Yahoo acquires moviemaking app Qwiki

2 July 2013 Last updated at 21:49 ET

Yahoo has acquired Qwiki, the start-up behind an iPhone app that allows users to turn photos, music and videos into short movies automatically.

Yahoo has been on a shopping spree as it looks to win advertisers and users back from rivals Google and Facebook.

It recent days it has acquired blogging service Tumblr and Bignoggins Productions which specialises in fantasy sports apps for iPhones.

Yahoo did not disclose the amount it paid to buy Qwiki.

However, technology blog AllThingsD reported that the deal was valued between $40m - $50m (£26m-£33m).

Yahoo said in a statement that it "will continue to support the Qwiki app, and the team will join Yahoo! in our New York city office to reimagine Yahoo!'s storytelling experience".

Rebuilding Yahoo

Yahoo was one of the earliest entrants in the internet market and enjoyed tremendous success as the sector boomed.

However, it has struggled in recent years in the face of increased competition from search rivals including Google and the emergence of social media giants such as Facebook.

In attempt to turn around its fortunes it appointed former leading Google executive Marissa Mayer as its chief executive last year.

Ms Meyer took the helm in July 2012 and has been snapping up firms as part of her plan to revive Yahoo.

Since her arrival Yahoo has bought various firms including start ups such as Alike, Stamped, Snip.it and a Summly application built by a teenager in the UK.

In May, it redesigned its photo-sharing service, Flickr, offering users up to 1TB of storage without a fee.

It said the revamp would also allow users to host longer video clips and higher-resolution photos.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Microsoft develops 3D touchscreen

2 July 2013 Last updated at 09:20 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Details of a touchscreen showing 3D images that can be felt and manipulated have been published by Microsoft's research unit.

The project combines an LCD flat panel screen with force sensors and a robotic arm that moves it back and forwards.

By controlling how much resistance there is to a user's fingertip the firm says it can simulate the shape and weight of objects shown on screen.

Microsoft says the device could have medical uses as well as for gaming.

Work on the project is being carried out at the firm's Redmond campus near Seattle.

Simulated shapes

When a person touches the prototype it pushes back with a light force to ensure one of their fingers stays in contact with the screen.

If they then press against it the robotic arm instantly pulls the screen backwards in a matching smooth movement. If they start to retract their finger, it moves it back towards them.

Meanwhile a computer adjusts the size and perspective of the on-screen graphics to create a 3D effect.

The trick to simulating a physical sense of touch is to adjust the amount of force-feedback resistance.

So, in an application which shows graphics representing different square blocks on a wall, a "stone" one requires a relatively large amount of force to push it off the ledge and a "sponge" one less.

In addition, the kit can be used to provide a sense of shape by adjusting the screen's position to match a virtual object's contours as a person drags their finger over its surface.

"As your finger pushes on the touchscreen and the senses merge with stereo vision, if we do the convergence correctly and update the visuals constantly so that they correspond to your finger's depth perception, this is enough for your brain to accept the virtual world as real," said senior researcher Michael Pahud.

His team have used the technique to allow users to feel the shape of a virtual cup and ball, among other objects, while viewing them using special glasses to get a stereo-vision effect.

Touch-and-find tumours

Microsoft suggests one use for the device would be to allow doctors to explore body scans.

It has created a demonstration using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of a brain to show how a medic could navigate through the different slices by pushing their finger against the display.

It also allows them to draw notes and leave a "haptic detent" - or force-feedback marker - at certain layers to make it easier to find them again later on.

In time, the researchers suggest, this could be extended to flag up potential problems.

"I could imagine receiving haptic feedback when you encountered an anomaly, such as a tumour, because we can change the response based on what you touch," said Mr Pahud.

"You can have different responses for when you touch soft tissue versus hard tissue, which makes for a very rich experience."

Bumpy screens

One medical tech expert said the project showed promise, but added that previous efforts to try to use touch-based feedback in robotic surgery and other health-related equipment suggested it was not yet responsive enough to be reliable.

