Mandatory porn site age checks urged

28 March 2014 Last updated at 00:14 By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

A UK industry regulator has called for the law to be changed to require pornography sites to carry out age checks before granting access.

Video-on-demand watchdog Atvod said the government must act to protect children from seeing graphic adult material.

It said credit and debit card operators would be forbidden from processing payments from British customers to sites that did not comply.

But one campaigner said the action would be a "worthless gesture".

The Authority for Television On Demand (Atvod) said the matter was so urgent that it was "critical the legislation is enacted during this Parliament".

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To back up its demand, the body requested data from market research firm Nielsen, which routinely monitors the general online habits of a volunteer panel of 45,000 desktop PC and laptop users across the UK.

The survey indicated that, over the course of one month:

• 6% of children aged 15 years or younger had accessed an adult website
• 5% of visitors to such sites had been under-18
• One website alone had been visited by 112,000 boys in the UK aged between 12 and 17-years-old
• Of the wider population, 23% of those who had used the net over the month had visited an adult site
• Visitors to adult sites spent an average of 15 minutes looking at them during each visit and typically clocked up two-and-a-half hours of time in total over the month

Atvod added that the survey probably underestimated the scale of the issue since smartphone and tablet use was not included in the figures.

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Jon Brown, NSPCC, said there were few barriers to accessing pornography online

Porn licences

The regulator already forces UK-based sites to carry out age verification checks before explicit photographs and videos can be viewed.

This can be done by requiring valid credit card details, or other personal information that can be cross-referenced with the electoral roll or another ID database.

However, the body said the vast majority of online pornography was downloaded from businesses based overseas, over which it had no control.

To tackle this, Atvod said it wanted all adult sites to request a licence that would only be granted if they had age checks in place. Payment processors would be ordered not to handle fees for premium services - such as higher definition or longer clips - from UK citizens to unregistered sites.

"We're a very substantial market and to access the money that's flowing from the UK would be quite a powerful incentive to introduce restrictions," Atvod's chief executive, Pete Johnson told the BBC.

Mixed reactions

The UK government has already pressured the UK's major internet service providers to use software filters that automatically block adult material unless households specifically ask for them to be turned off.

However, a spokesman for the coalition government indicated it needed time to consider Atvod's request.

"We will continue to work with industry and others to look at where further action could be taken, including around age restrictions," he said.

Labour has, however, already come out in support of the move.

"It is only by threatening to cut off the flow of money that we will force these websites to act responsibly, and payment processors need legal clarity before they can act to help achieve this," said shadow culture minister, Helen Goodman.

However, Sex and Censorship - which describes itself as a free speech campaign group - said the move would prove ineffective.

"It won't make any difference to the sites that give all their videos away for free and sell advertising because they don't need credit card processing," said Jerry Barnett.

"And some sites are already accepting bitcoin and other anonymous online payment systems. A clampdown on card payments would just accelerate this trend.

"Even if implemented, this measure would have no effect on the range of content available to British consumers."

Mr Barnett previously ran a UK-based adult website himself until he was fined for failing to prevent children accessing its content.

'Significant win'

Mindgeek, the Luxembourg-based operator of many of the most popular adult sites, said it already carried out age verification checks in countries where this was required. But it indicated this did not address the crux of the problem.

"There is no single 'silver bullet' solution to protecting children and adolescents from potentially harmful content and interactions in their digital lives," said a spokeswoman.

"The best solution lies in a multi-layered approach in which the parent assumes the central role."

Atvod acknowledged its proposal was only part of the solution, but it insisted that the scheme could still be designed to make a difference.

"The material that appears on the free services is placed there by the paid services to attract customers to sign up to subscriptions.

"As long as the paid service placed content on a free service without age verification it would be in breach of its licensing conditions and so would not be able to access funds from the UK.

"We're not saying this will stop all children seeing all pornography online.

"But our argument is that even if you reduce the number of children who are accessing hardcore pornography online by 10%, that would be a significant win."

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Bionic Olympics to be hosted in 2016

27 March 2014 Last updated at 12:24

The first Cybathlon, an Olympics for bionic athletes, will take place in Switzerland in October 2016.

The event will include a race where competitors control an avatar via a brain interface.

There will also be races for competitors wearing prosthetic limbs and exo-skeletons.

Hosted by the Swiss National Competence Center of Research, it is hoped the competition will spur interest in human performance-enhancing technology.

