Apple probes electrocution report

15 July 2013 Last updated at 11:07 ET

Apple has said it will "fully investigate" reports that a woman was electrocuted in China while trying to use an iPhone while it was recharging.

The 23-year-old's brother has given an interview saying that her family believes she received a shock when trying to answer a call on the handset.

News agency Xinhua has confirmed police are investigating the death of Ma Ailun in the north-western city of Xinjiang.

But it said they had not verified if a mobile phone was the cause.

Ms Ma's older sister posted a message on the micro-blogging service Sina Weibo following her death on Thursday.

"[I] hope that Apple Inc can give us an explanation. I also hope that all of you will refrain from using your mobile devices while charging," it read.

Xinhua said the message had been reposted more than 3,000 times.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family," Apple said in a statement.

"We will fully investigate and co-operate with authorities in this matter."

Safety advice

According to local reports Ms Ma had been a flight attendant with China Southern Airlines and had been planning to get married in August.

Her sister said she had bought the iPhone 5 shortly after it launched in the country in December and had been using it with the original charger at the time of the incident.

Xinhua said the China Consumers Associations had previously reported a man had been killed in 2010 while making a phone call using a handset connected to the mains with an unauthorised charger.

However, one UK-based expert said that under normal circumstances mobile phone owners had no reason to be concerned.

"Using a handset while it's recharging should be completely safe," Prof Will Stewart, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC.

"The charger output is low voltage - it's about five volts - much too unpowerful to be dangerous, therefore there should be no risk at all.

"Having said that, something in the charger could have had a fault on it and/or the mains wiring it was connected to might have been faulty.

"Owners should also avoid using mains-connected equipment whilst in the bath or if they are extremely wet, because water could run down the wire and into the plug."

Apple reported that it had sold $8.8bn (£5.8bn) of goods in China over the January-to-March quarter, with iPhones sold from its 11 stores in the country in addition to 19,000 other third-party retailers.

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Microsoft's work with NSA 'revealed'

12 July 2013 Last updated at 07:14 ET

Microsoft helped the NSA get around its encryption systems so the agency could more easily spy on users of its services, reports suggest.

Papers given to The Guardian newspaper allege there were close links between the security agency and the tech firm.

Microsoft said its collaboration with the NSA only took place because legal obligations required it to do so.

The revelations come as some technologists start work on services they say will be impervious to spying.

Secure view

The information published in The Guardian comes from documents it said were given to the paper by whistle blower Edward Snowden and shed more light on how closely tech firms work with the US National Security Agency and its Prism programme.

The documents show that the NSA had access to most of Microsoft's flagship products including Hotmail, Outlook.com, SkyDrive and Skype. In the case of Outlook.com, Microsoft reportedly worked with the NSA to help it get around its own data-scrambling scheme that would have concealed messages from the agency.

As regards to Skype, the NSA reportedly said in the documents that it had improved its oversight of the web phone system so much that it could now collect three times as many calls from the service than before.

Even before Skype was bought by Microsoft it was providing information on some of its users through Prism.

The documents seen by The Guardian are reportedly from the NSA's Special Source Operations office which oversees the links between the agency and tech firms. The documents show that the access the NSA enjoyed made it far easier for intelligence workers to get at accounts on many Microsoft services.

In a statement released in the wake of the Guardian story, Microsoft said "legal obligations" forced it to work with the NSA and provide access to its services.

"We have clear principles which guide the response across our entire company to government demands for customer information for both law enforcement and national security issues," it said.

In some cases when it upgraded or updated products, it said, these legal obligations meant it had to preserve the access that law enforcement and intelligence agencies enjoyed with older versions of those services.

It said it only complied with orders relating to "specific accounts and identifiers" rather than more wide-ranging requests.

"Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product," it said.

The revelations come as three Swedish technology entrepreneurs seek donations for a smartphone messaging app that, it is claimed, will be impervious to the type of spying used by the NSA. In less than two days, more than $137,000 (£90,000) has been raised for the Heml.is app which has the backing of Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde.

