Apple unveils new iPhone features

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Apple has unveiled what it calls a "major update" to the operating system that drives the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Some of the 100 new features included in the update replicate those already offered by other smart phones.

The new functions include cut, copy and paste, long demanded by iPhone users, picture messaging and an in-phone search feature, but not Flash video.

"The upgrade is a big big deal and will help persuade consumers to stay with Apple," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.

"While things like copy and paste and multi-media messaging (MMS) are things they have needed to do for a while, other features will in essence stop consumers buying other smartphones and raise the amount of money people spend on the iPhone, " he said.

Analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray agreed that the upgrade was a major step forward.

"We believe Apple addressed key issues that were leading some consumers to competing devices for multimedia messaging and enterprise email."

Some of the other main features Apple highlighted for consumers include a voice memo and stereo Bluetooth.

A new search tool called Spotlight to allow users to search files and applications on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

"Profound and amazing"

Alongside the consumer upgrades Apple also unveiled its SDK (software developer kit) aimed at helping engineers write applications for the devices.

Apple admitted that the success of its App Store, where users can download from a choice of 25,000 paid-for and free applications, had exceeded their expectations.

More than 800 million downloads have been made so far, and the company said that with the help of developers they "had created something profound and amazing."

"Our goal was to make developers successful," said Scott Forstall, head of Apple's iPhone software development.

Developers will now be able to use the iPhone's mapping capability in their own applications, as well as take advantage of "push" technology to alert users of messaging or alert software.

Users can also now take advantage of enhanced peer-to-peer capabilities for games and other programmes that communicate wirelessly.

The new software will also allow developers to sell subscription-based software products, opening up the prospect of users being asked to pay for different levels of a game, to purchase additional content or to buy virtual items.

Previously, all purchases on the iPhone or iPod Touch were ring-fenced within either the App Store or Apple's mobile version of iTunes.

Industry analysts said the new move would be an important revenue-generator for Apple and developers.

"This in-app payment capability is big news and provides a way for people to pay for content again," said Mike McGuire of Gartner.

"It will be interesting to see how the print media reacts offering subscription services for magazines, newspapers and e-books.

"Game developers will cash in and I am very excited to see how music services leverage this new function," he said.

Hardware

The operating system upgrade, the third for the iPhone, will be available from the summer and free to all iPhone users.

Users who want to download the 3.0 software onto their iPod touch will have to pay a fee of $9.95 (£6.80).

Industry watchers are speculating that a new iPhone will also be released around the same time as the software upgrade.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see some new hardware come the summer," said Van Baker, of Gartner. He noted that Apple is facing increasing competition from other smartphones.

Gartner recently put Apple's share of the worldwide market at 10.7%, compared to Nokia at over 40% and Research in Motion, which makes the Blackberry, at under 20%

"Apple can't continue to go with a point product and expect to get the kind of revenue it needs without some new offering. A good time to do that would be when they release 3.0," said Mr Baker.

At a separate question and answer session with journalists after the upgrade was unveiled, Apple's Phil Shiller said there was "nothing to announce on that today".

Dell's ultra-thin laptop on sale

Computer manufacturer Dell has launched what it is calling the world's thinnest laptop.

The Adamo weighs 1.8kg and is 1.64cm thick, making it thinner, but heavier, than Apple's MacBook Air.

A spokesman for Dell told the BBC that the Adamo was a "fashion statement" and that it was the first in a range of luxury laptops from the firm.

The Adamo goes on sale at the end of the month, with a basic 1.2GHz Intel Core2D processor retailing at £1649.

"This wasn't a play against one particular brand," said Dell's marketing director, David Clifton. "This was about making a stylish product that's high in design and craftsmanship."

Economic gloom

Some might question the wisdom of launching a luxury laptop during one of the worst recessions on record, but Mr Clifton told the BBC that there was no downside to launching the Adamo at this time.

"The primary purpose of this launch is to broaden people's perception of Dell.

"There's still a luxury market out there and not many products in that market.

"We're really proud of our product," he added.

The editor of PC Pro magazine, Tim Danton, said the launch of Adamo was more about brand and perception than sales. He told the BBC that making "the world's thinnest laptop" would enable Dell to build a strong marketing campaign, just like Apple did.

"This is a 'hero product' that sits at the top of their range and, they hope, will start changing perceptions about Dell from being a businesslike brand into something more desirable.

Dell said it had put as much effort into crafting the look of the Adamo as it has refining the hardware inside.

The 34cm (13.4in) screen is powered by Intel's X4500 graphics chip, while the system is driven by an 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, with DDR3 system memory. The firm say the Adamo can run for up to five hours on a single battery charge.

"This is a fantastically specced-out system," said Mr Clifton.

Tim Danton said that the release would not just benefit Dell but the PC industry as a whole.

"It is vital the PC market is seen to produce attractive items.

"Times have changed and people make judgement calls not just on spec, but what something looks like and how that product reflects on them."

Win for UK story-telling website

By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News, Texas

A small British company has been named Best in Show at the South by Southwest Web Awards, in Austin, Texas.

