The mobile phone patent punch-up

23 October 2011 Last updated at 16:31 GMT By Leo Kelion Business reporter Google came to HTC's aid in its patent disputes with Apple The patent system was created to spur on innovation. But over recent years it has sparked an arms war between some of the world's leading mobile phone companies.

The likes of Apple and Microsoft do not only sue their rivals to protect their own inventions, but go on to buy third party patents to build up their weapon stockpile.

What is more, they appear increasingly willing to litigate.

The number of handset patent infringement filings to the US courts grew from 24 cases in 2006, to 84 cases in 2010, according to Lex Machina, an intellectual property litigation data provider.

It expects that number to grow to 97 cases this year, reflecting more than a four-fold rise in the space of half a decade.

"Filings in this litigation space appeared to have hit a plateau this summer, but are now strongly back on the rise," says Lex Machina's chief executive, Josh Becker.

Accelerated innovation

Part of the problem is the speed at which the industry is evolving.

The US patent system offers inventors a limited monopoly on new ideas lasting twenty years from when they are filed. However, mobile phone users expect giant leaps in progress over a much shorter time span.

Continue reading the main story

We all lose when the central competitive arena switches from serving customers to winning at high-stakes litigation”

End Quote Prof Kevin Werbach Pennsylvania University As the devices transform into music players, cameras, internet browsers and beyond, they involve an increasing amount of intellectual property.

There are now potentially more than 250,000 active patents relevant to a single smartphone, according to RPX, a San Francisco based patent aggregator and licensor.

"The devices we used 10 years ago to make voice calls have become hand-held computers incorporating a vast array of software and hardware, which increases the breadth of patent exposure," said RPX's chief executive, John Amster.

"And this problem increases with the capabilities of these devices to do new things.

The lawyers become involved when a company either doesn't want to share its advances, or wants to be paid a fee for their use. Some experts believe this is now becoming a default tactic.

Continue reading the main story

Lawsuits between major mobile handset makers. Click on the names to see who is suing whom

"For some time, the threat of mutually assured destruction among the major technology players such as IBM and Microsoft limited the outbreak of patent warfare," says Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"Today however, especially in the mobile market, asymmetric threats are widespread. There may be a few local winners in the mobile patent wars, but we all lose when the central competitive arena switches from serving customers to winning at high-stakes litigation."

Keeping track of the tangled web of claims and counter claims is becoming a complex task in itself.

Microsoft is suing handset maker Motorola Mobility over its use of video coding and other patents, but Motorola is counter suing over Microsoft's implementation of email, instant messaging and Wi-fi.

Continue reading the main story

When you get two technology giants battling each other, they will always ensure there is no sign of weakness”

End Quote Florian Mueller FOSS Patents Motorola is being taken over by Google, which is being sued by Oracle over its use of the Java programming language in its Android operating system.

Google also intervened in HTC's legal fights against Apple, selling some of its patents to the Taiwanese handset maker. HTC claims Apple violates its power management technology and other innovations, while Apple challenges the way HTC uses touch screens and gesture recognition.

Meanwhile, Apple has used patent and design-related rights lawsuits to prevent Samsung Electronics from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in Australia and Germany. The South Korean firm has retaliated trying to ban iPhone sales in Japan and Australia.

LG, Sony, Ericsson, Kodak and Nokia have also been active in the courts.

Samsung's Tab 10.1 is at the centre of a legal dispute with Apple Litigation contagion

Florian Mueller keeps track of developments at his blog, Foss Patents, and was recently commissioned by Microsoft to study certain types of patent litigation.

"When you get two technology giants battling each other, they will always ensure there is no sign of weakness," he says.

"So you will see one firm counter-suing against the other, even if their claim is of dubious merit, to make sure they don't go down without a fight."

"Litigants look for jurisdictions that they believe are favourable to their interests, which can give them a quick win... as a result the disputes spread geographically."

Continue reading the main story

We don't allow others to... get a free ride on the back of our innovation”

End Quote Louise Pentland Chief legal officer, Nokia However, Nokia stresses decisions to take legal action are not taken lightly.

The Finnish phone maker recently settled a patent lawsuit with Apple after the US firm agreed to pay a one-off charge and ongoing royalties.

"Our industry requires significant R&D. Nokia alone has invested around 45bn euros ($61.8bn, £39.4bn) in the past two decades," the firm's chief legal officer, Louise Pentland, told the BBC.

"Companies which use the resulting inventions must have permission and compensate those who took the risks and invested to create them."

"So, though litigation is not Nokia's preferred option, we don't allow others to use our intellectual property without authorisation or get a free ride on the back of our innovation," says Ms Pentland.

Legal logic

While Nokia tackled Apple head-on, the iPhone maker and Microsoft are litigating against handset makers using Google's Android system, rather than the search giant itself.

Google does not charge for the software, but instead relies on its partners' devices driving users to its various search services. The firm's latest results show its mobile advertising business is generating revenue at rate of $2.5bn a year, so giving away Android for "free" makes financial sense.

However that creates a major problem for its rivals.

Microsoft's business model relies on handset makers paying for the right to use its Windows Phone 7 system. Apple has to price in the development costs of its iOS system when selling its iPhones.

Microsoft's solution seems to be to force Android manufacturers to pay it a royalty if they use Google's software. At least that was the outcome of patent talks with HTC in 2010 and Samsung last month.

The terms have never been disclosed, but Citigroup analyst, Walter Pritchard, believes HTC and Samsung pay Microsoft between $1-5 for each Android handset sold.

"I think with approximately 50% of Android handsets covered by royalty arrangements, they will continue to pursue the same course of legal action... for the remaining smaller Android players," Mr Pritchard says.

By contrast, Apple seems more intent on keeping its innovations proprietary.

"We spend a lot of time and money and resource on coming up with incredible innovation and we don't like it when someone else takes those," said Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, after the firm released its most recent results.

He declined to elaborate further.

However, a recent court filing by one of Apple's lawyers revealed it could be willing to license Samsung some of its "lower-level patents", but in return Samsung would need to agree to "cease copying the features and functionality" of Apple's products.

Apple has agreed to pay royalty fees to Nokia, but has not disclosed the amounts involved Patent price inflation

As patent attacks become more common place, companies are stocking up on ammunition.

In December 2010, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and the data specialist EMC spent $450m on 882 patents, and patent applications, belonging to Novell, an ailing infrastructure software provider.

That sum was then dwarfed by the $4.5bn paid in July for a 6,000 strong patent portfolio belonging to bankrupt telecoms manufacturer, Nortel. Microsoft and Apple shared the library with Blackberry maker, Research in Motion, and three others.

Then, in September, Google revealed plans to buy Motorola Mobility, and its 24,500 patent library, for $12.5bn.

Notably, the deal was secured one month after Google's Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote a blog titled "When patents attack".

"Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android," he said.

Continue reading the main story

We're in a situation now of patent poker where the deck has been redealt and everyone has a new hand”

End Quote Ben Wood CCS Insight "Unless we act, consumers could face rising costs for Android devices - and fewer choices for their next phone."

Although vast sums are involved, experts say it could prove cost-effective if the acquisitions encourage cross-licensing deals under which firms swap permission to use each others' inventions.

"We're in a situation now of patent poker where the deck has been redealt and everyone has a new hand, and all the patent lawyers are saying we need to review our positions," says Ben Wood, chief of research at mobile analysts CCS Insight.

"I would like to think this might result in renewed sanity and a realisation that trying to kill each other in court isn't to the greater good of the industry."

However others are less optimistic.

"As long as major companies feel they need to shore up their patent portfolios, we'll continue to see patents valued as defensive assets in a total war, rather than based on their potential for value creation," says Professor Werbach.

"While in the short run Nortel's creditors and Motorola's shareholders may have benefitted from patent price inflation, the overall impact will be significant market distortion."

On Tuesday, we will look at the role of so-called patent trolls in the mobile patent wars, and whether fair licensing rules can boost the industry.

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Mobile firms vs the patent trolls

24 October 2011 Last updated at 22:46 GMT By Leo Kelion Technology reporter A recent study claimed "patent trolls" cost industry billions of dollars a year Patent litigation among the world's leading mobile phone companies is on the rise.

Barely a week goes by without a development, whether it is Apple and Samsung trying to prevent each others' products from going on sale, or Microsoft forcing another handset maker to pay it a licence fee for the alleged use of its technologies in Google's Android software.

However the legal action is not limited to the big brand names.

Experts also point to a rise in activity of so-called patent trolls - a derogatory name given to organisations that aggressively defend patent libraries without releasing products of their own.

This, the second of two reports into the patent wars, starts by exploring their role.

