Tesco trials new film and TV service

12 February 2013 Last updated at 09:55 ET

Supermarket giant Tesco is trialling a new TV and film streaming service called Clubcard TV.

The free on-demand service will allow the supermarket's 15 million loyalty card holders to access TV shows and films online.

Tesco is currently testing the service on its own employees before rolling it out "sometime this year", a spokesman told the BBC.

Clubcard TV will be powered by Tesco-owned online video provider Blinkbox.

"We're always looking for new ways to reward our customers' loyalty," the spokesman said.

"We're trialling Clubcard TV with colleagues to get their feedback before rolling it out more widely."

Tesco is not revealing the nature and extent of the content it will be offering, but titles listed on the promotional webpage include Superman Brainiac Attacks, Care Bears, and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

Competition in the on-demand space is already fierce, with free and subscription services from Netflix, Lovefilm, Virgin Media, BT Vision, YouView, BBC iPlayer and BSkyB already fighting for customers.

Jonathan Doran, analyst with researcher Ovum, said: "The market is already so crowded with on-demand services that Tesco will struggle to have any impact, especially if the service is only browser-based.

"Success will all depend on the quality of the content."

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Luxury Android has £7,000 price tag

11 February 2013 Last updated at 23:27 ET

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Speaking to the BBC's Aaron Heslehurst, Vertu's chief executive Perry Oosting denies the handset is simply "a showpiece"

Luxury smartphone maker Vertu has launched its first Android-operated handset.

The Vertu Ti costs 7,900 euros (£6,994) and is made at the firm's headquarters in Church Crookham, Hampshire.

The device had a titanium frame and sapphire screen but was not 4G-enabled, said its designer Hutch Hutchison.

Until last year the company was owned by Nokia and specialised in highly priced handsets designed for the Symbian operating system.

Vertu had chosen Android over Windows as an operating system because it was more established, chief executive Perry Oosting told the BBC.

"You need to be part of an ecosystem," he said.

"Your device will have to integrate with other devices. I think the Windows phone will have success but it is still a relatively small market share. At the moment it doesn't have the global reach of Android - which is about 60% of the market."

Head of design Mr Hutchison said that Vertu was not interested in being a tech pioneer.

"Vertu will never be at the bleeding edge of technology," he said.

"It has to be about relevant technology and craftsmanship - it's not a disposable product."

Niche appeal

The firm is also not focused on the mass market, with just 326,000 Vertu smartphone owners worldwide after 10 years in the industry.

"We don't make massive numbers of phones and the price point is reflective of that," said Mr Oosting.

Each device is assembled by hand. The name and signature of the person who assembled the phone is laser inscribed onto the inside lid of the SIM card holder.

Vertu handsets can only be purchased in 500 retail outlets, 70 of which are the company's own boutiques, around the world.

Each device has a "concierge" button that connects the caller with a global team who can provide localised advice and help with events and restaurant bookings.

Weighing 180g (6oz), the Vertu Ti is heavier than most current generation smartphones - the Samsung Galaxy S3 weighs 118g and the iPhone 5 is 112g.

One reason for this is that it has been designed for intense durability. One handset - and its screen - remained intact and working after being accidentally run over by a delivery truck.

"People think sapphire is just posh glass," said Mr Hutchison.

"But sapphire is to glass what steel is to blancmange. The only thing that scratches it is a diamond."

Vertu does not release figures but says sales have increased every year for the past 10 - with the exception of 2008, when the bank Lehman Brothers collapsed.

It also says China is its biggest market.

Other luxury brands such as Tag Heuer and Goldvish are also now competing in the niche yet lucrative space for handsets costing thousands of pounds.

However some experts believe the wider market is moving towards lower-end smartphones.

Huawei has just launched a budget Windows device in Africa and there are rumours of a cheap version of the iPhone 5.

"We forecast that by 2016, 31% of the global overall handset market will be low-end smartphone," Ian Fogg, principal analyst at IHS, told the BBC last month.

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UK mulls air traffic control changes

12 February 2013 Last updated at 02:44 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

Air traffic control in the UK could be in for a radical overhaul if research into a new way of locating and tracking aircraft gets the green light.