Six to Start won the top prize for We Tell Stories, an interactive approach to retelling literary classics and redefining modern online story-telling.

The website held off competition from the likes of Hulu - the popular on-demand online TV site - Flickr and geo-location company BrightKite.

Dan Hon, co-founder of Six to Start, said: "It's been unbelievable."

He told BBC news: "We were quite pleased and happy [just] to win the experimental category."

Founded by Mr Hon and his brother Adrian in September 2007, the site was inspired by the "emerging field of alternate reality games (ARG) or cross-platform entertainment; this intersection where you have creativity and technology".

ARGs allowed stories to develop dynamically at almost any point, said Mr Hon.

"The technology is there to let people dip in and out of stories when they want. And when they run live, they are a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with people."

After working on the ARG Perplex City for Mind Candy, the two brothers set up in business for themselves.

"Our heart lay in creating fantastic experiences that really pushed technology.

"We are seeing a generation of people who have grown up with video games and at same time we are seeing incredible acceleration in technology where the internet is everywhere now," said Mr Hon.

He said the company's ambition was to "to take devices like mobile phones and transport people into a fantastical, magical world that is playful, has great game design and story-telling".

He added: "The one thing which really drives us is trying to make then as accessible as possible."

For Six To Start that means games that do away with controllers or keyboards, and instead allow gamers to interact with characters by just picking up the phone.

"If you could just step into he the world of Harry Potter or Star Wars whenever you wanted, it is a great way to entertain people."

We Tell Stories came about after Penguin's digital publisher heard Mr Hon speak at a conference.

Keen to experiment, Penguin commissioned a series of classic novels to be remixed and retold in the digital age, and with new works redefined for the web generation.

"The big thing for us was telling stories that cannot be done on any other platform," he said.

But this did not mean creating stories for the Kindle crowd.

"E-books are boring - they are just taking a manuscript and turning it into a PDF. It is taking no advantage of the possibilities afforded by the internet and other platforms.

"That's what led to wanting to tell stories on tools like Google Maps."

We Tell Stories worked with six authors on new forms of story-telling.

"They were fantastic and didn't run away from this. They want to do it again. We need that creative talent, great story telling and want them to be excited about the potential of this new medium."

Some of the stories use tools like Twitter and weblogs, telling a more conventional multi-platform tale from different viewpoints.

The husband and wife writers Nicci French wrote live for an hour each day for five days, with readers able to see the story unfold one sentence at a time.

Mr Hon said: "It was terrifying for them. Writing can be a solitary experience and suddenly they were being turned into performance artists."

Deals drive mobile money services

A series of deals looks set to turn handsets into mobile wallets in many developing nations.

South African mobile operator MTN is launching a banking service for its customers in 21 nations that will let them transfer cash.

It comes after four other initiatives were announced to help handsets carry out many basic financial transactions.

One initiative is backed by Bill Gates and puts $12.5m (£8.6m) into a plan to create a mobile banking service.

Cash back

"It goes back to a simple gap - the difference between mobie penetration and banking penetration," said Dare Okoudjou, head of MTN's mobile money development.

"What the gap says is that a lot of people do not have formal access to financial services, whereas they do have a mobile telephone or are living with someone who does have access to a mobile handset," he said.

In some nations such as Benin, said Mr Okoudjou, about 18% of people had a mobile but only 1% had a bank account.

MTN has signed up with South African mobile payments firm Fundamo to set up the mobile banking service. Mr Okoudjou said it would allow people to move real money between the mobile accounts associated with handsets.

By contrast, he said, many other mobile initiatives only allow customers to move airtime as a form of pseudo-currency.

Those signing up to the MTN banking service will have an account created for them through which they can send and receive money to other account holders. The basic set-up was free, said Mr Okoudjou, but MTN would levy a small charge on transactions.

Prior to MTN's announcement, many others have revealed plans to turn handsets into mobile wallets.

In early March 2009, Mi-Pay and Isys unveiled a scheme in Sudan that would act as a test-bed for a person-to-person banking scheme that they eventually hope to take to 22 nations in Africa and the Middle East.

In February 2009, Monitise struck a deal with E-Fulusi Africa to set up mobile banking systems in East Africa.

Earlier that month, Standard Chartered and Citibank revealed a mobile banking service called Zap that they hope to take to more than 100m Africans.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have also announced that it was putting $12.5m (£8.6m) into a mobile phone industry-backed program to help poorer people get at banking services.

All the initiatives build on the huge success of mobile banking in African nations, such as the M-Pesa system Kenya which has put operators in competition with the nation's banks.

File sharing agency up for debate

The government has outlined the details of its proposed digital rights agency.

The agency -a key element of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report - would encourage people to use legal sources of copyrighted material.

The proposals, which Lord Carter called a "straw man" have been published to trigger a debate on the subject, rather than an outline of future policy.

"This straw man could be torched, tolerated or a touchstone for the start point of constructive debate," he said.

"I for one hope it is the latter," he added.

The report highlights attitude changes in the digital age, saying consumers are no longer prepared to be told when and where they can access content.

