Wave power pistons bag Dyson award

12 September 2013 Last updated at 17:02 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

A wave power generator that can harvest energy no matter which way the sea is running has won the UK round of James Dyson's engineering award.

The Renewable Wave Power generator seeks to overcome the limitations of some current wave power technologies.

These work best when struck by waves travelling in one direction and are less efficient in more turbulent seas.

The generator uses loosely coupled pistons to reap power from tidal waters that flow unpredictably.

British sea power

The win means that Sam Etherington, who created the generator, gets £2,000 to create a bigger prototype that will undergo tests in water tanks to prove its efficacy.

The engineering graduate studied mechanical design at Brunel University in London, and now lives in the Lake District.

Mr Etherington said some of the inspiration for the design came when he was kite surfing off the coast of Cumbria in seas where waves rarely travelled in a predictable fashion.

To harness the energy that abounds in such restless waters, Mr Etherington came up with a design that uses a long chain of loosely linked enclosed pistons. Energy is generated as the chain of generators flexes in the peaks and troughs of each wave.

"The ocean is a harsh and unpredictable environment," said Mr Etherington. "It is better to work with the forces than to repel them."

He added that the hard part of the development work was finding ways to replicate the chaotic seas that the generator can make best use of. Data taken from buoys moored in the Orkney Islands was used to make waves in a water tank at Lancaster University and prove the prototypes could generate power in such conditions.

Dr David Forehand from the Institute for Energy Systems at Edinburgh said existing tidal and wave power systems used different methods to cope with the ways water can move.

Systems sited in shallow waters benefitted from the fact that waves "refract" as they approached the shore, he said. This meant the wave crests tended to line up parallel to the shore before they break, making it straightforward to harvest some of their energy.

Expensive

By contrast deeper water systems, such as the Pelamis pipe generators, tended to be "loosely moored" so they can swing into the direction of dominant waves.

He added that seas can sometimes have a number of dominant wave directions and Mr Etherington's multi-axis device might be good for such situations.

"The real test for a device is its cost of energy," Dr Forehand said, adding that the complexity of the multi-axis device and its ability to withstand large seas might make it an expensive way to generate power.

The cash award will allow Mr Etherington to conduct more tests and enrol his device in European trials for fledgling tidal power systems.

Mr Etherington's project was one of 63 in the UK selected by the judges on the James Dyson panel to compete for the UK prize.

His project now goes through to the international final where a cash prize of £30,000 is up for grabs.

For this year's competition, engineers in 18 countries have submitted more than 650 entries.

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Samsung backs 64-bit smartphones

12 September 2013 Last updated at 19:01 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Samsung has confirmed its next high-end smartphones will feature 64-bit processors.

The announcement follows the launch of the iPhone 5S, the first handset to include the technology.

Apple boasted its A7 chip offered "desktop-class architecture".

However, experts say most apps are unlikely to see much immediate benefit from the shift from 32-bit tech and that it could introduce compatibility problems in the future.

The Android operating system would need to be updated before Samsung's Galaxy devices could take advantage of a shift to 64-bit.

Faster work

The number of bits in relation to a microprocessor affects the size of the numbers that can be handled by its registers - the tiny bits of memory on the processing chip itself. Those numbers are then used to address RAM (random-access memory).

In the case of 32-bit architecture, the amount of memory than can be addressed is two to the power of 32, in other words 4.3 billion values.

In the case of 64-bit architecture the processor can theoretically address 18,400,000 trillion values.

As a result, operating systems written for 32-bit chips can only access up to 4GB of RAM, but those written for 64-bit processors can, in theory, support up to 16 billion gigabytes of RAM.

Continue reading the main story

When app makers do decide to transition to fully 64-bit, it will create a divide in the market"

End Quote Chris Green Davies Murphy Group

If a program has been written to take advantage of a 64-bit operating system, it should mean the processor can access data that is in this larger memory rather than retrieving it from, for example, the hard disk.

This speeds up the whole processing chain.

However, including more RAM also makes the equipment more expensive and power-hungry.

For that reason, smart-device makers have tended to shy away from taking advantage of 32-bit chips' upper RAM limit.

Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy Note 3 handset goes the furthest, with 3GB of RAM. The device also features a bigger-than-normal 3,200 mAh battery.