Unsurprisingly, litigants try to avoid being associated with Scandinavian folkloric monsters wherever possible.

So the industry uses the term "non-practicing entity" to refer to organisations that own and license patents without producing goods of their own.

One of the best known is Intellectual Ventures, which has a library of more than 35,000 patents.

Set up by a former Microsoft executive, Nathan Myhrvold, it recently revealed it has earned over $2 billion through licensing its portfolio to others since 2000.

Like the phone makers it is willing to take legal action to protect its assets.

Earlier this month it sued Motorola Mobility, accusing the handset maker of using its technology to perform updates, file transfers and other functions on its Android phones.

Intellectual Ventures declined to contribute to this report, but previously referred to the case saying: "We will not tolerate ongoing infringement of our patents to the detriment of our current customers and our business."

Expensive Continue reading the main story

Some manufacturers hold back some patents so they have a weapon to deploy against competitors”

End Quote Jonathan Radcliffe Mayer Brown International A recent study, called "The private and social costs of patent trolls" by Boston University law professor, James Bessen, suggests such cases are not uncommon.

He found NPEs initiated more than 2,600 lawsuits against US companies in 2010, more than five times the number than were filed in 2004.

Based on the resulting damage to the defendants' stock prices, he estimates the actions cost them more than $83bn a year over the last four years.

You might think that would act as an incentive for the technology giants to license patents from their inventors, rather than risk court action.

However, Professor Bessen says the reverse is true because successful claims are often the result of "inadvertent" infringements.

Since companies are having to put aside money to cover these lawsuits, he claims they then have less cash to pay for third party innovations.

"The defendants in these lawsuits are firms that already invest a lot in innovation," Professor Bessen said.

"Their losses make it more expensive for them to continue to do so and it also makes them less willing to license new technologies from small inventors."

Fight back

The rise of the NPEs has led to creation of a new type of business, which describes itself a "defensive patent aggregator".

Apple used the FRAND defence to prevent Samsung from banning sales of its iPhone in the Netherlands

One of the first examples is a company called RPX. It was co-founded three years ago by John Amster, an ex-employee of Intellectual Ventures.

Like NPEs, RPX owns a patent library which it licenses out. But it markets its service to others as protection against legal disputes, vowing never to launch a patent lawsuit of its own.

For an annual fee its clients are offered use of RPX's portfolio to help them countersue or settle third party claims. The firm then reinvests part of its earnings to further extend its patent collection.

The service appears to be popular. The firm's prospectus says its clients include Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Nokia and Google.

"The high transaction costs associated with NPE litigation are a tax on the tech industry," Mr Amster told the BBC.

"Today, nearly 50 cents of every dollar spent does not make it to the patent owner."

RPX's fees may help save its clients money in the long run, but it all adds to the costs of the patent wars.

The FRAND defence

Another way companies can limit their costs is to claim the technology involved is essential to an industry standard.

When a new technology - such as JPEG format photographs, or the GSM telephone network - is created, industry player agree to license related patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Continue reading the main story

I worry about the overhead that large players will have to spend in defensive patent manoeuvres”

End Quote Kevin Werbach Pennsylvania University This means the patent owner's fee cannot be excessive and it is not allowed to discriminate who gets to use the innovation

The idea is to ensure different companies' products can communicate and share data formats with each other.

"Consumers benefit from this because standards promote interoperability of products and processes, as well as encouraging 'intra-standard' rivalry between multiple manufacturers who each want to be the best in that field, and beat the others," said Jonathan Radcliffe, a London-based partner at the law firm Mayer Brown.

Apple used the FRAND defence against Samsung in the Netherlands earlier this month when a Dutch court ruled that the South Korean firm's 3G patents were part of essential standards, and could not be used to ban iPhone sales.

However, enforcing FRAND standards opens the door to another set of potential abuses.

Companies may be tempted to over-declare their number of FRAND-type patents in order to attract extra fees. The more patents they declare as essential to a standard, the larger the number of license charges they can potentially claim.

Conversely, firms may prove coy at the declaration stage.

Mr Radcliffe said that in cases where the standard setting organisation fails to issue clear rules "some participants might be tempted to hold back some patents so they have a weapon to deploy against competitors to keep them off the market and/or to force a significantly higher payment".

Collateral damage

In September President Obama signed into law a bill reforming the US patent system. It is due to come into effect in March 2013.

The new rules allow businesses to examine newly granted patents and challenge the decision to grant them within a nine month window, potentially heading off the prospect of court action.

It also places new limits on NPEs, preventing them from launching infringement claims against multiple targets unless there is evidence of collusion. The new principle of "one defendant-one lawsuit" should mean they sue fewer firms.

However, other proposals to restrict the freedom to file lawsuits and limit damages awards were abandoned.

"It makes some useful technical changes, but does nothing to address the core problems," says Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"I worry about the overhead that large players will have to spend in defensive patent manoeuvres, and the innovative start-ups that will never get off the ground because of threats from patent holders."

It looks like the patent wars, and their fallout, are set to spread.

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Cloud control crucial for firms

26 October 2011 Last updated at 23:12 GMT Are storm clouds coming? Cloud computing is cost-effective in many ways, but its security needs must be taken seriously Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions.

Mark Darvill sees the cloud as one of the biggest security threats facing businesses

AEP Networks specialise in providing high-end IT security for companies and organisations dealing with extremely sensitive and confidential data.

As more and more executives and employees around the world put greater demands on using their own preferred devices, providing watertight security has never before been such a vast undertaking.

AEP Networks' Chief Technology Officer Mark Darvill told the BBC about how his industry is evolving rapidly.

What's your biggest technology problem right now?

We're finding that it's very tricky to manage the balance of consumerisation of IT in the workplace, while still addressing high-profile attacks such as the DuQu attack and Stuxnet before that.

We're having to develop products that can secure mission critical networks for governments, defence and critical national infrastructure.

We can't forget that it's often the user within the company or organisation who dictates how they access data and on what device, often to the dismay of the IT director.

One of our biggest technology challenges I guess now is developing clients that sit on PCs or tablets that allow access to corporate data from any device, anywhere in the world - and to do that in a very secure way.

What it really means is devices such as home PCs, tablets are all secured in a similar way to allow users to access data and applications, but while still adhering very strictly to the company's security policy.

The users really dictate their own IT policies in terms of what they're using. It's quite common now for board directors to come in with tablet PCs or even use home PCs to connect in.

I guess that one of the issues is that from a corporate perspective you have to maintain security across all of those devices - even though the company probably doesn't own at a lot of the devices that are connecting to use the network.

It's trying to keep one step ahead of people's behaviours around their access requirements. It's permanently changing. As new devices come on the market, people see different ways to do things.

If you've got a tablet PC, for instance, we would allow a user to connect into a network securely, run applications that they're used to, ensuring that any data created is left in the security of the data centre or the cloud. Which means that if they lose that device there's nothing on that device for anybody to intercept or read.

What's the next big tech thing in your industry?

It's trying to secure organisations and secure the transmissions of data.

The cloud we see as a big developing set of technologies used by a lot of companies.

Initially it's viewed as a way to reduce IT spend by pushing data and applications into either private or public virtualised environments, but the big point about that is it means the security of the cloud itself becomes the issue.

It's creating a challenge. In terms of the operational nature of data centres, it looks as if it's the answer to all evils - but it does create its own security challenges.

If you think about government clouds, when they start to be developed, you're talking about confidential data sitting in government data centres. They absolutely need to know where that data is and who's touched it. Those are the types of technologies that we're developing.

We've got cloud technologies which are very much around putting applications and data into either private or public clouds, and then we've obviously got this continuing threat around secure transmission of data and encryption.

It's about developing technology to ramp up those security measures used by organisations to deal with the more persistent and sophisticated cyber threats that we're seeing from international cybercrime.

What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?

I have to cast my mind back a little bit!

I used to work for a now non-existent US computer manufacturer. We decided, in our wisdom, that we would create a set of products that would allow our customers to build OSI networks - which was an open, standards-based networking protocol.

We believed, I think, that it would probably super cede the TCP/IP which was the protocol being built around the internet at the time, and obviously is part of the internet today.

We built a set of products and we assumed that the rest of the world would adopt that OSI technology. It started coming home when we had to start bridging our networks into the network, and in turn the internet across our OSI networks. It became quite a mess.

I think it's very good example of not being market led, but trying to lead the world through some sort of purist technological view.

You look back and shudder. Five or six years worth of effort and it was like the tide coming in.

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South Korea's virtual grocery

20 October 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT By Jason Strother PRI's The World A young woman shops at Seoul's Seolleung station, using her smartphone Online shopping is nothing new, especially in plugged-in South Korea. But one company says it's going further. It's testing out a virtual supermarket in a public place.