The brain-computer interface race is designed for competitors who are paralysed from the neck down. They will control an avatar in a computer racing game via a headset that connects the brain to a computer.

There will also be races for those wearing arm or leg prosthetics, an exoskeleton race and a wheelchair race.

The assistive devices worn by the athletes, who will be known as pilots, can either be ones that are already commercially available or prototypes from research labs.

There will be two medals for each competition, one for the pilot and one for company that developed the device.

Bionic limbs and exoskeletons are becoming much more technically advanced, offering those wearing them much more realistic movements.

Prof Hugh Herr, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, showed off some of the prosthetics that his team have been working on at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver last week.

He is currently in negotiations with health care professionals to get the bionic limbs more widely available to those who need them.

Often though there was a disconnect between technology and patients, said Prof Robert Riener, event organiser, from the University of Switzerland.

"The idea is that we want to push development of assistive technologies towards devices that patients can really use in everyday life," he told the BBC.

"Some of the current technologies look very fancy but are a long way from being practical and user-friendly," he added.

The other main aim of the games is to allow people to compete who have never had the opportunity before.

"We allow technology that has previously been excluded from the Paralympics. By making it a public event we want to get rid of the borders between patients, society and the technology community," Prof Riener said.

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Turkey moves to block YouTube access

27 March 2014 Last updated at 16:12

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"What appears to have prompted the ban... is an audio recording between senior ministers, which was posted on the site", reports Mariko Oi

Turkey has moved to block access to YouTube, a day after a court ordered the suspension of a ban on Twitter, which PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan backed.

The telecoms authority (TIB) said it had taken an "administrative measure" against the site but another report suggests that talks are under way.

Some users found access blocked while others could still use the site.

Earlier, what appeared to be a leaked audio recording of Turkish officials discussing Syria appeared on YouTube.

Continue reading the main story

They even leaked a national security meeting"

End Quote Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish prime minister

It relates to a discussion of possible military operations in Syria, which was apparently attended by Turkey's intelligence chief, its foreign minister and the deputy head of the armed forces.

Reuters news agency, which examined the recording, said it could not verify its authenticity but it was potentially the most damaging purported leak so far as it appeared to have originated from the bugging of a highly confidential and sensitive conversation.

Mr Erdogan, who faces important local elections on Sunday, accuses social media of spreading misinformation and suggested earlier that bans could be applied to both YouTube and Facebook.

'Villainous' leak

In its statement, the TIB said: "After technical analysis and legal consideration.... an administrative measure has been taken for this website."

As conflicting reports emerged over the blockage, the search engine Google, which owns YouTube, confirmed that some users were unable to access YouTube in Turkey.

"There is no technical issue on our side and we're looking into the situation," a Google Inc spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

The term #youtubeblockedinturkey has begun trending worldwide on Twitter.

At a rally in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, Mr Erdogan appeared to confirm the latest audio leak was genuine.

"They even leaked a national security meeting," he said. "This is villainous, this is dishonesty... Who are you serving by doing audio surveillance of such an important meeting?"

On Wednesday, a court in the capital, Ankara, ordered the TIB to lift its ban on Twitter, but it could be weeks before the order takes effect.

Twitter itself has filed a challenge to the access ban. It said it was concerned about a court order to suspend an account which had accused a former minister of corruption.

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Microsoft unveils iPad Office suite

28 March 2014 Last updated at 01:46 By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

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BBC's Richard Taylor takes a first look at Office for iPad

Microsoft has started offering an iPad edition of its Office software suite.

It was announced at the first launch event hosted by Satya Nadella since he became chief executive of the firm.

Three separate productivity apps are available - Word, Excel and Powerpoint - each of which has been optimised for touch-based controls.

Within hours of the launch, Word became the most downloaded application for iPads in Apple's app store.

The Excel and Powerpoint apps were the third and fourth most popular free app downloads, respectively, in the store.

The popularity suggests that customers are interested in accessing Microsoft's signature Office products in their new, easier to use incarnation, compared with the web-based alternatives provided before. But it is not yet clear how many will pay for a subscription to access all the apps' features.

The firm has faced criticism for not offering the software until now.

Mr Nadella said that the announcement was part of a strategy to empower people "to be productive across all devices" with Microsoft software.

