiles than any other nation, according to the survey.

The study also indicated that:

• In December 2011 the average UK mobile connection used 424MB (megabytes) of data, higher than Japanese users who averaged 392MBs.
• 16% of all web traffic in the UK was from mobiles, tablets or other connected devices - more than any other European country.
• Four in ten UK adults now access Facebook, Twitter and others social networks via their mobiles.
• For 18 to 24-year-olds the figures is even higher, at 62%.

The findings form part of Ofcom's seventh International Communications Market Report, which looks at the take-up, availability, price and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio across 17 major countries.

Brits are also the most likely to watch TV-on-demand and use digital video recorders, the report suggests.

Big TVs

UK consumers are embracing the new generation of internet-enabled TVs with 15% owning such a set, compared to 10% in the US.

Our TVs are also getting bigger - more than a third of TVs sold in the first quarter of 2012 were between 33in (84cm) and 44in (112cm).

The UK remains the cheapest place to buy communication services, although the gap is narrowing.

Ofcom said a basket of communication services - including fixed-line telephone, mobile calls and texts and fixed and mobile broadband and TV - costs on average £146 in the UK.

That was £32 cheaper than in France, £101 cheaper than Italy and £168 cheaper than the US.

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Google Maps app returns to iPhone

12 December 2012 Last updated at 23:19 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Google has released its Maps app for the iPhone, in the wake of complaints about Apple's software.

Apple controversially replaced the search giant's mapping service with its own when it released its latest handset, the iPhone 5.

The move was widely criticised after numerous mistakes were found in Apple Maps's search results.

Google's app introduces functions previously restricted to Android devices.

One analyst said it would prove popular, but added that Nokia still posed a challenge.

The Finnish company recently launched its own free maps app for the iPhone.

Continue reading the main story

Apple's mapping nightmare

When Apple announced in June that it was launching its own maps app - using licensed data and its own software - developers cheered.

But soon after it launched in September, the complaints began.

The UK's historic town Stratford-upon-Avon was missing, a farm in Dublin had been labelled as an airport and Hong Kong's Queen's Pier boat terminal was in the wrong location.

Satellite images were sometimes blurry or only showed cloud cover, and the much-vaunted Flyover facility had created surreal views of landmarks including the Brooklyn Bridge and Hoover Dam.

Facing growing criticism, Apple boss Tim Cook penned an apology acknowledging users' frustration.

It did not seem to dampen early iPhones sales, but the affair was linked to the high-profile ousting of iOS software chief Scott Forstall, who had reportedly refused to sign the apology himself.

Mr Cook recently acknowledged that the firm had "screwed up", but promised Apple had a "huge plan" to improve the app.

The firms are motivated in part by a desire to gather data automatically generated by handsets using their respective software, as well as users' own feedback.

This allows them to fine-tune their services and improve the accuracy of features such as traffic status updates.

Android's advantage

Features Google has introduced that were not available in its earlier iPhone app include:

• Voice guided turn-by-turn directions, with estimated travel times.
• Indoor panoramic images of buildings that have signed up to its Street View Business Photos service
• 3D representations of the outlines of buildings that can be viewed from different angles
• Vector-based graphics based on mathematical lines and points rather than pre-created bitmap graphics, making it quicker to zoom in and out of an area.

Among the facilities Google's iPhone app lacks that are present in its Android equivalent are indoor maps, the ability to download maps for offline viewing, and voice search.

However, over time, project manager Kai Hansen told the BBC that what was on one platform should be on the other.

"The goal is clearly to make it as unified and consistent an experience as possible," he said.

Ground Truth

One area Apple's own software still has an edge is its integration of Flyover which offers interactive photo-realistic views of selected cities using 3D-rendered graphics within its maps app.

Google offers a similar facility via Google Earth which is promoted in its main maps app, but involves switching into a separate program.

However, for many users the key feature will be the level of accuracy that Google offers.

Since 2008, the firm's Ground Truth project has mashed together licensed data with information gathered by its own fleet of Street View cars and bicycles.

The images and sensor data they collect are analysed by computers and humans to identify street signs, business names, road junctions and other key features. To date, more than five million miles (eight million km) of roads across 45 countries have been covered.

This information is supplemented by the public filing their own reports. iPhone users are encouraged to do likewise by shaking their handsets to activate a feedback function.