"We're building a message app where no one can listen in, not even us," the entrepreneurs said in a video explaining how Heml.is would work.

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NHS trust handed £200,000 data fine

12 July 2013 Last updated at 08:46 ET

NHS Surrey has been fined £200,000 by data regulators over the loss of sensitive information about more than 3,000 patients.

Thousands of children's patient records were found on a second-hand NHS computer that was auctioned on eBay, the BBC understands.

Regulators said NHS Surrey failed to check that a data destruction company had properly disposed of the records.

Three further computers that had been sold on eBay contained sensitive data.

UK watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) imposed the fine on the trust after patients across Surrey were affected by the data loss.

"The facts of this breach are truly shocking," ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said in a statement.

"NHS Surrey chose to leave an approved provider and handed over thousands of patients' details to a company without checking that the information had been securely deleted.

"The result was that patients' information was effectively being sold online."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We take the loss of personal data very seriously.

"At the time NHS Surrey contacted patients involved to make them aware of the data breach.

"This case is currently the subject of legal proceedings."

Free deal

The breach was one of the most serious that the ICO had seen, the data watchdog added.

NHS Surrey was alerted to the data loss by a member of the public who had purchased an old NHS computer and found patient records.

Continue reading the main story

Patients' infomation was effectively being sold online"

End Quote Stephen Eckersley ICO head of enforcement

Upon investigation, the trust discovered the computer contained the health records of 2,000 children and 900 adults, plus a number of NHS human resources records.

A further 39 computers that had been sold by the data destruction company were recovered during the course of the investigation, with sensitive records found on three of the hard disks.

The data destruction company had offered free disposal of the computers in exchange for the sale of salvageable materials.

The company promised to crush the computer hard disks using an industrial guillotine, but NHS Surrey failed to monitor the destruction process, the ICO ruled, and did not have a contract in place that explained the legal requirements of the data destruction.

NHS Surrey was decommissioned in March following health service reforms. Responsibility for the fine now rests with the NHS Commissioning Board, which must appeal by 19 July, or pay by 22 July.

The ICO has imposed a number of fines on NHS bodies for data breaches, including a record £325,000 fine after a theft from a Brighton hospital trust in June 2012.

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Merkel vows better data protection

14 July 2013 Last updated at 18:10 ET

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to push for tougher European laws to protect personal information on the internet.

In a TV interview with the public broadcaster ARD, she said Germany wanted internet companies "to tell us in Europe who they are giving data to".

Her comments follow revelations about a US spying operation that collects users' data from internet companies.

Mrs Merkel also said she expected the US to abide by German law.

Tensions have been running high between the two countries following reports that the US has been eavesdropping on EU and German officials.

"I expect a clear commitment from the US government that in future they will stick to German law," she said.

'Strict position'

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the chancellor is under pressure to disclose how much her government knew about the activities of the American National Security Agency (NSA), and to ensure that Germans' closely-guarded privacy is not compromised.

In her Sunday evening interview, she pledged that her government would take a "very strict position" in ongoing talks on European Union-wide data rules.

She noted that the different systems in place across the EU make it difficult to control who has access to internet users' data:.

"We have a great data protection law. But if Facebook is registered in Ireland, then Irish law is valid, and therefore we need unified European rules," she said.

Chancellor Merkel sent her interior minister to Washington last week to meet Attorney General Eric Holder and Vice President Joe Biden to to find out how much spying there has been and on whom.

The opposition has accused her government of failing to get answers from its allies in the US.

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Leaked letter shows ISPs and government at war

15 July 2013 Last updated at 03:58 ET

I've written before on the dialogue of the deaf between politicians and the internet industry over child internet safety - and now the relationship seems to be getting even worse. A letter sent to the UK's four leading ISPs from the government has made them very cross indeed. So cross that someone in the industry has passed it to me - you can read it in full below.