"We are taking great focus and great care to make sure Office on any device shines through," he said, indicating that his firm would release versions of the apps for other mobile devices in the future.

Continue reading the main story

Satya Nadella's move to bring Office to the iPad is significant as much for its symbolism as for the detail.

He has calculated that bringing Microsoft's flagship productivity software to a rival operating system is a better long-term bet than holding it hostage to Windows-based devices.

It is a bold statement of leadership, signalling a willingness to carve out a fresh direction for Microsoft.

It puts Office at the heart of this new strategy, one in which mobile and cloud software and services are key, and an openness to other platforms is embraced.

One risk in this cross-platform strategy is that iPad developers have filled an Office-shaped hole with apps which - for many users - are perfectly respectable alternatives.

There will definitely be a core of Office users excited by the prospect of a familiar app with streamlined integration into the desktop version through the cloud. The question is how large this paying audience will be.

Furthermore, if the move to iPad proves too well-executed, it may be at the expense of sales of its own Surface tablet and other Windows-based mobile hardware - one of the reasons the Microsoft old guard resisted for so long.

The new CEO is making it clear that Microsoft is moving in a post-Windows environment - what he calls "a mobile first, cloud first" world - and the software giant needs to adapt accordingly.

Research firm Gartner predicts about 271 million tablets will be shipped this year - only slightly less than its forecast of 277 million PCs and laptops - and Apple's iPad is currently the bestselling model.

Mr Nadella's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, launched an iPhone version of Office last year and confirmed an iPad version was in the works.

But many industry watchers have speculated that Mr Ballmer deliberately delayed its release in order to debut a tablet touch-centric version on Microsoft's own Surface machines before bringing it to a competing platform.

App rivals

Office remains Microsoft's cash cow, accounting for $16.2bn (£9.7bn) - or just over 60% - of Microsoft's operating profit in its last financial year. But some believe that sum could have been larger.

"It was definitely a major mistake to wait - an example of the insular old-world thinking of Steve Ballmer and his management team that believed everything should be within a Windows ecosystem," said Chris Green, from the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"In today's multi-device environment, where Windows is no longer the all dominant platform it once was, that game plan doesn't work anymore. The fact Microsoft is now catching up is only going to be a good thing and will be to the benefit of the Office applications."

The iPhone version has attracted a relatively low review score from Apple's App Store users, many of whom complained about its cost - it required an Office 365 subscription sold for £80 a year - and missing features.

Meanwhile other apps - including Documents to Go, HopTo, Quickoffice, Google's business web apps and Apple's iWork suite - have prospered offering free or cheaper alternatives that can load and alter files originally created by Office.

Some critics have questioned whether Microsoft has left it too late to act.

However, the iPad edition is more powerful than the original iPhone version - for example more complicated edits can now be made to Powerpoint presentations and the programs make recommendations to help create visually appealing documents - and several experts believe there will be strong demand for the product.

Freemium model

Users wanting to only view and present documents can use Office for iPad without charge, but an Office 365 subscription is still needed to edit them.

Small businesses are, however, offered a discounted annual rate of £39.60 per user for up to 25 workers.

"Much as you can edit Excel spreadsheets and tweak Word and Powerpoint documents with other software, it can involve technical gymnastics and be a great pain on an iPad," Richard Edwards, an analyst at tech research firm Ovum, told the BBC.

"Often when you move from one program to another the DNA of a document gets twisted and distorted, with formatting errors and other problems.

"For the reduction in stress people and businesses will be more than willing to pay for the subscription cost."

However, one analyst said Mr Nadella still had more work to do to reassure shareholders.

"The company's announcement today around offering Office for iPad - and eventually other devices - will be warmly welcomed by investors, in our view, as it adds a long awaited gateway to enterprise users, finally capitalising on bring-your-own-device-to-work trends," said Daniel Ives from FBR Capital Markets.

"[But] reinvigorating the Windows franchise continues to be a key ingredient in Microsoft's recipe for success.

"With the much-hyped Windows 8 having experienced lacklustre adoption, we believe investors will be looking for hints or previews around Windows 9 and subsequent updates to Windows 8.1 at the upcoming Build Conference as this struggling high-margin business remains front and centre."

Microsoft's Build conference for developers runs from 2 to 4 April in San Francisco.

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Smartphone overuse may 'damage' eyes

Opticians are worried over exposure to light from devices could cause long term eye problems.

