'Mark of the beast' pupil loses case

9 January 2013 Last updated at 06:23 ET

A Texan student who refused to wear a badge with a radio tag that tracked her movements has lost a federal court appeal against her school's ID policy.

The radio chips track attendance, which in turn helps secure school funding.

But Andrea Hernandez, 15, stopped wearing the badge on religious grounds, saying it was the "mark of the beast".

After John Jay High School suspended her, she went to court and won a temporary injunction to continue going to the school, without the badge.

The federal court ruling overturned that, saying if she was to stay at the school, she would be required to wear the badge. Otherwise, she would have to transfer to a new school.

The new identification policy at the Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas, began at the start of the 2012 school year.

John Jay High School is one of two schools piloting the programme, which eventually aims to equip all student badges across the district's 112 schools with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips.

The badges reveal each student's location on their campus, giving the district more precise information on attendance.

The daily average of the attendance is related to how much funding each school receives.

But Miss Hernandez said the badge was the "mark of the beast", as described in chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

She refused to wear it even after the school had offered to remove the RFID chip.

"Today's court ruling affirms NISD's position that we did make reasonable accommodation to the student by offering to remove the RFID chip from the student's smart ID badge," the district said in a statement.

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Work starts on replica Edsac rebuild

9 January 2013 Last updated at 02:56 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

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The pioneering Edsac computer is being recreated by engineers

Plans to rebuild the pioneering Edsac computer are a step closer to completion as parts that will form its metal chassis start to be manufactured.

Edsac - Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator - ran its first program in 1949 and was created to help scientists at Cambridge University.

The rebuild project started in 2011 after it was found that few of the original design documents remained.

Project workers hope to have the recreated machine finished by 2015.

"In many ways, and people do not realise this, Edsac was the beginning of the computer age," said Hermann Hauser, who kicked off the whole project and made the first substantial donation towards the £250,000 needed to complete the rebuild. Cash has also come from Google and other anonymous donors.

Early work has focused on determining the parts and computational elements used in the 1949 Edsac. It was made up of more than 3,000 valves spread across a chassis made up of more than 100 steel shelves bolted to tall equipment racks.

Big thinking

With almost no original design documents remaining, rebuild volunteers have been forced to scrutinise photographs to puzzle out which bits go where, said Dr Andrew Herbert who is leading the recreation effort.

"We now understand what three-quarters of the chassis does," said Dr Herbert, "and the bits that are left are not central to the operation of the machine."

Continue reading the main story

It was the first computer that people could actually use"

End Quote Hermann Hauser

The recreation work had reached an important milestone, he said, as parts for the replica chassis started to be made. Close to Edsac's birthplace in Cambridge, Teversham Engineering has begun cutting, punching, sanding, bending and painting mild sheet steel into shelves that are the exact dimensions of those on the 1949 Edsac,

On to the shelves will be put the valves and other components that form the computational heart of the pioneering machine.

"It was the first computer that people could actually use," Mr Hauser told the BBC. "It was meant for ordinary scientists."

Most of the computers built prior to Edsac were purely experimental, said Mr Hauser. By contrast Prof Maurice Wilkes, who designed Edsac, began with the idea of making a machine that would be a workhorse for Cambridge scientists.

Science was being stunted at the time by the limitations of mechanical adding machines, said Mr Hauser.

"Edsac let scientists tackle problems that could never have been solved with mechanical calculators," he said. "It revolutionised the way a lot of Cambridge scientists thought about what they could do."

Its introduction represented the biggest step function improvement in computing power ever, said Mr Hauser. Rough estimates suggest it was about 1,500 times faster than the best mechanical hand-cranked calculator of that era, he added.

The rebuild of Edsac will be done in public at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

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Google drops Microsoft patent claims

10 January 2013 Last updated at 04:43 ET

Google has ended one patent war with Microsoft over video compression technology used in the Xbox 360.

The firm had also argued that Microsoft was using its wi-fi innovations.

Google has now asked the US International Trade Commission, which handles patent disputes, to withdraw both claims.

Microsoft said it now hopes Google will withdraw similar claims in other rows, including one over licensing terms.