"Google Maps, as much as any other map application, lives from the data that we receive," Mr Hansen explained.

"If a road is closed for the next six months, or a road was opened two days ago - these are things that somebody who lives next to the road immediately notices, but if you're not in the area it becomes hard to know.

"The more we can give you the ability to let us know about things that are changing on the map, the more other users will benefit from that corrected information."

He added that once operators verify these reports, changes can be made "within minutes, rather than hours".

Continue reading the main story

Making money from maps

Google says the new iPhone app does not feature advertising - unlike some promoted results in its web browser map pages.

Suggestions for specific locations - such as restaurants or shops - are instead based on a user's search history and other information gathered from their Google account.

Google will cover some of its costs by charging certain third-party developers who embed its maps in their products.

But for now, the biggest benefit is likely to be brand loyalty, helping to drive users to its main search engine, which is profitable.

That may change in the future.

Earlier this year, Google's mapping chief Brian McClendon told the BBC that "local advertising is going to be a critical part of any mapping or local search experience" in the long term.

Apple is also seeking to improve its own data through user feedback, but risks having less to work with if iPhone users switch to another product.

There had been speculation Apple would reject Google's app from its store for this reason.

But since iPhone sales are at the heart of Apple's fortunes, it may have felt it had more to lose than gain by allowing rival Android handsets to offer a popular app it lacked.

'Neutral' Nokia

Google's launch will also have consequences for Nokia, which recently launched its own Here Maps app on iOS.

The European firm's location division is decades older than Google's, and also has a strong reputation for accuracy.

However, the Here app has had a shaky start with many users complaining about problems with its interface - a consequence of it being written in the HTML5 web language rather than as a native app, specifically for the iOS system.

Even so, one telecoms analyst said it would be premature to write the company out of the game.

"I'm not convinced Nokia as a brand for maps will become a big thing in the consumer consciousness, but what I think is going to happen is that more businesses are going to quietly do deals with it for maps," said Ben Wood from CCS Insight.

"Because of the issues that Apple had, people have suddenly understood the importance of quality mapping and they may also say they don't want to go to Google as all of the data then runs through the search firm, strengthening it as a competitor. Nokia is more of a neutral partner.

"Amazon has already done a deal with Nokia on its Kindle tablets, and I wouldn't be surprised if RIM's new Blackberry devices and Facebook follow."

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ONS website under fire from MPs

13 December 2012 Last updated at 04:00 ET By Ed Lowther Political reporter, BBC News

The official website for communicating public data in the UK is "terrible" and a "disaster", MPs have told the man responsible for the service.

Andrew Dilnot, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, conceded that a relaunch of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website last year had not been "one of our greatest moments".

But he emphasised that there had been "significant" improvements recently.

A Tory MP said he had been shocked by how poor the website had become.

The UK Statistics Authority oversees the ONS, and Mr Dilnot said its board, which he chairs, was ultimately responsible for the website.

The chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee, Bernard Jenkin, told Mr Dilnot he had heard "excoriating" evidence on the website's quality.

On Tuesday, fact-checker Will Moy of fullfact.org had told the committee that navigating official statistics websites could be like venturing onto a "magic roundabout".

'Exasperating'

"You can get lost very quickly at the ONS website," he warned the assembled MPs.

"Our official statistics producers are sitting on a treasure chest of data which can inform and illuminate our public debate, and sometimes they are literally sitting on top of them, daring you to get in.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The changeover to the new [ONS] website was generously described as a disaster. In fact it was probably worse than that. The journey that you're taking is one backwards, into a denial of information"

End Quote Labour MP Paul Flynn

"What they should be doing is presenting it, and saying: 'We have all this information, and it can help you; it can help you as citizens, it can help you as businesses... and this is how it can help you.'"

Michael Blastland, a freelance journalist who used to work on More or Less, the BBC Radio 4 programme examining statistical claims in political debate, had a confession for the committee.

"Just before I left [the programme] I had an idea that I'd get myself a couple of very bright maths graduates and shut them in a room and say, 'see if you can find a long-run series of data since the second world war of per-capita GDP'," he said.

"Quite an interesting little number. And you pop in every couple of days with bread and water just to check they weren't dead."

He concluded: "It is an exasperating experience."

