Old batteries 'could power slums'

5 December 2014 Last updated at 13:17 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Old laptop batteries still have enough life in them to power homes in slums, researchers have said.

An IBM study analysed a sample of discarded batteries and found 70% had enough power to keep an LED light on more than four hours a day for a year.

Researchers said using discarded batteries is cheaper than existing power options, and also helps deal with the mounting e-waste problem.

The concept was trialled in the Indian city of Bangalore this year.

The adapted power packs are expected to prove popular with street vendors, who are not on the electric grid, as well as poor families living in slums.

The research, which comes from IBM's India-based research team, will be discussed at a conference in San Jose, California, according to Technology Review from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cheap

The IBM team created what they called an UrJar - a device that uses lithium-ion cells from the old batteries to power low-energy DC devices, such as a light.

The researchers are aiming to help the approximately 400 million people in India who are off grid.

Options such as solar power are considerably more expensive and logistically more cumbersome at the moment.

If the UrJar, which would last a year, is made in sufficiently large volume, researchers estimate the price per unit at just 600 rupees (about £7).

They conclude: "UrJar has the potential to channel e-waste towards the alleviation of energy poverty, thus simultaneously providing a sustainable solution for both problems."

Feedback from the trial was positive, the team said. Among the improvements suggested by users was a call for rat-resistant wires.

Urgent

E-waste is a major problem, particularly in the developing world, where the majority of the West's unwanted technology ends up.

IBM's research said 142,000 computers are thrown away in the US daily - around 50 million a year.

India's predicament is particularly urgent. Not only does the country receive a lot of e-waste from other countries, but with a booming IT market it is also generating huge amounts of its own - around 32 tonnes a day, according to one estimate.

Computer Aid, a UK-based charity that redistributes unwanted old technology, welcomed the initiative.

"We think that this is an excellent initiative as it is in line with our practice of reusing and refurbishing rather than recycling," said Keith Sonnet, its chief executive.

"Refurbishing has definitely a more positive impact on the environment and we should encourage more companies to adopt this practice."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Maths and science Cameron's priority

8 December 2014 Last updated at 10:45 By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent

Maths and science should be the priority for England's schools, says Prime Minister David Cameron.

He announced the opening of a National College for Digital Skills in London in 2015, to enhance economic competitiveness in the "global race".

There will be specialist training to improve the skills of 17,500 maths and science teachers.

However, Labour says the government has already failed to meet its teacher recruitment targets.

Mr Cameron argues that maths, science and technology are the key skills for a modern globalised economy.

Digital technology

"There's no secret to success in the modern world. If countries are going to win in the global race and children compete and get the best jobs, you need mathematicians and scientists - pure and simple.

"So today, we commit to deliver more maths and science teachers.

"This is all part of our long-term economic plan for Britain - making sure our children have the skills they need to thrive and get on."

The prime minister announced the extra training as pupils visited Downing Street for a lesson in computer coding, as part of the international Hour of Code project.

"It will take time but it's absolutely vital for the success of our country that we teach maths and science and computing in the modern way, because that will be one of the things that will determine whether we succeed or not," said Mr Cameron

A £67m initiative, covering the next five years, will give extra maths and science training for 15,000 existing teachers and recruit an additional 2,500 teachers.

Improving maths skills will benefit the competitiveness of the economy and improve the job chances of individuals, said the prime minister.

A National College for Digital Skills will be created, providing vocational courses in digital technology for 5,000 students over five years. It will work with private sector companies such as IBM, Deloitte and Bank of America.

However, Labour warned that the government's teacher training policy was already leading to shortages.

The Association of School and College Leaders warned recently that schools would have to recruit from overseas to fill vacancies, including maths and science teachers.

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said: "For three years in a row, David Cameron's government has missed its own teacher recruitment targets, creating a crisis situation.

"Shortfalls in the recruitment of maths and physics teachers are especially concerning."

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Video-game console pioneer dies

8 December 2014 Last updated at 13:07

Video-game pioneer Ralph Baer has died at the age of 92.

Mr Baer is widely seen as the "father of video games" for his pioneering work that led to the creation of the Odyssey games console.

