Samsung probed over 'fake reviews'

16 April 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are looking into reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online.

Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan's HTC.

Samsung, based in South Korea, said the "unfortunate incident" had gone against the company's "fundamental principles".

If found guilty of engaging in "false advertising", Samsung and its local agent could face fines of up to of 25m Taiwanese dollars (£547,000).

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission had begun an investigation after receiving a series of complaints, a spokesman told the AFP news agency.

A local website had published documents appearing to show Samsung had been recruiting students to criticise HTC and praise Samsung anonymously on the web, reported PC Advisor.

Samsung Taiwan said it had not been told about the investigation, however the subsidiary put a statement on its local Facebook page saying it had "ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments".

It said all future marketing work would be more in line with its company philosophy of transparency and honesty.

"The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles," it said, adding that it was planning training for employees to ensure events were not repeated.

In early 2013, Samsung was fined by Taiwanese authorities for an advert that misled consumers about the camera on the Galaxy Y Duo.

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Alibaba steps up battle with Android

16 April 2013 Last updated at 09:13 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Alibaba - China's biggest e-commerce company - has ramped up efforts to promote its mobile operating system.

The firm has set up a one billion yuan ($162m; £105m) programme to support app developers and is offering monthly payments to handset makers for every phone using its platform they sell.

A Chinese government report recently warned China had become "too dependent" on Google's Android operating system.

Alibaba previously accused Google of blocking Acer from adopting its system.

The Taiwanese hardware maker invited members of the press to an event last September to show off a new handset running Alibaba's Aliyun operating system (OS). However, on arrival the writers were told the event had been cancelled.

Alibaba later said that Google had threatened to "terminate Android product co-operation and related technical authorisation with Acer" if the launch had proceeded.

The search giant replied accusing Alibaba of using Android's development tools and other resources to create its software, adding that Aliyun's software store contained pirated Google apps.

As a result Google said that Acer and other members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) - which co-ordinates Android's development - would not support Aliyun unless it was rewritten to be fully compatible with Android in order to prevent the ecoystem from fragmenting.

Alibaba's OS subsequently struggled to find favour. Haier - a firm best known for its fridges and washing machines - became the best known brand to offer mobiles powered by the system.

However, Alibaba has now announced that five other companies are to begin selling handsets using its OS, which has now been rebranded Amos (Alibaba Mobile Operating System).

They are Konka, Zopo, Amoi, G'Five and Little Pepper. All five have previously made Android phones, but none are members of the OHA.

'Too dependent'

China overtook the US to become the world's biggest smartphone market last year.

Android accounted for 90.1% of the market in the July-to-September quarter, according to a report by research firm Analysys International. It said Apple's iOS had fallen to a 4.2% share and Symbian had a 2.4% share.

Google makes little money from Android's Chinese success - it does not charge manufacturers to use the system and most app sales in the country are made through local stores rather than its own Google Play marketplace and users prefer to use rivals' search engines.

Despite Android's popularity, the US firm only accounted for 4.25% of all China-based web searches in February compared with Baidu's 70.49% share, according to research firm CNZZ.

Despite this, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a research paper in March raising concerns about Android's dominance.

"Our country's mobile operating system research and development is too dependent on Android," it said.

"While the Android system is open source, the core technology and technology roadmap is strictly controlled by Google."

It added that China had the talent to develop a successful OS of its own, but stopped short of suggesting specific measures to bring this about.

Local tech firms Baidu and Huawei do market their own systems, but they are only reskinned versions of Android.

Credit checks

If Alibaba's Amos system does find success it could prove lucrative for the firm.

Phones installed with the OS access the company's own email, mapping and search services.

More significantly they might also help the firm bolster its mobile e-retail sales.

In total about 53bn yuan ($8.6bn; £5.6bn) of goods were sold via handsets in China last year - but Alibaba's chief technology officer recently told the Economist magazine: "Mobile is a new game where we don't have the edge yet."

For now the company is taking advantage of its popular Taobao site to promote devices made by its partners. A new section dedicated to the handsets is being created.

In addition Alibaba plans to let some customers pay for their phones by subscription without needing to make an initial down-payment. It said it would use shopping and payment records from shoppers' activities on its own sites to check their creditworthiness.

It now hopes to attract more manufacturers through an offer to pay them one yuan (16 cents; 11p) per month for each Amos-powered phone they sell.

"Alibaba is a very established brand in China and has good relationships with the vendors and promotional channels they need to make this work," said Chris Green, a tech analyst at Davies Murphy Group.

"The challenge still lies in trying to crowbar its OS onto devices, though the subsidy now offered may encourage more handset makers to build dedicated devices. But even if Amos succeeds in China, it has little chance of catching on anywhere else."

Alibaba is privately owned but has signalled it intends to float its stock soon. Analysts say the company could be valued as high as $120bn.