The letter comes from the Department for Education but it sets out a list of demands from Downing Street, with the stated aim of allowing the prime minister to make an announcement shortly. The companies are asked, among other things, for a commitment to fund an "awareness campaign" for parents. They're not particularly happy about promising cash for what the letter concedes is an "unknown campaign" but it's the next item on the menu which is the source of most of their anger.

This asks them to change the language they are using to describe the net safety filters they will be offering to internet users. Instead of talking of "active choice +", they are urged to use the term default-on. The letter says this can be done "without changing what you're offering".

"Start Quote

What this is about is allowing the government and certain papers to declare a victory"

End Quote Industry source

A person at one ISP told me the request was "staggering - asking us to market active choice as default-on is both misleading and potentially harmful".

A little background on this issue might be helpful. For a long time, certain politicians and newspapers have been campaigning for default-on filters. They would like to see harmful and offensive - if legal - material blocked by the internet service providers unless customers choose to have the filters switched off.

"It sounds like a good idea until you think it through," said one industry source. "There are three reasons why it doesn't work. First it may be illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers. Then there's the fact that no filter is perfect, and finally kids are smart enough to find their way around them."

A source at another company saw another reason why "default on" might be a bad idea: "It makes parents complacent - if you tell them the filter is switched on by default, they get a false sense of security. We want parents to make informed choices about the way their children use the internet."

And the companies point out that the man the government chose to examine this issue, Reg Bailey of the Mothers' Union, was also dubious about the use of default-on filters, wanting parents to be more active in understanding online dangers.

So the ISPs are instead offering something they call Active Choice, where customers are asked to make informed decisions about the level of filtering. Critics may say they are just quibbling about language, but the companies believe the precise wording is important - and they're angry at what they see as the government urging them to mislead their customers.

"What this is about is allowing the government and certain papers to declare a victory," said one industry source. "This country has led the world in blocking child abuse images, but they just want to keep the story bubbling on."

When I sought a response, Downing Street told me it never commented on leaks, but a spokesman said "the government continues to work with internet service providers to help keep children safe online."

At lunchtime today the internet providers will be meeting Claire Perry, the Prime Minister's special advisor on child safety issues, to give their response to the letter. Both sides appear to mistrust each others' motives, so finding an outcome that enhances child safety while producing an acceptable headline will prove tricky.

Here's the letter sent to the ISPs by the Department for Education, unedited and in full:

Dear All,

I am emailing to ask for some specific action which the prime minister plans to announce shortly. This follows a meeting yesterday at No 10 yesterday to discuss a range of child internet safety issues including parental controls and filters. The prime minister would like to make some further specific requests of industry and his office have asked us to ask you when you could deliver the following actions.

"Start Quote

I know that it will be challenging for you to commit to an unknown campaign but please can you indicate what sum you will pledge"

End Quote

1. Implementing browser intercept

I understand that Talk Talk will be trialling a "browser intercept" to force existing customers to choose either to proceed with parental controls (pre-ticked), choose their own settings or turn them off completely. The prime minister wants to announce that by the end of the year, every household with a broadband internet connection will have had to make a decision to "opt-out" of installing filters. Will the other three ISPs consider making a commitment to adopting this approach - even before it has been trialled?

2. Age-verification systems/closed-loop

The prime minister expects customers to be required to prove their age/identity before any changes to the filters are made. I understand that you will all be implementing "closed-loop" systems which will notify account holders of any changes that are made to the filters and that you have robust systems in place but please could you all confirm the precise information that is required to enable customer to access, set-up and change their filters?

3. Awareness campaign for parents

I understand that it was agreed at Claire Perry's meeting a few weeks ago that Talk Talk, BT and others would undertake some further research to establish what the focus of the campaign should be. The prime minister would like to be able to announce a collective financial commitment from industry to fund this campaign. I know that it will be challenging for you to commit to an unknown campaign but please can you indicate what sum you will pledge to this work that the PM can announce.