Radar provider Thales has been given funding to look into using existing TV signals to locate and track aircraft.

Dubbed multi-static primary surveillance radar, the system has several benefits.

Chief among them is the fact that it would free up spectrum for next-generation mobile services.

Valuable spectrum

The proposed system works by utilising the TV transmitters that are dotted around the UK.

Each will receive the same TV signal but at a slightly different time because of the reflections and interactions with aircraft flying in their vicinity.

The received signals are then compared to the original broadcast, and the difference is used to locate the position of the aircraft.

The two-year research project is being funded by the Technology Strategy Board, a government agency set up to find innovative ways of using technology.

Thales believes that the large number of TV transmitters means the system could provide a more reliable infrastructure than the current one which typically relies on one radar per airport.

From the government's point of view, a new system would mean that they could sell off spectrum currently used by air traffic control.

Wind farms

The auction of the airwaves that will allow widespread 4G services in the UK is ongoing but the government is already looking to release more spectrum for 5G services, probably around 2020.

Another issue for current air traffic control systems is that they face interference from wind farms, which are increasingly springing up around the UK to provide alternative sources of energy.

John Smith, head of Air Traffic Management strategy at Thales, told the BBC that the two issues make a compelling argument for change but admits that not everyone is persuaded that the current system, which has been in use since World War Two, needs an overhaul.

"There are an awful lot of barriers to gaining acceptance in the market place," he said.

"In the air traffic control industry there is a belief that things have always been done a certain way and so there is reluctance to move to something that is radically different. We have to prove, first and foremost, that it is safe."

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Cyber-police 'skills gap' warning

12 February 2013 Last updated at 04:38 ET

A lack of skilled workers is hampering the UK's fight against cyber crime, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.

The spending watchdog had heard from experts who believe it could take "up to 20 years to address the skills gap", it said in a report.

But progress has been made in tackling cyber fraud, with more police resources and prosecutions aimed at catching cyber criminals, the NAO added.

The government said it was "investing heavily" in research and education.

The number of IT and cyber security professionals in the UK has not increased in line with the growth of the internet, the watchdog said.

Labour said the report highlighted the lack of support for "the next generation of British cyber security experts".

In 2011, ministers announced funding of £650m to implement the UK's Cyber Security Strategy, which set out the risks of the UK's growing reliance on cyber space.

The strategy identified criminals, terrorists, foreign intelligence services, foreign militaries and politically motivated "hacktivists" as potential enemies who might choose to attack vulnerabilities in British cyber-defences.

In a review of the strategy, the NAO said there had been an number of developments to help tackle cyber crime.

The internet economy in the UK accounts for more than £120bn - a higher proportion of GDP than any other G20 country, the NAO said.

But it warned that the cost of cyber crime is estimated to be between £18bn and £27bn a year.

'Constantly alert'

Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud reporting centre, received 46,000 reports of cyber-enabled crime, amounting to £292m of attempted fraud, the report said.

And the Serious Organised Crime Agency had captured more than 2.3m compromised debit or credit cards since 2011, preventing a potential economic loss of over £500m.

New regional police cyber crime centres and a trebling of the size of the Police Central e-crime Unit had also helped boost the UK's capability to combat attacks, the watchdog said.

But the NAO warned that the UK faced a current and future cyber security skills gap, with "the current pipeline of graduates and practitioners" unable to meet demand.

Education officials interviewed by the NAO said it could take "up to 20 years to address the skills gap at all levels of education".

Continue reading the main story

The use of the internet for commerce and communication is a force for good, but it also poses new and growing threats"

End Quote Maragret Hodge Chair, Public Accounts Committee

They raised concerns about a lack of promotion of science and technology subjects at school, leading to a low uptake of computer science and technology courses by university students.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "The threat to cyber security is persistent and continually evolving. Business, government and the public must constantly be alert to the level of risk if they are to succeed in detecting and resisting the threat of cyber attack."

The NAO also raised concerns that the government had yet to say how it would demonstrate value for money for the multi-million pound cyber security fund.

