Windows 8 update timing revealed

8 May 2013 Last updated at 09:05 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Microsoft has announced it will offer a preview version of its first major update to Windows 8 next month.

The news comes amid growing criticism of the software's user interface.

Microsoft said the revision to the operating system (OS), codenamed Windows Blue, would be released at Build, a three-day developers event in San Francisco starting on 26 June.

However, while the company said it had listened to "feedback", it has still not disclosed what changes are planned.

Microsoft added that a final version of Windows Blue would be released before the end of the year, and highlighted that it had already sold more than 100 million licences for the system.

FT accusation

The Verge, ZDNet and other tech blogs have reported that the update could mean Microsoft reversing its decision to remove the start button from the system's desktop environment.

They also suggested it would give users the option of booting their PCs directly into Windows 8's desktop mode rather than having to visit the tile-based Start menu screen first.

On Tuesday the Financial Times ran a front-page story suggesting that a U-turn over key elements of Windows 8 would mark "one of the most prominent admissions of failure for a new mass-market consumer product since Coca-Cola's New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago".

This was a reference to the beverage makers' decision to launch and then abandon a new version of its fizzy drink.

The FT's article followed a news briefing given by Microsoft to mark the first six months of Windows 8.

The tech company has issued a statement taking issue with the report.

"It is unfortunate that the Financial Times did not accurately represent the content or the context of our conversation about the good response to date on Windows 8 and the positive opportunities ahead on both Windows 8 and Windows Blue," it said.

"Our perspective is accurately reflected in many other interviews on this topic as well as in a Q&A with [chief financial officer] Tami Reller posted on the Windows blog."

The FT told the BBC it stood by its story.

Confused

More than 1.5 billion devices used Windows 7 and earlier versions of the system at the time of Windows 8's launch, making the OS both the most popular of its kind and one of the company's key sources of revenue.

However, Microsoft was aware that sales of tablets and other touch-controlled devices had been growing at a much faster rate than PCs.

This helped prompt it to introduce a new start screen, initially dubbed "Metro", containing resizable tiles that could be tapped and swiped to launch and navigate apps.

Users can still switch to a more traditional desktop mode by clicking on an icon, but the environment lacks the start menu button offered since Windows 95.

This caused some people to become confused about how to shut down their PC and carry out other tasks. Several third-party developers subsequently released their own software allowing users to restore the facility.

"Many people have recoiled in horror at Windows 8 because it is such a stark change over what they had become used to over the past 15 or so years," Chris Green, principal technology analyst at consultants Davies Murphy Group Europe, told the BBC.

"Unless you are using it on a brand-new computer or laptop with a touchscreen display it's not as intuitive to use as Microsoft makes out - and these are still premium-priced products."

Since businesses traditionally wait until at least a major service pack has come out before updating their computers to a new OS, the major impact of the changes has mostly been limited to consumers.

But Mr Green added that it would be a worry for Microsoft if companies now opted to skip Windows 8 in the same way many had previously decided not to install Windows Vista.

"Microsoft wouldn't necessarily miss out on revenue from their largest blue-chip customers because they pay an annual subscription fee for access to its tech whether they use it or not," he said.

"But it's the mid-sized companies - who buy computers and software as they need it - which is where the big money and margins are."

Touchscreen focus

Microsoft has acknowledged that "there is a learning curve [to Windows 8] and we can work to address that," but it also points out it has sold a similar number of licences for the OS as were achieved over the first six months of Windows 7's life.

"It's too early to say that it's flopped," said Benedict Evans, a digital media specialist at research firm Enders Analysis.

"However, there's clearly a lot of pushback from consumers and corporates about the radical change the firm wants to make in the user interface.

"The broader issue is that Microsoft is building an operating system designed with a touchscreen in mind. That's essential for its future because computing is shifting to tablets and mobile, where Microsoft has been irrelevant."

"What in effect they've done is compromise the desktop experience to create a great tablet and mobile experience. The problem is that it's the desktop buyers that pay for everything right now."