"[people]do not see why a TV show that is airing in the US should not be available in the UK," the report says.

"They are not willing to wait to see a film at home until several months after it has passed through the cinemas. They don't accept the logic that says that if you have bought a CD you cannot then copy that music onto your iPod."

The report says this change in attitude has altered not only the way people access material, but "undermined" their willingness to pay.

It says a "substantial proportion" of the population believes it is acceptable to download pirated material, because the benefits of fast and free material overcome peoples' natural reluctance to break the law.

It is against this backdrop that a new digital rights agency could be set up. However, the report stressed that this would not be a government appointed regulator. Instead, it called on the industry to "come together to create a body" to deal with a number of issues, the most important, the report says, are ways of tackling peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

The report stressed that the role of the proposed digital rights agency would not be enforcement.

Instead it looks at how the agency might tackle the problem of illegal file sharing, backed up by some legislation.

This would involve an obligation on internet service providers to inform, what the report calls "casual infringers who use unlawful P2P networks" that they are breaking the law. This, the report says, would result in a "rapid and substantial drop in this behaviour".

For prolific offenders, the report examines other options - such as blocking protocol or limiting bandwidth - with the most serious offenders winding up in court.

The Intellectual Property Minister, David Lammy, said people should not have to understand copyright law to be able to access online media.

"We need to make it easier for consumers to do the right thing. The internet has become an integral part of daily life," he said.

"The real prize here is a rights agency that sorts out the complexities that keep consumers on the right side of the law, and ensure artists get properly paid.

"We can't have a system where even net-surfing 12 year olds have to understand copyright in order to keep themselves and their parents safe within the law," he added.

"You shouldn't need to be an underwriter to take out an insurance policy, and you shouldn't need legal training to surf the web."

BBC team exposes cyber crime risk

Software used to control thousands of home computers has been acquired online by the BBC as part of an investigation into global cyber crime.

The technology programme Click has demonstrated just how at risk PCs are of being taken over by hackers.

Almost 22,000 computers made up Click's network of hijacked machines, which has now been disabled.

The BBC has now warned users that their PCs are infected, and advised them on how to make their systems more secure.

Concerted attack

Click managed to acquire its own low-value botnet - the name given to a network of hijacked computers - after visiting chatrooms on the internet.

The programme did not access any personal information on the infected PCs.

If this exercise had been done with criminal intent it would be breaking the law.

But our purpose was to demonstrate botnets' collective power when in the hands of criminals.

Click ordered its PCs to send out spam to two specific test e-mail addresses set up by the programme.

Within hours, the inboxes started to fill up with thousands of junk messages.

But a botnet can also be used to launch a concerted attack on commercial websites to take them out of action.

Hefty ransom

By prior agreement, Click launched a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on a backup site owned by security company Prevx.

Click then ordered its slave PCs to bombard its target site with requests for access to make it inaccessible.

Amazingly, it took only 60 machines to overload the site's bandwidth.

DDoS attacks are used by extortionists who threaten to knock a site offline unless a hefty ransom is paid.

Jacques Erasmus from Prevx said that high-traffic websites with big revenues are a "massive target" for this kind of attack.

"Cyber criminals are getting into contact with websites and threatening them with DDoS attacks.

"The loss of trade is very substantial so a lot of these websites just pay-up to avoid it," he explained.

Evolving threat

Click has now destroyed its botnet, and no longer controls any hijacked machines.

However, the owners of unprotected PCs have been made aware that they are vulnerable to future attacks.

In addition, Click advised them on what steps to take to make their systems more secure. Most computers have protection systems that need to be switched on and kept updated to protect them against the evolving threat from hackers.

Machines can be compromised simply by visiting an infected web page or opening an e-mail containing a virus as an attachment.

'Very professional'

Hackers exploit unprotected computers for valuable data such as banking and credit card details.

Criminals use botnets to send out thousands of spam messages, store stolen data, and fraud.

For instance, "phishing" e-mails which attempt to trick people into revealing their bank details are often routed through a botnet.

Users are normally unaware that their PCs are being controlled remotely by cyber criminals because there are almost no symptoms.

Greg Day from security firm McAfee explained that the people who control botnets are "very skilled professionals."

"We've seen this move from what used to be a hobbyist bit of fun into something now that is very professional," he said.

Hackers are keen to recruit new PCs to a botnet to create a resource that they sell or hire out to other cyber criminals.

But some networks of hijacked computers are of "much more value" than others, according to Mr Erasmus.

"Computers from the US and the UK go for about $350 to $400 (£254-£290) for 1,000 because they've got much more financial details, like online banking passwords and credit cards details," he said.

Google serves up behavioural ads

Google has entered the sometimes controversial arena of behaviour-based advertising.

It has launched a system that will serve up ads to web users based on their previous online activities.

The search giant is offering users the chance to see and edit their profiles and it will also offer them the choice to opt out of the service.

But privacy campaigners are outraged by the move, with Privacy International calling for a parliamentary enquiry.

Keen travellers

The trial service launches on YouTube and Google from 11 March but advertisers will not be able to display advertisements until April.