'Open-data agenda'

Chris Giles, a senior journalist at the Financial Times, posed a seemingly straightforward question: "Is unemployment now higher or lower than it was in the mid-1990s?"

Having spent some time analysing the ONS website, he declared: "There is absolutely no way of getting an answer to that question if you are a lay person."

Even for expert users, like himself, "it takes eight clicks... that is really very, very frustrating."

The committee also grilled the minister at the Cabinet Office responsible for policy on publishing statistics, Conservative MP Nick Hurd.

Labour backbencher Paul Flynn described his performance as "sad" and "disappointing", saying the minister displayed little mastery of his brief.

"You have observed, Mr Hurd, that since you started your evidence to this committee, several Conservative members have left; whether it's embarrassment, or guilt, or..." he said, before he was interrupted by the committee chairman.

Mr Flynn added: "The changeover to the new [ONS] website was generously described as a disaster. In fact it was probably worse than that. The journey that you're taking is one backwards, into a denial of information."

Mr Hurd rejected Mr Flynn's claims, adding: "Please don't underestimate what is going on in terms of the open-data agenda, which is being driven by the Cabinet Office."

There was "widespread engagement with people who look at statistics, look at data; widespread engagement with people who want to make businesses out of that".

'Anoraks'

The comments from the committee's session on Tuesday were put to Mr Dilnot when he appeared before it on Wednesday.

He revealed a degree of nostalgia for the former ONS website, which he said he had bookmarked in his browser long before being appointed to the top job at the UK Statistics Authority.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I'd encourage you to go back and have another go at the search engine, because I think it is now much improved"

End Quote Andrew Dilnot

"Four of five years ago, I thought it did what then seemed to be a good job. I've said repeatedly that we have in this country marvellous data, an extraordinarily rich array of professionally produced statistics," he told MPs.

"The relaunch of the ONS website in August of last year was not one of our greatest moments, and at that time the website became difficult to use, difficult to navigate, difficult to search."

He said the ONS web team had made "significant progress" towards resolving the problems, particularly by improving the search function in the past fortnight.

But Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke seized upon the admission, declaring that the problems with the website had been "endlessly frustrating" and "shocking to all of us who are anoraks".

"Would you accept it's been pretty terrible, it needs a lot of improvement, and you're on the case? And the search is just awful, and that needs improvement?" he asked.

"Are you going to say to us, we get it and we're on the case?"

"Absolutely," replied Mr Dilnot, pointing to the progress being made, adding that before appearing before the MPs he had tried to defeat the new search function, but without success.

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Deported McAfee lands back in US

13 December 2012 Last updated at 04:35 ET

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John McAfee told reporters his "next step is to rest", as Daniela Ritorto reports

The software tycoon John McAfee has arrived in the United States after being deported by Guatemala.

He landed in Miami, after being escorted to the airport in Guatemala City and placed on board an American Airlines flight.

Mr McAfee said before leaving he was "perfectly happy with the decision".

He was detained a week ago after fleeing from Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of a neighbour.

The 67-year-old has denied any role in the killing. The authorities in Belize say he is not a suspect in the investigation.

He has spent more than a month on the run with his girlfriend, blogging about his exploits.

As he left Guatemala City, Mr McAfee said he was happy to be going home.

"I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days," he said.

He said he had no immediate plans when he reached Florida, only that he was going "to hang in Miami for a while".

Passengers on the same flight as Mr McAfee said that he had been taken off the plane before everyone else.

A spokesman for Miami International Airport said he would be escorted by federal authorities after clearing customs. It was not immediately clear where he was heading or what his legal status was.

Paranoid

In an interview with Bloomberg Television ahead of his departure, Mr McAfee said he wanted to apologise to the Guatemalan president for putting him in an awkward position during negotiations on a territorial dispute with Belize.

His lawyers blocked an extradition request from Belize, where he has been named a "person of interest" in the murder of Florida businessman Gregory Faull.

Mr McAfee says he is happy to talk to Belize police but did not want to be remanded in their custody.

He claims he is being persecuted by the authorities in Belize, whom he accuses of corruption.

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow had a more prosaic explanation: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers."

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said Belize's extradition treaty with the US extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to Mr McAfee.

"Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said.

