Ground-breaking OLED TV on sale

2 January 2013 Last updated at 09:25 ET

LG has launched a 55in (140cm) OLED TV - kickstarting a battle over the next-generation of high-quality screens.

OLED - which means organic light-emitting diode - is more energy efficient than LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma-based alternatives.

LG's model will be sold in South Korea first with other markets, including Europe, to follow thereafter.

Both LG and Samsung announced 55in OLEDs last year, but LG is the first to make its available.

The firms showcased their televisions at last January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, but until now neither company had managed to get a product to market.

LG's headstart on its rival helped give it a 5.4% share price boost on Wednesday.

The 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) OLED television will sell for 11 million won ($10,300; £6,300). Analysts said the technology was unlikely to become more affordable until at least 2015 - but that this latest release was more about cementing LG's position as a market leader.

That said, global sales of OLED televisions are expected to grow to 1.7 million by 2014, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

Bendy

OLED screens have been touted as the successor to the popular liquid crystal displays (LCD).

The technology allows for the display of darker and deeper blacks, and can be made thinner than competing display methods.

Smaller OLED screens are already in mass distribution. Samsung uses the technology in its smartphones, and Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld console also utilises the thin, light technology.

Many predict that OLED screens will allow for the development of a new generation of "bendy" gadgets, some of which are expected to be unveiled over the course of the year.

But larger OLED screens have proven difficult to manufacture due mainly to cost and reliability constraints.

Another technology, known as 4K, has also been given a lot of attention from manufacturers.

Dubbed "Ultra HD", 4K offers 8 million pixels per frame - four times the resolution of 1080p high-definition displays - making it particularly well suited for extra large screens. 110in (279cm) models are expected to be put on show at CES next week.

Existing 4K TV sets are LCD-based. But according to some purists, OLED offers a richer quality display so might be the better option for 55in screens.

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Ubuntu system comes to smartphones

2 January 2013 Last updated at 13:17 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

The Ubuntu operating system has been adapted to run on smartphones.

The Linux-based software will allow users to run desktop apps on their handsets, allowing them to double for PCs when docked to monitors.

The code will initially be released as a file which can be installed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, replacing Android.

Some analysts question whether consumers really want the power of a fully fledged computer on their phone.

Even so, Ubuntu's founder, Mark Shuttleworth, said he was in talks with manufacturers for devices to be sold with the system pre-installed within the year.

While he acknowledged the innovation would likely be limited to "enthusiasts and hobbyists" at first, he said it signalled a wider shift on the horizon.

"It's quite incredible that we're at this point when the power of the phone is crossing over that with baseline processing power of basic laptops," Mr Shuttleworth told the BBC.

"We're taking advantage of that so for the first time in history you have the full consumer PC platform available on a phone.

"I'm very confident if we look ahead over the next three to five years that's a transition that Apple is going to have to make... and if it's not Windows 9 it will be Windows 10 that will see Microsoft bring its phone and laptop together into one device. It's really cracking to do that ahead of everyone else."

Phones running the software will be showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week.

Powerful apps

Ubuntu is the most popular operating system to be based on the Linux kernel - the code that lets software and hardware work together.

The London-based firm behind it, Canonical, offers it for download free of charge and has been helped by thousands of volunteers who contribute to the open source project.

The firm makes money back by offering support and training and also plans to take a share of sales from online marketplaces offered by handset makers who adopt its software.

It estimates that more than 20 million PCs already use it.

In many cases these are older machines which benefit from the fact it is less demanding on computer power than Windows - and is virus-free.

The new version has been designed to work on last and current-generation Android handsets which share the Linux kernel. This means Ubuntu can re-use existing software drivers to control the hardware.

There are already 45,000 native apps for the system - albeit with several notable omissions such as Adobe's Photoshop and the Office suite, although alternatives do exist.

Developers will be urged to adapt their apps' interfaces to look different when running on a phone's screen while offering the same core functionality.