In particular, Dr Peter Weller, head of the Centre for Health Infomatics at City University, London, said he was concerned Microsoft's screen would not be able to give an accurate enough indication of textures.

"If you were moving your finger over a surface that was rough the screen would have to go up and down very quickly to be able to give you that impression," he told the BBC.

"The examples that they give are all very smooth - squares and cylinders and all that - but if it was going to be used in the real world it would have to respond to rapidly changing shapes."

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Tactus has developed a screen that can make itself go bumpy

Others are working on different ways to provide touch-feedback. California-based Tactus, for example, has developed a screen with tiny channels of fluid which allows bumps to pop up to simulate the feel of buttons.

Dr Weller suggested that if this or other such technologies could be combined with Microsoft's current research then its screen could indeed find its way into use.

"I think their example of the brain scan is a bit artificial, but where I could see it being useful would be for a doctor doing teleconsultancy work," he said,

"It would mean the patient could be in another country or hospital and the doctor could feel their glands or abdomen from a distance."

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Last of Us game issues sex chat fix

2 July 2013 Last updated at 09:28 ET

A video-game maker has had to release an update to their latest title after real-life sex-chat-line phone numbers were discovered in the artwork.

Naughty Dog, creators of the popular post-apocalyptic game The Last Of Us, told gaming site Kotaku that the error was down to "an artist's mistake".

The offending numbers appeared on an in-game poster for "pest control".

The update, version 1.02, has now changed the numbers and addressed other crash and connectivity issues.

The game's creative director Neil Druckmann told Kotaku: "That was an artist's mistake. What happened was they put some phone numbers in the game and then they thought they could just change the area code to 555, then it's invalid, because it's what they do in movies.

"But I guess that doesn't work when you have a 1-800 in front of it. It was just an honest mistake."

Sharp-eyed gamers who had spotted the numbers and rung them were surprised to hear salacious recorded messages.

Resemblance

The Last Of Us, created exclusively for the Sony PlayStation 3, was launched in June.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Game director Bruce Straley discusses violence in The Last of Us, and Ashley Johnson talks about playing "Ellie"

But the sex-chat-lines gaffe is not the only controversy surrounding the game.

It features a post-plague future world, a violent survivor called Joel, and a teenager called Ellie who some observers believe bears a close resemblance to the Canadian actress Ellen Page, star of films such as Juno and Inception.

And Ms Page is not happy about the similarity.

In an Ask Me Anything question-and-answer session on the Reddit website last week, she wrote: "I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond: Two Souls, so it was not appreciated."

The Ellie character in The Last of Us is played by actress Ashley Johnson.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

RSS apps face glitches post-Google

2 July 2013 Last updated at 15:14 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Former users of the Google Reader RSS news feed service are facing glitches on some of the alternatives hoping to take advantage of its demise.

Feedly's mobile apps are showing some people an error message saying it is "over capacity".

A number of its desktop users have also complained the feeds they subscribe to appear to have been deleted.

Meanwhile, Flipboard is showing some a "no content" alert, having previously promised to safeguard their accounts.

Google shut down its RSS (Really Simple Syndication) product just after 8am BST.

When it first announced the move three months ago the firm said it wanted to give users "sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution".

It continues to offer its Takeout tool which exports users' lists of RSS feed subscriptions as an OPML file so that the information can be imported into other products.

The facility will stay online until 15 July after which time the data will be deleted.

Missing feeds

Although the error message brought up by Feedly's iOS and Android apps indicates the service is struggling with demand, the firm said the problem was in fact caused by a login bug.

Feedly says Google began sending it data in the HTML computer language rather than in Javascript last night and the change had caused it problems.

It said it had since released an updated app that fixed the problem for Android devices and that a new version for iPhones should become available over the next few days.

The firm also confirmed it was also looking into a separate problem affecting some people who had migrated their data from Google and were now trying to use the service on desktop computers but found that their subscription lists appeared to be empty.

"We're 100% committed to fixing the problems," Feedly's chief executive Edwin Khodabakchian told the BBC.