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Spotify rushes to fix download flaw

8 May 2013 Last updated at 13:17 ET

Music streaming site Spotify has rushed to fix a security hole that allowed users free song downloads.

Downloadify, an extension to Google's Chrome browser, enabled users to download MP3 files by exploiting a vulnerability in Spotify's web player.

Google removed the extension, but Downloadify was still available via other websites.

Spotify has confirmed to the BBC that the issue has now been fixed.

Downloadify was created by Dutch developer Robin Aldenhoven. On Twitter, he noted that music stored online by Spotify was not encrypted.

"I could not believe it myself that they did so little to protect their library," he wrote, later adding: "Spotify = awesome... so I don't want to damage them."

Infringement

Other web streaming services are susceptible to similar exploits. Various services allow for the downloading, knowing as "ripping", of content from sites such as YouTube.

Such actions are illegal and against the sites' terms of service.

Sheena Sheikh, a solicitor from intellectual property specialists Briffa, told the BBC that the law is straightforward on such downloading activity.

"You are committing an infringement," she said.

"You're not authorised to download the songs. You don't have permission."

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service. Recent figures from the company said the service has 24 million active users, of whom six million pay a monthly fee for added features.

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BitTorrent reveals Bundle media file

8 May 2013 Last updated at 14:11 ET

The developers of the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol have unveiled what they describe as a new "multimedia format" called a Bundle.

The file groups together a range of content, some of which can only be accessed once the user enters a key.

It is designed to help artists sell or otherwise distribute material to fans in addition to the initial music file or film clip downloaded.

One analyst said it represented BitTorrent's effort to reinvent itself.

The San Francisco company's peer-to-peer data transfer technology has been blamed for helping online piracy to flourish, thanks to its use by several copyright-infringing media sites.

However, Mark Mulligan, editor of the Music Industry Blog, said Bundle was a "strong step" towards the company repositioning itself as a genuine partner to owners of content.

Teaming up with music label

BitTorrent said it believed the format had the potential to "revolutionise" the media industry.

"Since Edison invented the record player the idea has been you sell the record inside a store," Matt Mason, vice-president of marketing, told the BBC.

"What's different about this is that the 'record' is the store, or the 'movie' has the box office baked into it.

"The idea is that if you put the store or place to interact with the content creator inside the Bundle itself, then every creator stands to earn either money or a connection to a new fan every time that piece of content is shared."

To promote the format, the company has teamed up with music label Ultra to release material from Kaskade, an American DJ.

When the file is downloaded, users are taken to a webpage offering them instant access to a song and video trailer. However, they need to enter their email address to unlock other content, including a tour booklet and short film.

Cutting out the middlemen

This email address can later by used by the artist to promote their concerts or other merchandise.

In the future, BitTorrent said users could also be required to pay a fee before added content was released.

"If you publish a Bundle as an artist you can get the email addresses from fans. You can get the money," said Mr Mason.

"Content creators and their fans can connect directly, and that's useful for anyone from a small band to Disney, who now won't need to use Facebook, Spotify or Netflix as a middleman."

Mr Mulligan said he agreed this was a direction that the media industry needed to go in, but questioned whether Bundle itself would succeed.

"It is simply not good enough to just give a digital file of analog media and call it a digital product. That misses the potential of what technology can enable," he said.

"That doesn't mean this exact iteration that they've created is going to make millions. It's part of an innovation experiment process."

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Sony sees first profit in five years

9 May 2013 Last updated at 05:15 ET

Sony has reported an annual profit for the first time in five years, boosted by asset sales and a weakening yen.

Net profit was 43bn yen ($436m; £280m) in the year to 31 March, compared with a 457bn loss a year earlier.

Sony said the yen's recent fall, which makes its goods cheaper for foreign buyers, boosted sales. A weak yen also lifts profits when firms repatriate their foreign earnings back home.

But some analysts said gains from asset sales had skewed the latest numbers.

The firm said it expected its profits to rise to 50bn yen in the current financial year, with the yen forecast to remain weak.

The Japanese currency has fallen more than 20% against the US dollar since November last year, after policymakers unveiled a series of aggressive measures aimed at spurring growth in the economy.