The Odyssey, licensed to TV-maker Magnavox, went on sale in 1972 and inspired many other firms to make their own consoles.

Mr Baer also created the first peripherals for consoles and invented many popular electronic games.

Born in Germany, Mr Baer and his family fled the country before World War Two and emigrated to the United States. As a teenager he took up electronics and trained as a radio service engineer.

After the war, this background led him to a career in electrical engineering that, in 1966, saw him create a "brown box" console that let two people take each other on in several different games including a crude, by modern gaming standards, version of table tennis.

The brown box became the Odyssey and went on to become a huge hit. Its success helped to kick off the first wave of TV-connected gaming consoles and inspired an entire industry.

The Odyssey was the first of many game-related electronics devices that Mr Baer created. Among these was the first light gun that could be used to shoot on-screen targets. In later work, Mr Baer also helped Coleco develop some of its games consoles and did work on collaborative play via cable networks.

Mr Baer also came up with the electronics underpinning the Simon electronic game and by the time of his death had more than 150 patents to his name.

In 2004, he was awarded the US National Medal of Technology and in 2010 was inducted into America's National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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India Uber cab driver 'raped woman'

8 December 2014 Last updated at 03:44

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Scuffles broke out at a protest in Delhi over the case

A woman in India says she was raped by a taxi driver after booking the cab using the popular Uber smartphone app.

The 26-year-old from Delhi told police she dozed off in the taxi and when she woke up the vehicle was parked in a secluded part of the capital.

Police said a medical examination had backed up her allegation. The driver of the taxi was arrested on Sunday.

The latest incident comes amid increasing concern at sexual violence against women in India.

Uber, which enables customers to book and pay for taxis online, said it was co-operating with the police.

"Our thoughts are with the victim of this terrible crime and we are working with the police as they investigate," it said in a statement.

The woman, who works in finance, told police she called the taxi on Friday evening after dining at a restaurant.

She alleged that after raping her, the driver warned her she would be hurt if she raised the alarm. He then dropped her off near her home.

The driver later abandoned the taxi and returned to his home in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state where he was arrested, police said.

He will be produced in the court on Monday.

Safety

Uber, which is growing in India, has been accused of failing to conduct adequate checks on its drivers.

"Our initial investigations have revealed shortcomings of the private cab company which didn't have GPS installed in its cabs and the staff wasn't verified," Delhi Special Commissioner Deepak Mishra said.

But Uber, which is based in San-Francisco, said safety was paramount, and said it had GPS traces of all journeys.

"We work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing [estimated time of arrival] to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform," its statement added.

Uber, established in 2009, is present in dozens of countries and recently attracted investment which values it at $40bn (£25bn).

The latest allegation of rape has again put the spotlight on the issue of sexual violence against Indian women, following a series of recent incidents.

It comes days before the second anniversary of the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi, which prompted outrage and a tightening of the laws on sexual violence.

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Apple music abuse trial may collapse

5 December 2014 Last updated at 11:49

A court case against Apple, which could see the company facing damages of $1bn, might collapse.

Lawyers for Apple have raised a last-minute challenge saying new evidence suggested that the two women named as plaintiffs may not have purchased iPod models covered by the lawsuit.

The case is considering whether the hardware giant abused its dominant position in the digital music market.

The lawsuit covers iPods purchased between September 2006 and March 2009.

During that period Apple used software that meant the only DRM (digital rights management)-coded music that could be played on its devices was that from its own iTunes store. DRM-free tracks could also be played.

purchased from its iTunes store could be played on its devices.

Serial number

Lawyers representing both consumers and businesses claim that the restrictions meant Apple could inflate the prices of iPod in an anti-competitive manner. They are seeking $350m in damages, which could be tripled under US competition laws.

But after lead plaintiff Marianna Rosen testified on Wednesday, Apple lawyers checked the serial number on her iPod Touch and found it was purchased in July 2009.

The other main plaintiff, Melanie Wilson, also bought iPods outside the relevant timeframe, they indicated.

"I am concerned that I don't have a plaintiff. That's a problem," Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said at the end of the trial's third day of testimony in Oakland, California.

Lawyer Bonny Sweeny said that her team was checking for other receipts. She conceded that while Ms Wilson's iPod may not be covered, an estimated eight million consumers are believed to have purchased the affected devices.