Opticians say people are so addicted to smartphones they may be increasing their risk of eye damage.

They are warning overuse from phones and other devices like computers, tablets, and flat screen TVs can lead to long-term damage.

It comes as a survey of 2,000 people suggests under 25s check their phones thirty-two times a day.

Optician Andy Hepworth said: "Blue violet light is potentially hazardous and toxic to the back of your eyes.

Continue reading the main story

It's the combination of not blinking enough and bringing the device closer than you normally look at objects - it strains your eyes

Andy Hepworth Optician

"So over a long period of time it can potentially damage your eyes.

"When you're looking at a smart phone, the light peaking out of that is blue violet."

He says tests have found that over exposure to blue-violet light has the potential to put us at greater risk of macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.

Opticians say that, although "good" blue light (blue-turquoise) is needed to help regulate biological clocks, it is also thought that extensive exposure to blue violet light can disrupting sleep patterns and affect moods.

"Although we don't know if there's a direct link with it creating eye problems, there is strong lab evidence it can potentially do that," Andy added.

"It's the combination of not blinking enough and bringing the device closer than you normally look at objects - it strains your eyes."

'More headaches'

The survey, commissioned by a group of independent opticians, found that on average, an adult spends nearly seven hours a day staring at a screen with nearly half feeling anxious when away from their phone.

Statistics also suggest 43% of under 25s experience genuine irritation or anxiety when they can't check their phone when they want.

Alana Chinery says she is never without her smart phone

It also found 55% felt the amount of screen time they're exposed to affects them with eye discomfort the main problem.

Eighteen-year-old Alana Chinery from Essex is never without her smart phone.

Continue reading the main story

Get your eyes tested regularly and take regular breaks from your computer and hand held device

Amanda Saint Optician

She said: "I've definitely noticed that my eyes are getting worse from staring at my computer and phone.

"I am getting more headaches."

Amanda Saint, who is also an optician, says the advice is simple.

"Get your eyes tested regularly and take regular breaks from your computer and hand held device."

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

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Snoopy drone sniffs public's data

28 March 2014 Last updated at 07:07 By Kim Gittleson BBC reporter, Black Hat, Singapore

Security firm SensePost has unveiled its Snoopy drone, which can steal data from unsuspecting smartphone users, at the Black Hat security conference in Singapore.

The drone uses the company's software, which is installed on a computer attached to a drone.

That code can be used to hack smartphones and steal personal data - all without a user's knowledge.

It does this by exploiting handsets looking for a wireless signal.

Glenn Wilkinson, who developed Snoopy, says that when the software is attached to a drone flying around an area, it can gather everything from a user's home address to his or her bank information.

"Every device we carry emits unique signatures - even pacemakers come with wi-fi today," Mr Wilkinson tells the BBC.

"And - holy smokes, what a bad idea."

'The machines that betrayed their masters'

Many smartphone users leave the wireless option constantly turned on on their smartphone. That means the phones are constantly looking for a network to join - including previously used networks.

"A lot of [past] network names are unique and it's possible to easily geo-locate them," says Mr Wilkinson, who explains Snoopy uses a combination of the name of a network a user is looking for as well as the MAC address that uniquely identifies a device to track a smartphone in real-time.

Beyond that, Snoopy demonstrates how someone could also impersonate one of those past networks in a so-called karma attack, in which a rogue operator impersonates a past network that a user then joins, thinking it is safe.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I've gathered smartphone device data from every security conference that I've been at for the last year and a half"

End Quote Glenn Wilkinson Sensepoint

Once the user has joined the disguised network, the rogue operator can then steal any information that the user enters while on that network - including e-mail passwords, Facebook account information, and even banking details.

This is why Mr Wilkinson says that smartphones and other devices that use wireless technology - such as Oyster cards using RFID (radio frequency identification) or bank cards with chips - can betray their users.

'Am I on candid camera?'

Mr Wilkinson - who began developing the Snoopy software three years ago as a side-project - gave the BBC a preview of the technology ahead of its release.

Pulling out a laptop from his bag, Mr Wilkinson opened the Snoopy programme - and immediately pulled up the smartphone information of hundreds of Black Hat conference attendees.

With just a few keystrokes, he showed that an attendee sitting in the back right corner of the keynote speech probably lived in a specific neighbourhood in Singapore. The software even provided a streetview photo of the smartphone user's presumed address.