Restructuring process

Sony, which was once a market leader in various product categories, has seen its fortunes plummet over the past few years.

Increased competition, falling prices and narrowing profit margins have hurt its business, especially in the TV segment which has been making a loss for the past eight years.

As a result, Sony has been trying to restructure its business model and reduce its costs.

As part of the restructuring process, the firm has sold key assets over the past few months, including its US headquarters in New York and some of its shares in M3, a medical research and marketing firm.

The firm has also offloaded its "Sony City Osaki" building in Tokyo.

Sony said the sale of all these assets had resulted in gains of nearly $2.5bn during the last financial year - and the figure contributed to the rise in its earnings during the period.

Analysts said that given the impact these sales have had on its profit - the numbers were not a true reflection of the firm's success.

Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology Japan said that these gains "really need to be subtracted from the results, to understand the regular operating results".

Mr Fasol pointed out that the firm's results indicated that its electronics division continued to struggle and that the unit had not been turned around yet.

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Bowie video pulled in YouTube error

9 May 2013 Last updated at 05:30 ET

David Bowie's latest video, which stars Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, was temporarily pulled from YouTube over its graphic content.

The Next Day features heavy religious imagery, including Cotillard bleeding from stigmata marks.

YouTube admitted making the "wrong call" in removing the video, and reinstated it with an adult content warning.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has called the video "juvenile"

Lord Carey told The Telegraph: "If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery perhaps Christians should not worry too much at such an exploitation of religious imagery.

"I doubt that Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery - I very much doubt it.

"Frankly, I don't get offended by such juvenilia - Christians should have the courage to rise above offensive language, although I hope Bowie will recognise that he may be upsetting some people."

The Next Day is taken from Bowie's comeback album of the same name.

The video sees Bowie performing in a basement bar, surrounded by religious figures, while Oldman, dressed as a priest, punches a beggar before dancing with a prostitute, played by Oscar-winner Cotillard.

A spokesman for YouTube said: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it."

Bowie's last video, for The Stars (Are Out Tonight), featured another Oscar-winner, Tilda Swinton.

Oldman previously worked with Bowie in the 1990s, when they performed a duet on guitarist Reeves Gabrels' 1995 album The Sacred Squall of Now.

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Huawei boss in first media interview

9 May 2013 Last updated at 06:35 ET

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of China's Huawei - the world's second-largest telecom equipment maker - has spoken to the media for the first time.

The interview comes as Huawei has been under scrutiny in countries such as the US over alleged contacts with the Chinese military and the government.

Mr Ren sought to allay those fears, saying jealousy over its success may be a factor behind such allegations.

The 68 year-old spoke to a group of New Zealand-based journalists.

He has avoided the media since he founded the company 26 years ago, but during a visit to see operations in Wellington, agreed to meet four local journalists.

No international media were allowed, nor any photographers.

"Huawei has no connection to the cyber-security issues the US has encountered in the past, current and future," he told the reporters.

"Huawei equipment is almost non-existent in networks currently running in the US. We have never sold any key equipment to major US carriers, nor have we sold any equipment to any US government agency," Mr Ren said.

Rapid growth

Huawei has enjoyed tremendous success over the past few years, becoming a key global player in the telecom sector.

It not only makes telecoms equipment, but has also ventured into manufacturing smartphones, a sector where it has gained a significant market share.

However, fears about its ties with the Chinese military have frequently surfaced, not least because of Mr Ren's past.

He joined the Communist Party in 1978 and is a former member of the People's Liberation Army.

There have been concerns and allegations that Huawei was helping China gather information on foreign states and companies, charges that the firm has denied.

According to a Fairfax Media, one of the outlets to interview Mr Ren, he told reporters that he was confident that no staff member of Huawei would engage in spying even if asked to do so by Chinese agencies.

He also added that when he joined the Communist Party in 1978, it was expected all "exceptional" people in China would do so.

"At that time my personal belief was to work hard, dedicate myself or even sacrifice myself for the benefit of the people," he was quoted as saying.