Incompatible apps

Samsung Electronic's co-chief executive announced its plan to use 64-bit chips, in an interview with the Korea Times newspaper.

"Not in the shortest time," said Shin Jong-kyun. "But yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality."

However, bearing in mind there will remain many iOS and Android handsets on the market that still rely on 32-bit chips, this may deter developers from taking advantage of the switch in the short-term.

"People who have the old 32-bit processors will not be able to run software that is built specifically for the 64-bit processors because the latter uses a different instruction set," explained Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey's computing department.

"However, if people write in 32-bit, it will run on many of the 64-bit processors because they still support the old instruction set.

"So, you can get the whole market by writing the app in 32-bits, but you can only get a very small part of the market if you write specifically for 64-bits."

One solution to this is to use what is called a "fat binary", a program containing code tailored to both types of processor. However, apps that do this become bigger and therefore take up more storage space.

Once sales of the new devices do grow, makers of video games and software to create 3D-animations might be among the first to make the switch since their programs are among the most processor-intensive and thus most likely to see the biggest benefit.

One iPhone and Android developer welcomed the move.

"Yes, many apps won't be able to take advantage of 64-bit at the outset," said Stephen Lum from Visual Candy Apps.

"But the beauty of what Apple did is that they said it takes an iOS developer, like me, two hours to convert to 64-bit. That is awesome."

However, one industry watcher warned that the switch might create compatibility problems for devices using older types of chip once developers started releasing apps that only worked on 64-bit processors.

"When app makers do decide to transition to fully 64-bit, it will create a divide in the market," said Chris Green, from the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"We saw exactly the same thing happen in the Windows world when software makers moved from 32-bit to purely 64-bit."

Rise of ARM

For now British chip designer ARM may prove the biggest beneficiary.

Smart-device makers are able to offer 64-bit tech because they have licensed the firm's ARMv8 architecture, which it first announced in 2011. The design includes other elements which should also boost processing power.

The news means the company will enjoy bigger fees. ARM's share price has risen about 10% since the start of the week.

Some have speculated that Apple's announcement might foreshadow the US firm ditching Intel chips in its laptops and desktop computers and moving to its own processors.

"Apple's new A7 chip is not powerful enough to be a PC chip, but the architecture is going that way," said Prof Woodward.

"They might be readying themselves. I think this is the beginning of a long road."

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Audio pioneer Ray Dolby dies aged 80

12 September 2013 Last updated at 19:59 ET

Ray Dolby, the US engineer who founded Dolby Laboratories and pioneered noise reduction in audio recordings, has died in San Francisco aged 80.

Mr Dolby had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years and was diagnosed with leukaemia this summer.

His name became synonymous with home sound systems and cinema, and his work won many awards.

Kevin Yeaman, president of Dolby Laboratories, described Ray Dolby as a "true visionary".

Mr Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in the San Francisco area.

He began his career in the Ampex Corporation, helping to develop early videotape recording systems while he was still a student.

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Kevin Yeaman, president of Dolby Laboratories, says Ray Dolby was "committed to excellence"

He then went on to complete his PhD at Cambridge University in England and in 1965 founded Dolby Laboratories in London.

The company grew to be an industry leader in audio technology, cutting background hiss in tape recordings and later bringing out "surround sound".

Mr Dolby moved his company to San Francisco in 1976 and in 1989 was awarded an Oscar for his contributions to cinema. He shared the award with Dolby executive Ioan Allen.

He also received a Grammy award in 1995 and Emmy awards in 1989 and 2005.

Mr Dolby's son, filmmaker and novelist Tom Dolby, said: "Though he was an engineer at heart, my father's achievements in technology grew out of a love of music and the arts.

Continue reading the main story

Though he was an engineer at heart, my father's achievements in technology grew out of a love of music and the arts"

End Quote Tom Dolby

"He brought his appreciation of the artistic process to all of his work in film and audio recording."

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, which hands out the Grammy Awards, said Mr Dolby's innovations had "changed the way we listen to music and movies for nearly 50 years".

"His technologies have become an essential part of the creative process for recording artists and filmmakers, ensuring his remarkable legacy for generations to come," he added.

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Twitter plans stock market listing

13 September 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

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Rory Cellan-Jones reports on Twitters rise to the stock market

Twitter says it plans to join the stock market in the most hotly anticipated flotation since Facebook's last year.