At Seolleung underground station in Seoul, there's a row of brightly lit billboards along the platform, with hundreds of pictures of food and drink - everything from fruit and milk to instant noodles and pet food.

Standing on the platform, a man in his 60s who gives his name as Mr Bae, says it looks to him like an advertisement for a convenience store.

When I explain it's a virtual supermarket that you access with your smartphone, he doesn't seem impressed. He says he doesn't have a smartphone, so it's not for him. But he says, it's a good idea for younger Koreans.

And that's who this virtual supermarket is primarily designed for, according to Homeplus, the South Korean affiliate of the British supermarket chain Tesco.

No time to shop

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number of smartphone subscribers in South Korea had passed 10 million, up from just a few hundred thousand in 2009.

Continue reading the main story

Our customers are really busy and many don't have the time to go to the supermarket ”

End Quote Jo Hyun Jae Project co-ordinator That might be why Homeplus's project co-ordinator, Jo Hyun Jae, is sounding so confident.

He says young Koreans increasingly rely on smartphones to take care of many of their daily tasks.

"Our customers are really busy and many don't have the time to go to the supermarket to do their shopping," he says. "So our virtual store allows them to save time."

Kim Yoona, 25, volunteers to give the virtual supermarket a try.

After downloading the Homeplus app to her smartphone, Kim stands on the platform, checking out what's on offer.

She has more than 500 of the company's most popular grocery products to choose from.

Several "shelves" at the virtual store

"I'm thinking of buying the Maxin Mocha Gold Might, an instant coffee mix," she says. "They have one, two, three, four, five, six kinds of coffee mix lines. Because Maxin is my favourite, I will buy this."

Kim holds her phone over the black-and-white QR - the Quick Response code - just under the picture of the coffee.

There's a beep, and the picture of the coffee appears on her phone screen.

She selects what bag size she wants, then the app asks her to enter when and where she'd like the product delivered.

'Quick to adapt'

If orders are placed before 13:00, the company pledges to deliver the groceries the same evening.

Homeplus's Jo Hyun Jae said there are plans to put virtual stores in other underground railway stations, especially those close to the city's universities.

And the company wants to introduce them in other countries too, he says.

"We think this concept can work outside of Korea, since many young people around the world are adopting smartphone technology."

A display of virtual groceries on the platform

But Kwon Ki-Duk, at the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul, says there are aspects of local consumer culture that make technology like the virtual grocery more likely to take off in South Korea than elsewhere.

She points out that Koreans are very quick to adapt to new technology products.

"Koreans are really interested in converging and cramming many different functions into a single gadget, and mixing technologies, in order to find novel ways to complete ordinary tasks," she says.

But, says Kwon, South Koreans are not ready to abandon today's supermarkets - not yet at least.

The country is famous for its long working hours and tough work culture. Going shopping, she says, is a way for people to relax when they are not working.

She includes herself in that group.

Continue reading the main story Tesco entered South Korea in 1999 in a joint venture with Samsung. Homeplus in South Korea is Tesco's most successful international business. Tesco has 409 stores in South Korea and employs 25,000 staff.

Source: Tesco

After trying out the virtual store, Kim Yoona agrees that for her, it does not yet replace a physical supermarket.

That is because she likes to see and touch items before she buys them.

"When I go to the real store, I can check the quality of the vegetables or fruits," she says.

There doesn't seem to be a smartphone app that can do that.

Not yet, anyway.

Additional reporting by Rob Hugh-Jones.

You can hear a radio version of this piece at PRI's The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International, and WGBH in Boston. The radio report was first broadcast on October 6, 2011.

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Blackberry PlayBook update delay

26 October 2011 Last updated at 20:38 GMT RIM had hoped the update would help drive sales of the PlayBook over the holiday season The maker of the Blackberry PlayBook has delayed an update to the tablet computer's operating system until next year.

Research In Motion said it expects to deliver the software in February. It had been due this month.

RIM has admitted that sales of the device are lower than it anticipated. It acknowledged customers want native email, calendar and contacts applications.

The update aims to add the features.

A company blog described the decision as "difficult", but promised the revision will allow the firm's phones and PlayBooks "to work together even better".

RIM's shares closed down 7.5% on the news.

Instant messaging

At present users cannot access their Blackberry email through the tablet computers unless the devices are linked to one of the firm's smartphones using its Bridge software.

The Canadian firm also said it had taken the decision to defer the inclusion of a BBM instant messaging application until a later release.

However, RIM said it was still planning to offer businesses the ability to manage their employees' tablets from a centralised computer server and to offer workers custom-built applications through the Blackberry App World store in its OS 2.0 download.

Analysts said the news may prove damaging to sales over the holiday season.

"It is a big setback for them. When they launched the tablet they tried to walk the line between a consumer device and an enterprise device," said Jon Erensen, research director at the technology specialists Gartner.

"People were hoping the initial limitations would be corrected with the update by now. The delay means they fall even further behind."

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Nokia bets on Windows Phone

26 October 2011 Last updated at 09:29 GMT By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, at Nokia World Nokia unveiled its new Lumia phones at a London event Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has launched two new smartphones based on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7.5 operating system.

The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 mark the beginning of Nokia's fightback against Apple's iPhone and rivals using Google's Android software.

Nokia's new boss, Stephen Elop, had previously warned that the company was stuck on a "burning platform".

Today he said the launch marked the "rebirth" of Nokia.

In an unusual move for the company, it will start shipping the Lumia 800 range almost immediately and hit the shops in France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and the Netherlands in November.

The firm also announced four new basic phones.

Rory Cellan-Jones looks at Nokia's new Lumia 800 smartphone

The brightly coloured handsets are pitched at developing countries.

Mr Elop said the phones would blur the boundaries between feature phones and smart phones, bringing the internet "to the next billion people".

The new range will be called Asha, a name that clearly identifies Nokia's target market: the name is derived from the Hindi word for "hope".

Although the phones will be relatively cheap, they will sport features like touch screens, 5 mega pixel cameras, bright screens, 32GB storage for music and long battery life.

Smartphone fightback

Profit margins in the market for basic phones are razor thin, and so Nokia's main focus will be on its new smartphones.

Until recently, the company was the world's largest maker of smartphones.

However, its market share has been falling rapidly, and in one of his first moves after taking over at Nokia a year ago, Mr Elop ditched Nokia's two operating systems for phones - the venerable Symbian and the Linux-based MeeGo - and struck a broad alliance with Microsoft.

Continue reading the main story

The question is will Indian and Chinese consumers continue to want Nokia phones if they are shunned by American and European buyers?”

End Quote Now Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, also dubbed Mango, will power all Nokia's smartphones.

Mr Elop acknowledged that the Lumia 800 was a design development of a previous Nokia phone, the MeeGo-based N9.

Mr Elop said the "Lumia is the first real Windows phone" and predicted the company would be the leader in "smartphone design and craftsmanship".

The Lumia 710, which comes in a range of funky colours, will be pitched as the "affordable" Windows phone.

The phone's product manager, Kevin Shiels, said the new phones would have integrated cameras with high-end Carl Zeiss lenses.

In an explicit dig at Apple's iPhones, he demonstrated how Windows Phone shows information and updates directly on the first screen, without having to tap into applications.

Speaking at the Nokia World congress, Mr Elop said Nokia had "some tough decisions to make, but [we] have started to deliver some early results".

Nokia had been seen as "reliable, trustworthy", like a mother that will "comb your hair... but that's not good enough," he said.

"We expect people to see something special when they hear Nokia," said Mr Elop.

Nokia services

To distinguish itself from other makers of Windows phones like HTC, Samsung and LG, Nokia is betting on a range of services.

The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones interviews Nokia boss Stephen Elop

Key among them is the integration of location-based services like Nokia Maps, real-time navigation software Nokia Drive, a live-streaming music service Mix Radio and Liveview, an augmented reality service.

Nokia's navigation service Drive will be free. It will not run in an app but will use HTML 5 technology, and will be updated with traffic information in real-time.

Nokia will also deliver its phones with the ESPN sports hub, which will provide free access to text and video news from ESPN.

The biggest innovation, though, could be Nokia Pulse, a service that combines elements of social networking with location services. It allows users to share with friends and family experiences - from pictures to whereabouts to activities, integrated with Nokia's mapping service

Cold water

Shortly before Mr Elop announced the switch to Microsoft Windows Phone, he sent an email to his staff, in which he compared the company to a man on a burning platform, who had the choice of burning to death or jumping into the icy waters below.