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No ads allowed on Google's glasses

16 April 2013 Last updated at 10:38 ET

Developers working on apps for Google's smart glasses have been told they will not be allowed to place advertising within the device's display.

The newly-published terms and conditions for developers working on Glass also prohibit companies charging for apps.

The glasses, which have a five megapixel camera and voice-activated controls, have started to be shipped.

The first devices will go to developers and "Glass Explorers".

Google held a competition earlier this year inviting potential users to come up with ways to use the device, while developers have been eager to be among the first to try out the technology.

As part of the announcement, Google also gave the first official details of the device's specifications.

The bone conduction transducer allows the wearer to hear audio without the need for in-ear headphones - sound waves are instead delivered through the user's cheekbones and into the inner ear.

The company promises a battery lasting for "one full day of typical use".

Its display is the equivalent, the company says, of looking at a 25in (63cm) high-definition screen from eight feet away. The device is able to record video at a resolution of 720p.

It has 16GB on-board storage, and connects with other mobile devices via Bluetooth and wi-fi.

Data usage

To date, it is privacy groups that have offered the strongest dissenting view against Google's plans with Glass.

One campaigner from a group called Stop The Cyborgs, wrote "We want people to actively set social and physical bounds around the use of technologies and not just fatalistically accept the direction technology is heading in."

He predicted that the focus of coverage about the device would shift from talking about the "amazing new gadget that will improve the world" to "the most controversial device in history".

For developers, that controversy could begin with wondering how exactly they will be able to make money from the device.

Also keeping an eye on the excitement generated by Google will be Japanese firm Telepathy Inc.

Their device, the Telepathy One, has been touted as a possible competitor to Google Glass.

Chinese search giant Baidu has also confirmed it is working on a Glass-like project - but details are so far scant.

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Leap Motion seals deal with HP

16 April 2013 Last updated at 13:08 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Motion-control company Leap Motion has announced a deal to embed its technology within HP computers.

The controller is able accurately to detect the movement of 10 fingers at once, allowing for intricate gesture-based controls.

Initially, the product will be aimed at consumers as a gaming and entertainment device.

But the firm's president Andy Miller said partnerships with car and medical industries would be announced soon.

"Leap Motion is not a toy," he told the BBC.

"It'll take some time - everything that people use on computers has been written for the mouse and keyboard for the last 20 years, but I think people will see that the software written for the Leap is intuitive and people will want to interact that way."

The product is similar in function to the popular Microsoft Kinect gaming peripheral, but is designed to be used at much closer range, and can detect more intricate movements.

Robot surgeons

The HP PCs that will have the hardware built in will be available by the summer, Mr Miller said.

In the meantime, the current Leap Motion Controller accessory will be sold bundled with HP machines, as well as being sold separately.

Software written for the device will be made available in a dedicated app store.

Beyond home computing, Mr Miller said he expected to announce more partnerships soon.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Rory Cellan-Jones tries out Leap Motion back in January this year

"Our technology has already been tested with surgeons," he said.

While the device seemingly takes heavy design inspiration from Apple, Mr Miller - a former employee - said there is no deal with the Macbook-maker on the cards.

"Apple's not big in partnering and playing nice with the field and creating relationships," he said.

"I'm not sure if under Tim [Cook] things will change. We've definitely had conversations with Apple on a lot of fronts, but HP was much more aggressive and made us a great deal."

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Gov.uk website wins design award

16 April 2013 Last updated at 20:28 ET

The website Gov.uk has picked up the prestigious Design of the Year award.

Designed by the Government Digital Service, the site is a portal for all of the UK government's websites.

The award, which was chosen from 98 entries, was presented at an awards ceremony in South London on Tuesday.

Judges unanimously voted for Gov.uk above other category winners including fashion, furniture and architecture, for its "well thought out, yet understated design".

Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic said the site was "the Paul Smith of websites".

"It makes life better for millions of people coping with the everyday chores, from getting a new passport, to paying their taxes," he said.

"Gov.uk looks elegant, and subtly British thanks to a revised version of a classic typeface, designed by Margaret Calvert back in the 1960s," he added.

Design of the Year jury member Griff Rhys Jones said the website was "a clear winner".

"It creates a benchmark for which all international government websites can be judged on," he added.

Olympic torch

Prime Minister David Cameron said the site was an example of "world class design talent" and enhanced "the modern relationship between the public and government".

Last year, Barber Osgerby, the creative team behind the London Olympic torch, took home the Design of the Year award.

This year, Thomas Heatherwick's shortlisted Olympic cauldron lost out to Kit Yamoto's anti-diarrhoea kits in the product category.

Designed by ColaLife and PI Global, the product was designed to fit into gaps in Coca-Cola crates.

The fashion category was awarded to a documentary about the life of style icon and Vogue editor Diana Vreeland.