Referring to the official paperwork needed to join the market, the company tweeted: "We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned [initial public offering]."

Investors value Twitter, founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, at more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

Twitter gave no further details as to the timing or price of the offering.

The microblogging service is on track to post $583m in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMarketer, up from $288m in 2012.

Most of Twitter's funding comes from advertising, with companies paying for "promoted tweets" that appear in users' Twitter feeds.

Advertisers are keen to target Twitter's 200 million active users, who send more than 500 million tweets a day.

Mobile first

Continue reading the main story

Leo Kelion Technology reporter

---

Twitter's flotation was long expected, but is only likely to increase scrutiny of the company.

In recent months, it has faced criticism for not doing enough to tackle rape threats against prominent women, as well as for not having enough security measures to prevent media accounts from being hijacked. In parts of the Middle East, leaders have also accused it of being a "scourge" and a "threat to national unity" for its role in opposition protests.

The firm will be mindful of the extra scrutiny Facebook endured after its flotation. Twitter users will also be on guard against the idea that pressure from investors could see them made subject to more adverts.

Investors, meanwhile, may be concerned about churn - the idea that people join and then drop out. Innovation may be the answer to that, with Twitter's new music discovery service and ways of viewing conversations with others being possible solutions.

But some analysts believe the risk for Twitter post-flotation is that if the drive for greater advertising revenue leads to increased numbers of adverts in and around the site, they could become intrusive and unpopular with users.

"There's a few issues [such as] how many revenue streams can be developed beyond just advertising, the impact of more people accessing the service via smartphones," said Colin Gillis, a New York-based technology specialist at BGC Partners.

Nearly two-thirds of users access Twitter via mobile devices that have traditionally been difficult for advertisers to reach.

This is one reason why Twitter has acquired MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising exchange, for a reported $350m.

"Twitter was more or less a mobile-first platform from the start and so the company built its experience to work relatively well across devices," Clark Fredriksen of eMarketer told the BBC.

"Ultimately, they did a good job of monetising their mobile user base."

Learning from Facebook

"Twitter is one of the last of the major developed social networks to file [for an initial public offering or IPO] - we've already had Facebook and LinkedIn," said Mr Gillis.

Facebook listed on the stock market in May last year. Although it initially created excitement among investors, its share price performed poorly, before recovering this summer.

The timing of the IPO is likely to be related to renewed activity in stock market flotations. There have been 131 IPOs priced so far in 2013, according to IPO tracking firm Renaissance Capital - a 44% increase on the same period last year.

Activity is climbing back towards the pre-financial crisis levels of 2007, says Renaissance.

Andrew Frank, social media expert at technology research company Gartner, said: "[The IPO] gives its investors a way to get some of the money back that they put into the company at the beginning.

"It gives the employees a similar kind of event to reward them for the success they've had so far. And it gives Twitter itself extra funds to invest in new projects and innovation."

Mr Gillis said it was impossible to say how great the demand for Twitter shares would be until the company released a valuation.

Analysts say Twitter must continue to innovate under the scrutiny of public ownership.

"One of the things they will have to focus on is making sure that they keep their users very actively engaged," Nate Elliott, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester, told the BBC.

"One of the things Facebook has done very successfully over the past year-and-a-half has been to show that not only is the number of users growing, but that those users are becoming more active."

'This tweet is going public?'

Twitter's tweet announcing its filing immediately went viral - it was re-tweeted more than 8,000 times within an hour of its posting.

For many users, it seemed apt that the company would use its own platform to announce the news.

"Naturally Twitter announces its IPO via Twitter. What other way?" one read.

Twitter later sent a follow-up tweet, which read simply: "Now, back to work."

Once a company has filed paperwork with US regulators for a planned IPO, it enters a so-called "quiet period" when it is not allowed to speak to the media.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission's website, a company can file a confidential prospectus for a public share sale if it is classified as an "emerging growth company" with revenue of less than $1bn.

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Google Street View car in 'accident'

13 September 2013 Last updated at 08:47 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

A Google Street View car hit two public transport buses and a truck in the city of Bogor, Indonesia.

Police said the car driver hit the first bus, appeared to "panic" when the bus driver responded angrily, and tried to drive off.

But in doing so the vehicle hit a second bus and then the truck, according to local media reports.