The launch of the new phones is Nokia's splash landing. Mr Elop will hope that the new hardware and software offering will be popular enough with consumers to allow the company to swim.

The Lumia 710 is a cheaper alternative to the 800 model

But it is not just Nokia that has a lot riding on the launch of these phones.

Software giant Microsoft has been struggling for years to break into the mobile phone market. Its most recent offering, the Windows Phone 7 software, has been well received but gained little traction in the market.

The company will hope that Nokia's close relationship with mobile phone network operators around the world will give it the access to consumers that has been lacking so far.

The Lumia launch, with 35 network operators, will be accompanied by a campaign called "The Amazing Everyday" involving viral marketing stunts.

Microsoft is reportedly supporting both Nokia and Samsung with tens of millions of dollars to advertise new Windows Phones in the market.

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Anti-piracy firm back in business

25 October 2011 Last updated at 11:35 GMT French web users may be fined and get their internet disconnected if found guilty of illegal file-sharing The firm responsible for tracking down illegal file-sharers in France is back at full speed, after an enforced suspension of some of its work.

Trident Media Guard (TMG) was told to send details of alleged net pirates to the French government via posted DVDs, after it suffered a hacking attack.

The firm agreed to tighten security following the incident.

The French data authority says it is now happy with the changes made, and is allowing TMG to send reports online.

Critics describe the incident as an embarrassment to the French government, which has introduced new rules targeting illegal file-sharers.

Suspected offenders receive three official warnings, after which they are reported to a judge who can hand out a range of punishments, including disconnecting them from the internet.

TMG was employed by the French anti-piracy unit HADOPI to monitor peer-to-peer networks and to pass on to rights holders the IP addresses associated with illegal downloads.

It was hacked in May, exposing some of its records, leading to an investigation by officials responsible for data law compliance.

Disconnecting users

The authorities say no further action will be taken now that extra safeguards are in place.

But the French media is questioning why security was not watertight in the first place and why rights holders, in turn, failed to conduct regular checks on the firm.

The French government's anti-piracy policy is being closely scrutinised by other countries around the world as they consider their own policies to deal with the issue of illegal file-sharing.

Similar legislation is due to come into force in the UK, although currently there are no plans to disconnect users.

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Golden Joystick Awards unveiled

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter GT5, Fallout: New Vegas and Portal 2 were all among the winners Portal 2 has been crowned the ultimate game of the year at the Golden Joystick video game awards.

It beat competition for the top prize from the likes of LA Noire, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Gran Turismo 5.

With more than two million votes cast across 14 categories, organisers claim it is the biggest video games award ceremony in the world.

However this year, with no game winning more than one award, there was no particular standout title.

Angry Birds continued its seemingly unstoppable rise to the top of the smartphone gaming world, with the best mobile award for its Rio edition.

The biggest seller of the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops, had a quiet ceremony by the series' standards, picking up just one award, best shooter.

Continue reading the main story Action/Adventure: Assassin's Creed: BrotherhoodMobile: Angry Birds RioRole play: Fallout: New VegasMMOG: World of WarcraftFighting: Mortal KombatRacing: Gran Turismo 5Sports: FIFA 11Strategy: Starcraft IIMusic: Guitar Hero: Warriors of RockFree-To-Play: League of LegendsDownloadable: MinecraftShooter: COD: Black OpsOne To Watch: Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimInnovation: Nintendo 3DSOutstanding Contribution: Sonic The HedgehogUltimate Game: Portal 2

In the best sports game category FIFA 11 pipped its rival Pro Evolution Soccer.

But the big winner at the awards was Portal 2 - a first person puzzle-platform game that sees players trying to make it through a series of chambers by using a special gun to create portals.

The game has also been praised for its humour, with Stephen Merchant - from The Office and Extras - providing the voice for one of the characters.

Sonic 'honoured'

Arguably the second most significant prize is the one to watch award, and that went to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - good news for its makers ahead of next month's release.

Meanwhile, the outstanding contribution gong was won by Sonic The Hedgehog, who is celebrating 20 years since first being unveiled by Sega.

David Corless, Sonic brand director, said the hedgehog was a timeless character who had transcended video games and whose appeal had been extended by the boom in smartphone gaming.

"It's quite rare in any forms of media that TV or cartoons for kids can endure for such a long time. Even in a video game it's quite rare.

"The fact that Sonic is still around and still doing as well as he is is fantastic, and testament to the little blue blur as we call him."

Mr Corless added that Sonic's traditional rivalry with Nintendo's Mario was now a thing of the past.

"It was a Blur versus Oasis thing about 10 or 15 years ago, but they recently joined forces and appeared in some games together.

"We've put all those dark days behind us," he joked.

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iPod creator unveils thermostat

25 October 2011 Last updated at 12:49 GMT The thermostat is able to "learn" and adjust itself The man known as the "godfather" of the iPod has invested his energy in a home appliance: a thermostat.

Tony Fadell caused surprise when he quit Apple in 2008 after heading its music player division. Fortune magazine once tipped him as a successor to former chief executive, Steve Jobs.

Mr Fadell has now revealed his efforts went into the Learning Thermostat.

The smart device adjusts the temperature based on the presence of people and their habits.

It can "learn" about a house's cooling and heating patterns to optimise its performance, and adjust itself to the weather conditions.

Mr Faddell said the device could cut 20 to 30% off the average household's energy bill.

He said it is also possible to control the $249 (£156) thermostat remotely via a smartphone app.

The price is around fifteen times the amount that basic thermostats sell for in the US.

Smart gadgets There are also alternative "smart" models on the market.

A Canadian firm Ecobee produces web-connected programmable "green" thermostats.

But according to Mr Fadell's company, Nest, the Learning Thermostat is more user-friendly, and has the advantage of being able to "observe" household members and their surroundings.

Using a motion sensor, it can detect whether or not anyone is home - and if the house or flat is empty, it goes into the energy-saving mode by turning down the heater or air conditioner.

Beyond thermostats It is possible to adjust the temperature remotely, from a computer or a mobile device

Smart thermostats are just one kind of the growing number of "intelligent" devices that are connected to the web and able to interact with humans and among themselves.

Smart meters and smart grids are among the best known ones, but companies are also experimenting with smart parking places, smart tags at retail stores and even a so-called Urban operating system aimed at controlling devices of a future smart city.

The tech website CNET, which interviewed Nest's co-founder Matt Rogers, says the start-up is likely to move beyond smart thermostats in the years to come.

"You don't hire a crack team to build a product. You hire them to build a company," the site quoted Mr Rogers as saying.

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Robot wars ‘still a long way off’

The similarities between robots used for cleaning and those used by soldiers in Afghanistan

Despite the US Department of Defense once predicting that a third of US fighting strength would be composed of robots by 2015, experts warn that the machine wars seen in the movies will remain science fiction for quite some time yet.

"I'll be back" said Arnold Schwarzenegger as cyborg-assassin the Terminator, back from the year 2029 to carry out a murder in 1984. But it seems that, when it comes to science fact rather than science fiction, it is unlikely that anything like him - or should he be an it? - will ever "be" at all.

Robots in the home have been promised for a while and though - as the BBC's Jon Stewart has discovered - technology is slowly allowing robots closer to domestic use, some of the most practical applications so far have been in military operations.

Robots so far are not quite up to the images depicted in science fiction

What robots are doing in modern warfare is no small feat. Machines undertake bomb disposal, mine detection and entering unknown places of interest before sending in soldiers - a practice that the military believes is saving lives.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones have already carried out military operations carrying "lethal payloads" without having a soldier on board. It was called "the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership [in Pakistan]" by CIA director Leon Panetta in 2009.

Despite it being called a "drone war" by some commentators, the Department of Defense is keen to point towards its key goals of "intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance" when it is using robotics.

In a document setting out an unmanned military vehicle roadmap between 2005 and 2030, it stated that around a third of US fighting strength would be composed of robots in a $127bn (£80bn) project.

This was scrapped in 2009.

But some of the latest prototypes could still make robots in military operations on the ground a regular occurrence.

The LS3 - known as "Alphadog" to its developers - will be able to carry up to 400lbs (180kg) of equipment over a distance of up to 20 miles (32km) over a 24-hour period.

In practical terms, this means that it could replace the use of a mule or donkey to carry heavy loads.

Newest prototypes move a lot more like organic animals than previously

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the US Marine Corps, it can withstand being kicked and maintains its balance when pushed.

"For years, I did work on one-legged hopping machines - funny contraptions in the lab," Marc Raibert, of Boston Dynamics told an audience at Stanford University.

"The number of remaining problems that need to be solved is a small but manageable list. In the next couple of years, I can imagine getting legged robot technology… out there and into use."