He added that while his product did not currently import OPML files, it would soon gain the functionality meaning users experiencing the problem could export the data from Google and reload it en masse into Feedly at some point over the coming days.

The California-based firm reported it had 12 million users at the end of May, three times the number it did before news of the Google Reader shutdown.

'Not ready'

Flipboard has indicated that its problems will be even shorter-lived.

The app - which collects stories from a range of social media and websites in addition to RSS feeds - had previously promised its members: "Your Google Reader subscriptions will be safe on Flipboard".

However, shortly after Google's switch-off matters appeared to go awry with some users told there were "no new items" to download and others that there was no content at all to view in the Google Reader section of its product.

A statement on its site now says: "Your Google Reader feeds and folders are safe. Our system just needs some time for the all content for all feeds to populate. Thanks for your patience."

The firm said it expected to have completed the transition by the end of day.

Reeder - a popular RSS tool for Apple products - is also facing a bumpy crossover.

The product's Swiss developer Silvio Rizzi has released a new app for iPhones which can make use of RSS feeds gathered from a variety of sources.

However, he was unable to update his iPad and Mac apps in time and has temporarily pulled them from Apple's online stores.

"It's not that I don't want to update these apps, I'm just not ready yet." he tweeted.

He acknowledged that he might lose customers as a result but added: "I prefer this to releasing something half baked."

Another newly launched service Digg Reader does not appear to be suffering problems.

However, the New York-based team behind the service - which only became available to the public three days ago - acknowledged they still needed to add "key features" including the ability to mark an item as being "unread" and an option to display only unread items.

Social networks

Google Reader had been the most popular tool of its kind to allow users to keep across the latest stories posted by their favourite websites without having to visit each one.

However, the rise of Twitter and other social media networks meant many people had turned to them as an alternative way to keep up to date.

Google already runs its own Google+ network and in April paid an estimated $30m (£18m) for Wavii - a product which creates a customised news feed made up of stories taken from websites, tweets and blogs.

Other free-to-use RSS tools include Digg Reader, Newsblur, AOL Reader and Net Vibes.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Former Olympus executives sentenced

3 July 2013 Last updated at 02:09 ET

Three former executives of Olympus have been given suspended jail terms for their roles in an accounting scandal.

Former chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and executives Hisashi Mori and Hideo Yamada pleaded guilty last year to charges of falsifying accounts to cover up losses of $1.7bn (£1.1bn).

Mr Kikukawa and Mr Yamada were given three-year sentences and Mr Mori a two-and-a-half-year sentence.

Olympus was ordered to pay 700m yen ($7m; £4.6m) in fines for its role.

The scandal is one of the biggest financial frauds in Japan's history.

It came to light in 2011 after then chief executive Michael Woodford was dismissed from his post after challenging Mr Kikukawa and the board over suspiciously large payments related to acquisitions.

That led to an investigation being launched, which revealed a cover-up of losses dating back to the 1990s.

Mr Kikukawa, former executive vice-president Mr Mori and former auditing officer Mr Yamada were arrested in February last year and later indicted on suspected violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

All three had admitted to hiding losses in September last year.

The scandal also hit Olympus shareholders, as the firm lost almost 80% of its value in the aftermath of the revelations.

However, there have been signs that the firm may be recovering from the scandal.

It has announced a major overhaul and entered into an alliance with electronics giant Sony to try to boost its share of the global medical equipment market.

The company has returned to profit and its shares have also recovered most of their losses.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ofcom plans fast broadband changes

3 July 2013 Last updated at 05:58 ET

Regulators have proposed new measures they say could lead to better deals for superfast broadband customers.

Ofcom is proposing to cut the costs paid by broadband providers when switching customers, and shorten the minimum length of contracts.

It said it hoped the changes would promote competition among providers, who would then pass the savings on to customers.

Currently around 13% of broadband connections in the UK are superfast.

Superfast connections are usually made through fibre-optic cables, providing speeds that are more than double the average for the UK.

In a recent report Ofcom said upgrading from slower connections was becoming cheaper, and is becoming increasingly popular among customers.

But the regulator said switching between one superfast provider and another remained expensive.