To offer touch-based controls Ubuntu has adopted the same QML (Qt modelling language) framework being utilised by the upcoming Blackberry 10 operating system.

Mr Shuttleworth suggested this meant many app makers would be familiar with the technology.

In addition Ubuntu can run web apps written in the widely-adopted HTML5 language.

Advanced voice control

When running on phones Ubuntu can be controlled by the "head-up display" (Hud) option it introduced last year.

This allows users to type or say what command they want a program to carry out rather than having to click through menus.

"The Hud was born out of the phone design process," revealed Mr Shuttleworth.

"The key question we were asking is how do we allow developers to express some of the deeper richer functionality that you get typically in a desktop application when they write for a phone.

"Typically phone and tablet applications are streamlined slimmed-down versions of stuff that might have existed in a more sophisticated complicated form on the PC.

"And in our world where all of the functionality is there... you can invoke the Hud on the phone and talk to it with voice recognition instead of typing in your command - so you could say [for instance] you want a photo in a 1930s style - and our R&D effort is to make that natural."

Unconvinced about convergence

A version of the code will shortly be made available to developers to start adapting their apps.

The firm then plans to release a file for Galaxy Nexus phones by February, and later for other handsets and ultimately tablet computers as well.

One analyst suggested the news would raise awareness of the Ubuntu system, but was sceptical about its chances of success.

"It's an impressive move by Ubuntu but ultimately I don't think it's a smart move," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe.

"They are not the first company to try and drop a desktop operating system on a mobile device and nobody has ever been able to make it work. Microsoft tried to foist something that looked and felt like normal Windows on a mobile phone and they had to screw it up and develop a separate phone system.

"If you look at the platforms that thrive at the moment it's the ones that have diverged and had a platform designed for mobile on their mobile devices and a platform designed for conventional PCs on those."

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Elite reboot hits funding target

3 January 2013 Last updated at 06:41 ET

An ambitious plan to update classic space trading game Elite has hit its funding target.

The game first appeared on the BBC Micro in 1984 but one of the game's original creators wanted to make a modern PC version.

David Braben sought £1.25m via crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter to fund the 21st century update.

A last minute surge of pledges helped it reach its goal about 48 hours before Friday's funding deadline.

Funding squeeze

Elite: Dangerous debuted on Kickstarter on 5 November and set itself 60 days to raise £1.25m. In November, Mr Braben said Elite was a game he had wanted to come back to for a "long, long time".

Although some early work on the multiplayer title had been done at Mr Braben's game studio Frontier Developments, but needed the cash to turn the code into a finished playable product. If the game did not hit its funding target then development work would stop.

Getting the cash via Kickstarter was preferable to using an established publisher because it gave Frontier and those who backed it total control over how the final game would turn out, said Mr Braben,

The finished game, he said, would keep the central trading, travel and spaceship combat elements of the original but add far better graphics, physics and feature a much larger chunk of the universe for people to play in.

Fund tracking site Kicktraq showed that after an initial surge the number of people backing the project tailed off dramatically. On its second day on Kickstarter raised more than £271,000. However, soon after pledge totals rarely got over £10,000.

A surge of pledges came forward in the closing few days of Elite's fund-raising drive thanks to an appearance on social news site Reddit by Mr Braben and with the help of comedian Dara O Briain who urged his 1.2 million Twitter followers to back it.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

David Braben talks to Rory Cellan-Jones about 'kickstarting' Elite last November

"It is really great to have exceeded the goal already," Mr Braben told the BBC. "I was delighted and touched by how many people really want this game to be made, and it was doubly good that it happened on my birthday!"

He said the Elite team were now pushing to reach "stretch" goals which would produce a Mac version of the game and add more ships to the game.

"It was an ambitious target but that is so that it was set at a realistic level to be able to make the game," he said adding that watching the total pledges get close to the target made for a "tense time".

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Island community pleads for internet

3 January 2013 Last updated at 08:40 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Residents on the remote South Atlantic territory of St Helena have renewed their plea for the UK to back plans to bring broadband to the island.