The way it is able to right itself when toppled and the noise it makes when moving is more than a little like the Terminator and many reacting to the clips have been amazed at just how realistically the robot moves.

Tech site Gizmodo called it the "creepiest and most awesome quadruped robot of all time".

Life and death

But despite the occasional YouTube comment saying this development will lead to the end of the world, this is where robotics experts are keen to see the comparisons with sci-fi stop.

"With today's technology, there has to a person in the loop with regard to a decision that would have the gravity of life and death," says Joe Dyer, chief operating officer of robotics firm iRobot.

"Will we ever have machines that would truly challenge Asimov's laws? Maybe, but it's going to be a long time coming."

The real stumbling block for robotics engineers is that where a robot fails - and a human excels - is context and recognition. People can tell things apart quickly, effectively and from a very early age.

While handling rough terrain is now generally considered to be at the later stages of development for robots, actual intelligence and recognition about what it finds when it reaches its destination is a lot more complicated.

"We're starting to nibble at the edges of it," says Dyer.

"The world will begin to change drastically when robots have the manipulation capability of a five or six-year-old child. That means you can start to do the basics."

Brain power

At the moment, "stupid" robots serve a purpose. Their main function is to go into places where it would be dangerous or impossible for a human to tread. High intelligence is not required so much as brute strength and the ability to keep humans away from potentially harmful situations.

Some robots are a lot less frightening to people than others

The first major mass practical use for these type of robots came in the aftermath of 9/11 as a search and rescue tool when emergency personnel were unable to carry out an operation. They were operated by human controllers in a similar way to how they are today.

But if futurist and author Ray Kurzweil is right, by 2019 a $1,000 (£650) computer will at least match the processing power of the human brain.

And this could lead to "intelligent" robots with an autonomy that many find uncomfortable. But what many see this as frightening at the moment, some experts think that it is only a matter of time before it becomes an idea that people will get used to and eventually consider normal.

"We [humans] don't like to give up our special-ness," robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks said in a Ted talk.

"Having the idea that robots could really have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures - I think is going to be hard for us to accept. But we're going to come to accept it over the next 50 years or so."

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Apple patents touchscreen unlock

26 October 2011 Last updated at 13:58 GMT Apple will likely argue that Android's pattern unlock violates its patent. Apple has been granted a patent on unlocking a smartphone or tablet using a touchscreen gesture.

The application, which was filed in June 2009, covers a range of commonly used techniques including swiping and pattern entry.

As well as on the iPhone and iPad, such systems are built into Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

The patent is likely to become another weapon in Apple's arsenal as it continues to sue rival manufacturers.

Devices using the Android operating system have been the focus of particularly aggressive litigation.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs believed that the product was a rip-off of iOS and vowed to "destroy" it, according to his recently released biography.

To date, his firm has waged a largely proxy war, targeting companies such as Samsung and Motorola which use Google's software.

As a result, Samsung is currently banned from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia.

Samsung has launched a counter offensive, claiming Apple has infringed technology patents which it holds.

However, on Wednesday, an Italian court turned down Samsung's application for an interim injunction on sales of the iPhone 4S in that country.

Both sides are now expected to submit further evidence.

Broad patent

Apple's patent - US patent number 7657549 - states: "A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display.

"The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device."

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The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path.”

End Quote US Patent 7657549 The text of the patent is broad and would appear to cover a number of the technologies used by Google and Microsoft in their handheld devices.

However, that did not necessarily mean that Apple would be able to exert its will, according to Silas Brown, an intellectual property solicitor with London-based law firm Briffa.

"Often you will have situations where patents are argued through long and hard to get to registration, but when they are challenged there is a counter action to claim that the patent shouldn't have been granted."

Mr Brown explained that such patents could be invalidated for a number of reasons, including being too broad, too simple or "obvious" in the current technological context.

In Europe, software cannot be patented in its own right. But Apple may still have a case, according to Mr Brown, if the function of unlocking was shown to materially improve the performance of the hardware.

"[Apple's] argument would be more in that direction - that this is an invention which has an affect on hardware, for example security," he said.

Determining that, would likely mean more work for lawyers and specialist engineers.

"The question would go down to a technical analysis and people who are experienced and knowledgeable in respect of this particular type of technology," said Mr Brown.

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YouTube boosted by music videos

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter Florence Welch performed at a concert in east London on Tuesday night Visits to video-sharing websites by UK users have gone up by more than a third in the last year.

The biggest driver of traffic to those sites is music videos (33%), followed by TV shows (17%), film (11%), gaming (10%) and news (9%).

The figures, from internet research company Experian Hitwise, show YouTube accounts for nearly 70% of all video website hits.

It's now the third most popular site in the UK after Google and Facebook.

Lady Gaga was the most in demand for artist within music searches.

Florence Welch, from Florence and the Machine, said the site was also a benefit in providing inspiration to songwriters.

She says: "I became really obsessed with watching Otis Reading, Sam and Dave, clips from the '60s and the Lana Del Rey videos recently.

"YouTube is a huge thing for me to find songs, it's an amazing thing and full of the most random songs.

"I think for finding random stuff and seeing new things it's really useful".

'800 million hours'

The research was gathered between September 2010 and September 2011.

During that time 240 million hours every month were spent by British internet users watching videos online.

Illustrating its dominance in this area, Google owned YouTube, clocked up 184 million of those hours.

That number is still dwarfed by the amount of time spent on social networking sites though.

The same research shows 800 million hours were spent each month on sites like Facebook and Twitter by the UK's internet users.

Despite YouTube's dominance of video sharing websites there was also strong growth for other ones too.

BBC iPlayer, the second most popular video site, experienced a 22% rise in traffic last year.

That means the number of visits to the site has doubled in the last three years.

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BT readies Newzbin piracy block

26 October 2011 Last updated at 11:25 GMT After going into administration, Newzbin was sold to new owners who resurrected it BT has 14 days to block access to a site that links to pirated movies, a judge has said.

It follows a High Court ruling in July, ordering the internet service provider (ISP) to block access to Newzbin 2.

Newzbin 2 is a members-only site which aggregates a large amount of the illegally copied material.

It is the first time that an ISP has been ordered to block access to such a site and it is expected that court orders against other ISPs will follow.

The landmark case, brought by the Motion Picture Association, has been hailed as a victory for the creative industries which have struggled to keep the problem of online piracy at bay.

The MPA said it was pleased that the block could now begin.

"This is a win for the creative sector. Securing the intervention of the ISPs was the only way to put the commercial pirates out of reach for the majority of consumers," said Chris Marcich, president and managing director of the association.

"This move means that we can invest more in our own digital offerings, delivering higher quality and more variety of products to the consumer."

Lord Puttnam CBE, President of the Film Distributors' Association added: "This is a very significant day for the UK's creative industries. The law is clear. Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped."

BT has also been ordered to pay the costs of implementing the block, something it had argued it should not have to do.

"The judge ruled that the ISP is closely related to the wrongdoing, it happened on its pipes and therefore it should pay," said Simon Baggs, a partner at Wiggin LLP law firm.

"That is significant because it means the rightsholders have found a cost-efficient remedy to blocking these sites."

Sites that link to pirated films and music are becoming the new focus of the creative industries. Traditional peer-to-peer software, which was once the main method of sharing free content, is now believed to account for just a quarter of piracy.

Blocking is also a more attractive option for rightsholders than suing individual file-sharers.

BT remained tightlipped about the verdict, saying simply that "it is helpful to have the order now and the clarity that it brings".

The firm will use its CleanFeed software, created in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation, to block websites that show images of child abuse.

The company has always said that it would not be a simple task to tweak the software to block other sites.

Legal alternatives

Newzbin 2 has had a chequered history. Described by the MPA as "a criminal organisation whose business model is based on wholesale copyright infringement," the site's owners have proved resilient to attempts to shut it down.

When the original Newzbin was forced to close via an earlier court case, a successor quickly set up outside UK jurisdiction.

Those who run the site have said that they are readying software that will get around the BT block.

Critics of site blocking have always argued that the real solution to piracy is to provide affordable legal alternatives.

Last week the Open Rights Group (ORG) published a study into how much legal content is available.

It found that only 43% of the top 50 British films can be bought or rented online, while only 58% of the BAFTA Best Film awarded winners since 1960 have been made available.

Peter Bradwell, an ORG campaigner, said the ruling set a "dangerous" precedent.

"Website blocking simply will not work. It's a dangerous technological intervention when the legal markets are still a mess," he said.

"Consumers have moved online a lot quicker than the creative industries. The focus should be on making sure they catch up with consumer demand instead of these deranged plans to censor what people are allowed to look at."