4. Using the phrase "default-on" instead of "active-choice +"

The prime minister believes that there is much more that we can all do to improve how we communicate the current position on parental internet controls and that there is a need for a simplified message to reassure parents and the public more generally. Without changing what you will be offering (ie active-choice +), the prime minister would like to be able to refer to your solutions are "default-on" as people will have to make a choice not to have the filters (by unticking the box). Can you consider how to include this language (or similar) in the screens that begin the set-up process? For example, "this connection includes family-friendly filters as default [or as standard] - if you do not want to install this protection please un-tick the box" (obviously not intended to be drafting). Would you be able to commit to including "default-on" or similar language both in the set-up screen and public messaging?

We are all aware of the really excellent work that you are doing and but there are a number of specific areas that the prime minister thinks need further immediate action. You are likely to receive a further message from colleagues in DCMS and the Home Office regarding tackling illegal images but given the short deadline for this work we thought it better to give you some time to work on these issues in the meantime. I need to report back to No 10 by the end of the week on these points so I would be grateful if you could consider this request as a matter of urgency and respond by midday Friday.

Apologies for the very tight deadline and grateful for your help with this work.

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Radiohead singer pulls Spotify music

15 July 2013 Last updated at 07:35 ET

Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke has pulled some albums from music-streaming service Spotify in protest at how much it pays artists.

Yorke has pulled his solo album The Eraser as well as a joint project with producer Nigel Godrich, Atoms for Peace.

The singer tweeted that they were "standing up for our fellow musicians" by removing their albums.

Spotify said it is "still in the early stages of a long-term project".

Radiohead's albums are still available on the site.

Yorke tweeted: "Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will no[t] get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. Simples."

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service. Recent figures from the company say it has 24 million active users, of whom six million pay a monthly fee for added features.

It said that it had paid $500m (£332m) to rights holders since it was launched in Sweden in 2008 and expected to pay another $500m this year.

"We're 100% committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible, and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers," the site told the BBC.

Yorke has also removed his music from rival streaming site Rdio.

'Same old industry'

"It's an equation that just doesn't work," Godrich said on Twitter. "The music industry is being taken over by the back door... and if we don't try and make it fair for new music producers and artists... then the art will suffer.

"Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system."

Godrich, who has produced on every Radiohead album since OK Computer, added: "Plus people are scared to speak up or not take part as they are told they will lose invaluable exposure if they don't play ball. Meanwhile."

British electronica artist Four Tet replied with his support: "Exactly. I had everything on my label taken off. Don't want to be part of this crap."

There has been much controversy over how much streaming sites like Spotify and Pandora pay artists, which comes as Pandora is pushing to change US laws to lower how much it must pay in royalties to songwriters.

The band Pink Floyd recently published an editorial on the issue.

"Nearly 90% of the artists who get a cheque for digital play receive less than $5,000 a year.

"They cannot afford the 85% pay cut Pandora asked Congress to impose on the music community," Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason added.

Subscription services are the fastest growing area in digital music, making up 13% of worldwide sales. But 57% of global recorded music sales still come from physical products such as CDs, down from 74% in 2008.

As well as Spotify, Rdio and Pandora, services like Xbox Music, Google Play Music All Access and the soon-to-launch iTunes Radio compete for streaming listeners.

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Sony accepts security breach fine

15 July 2013 Last updated at 08:21 ET

Sony has dropped its appeal against a £250,000 penalty imposed after its PlayStation Network was hacked in 2011.

The UK Information Commissioner's Office imposed the fine in January, finding Sony negligent for failing to protect PSN users whose login and credit card details had been leaked.

On Monday, Sony said it still disagreed with the verdict but continuing to fight it would risk exposing sensitive security data.

Hackers now target the games industry.

A Sony spokesman said: "This decision reflects our commitment to protect the confidentiality of our network security from disclosures in the course of the proceeding.

"We continue to disagree with the decision on the merits."

