TVCatchup defiant after court ruling

TVCatchup says it is "in a great position to grow" following a high court ruling forcing it to stop some of its services.

The TV streaming service, which allows users to watch TV channels live online, faced legal action from broadcasters.

A ruling now bans TVCatchup from streaming ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 over mobile networks.

Those channels and several others are still available through the TVCatchup website and on mobile devices via WiFi.

In addition, the court told TVCatchup that it cannot stream certain digital channels on its web-based service.

Users watching channels including ITV2, E4, Film4 and More4 will now be re-directed to their homepages.

A total of 11 channels have been removed from TVCatchup's iOS and Android apps.

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The loss of certain channels accounts for a small percentage of our viewing figures

TVCatchUp

A message on the app says the service hopes to restore these channels as well as add new ones in the future.

TVCatchup told Newsbeat that the ruling won't have too much of an impact.

The statement read: "The loss of certain channels accounts for a small percentage of our viewing figures, although preservation of choice remains important to us."

In a previous statement on its website, TVCatchup said of the changes: "We enjoy excellent relationships with most of those whose content we carry, but this sadly hasn't proved to be the case with all of the public service broadcasters."

TVCatchup claims to have nearly 10 million active users.

The service's statement to Newsbeat also said that "we fully comply with our legal obligations."

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Ultrasound offers gesture control

10 October 2013 Last updated at 11:27 ET

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The smartphone you control by gestures

Ultrasound technology that enables mobiles and tablets to be controlled by gesture could go into production as early as next year.

Norwegian start-up Elliptic Labs is in talks with Asian handset manufacturers to get the chip embedded in devices.

The technology works via an ultrasound chip that uses sound waves to interpret hand movements.

The move towards gesture control has gathered pace and there are now many such products on the market.

Big gestures

What sets Elliptic's gesture-control system apart from others is its wide field of use, up to a metre away from the phone. It means it can identify mid-air gestures accurately.

Because it uses sound rather than sight, the sensor can recognise gestures from a 180-degree field. It also consumes less power and works in the dark.

By contrast Samsung's Galaxy S4 uses an infrared sensor that can only interpret hand movements within a very small zone.

"The user needs to learn the exact spot to gesture to instead of having a large interactive space around the device," said Erik Forsstrom, the user interface designer for Elliptic Labs.

Allowing users more freedom in how they gesture is vital if such products are to become mainstream, he thinks.

"With a small screen such as a phone or a tablet, the normal body language is not that precise. You need a large zone in which to gesture."

If consumers can quickly see the effects their gestures have on screen, he thinks, "it is quite likely that this is the next step within mobile".

The technology was recently shown off at Japanese tech show Ceatec.

In the demonstration, an Android smartphone was housed in a case containing the ultrasound transmitters.

But Elliptic Labs said it had formed partnerships with a number of Asian handset manufacturers who are looking at building the ultrasound chip into devices, as early as next year.

Mass market

Continue reading the main story

It is ideal if you have dirty or sweaty hands"

End Quote Ben Wood CCS Insight

Increasingly firms are experimenting with gesture control.

PrimeSense, the company that developed gesture control for Microsoft's Kinect console, has also made strides towards bringing the technology to mobile.

By shrinking down the sensor used in the Kinect, the firm showed it working with a Nexus 10 at a Google developers' conference in May.

Meanwhile Disney is testing technology that allows users to "feel" the texture of objects on a flat touchscreen.

The technique involves sending tiny vibrations through the display that let people "feel" the shallow bumps, ridges and edges of an object.

Ben Wood, analyst with research firm CCS Insight thinks such devices could be ready for the mass market.

"Apple's success has made gestures a part of everyday life. Now consumers understand they can manipulate a screen with a gesture or a swipe everyone is racing to find innovative ways to exploit this behaviour.

"Ultrasonic is particularly interesting as you don't need to touch the screen which can be an almost magical experience.

"It is ideal if you have dirty or sweaty hands. A common example people use is flicking through a recipe when cooking. Other examples include transitioning through a slideshow of photos or flicking through music tracks or turning the page on an ebook," he said.

"The big challenge that remains is how you make users aware of the capability."