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UN sets global broadband targets

25 October 2011 Last updated at 14:15 GMT Net users account for just 20% of the world's population according to the ITU The United Nations has set "ambitious" new targets for broadband uptake around the world.

It calls on all countries to put in place broadband strategies by 2015.

By that time it wants to see 60% of people in the developed world online, with a slightly lower target of 50% for people living in the developing countries.

It also wants net access to be made available to 40% of households in the developing world by 2015.

It emphasised that broadband services must be "affordable" - amounting to less than 5% of average monthly incomes.

The four targets have been set by the UN's broadband commission for digital development.

"These targets are ambitious but achievable, given the political will and commitment on the part of governments, working in partnership with the private sector," said Dr Hamadoun Toure, the secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The ITU will be charged with measuring each country's progress towards the targets, with an annual broadband report, ranking nations in terms of broadband policy, affordability and uptake.

Slow speeds

To coincide with the new goals, the ITU has unveiled a mini-report looking at the current state of connectivity around the world.

It finds that internet users now makes up 20% of the world's population up from 13% in 2008.

The report shows that the world's top broadband economies are all located in Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

While the majority of broadband connections in the Republic of Korea run at speeds of at least 10Mbps (megabits per second), countries such as Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and Venezuela offer much slower connections, rarely exceeding 2Mbps.

Oliver Johnson, an analyst with research firm Point Topic, thinks that new league tables will force countries to think about broadband.

"Countries have to pay attention or risk becoming seriously uncompetitive," he said.

He also expects to see the EU making it easier for customers to buy services from a wider range of providers.

"Why can't you buy your football feed from Greece or your IP or broadband service from the organisation that offers the best price, regardless of where they are in Europe?" he asked.

In the UK it is estimated that 8.7 million adults have never used the internet.

Race Online - the body charged with getting more people using the net - has begun a new campaign urging net-savvy individuals to 'give an hour' to someone new to the web.

The BBC is backing the campaign, and on its website presenters and others celebrities explain how and who they intend to help.

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Kindle sparks Amazon profit fall

25 October 2011 Last updated at 22:40 GMT Amazon boss Jeff Bezos unveils the Kindle Fire last month

Profits at the online retailer Amazon have dropped 73% after the company invested heavily in the Kindle tablet computer.

The company, the world's largest online internet retailer, said third quarter net income was $63m (£40m, 45m euros).

During the period it launched the Kindle "Fire" model, which runs apps and streams films and other non-text content.

The results left Amazon shares down 12% in after hours trading.

The company said that sales had grown by 44% and that last month, on 28 September, it had its "biggest order day ever for Kindle, even bigger than previous holiday peak days".

It now offers four Kindle devices, including a 3G model.

Lower margins

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, said: "In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned."

Amazon also forecast lower-than-expected sales for the next quarter, which includes the crucial Christmas period, and said it could even see an operating loss as it continues to invest in the Kindle Fire.

Amazon's profit margins have generally been lower than other technology firms, a situation that analysts say is now catching up with them.

"Investors have always given Amazon a hallpass to invest and it looks like they may have had their patience exhausted," Lawrence Haverty from Gamco Investors told the BBC.

"Its operating margin is only 4%. Most technology companies need an operating margin of over 20% so I think investors are asking themselves if the business will ever really be profitable," he said.

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AI computing pioneer dies aged 84

25 October 2011 Last updated at 17:45 GMT Artificial intelligence researcher, John McCarthy, has died. He was 84.

The American scientist invented the computer language LISP.

It went on to become the programming language of choice for the AI community, and is still used today.

Professor McCarthy is also credited with coining the term "Artificial Intelligence" in 1955 when he detailed plans for the first Dartmouth conference. The brainstorming sessions helped focus early AI research.

Prof McCarthy's proposal for the event put forward the idea that "every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it".

The conference, which took place in the summer of 1956, brought together experts in language, sensory input, learning machines and other fields to discuss the potential of information technology.

Other AI experts describe it as a critical moment.

"John McCarthy was foundational in the creation of the discipline Artificial Intelligence," said Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sheffield.

"His contribution in naming the subject and organising the Dartmouth conference still resonates today."

LISP

Prof McCarthy devised LISP at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he detailed in an influential paper in 1960.

The computer language used symbolic expressions, rather than numbers, and was widely adopted by other researchers because it gave them the ability to be more creative.

"The invention of LISP was a landmark in AI, enabling AI programs to be easily read for the first time," said Prof David Bree, from the Turin-based Institute for Scientific Interchange.

"It remained the AI language, especially in North America, for many years and had no major competitor until Edinburgh developed Prolog."

Regrets

In 1971 Prof McCarthy was awarded the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in recognition of his importance to the field.

He later admitted that the lecture he gave to mark the occasion was "over-ambitious", and he was unhappy with the way he had set out his new ideas about how commonsense knowledge could be coded into computer programs.

However, he revisted the topic in later lectures and went on to win the National Medal of Science in 1991.

After retiring in 2000, Prof McCarthy remained Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Stanford University, and maintained a website where he gathered his ideas about the future of robots, the sustainability of human progress and some of his science fiction writing.

"John McCarthy's main contribution to AI was his founding of the field of knowledge representation and reasoning, which was the main focus of his research over the last 50 years," said Prof Sharkey

"He believed that this was the best approach to developing intelligent machines and was disappointed by the way the field seemed to have turned into high speed search on very large databases."

Prof Sharkey added that Prof McCarthy wished he had called the discipline Computational Intelligence, rather than AI. However, he said he recognised his choice had probably attracted more people to the subject.

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IBM names female chief executive

26 October 2011 Last updated at 06:41 GMT IBM is seen as a bellwether for the technology sector Technology giant IBM has appointed its first ever female chief executive.

Virginia Rometty, currently a senior vice president, will take over from the current chief executive, Sam Palmisano, in January.

Mr Palmisano, who took the top job in 2002, will step aside whilst remaining chairman of IBM.

Both executives helped steer the company from mainly selling personal computers to selling software and services.

Ms Rometty, 54, is also widely known as Ginni.

"Given Ginni's experience running the largest portion of the business by revenue, she was a logical choice," said Macquarie Securities analyst Brad Zelnick.

She joins a relatively small circle of top female chief executives, including Pepsi's Indra Nooyi, Xerox's Ursula Burns, Kraft Foods' Irene Rosenfeld and DuPont's Ellen Kullman.

Hewlett-Packard - a longtime rival to IBM - recently appointed Meg Whitman as its boss.

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Camera can snap now, focus later

20 October 2011 Last updated at 11:29 GMT Users can choose what they want to focus on after the image is taken A digital camera that allows photographers to focus their pictures after taking them has gone on sale.

Rather than recording a single version of an image, the Lytro captures data about the intensity and direction of all the light entering its lenses.

That information can be reorganised later with the option to change which parts are blurred and which are sharp.

The "light field" technology was developed by company founder Ren Ng while he was at Stanford University.

The Lytro looks nothing like a conventional camera

It is, in some ways, analogous to the practice of shooting RAW images with a current generation digital camera.

In that example, the device records all of the light falling on its sensor without running it through processes such as colour balancing or sharpening. These can be applied later on a computer.

Similarly, by recording the light field passing through many tiny micro-lenses in the Lytro, the action of merging these to create a single flat image can be applied as a post-production effect.

The phrase light field was coined by Russian scientist Alexander Gershun in 1936. Work on developing capture mechanisms began to gain momentum during the 1980s and 1990s.

On its website, Lytro has published Mr Ng's 2006 university PhD thesis outlining his approach, which ultimately led to the commercial product.

In a press statement, Mr Ng said: "Light field photography was once only possible with 100 cameras tethered to a supercomputer in a lab.

BBC Click looks at Lytro ahead of its launch

The Lytro's image sensor is capable of capturing, according to the company, 11 megarays of data.

However, it is understood that megarays do not translate to megapixels, and final image quality may be considerably less than that of conventional digital cameras.

The camera is also capable of producing 3D images, a feature which will be added at a later date.

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Mid-East eyes social media

25 October 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT By Simon Atkinson Business reporter, BBC News, Dubai WATCH: Egyptian protesters used social networks like Facebook to organise demonstrations

From the bursts of electric violin to the furtive bodyguards accompanying Russian oil oligarchs, you could not accuse the Middle East launch of Godudu.com of being low key.

But whether the site makes as much of an impact as the bright green laser show that seared onto the distinctive sail of the Burj Al Arab hotel, remains to be seen.

Billing itself as the world's first multilingual social network, Godudu hopes to take on the likes of Facebook by offering real-time translation that it says will allow people to communicate beyond language barriers.