The British Overseas Territory needs £10m to connect to a submarine cable.

The island's 4,200 residents currently rely on a slow satellite connection, which campaigners say is stunting the island's growth.

The Foreign Office has said a "full economic assessment" was needed before any new link could be funded.

The UK, like several other countries, refused to sign a proposed UN treaty regarding wide-ranging changes to internet governance at a conference in Dubai last month.

It meant a clause requiring states to aid in connecting remote communities will not now be enforced, removing any obligation or commitment for the government to work with communities such as St Helena.

"The UK did not sign the revised International Telecommunication Regulations last week in Dubai, and has no intention of doing so in the future," the Foreign Office said in an email.

"We will therefore not be bound by the provisions contained in the Treaty when it comes into force on 1 January 2015."

'Revolutionise'

Campaign group A Human Right, which is supported by the UN, has called on the Department for International Development to contribute a substantial amount to the engineering costs of connecting the island to the South Atlantic Express, a new superfast fibre optic cable being laid by South African firm eFive.

Dr Rosalind Thomas, eFive's chief executive, agreed last year to alter the cable's path to bring it closer to the island, opening up the prospect of connecting it.

An investment of around £10m, campaigners said, would be enough to latch on to the cable and "revolutionise" the island - with private backers contributing further costs.

Due to the island's location, it is well-placed to support infrastructure relating to satellite operations, including base stations and communication hubs.

The government is already spending £250m on the island to build a new airport in a bid to encourage high-spend tourism to the island which is one of the most remote on earth.

"The plan [for the airport] is to establish high-spending tourism on the island which will be quite a challenge," said Christian von der Ropp, organiser of the campaign.

"If you spend an additional £10m or a bit less getting this cable landed, there would be a huge opportunity for social and economic development.

"This is something that would revolutionise the island, and people's perspectives there. And I believe it would relieve British taxpayers."

Currently, the UK government spends £20m a year on supporting the island.

'Economic and social benefits'

In an email to A Human Right, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said telecommunications on the island was the responsibility of the St Helena Government.

"We are aware of eFive Telecom's plans to lay a fibre-optic cable connecting South Africa and Brazil and the St Helena Government's initial discussions with them about the feasibility and costs of a spur link to St Helena," the Foreign Office said.

Continue reading the main story

• St Helena has a population of 4,000
• Residents are known as Saints
• It measures 47 sq miles and lies 1,200 miles from the African mainland
• An estimated 7,000 St Helenan families are living in the south of England

Source: St Helena Development Association (SHDA)

"If the developers proceed with the project then a full economic assessment would be needed to consider the extent of the economic and social benefits that such a link could bring to St Helena."

Campaigners hope that with better internet access local residents, particularly young people, will be less inclined to leave the island for study and work purposes.

Mike Olffon, owner of the island's radio station Saint FM, told the BBC that getting access was prohibitively expensive.

"Internet here at the moment is tremendously expensive because it's satellite - it's well over £100 a month. We have no choice.

"It is important for the development of the island, if we want to have IT services and internet-related business.

"The population would very much look forward to the government's help to pay the money."

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Google avoids legal action in US

3 January 2013 Last updated at 17:14 ET

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided not to take legal action against Google at the end of a 19-month investigation into the search giant.

It found Google had not biased its search results to favour its products.

Google has agreed to give advertisers access to more information about their campaigns and has agreed not to use other providers' material such as product reviews in its search results.

Google is still awaiting a competition ruling from the European Commission.

Another key concession applies to how Google uses the patents it bought when it acquired Motorola Mobility last year for $12.5bn (£7.9bn).

Google has said it will charge "fair and reasonable" rates to companies that need to use its standard essential patents.

Standard essential patents are ones that are critical to industry standards, for example, the technology that allows devices such as smartphones and tablets to connect to the internet over wi-fi.

It has agreed not to take out injunctions forcing licensees to remove their products from sale if there are disagreements about how much a fair rate should be.