The case has been rumbling on for years and offers a fascinating insight into the early days of the digital music business.

At the start of the millennium, the big record labels were terrified that illegal copying of digital music could ruin their businesses.

Rivals frustrated

To help placate them, Apple created digital rights management software known as FairPlay but early versions of it were easily cracked by music pirates.

The software also frustrated rivals such as RealNetworks, who found that music from its digital music store could not be played on iPods.

In response, RealNetworks announced a similar technology - Harmony - which allowed music purchased from the RealPlayer music store to be played on iPods.

It led Apple chief executive Steve Jobs to famously accuse the firm of adopting the "tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod".

By 2007 Apple's software had become more sophisticated and restrictive.

In the trial it emerged that, between 2007 and 2009, if an iPod owner tried to sync their device with iTunes and had music from another digital store on the device, they would receive an error message telling them to restore their iPod to factory settings. This effectively wiped all non-iTunes music from the device.

Apple maintained at the trial that the software and restrictions were necessary to protect users from malicious content and hackers.

If the case continues it will hear video testimony from Steve Jobs, filmed shortly before his death.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers is currently considering her options and has asked both sides to file written arguments as to how they think the trial should proceed.

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GCHQ 'does not breach human rights'

5 December 2014 Last updated at 18:02

The current system of UK intelligence collection does not currently breach the European Convention of Human Rights, a panel of judges has ruled.

A case claiming various systems of interception by GCHQ constituted a breach had been brought by Amnesty, Privacy International and others.

It followed revelations by the former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden about UK and US surveillance practices.

The judges said the case had been important in clarifying GCHQ's policy.

Some of the organisations who brought the case, including Amnesty UK and Privacy International, say they intend to appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.

The case led to extensive disclosures of the intelligence agency procedures for handling intelligence.

'Webcam watching'

The Privacy International pressure group had said the documents released by Mr Snowden detailed the many ways that GCHQ was spying on people, many of which violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

This guarantees a right to privacy and to freedom of expression.

The group also said the programmes run by GCHQ and the United States's National Security Agency - uncovered by Mr Snowden - let the agencies listen via microphones, watch through webcams and scoop up detailed web browsing histories.

Analysis: Gordon Corera, BBC security correspondent

GCHQ will consider this ruling an emphatic victory. They will argue that it, along with other oversight reports, clears them of carrying out "mass surveillance" as their critics have claimed.

They have argued that the way they collect and then examine material is compliant with human rights obligations and the law. A central point of contention has been whether bulk access to traffic through cable taps was in itself a violation of privacy because of what it swept up. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) says that indiscriminate trawling for information would be unlawful but the way in which the intelligence agencies go about selecting and retaining material is proportionate and lawful.

Those who brought the case will not give up - they will go to Strasbourg and the European court and have also raised questions about the IPT process itself. But they will be disappointed by today's ruling even if it did not come as a complete surprise.

The bodies bringing the case to tribunal argued that GCHQ's methods breached article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is the right to privacy, as well as article 10, which protects freedom of expression.

But the judges at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) said the disclosures made during this case, which included the legal footing of the intelligence system's activities, had contributed to their decision that the intelligence agencies were not in breach of human rights.

In a written judgment, a panel of IPT judges said: "We have been able to satisfy ourselves that as of today there is no contravention of articles 8 and 10 by reference to those systems.

"We have left open for further argument the question as to whether prior hereto there has been a breach."

A government security source told the BBC: "We are delighted that a third independent body has confirmed that GCHQ does not seek to carry out mass surveillance."

'Trust us'

James Welch, legal director for civil rights organisation Liberty, said: "So a secretive court thinks that secret safeguards shown to it in secret are an adequate protection of our privacy.

"The IPT cannot grasp why so many of us are deeply troubled about GCHQ's Tempora operation - a seemingly unfettered power to rifle through our online communications."