Currently, providers who use BT's superfast Openreach network must pay BT £50 if they want to switch a customer on to their service.

Ofcom said this charge is frequently passed on to the consumer.

'Fair' charges

BT said in a statement it welcomed the plan: "We are pleased that Ofcom is maintaining pricing freedom for Openreach's fibre products.

"BT has already accepted a long payback period for its fibre deployment and its wholesale fibre prices - which are amongst the lowest in Europe - reflect this".

The new provider is also committed to paying BT to use the network for one year.

Ofcom is also proposing to cut the cost of switching to between £10 and £15, and reduce the minimum contract length to one month.

It said the measures were designed to ensure that BT's charges for access to its fibre network are "fair and reasonable".

Marie-Louise Abretti, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, the price comparison and switching service, said she hoped price cuts would be passed on to households: "Targeting the market at wholesale level - offering monetary savings to broadband providers that are switching people - means it'll be up to ISPs [internet service providers] to make sure that cost savings are passed on to their customers.

"And with providers potentially saving up to £40 per customer, per switch, Ofcom must ensure this happens. We'd hope this move will see often hefty set-up fees scrapped, or at least reduced."

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ubisoft hack hits millions of gamers

3 July 2013 Last updated at 05:59 ET

Ubisoft has suffered a security breach and is warning account holders that details have been compromised.

The video games publisher said that user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords had been "illegally accessed", but that subscribers' debit and credit card details remained safe as it did not store them.

The firm said it had 58 million people on its database at the time of attack.

It said it did not believe the attack was related to earlier breaches.

Last year the firm had to release an emergency patch after it discovered a security hole in its Uplay web browser add-on could have allowed cybercriminals to run malware on computers that had installed it.

Then in April it temporarily halted sales of PC video games after hackers discovered a way to download software from its online store without paying and stole a copy of a title it had yet to release.

'Strengthen measures'

"We are recommending all our users change their passwords," the firm said in a statement.

"We also recommend that you change your password on any other website or service where you use the same or a similar password.

"Ubisoft's security teams are exploring all available means to expand and strengthen our security measures in order to better protect our customers. Unfortunately, no company or organisation is completely immune to these kinds of criminal attacks."

France-based Ubisoft is best known for its Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, Splinter Cell and Far Cry franchises.

Gamers buying its titles for PCs are often required to register an account with the firm as an anti-piracy measure, while console owners are encouraged to do so in order to log "achievements" which can be used to unlock bonus content.

The attack comes two years after the biggest video games industry breach to date - a hack attack on Sony's PlayStation network that resulted in millions of subscribers' passwords and credit card details being leaked online.

The firm was later fined £250,000 by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, which criticised the Japanese company for failing to have up-to-date security software.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Protests planned over web spying row

3 July 2013 Last updated at 07:33 ET

Some of the web's biggest names have backed mass protests over internet surveillance carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The Restore the Fourth movement - referring to the US constitution's fourth amendment - said it wants to end "unconstitutional surveillance".

Reddit, Mozilla and Wordpress are among the big web names backing the action, due to take place on Thursday.

Almost 100 events have been planned across the US.

An interactive map detailing their locations has been published.

The site quotes a line from the fourth amendment which pledges "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures".

As well as the "real-world" protests, many influential websites plan to display messages of protest on their homepages on Thursday, co-ordinated by a group called the Internet Defence League (IDL).

Petition

The action has taken inspiration from similar efforts that took place last year.

Wikipedia, Google and others went "dark", or put black boxes over parts of their pages, to show their disagreement with proposed anti-piracy measures being discussed by US lawmakers.

In reaction to the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Mozilla, maker of the widely used Firefox browser, launched stopwatching.us - a petition calling for full disclosure of the US's "spying" programmes.

At the time of writing, the site had amassed 536,559 signatures. Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is listed as being among the petition's backers.

The demand comes at a time when one top US intelligence official was forced to apologise for telling Congress in March that the NSA did not have a policy of gathering data on millions of Americans.