"I've gathered smartphone device data from every security conference that I've been at for the last year and a half - so I can see who was at each event and whether or not they've attended multiple events," says Mr Wilkinson.

He then shows this data to conference attendees - who often ask, when presented with a photograph of their home or office, if they're on candid camera.

Bringing awareness

Mr Wilkinson is quick to acknowledge that the Snoopy software is not new technology - but rather, just a different way of gathering together a series of known security risks.

"There's nothing new about this - what's new is that Snoopy brings a lot of the technology together in a unique way," he explains.

Continue reading the main story

Find out more

• Drones are controlled either autonomously by on-board computers, or by remote control
• They are used in situations where manned flight is considered too dangerous or difficult
• Also increasingly used for policing and fire-fighting, security work, and for filming

For instance, the Snoopy software has been ground-based until now, operating primarily on computers, smartphones with Linux installed on them, and on open-source small computers like the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black.

But when attached to a drone, it can quickly cover large areas.

"You can also fly out of audio-visual range - so you can't see or hear it, meaning you can bypass physical security - men with guns, that sort of thing," he says.

It's not hard to imagine a scenario in which an authoritarian regime could fly the drone over an anti-government protest and collect the smartphone data of every protester and use the data to figure out the identities of everyone in attendance.

Mr Wilkinson says that this is why he has become fascinated with our "digital terrestrial footprint" - and the way our devices can betray us.

He says he wants to "talk about this to bring awareness" of the security risks posed by such simple technologies to users.

His advice? Turn off the wireless network on your phone until you absolutely need to use it.

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Billboard unveils Twitter charts

Billboard has announced a new set of music charts based on Twitter data.

Working with the social media platform, the Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts will rank tracks and artists based on Twitter traffic.

Trends will be ranked in real-time over extended periods of time to track the longevity of successful songs and artists' popularity.

The charts will also highlight the most talked about and shared tracks by new and upcoming acts.

Continue reading the main story

When artists share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter, the buzz they create will now be visible to fans, other musicians and industry decision makers

Bob Moczydlowsky Head of music - Twitter

The Twitter Real-Time Charts are set to launch in America over the next fortnight.

Bob Moczydlowsky, Twitter's head of music, said: "When artists share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter, the buzz they create will now be visible to fans, other musicians and industry decision makers in real-time."

Katy Perry is currently the most followed musician of Twitter with 51.8 million followers.

Official accounts of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake are also in the top 10 most followed users on the site.

Katy Perry is currently the most followed musician on Twitter

Billboard's Hot 100 chart, which is based on radio play, streaming online, and sales, was recently expanded to include Spotify and YouTube streams.

They also launched an artist chart called Social 50 in 2010, which collects data from social media.

Earlier this week, Twitter announced that its #music discovery service will close on 18 April.

Twitter's #music will close next month

The app, which gives users artist and song suggestions based on who they follow on site, was launched last year after Twitter bought the We Are Hunted music app.

After an initial surge in downloads, by October it had dropped to 165th place in the free music apps category on iTunes, according to AppData.

The new chart will be available on Billboard.com and will be shared on their Twitter account.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

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Google government requests 'up 120%'

28 March 2014 Last updated at 12:11

Google has said the number of requests it has had from governments to share information about its users has gone up by 120% in the past four years.

The rise was blamed on an increase in users, but the company also said more governments were starting to "exercise their authority to make requests".

In releasing the data the search giant renewed its calls for government surveillance reform.

Last year, 53,356 requests for data were made globally, Google said.

The majority of requests come from the US - but the figures do not include bulk surveillance carried out by the country's National Security Agency (NSA).

Google has been publishing the twice-yearly Transparency Report since 2009.

Transparency push

Not all requests Google receives are successful. In the period of July to December 2013, 69% of the UK government's 1,397 requests resulted in user information being passed over.

In the US, 83% of 10,574 requests were granted.

"We consistently push back against overly broad requests for your personal information," wrote Richard Salgado, Google's legal director.

"But it's also important for laws to explicitly protect you from government overreach.

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Edward Snowden: Surveillance is 'setting fire' to the internet

"That's why we're working alongside eight other companies to push for surveillance reform, including more transparency."

Following revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden into US spying - technology companies have been pressing for more openness in the activities of governments.