'Disappointing and premature'

Rivals had called for stronger sanctions to be taken against Google.

Fairsearch, an organisation representing several of Google's critics such as Microsoft, said in a statement: "The FTC's decision to close its investigation with only voluntary commitments from Google is disappointing and premature, coming just weeks before the company is expected to make a formal and detailed proposal to resolve the four abuses of dominance identified by the European Commission, first among them biased display of its own properties in search results."

The FTC was asked to investigate whether Google was favouring its own products in search results.

FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz told a press conference that the commission had found no evidence that Google's search engine was biased towards its own services.

"Some may believe the commission should have done more, but for our part we do follow the facts where they lead," he said.

"We do it with appropriate rigour. This brings to an end the investigation. It is good for consumers, it is good for competition and it is the right thing to do."

One of the biggest changes to be implemented by Google will allow advertisers to copy ad campaign data to other search engines, such as Microsoft's Bing.

Google is also promising that it will stop copying content from other websites to use in its summaries, even though the company had insisted the practice was legal under the fair-use provisions of US copyright law.

In response to the settlement, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post: "The US Federal Trade Commission today announced it has closed its investigation into Google after an exhaustive 19-month review that covered millions of pages of documents and involved many hours of testimony.

"The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition."

Big fine

It does not mean that the search giant is out of the woods on the issue of anti-competitive practices.

Alongside the FTC investigation, Google is still under scrutiny from the European Union.

In December, the EU's Competition Commission gave the search giant a month to address four key areas:

• the manner in which Google displays "its own vertical search services differently" from other, competing products
• how Google "copies content" from other websites - such as restaurant reviews - to include within its own services
• the "exclusivity" Google has to sell advertising around search terms people use
• restrictions on advertisers from moving their online ad campaigns to rival search engines

Google is expected to respond to these concerns shortly.

If found guilty of breaching EU anti-trust rules, Google would face a fine of up to $4bn (£2.5bn).

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China levies LCD price fixing fines

4 January 2013 Last updated at 06:51 ET

Samsung, LG and four Taiwanese firms have been fined £35m by Chinese trade regulators for fixing the prices of LCD screens.

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the six firms met regularly from 2001 to 2006 to decide what to charge for displays.

The Chinese fines are the latest levied by governments around the world over the price fixing deal.

In late 2011 the six paid the US $553m (£357m) to settle similar claims.

The price fixing ring came to light as a result of a US Justice Department investigation and has led other governments and trade bodies to punish the six firms. In 2010 the European Commission fined the six firms 649m euros (£527m) for operating the cartel.

Despite making the payments the six firms, which includes Taiwanese firms Chimei Innolux, AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display, deny responsibility for the claims made against them.

The NDRC fine involves the firms repaying all the profits they made in China as a result of price fixing (208m yuan, £21m) as well as an additional penalty payment of 144m yuan (£14m).

"The enterprises involved in the price monopoly acts have harmed the legitimate rights and interests of the domestic color TV enterprises and consumers," said the NDRC in a statement.

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Virgin France declares insolvency

4 January 2013 Last updated at 07:45 ET

Virgin France is to declare itself insolvent, the latest music chain to fail against a backdrop of consumers shifting to buying music online.

The firm - not affiliated with Richard Branson's Virgin Group - has 25 stores in France, including a flagship outlet on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

It has already taken steps to terminate the lease on the Paris store and will hold a meeting with unions on Monday, a spokesman said.

Virgin France employs 1,000 people.

The firm is currently owned by French investment firm Butler Capital. Butler bought 80% of Virgin in 2007 from French media company Lagardere, which had purchased the chain from Mr Branson's Virgin in 2001.

It is not the only music chain suffering.

Most have been struggling for a number of years, having been hit hard by the big growth in music and film downloads - legal and illegal - and by the rise in the sale of chart CDs and DVDs by the big supermarkets.

Virgin's main French rival, the Fnac chain, has also been facing difficulties. At the end of last year, it discontinued its Fnacmusic digital music download service, having failed to gain sufficient market share.