Already it translates the likes of news and status updates between English and Russian - the language of its founders - but the event on Dubai's shoreline was to launch its Arabic service.

Surging internet penetration in the region had driven the move, says Alibek Issaev, chairman of its parent company Dudu Communications.

"And the number of users of social media here is also growing very fast," he adds. "This is why we believe it's the perfect time to launch our social network in Arabic countries."

Godudu is billing itself as the world's first multilingual social network Going social

The uprisings seen in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya this year played an integral part in the growth in popularity of networks such as Facebook and Twitter - as they were harnessed by the young people to organise and give momentum to the Arab Spring.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the number of Facebook subscribers has doubled in the past year, and there are 20 times as many active users of Twitter according to consultancy firm Value Partners.

And in Egypt alone, Facebook gained five million members in the month leading up to and immediately after the protests that led to the fall of leader Hosni Mubarak.

And while the likes of Godudu are seeing that as a reason to launch a social network here, other companies are keen to take advantage of the platforms.

Almost 60% of firms now say they now have some sort of social media presence, according to a report by Econsultancy, well up on a year ago.

Banner advertising has been the key business for the Middle East's advertising network Ikoo.com - which is opening offices in places such as Morocco and Tunisia, which are among the countries seeing the region's greatest internet penetration growth.

Ikoo's Hussam Khoury says more firms want to integrate social media and advertising

But Ikoo also reports rising interest from firms wanting to incorporate social media into their advertising.

"Because of the Arab Spring what we've seen is brands starting to use social media because they've realised it's actually a personal interaction with the actual consumer," says sales and marketing director Hussam Khoury.

"In particular it's been Egypt where we've seen a massive growth in demand from the brands and the agencies we work with in the region."

'Great opportunity'

That trend was evident at the Gulf region's biggest technology exhibition, Gitex, held in Dubai earlier this month.

While the stands demonstrating the latest gizmos - from smartphones and display screens to the car which the makers claim "can park itself" - for the first time there was a section dedicated to digital marketing - including seminars on using social media to boost your business.

And for some companies trying to break into this region, social media is a crucial part of their marketing strategy,

Music streaming company UrFilez targets emerging markets

Music streaming company UrFilez targets emerging markets, which do not have access to firms doing similar things such as Spotify.

Having already launched in Bahrain, it has now done a deal with a United Arab Emirates mobile phone network - and its boss says social media will be essential if it is to win enough subscribers to be viable.

"Because social media is booming here in the Gulf region, that's a great opportunity for us," says chief executive Hassan Miah.

"The social media audience is our audience. It's those people who love music, and who use it to find out about music, to recommend music.

"It's as big in Saudi as in Dubai, It's happening everywhere, and particularly now."

Early days

But despite this enthusiasm, only about 4% of all advertising Middle East advertising spending goes on digital campaigns - from mobile to online display adverts.

Social media made its mark at the Gulf region's biggest technology event, Gitex

And only quarter of that is specifically for social media, according to Emmanuel Durou of Value Partners Dubai, who thinks it is still early days for the sector.

"It's a new concept and you need new local talent to make it happen, which is something that's currently lacking, whether you're talking about brands or about the agencies," he says.

"And I think in terms of return on investment, that is much more difficult to track than traditional advertising, so for advertisers it's a much more difficult proposition to validate in terms of budgets."

Back at the Godudu launch party, a singer in sequins waits in the wings for an event-closing performance which will, it later transpires, feature a version of Tina Turner's Simply The Best.

But before this finale, at a question-and-answer session with the firm's boss, a woman leaps to her feet.

"I'm a Facebook addict, I check it five times a day so how are you going to get me to give that up and start using you instead?" she asks.

For all the razzmatazz and the confidence about booming markets and growing potential users, it is an exchange which really brings home how tough success in this industry will be.

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Rise in Google removal requests

26 October 2011 Last updated at 11:58 GMT The rise in UK content removal requests outpaced many other European countries Google said it experienced a 71% jump in UK government and court requests to remove content from its web search, YouTube and other services.

The figure relates to the period between January and June this year compared to the previous six months.

The search site said it received 65 requests for a total of 333 items to be removed over the period.

The US company said it fully or partially complied with 82% of the demands.

Google said six of the requests related to videos on its YouTube site that raised national security concerns. Twelve were court orders linked to defamation, privacy and other issues.

The data was released as part of the firm's latest Transparency Report, which it publishes twice a year.

"As the report shows, we don't simply censor on request, we ensure there is a case for removal," said company spokesman Stephen Rosenthal.

Worldwide requests

The rise in the rate of UK requests outpaced many other countries.

Germany made 118 requests, a 6% rise over the previous period; France made nine demands, a 61% fall; and the US made 92 requests, a 70% rise.

"The government takes the threat of online extremist or hate content very seriously," said a Home Office spokesman.

"Where unlawful content is hosted in the United Kingdom, the police have the power to seek its removal and where hosted overseas, we work closely with our international partners to effect its removal."

Elsewhere, Google said it rejected a request to remove 236 communities and profiles from its Orkut social network in India after complaints that they were critical of a local politician.

However, it did restrict users in Turkey from being able to see material about the private lives of political officials. It also restricted access to 225 YouTube videos which allegedly insulted Thailand's monarchy, an illegal act under local laws.

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Writer hails 'genius' Steve Jobs

24 October 2011 Last updated at 18:09 GMT Steve Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson, talks about Jobs' battle with cancer

The genius of Apple founder Steve Jobs lay in his ability to connect poetry to technology, Steve Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson has said.

Isaacson's book Steve Jobs, released on Monday, is based on over 40 interviews, some of which took place in the Apple co-founder's living room.

Speaking to ABC News, Mr Isaacson said Jobs intended to wait six months after publication before reading the book.

Instead he died on 5 October, aged 56, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The volume is the only authorised biography of the man who transformed the Silicon Valley and built one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Temper and fury

Isaacson said he warned Jobs there would be things he would not like in the book. But the only input the Apple boss asked for was to choose his biography's cover.

"He hated the cover that they originally put on it," Isaacson told ABC.

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Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at time magical. He was, indeed, an example of what the mathematician Mark Kae called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere mental processing power. Like a pathfinder, he could absorb information, sniff the wind, and sense what lay ahead.

Steve Jobs thus became the the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford. More than anyone else of his time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world's most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities, perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.

Extracted from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

"And so I heard his temper, that fury he sometimes has, and he said: 'I'll only work with you if you let me have some input in the cover.'"

Steve Jobs commissioned Walter Isaacson to write his biography in 2004, before Isaacson knew about Jobs' struggle with cancer.

"I thought: he's young, has got a long career ahead of him. Then when he was sick I decided this is the most innovative guy, the guy who is connecting poetry to technology and it would be a great thing to do," the writer said.

Isaacson said that Jobs "wanted the truth out", but also wanted the biography to be a way for his children to know him better.

"No other great leader has ever opened up this way," he said.

Intense emotions

In his 627-page book Isaacson chronicles Steve Jobs' life from his childhood, through the creation and establishment of Apple, the battles with Microsoft and his great rival Bill Gates, his departure from and return to the company he founded, and its continuing long boom since the start of the 21st Century.

While much of the story is familiar, especially to Apple fans and followers, Isaacson unique access offered him the chance to paint a full picture of Steve Jobs' life.

Over the course of dozens of interviews, Isaacson interviewed Jobs at home, in his childhood neighbourhood and at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

"His genius was the ability to connect poetry to technology. That art and technology thing. I mean Bill Gates has astonishing mental processing power. But he didn't have that sort of feel for design and art," he told ABC News on Monday.

That way of thinking permeated Jobs' search for treatment when he was diagnosed with cancer.

"Once he decided to get the surgery, he said: 'I should have gotten it earlier.'

"I mean it took him a few months before he decided to get the surgery. He was just searching, he was always on the search including when it came to his cancer," the author said.

'Greatest CEO ever'

Last week, a private memorial service was held at the Apple headquarters for company staff, celebrating the life of Steve Jobs.

Apple designer Jonathan Ive worked closely with Steve Jobs on many products

A video of the 90-minute memorial service was posted on Apple's website late on Sunday evening.

Speakers included chief executive Tim Cook, board member and former US Vice President Al Gore, and Jonathan Ive, the British designer responsible for many of Apple's iconic products.

Mr Cook described his friend as "the greatest CEO ever".

Mr Ive described Steve Jobs as his closest and most loyal friend. In pre-released extracts from Isaacson's biography, Jobs called Jonathan Ive his "spiritual partner".

The memorial service was also attended by his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs.