Microsoft wants to licence the patents but has refused to comply with Google's demands it should pay up to $4bn (£2.5bn) a year to use them.

In a separate ongoing dispute in a US court, Microsoft is arguing that the patents, which belong to the Motorola Mobility Unit owned by Google, were only worth about $1m (£623,000) per year to use because the technology they related to is so essential to the tech industry as a whole.

Licence fees

Google countered that the two firms should have tried to negotiate a deal based on the starting point of a 2.25% royalty demand, which it described as "the only logical starting point" since it had agreed other licences on this basis.

The case is pending ruling by a US judge after which a jury would be asked to rule over whether that royalty fare was too high.

Microsoft's refusal to discuss a deal on these terms prompted Motorola to file lawsuits in the US and Europe last year, seeking to block several Microsoft products from sale on the basis that its rights had been infringed.

In May 2012, Google succeeded in winning an injunction against Microsoft in Germany, allowing it to impose a sales ban there against the Xbox 360 games console, Windows 7 system software, Internet Explorer browser and Windows Media Player.

But another judge overruled the ban.

Price of patents

It is yet unclear what impact the latest incident will have on other pending disputes.

But David Howard, corporate vice president at Microsoft said: "We're pleased that Google has finally withdrawn these claims for exclusion orders against Microsoft, and hope that it will now withdraw similar claims pending in other jurisdictions as required by the FTC consent order."

Chris Green, tech analyst at DMG Europe, told the BBC: "It's noticeable that in the last two to three years the pace of product development has slowed down because everyone is terrified of patent disputes,".

Mr Green added that many large companies were investing too much time and money in patent disputes.

Google has yet to comment.

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Pebble smartwatch set to ship

9 January 2013 Last updated at 12:17 ET

A hotly-anticipated smartwatch, which was created thanks to $15m (£10m) in crowdsourced funding, is to be made available this month.

The Pebble has an e-ink display similar to those found on e-readers, and last seven days on one battery charge.

The 1.26in (3,2cm) screen is able to display a multitude of apps as well as tell the time.

Pebble is to date the most successful Kickstarter project, but had been hit by development delays.

Cash pledges

Originally intended to ship to backers in Autumn 2012, the watch will now go first to those who contributed to its funding, before then being shipped to those who have placed pre-orders. On the Pebble website, the watch costs £110 ($149).

The first watches will begin shipping on 23 January.

It will be mass-produced at a rate of 15,000 units each week, project founder Eric Migicovsky told reporters at CES. It would be generally available in about 6-8 weeks, he said.

Third-party developers will be able to create apps for the watch which can pair up with smartphones running Google's Android software or Apple's iOS.

At the press event Mr Migicovsky demonstrated how the watch can be used to wirelessly control functions on a smartphone - such as playing music while a device is in a docking station.

Wearers can also receive text messages and emails through the device, as well as manage incoming calls.

Pebble weighs 38.2g (1.3oz) and its black and white screen has a resolution of 144 x 168 pixels.

Pebble's makers have paired with notification service If This Then That (IFTTT), a site which allows users to set up custom actions such as receiving a notification when weather changes, or when a news website is updated.

Mr Migicovsky said that the watch depletes a smartphone's battery by around 5-10% per day. To charge the Pebble itself, a cable must be attached.

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Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Eric Migicovsky of Pebble and Inion Beracha of Primesense

Thomas Stuermer, from Accenture, said he believed this could be a problem.

"The problem is that at the moment the more features you put on there the more they consume power," he said.

"Contactless power chargers are starting to take off - but they still involve putting devices down on pads. Until wireless power becomes a bit more contactless it probably still won't work well on the watch platform."

Smartwatches have been common place in technology for some time, although to date the market is largely dominated by sports brands such as Nike and Adidas whose products offer fitness statistics, route tracking and pacing data.

The project to develop Pebble debuted on Kickstarter in April 2012 seeking $100,000 (£62,000) to complete development of the device.

By the end of its 38 day funding drive it had raised more than $10m and had almost 70,000 backers. More funds were raised via its website as people put down cash to reserve one of the first devices.