National intelligence director James Clapper said in a letter to the Senate intelligence committee that his answer had been "clearly erroneous".

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sarcasm tool 'used by UK government'

3 July 2013 Last updated at 09:20 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

French company Spotter has developed an analytics tool that claims to have up to 80% accuracy in identifying sarcastic comments posted online.

Spotter says its clients include the Home Office, EU Commission and Dubai Courts.

The algorithm-based analytics software generates reputation reports based on social and traditional media material.

However some experts say such tools are often inadequate because of the nuance of language.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said she should not comment at this time.

Spotter's UK sales director Richard May said the company monitored material that was "publicly available".

Its proprietary software uses a combination of linguistics, semantics and heuristics to create algorithms that generate reports about online reputation.

The company says these reports can also be verified by human analysts if the client wishes.

Algorithms had been developed to reflect various tones in 29 different languages including Chinese, Russian and Arabic, said Mr May.

"Nothing is fool-proof - we are talking about automated systems," he told the BBC.

"But five years ago you couldn't get this level of accuracy - we were at the 50% mark."

Mr May added one of the most common subjects for sarcasm was bad service - such as delayed journeys.

"One of our clients is Air France. If someone has a delayed flight, they will tweet, 'Thanks Air France for getting us into London two hours late' - obviously they are not actually thanking them," he said.

"We also have to be very specific to specific industries. The word 'virus' is usually negative. But if you're talking about virus in the context of the medical industry, it might not be."

Spotter charged a minimum of £1,000 per month for its services, Mr May said.

Human effort

Simon Collister, who lectures in PR and social media at the London College of Communication, told the BBC there was "no magic bullet" when it came to analytics that recognise tone.

"These tools are often next to useless - in terms of understanding tone, sarcasm, it's so dependent on context and human languages," he said.

"It's social media and what makes it interesting and fascinating is the social side - machines just can't comprehend that side of things in my opinion."

Mr Collister added that human interpretation was still vital.

"The challenge that governments and businesses have is whether to rely on automated tools that are not that effective or to engage a huge amount of human effort."

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More

Talking train window ads tested

3 July 2013 Last updated at 11:07 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

A German firm is proposing to transmit adverts via train windows so that the sound appears to "come from inside the user's head" when passengers lean against them.

The idea would use bone conduction technology, a technique that transmits sound to the inner ear by passing vibrations through the skull.

The concept has been developed by ad agency BBDO Germany on behalf of broadcaster Sky Deutschland.

It is already proving controversial.

Comments posted under a video showing off the concept include "This is a violation to a person's right to rest" and "I think I'd take a sledgehammer to the window."

Streamed video

The Talking Window campaign idea was shown off at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes last month.

The video shows passengers on a German train being surprised to hear ads urging them to download the Sky Go app on to their smartphones to watch streamed video.

The audio is created by a special Sky-branded transmitter made by Audiva attached to the windows.

"Tired commuters often rest their heads against windows," says the ad.

"Suddenly a voice inside their head is talking to them. No-one else can hear this message."

Details posted online note that bone conduction technology has previously been used in hearing aids, headphones for swimmers and runners, and devices used by magicians to make someone think they have had a message planted in their head.

Google also plans to use the tech in its forthcoming Glass headset.

Weather reports

BBDO Germany said it had had a positive response to tests using prototype transmitters placed in public transport in Munich and Aachen.

"If our customer Sky Deutschland agrees, we will start with the new medium as quickly as possible," spokesman Ulf Brychcy told the BBC.

"At present, this is limited to the German market. If we look into the future: everything is possible.

"Some people don´t like advertising in general. But this is really a new technology. [It might] not only be used for advertising, but also for music, entertainment, mass transport information, weather reports and so on."

A spokeswoman for Sky Deutschland said it had yet to make a decision on whether to run the campaign.

Although the firm shares the same logo as the UK's BSkyB's satellite TV service, the two are separate companies, albeit both part-owned by News Corp.

BSkyB said it had not been aware of the campaign before the BBC brought it to its attention, and was not planning to launch anything similar.

23.58 | 0 komentar | Read More