Initially a handful of advertisers will be invited to take part.

The system uses a cookie - a small piece of text that lives inside a web browser - to track users as they visit different websites that show ads through its AdSense program.

Users will be assigned to categories based on the content of the pages they visit.

"If a user is a keen traveller and visits lots of travel sites, Google could show them more travel-related ads," the search giant said in a statement.

"We believe that ads are a valuable source of information that can connect people to products, services and ideas that interest them. By making ads more relevant and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value," it said.

But Simon Davies, head of Privacy International, has his doubts.

"Google might well hype their targeting system as a boon to pet owners, but the reality is that the service will track just about everything you do and everything you're interested in, no matter how personal or sensitive.

Google refuted this claim.

"Google will not associate sensitive interest categories with your cookie - such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or sensitive financial categories - and will not use these categories when showing you interest-based ads," said a Google spokesman.

Mr Davies thinks it needs to do more.

"Yet again Google has developed and launched a major initiative without any consultation with its users. And yet again Google will walk into a privacy minefield," he said.

He called for a parliamentary inquiry about the search giant's dominance in the market.

Stephen Carter, minister for communications and technology, faced questions about whether Google was becoming too powerful during a parliamentary select committee meeting this week.

In reply, he said: "We shouldn't criticise a company for being successful. It is a young business which has launched a series of applications that are highly attractive to user and both advertisers and users have flocked to its platform."

Opt out

Some privacy campaigners believe Google should have offered its advertising service on an opt-in rather than an opt-out basis.

"The cookie doesn't show up any personally identifiable information so that is why we think opt-out is the right way to go," said a Google spokesman.

Information on YouTube , such as the videos people have been watching, will "be factored into" the system, said the spokesman.

The plans have received a thumbs-up from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office.

"We recently met with Google to discuss their interest-based advertising product. Transparency and choice are important elements when addressing any consumer concerns about privacy and the monitoring of browser activity," it said in a statement.

"In light of this, we are pleased that the preference manager feature allows users a high level of control over how their information is used and that the method by which users can choose to opt out is saved permanently."

Jupiter analyst Rebecca Jennings thinks the move was inevitable following Google's acquisition of advertising technology company DoubleClick last year.

She thinks consumers could welcome the new system.

"Generally we find consumers are far less concerned about this than people think they should be. Often they want to see well targeted rather than random adverts," she said.

The online advertising industry is keen to push behavioural ads and, at the beginning of March, the UK-based Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) published a code of practice that Google signed up to.

For privacy campaigners the code did not go far enough because it did not recommend that users be allowed to opt in to such services rather than opt out.

According to Forrester Research, 26% of European online advertisers used behaviour-based advertising during 2008.

The IAB estimates that it could generate an income of £200m in the UK annually.

UK internet service provider BT is about to launch its own form of behaviour-based advertising, based on a system designed by US firm Phorm.

Battery that 'charges in seconds'

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds.

Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration.

The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material.

The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature.

Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops.

However, they take a long time to charge; researchers have assumed until now that there was a speed limit on the lithium ions and electrons that pass through the batteries to form an electrochemical circuit.

Tiny holes

Gerbrand Ceder, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and his colleagues used a computer simulation to model the movements of ions and electrons in a variant of the standard lithium material known as lithium iron phosphate.

The simulation indicated that ions were moving at great speed.

"If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem," Professor Ceder said.

That problem turned out to be the way ions passed through the material.

They pass through minuscule tunnels, whose entrances are present at the surface of the material.

However, the team discovered that to get into these channels, the ions had to be positioned directly in front of the tunnel entrances - if they were not, they could not get through.

The solution, Ceder discovered, was to engineer the material such that it has a so-called "beltway" that guides the ions towards the tunnel entrances.

Traffic management

A prototype battery made using the new technique could be charged in less than 20 seconds - in comparison to six minutes with an untreated sample of the material.

Most commercial batteries use a material made up of lithium and cobalt, but lithium iron phosphate does not suffer from overheating - something that has affected laptop and mp3 player batteries in a number of incidents.

Even though it is cheap, lithium iron phosphate has until now received little attention because lithium cobalt batteries can store slightly more charge for a given weight.

However, the researchers found that their new material does not lose its capacity to charge over time in the way that standard lithium ion batteries do.

That means that the excess material put into standard batteries to compensate for this loss over time is not necessary, leading to smaller, lighter batteries with phenomenal charging rates.

What is more, because there are relatively few changes to the standard manufacturing process, Professor Ceder believes the new battery material could make it to market within two to three years.

Firms in data row deny wrongdoing

Several firms accused of subscribing to a secret database of building workers' details have denied any wrongdoing.

The Information Commissioner says a firm called the Consulting Association flagged up workers who had raised safety concerns or who had union links.

Balfour Beatty and Amec said they did not condone "blacklisting". Emcor and Laing O'Rourke denied discriminating against workers on any grounds.

The Department for Business said it would consider outlawing blacklisting.

This would happen if evidence showed it was going on, a spokesman said.