After making his fortune from the anti-virus software which bears his name, Mr McAfee has lived an eccentric life, funding start-ups, flying small planes low over the desert, and most recently, attempting to synthesise antibiotics from jungle plants in Belize.

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Leveson blogs and tweets warning

13 December 2012 Last updated at 04:54 ET

The law should be enforced against tweeters and bloggers to avoid a drop in mainstream journalistic standards, Lord Justice Leveson has said.

In a speech in Australia, he said there was a "pernicious and false" belief that the law did not apply online.

This undermined the rule of law and could lead to journalists cutting corners in order to "steal a march" on their online competitors.

Creative thinking was needed to ensure the law was applied equally, he said.

Lord Justice Leveson, whose report into the press was published last month, is taking part in a lecture tour, although he has ruled out commenting on the report itself.

'Electronic pub gossip'

During a speech at the University of Melbourne, he insisted there was an important difference between mainstream journalists with "a powerful reputation for accuracy" and bloggers and tweeters who were "no more than electronic versions of pub gossip".

But, he said, there was a danger that a perception online competitors were operating without legal restraints could damage wider journalistic standards and "lead to journalists adopting an approach which was less than scrupulous in the pursuit of stories".

He said: "In order to steal a march on bloggers and tweeters, they might be tempted to cut corners, to break or at least bend the law to obtain information for stories or to infringe privacy improperly to the same end.

"It may encourage unethical, and potentially, unlawful practices to get a story.

"In a culture which sees some act with impunity in the face of the civil law, and the criminal law, a general decline in standards may arise."

It could also lead to some newspapers deciding to publish entirely online and moving abroad to avoid UK law, although this was unlikely in the near future, he added.

He called for creative thinking on making sure the law was applied equally and more international co-operation to enforce standards.

"It might be said that if we facilitate or condone breaches of the law, and thereby weaken the rule of law by failing to act and to recognise judgements and court orders which emanate from other countries, we encourage the weakening of the rule of law at home too," he said.

"If we are to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained, we must meet those challenges, and ensure that the media not only remains subject to the law but that it is not placed at a disadvantage where the enforcement of the law is concerned.

"We will therefore have to think creatively about how we ensure that the law is capable of equal application, and is applied equally and fairly, against the mainstream media and bloggers, tweeters and other amateur online journalists."

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Paperless tickets 'not practical'

By Amelia Butterly
Newsbeat reporter Radiohead experienced problems with paperless ticketing earlier this year

Paperless tickets could help combat touts but many venues still do not have the capabilities to support them, say independent music promoters.

Although most tickets are sold online, bringing a printed barcode ticket means it is not truly a digital transaction.

But one independent promoter Anton Lockwood, who works for DHP, says paperless is not always "practical".

Continue reading the main story

Ticketmaster defines a paperless ticket as one where the credit card used to book the tickets is brought, along with ID, to the venue for entry. At some venues you may have to bring a printout with a reference number or barcode for scanning, hence why they may not be truly paperless.

"It only works where the cost of introducing the system can be spread over high ticket prices," he said.

"The physical design of arenas can make paperless tickets much easier to handle but in club venues, for example, it's more difficult as there isn't usually the space for equipment like electronic turnstiles."

Dave Newton of We Got Tickets, an online retailer, believes that the technology has actually made it easier for small venues.

"Paperless ticketing has brought the cost down [for smaller venues and promoters] and opened up the option of advanced ticketing," he said.

"Resistance is still there at the larger venues because they're used to having people stood on the door ripping tickets."

'Artist-led'

The benefits of going paperless include the chance for streamlined venue entry and the opportunity to control resales and touting.

New wristbands can be scanned at festivals across the UK

There are downsides though, which were demonstrated in September after Radiohead fans had problems claiming or returning their paperless purchases.

A spokesperson from Ticketmaster says that paperless ticketing is an "artist-led initiative" and they say it's up to the musicians and their promoters whether they use physical tickets or not.

He said: "Following the recent set of dates at The O2 for Robbie Williams, a survey that we [Ticketmaster] completed suggested that 87% were satisfied with their experience of paperless.

"Fans agreed that it is the future of ticketing."

New technology

Other technologies, such as electronic wristbands and smartphone apps, may be the way that paperless ticketing is rolled out across the industry.

