UK still has 13,000 monochrome TVs

9 January 2013 Last updated at 20:27 ET

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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GPS backup to guide ships to port

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

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

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

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

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

Longwave alternative

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mozilla smartphones to launch Europe

10 January 2013 Last updated at 06:52 ET

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Amazon offers free copies of CDs

10 January 2013 Last updated at 12:06 ET

Online retailer Amazon has launched a service that stores free digital versions of CDs bought via its store.

AutoRip, which is only available in the US, will automatically keep a digital copy of eligible CDs in a customer's cloud storage account.

Customers will be able to access the music via Amazon's Cloud Player on the web or via tablet and smartphone apps.

Amazon has drawn up a catalogue of 50,000 CDs that are eligible for AutoRip.

Music market

The catalogue has been compiled from those albums that have proved most popular with Amazon customers in the last 15 years.

The list includes "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson and "21" by Adele.

Any customer who has bought a CD in the catalogue from Amazon since the firm started trading in 1998 will be eligible to get a free MP3 copy of it. Amazon said it anticipated creating copies of millions of CDs.

"When we picked those 50,000 titles we focused on having a substantial majority of our physical CD sales covered," said Steve Boom, head of digital music at Amazon in a statement.

The service potentially makes it much easier for people to build up a library of digital music. Before now most CD owners had to rip the songs themselves to create digital versions.

The Amazon Cloud Player can be accessed a web browser, as well as on Android phones, iPhones, Kindle Fire tablets and other devices.

The move is widely seen as an attempt to take market share from arch-rival Apple's iTunes music store.

The Cupertino giant has similar cloud storage services for music and leads the market with more than 50% of the market share, while Amazon has less than 15%. Google offers a similar service.

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Nokia sales better than expected

10 January 2013 Last updated at 17:10 ET Continue reading the main story

Nokia shares have risen sharply after the Finnish group said mobile phone sales in the fourth quarter exceeded its own expectations.

Nokia said it sold 86.3 million devices in the last quarter, with revenues totalling 3.9bn euros ($5.2bn; £3.2bn).

It said its mobile phone business had achieved underlying profitability, thanks to better-than-expected sales of its Lumia smartphone.

Nokia shares closed up 11% in Helsinki and 18.7% higher in New York.

The firm sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in the fourth quarter, up from 2.9 million in the third quarter.

It also sold 2.2 million Symbian smartphones and 9.3 million of its lower-priced Asha full-touch smartphones.

Nokia said it was also helped by lower-than-forecast operating expenses.

But it expects seasonality and a competitive environment to have a negative impact on the handset division's profitability in the first quarter of 2013.

Nokia has been losing ground to rivals Apple and Samsung in recent years.

Redeye analyst Greger Johansson said it was still too early to call it a turnaround.

"They will have to prove a lot more until you can say that," he said.

"I'm not still convinced that they are going to manage to succeed with those new smartphones. They have to sell a lot more in volumes until you can say that."

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Microsoft sets Messenger deadline

11 January 2013 Last updated at 05:37 ET

Microsoft is switching off its Windows Live Messenger service on 15 March.

On that date Messenger log-ins will no longer work and users must turn to Skype, said Microsoft in an email sent to all Messenger users.

The email also encouraged users to update to Skype and familiarise themselves with the service before the switch-off.

The service switch is a consequence of Microsoft's acquisition of Skype in October 2011 for $8.5bn (£5.3bn).

In November 2012, Microsoft announced that it was switching off Live Messenger in early 2013 but gave no firm date. At the same time, Microsoft made it possible for Messenger users to talk to and swap messages with contacts via Skype.

To help people migrate before 15 March, Microsoft has added an upgrade button to its desktop Messenger that when clicked uninstalls Messenger and puts Skype in its place.

Until the switch-off date Messenger would work as it always did, said Microsoft.

The Windows Live Messenger instant messaging program was known as MSN Messenger when it first launched in 1999. The service is believed to be used by about 300 million people every month.

China is the only nation in which Messenger will keep operating, because it is run under licence there.

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Kenya's digital TV switch halted

11 January 2013 Last updated at 06:14 ET

Kenya's high court has ordered that the date for the switch off of the analogue television signal be delayed, preferably until after the March poll.