It is unclear whether anybody was hurt at the scene. Google has confirmed that an incident has taken place.

"We take incidents like this very seriously. We're working closely with local authorities to address the situation," Vishnu Mahmud, head of communications for Google in Indonesia, told news agency AFP.

Pictures of the incident were posted to an Indonesian website by an eyewitness.

Donkey

The tech giant has been taking photos of the region for its mapping service since November 2012.

Earlier this year Google denied reports that one of its Street View cars had run over a donkey in Botswana.

Street View photos appeared to show the animal walking by the roadside in one shot and then lying on its side behind the car in another.

"Because of the way our 360-degree imagery is put together, it looked to some that our car had been involved in an unseemly hit-and-run, leaving the humble beast stranded in the road," wrote Kei Kawai, Group Product Manager, Google Maps in a blog post at the time.

"The donkey was lying in the path - perhaps enjoying a dust bath - before moving safely aside as our car drove past.

"I'm pleased to confirm the donkey is alive and well," he added.

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'Cyber plot' to steal from Santander

13 September 2013 Last updated at 09:02 ET

Twelve men have been arrested over an "audacious" alleged plot to steal millions of pounds from a bank by remotely taking control of a computer.

A bogus engineer fitted a device called a keyboard video mouse to a machine in the Surrey Quays branch of Santander, south-east London, which would have enabled a gang to download data.

The police arrested the men on suspicion of conspiracy to steal.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This was a sophisticated plot that could have led to the loss of a very large amount of money"

End Quote Det Insp Mark Raymond Metropolitan Police

A spokesman said the "significant" plot could have netted millions of pounds.

Santander said a man pretending to be an engineer had tried to fit the device to one of their computers.

Several addresses in Hounslow, Brent, Hillingdon, Westminster, Richmond and Slough were searched and property was seized.

The arrested men, aged between 23 and 50, were detained in London on Thursday and remain in police custody.

'Organised network'

The Metropolitan Police said its "time-critical, dynamic response" had thwarted a "very significant and audacious cyber-enabled offence".

Continue reading the main story

What is a KVM device?

A KVM switch (keyboard video mouse) typically allows a person to control a number of different computers from a distance.

Potentially, a hacker using a KVM can switch between different computers, see what is being displayed on the monitors, and control the computers using a remote keyboard and mouse.

Police have not said yet whether the Santander KVM was connected to internal systems, to be controlled from another part of Santander, or whether the device was connected to the internet.

The force said the operation had helped avoid "multimillion-pound losses" from the branch at the shopping centre.

A KVM (keyboard video mouse) device was fitted to a computer within the bank but was not operational, officers said.

The device, if operational, would have allowed data and contents of the desktop to be downloaded over the network.

Although it is not the first time police have seen the device used, a Met spokesman said it was the first time it had been used by "an organised criminal network".

Det Insp Mark Raymond said: "This was a sophisticated plot that could have led to the loss of a very large amount of money from the bank, and is the most significant case of this kind that we have come across.

"I would like to thank our partners from the industry who have provided valuable assistance throughout this investigation."

'No money risked'

A spokesman for the bank said: "Through this co-operation, Santander was aware of the possibility of the attack connected to the arrests.

"The attempt to fit the device to the computer in the Surrey Quays Branch was undertaken by a bogus maintenance engineer pretending to be from a third party.

"It failed and no money was ever at risk. No member of Santander staff was involved in this attempted fraud."

A bank spokesman added that Santander was aware it was a target and it had been working with the police for three or four months before the bogus engineer attempted to connect the device.

The shutters of the branch in Surrey Quays were down on Friday and several customers were queuing to use the ATMs outside branch to check their accounts.

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UK pirates face copyright crackdown

13 September 2013 Last updated at 10:28 ET

Criminals making money from copyright theft are facing a crackdown in the UK.

The City of London Police launched a unit on Friday dedicated to pursuing serious intellectual property crime.

Detectives arrested two men suspected of importing £40,000 worth of counterfeit DVD boxsets in Birmingham on Friday morning.

Police will liaise with international agencies to tackle digital copyright infringement in the physical production and sale of counterfeit goods.

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu) will receive £2.56m funding over two years from the UK government body the Intellectual Property Office.