Google has joined some of the sector's big hitters - including Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter - in pushing for the right to publish data into national security requests as well demands made for law enforcement purposes.

Journalists targeted

In a separate publication on Friday, two Google engineers revealed the extent of state-sponsored hacking attempts on journalists and news organisations.

The engineers suggested that 21 of the top 25 news organisations in the world had been targeted - and that while general users face such attacks, journalists were "massively over-represented" in the study's data.

Shane Huntley and Morgan Marquis-Boire presented their findings at the Black Hat security conference in Singapore.

Mr Huntley told Reuters: "If you're a journalist or a journalistic organisation we will see state-sponsored targeting and we see it happening regardless of region, we see it from all over the world both from where the targets are and where the targets are from."

He added that Chinese hackers had accessed a US news organisation - which was not named - by sending out a fake questionnaire to staff.

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Facebook drones to offer net access

28 March 2014 Last updated at 12:53 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

Facebook has ambitious plans to connect the two-thirds of the world that has no net access, using drones, satellites and lasers.

The move was announced on the social media platform by founder Mark Zuckerberg.

It will put it in direct competition with Google, which is planning to deliver net access via balloons.

Both of the net giants want to extend their audiences, especially in the developing world.

Details about Facebook's plan were scant but it will include a fleet of solar-powered drones as well as low-earth orbit and geosynchronous satellites. Invisible, infrared laser beams could also be used to boost the speed of the net connections.

Last year Facebook and other technology companies launched internet.org to help bring net access to the huge swathes of the globe that are still not connected.

Aerospace experts

The social network has already teamed up with telecoms operators in the Philippines and Paraguay to double the number of people using the internet in that region.

"We're going to continue building these partnerships, but connecting the whole world will require inventing new technology too," Mr Zuckerberg said in his post.

To bring the project to fruition, Facebook has set up a Connectivity Lab that will include experts in aerospace and communication technology, from Nasa's jet propulsion lab and its Ames research centre.

It has also hired a five-member team that worked at British firm Ascenta, whose founders developed the Zephyr, which holds the record for the longest-flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft.

Earlier this month there were rumours that the social network was interested in buying drone-maker Titan but there was no mention of this in the announcement.

Altruistic?

The plans form part of Facebook's ambitions to extend its reach beyond its 1.2 billion audience, thinks Ovum analyst Mark Little.

"Zuckerberg is pushing this as an altruistic way of connecting more people in the world - the net as a basic human right - but by increasing the total of net connections it also increases Facebook's members and the amount of sharing done, which in turn creates more space for advertising and drives its revenues in a massive way."

Last year Google announced similar plans to develop solar-powered balloons to deliver net access to remote areas of the world.

Code-named Project Loon, 30 of the super-pressure balloons were launched in New Zealand in June.

"It is perhaps aptly named," said Mr Little.

"It is going to have a lot of political hoops to jump through. Some governments won't put up with having that fleet over their airspace."

Mr Little thinks that for both Facebook and Google, the technology in their projects may prove to be "the easy bit" and that the real challenge will lie in persuading governments around the world that its alternative networks are viable.

"Mobile operators are always under threat from alternative ways of delivering net services. This becomes a concern for governments when a nation's communications rest on an outside provider," he said.

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Blackberry posts $5.9bn annual loss

28 March 2014 Last updated at 20:06

Troubled smartphone maker Blackberry has reported a net loss of $5.9bn (£3.5bn) for its latest financial year.

However, in the three months to 1 March it recorded a smaller-than-expected loss of $423m, compared with a loss of $4.4bn in the previous quarter.

The company said it was pleased with its fourth quarter performance, and that it was on "a path to returning to growth and profitability".

Boss John Chen said the firm was moving to a "sounder financial footing".

Continue reading the main story

Blackberry devices have recently lost out in the high-end smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and phones powered by Google Android operating system.

During the financial year, the company's losses included $934m on unsold Z10 smartphones, and restructuring costs of $512m.

Fourth quarter revenues fell to $976m, below analysts' expectations of $1.1bn.

As part of its turnaround plan the firm is focusing on its services arm, and is also putting renewed emphasis on its keyboard devices.

Mr Chen was appointed as interim chief executive in November 2013.

"The guy is on the move fast," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners. "He can control expenses but you can't magically make revenue happen."

Blackberry's shares fell nearly 5% on Friday, reversing initial gains of over 5%.

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