Unions have called on the government to act swiftly to pass anti-blacklisting regulations which were prepared in the 1990s but never introduced.

'Household names'

An investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found that a Droitwich-based company called the Consulting Association had allegedly sold details about workers, including information concerning personal relationships, trade union activity and employment history.

The ICO now plans to prosecute the firm, run by Ian Kerr and now thought to have ceased trading, for a "serious breach" of the Data Protection Act.

It said about 40 construction companies who subscribed to the scheme would send lists of prospective employees to it and in return would be warned about potential troublemakers.

Some of the notes on individuals included descriptions such as "ex-shop steward, definite problems" and "Irish ex-Army, bad egg". Others related to workers who had raised concerns over health and safety issues, such as asbestos removal.

One of the firms listed in the ICO's report, Balfour Beatty, said it "does not condone the use of 'blacklists' in any circumstances".

"We have taken steps to ensure that none of our companies use the services of the Consulting Association," it added.

Another firm, Amec, echoed the denial. "Amec does not operate a policy of 'blacklisting' individuals and the senior management of the company would not condone such a policy," it said.

Morgan Ashurst said it inherited a subscription to the Consulting Association upon acquiring another company.

"An internal investigation into this subscription has shown that we did not supply to, or receive any data from Ian Kerr or the Consulting Association, nor did we use any information from this organisation since the acquisition," a spokesman said.

"Now that the subscription has been brought to our attention, and the person who subscribed to it left the company last year, we have cancelled it."

Laing O'Rourke also said it had "a legacy relationship" with the company born out of an acquisition, which had now "ceased".

A spokesman for another firm named by the ICO, Emcor Group UK, said it was "an equal opportunities employer" whose policy was "not to discriminate on any grounds".

The Consulting Association was unavailable for comment.

Annual fee

Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith said he was deeply disappointed that firms he described as "household names" had been involved in an allegedly illegal system for many years.

He said they would be issued with a legal order not to repeat the offence, and if they breached it they too would face prosecution.

Following the raid on 23 February, investigators discovered that the Consulting Association's database contained the details of some 3,213 workers, the ICO said.

Employers paid £3,000 as an annual fee, and £2.20 for individual details, the ICO said. Invoices to construction firms for up to £7,500 were also seized during the raid.

The TUC and the building workers' union Ucatt called on the government to introduce legislation to make blacklisting illegal.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of Ucatt, said: "It is the only way to protect the rights of trade union members."

A Department for Business spokesman said: "We have the power to make it illegal to use blacklists.

"We would review whether to use this power if there was compelling evidence that blacklists were being used."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Leading companies have to realise that information is power, and wrong information is the abuse of power.

"The Information Commissioner is absolutely right to throw the book at the miscreants in this case."

Al Gore says domain .eco logical

The former US vice president, Al Gore, is backing the creation of a new green .eco domain name.

Dot Eco applied to create the domain which would then be used to host sites supporting environmental causes.

"This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole," said Mr Gore.

Dot Eco plans to apply to ICANN - the regulatory body that oversees domain names - for the creation of .eco later in 2009.

Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his campaign on climate change and an Oscar for his film An Inconvenient Truth - a documentary about global warming - is the co-founder and chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Dot Eco said it had entered into an "integrated partnership" with Gore's group to secure the .eco domain.

"We fully support Dot Eco in its efforts to secure the .eco top level domain through the ICANN application and look forward to working with them to promote .eco," said Mr Gore.

The firm said proceeds from the registration would be used to fund research on climate change and other environmental issues.

Obama picks US information chief

US President Barack Obama has named Vivek Kundra as his chief information officer.

When Mr Kundra takes up his role, he will decide which technologies the Obama administration uses to govern and how they will be deployed.

He will build on the broad use of technologies, such as the web, used by President Obama's campaign team during the US elections.

Mr Kundra will be in charge of a budget thought to total $70bn (£49bn).

Currently Mr Kundra works as head of technology for Washington DC - a role in which he championed Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as better ways for administrators to communicate with citizens.

In a statement about Mr Kundra's appointment President Obama said: "I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations."

When he starts his job, Mr Kundra will work alongside whoever is picked to act as a President Obama's chief technology officer. A decision on who will take on that role is expected soon.

Speaking after his appointment, Mr Kundra said he wanted to ensure the US has "the ability to run an open, transparent, participatory and collaborative government."

Mr Kundra said he would explore how government could use so-called "cloud computing" which would involve much greater reliance on web-based resources.

He also planned to create a data.gov website through which US citizens would get much easier access to official statistics and other government information.

ToysRUs pays $5m for toys domain

Toy retailer ToysRUs has paid $5.1m (£3.6m) for the Toys.com domain name.

The amount has surprised onlookers and hints at a deeper commitment to online retailing for the toy giant.

It is believed to be the biggest payout for a domain this year but has some way to go to beat the $14m paid for sex.com in 2007 or the $9.5m paid for porn.com.

UK domain name seller Sedo said it had seen prices halved for .co.uk domain names since the economic downturn started to take hold.

Brand kudos

But, said Sedo's business development manager Nora Nanayakkara, more small- to medium-sized businesses are buying domains.