Last week two Japanese video games publishers admitted that personal details - including the names and and addresses - of their users had recently been exposed.

Konami's ID website was hit by four million login attempts in a recent three-week period, of which 35,000 were successful.

Gaming giant Nintendo reported a similar story, experiencing 15 million hacking attempts and 24,000 breaches of its fan site Club Nintendo in the past month.

It follows an admission by French games publisher Ubisoft that an account database on one of its sites had also been illegally accessed.

All three companies have asked affected customers to change their passwords.

But these recent attacks did not reveal financial information - unlike the assault on Sony two years ago, which turned out to be one of the biggest leaks in corporate history.

It affected about 70 million gamers using the PlayStation Network to download games, films and music, as well as to play online with friends.

The PSN was knocked offline for several days and millions of gamers' passwords were hacked - leaving personal data and payment card information at risk.

'Identity theft' risk

As a result Sony suffered a huge dent to its credibility. Company executives bowed in public and offered users free games to show their remorse.

But the Information Commissioner's Office, which promotes data privacy for individuals, said Sony's security measures at the time were not good enough for a company that trades on its technical expertise.

It acknowledged that the fine was "substantial" but argued that it was appropriate as the leak "directly affected a huge number of consumers, and at the very least put them at risk of identity theft".

At the time Sony told the BBC that it "strongly disagreed" with the decision. It said it was continually working to make their networks "safe, secure and resilient" from attacks.

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Nasa tests 3D-printed engine part

15 July 2013 Last updated at 08:24 ET

Nasa has announced it has successfully tested a 3D-printed rocket engine part.

The US space agency said that the injector component could be made more quickly and cheaply using the technique.

The part is used to deliver liquid oxygen and hydrogen gas to an engine's combustion chamber.

The news follows General Electric's revelation that it planned to use 3D printing technology to make fuel nozzles for its jet engines.

Nasa said that California-based Aerojet Rocketdyne had made the injector using a method called selective laser melting (SLM).

The technique involves turning a computer-designed object into a real-world part by controlling a high-powered laser beam which melts and fuses thin layers of metallic powders into the preordained shape.

The test part was smaller than would be used in a full-size rocket, but large enough to test it could withstand the heat and pressure involved.

Nasa said the component would normally have taken a year to make because of the exact measurements involved, but by using SLM the manufacturing time was cut to less than four months and the price reduced by more than 70%.

"Nasa recognises that on Earth and potentially in space, additive manufacturing can be game-changing for new mission opportunities, significantly reducing production time and cost by 'printing' tools, engine parts or even entire spacecraft," said Michael Gazarik, Nasa's associate administrator for space technology.

SLM is not the only unusual manufacturing technique being explored by Nasa.

The agency has also asked researchers at Washington State University to see whether it would be possible to 3D-print objects out of powder made from lunar rocks.

It is also testing a process called electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3) which uses a computer-controlled electron beam gun placed in a vacuum that welds metal wires into complex shapes and patterns.

It has suggested the process could be used by astronauts to make spare parts in space.

Design competition

Nasa's announcement comes a month after General Electric announced a competition for third-parties to create the best 3D-printable design for an aircraft engine bracket - the part used to support the engine when it needs to be serviced.

The firm will divide a $20,000 (£13,300) cash prize pool between the eight best performing designs after they are built and tested between August and November.

The US company has already used SLM to produce parts for its upcoming Leap (Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion) family of turbofan engines, made in conjunction with France's Snecma.

It has said the process allowed it to make a single widget rather than having to solder 15 to 20 parts together, helping cut its weight and boost the engine's fuel efficiency.

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Microsoft and Blackberry cut prices

15 July 2013 Last updated at 10:18 ET

Microsoft and Blackberry have both cut prices on their flagship products in a bid to boost sales.

Microsoft dropped the price of the 32GB Surface RT to £279 from £400 in the UK, with the 64GB model's price down by the same amount to £359.