In the UK, music, films and games retailer HMV has warned that it faces an uncertain future in the face of continuing falling sales.

Our Price, Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, Zavvi, MVC, Music Zone, Andy's, Border's and Woolworths are all well-known names that have disappeared from streets in recent years.

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Toyota previews self-driving car

4 January 2013 Last updated at 07:54 ET

Toyota has given a taste of self-drive car safety technology ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week.

The car maker revealed a video clip of a Lexus fitted with safety features designed to minimise car crashes.

The technology includes on-board radar and video cameras to monitor the road, the surroundings, and the driver.

The car can also communicate with other vehicles, according to a Toyota spokesman.

Driver aid

"We're looking at a car that would eliminate crashes," said the spokesman. "Zero-collisions is our ultimate aim."

The video shows a prototype Lexus LS fitted with what Toyota's described as an "Intelligent Transport Systems" (ITS) technology.

The "advanced active safety research vehicle" prototype uses ITS and existing Toyota technology to monitor whether the driver is awake, to keep the car on the road, and to stop at traffic signals. The technology is designed to be used in conjunction with a driver, but the car can control itself, said the spokesman.

A series of optical beacons on the roadside can detect the positions of pedestrians and obstacles, and relay information to the prototype about whether a traffic light is red or green, as part of ITS. The car can also independently monitor pedestrians' positions.

"Not the Jetsons yet, but our advanced active safety research car is leading the industry into a new automated era," Toyota said in a Tweet on Thursday.

Toyota has also developed technology that lets a car communicate with a driver's smartphone to offer augmented reality features. This would let the car know about places by the road letting it, for example. recommend an upcoming restaurant, said the spokesman.

Toyota is one of several heavy-weight car manufacturers and technology companies researching autonomous vehicles.

Audi is due to demonstrate a self-parking car at CES, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.

Google was awarded an autonomous car patent in 2011, and secured a Nevada driving licence for its self-drive car in May 2012. In the same month Volvo tested a self-drive convoy on a Spanish motorway.

Self-driving cars could drastically improve road safety, according to Prof Paul Newman, who heads an Oxford University autonomous car project project.

"Computers will be ever vigilant. They don't get distracted," Prof Newman said on Friday.

Car systems can be engineered so that a systems failure will not result in a crash, he added. Prof Newman's Wildcat project aims to use lasers and radar to make a car "sense" its surroundings.

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Poorest pupils lack home internet

4 January 2013 Last updated at 08:16 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter

More than a third of the poorest children do not have the internet at home and a similar number do not have a computer, official figures suggest.

A new breakdown of Office of National Statistics (ONS) data also showed that children from the wealthiest homes all had internet and computer access.

Campaigners say this 'digital divide' can harm poor pupils' education.

Valerie Thompson of the E-Learning Foundation says children without home internet "lose out big time".

She said, at the most basic level, lack of a home internet connection or a computer could mean that children struggled to research homework or complete coursework and were unable to access school websites which allow pupils to submit work digitally and receive feedback from teachers.

Poor access

"These new statistics show the digital divide is still a major issue for this country's young people.

"Poverty is clearly a factor in poor access to digital learning technologies and poor performance at school. The link between the two cannot be ignored."

The latest ONS Family Spending Survey, published last month, analysed the income and expenditure of more than 11,000 households across the UK. The data was collected in 2011.

The charity, E-Learning Foundation, extracted the data on computer ownership and internet access for families with children aged under 18.

Overall, most children (89%) can get on to the internet via a computer at home but according to E-Learning Foundation this figure masks a divide between rich and poor.

The data shows that while 99% of children in the richest 10% of households can access the internet via a computer, this dropped to 57% in the poorest 10% of households with children.

In the poorest households 29% had no computer, 36% had no internet and 43% had no internet connection via a computer.

According to the E-Learning Foundation this translates to a total of 750,000 school age children living in households with no internet, and some 650,000 without a computer.