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UK still has 13,000 monochrome TVs

9 January 2013 Last updated at 20:27 ET

More than 13,000 households across the UK are still using black-and-white television sets, according to the TV Licensing authority.

London had the highest number of monochrome licences, at 2,715, followed by Birmingham and Manchester, it said.

The number of licences issued each year has dwindled from 212,000 in 2000. A total of 13,202 monochrome licences were in force at the start of 2013.

A black-and-white TV licence costs £49 a year, a colour licence costs £145.50.

TV Licensing spokesman Stephen Farmer said: "It's remarkable that with the digital switchover complete, 41% of UK households owning HDTVs and Britons leading the world in accessing TV content over the internet, more than 13,000 households still watch their favourite programmes on a black-and-white telly."

Television and radio technology historian John Trenouth said their continued use could largely be explained by low-income households wanting to save money on the licence fee.

But he added: "There will always be a small number of users who prefer monochrome images, don't want to throw away a working piece of technology or collect old TV sets.

"Maybe these will still be around in 10 years from now, when the number of black-and-white licences will have fallen to a few hundred - about the same number of black-and-white sets that were in use on the opening night of BBC television 70 years ago".

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Foxconn faces China bribery probe

9 January 2013 Last updated at 20:51 ET

Foxconn, one of the world's biggest contract electronics makers, has said it is being investigated by Chinese authorities over bribery allegations.

The comments followed a report by Taiwan's Next Magazine, which claimed a Foxconn manager was detained because he sought bribes from suppliers.

Foxconn said it was co-operating with the probe and was reviewing processes.

This is latest problem to hit Foxconn, which makes products for firms such as Apple, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony.

The company was founded by Terry Gou, one of Asia's richest men, and has previously admitted to hiring underage interns and has had worker suicides at its factories in China.

In response to the allegations made by Next Magazine, Foxconn said it was carrying out an internal investigation into the allegations.

It added that it was also looking to implement measures that would prevent such incidents from happening.

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N Korea urged to widen internet

10 January 2013 Last updated at 01:42 ET

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has urged North Korea to end its self-imposed isolation and allow its citizens to use the internet.

Speaking after a visit to Pyongyang, he said North Korea would continue to lag economically unless it embraced internet freedom.

He was part of a US delegation led by former state governor Bill Richardson.

They also urged North Korea to end nuclear and missile tests, and raised the case of a US detainee.

Mr Richardson, also a former US envoy to the UN, has visited North Korea several times in the past, most recently in December 2010. On two occasions he helped secure the release of detained US nationals.

'Ill-advised'

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Bill Richardson: "We strongly urge the North Koreans to proceed with a moratorium on ballistic missiles"

Speaking at a media briefing in Beijing after arriving from North Korea, Mr Schmidt said he had been in Pyongyang to discuss a free and open internet.

Internet use is highly restricted in North Korea - few people have access to a computer and most users can only access a national intranet rather than the world wide web.

"As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth, and it will make it harder for them to catch up economically," he said.

"Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it. The government has to do something. It has to make it possible for people to use the internet which the government in North Korea has not yet done."

Mr Richardson said the delegation had raised the case of detainee Korean-American Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in November in circumstances that are not clear.

North Korea has in the past released detained Americans after high-profile US visits, but Mr Richardson said he had been unable to meet Mr Bae.

"We strongly urged the North Koreans to proceed with a moratorium on ballistic missiles and possible nuclear test," he also said.

The delegation's Pyongyang trip comes less than a month after North Korea put a satellite into orbit using a three-stage rocket - a move condemned by the US as a banned test of long-range missile technology.

The US government has described the visit as "not particularly helpful".

"We continue to think the trip is ill-advised," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday.

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Why celebs want to sell us headphones

10 January 2013 Last updated at 05:46 ET By Dave Lee Technology Reporter, BBC News, Las Vegas

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Will.i.am's verdict on the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show

Celebrities are queuing up to put their name on the side of your head. Endorsed headphones, a trend kickstarted by hip-hop star Dr Dre, have become big business.