See more tech from the Ceatec show on Click this weekend

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Apple 'should buy big companies'

11 October 2013 Last updated at 07:59 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

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Apple should use its enormous cash reserves to make some big-name acquisitions, the company's former boss John Sculley says

Apple should use its enormous cash reserves to make some big-name acquisitions, the company's former boss John Sculley has said.

He said it could shift the "whole landscape of e-commerce" if it bought, for example, eBay.

He said it should ignore the wishes of activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants the company to buy back stock.

"Apple's about building great products, building and shaping markets," Mr Sculley said.

"Carl Icahn has suggested to [Apple chief executive] Tim Cook, 'Why don't you buy more stock back or make a bigger dividend?'

"I'd rather see Apple continue to invest in building... even make big acquisitions that were strategic, as opposed to buying more stock back, or giving more dividends."

Mr Sculley was the chief executive of Apple between 1983 and 1993.

During his tenure, he famously engineered the "forcing out" of Steve Jobs from the company - a decision he later said was due to his own inexperience in appreciating Mr Jobs' vision for future products.

Change of strategy

Traditionally, Apple has not acquired large scale companies - instead buying smaller companies with specific technologies, and folding them into the business.

One recent example of this is Siri, a company Apple acquired in 2010 when it wanted to provide an integrated personal assistant on its iPhone and iPad products.

Mr Sculley said that while he had "no insider knowledge" of the firm he left in 1993, he said he now wonders if it is time for Apple to change its growth strategy.

Continue reading the main story

I think Steve Ballmer has a lot he ought to be proud of [at Microsoft]"

End Quote John Sculley

"Apple's never been an acquirer of big companies before, and when you look at the [Apple digital ticket system] Passbook, and fingerprint recognition - what would it mean if Apple went out and bought eBay? And they had PayPal, and integrated that?

"My guess is you'd suddenly see the whole landscape of e-commerce shift.

"You have Amazon, which is on the fast-track to dominate every aspect of e-commerce - suddenly the game, the landscape, would change."

Sensor hopes

Mr Sculley was in London ahead of the UK launch of the latest product he is working on - the Misfit Shine, a wearable device that monitors various aspects of a person's health.

"The future of wearable products has the potential to have a huge impact on healthcare," he said.

He also, at the age of 74, offers his services as a mentor to up and coming Silicon Valley chief executives - something he said he wished he had while at Apple.

"When you're dealing in industries where there's such a thin line between success and failure, having another set of trusted eyes can be a real nice advantage."

Mr Sculley also offered warm words for the soon-to-be-departing Microsoft boss, Steve Ballmer.

"Here's a man who has spent 33 years at Microsoft, loves the company," he said. "He really did not get enough credit for what he did accomplish.

"I can't name a CEO who didn't make some mistakes in the hi-tech industry.

"I think Ballmer has a lot he ought to be proud of. So he didn't get everything right - not many people do."

He added: "I think it's important the CEOs do move on."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Dark web 'will evolve' - cyber boss

11 October 2013 Last updated at 09:17 ET

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Andy Archibald, head of the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit, says the "dark web" of criminal activity will continue to evolve

The "dark web" services used by criminals will continue to evolve in an attempt to evade authorities, the UK's cybercrime boss has warned.

Last week, notorious drugs market place the Silk Road was shut down after a lengthy investigation.

Andy Archibald, interim head of the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), said officers identified individuals who were using the site.

But he said new methods were needed to keep up with the threat.

"[Online anonymity service] Tor evolves, and will resecure itself," Mr Archibald told the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

"The success we've had may not necessarily mean that by the same routes and same approaches we can get into other criminal forums.

"We have to continually probe and identify those forums and then seek to infiltrate them and use other tools.

"It's not simply a case of because we were able to infiltrate Tor on this occasion that we'll be able to do it next time around as well."

Mr Archibald's comments came as the NCCU announced its first conviction. Twenty-seven-year-old Olukunle Babatunde received a five years and six month prison sentence.

The man, from Croydon, south London, pleaded guilty to using "phishing" scams in an attempt to defraud banks, financial institutions and their customers.

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TV studios playing piracy catch-up

By Chi Chi Izundu
Newsbeat entertainment reporter

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See investigators turn up to a house of a website host

The body which fights copyright theft on behalf of film and television studios says it is playing catch-up with people who break the law.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) also says it is coming up with new ways to try to tackle piracy.

It says it is now targeting people who host links which allow other internet users to access illegal copyrighted content online.