'Teenagers and Technology'

A book from Oxford University's Department of Education, published this month, highlights the ways in which teenagers without an internet connection feel shut out from their peer group and disadvantaged in their studies.

The authors of Teenagers and Technology also found that parental fears about teenage time-wasting on social network sites were often unfounded with the benefits using digital technologies outweighing perceived risks.

Continue reading the main story

I had to write a story about heaven and I tried to write it in school but it was bell gone and I have a lot of things that I could write and I was angry that I haven't got a computer because I might finish it at home when I've got lots of time to do it. "

End Quote Sharon, 15 'Teenagers and Technology' Routledge

A 15-year-old interviewed for the book commented "It was bell gone and I have a lot things that I could write and I was angry that I haven't got a computer because I might finish it at home when I've got lots of time to do it."

And a 14-year-old boy talked about how much harder it was to complete coursework without a home computer: "People with internet can get higher marks because they can research on the internet."

He added that he felt cut off from friends because of being unable to access social networks: "My friends are probably on it all day every day and they talk about it at school".

Co-author Rebecca Eynon said: "Behind the statistics, our qualitative research shows these disconnected young people are clearly missing out both educationally and socially."

E-Learning's Valerie Thompson said imaginative use of technology by schools could help overcome the educational disadvantages suffered by children on free school meals, a key indicator of poverty.

"Technology can underpin learning by making it more relevant and personalised," she said.

"It can also help children with special educational needs, particularly those who struggle to cope in a normal, classroom, helping them learn and complete work at their own pace.

"Technology can allow a school to deliver an education to a child wherever they are, not just in a classroom."

She called for the social housing providers such as housing associations and local authorities to install wi-fi connections for tenants, and for schools to use the government's pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils to buy laptops for the poorest.

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Google detects website ID exploit

4 January 2013 Last updated at 17:20 ET

Web browser makers have rushed to fix a security lapse that could have allowed cyber thieves to impersonate Google+

The loophole involved an exploit of ID credentials that browsers use to ensure a website is who it claims to be.

By using fake credentials, criminals could have created a website that purported to be part of the Google+ social media network.

The fake ID credentials have been traced back to Turkish security firm TurkTrust which mistakenly issued them.

TurkTrust said there was no evidence the data had been used for dishonest purposes.

Secure code

An investigation by TurkTrust revealed that in August 2011 it twice accidentally issued the wrong type of security credential, a form of identification known as an intermediate certificate.

Instead of issuing low level certificates it mistakenly gave out what amounted to "master keys" which could have allowed a bogus site to pretend it was the legitimate version without triggering a warning.

"An intermediate certificate is essentially a master key that can create certificates for any domain name," explained security analyst Chester Wisniewski from Sophos in a blogpost about the security lapse.

"These certificates could be used to impersonate any website to any browser without the end user being alerted that anything is wrong."

The certificates are important, he said, because secure use of web shops and other services revolve around interaction between the "master keys" and the lower level security credentials.

The lapse was spotted when automatic checks built into Google's Chrome browser noticed someone was using the program with an unauthorised certificate for the "*.google.com" domain.

Had this not been detected the person could have gone onto to impersonate Google+, Gmail and other services run by the US firm.

The danger would have been that they could then have staged a man-in-the middle attack. This would have involved them relaying targeted users' communications to the real Google services and passing on the responses. By doing this they could have eavesdropped on potentially sensitive messages.

Google said it alerted other browser-makers to the threat after its discovery.

Microsoft and Firefox developer Mozilla subsequently issued updates which revoke the two wrongly issued intermediate certificates.

The identity of the person using the unauthorised certificate has not been reported, and their intentions are unknown.

This is not the first time that websites and browser makers have had a problem with security certificates. Fake certificates have been issued before now by several other firms and exposed confidential data including login names and passwords.

"It is really time we move on from this 20-year-old, poorly implemented system," wrote Mr Wisniewski. "It doesn't need to be perfect to beat what we have."

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