In 2013, we'll see even more hit the market. So is it a case of big names making a big quick buck, or do they really care about their tech?

Ten years ago, any any self-respecting celebrity wouldn't be found dead at a technology trade show.

But at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, you can barely take a step without spotting celebrity endorsements - and even the celebrities themselves.

This surge of rent-a-face started with a man named Andre Young, better known to music fans as hip-hop legend Dr Dre, whose company Beats Electronics, produced its first hardware in 2008.

The distinctive and trendy Beats By Dre headphones sold by the million, and have become a status symbol for everyone from Premier League footballers to that man on the bus you probably shouldn't talk to.

Dr Dre's company now produces headphones emblazoned with names like Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber.

In 2013, the floodgates of celeb-backed technology will well and truly open.

'Sit up and notice'

In a massively overcrowded market, having a big name celeb on board is crucial if you're to stand out, says Forrester Research analyst Tony Costa.

"Even if a company came out with the greatest headset ever, it wouldn't really hit the popular press radar without a celebrity in there. That's going to make people sit up and notice."

He argued that when a company puts money behind endorsements, they are buying a slice of a demographic, as well as an ability to sell a product consumers may otherwise be uneducated about.

"In certain product categories, you can go through all the specs you want," he says.

"But they're pretty much meaningless for a consumer - response rate, fidelity, hertz and things like that, people don't really know what that means.

"It's hard for you to judge for yourself what quality is, because you're just not an expert in that category."

Demonstrating this theory to great effect is Lemmy, the legendary frontman of metal group Motorhead.

His Motorheadphones, on show at CES, were produced by a company in Denmark.

What sets them apart from others on the market?

"They've got Motorhead written on them," the veteran rocker tells the BBC.

But joking aside, Lemmy insists he has been part of that creative process.

"They're mid-range, not bass-orientated," he explains, arguing that anything other than hip hop sounds terrible in Dr Dre's product.

"I don't think bass is that important."

Although the vocalist admits he is not technically minded - "Any of my roadies will tell you that!" - his credibility as a pioneering rocker will likely strike a lucrative chord with fans.

"It's being able to sort of key in to key demographics, or key segments of the market, that the celebrity has an affinity towards," Forrester's Mr Costa says.

Snooki

But other celebrities may not carry the same weight when it comes to technological credibility.

"Well, I've always been into technology," muses Nicole Polizzi, better known to reality TV fans as Snooki from Jersey Shore.

Continue reading the main story

People know if it's an A-list or D-list celebrity - that makes a big difference"

End Quote Tony Costa Forrester Research

"It's a big thing for me because I do travel a lot, always listening to music. I feel like there's no really cute headbands out there."

Her range of products, manufactured by US firm iHip, includes earbud headphones that also double as "cute" earrings - perfect, Snooki tells the BBC, for when you're in the gym.

"I'm trying to come out with a lot just to make it more fashionable out there in the tech world," she adds.

Snooki does not hide the fact that her input in the technical side is minimal, but when your target market is people who value beauty over bass, that's not an issue.

"When Snooki puts her name to something, that's very different to someone like Simon Cowell putting their name to something," says Forrester's Mr Costa.

"People know if it's an A-list or D-list celebrity - that makes a big difference."

As does the price - Snooki's products will retail for around $60.

'Quick win'

One celebrity who stands out in the tech crowd more than any other is will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas.

Unlike the other celebrities at the event, who arrived flanked by big bruising bodyguards and an army of assistants, will.i.am toured the CES show floor, checking out all of the innovation for himself.

Unsurprisingly, he believes celebrity endorsement of technology is a positive - but only if it's for the right reason: innovation.

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Why is Jersey Shore's Snooki at CES?

"It's short-sighted versus long-term commitment in belief and innovation," he tells the BBC.

"Some people are in it to get a quick win, versus believing in something that can help out other generations."

He says that while it may seem like the in thing for A, B, C and even D-listers to put their names to technology products, he doesn't see technology as a "sexy" industry. At least, not yet.

"No! It's sexy when my niece says I want to be a computer scientist - that's when it's sexy."