"Sales have tripled as businesses see the value in having a presence online," she said.

"In the case of ToysRUs it could be that they are thinking of rebranding or increasing its online presence," she said.

"Toys.com is going to put them in the top search ranking and is likely to give them kudos in terms of brand recognition," she added.

In the US, domain name prices have remained stable, according to Ron Jackson, editor of the Domain Name Journal.

He said that the average .com domain was selling for $2,688 (£1,904) in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to $2,788 (£1,976) for the same period in 2007.

Selling online

For many online, it is a way to buck the downturn, he thinks.

"The severe recession is forcing businesses to look for the most cost effective, efficient way they can possibly operate and for many that means establishing or reinforcing a web presence," he said.

"This is especially true of brick and mortar retailers. There is much less overhead involved in selling toys for example online than through hundreds of cash-draining big box retail stores."

The Toys.com auction, which took place last week, saw a series of bidders for the domain. But as the price hit $3m (£2.1m), only two were left - ToysRUs and National A-1 Advertising.

The domain had previously been up for auction and went to a company called Faculty Lounge for $1.25m (£886,000).

Tech support calls can be costly

A survey from Which? Computing has found that most internet service providers are using premium rate numbers for their technical support.

The consumer group compared the technical support costs of 45 firms.

While a handful used a freephone number, firms including Tesco broadband, Supanet and Roxio use premium rate 090 numbers.

Tesco has said that it is planning to change to a cheaper tariff "as soon as possible".

"The cost of calls to Tesco broadband technical support is something we've been looking at and listening to customer feedback on," said a spokeswoman for the retail giant.

"As a result we'll continue to provide a very high quality of technical expertise to all our broadband customers but calls will now be charged at a local rate.

"We'll be contacting all our customers as soon as possible to let them know about the change in price," she said.

Covering costs

Six firms including BT, O2 and UK Online, offer a freephone 0800 number.

But 32 of those surveyed used higher-cost numbers for their helplines.

"Some companies are using higher-cost numbers at their customers' expense," said Sarah Kidner, editor of Which? Computing.

" If other companies can offer a freephone number, why can't they all?," she said.

Those using premium rate numbers told Which that they did not profit from the calls, but used the revenue to "cover the costs of a technical support service".

The survey also found that nearly a third of broadband users were frustrated by customer support.

Time spent waiting to be connected does seem to have improved. Only 12% were dissatisfied and the survey found that the average waiting time was just 1 minute 33 seconds.

Plusnet customers have the longest average wait - at nearly eight minutes.

The Which? Computing survey looked at 45 technology companies, including ISPs, software and laptop manufacturers.

New guidelines on behavioural ads

The online advertising industry has launched a set of guidelines for a genre of adverts that have been causing controversy.

The code of practice drawn up by the Internet Advertising Bureau looks specifically at behavioural advertising.

This form of advertising delivers ads based on people's browsing activity and is therefore far more targeted.

UK ISP BT is planning to roll out such advertising developed by US firm Phorm.

The guidelines which have been signed by key players including Phorm, AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo agree on three core commitments:

• Notice. A company collecting and using online information for behavioural advertising must clearly inform a consumer that data is being collected for this purpose

• Consent. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide a mechanism for users to decline behavioural advertising and where applicable seek a consumer's consent.

• Education. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide consumer with clear and simple information about their use of data for this purpose and how users can decline.

Behavioural advertising, in which customers who, for example, browse websites about cars are sent advertisements about cars, has long been controversial with privacy advocates.

The industry is keen to stress that advertisers do not know who individual users are because the information collected is anonymous.

"There is no personally identifiable information. They don't have your name, address or phone number. Instead search terms are linked to a random cookie number in a general geographic area," said Nate Elliott, a principal researcher at Forrester.

He said he had been surprised at the level of controversy raised by Phorm's partnership with BT.

"There are dozens of companies that have been doing this type of advertising for years. Google stores search information and uses it to better target future searches, for example," he said.

According to Forrester 26% of European online advertisers used behavioural-based systems during 2008.

The IAB estimates that behavioural advertising could generate an income of £200m for UK online advertisers.

Opt-in

The promise to make it easy for customers to opt out of such services will not go far enough for some who want to see all such services offered on an opt-in basis.

BT told the BBC that it is likely to offer its Webwise service, the technology devised by Phorm, on an opt-in basis.

It has not yet given a date for when the service will roll out but has completed several trials of the technology.

The first two of these trials created controversy because they were conducted without the consent of BT customers.

The European Commission is still considering whether it will take action against BT on this matter.

Privacy campaigner Richard Clayton thinks the code of practice is doomed to failure because it doesn't address the opt-in debate.

"The bottom line is that if I'm prepared to tell advertisers where I browse and what adverts I want then all well and good, but I don't want them snooping on me," he said.

"The IAB has gone to great lengths to ensure that the industry protects and educates consumers on their rights and choices," said Nick Stringer, head of regulatory affairs at the IAB.