"It is good that the government has articulated what success would look like at the end of the programme. It is crucial, in addition, that progress towards that point is in some form capable of being measured and value for money assessed," Mr Morse said.

The report identified other challenges faced by the government in implementing its strategy, including influencing industry to protect itself, increasing awareness amongst individuals and getting the government to be more agile and joined-up.

'Room for improvement'

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, welcomed the report, saying it showed the government needed to "work hand-in-glove" with businesses and individuals to build awareness about the threats of cyber crime.

"The use of the internet for commerce and communication is a force for good, but it also poses new and growing threats that government, businesses and individuals cannot ignore," she said.

"With around 80% of the internet in private hands, crossing international boundaries and spanning different jurisdictions, the government cannot approach internet security in isolation. Having a robust and well thought-through strategy is crucial if the government is to respond effectively to cyber threats."

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the UK was "on a stronger footing" in tackling the challenges of cyber crime than a year ago.

She said: "We agree that skills are crucial to cyber security which is why we are investing heavily in research and education through establishing new centres for excellence in cyber security research, cyber security skills among the police forces, centres of doctoral training in cyber security and supporting initiatives such as the cyber security challenge which uses innovative approaches to recruiting new talent into the cyber security sector."

For Labour, Chi Onwurah said: "There is some welcome progress in this report, but as the NAO make clear, there is significant room for improvement in leadership and coordination.

"Cyber security is a significant opportunity as well as a threat to our future defence and economic prosperity, and ministers need to ensure that we have the skills we will need 10 years down the line."

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Tesla Motors in New York Times row

12 February 2013 Last updated at 07:14 ET

Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk has branded a New York Times review of his company's electric saloon car as "fake".

The former Paypal and Space X founder took to Twitter to defend the Model S after the review said the car ran out of power sooner than expected during a test drive on a cold, winter's day.

"NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake," Mr Musk tweeted.

The NYT defended its article, rebutting Mr Musk's claim as "flatly untrue".

Mr Musk claimed the reviewer did not charge the car fully and "took a long detour".

The NYT reviewer, John Broder, wrote that during the test drive from Washington DC to Connecticut, the power had drained sooner than expected, forcing him to turn down the heating and drive below the speed limit. The car had to be towed to a charging station, he said.

In a statement responding to Mr Musk's tweets, the NYT said Mr Broder's review "was completely factual, describing the trip as it occurred. Any suggestion that the account was 'fake' is, of course, flatly untrue".

The newspaper also said that "there was no unreported detour".

Tesla says the Model S has a range of up to 265 miles (426km) per charge and has sometimes managed more than 300 miles.

Mr Musk also tweeted that Tesla was preparing a blog "detailing what actually happened" and was "lining up other journalists to do the same drive".

The range of electric car batteries is known to shrink sometimes in cold weather, as industry experts have discovered.

This is not the first time Tesla has had a run-in with a media organisation.

Last year it failed in its attempt to sue the BBC's Top Gear having claimed libel and "malicious falsehood" following the TV programme's 2008 review of its Roadster model.

Tesla's share price fell 2% after the NYT article appeared on 8 February, but has risen 23.5% over the last 12 months.

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Pay-by-tweet service offered by Amex

12 February 2013 Last updated at 07:32 ET

American Express (Amex) has launched a purchase-by-tweet service for its US-based customers.

Credit-card holders post a specific hashtag on Twitter to trigger payments from their accounts.

Products from Amazon, Sony and Microsoft are being offered at a discount to entice shoppers to use the new service.

However, one retail expert dismissed the initiative as a "gimmick" that was unlikely to catch on.

This is not Amex's first tie-up with social media.

It already operates a voucher-free discount scheme with Foursquare - a location-based network - in the UK and US.

It has also offered savings to users who tweet promoted hashtags - such as #AmexWarby - listed on its Twitter account.

An Amex spokesman was unable to provide any detail of when it might extend the latest scheme to other countries.

Confirmation hashtags

Amex members wishing to use the purchase-by-tweet facility must first link their card to their Twitter account via the financial services firm's app.

They then need to go to the firm's Twitter page and select the Favourites section to view which items are on sale and the associated hashtags.