The winning website and other shortlisted designs are on display at the Design Museum, London until 7 July.

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Microsoft signs Foxconn patent deal

17 April 2013 Last updated at 07:08 ET

Microsoft has secured a patent deal with the world's biggest consumer electronics manufacturer to receive fees for devices powered by Google's Android and Chrome operating systems.

Hon Hai - the parent company of Foxconn - said the deal would help prevent its clients being caught up in an ongoing intellectual property dispute.

Microsoft says that Google's code makes use of innovations it owns.

Google alleges its rival's claims are based on "bogus patents".

However, the search giant's Motorola handset division has itself lost a number of legal challenges involving some of the disputed technologies which may have encouraged others involved in the smart device sector to settle.

According to the Foss Patents blog, which tracks such matters, this is the nineteenth announced patent licence deal Microsoft has secured since 2010 from companies whose products use Google's mobile and laptop operating systems.

Other firms to have agreed to pay royalties include HTC, Samsung, LG, Sharp and Acer.

Although the terms of the deal with Taiwan's Hon Hai have not been disclosed, patent law dictates that Microsoft cannot "double-dip" by charging both a product's designer and its manufacturer a full royalty charge.

So, in cases where Hon Hai makes an Android-powered smartphone, tablet, camera or television for a customer who has already signed a patent deal it will be up to the two parties involved to agree how the charge should be divided up.

Lawsuit threat

Hon Hai describes itself as the biggest manufacturing services provider to the computer, communication and consumer electronics industries.

Forbes estimates the firm assembles about 40% of the sector's products.

"We recognise and respect the importance of international efforts that seek to protect intellectual property," Samuel Fu, Hon Hai's intellectual property director, said in a statement.

"The licensing agreement with Microsoft represents those efforts and our continued support of international trade agreements that facilitate implementation of effective patent protection."

The firm added that it owned more than 54,000 patents of its own.

The agreement comes just over two years after Microsoft announced it had filed legal action against the Asian firm in the US courts.

It said at the time: "The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including: natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need; surfing the web more quickly, and interacting with documents and ebooks."

Had Foxconn lost the case it might have faced an import ban.

Last month Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker tool to make it easier for rivals to check which technologies it claims ownership to and suggested others introduce similar facilities.

According to the tech consultancy Asymco, Microsoft is likely to earn several times more money through its Android patents than it does from licences for its own Windows Phone system.

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Pirate Bay founder faces new charges

17 April 2013 Last updated at 08:10 ET

The Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been charged with hacking into several Swedish companies and stealing personal data.

He and three other defendants are also accused of attempting to illegally transfer money from a bank.

He is likely to stand trial next month.

In September 2012 Warg was deported from Cambodia to his native Sweden to serve a one-year jail term for copyright violations related to his involvement in The Pirate Bay.

He was also charged with hacking into the computer servers of Logica, a company that handles Swedish tax documents.

He has now been charged with fresh hacking-related offences, including serious fraud, attempted aggravated fraud and aiding attempted aggravated fraud.

The Pirate Bay was set up in 2003 and quickly became one of the most popular destinations for accessing free films and music.

At its height the site claimed to have more than 30 million users worldwide.

No copyright content is hosted on the site's web servers. Instead, it hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users' computers.

The Pirate Bay recently changed its domain to one in Greenland, fearing that its Swedish domain name was about to be seized. But the Greenland domain was quickly blocked.

The site is back online in Sweden.

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White House threatens Cispa veto

17 April 2013 Last updated at 08:25 ET

The White House has threatened to veto a controversial act due to go before the House of Representatives this week.

The US government wants more privacy protections in the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa).

After failing to pass through the Senate last year, the bill has already had several amendments.

Intended to protect corporate networks from cyber-attacks, it allows private companies to share cybersecurity information with government agencies.

Opponents say that this is creating a backdoor for governments to snoop on individuals' data, a point taken on board by the government.

A White House statement said: "The administration remains concerned that the bill does not require private entities to take reasonable steps to remove irrelevant personal information when sending cybersecurity data to the government or other private sector entities."

'Fatally flawed'

Despite this, the bill has found many friends including large technology firms such as AT&T, Comcast, Intel and Oracle.

This week IBM has sent 200 executives to Washington to lobby for the bill.

In a statement the firm said: "IBM believes we can build stronger, more efficient defences against cyber-threats by enabling better information sharing and providing clear authority for the private sector to defend its own networks, as proposed in the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa)."

But opponents remain concerned the bill allows a wide range of data to be shared with government. Last month a petition with 100,000 signatures was submitted to the White House.

Opposition has been particularly vocal from privacy groups, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describing the latest iteration of the bill as "fatally flawed".

The bill's sponsor, Republican Mike Rogers, caused anger on Twitter when he suggested in a speech that the typical opponent of the bill was "a 14-year-old tweeter in the basement".