Lemmy, meanwhile, is less pensive on the future of tech endorsements and their potential impact on future generations.

"Oh, I dunno," he says. "I don't care."

Off the rails

Like any celebrity endorsement, having branded headphones or other equipment does carry considerable risks.

After it emerged that golfer Tiger Woods had had several affairs, his deal with Nike collapsed - having a massive impact on sales. The same could certainly happen to technology firms, Mr Costa warns.

"You can't manage it the same way you manage your own brand," he says. "You don't control them, you don't own them. They're not always going to be on message necessarily.

"Tiger Woods for the longest time was the gold standard, Lance Armstrong is another example. Even those guys screw up."

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GPS backup to guide ships to port

10 January 2013 Last updated at 05:02 ET By Tom Espiner Technology reporter

Ships traversing the busy Dover Strait now have more help to work out where they are and avoid other vessels.

A technology called eLoran has been turned on to help navigation if Sat-nav based systems (aka GPS) fail or are jammed.

The General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) has turned on a radio station which broadcasts fine-tuned eLoran signals.

Ships fitted with eLoran receivers will now be able to use the backup radio signal to reach port.

Longwave alternative

The eLoran technology is based around longwave radio signals that are broadcast from nine separate stations in Northwest England, France, Germany, and the Faroe Islands.

Now added to this is a GLA station in Dover that broadcasts corrections to eLoran that makes signals so precise ships can enter harbours using them in the event of GPS failure.

In a statement shipping minister Stephen Hammond said the technology should improve navigational safety in "the busiest shipping channel in the world".

Maritime navigational instruments tend to rely on GPS positioning which employs timing signals broadcast by a constellation of satellites. However, GPS signals can fail or be fooled by a conflicting radio signal, said Professor David Last, an advisor to the to General Lighthouse Authority.

"The problem is, many vessels are wholly dependent on GPS, " Prof Last told the BBC. "GPS can and does go wrong."

GPS signals are weak, and so can be disrupted by solar storms, or by a stronger signal broadcast in the vicinity by a GPS jammer. Compact GPS jammers that run from a car are available to buy, although use is prohibited.

GPS is used to determine a ship's position and direction, and for communications. All ship's instrumentation is integrated, so if anything goes wrong, the systems can completely fail.

GPS can be disrupted by a weak signal broadcast on the same frequency, said Prof Last. The weak signal can cause a ship's instruments to gradually drift out of true, without setting off any alarms, leaving the ship in a different position to where it "thinks" it is.

"The ship will drift away from its true position, and slowly start to turn," said Prof Last. "It's insidious."

eLoran is not widely used on commercial shipping, although an eLoran receiver has been installed on a new P&O Ferries ship, called the "Spirit of Britain".

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Mozilla smartphones to launch Europe

10 January 2013 Last updated at 06:52 ET

Smartphones developed by the creators of the Firefox web browser are expected to be launched in Europe in 2013.

Chinese phone-equipment maker ZTE said it was working with a European wireless carrier to sell Mozilla's Firefox OS-powered phones.

ZTE chief executive Cheng Lixin also said the phones could be marketed in the US this year.

When finished, the phones will compete with Google's Android, but only at the lower end of the smartphone market.

Mr Cheng did not specify which European carrier would be selling the phones.

Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla, said the company was also working with equipment makers Qualcomm, TCL Communication Technology Holdings on the devices.

"Interest and momentum continues to grow in Firefox OS," he told Bloomberg.

Regarding the US market, Mr Cheng said: "We closely monitor the ecosystem and how it evolves. If that is ready and if consumer studies support that data, then we may launch one in the US also this year."

Android controls three-quarters of the share in shipments in the smartphone market, but according to analysts, Firefox OS is already forecast to capture 1% of the share of global smartphone shipments in 2013.

Strategy Analytics recently wrote in a research note: "Overcoming Android will not be an easy task.

"To expand beyond niche status, Firefox OS will need to address at least three main challenges; they have low brand awareness among smartphone consumers worldwide, a limited retail presence in the influential United States market, and a relatively modest ecosystem of supporting apps and services."

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