Surveillance systems

• Prism is a surveillance system launched in 2007 by the NSA

• A leaked presentation, dated April 2013, stated that it allows the organisation to "receive" emails, video clips, photos, voice and video calls, social networking details, log-ins and other data held by a range of US internet firms

• Tempora is the codename given to an operation to create a "buffer" to allow huge amounts of data to be temporarily stored for analysis

• According to documents reported by The Guardian, the scheme is run by GCHQ and began at the end of 2011
• It says the agency holds content gathered from tapped fibre-optic cables for three days and metadata for 30 days so that both it and the NSA can search and analyse it before details are lost

Amnesty UK's legal advisor Rachel Logan said the government had "managed to bluff their way out of the case" by "retreating into closed hearings and constantly playing the 'national security' card".

"We have had to painstakingly drag out every detail we could from an aggressively resistant government."

She also said the IPT's ruling was a "disappointing, if unsurprising, verdict from an overseer that was in part assessing itself".

"The government's entire defence has amounted to 'trust us' and now the tribunal has said the same," she added.

"Since we only know about the scale of such surveillance thanks to Snowden, and given that 'national security' has been recklessly bandied around, 'trust us' isn't enough."

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N Korea denies 'righteous' Sony hack

7 December 2014 Last updated at 07:53

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North Korean TV denied involvement but praised the attack on Sony - who produced a comedy film about the country's leader Kim Jong-un

North Korea has denied hacking into the computer system at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film depicting the country's leader - but has praised the attack itself as a "righteous deed".

The attack crippled computers at Sony and led to upcoming films and workers' personal data being leaked online.

North Korea said its "supporters and sympathisers" may have carried out the hack - but said it was not involved.

It has described the film, The Interview, as an "act of terrorism"

The comedy, made by Sony Pictures, features James Franco and Seth Rogen as two journalists who are granted an audience with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The CIA then enlists the pair to assassinate him. The film is due to be released over Christmas.

An article on North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency, quoting the country's top military body, said suggestions that Pyongyang was behind the attack were "wild rumour".

However, it warned the US that "there are a great number of supporters and sympathisers" of North Korea "all over the world" who may have carried out the attack.

In the article, Sony Pictures was accused of "abetting a terrorist act" and "hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership" of North Korea by producing the movie.

Last week a North Korean diplomat had responded to questions over whether his country had conducted the attack by saying, "wait and see".

According to the BBC's Stephen Evans in the South Korean capital Seoul, the latest statement comes closer to a denial - but is ambiguous about whether the country's supporters did it.

This would not be the first time North Korea has been mischievous with the West, our correspondent says, adding that the trailers for the film are - bafflingly - not that insulting to the North Korean leader.

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Alastair Leithead says N Korea is furious about the new film

California-based Sony Pictures' computer system went down last week and hackers then published a number of as-yet unreleased films on online download sites.

They also released salary and Social Security numbers for thousands of Sony employees - including celebrities. The film about North Korea does not appear to have been leaked.

On Monday, Sony Pictures said it had restored a number of important services that had to be shut down after the attack.

It said it was working closely with law enforcement officials to investigate the matter but made no mention of North Korea.

The FBI has confirmed that it is investigating. It has also warned other US businesses that unknown hackers have launched a cyber-attack with destructive malware.

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PlayStation hit by hack attack

8 December 2014 Last updated at 06:37

A hacker group has claimed responsibility for attacking Sony's online PlayStation store, which is down on Monday.

Visitors to the site are greeted with a message that says "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the internet's fault".

A group called "Lizard Squad" has taken credit for the outage, posting "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad" as their Twitter status.

The outage is the most recent in a series of attacks on tech giant Sony.

The Japanese firm's Hollywood film studios' corporate network was hacked into last month, followed by an online leak of unreleased movies, along with confidential information such as actors' salaries.

Sony Entertainment Network has responded by tweeting that they are aware of the issues that users are having in connecting to the PlayStation network.

"Thanks for your patience as we investigate," the company tweeted at about midnight GMT.

The disruption comes just days after the gaming console celebrated its 20th anniversary last week.

Lizard Squad attacks

Meanwhile, the outage on the PlayStation network follows one on Microsoft Xbox network, which was down for at least a day last week.

Lizard Squad also claimed it was behind the attack.

The Xbox network was hit with a DDOS, or a distributed denial of service attack, which overloaded the system, stopping users from getting online.