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Games industry faces tax break probe

17 April 2013 Last updated at 10:30 ET

The UK video games trade body Tiga says it is "disappointed" that the EU has decided to probe a planned tax break.

The deduction was due to have been introduced on 1 April, but was delayed after the European Commission failed to approve the plan.

On Tuesday the regulators ruled an in-depth investigation was needed as they believed there was "no obvious market failure" that needed to be addressed.

The UK government says it remains committed to the proposal.

The scheme would see 25% tax relief offered on up to 80% of a game's production budget if the cash was spent designing, producing and testing the title in the UK.

Games with a primary focus of gambling or advertising would not qualify, and titles involving pornography or other "extreme material" would also be excluded.

The chancellor George Osborne described the relief as being ""among the most generous in the world" when he announced the proposal in December.

Canada and France already offer similar incentives, but in the French case the tax break is limited to games whose development costs total at least 150,000 euros (£129,128; $196,876).

The UK decided not to impose such a threshold after a consultation exercise highlighted the value of offering the relief to the fast-growing smart device video games market.

The government suggested other restrictions would prevent the offer being abused by non-commercial games.

Subsidy race risk

Tiga suggests that Canada's tax breaks had proved particularly enticing to the industry causing "several hundred" jobs to be lost in the UK over recent years. Quebec offers tax credits covering up to 37.5% of video game labour expenses, and Ontario up to 40%.

However, the lobby group told the BBC that interest in shifting production had "dried up" following the chancellor's Autumn Statement.

Despite this the EU's competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia said he doubted that aid was needed to stimulate video game production, and added that he feared giving the UK the green light to introduce relief could spark a subsidy race across the bloc.

"The market for developing video games is dynamic and commercially promising," he said.

"It is not clear whether the taxpayer should be subsidising this activity. Such subsidies could even distort competition."

France introduced its games tax relief scheme in 2008. When the measure came up for renewal in January 2012 the EU carried out a 12-month investigation before agreeing to allow it to continue.

Tiga said that outcome gave it reason to be optimistic that the UK's plan would also survive.

"I would be surprised if it took as long to agree as in France's case because we've had the precedent, and UK officials have been discussing their scheme with the EU for some time," said Richard Wilson, Tiga's chief executive.

"Certainly the expectation that the relief is incoming has already had an impact. In the past year Activision, Blizzard, Microsoft and Konami have all created jobs here for the first time in some years."

Not all industry insiders are in favour of tax breaks.

Several visual effects (VFX) professionals have mounted a campaign to ban such subsidies for their business.

VFX workers provide services to movie, television and video game sectors including creating high-end animations and keying footage of actors on to computer-generated backgrounds.

The campaigners claim that "tax kickbacks" have caused instability in their business as VFX facilities are being put under pressure to shift work to wherever the best subsidies are on offer, to allow the studios that commission their work to qualify for the discounts.

"This has led to some studios actually requiring VFX facilities to open satellite studios in subsidised regions and move the work there," they said in a letter.

"Many that have not been able to make the jump have gone out of business. Many professionals who are unable to move are laid off, leading to bankruptcy and often foreclosure if they own a home."

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Police probe 'Russian Facebook'

17 April 2013 Last updated at 11:05 ET

Police in St Petersburg have carried out searches on the home and offices of Pavel Durov, the 28-year-old founder of VKontakte, Russia's most popular social networking site.

They say they are investigating an incident in which a traffic policeman was injured by a driver who ignored an order to stop.

Mr Durov denies involvement.

Russian authorities have recently cracked down on websites which provide a forum for opposition debate.

They have passed laws making it easier to close sites they say are extremist or harmful to minors.

'Libertarian'

VKontakte is far more popular in Russia than Facebook, with 200 million users. In 2011, it refused to delete an opposition group, despite an order from the security services.

Mr Durov, who rarely speaks in public and prefers to post messages on his site, describes his political views as "libertarian".

Continue reading the main story

Suddenly 20 silent men in leather jackets appear "

End Quote Nikolai Durov Co-founder of VKontakte

Investigators confirmed that searches had taken place at Vkontakte's headquarters on Nevsky Prospekt in central St Petersburg and at Mr Durov's home.

They say they are looking into an incident on 5 April near the company's office, when a white Mercedes failed to stop for a traffic policeman and drove into him, causing bruises and grazes.

Some media reports allege that Mr Durov was behind the wheel. No-one has been charged and he denies any involvement. His spokesman says he does not even own a car.

"We are working... and suddenly 20 silent men in leather jackets appear," Nikolai Durov, co-founder of Vkontakte and Pavel Durov's brother, posted on his page of the website.

"I wonder what they are looking for. Or perhaps they are gathering information and planting bugs," he wrote.

Last year, Pavel Durov outraged some Russians by tweeting that Stalin's victory in World War II enabled him to continue repressing the Soviet people.

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