And in the US, Blackberry has cut the price of the Z10 phone to as low as $49 with a contract - down from $199 four months ago.

Both firms have developed the devices to show off their latest software.

And both have tried to compete with Apple, Google and Samsung on smartphones and tablets - with limited success.

"It's a big deal for both companies," Tony Cripps, a telecoms analyst at Ovum, told the BBC. "Competing with the Apples and Samsungs of this world is tough, and it's a difficult climate to put out high-end products when the market is so dominated by a couple of players."

In the US, the cheapest Surface tablet went down to $349 (£230) from $499.

'Bet the farm'

Blackberry in particular is battling to revive its share of the smartphone market with the touchscreen-only Z10, which shows off its new BB10 operating system.

Users can get the Z10 through US carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless, for $99 with a two-year contract, but the phone costs $49 with a contract at retailers Amazon and Best Buy.

It is not clear whether the price cut has been implemented to people looking to get the phone on contract in the UK.

The company reported an $84m loss for its last quarter and refused to say how many devices running BB10 it sold - but it sold fewer phones in those three months than in the same period the year before.

Blackberry has said it shipped one million Z10s in the first three months of 2013.

"For Blackberry, it really bet the farm on its new BB10 operating system and it needs to regain market share in smartphones," Mr Cripps said.

"In that sense, the Surface's success is perhaps not quite as important for Microsoft but if they want Windows 8 to be a key driver for the future, they need to get it into the hands of as many people as possible."

Microsoft's Surface tablet is intended to challenge the iPad and Android-based tablets and runs Windows RT, a slimmed-down version of its latest Windows 8 operating system.

Recent figures from analysts IDC show that 49.2 million tablets shipped in January, February and March - and about 900,000 of those were Surfaces.

Other Windows-powered tablets totalled 1.8 million units sold across all vendors. Apple's iPad and iPad Mini accounted for 19.5 million of tablets sold.

"We've been seeing great success with pricing and cover promotions over the past several months on Surface RT in the US and other markets," a Microsoft spokeswoman said. "People who buy Surface love Surface, and we're excited about all those additional people out sharing their excitement for Surface with other people."

Microsoft also offers the Surface Pro, which runs the full version of Windows 8 and starts at $899 for the 64GB model. It has not had its price cut.

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App plays music from infinite phones

15 July 2013 Last updated at 12:56 ET

A team of students from Exeter University has won $50,000 (£33,100) for developing an app that allows an infinite number of devices to play music simultaneously.

The team behind the app, SoundSynk, won first prize in innovation at the Imagine Cup, a student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft.

The team has so far tested it on 75 devices.

The app will be available across all platforms in August.

Edward Noel, Rob Parker, Alex Bochenski and Jonathan Neuman were presented with their prize by Doctor Who star Matt Smith in St Petersburg.

"With this technology, we can create hyper-local social networks," said Mr Parker.

"SoundSynk is the first practical use of this technology and we are all very excited about its future applications."

Artificial mesh

The app will get its biggest test at the end of August when it will be showcased at a performance of Basement Jaxx at the Reading Festival of up to 80,000 people.

SoundSynk connects phones and other devices through a so-called artificial mesh network, allowing them to play the same song on all devices in perfect harmony.

The students came up with the idea late on a Saturday night in February. They were playing Sweet Nothings by the DJ, Calvin Harris, on a laptop and they wanted to have it louder as they brainstormed.

"Being students we wanted to have a little rave but the volume was not sufficient," Alex Bochenski said.

"At this point we did the age-old technique of lining up all of our phones, laptops, tablets and trying to play the song at the same time."

It didn't work - but it sparked the germ of an idea that would eventually see them compete in Russia, beating teams from Slovenia and Thailand in the innovation category.

"We developed a prototype of the product in 24 hours for the regionals of the Imagine Cup," Mr Bochenski said.

Eighty-seven student teams from 71 countries competed in the worldwide finals.

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