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UK urged to build pilot-free jets

25 October 2011 Last updated at 17:30 GMT Researchers say formation flying could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% Investment in new aeroplane technologies is the key to the UK maintaining its status as an aerospace leader, according to a report.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) said the country's research and development spending has "flat-lined" since the 2008 financial crisis.

It said that made the UK's position vulnerable to China, India and Brazil.

It urged the creation of a research centre to test ideas such as pilot-free planes and solar-powered flight.

"The UK aerospace sector already employs over 100,000 people around the country and is worth over £29bn a year to our economy, but we need to take action now to ensure this sector can continue to thrive and grow," said Stephen Tetlow, chief executive of IMechE.

He said the UK was currently the second biggest aerospace manufacturer in the world.

However, it is being challenged by emerging economies, which are offering firms competitive R&D opportunities to boost their market share, as well as the promise of cheaper labour.

Future tech

IMechE's Aero 2075 report made three recommendations to secure the UK's lead.

IMechE's concept design for a double decker blended wing aircraft, capable of carrying 650 passengers Industry and government should agree a strategic vision for investing in the UK's aerospace sectorThe UK should establish an advanced technologies aerospace research centreGovernment should restore R&D support to pre-recession levels

If the suggestions were to be followed, the institution suggested there could be a range of UK-designed innovations in the skies over the next 50 years.

It said these could include formation flying, where a group of aircraft cruise in a V-shaped formation to reduce drag and boost fuel efficiency.

IMechE said there were opportunities to explore generating power mid-flight from renewable sources, such as solar and hydrogen fuel cells. However, it warned batteries would have to become lighter.

It noted that the UK was already involved in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles for the military. It said the research could be extended to develop pilot-less freighter aircraft, even if passengers resisted the idea.

Perhaps its most radical idea was the suggestion that a large "mothership" aircraft could carry smaller individual units, which would be released over designated areas, allowing passengers to be dropped off closer to their final destinations.

"These technologies may seem fanciful, but there is engineering research that shows that these technologies are feasible," said Philippa Oldham, head of transport at IMechE.

"These aircraft would be expensive but it's important to remember that these developments bring jobs and investment back into the UK."

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Is it worth reinventing the wheel?

Click's Peter Price looks at the evolution of driverless pods

Rail transport has not fundamentally changed in the 200 years since the invention of metal rails but a new wave of transport ideas - from ones already in development to "concept" contraptions - could change the way we commute forever.

A personal car that drives itself automatically to your destination may sound like science fiction but new "pods" at Heathrow Airport in London have achieved just that - taking passengers from car park to terminal quickly, easily and driven entirely autonomously.

The idea of Personal Rapid Transit, as it is called, is to make public transport more personal, allowing on-demand journeys at the push of a button, all controlled by computers and lasers rather than a human.

The system has been heralded as a solution to transport congestion in years to come. And this is not the only futuristic idea for public transport that has been developed.

The Aero-Train is said to drive more like an aeroplane than a train

One blue-sky idea is the Aero-Train - a plane-like vehicle which travels at up to 350km/h (220mph) just 10cm above the ground.

The vehicle uses a technology known as ground-effect which removes the friction that makes conventional rail transport less efficient and uses aerodynamics to reduce drag.

Its speed relies on aerodynamics similar to those used in a plane or a hovercraft, using the air as a cushion to prevent it from touching the floor.

While currently in prototype, developers at the Tohoku University in Japan have already demonstrated the idea and hope it can be in public use by 2020.

But there are trains in use right now that never touch the ground.

Maglev trains, most famously in use in China between Shanghai Pudong International Airport to an interchange with the Shanghai Metro, operate just centimetres from the track's surface.

The train is held from the ground by a magnetic field - the term maglev is short for magnetic levitation - and powered by motors that, without as much friction, allow it to go at very high speeds.

Maglev trains have been tested to run up to 581km/h (361mph), according to Guinness World Records, quite a pace considering there is no contact between the train and the ground.

Japan is planning to connect Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka by maglev train by 2027 but the first train of this kind was actually used in Birmingham, UK in the 1980s.

Travelling over short distances to Birmingham International Airport at low speeds, it never quite contested the test-run speeds of more modern iterations. It is no longer in use.

What was once widely considered the successor to high-speed rail, maglev networks has struggled with investment in recent years, especially outside of east Asia.

'Steel juggernaut'

So is reinventing the wheel likely to change public transport forever?

Some people think that changing opinions within the industry is - to mix metaphors - akin to turning a tanker around.

Maglev trains lessen friction by being held centimetres above the track

"The steel wheel on steel rail has been in existence for nearly 200 years and it hasn't fundamentally changed in all that time," says Richard Anderson, managing director of the Railway and Transport Strategy Centre at Imperial College London.

"There's a momentum in the industry that steel rail is a juggernaut that can't be stopped. It's here to stay."

And that is where most governments are targeting their funding. While the future of public transport as a whole is one of much debate, high-speed rail seems to be close to widespread global adoption.

Around the world more and more high-speed networks are appearing, costing billions to develop with the promise of improved infrastructure and vast economic benefits.

The UK plans to spend around £32bn on a new high-speed rail network connecting London with Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and then Scotland.

A consultation has been completed, with some critics saying the network risks "being a vast white elephant that is out of date before it is even completed".

But elsewhere, a conference in New York has already looked at plans to spend $600bn (£380bn) and China already operates 16 high-speed rail lines.

So what can high-speed rail offer?

Surprisingly, it seems like speed may not be the most important thing about implementing new networks at all.

"The thing about high-speed rail is not so much speed as capacity," says Mr Anderson.

"The best metros and trams around the world provide mass transport - they move lots of people very efficiently. The advances in technology are going to be important but, after safety, the amount of people that can travel is vital."

And safety is the one thing that causes most concern among commuters.

With the general definition for High-Speed Rail being around 150mph (240km/h), any minor malfunction could lead to catastrophe.

Many high-speed solutions have failed to deliver the speeds promised

In July this year, 39 people died in China when a high-speed train ran into the back of another which had stalled. This was meant to be impossible because of the electronic safety system that was in place.

But in general, driverless public transport is believed to be around 30% more reliable than if it was being driven by a human.

Recent examples include an entirely automated North East MRT Line in Singapore, the last station of which opened earlier this year. It remains completely underground and is entirely driverless for its 20km (12.4 miles) route.

Lesser known is that a significant part of the London Underground network has been automated to some extent, including the Central, Jubilee and Victoria Lines along with the Docklands Light Railway.

"Most modern metros are automatic, which increases reliability," says Mr Anderson.

"This is because you're cutting out a certain level of human involvement which inherently causes problems."

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Space tourists could fly by 2013

26 October 2011 Last updated at 11:19 GMT The first commercial flight may take off in 2013 if all the tests go well Virgin Galactic said its first passenger flights will not occur before 2013.

Sir Richard Branson's space tourism venture said it hopes to launch the service in two years time, but even that date is not fixed.

The firm's commercial director, Stephen Attenborough, told the BBC that its customers' safety is paramount.

Test flights are currently underway, with rocket-powered tests scheduled to start next year.

Almost 500 people have bought tickets.

Sir Richard had originally hoped the first commercial spacecraft, SpaceShip Two, would take off as early as 2007. However, Mr Attenborough stressed there never was an official date set for the inaugural launch.

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[People] are willing to put a large amount of money upfront because they know we will only take them to space if it's safe to do so”

End Quote Stephen Attenborough Virgin Galactic's commercial director He criticised some press reports, notably an article in the Wall Street Journal, that described the 2013 goal as "yet another delay".

"This is a programme that can't have a hard-end date as safety is number one priority," Mr Attenborough said.

"Our foot is flat on the gas, we have proven technology, we have a spaceport that opened last week, and the test flight programme is well advanced - I don't think you can ask for a lot more from a programme like this. A delay is strange word, and there is no delay."

New pilot

Mr Attenborough also revealed that the venture's chief pilot, David Mackay, has recently been joined by a second pilot.

Keith Colmer, a former Air Force test pilot, was chosen from more than 500 applicants, among them a handful of astronauts.

The BBC's Richard Scott was the first journalist to be allowed inside the Virgin Galactic spaceship

Sir Richard dedicated the launchpad for the space tourism venture in the New Mexico desert on 18 October.

He plans to take the inaugural flight, accompanied by his children.

Mr Attenborough said that although all of the future tourists were eager to blast off to space, none were pushing for an early flight.

"They are willing to put a large amount of money up front because they trust us, because they know we will only take them to space if it's safe to do so," he said.

The 2.5-hour flights will offer five minutes of weightlessness. Tickets cost $200,000 (£127,000).

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