The hacker group had then said that its Xbox attack was just "a small dose" of what was to come over the Christmas season.

Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for attacks that have taken high-profile targets like EA games and Destiny offline in the past.

Known as Lizard Patrol on Twitter, the anonymous collective has a Russian-based website.

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Zoella admits Girl Online ghost-writing

Girl Online, Zoella's debut novel, was written with "help" from her publisher, the YouTuber has admitted.

In a post shared on Twitter, she said: "Of course I was going to have help from Penguin's editorial team in telling my story.

"The story and characters of Girl Online are all mine."

Another author, Siobhan Curham, who is thanked in the book's acknowledgements, has been responding to Twitter comments about the Girl Online revelations.

It has not been suggested by either the publisher, or Ms Curham herself, that she wrote the book - but Ms Curham has thanked followers for their concern.

One such exchange included a reference to "this writer's books" having Zoella's name on the cover.

Neither Penguin, nor Ms Curham, have responded to Newsbeat's request for a comment.

Many of Zoella's fans sent positive messages to the YouTube star after her announcement, saying that they still "loved" the book.

More than 78,000 copies of Girl Online were sold in its first week of publication.

After the figures were released, Zoella, whose real name is Zoe Sugg, tweeted: "I'm legit blown away by this. I never in a million years thought that so many of you would pick up a copy of Girl Online. Almost want to cry."

The record is the highest since Nielsen BookScan began collecting information on the book market in 1998, according to The Bookseller.

It is the first of a two-book deal Zoella has with Penguin.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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Ofcom: UK broadband coverage patchy

8 December 2014 Last updated at 14:25

Ofcom, the UK's telecoms regulator, says fixed broadband connections are now "almost universally available" throughout the UK.

Average download speeds are 23 megabits per second (Mbps), it said in a report on the UK's telecoms infrastructure.

But it admitted that 3% of premises do not have basic broadband of 2Mbps.

And 15% can't receive 10Mbps - the usual requirement for a typical household these days.

There is also a huge gap between the minimum and maximum broadband download speeds available in Britain, Ofcom finds, with some premises receiving just 0.1Mbps and others 350Mbps.

About 18% of households don't bother with any home internet access at all, Ofcom said.

"Things are improving," says Andrew Ferguson, editor of the Think Broadband website, "but there is still a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots.

"About three to four million households still don't have access to superfast broadband, while others don't realise it is available in their area."

The regulator has also launched an interactive map allowing consumers to assess the level of broadband, mobile and TV services in their areas and compare this against UK averages.

'Aggressive target'

The government's aim is to deliver superfast broadband to 95% of UK premises by 2017 - a target the regulator describes as "aggressive".

While superfast broadband of 30Mbps is now available to 75% of premises, just 21% have taken it up, Ofcom said.

Consumers and businesses in rural areas are still under-served, the report concludes, largely because of the expense of providing high-speed networks in areas of low population.

If the length of fibre cable from the household to the nearest junction cabinet is too long, download speeds of 30Mbps are not possible.

But technologies are being developed to rectify this issue for remote households.

Small businesses also lose out compared with households when it comes to access to superfast broadband, says the report.

And with average UK upload speeds of just 3Mbps, business applications such as video conferencing and large file sharing, can become difficult.

The end of the landline?

As more people rely on their mobiles for voice calls and broadband penetration increases, network providers will increasingly move towards voice-over-broadband services, Ofcom believes.

This could ultimately lead to "the switching off of the traditional landline network", known as PSTN - public switched telephone network.

About 16% of households already have no voice landline, relying on mobile for calls.

But as with broadband, fast 4G mobile services are not evenly spread throughout the country, and vary a lot depending on where people are trying to ring or connect from.

For example, for people in cars, 4G is not available at all in 71% of areas.

While nearly three-quarters of premises have access to 4G, only 35% are served by Vodafone, O2 and EE, said Ofcom.

EE has the best outdoors coverage, reaching 68% of the country, it said.

As mobile use and connectivity speeds grow, so does data usage, up 53% between 2013 and 2014.

But mobile data usage - at 0.5 gigabytes (0.5GB) a month - is still tiny compared to fixed broadband usage, currently 58GB a month on average.

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