"Behavioural advertising has clear benefits to consumers, delivering more relevant advertising and keeping most of the content and services we enjoy free of charge.

"However it's in its infancy and we need to let consumers know they are in control," he said.

BT awaits fast broadband ruling

BT will find out on Tuesday if it can proceed with the roll-out of a high-speed, fibre-optic broadband network.

The firm wants to invest £1.5bn in the network, giving up to 20 million UK homes access to speeds up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps).

BT has made clear it will only make the move if regulator Ofcom allows it to get a decent return on that investment.

Ofcom boss Ed Richards has already indicated he is likely to pave the way for BT to build the network.

If given the green light, the network will be completed by 2012.

In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Mr Richards said: "Regulation will not be a barrier to this kind of investment."

The network would see the installation of fibre-optic cables to street-side cabinets, offering speeds of between 40 and 60Mbps, with about 1 million homes having fibre to the home and speeds of 100Mbps.

Current barriers

BT in the past has urged Ofcom to nurture a "supportive and enduring regulatory environment" which includes removing current barriers to investment and making sure that anyone who chooses to invest in fibre optics can earn a fair rate of return.

The communications company hopes to lease access to its new network to third-party Internet Service Providers and be given pricing freedom in order to earn a financial return on its investment.

Currently Virgin Media is the only other provider of a fibre-optic network to a large number of people in the UK. Its fibre-to-the-cabinet offers speeds of up to 50Mbps.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of ThinkBroadband.com, said on the site it would be "no major surprise if Ofcom approved BT pushing fibre further out from the exchanges".

He said: "The options for Ofcom were limited since if it refused BT then the only next generation like network approaching national coverage would be Virgin Media who currently offer no form of wholesale access."

Digital politics is different

Surveillance is a fact of life in many of the UK's towns and cities

Online coverage gives events enduring significance, says Bill Thompson

In November 1988 Stuart Weir, at the time editor of the New Statesman, published a special edition of the magazine asking those concerned with the health of British democracy to stand up and be counted. The proposal, which he called 'Charter 88', called for a new constitutional settlement, one which would guarantee civil liberties and the rule of law.

Shortly afterwards 348 people paid for and signed an advert in the Guardian newspaper asking people to offer support, and a year later an organisation called Charter 88 was founded to take the campaign forward, with Anthony Barnett as its first Director.

The Charter was eventually signed by over 85,000 people, including me, and the organisation it inspired continues to campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms as Unlock Democracy.

It would be fascinating to trace the history of this important movement, and perhaps watch some of the barnstorming speeches that took place at its many public meetings over the years, but there seem to be no recordings and few accessible records of what happened in the early days.

Google's archive search of old newspapers will sell me a scan of a 1988 article from the Miami Herald that talks about Charter 88 for only $2.95, but I can find no public scans of the original advertisement and there are no video or even audio recordings of any meetings, while the Wikipedia entry for Charter 88 is flagged '"his article needs additional citations for verification".

There's a book, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Charter 88, but that is only available to order as a printed volume and Amazon won't let me search inside it.

Since I am fortunate enough to have access to the British Library and even to the offices of the New Statesman, where I'm an occasional contributor, I could hunt down the original 1988 edition if I really wanted to and see just how the case was argued.

As I'm a friend of Anthony Barnett's I could ask him if he has any old material I could look at, and if I was really keen I could offer to digitise it and put it online for him, but I probably won't because time is short and building digital archives takes a lot of time and effort.

My interest in Charter 88's history came about because yesterday I was one of over a thousand people who attended the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London's Bloomsbury district, organised by that same Anthony Barnett and journalist Henry Porter.

Repressive actions

It brought together dozens of different organisations and hundreds of speakers in seven cities across the UK, beginning with a passionate defence of our civil liberties from Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and finishing with an informal debate that included blogger Cory Doctorow and songwriters Billy Bragg and Feargal Sharkey.

Although there were many horror stories about the repressive actions of the representatives of the British state there was also significant optimism and a sense that things could be changed if we choose to change them.

And unlike the early Charter 88 meetings, some of which took place in the same lecture hall I was sitting in, every moment of the convention was being recorded and documented in detail.

The plenaries and panel sessions were being filmed and webcast live, with transcripts taken and posted online as soon as possible after the words were spoken, while the wireless network throughout the building enabled me and many others present to twitter about what we were doing.

Large number of photographs were uploaded to Flickr, Moblog, Tweetpic and other photo-sharing sites, and as well as coverage in the obvious media outlets like the Times and the BBC there are already dozens of blog postings, some from those who were there, some from those who participated online.

The interaction and engagement that these services facilitate was a vital part of the convention, tying together the eight separate meetings with video feeds and online debate and turning them into one nationwide event. The online presence also meant that many people who could not be there were able to participate, using the two-way nature of the web to feed back into the real-world meetings and not simply sitting there are observers of a broadcast video feed.

But the real significance may come in six months, a year or even five years, when the issues the convention raised form the basis of political campaigns, government policy or even a new Bill of Rights for the UK. Charter 88 grew up before we had moved into the digital age and what little was recorded remains analogue, offline and inaccessible.