Fact is warning users of similar sites that they should "watch out" too.

Britain's television and film industries say copyright theft costs them hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

The director general of Fact, Kieron Sharp, says: "We're not after the ones who download a few films or watch something from a streaming website, we're after the people behind that."

A notice appears on the home page of a website closed down by Fact

One tactic Fact says is working well is "a domain sign over".

Investigators go to the home of the person hosting a website which is making protected content available to everyone for free.

The host is then given a cease and desist order, asking them to take down the website and to hand over the domain rights to Fact.

That means when a user goes to that site they are redirected to other places which show material legally.

If a website host refuses to hand over the rights, Fact says it has other options to explore and will take action.

Investigators say they will take the evidence they have gathered to the police to start criminal proceedings.

Fact says Tom's website, featured in the video above, provided access to a certain type of file, called NZBs.

It claims those files are used to find and download data easily from the internet.

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Tom defends his website and says he wasn't doing anything wrong

Once all the bits of data are downloaded they can then be used to play a film, TV show or piece of music.

The investigators have told Tom the studios they work for do not release their content using the NZB file format.

Tom says that he doesn't feel he has done anything wrong.

Fact says it has successfully taken action against other websites who've used NZBs for copyright infringement.

In 2011, piracy cost the television and film industry in the UK £511 million, according to Fact.

Kieron Sharp says a lot of "criminal money" is being made.

"It's harming the industry which produces those films and TV programmes in the first place," he adds.

The broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, released a report by Kantar Media in September about trends in online copyright.

The study found almost a quarter of downloads in the UK infringed copyright.

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Protests over Google 'endorsed ads'

14 October 2013 Last updated at 06:35 ET

Google is facing a backlash over plans to put people's faces and comments about products and places into adverts.

The "shared endorsements" policy change starts on 11 November and covers the comments, "follows" and other actions people do on Google+.

One protest involves people swapping their profile pictures for that of Google boss Eric Schmidt so his image rather than their own appears on ads.

Google said it had made it easy for people to opt out of the system.

The search giant started alerting people about the upcoming policy change via banners on its main webpage and in a page explaining the change to its "policies and principles".

Google also gave examples of how the "shared endorsement" system might work. This showed people's faces and comments appearing below Street View images of a bagel shop and search results for products and places.

Many people protested about the change to Google, and some altered their image profiles on the Google+ social network in response.

So far, Google has not issued an official comment about the protests over "shared endorsements". However, in its explanatory pages it said it was easy to opt out of the system by clicking a box on the Google+ account settings page.

It warned that if people did not want to be part of the programme some of their comments and follows may no longer be visible to others they know on Google+.

Social network Facebook faced strong criticism over a similar system called "sponsored stories" it rolled out in 2011.

Legal action following the criticism eventually led to Facebook paying out $20m to compensate people whose images it used without permission.

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Brazil plans secure email service

14 October 2013 Last updated at 07:26 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Brazil has confirmed plans to create a secure email service, following revelations of cyber-surveillance techniques used by the US and UK.

President Dilma Rousseff posted a series of tweets over the weekend, saying the move was required to "prevent possible espionage".

She added the country's Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro) would be charged with developing the system.

One expert said the tech involved was well established but had limitations.

"There's a good precedent for this with the German provider Gmx.de," said Prof Ross Anderson, head of the security research group at the University of Cambridge's computer laboratory.

"They just need to tell a company to keep the servers in Brazil, encrypt all the traffic inside or outside the country, and only give access to Brazilian police and intelligence services.

"Bang, finished, it's trivial. It's a well understood and well solved problem."

He said that the Brazilian system could be designed to interact with Gmx and equivalent encrypted services, in which case the NSA (US National Security Agency) and GCHQ (UK Government Communications Headquarters) would effectively be shut out unless the countries where the relevant servers were based decided to co-operate.

Continue reading the main story

• Until 2002, US ran base in Brazilian capital, Brasilia, to intercept transmissions from foreign satellites
• Surveillance carried out through partnerships between Brazilian telecoms firms and US agencies
• Major companies and foreign visitors routinely targeted

But he added that information could still be intercepted if cyber-spies were able to install malware on their target's computers or if users corresponded with someone using an non-secure email service.

"From the point of view of people writing to each other in Brazil, they have some protection against foreign snooping, however more and more business these days is done internationally," he said.