Justice Isaac Lenaola said an immediate move to digital would be unfair to Kenyans keen to follow the polls on TV.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) had wanted to turn it off last month, ahead of a 2015 global deadline.

But a consumer group challenged its decision, arguing that Kenyans had not been given enough time to prepare.

According to Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) said the first notice about the analogue signal switch-off, planned for 31 December 2012, was given on 7 December 2012.

The cost of set-top boxes needed to receive digital transmissions meant it would be prohibitively expensive for most Kenyans, Cofek argued.

Last month, the chairman of Kenya's Media Owners Association, Kiprono Kittony, said the switch-off would affect four million people - and also urged the government to reconsider the date.

Judge Lenaola told the CCK and Cofek to agree on a new date, which he felt should be after the March 2013 elections.

The last elections in December 2007 were highly contentious in Kenya, where television is the main news source in cities and towns.

Allegations of electoral fraud following the results ignited ethnic tensions, leading to the deaths of some 1,300 people and forcing some 600,000 from their homes.

The judge ordered the two organisations to appear before him on 20 February should they fail to agree on a new date.

Neighbouring Tanzania went ahead with its digital migration on 31 December, the first to do so of the five members of the East African Community, which had agreed to an early switchover to fix any glitches ahead of the June 2015 global deadline to end analogue transmissions.

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New US rare earth centre to be built

11 January 2013 Last updated at 06:32 ET By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News

The US Department of Energy is giving $120m (£75m) to set up a new research centre charged with developing new methods of rare earth production.

Rare earths are 17 chemically similar elements crucial to making many hi-tech products, such as phones and PCs.

The Critical Materials Institute will be located in Ames, Iowa.

The US wants to reduce its dependency on China, which produces more than 95% of the world's rare earth elements, and address local shortages.

According to the US Geological Survey, there may be deposits of rare earths in 14 US states.

Besides being used for hi-tech gadgets, the elements are also crucial for manufacturing low-carbon resources such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars, said David Danielson, the US assistant secretary for renewable energy.

"The Critical Materials Institute will bring together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions that will help us avoid a supply shortage that would threaten our clean energy industry as well as our security interests," he said in a statement.

Rare earth elements are also used for military applications, such as advanced optics technologies, radar and radiation detection equipment, and advanced communications systems, according to a 2011 research report by the US Government Accountability Office.

Recycling issue

From the 1960s until the 1980s, the Mountain Pass mine in California made the US the world leader in rare earth production, but it was later closed, largely due to competition with the elements imported from China.

At the moment, the regulations surrounding rare earths mining in the US are very strict, an expert on the materials from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden told the BBC.

"The Mountain Pass mine was [also] closed down for environmental reasons," said Prof Christian Ekberg.

"There are rare earths deposits that are troublesome, those containing sulphur and those containing radioactive substances such as uranium and thorium, and mining these elements in many countries is considered difficult to handle."

Another issue is recycling rare earth elements, getting them out of old handsets and PCs - something known as e-waste, said Prof Ekberg.

"There is very little recycling done, it's not even 1%. If you want to recycle these elements from a smartphone, it's very tricky as the concentration is extremely low, so it is very difficult to get them out," he said.

"Also, it's very difficult to separate them from each other because they are so chemically similar.

"At the moment, there are no really good environmentally friendly methods available to mine and to recycle rare earths, so economically, today recycling is not viable.

"But as the techniques improve, recycling will be very important in the future - so it is important right now to do the research."

- Neodymium

Used to make powerful magnets used in loudspeakers and computer hard drives to enable them to be smaller and more efficient., as well as in green technologies such as wind turbines and hybrid cars.

- Lanthanum

Used in camera and telescope lenses. Compounds containing lanthanum are used extensively in carbon lighting applications, such as cinema projection.

- Cerium

Used in catalytic converters in cars, enabling them to run at high temperatures and playing a crucial role in the chemical reactions in the converter.

- Praseodymium

Used to create strong metals used in aircraft engines. Praseodymium is also a component of a special sort of glass, used to make visors of welders and glassmakers.

- Gadolinium

Used in X-ray and MRI scanning, and also in TV screens. Research is also being done into its possible use in developing more efficient refrigeration systems.