Yesterday's event was self-documenting, and much of what happened left traces online, traces which will be visible to anyone who wants to know what happened. Ben Goldacre's jokes, David Davis' call for action and Philip Pullman's eloquent and moving condemnation of a government that refuses to believe in the British people will be there, to be watched, read, linked to and commented upon over the coming months, and this in itself will help to strengthen and build the movement that seems likely to emerge from the Convention.

Of course, it also means that the authorities will have no problems tracking down who was there or what they said, but transparency and sharing always carry the risk of undesirable side-effects.

Pirate radio 'puts lives at risk'

By Daniel Emery
Technology reporter, BBC News website

Authorities have been increasing their efforts to crack down on pirate radio stations in the UK.

Regulator Ofcom says the broadcasts can put lives at risk by interfering with emergency service frequencies, and can also block legitimate stations.

Police officers raided an address in North London which, they say, housed an illegal pirate radio station.

Five people were arrested and officers seized thousands of pounds worth of broadcasting and musical equipment.

Ofcom says there are more than 150 pirate radio stations operating across the UK, half of which operate in London and the South East of England.

Last year, officers raided 43 studios used by illegal stations and shut down 838 illegal transmitters.

Ofcom's head of investigations, Paul Mercer, told BBC News that pirate radio was not a victimless crime.

"Ofcom receive complaints from the emergency services. The two services that are most affected are the National Air Traffic services and the London Fire Brigade.

"In both instances, because of the proximity of the frequencies used by those services and the illegal broadcasters, they can suffer some difficulties when trying to use their radio systems to communicate."

However, one pirate radio DJ told the BBC that while pirate stations may have interfered with the emergency services in the past, it was now a rare occurrence.

Steve, who manages the pirate radio station Ice Cold FM, said: "Problems can occur if people use a badly built link box that connects the studio to the transmitter.

"These systems, called Band 1, can put out multiples of their frequency, so a link on 50Mhz could spill out onto 100Mhz and other high band frequencies.

"I would say 90% of pirates don't use Band 1 links any more. We all use microwave links that are completely interference free," he said.

He added: "I'm not saying there aren't exceptions, but we check all our stuff to make sure it's clean and on the band."

Ofcom says that if there were other avenues open for legal broadcasting, such as setting up a community radio station.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has provided money for the Community Radio Fund, managed by Ofcom, which so far has awarded £215,900 to 15 applicants.

But Steve from Ice Cold FM said that it was difficult to win a community radio station licence.

"I wanted to go legal. We tried to get a community based licence and even went off air for a while.

"But once we looked into it, they wanted us to show that we had £25,000 in sponsorship to prove that we could establish the business for a length of time, which is far more than we would actually need.

"Even to apply costs money and Ofcom can still say no, so it's just not worth the effort."

Online shops look to prosper

By LJ Rich

The credit crunch might be bad news for high street stores who see fewer people step through their doors but it is proving to be good news for web retailers.

Many hope their green credentials and more secure payment systems will encourage more customers to take their mouse shopping rather than their car.

Chris Russell, Director of eDigital Research said: "Consumers are spending more online, and this surge in traffic means that e-retailers have a massive opportunity to capitalise on the increased attention they are experiencing.

"If they don't, then they will be missing out on a chance to build customer loyalty and repeat business, something no organisation wants to do in economic times such as these."

Retailers are already beginning to plan stock and quantity levels for next Christmas, suggests research by eDigital. In 2008, 60% of people turned to the web when sourcing presents.

Pick and mix

Jason Gissing, founder of Ocado which works with supermarket Waitrose, said he believed the switch to online shopping would continue.

"Consumers' understanding and interaction with the internet has changed. I think the services that online retailers offer have improved," he said.

"I often talk about the MySpace generation when I look at friends of mine who have children that are spending their entire times online and texting each other.

When they start working, they're going to embrace the internet in a way that we can only dream of."

In its warehouse Ocado uses eight miles of conveyor belts to move shopping around as orders from shoppers are picked and put together.

To ensure food stays frozen, the shopping basket travels from the top floors, which are cupboard temperature to the bottom floor, where the fridge and freezer food gets added at the last minute before finally being loaded into delivery vans.

Said Mr Gissing: "We actually have a lower carbon footprint per pound of sales than walking to a supermarket yourself, because everything that you see here is in one place.

"We don't have big open chillers and freezers with nasty refrigerants that you get in a big shop, and heating to make customers feel happy as they walk around and shop."

Money market

And it is not just in green issues that online shops want to be seen to be concerned about.

Online security has been another priority for retailers in their efforts to boost sales.

One possible solution is chip and pin, widely used outside in the real world, that is now starting to be used for web shopping too.

Credit card giants Mastercard and Visa have already launched their online verification tools.

UK-based Pinoptic has developed a slightly different system. Those using it generate a code they enter into an online keypad but, instead of the code being four numbers, it is two numbers and two icons.

Each time the code needs to be entered, the icons will be in a different place on the keypad. This makes it very difficult for keyloggers to figure out an individual code, claims Pinoptic.