Continue reading the main story

Resistance is still there at the larger venues because they're used to having people stood on the door ripping tickets

Dave Newton We Got Tickets

Dave Newton thinks that when marketing companies capitalise more on the tagging, social media and promotion capabilities, tickets may go completely digital as a way for them to "capture that data" and create "up-sell opportunities".

Technologies are also being developed for when people have actually arrived at the gig venue.

One of those includes inaudible frequencies, sounds that can be played out of speakers at gigs that cannot be heard by people but can be picked up by smartphones.

Theoretically the noise trigger could then make the smartphone bring up all kinds of content from merchandising or ticket purchase options or play video.

New innovations may also change the way people buy tickets in the future and how music fans experience the gig once they are actually there.

Fans were satisfied with the paperless tickets at Robbie William's last concert

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

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Village gets government broadband

13 December 2012 Last updated at 08:00 ET

A village in North Yorkshire has become the first to benefit from super-fast broadband under a UK government scheme.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey switched on the newly installed "street cabinet", a large green box that will deliver broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps to 90 homes in Ainderby Steeple.

Rural councils across the UK have been allocated a share of a £530m fund for rollouts unviable for commercial firms.

But critics say the process has been overly long and complicated.

And only a handful of councils have so far decided how to spend the money.

In all cases, BT has won the bids to provide broadband infrastructure, prompting murmurs of a fresh monopoly for the firm.

Some rural areas already have super-fast broadband via locally organised community schemes.

North Yorkshire was allocated £17.8m by the government body, Broadband Delivery UK, with another £10m invested by BT, and a further £8.6m coming from the European Regional Development Fund.

Mr Vaizey said; "Ainderby Steeple is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Unfortunately, until now, the people of this magnificent rural community would have struggled to find out more about their history online because of frustratingly slow download speeds.

He added that 40 more rural broadband schemes would be approved in "the coming months", with the aim of connecting 90% of homes to super-fast broadband and the remainder at speeds of at least 2Mbps.

As part of its drive to make the UK the best place for broadband in Europe by 2015, the government is also investing £150m to bring super-fast broadband to 22 towns and cities around the UK.

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New York puts taxi apps to vote

13 December 2012 Last updated at 09:49 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

New York's taxi authority is to vote on whether or not the city's iconic yellow cabs should accept bookings via smartphone apps.

A plethora of apps, such as Uber and Hailo, have been released to help commuters track down available cabs.

But some taxi companies are concerned about the impact these apps could have on their business.

Taxi-hailing apps have been widely adopted in other cities around the world.

In New York, where taxi operators are highly regulated, several companies have written to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) calling for plans to allow the use of the apps to be rejected.

But the TLC's chairman has described the use of smartphones to hail cabs as "inevitable".

"Taxi-hailing apps will be useful to customers," David Yassky told the Wall Street Journal.

But he added: "There's a lot we don't know about how they will work in practice and what impact there will be on other parts of industry.

"I think it's prudent to do this in a measured way, so they can see how they work before they make it permanent."

Mr Yassky has the backing of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Wall Street Journal newspaper suggests his aides are keen to push for app adoption in order to portray New York as a tech-friendly city.

Thursday's vote will determine the rollout of a pilot programme. If the TLC votes in favour, the apps will be allowed for a one-year period before their effectiveness is reviewed.

'Phenomenal'

Other cities have tentatively adopted the apps - with varied results.

Australia's taxi authority put out a major warning about "rogue" apps providing unvetted drivers with passengers.

"These rogue app companies will say anything in their quest for profit," said Benjamin Wash from the Australian Taxi Industry Association.

"I've heard them say they keep location records, but that's no good to you if you're injured or dead."

More established apps like Hailo, Uber and GetTaxi require drivers to provide licenses before they are allowed to use the service.

In London, uptake of Hailo had been "phenomenal", said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Driver's Association.

"They went viral in weeks. They've now got 9,000 drivers - it's converted a generation," he told the BBC.

"These are guys who have basic phones, to call and send the odd text, have now gone over to smartphones to embrace technology with a zeal that beggars belief."

Uber launched in London just prior to the Olympics, offering private hire minicabs rather than black cabs.

Wayne Casey, from the National Taxi Association, said the apps were helping drivers in quieter areas find more work but may prove less effective on busy streets.

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