"With Gmail having something like a third of all email traffic worldwide, that means the Americans will still be able to read an awful lot of messages.

"If you have an email [copied] to a dozen different people there will be a fair chance one of them will be using Google's service."

International summit

President Rousseff's announcement follows allegations that the NSA hacked state-run oil company Petrobras and intercepted billions of emails and calls to Brazilians.

She postponed a state visit to Washington in September after it was alleged that the agency had also targeted her emails and phone calls.

"Without respect for [a nation's] sovereignty, there is no basis for proper relations among nations," she subsequently told the United Nations.

"Those who want a strategic partnership cannot possibly allow recurring and illegal action to go on as if they were an ordinary practice."

President Rousseff has also used Twitter to announce plans to host an international summit in 2014 to discuss internet security.

The event may be used as an opportunity to renew calls for Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and other organisations overseeing the net to pass at least some of their powers to the UN.

At present Icann - which co-ordinates the internet's codes and numbering systems - is officially under the remit of the US Department of Commerce, even though it operates as an arms-length body.

The US has resisted the idea, and a clash of views over the matter contributed to the failure of a treaty being signed at last year's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conference in Dubai.

Last week - following a meeting between Icann's president, Fadi Chehade, and President Rousseff - Icann itself backed calls for the accelerated globalisation of its functions " towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing".

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WH Smith takes website offline

14 October 2013 Last updated at 08:12 ET

WH Smith has taken its UK site completely offline until all abuse-themed e-books are removed from its product listings.

The move comes after last week's revelations that Amazon, WH Smith, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers were selling pornographic e-books featuring incest, rape and bestiality on their sites.

WH Smith said it was "disgusted" by such titles and found them "unacceptable".

It takes e-book content from Kobo.com.

In a statement Kobo said it was "working quickly to review its catalogue and remove the content, authors and publishers in question".

"We are also evaluating new procedures to help ensure that this type of content will not become available... in the future," it said.

Meanwhile visitors to the WHSmith.co.uk website were greeted by a holding page statement.

The retailer said it had taken the site offline "to best protect our customers and the public".

"Our website will become live again once all self published e-books have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available", it said.

"We sincerely apologise for any offence caused."

While Kobo said some publishers and authors had violated its self-publishing policies, it maintained that its goal was "not to negatively impact the freedom of expression and the work of the amazing self-published community that has been created at Kobo.com."

'Violation'

Over the weekend US retailing giant Barnes & Noble said offending titles were "in violation" of its policy on content offered in the NOOK Bookstore and were in the process of being removed.

"When there are violations to the content policy that are brought to our attention, either through our internal process or from a customer or external source, we have a rapid response team in place to appropriately categorise or remove the content in accordance with our policy," it said.

Self-published e-books have grown massively in popularity along with the growth in digital e-readers and tablet computers, but retailers have been struggling to filter explicit content that breaches their website guidelines.

On Friday, technology news site The Kernel revealed how Amazon, Barnes & Noble, WH Smith, Waterstones and Foyles were listing what it called "breathtakingly obscene" books on their websites.

But Fiona Allen, spokeswoman for Waterstones, told the BBC: "None of the e-books mentioned in current reporting are now or ever have been available in Waterstones shops or listed on Waterstones' website."

She admitted that Waterstones was concerned about some print titles and was investigating those, but that all such printed book data was supplied by Nielsen, a data provider.

A spokesman for Foyles told the BBC: "Foyles' e-book site does not take a generic feed of self-published e-books, which is where many of these problems arise, so none of the titles mentioned in these reports has ever been ordered from our website or supplied by Foyles.

"In common with other booksellers, we do take a central feed of print book data from Nielsen and have approached them to see what we both might be able to do to address this industry-wide issue", he added.

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HTC fingerprint phone unveiled early

14 October 2013 Last updated at 09:19 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

HTC has announced its latest handset a day earlier than planned after its details leaked on to the net.

The Android-powered One Max - which includes a fingerprint scanner and a 5.9in (15cm) screen - had been scheduled to be unveiled at a press conference in China on Tuesday.

The device is a larger "phablet-sized" version of its flagship model.

HTC's original One was well-reviewed but has been outsold by Samsung's Galaxy S4.

That helped cause HTC to post its first ever quarterly loss earlier this month.