"Joining the Communist Party was in line with that aspiration."

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3-D print gun hits 100,000 downloads

9 May 2013 Last updated at 07:05 ET

The blueprint used to produce a 3D-printed plastic gun has been downloaded about 100,000 times since going online earlier this week, according to Forbes.

Defense Distributed told the news site it was surprised by the amount of interest its Liberator gun had generated.

Earlier in the week, the company demonstrated the firearm being fired

But even before any more guns come off the DIY printing presses, there are moves afoot to ban it.

Metal detectors

Californian senator Leland Yee said he wanted a law passed to stop the manufacture of 3D-printed guns.

"I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check," he said in a statement.

According to Defense Distributed, most of the 100,000 downloads have been in the US, followed by Spain, Brazil, Germany and the UK.

The blueprint has also been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, where it has become the most popular file in the site's 3D-printing category.

Firing pin

It took Defense Distributed eight months to produce the firearm, which was assembled from separate components produced on an $8,000 (£5,000) 3D printer bought from auction site eBay.

While downloading the blueprints may not be illegal, owning a firearm is, according to the UK's Metropolitan Police.

"To actually manufacture any type of firearm in the UK, you have to be a registered firearms dealer (RFD)," it said in a statement.

"Therefore, unless you are an RFD, it would most definitely be an offence to make a gun using the blueprints. It may be legal for an RFD to manufacture a gun this way, as long as they had the necessary authorities."

One of the biggest headaches for law enforcers is the fact the gun is made from plastic - with only the firing pin made from metal.

New York congressmen Steve Israel and Chuck Schumer have sponsored legislation aimed at adding a 3D-printing provision to the US Undetectable Firearms Act, which requires all guns to be detectable.

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Tech girl blocks tweet plot spoilers

9 May 2013 Last updated at 08:00 ET

For people watching on-demand content, negotiating social media before they have watched their favourite show can be fraught.

It inspired American teenager Jennie Lamere to create software designed to stop people finding out the plot lines of TV shows and movies on Twitter.

The 17-year-old's code blocks tweets mentioning pre-set keywords.

Ms Lamere recently won "best in show" at a hackathon in Boston for her design.

She beat professional developers at the TVnext Hack event and now plans to develop her plug-in Twivo commercially.

Favourites spoilt

Ms Lamere came up with the idea the night before the competition and it took her 10 hours and 150 lines of code to complete.

She said that she had grown tired of having her own favourite shows, Dance Moms and Pretty Little Liars, spoilt by mentions on Twitter.

Twivo works as an extension of the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers and users can specify the keywords they want to block and for how long.

For now Ms Lamere is concentrating on perfecting the Twitter version but said similar software for Facebook was possible.

Since her victory, Ms Lamere has become something of a poster girl for those determined to get more women interested in coding.

Although other women attended the event, all the other 80 competitors were male. Ms Lamere was also the only individual to enter the competition: everyone else worked in a team.

Hackathons are events where programmers, developers and designers compete to design code for innovative new programs in a set time.

Google ambitions

Ms Lamere's success has inspired groups such as the US-based Girls Who Code, which aims to redress the gender imbalance in technology.

According to the organisation, only 12% of computer science graduates are women.

Ms Lamere is due to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York state, in the autumn. She will study software engineering and hopes one day to work for Google.

In his blog, her father Paul Lamere, also a developer, detailed how the win had changed her life, with multiple press interviews, offers of internships and marketing deals.

For now though, her ambitions are more limited.

"Her next life goal is to get more Twitter followers than her friend Andrew," he said.

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Gamers leaving World of Warcraft

9 May 2013 Last updated at 08:58 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Subscribers to the online adventure game World of Warcraft have dropped dramatically this year, publisher Activision Blizzard has said.

The company said 14% of users left the game between January and March - a fall of 1.3 million.

The majority of lost users were in the East, despite the company making efforts to appeal to those markets, with recent upgrades.

Activision told investors to expect subscriber figures to dip further.

Shares in the publisher fell by about 5% on Wednesday, following the news.