Then, after sending an initial tweet to start the sales process, they must wait for a confirmation message from the @AmexSync account.

This contains another hashtag that must be posted in a fresh tweet by the user within 15 minutes to make the sale to go through.

Users are warned that products may sell out, voiding the process, and that they can only buy one of each item.

Amex's senior vice president for digital partnerships, Leslie Berland, said that the success of the firm's existing social media schemes suggested that there was "significant power in combining our assets with Twitter's platform".

However, Bryan Roberts, director of retail insight at consultants Kantar Retail, was more sceptical about its chances.

"It seems to be technology for technology's sake," he told the BBC.

"The advances in payment technology that are going to win in the long run are the ones that make shoppers' lives easier or quicker.

"This seems to tick neither box, so it's a nice marketing gimmick but it won't go much beyond that."

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Mobile phone sales 'go into reverse'

13 February 2013 Last updated at 06:21 ET

Global sales of mobile phones fell in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to a report from research company Gartner.

It said 1.75 billion handsets had been bought, marking a 1.7% decline.

Analysts at the firm suggested "tough economic conditions" had been partly responsible for the drop.

It follows official data from Spain indicating its number of mobile telephone and datacard subscriptions fell by 5% over the same period.

A report by the Spanish regulator CMT said there were nearly 2.8 million fewer such contracts at the end of the year than at the beginning, with Telefonica's Movistar unit and Vodafone bearing the brunt of losses in December.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 1.3% in 2012, according to its central bank.

Android gains

Gartner's data suggests weakening demand for feature phones - lower-end devices with limited functionality - led to the drop. It said that in the final three months of the year, 264.4 million such devices had been sold - 19.3% fewer than over the same period in 2011.

Although smartphones had seen a 38.3% year-on-year gain over the fourth quarter, they had still remained in the minority with 207.7 million units sold, the study said.

The firm added that Apple and Samsung had dominated the smartphone market, with a combined 52% share in the October-to-December quarter.

"There is no manufacturer that can firmly lay claim to the number three spot," said the company's principal research analyst Anshul Gupta.

"Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers."

He added that the overall fall in sales marked the first time the market had contracted since 2009.

Gartner's data also indicated that in the fourth quarter, Android had powered 69.7% of all smartphones sold, while iOS had accounted for 20.9% of devices.

For the year, that marked a gain in share for Google's operating system, but a decline for Apple's - although in terms of units sold, both firms made gains.

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'More accurate' sat-nav revealed

13 February 2013 Last updated at 06:48 ET

Researchers in Spain have developed a system they say can greatly improve the accuracy of car sat-navs.

It combines a conventional global positioning system (GPS) signal with those of other sensors - accelerometers and gyroscopes - to pinpoint a car's location to within 2m (6ft 6in).

It can be cheaply installed in any car and may eventually work on smartphones, the researchers say.

Such a system has the potential to help the burgeoning driverless car industry.

The system was jointly designed and developed by the Applied Artificial Intelligence Group and the Systems Intelligence Laboratory - both based at Carlos III University in Madrid (UC3M).

"We have managed to improve the determination of a vehicle's position in critical cases by between 50 and 90%," said researcher David Martin.

According to the scientists, the margin of error of commercial GPS used in cars is about 15m in an open field, where the receiver has good visibility from the satellites.

However, in cities where the signal bounces off buildings and trees, the calculation of a vehicle's position can be off by more than 50m.

In certain cases, such as in tunnels, communication is lost completely.

At that point, the system reverts to essentially guessing the location. While this may be sufficient for in-car navigation systems, it would not be suitable for automated vehicles, which are currently being developed by the likes of Google.

"Cars are becoming increasingly connected," said Prof David Bailey from the Coventry University Business school.

"There is a lot of research into driverless cars and, for that, GPS needs to be as accurate as possible," he added.

The system developed in Madrid makes use of a unit comprised of three accelerometers and three gyroscopes, which keep track of the speed and direction of a vehicle at all times.

The data from these is combined with that from a conventional GPS unit to pinpoint a location of a car to within 2m in cities.

Using smartphones

The next step for the Spanish researchers is to develop a system that can work with smartphones.