The Taiwanese firm announced a deficit of just under 3bn Taiwan dollars ($100m; £62m) for its July-to-September quarter.

By contrast Samsung Electronics has forecast record profits for the same period.

HTC said it decided to abandon the restrictions it had placed on information about the One Max after a member of the media broke a Tuesday embargo placed on its specifications. A spokeswoman for the firm said she was unable to name the publication responsible.

Fingerprint security

The HTC One Max's inclusion of a fingerprint scanner makes it the first and only Android handset to do so since the launch of Apple's iPhone 5S in September, which included a similar component.

However, both were preceded by Motorola's Atrix handset, released in 2011. It also included a scanner on its rear, but struggled to take accurate readings, leading the firm to ditch the feature in later models.

"The fingerprint scanner allows users to lock or unlock the screen and quickly launch up to three favourite applications by assigning an individual finger to each," HTC said in a statement.

Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, recently told the Bloomberg news agency it had designed a "walled off" enclave on its custom-designed A7 processor to store iPhone owners' fingerprint data to ensure the biometric information could not "escape".

By contrast the new HTC handset uses an off-the-shelf Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, but the firm offered the following assurance to consumers:

"The fingerprint data is encrypted and stored in local memory and can't be readily accessed or copied. The fingerprint data cannot be easily converted into any other form or used by a third party."

However, one security expert suggested the firm still needed to provide more detail.

"The obvious question is: What kind of encryption is the company using?" said Alan Woodward, chief technology officer at the consultancy Charteris.

"The bottom line is that whenever your biometric data is being stored for security purposes it could potentially be misused.

"So, consumers will always want to be sure it is stored in such a way that if you lose the phone, it is hacked into or there's some other kind of unauthorised access, that it can't be readily obtained."

Marketing problem

The new mobile expands the HTC One family following the launch of a "mini" 4.3in-screened handset in July.

The original HTC One - which has a 4.7in screen - obtained a higher review score than Samsung's rival S4 on The Verge and Techradar news sites and recently beat its competitor to be named T3 magazine's gadget of the year.

However, HTC has repeatedly blamed marketing problems for its failure to match its South Korean rival's sales.

In August it employed the Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr to head a new campaign, however its share price remains about 90% below its 2011 high.

"If you look at Samsung Electronics' financials, in the June quarter it spent $2.1bn on marketing - most of which went on mobile phones - that's more than all HTC's revenue for the same period by quite a margin," said Benedict Evans, from the media and tech advisory firm Enders Analysis.

"HTC does have a marketing problem - but it's not the creative part that's the issue, it's the scale.

"It's also worth bearing in mind that when you talk about Samsung's marketing spend over half of the sum is below the line: sales commissions mostly. And this isn't just an HTC-specific problem - it's a problem that applies to LG, Sony, Motorola and others as well."

Samsung's next earning figures are due to be released on 25 October.

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Backdoor found in D-Link routers

14 October 2013 Last updated at 10:55 ET

An easy-to-exploit backdoor has been found in seven different models of domestic routers made by D-Link and Planex.

The backdoor, if used, would let an attacker take complete control of a router or modem and spy on a home's browsing activity.

D-Link has acknowledged the existence of the backdoor and said a fix would be available by the end of October.

So far, the backdoor does not seem to have been exploited "in the wild".

The backdoor was discovered by security researcher Craig Heffner, who reverse-engineered the software used to control a D-Link DIR-100 router. Deep analysis of the code revealed a string of letters that, if used in the right way, unlocked remote access to the gadget.

Writing about his findings on his blog, Mr Heffner speculated that the password string was included to make it easier for D-Link to remotely update some of its products.

The same string has been found to work on seven D-Link routers (DIR-100, DI-524, DI-524UP, DI-604S, DI-604UP, DI-604+ and the TM-G5240) and two from Planex (BRL-04UR and BRL-04CW).

Many thousands of people are believed to have bought the routers before they were revealed to be vulnerable.

In a statement, D-Link said it was working with Mr Heffner and other security researchers to find out more about the backdoor. And it was also conducting a review of its other products to see if it was present in other models.

It added that it would soon produce a update for the software that keeps the routers running, known as firmware, that would close the backdoor. The company urged users to be vigilant and to disable remote access to their router if it was not needed.

Planex has yet to issue a statement about its products.

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