The California-based company blamed the rise of free-to-play games.

Uncertainty around new consoles due from Microsoft and Sony - and the "very slow start" of Nintendo's newest offering, the Wii U - had contributed to what will be a challenging 2013 for the company as a whole, chief executive Bobby Kotick said.

Martial arts pandas

He told investors on Wednesday: "It's important to note that the nature of online games has changed, and with the environment becoming far more competitive.

"To address this, we're working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game."

Continue reading the main story

Activision Blizzard has also hit money worries of a different kind this week.

An update to Diablo III on Monday contained several key updates - but one embarrassing bug.

Gamers quickly discovered that by cancelling "gold" auctions in the game, they could freely duplicate the in-game currency - with one user building up a reported 371 trillion gold using this method.

Developer Blizzard has closed the auction service on the game while it investigates.

The company said: "Our team is working hard to fix any outstanding issues and take appropriate actions with the accounts involved."

Despite the user dip, the company said World of Warcraft still had 8.3 million players - making it the most popular subscriber-based online game in the world.

"Warcraft's exposure to ongoing developments in online gaming keeps growing," said Steve Bailey, a senior analyst at IHS Screen Digest.

"It is coming under pressure on several fronts - subscription-based online gaming is losing ground to micro-transactions and hybrid-monetisation models."

World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers were as high as 12 million in 2010.

In October 2012, 10 million gamers were signed up - a figure boosted by the release of Mists of Pandaria, an expansion pack that sold 2.7 million copies in its first week.

That title, which featured a new "continent" on the game inhabited by martial-arts-skilled pandas, was targeted at the Asian market.

The push reaped initial rewards - user numbers swelled to more than one million in China - but the figures made public on Wednesday suggested the spike was short-lived.

"This is no surprise," Mr Bailey added.

"China is a very advanced and fiercely competitive market for online gaming, that, as well as offering greater direct competition to World of Warcraft, is also experiencing its own shifts in terms of business models and devices."

Disney onslaught

Beyond World of Warcraft, Activision anticipated further difficulties in 2013.

Skylanders, the company's series that allows players to use real-life toy figures to interact with the game using near-field communications technology, has been very well received by critics and gamers alike.

But it will face stern new competition from a major player - Disney.

The media corporation plans a similar title with add-on accessories, Disney Infinity, to be released in the summer.

Enhanced interactive features and the benefit of a wealth of highly recognisable and well-loved characters could give Disney an edge, some games enthusiasts predict.

But Activision is determined to remain competitive and already has an eye on the Christmas market.

"The secret to Skylanders' success from the very beginning has been to continually surprise and delight our fans with meaningful innovation and superior gameplay," said Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision's publishing division.

"This [autumn], we are pushing the genre forward once again with Skylanders Swap Force. Swap Force introduces an all new play pattern - dynamic swapability."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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2014: Mobiles 'to outnumber people'

9 May 2013 Last updated at 10:59 ET

There will be more mobile subscriptions than people in the world by the end of next year, according to a UN agency report.

The International Telecoms Union predicts that subscriptions will pass seven billion early in 2014.

There are currently 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions and 7.1 billion people.

The ITU World in 2013 report also found that more than a third of the global population are online.

The Commonwealth of Independent States, the alliance of countries formerly in the Soviet Union, has the highest mobile penetration with 1.7 subscriptions for every person.

Africa has the least, with 63 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

"Every day we are moving closer to having almost as many mobile cellular subscriptions as people on earth," said Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau.

"The mobile revolution is 'm-powering' people in developing countries by delivering ICT applications in education, health, government, banking, environment and business."

'Two-thirds locked out'

But in some countries, such as India, mobile growth is slowing.

The report also found that 2.7 billion people, almost 40% of the world's population, are online.

Europe has the highest penetration (75%), followed by the Americas (61%). Asia has 32% of its population online, Africa 16%.

ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Toure said the progress was "extraordinary" but that more needed to be done.

"Two-thirds of the world's population, some 4.5 billion people, is still offline," he said.

"This means that two-thirds of the world's people are still locked out of the world's biggest market."

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