- Yttrium, terbium, europium

Important in making TV and computer screens and other devices that have visual displays as they are used in making materials that give off different colours. Europium is also used in making control rods in nuclear reactors.

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US warns over key computer systems

11 January 2013 Last updated at 06:48 ET

The US government has told thousands of companies to beef up protection of computers which oversee power plants and other utilities.

The action comes after a survey revealed that thousands of these systems can be found online.

The survey was carried out via a publicly available search engine that pinpointed computers controlling critical infrastructure.

In total, the survey uncovered more than 500,000 potential targets.

The survey was carried out by Bob Radvanovsky and Jacob Brodsky of security consultancy InfraCritical who investigated the potential threat to so-called Scada systems.

Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is the industry term for the computers behind the machinery in power plants, water treatment centres, traffic controls and other utilities.

"The biggest thing is we are trying to assign a number - a rough magnitude - to a problem plaguing the industry for some time now," said Mr Radvanovsky in a blogpost,

Target list

The pair wrote a series of scripts, small computer programs, that interrogated the Shodan search engine. Shodan was created to log machines connected to the internet in the same way Google logs webpage contents.

In their search scripts the pair used 600 terms compiled from lists of Scada manufacturers and the names and product numbers of the control systems they sell.

Armed with a list of 500,000 potential targets, they approached the US Department of Homeland Security who pared it down to the most important 7,200 targets. The DHS is now in the process of contacting the firms who own these computers to warn them they can be found online.

In many cases, said the pair, convenience had led companies to connect such important systems to the web.

"A lot of these guys want to fix things at 3am without driving three hours in each direction," wrote Mr Brodsky.

Mr Radvanovsky and Mr Brodsky did not test the computers they found to see how well they were protected. However, other researchers have found many weaknesses in the software used to control Scada systems via the net.

While attacks on critical infrastructure are relatively rare, recent months have seen viruses and other malicious programs hit control systems at oil treatment plants and other facilities.

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Cheap smartphones tempt buyers

11 January 2013 Last updated at 12:26 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

Asha, the budget smartphone line from Nokia, is outselling its premium handset offering, the Windows-run Lumia, by over two to one.

The firm's quarterly results, published on Thursday, revealed the total number of both Asha and Lumia devices sold in the last three months of 2012 was 14 million. Only 4.4 million were Lumias.

There have also been rumours that Apple may offer a lower-priced iPhone model.

Reports that a senior Apple executive denied this have been withdrawn.

"We forecast that by 2016, 31% of the global overall handset market will be low-end smartphone," Ian Fogg, principal analyst at IHS, told the BBC.

"An entry-level smartphone is very different from a high-end smartphone," he said.

"Smaller, cheaper devices have processors from two or three years ago, they have small screens with low resolution, and weaker cameras. They can all do email and the web but gaming and browsing is a much better experience on the higher end phones."

However the difference in cost to the consumer is significant - in the UK a basic smartphone can cost as little as £29.99), he said, while the iPhone 5 currently retails for £529 on the Apple UK website.

Premium phones

"Apple still play out at the premium end of the market," said Mr Fogg.

"Can they remain profitable and successful being in a small part of the handset market or do they need to be a bigger player to get the economies of scale right?"

According to analysts ComScore, by the end of 2012 only 28% of smartphone owners in the UK had iPhone handsets.

"Apple makes high quality products, it doesn't make cheap products," Mr Fogg added.

"That doesn't rule out Apple creating a cheaper iPhone that still has high quality components. Look at the iPod range - they started with a premium price product, then they added the mini, the nano, the shuffle - they went to a range of products hitting different price points."

Mr Fogg pointed out that there are currently variations of the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 available at different prices.

"Their strategy has been to reuse previous generation model rather than build a new model," he said.

"Apple, I'm sure, is evaluating that strategy. Is it better to use a tried and trusted design that they know how to manufacture and that the consumer understands, or is it better to design a new model that hits that price point?"

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE announced plans to launch a lower-end smartphone running on Mozilla's Firefox operating software in Europe this year.

"I think Apple should be more aggressive with its smartphone range," said Mr Fogg.

"I think the strategy they have had of reusing previous year's models has been quite smart, but there is also an opportunity to design a new product that hits that low price point."

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