"Our focus will be the professional criminals using intellectual property crime to generate illicit gains," Det Ch Supt Oliver Shaw told the BBC.

The police will use links at national and international level to pursue suspects, building on existing contacts at agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in the US.

Officers trained in online investigations will act on tip-offs from industry groups to identify UK suspects, and will proactively seek out websites offering illegal goods and downloads.

Website control

The 19-strong unit will have the power to seize goods and assets, and will push internet service providers to take down websites selling spurious products.

Legitimate advertisers unwittingly running ads on illegal websites will be informed to stop advertising payments and disrupt revenue to crime gangs.

The team will also investigate the physical production and sale of counterfeit goods, for example, by pursuing criminals making faked brands of car tyres, said Det Ch Supt Shaw.

The two men arrested in Birmingham were suspected of importing and selling thousands of illegally produced DVD boxsets, the Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

UK efforts to counter serious copyright crime include the appointment of an intellectual property adviser by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Conservative MP Mike Weatherley, who will advise the prime minister on enforcement, was appointed on Thursday.

Regulator Ofcom published a report on Wednesday that said almost a quarter of UK downloads infringe copyright.

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British Gas online services back up

13 September 2013 Last updated at 11:32 ET

Customers of British Gas were unable to log on to their accounts online to pay bills or submit meter readings for several hours on Friday.

A link on the company's website to its official blog also directed people to a blank page.

The energy firm apologised for the service - which was resumed at 15:00 BST - being down.

A spokesperson did not give an explanation for the downtime in a statement sent to the BBC.

"Although the website is accessible, customers are unable to log in to their personal services at the moment. We apologise to our customers and we are working hard to get this resolved as soon as possible," he said.

"We're investigating the reasons as we fix it."

On the UK-based website's customer log-in screen an error message said "important upgrades" were under way, but this was not mentioned on the company's Twitter feed or elsewhere.

British Gas says the website and mobile apps should now be working normally.

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Microsoft offers $200 for used iPads

13 September 2013 Last updated at 13:32 ET

Microsoft has launched a US marketing offer for people to exchange "gently used" iPads for Microsoft products such as Surface tablets.

The company is offering at least a $200 token to go towards products such as the Surface RT and the Surface Pro.

Microsoft is far behind Apple in terms of global tablet sales and market share.

One US-based analyst expressed doubts that many people would swap their iPad for a Microsoft product.

"Do I think that many people will take [Microsoft] up on this offer? In a word, no," said Gartner mobile device analyst Van Baker. "The app ecosystem is the problem for Microsoft and this offer doesn't fix that problem."

There was a far greater range of mobile apps available for iPads than for Windows devices, giving Apple a competitive edge, said Mr Baker.

Microsoft has been engaged in an aggressive US marketing campaign to try to tempt Apple iPad users to buy Windows-based tablets.

In May, Microsoft launched an iPad v Windows comparison website, coupled with head-to-head advertising campaigns.

Microsoft has experienced problems trying to sell Surface devices.

In the first quarter of this year, Apple shipped 19.5 million iPads, compared with 900,000 Microsoft tablets.

In the second quarter, Microsoft shipped only 300,000 Surface devices, technology publication CiteWorld said.

Although Microsoft announced a revenue of $853 million on Surface sales in its latest financial regulatory filing, the company took a $900 million loss after failing to shift Surface RT devices.

Microsoft's $200 (£150) gift certificate offer is valid in its bricks and mortar stores. A Surface RT tablet costs $349, and a Surface Pro retails at $799.

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Argentine teenage 'superhacker' held

13 September 2013 Last updated at 19:33 ET

Police in Argentina have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of heading a gang of hackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites.

Dubbed "the superhacker", the teenager was making $50,000 (£31,500) a month, working from his bedroom in Buenos Aires, police say.

The arrest operation shut down the power to the entire neighbourhood to prevent the deletion of sensitive data.

Police say it took them a year to close in on the teenager.

The young man lived with his father, a computer expert, in Buenos Aires.

In the teenager's room, officials found high-capacity computers.

The hackers allegedly used malware attacks to build up a network of thousands of zombie computers, which were then used to illegally divert money from accounts leaving virtually no trace behind.

The police operation included five raids in the capital and the city of Rosario, about 300km (190 miles) north.

The young man is being accused of three crimes, and if convicted of all, could be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

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