Most are equipped with a range of sensors, including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, GPS and cameras, in addition to wi-fi, Bluetooth and GSM communications.

"We are now starting to work on the integration of this data fusion system into a mobile telephone," said researcher Enrique Marti.

"It can integrate all of the measurements that come from its sensors in order to obtain the same result that we have now, but at an even much lower cost, since it is something that almost everyone can carry around in their pocket."

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US pursues tighter cybersecurity

13 February 2013 Last updated at 09:32 ET

US officials have been ordered to draw up procedures to reduce the country's exposure to cybersecurity threats.

President Obama warned that the country's enemies were "seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems".

He added that Congress also needed to pass related laws.

The House Intelligence Committee has said it now planned to revive its cyber threat information-sharing bill.

The legislation - known as Cispa - had previously been attacked by privacy campaigners and the White House itself had threatened to veto the bill if passed in its original form.

Executive order

The US president's executive order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity was issued in conjunction with his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

It instructs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) to work with the relevant government agencies and industry bodies to draw up standards and practices to combat cyber threats.

It also calls on officials to share both classified and unrestricted information about attacks with at-risk companies.

It adds that "strong privacy and civil liberties protections" should be incorporated into the new procedures.

President Obama told Congress the standards would "protect our national security, our jobs and our privacy".

But because the order does not amount to a new law it does not compel the private sector to take any action.

As a result, the president added that "Congress must act as well by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks".

In response, the US Chamber of Commerce welcomed the emphasis on information sharing, but warned it would oppose any follow-up effort to impose new regulations on industry.

Privacy concerns

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also said it was "encouraged" by the order's wording - but has made clear it would oppose any effort to reintroduce the House Intelligence Committee's Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa).

The proposed law would give permission to US companies to share cyber threat information with the government and others in the private sector. Firms would be offered "liability protection" if their conduct was later challenged.

Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican, said: "This is clearly not a theoretical threat - the recent spike in advanced cyber attacks against the banks and newspapers makes that crystal clear."

The committee's senior Democrat, Dutch Ruppersberger, added: "We need to do everything we can to enable American companies to defend themselves... our bill does just that by permitting the voluntary sharing of critical threat intelligence."

However, the ACLU warned that exactly what counted as a threat remained "undefined" and the law "would trample on decades of privacy law".

It has suggested that once data was handed over it might "also be used for purposes completely unrelated to cybersecurity".

Second life

The House of Representatives passed Cispa last April. IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Facebook backed the bill, saying efforts would continue to address civil liberty concerns.

But the White House warned that the president might veto any resulting law unless it added "clear legal protections and independent oversight" to address privacy concerns.

However, the president later wrote an op-ed broadly supporting related legislation when it went before the Senate a few months later.

Despite this, the bill failed to clear the upper house after senators failed to agree on proposed amendments.

Congressmen Rogers and Ruppersberger now intend to reintroduce April's version of Cispa to the House next week.

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Apple loses iPhone ruling in Brazil

13 February 2013 Last updated at 10:55 ET

Brazilian regulators have ruled that Apple does not have exclusive rights to use the "iPhone" trademark in the country.

The decision is the result of a local company, Gradiente Eletronica, registering the name in 2000, seven years before the US firm.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.

But the Institute of Industrial Property told the BBC it understood Apple was pursuing an appeal.

The INPI added that its decision only applied to handsets, and that the California-based company continued to have exclusive rights to use the iPhone name elsewhere including on clothing, in software and across publications.

Apple can also continue to sell iPhone-branded handsets in what is Latin America's biggest market - however, Gradiente has an option of suing for exclusivity.

INPI added that Apple had argued that it should have been given full rights since Gradiente had not released a product using the iPhone name until December 2012.

The Manaus-headquartered company now sells its Android-powered iPhone Neo One for 599 reals ($304; £196).

Bloomberg previously reported that the chairman of Gradiente had said: "We're open to a dialogue for anything, anytime... we're not radicals."

Apple's most recent financial results revealed its cash reserves had grown to $137bn (£88bn).

The firm's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, currently produces iPhone 4 models among other equipment at its facilities in Brazil.

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