China bans Microsoft Windows 8 on government computers

By Kevin RawlinsonTechnology reporter

The Chinese government was reportedly worried by Microsoft's withdrawal of support for XP

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China has banned the use of Microsoft's latest operating system on government computers.

Beijing issued the restriction as part of a decree about the use of energy-saving products.

But official news agency Xinhua said security concerns related to foreign operating systems had led to the move.

Microsoft said it was surprised, but insisted it would continue to provide older versions of its software to the Chinese authorities.

Xinhua said Beijing had felt compelled to act after Microsoft ended security support for its Windows XP operating system, which is still widely used in China.

"The Chinese government obviously cannot ignore the risks of running OS without guaranteed technical support," it reported.

"It has moved to avoid the awkwardness of being confronted with a similar situation again in future if it continues to purchase computers with foreign OS."

A Microsoft spokesman said the government's procurement department had posted a notification online barring Windows 8 from bidding for public sector deals.

The spokesman said: "We were surprised to learn about the reference to Windows 8 in this notice.

"Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Centre and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements.

"We have been and will continue to provide Windows 7 to government customers. At the same time we are working on the Window 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies."

Local Linux

Xinhua reported that the ban covered all desktops, laptops and tablet PCs purchased by central state bodies. The measure only targets computers used by government offices, while the personal computer market is expected to stay unaffected, the agency reported.

The news agency suggested it could prove to be an opportunity for local Linux-based alternatives - including Kylin and StartOS - to gain ground.

"China's decision to ban Windows 8 from public procurement hampers Microsoft's push of the OS to replace XP, which makes up 50% of China's desktop market," said data firm Canalys.

Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer reportedly told employees in 2011 that, because of piracy, the firm earned less revenue in China than in the Netherlands, even though demand matched that of the US.

Microsoft ended support for the 13-year-old Windows XP last month in a bid to encourage the adoption of newer, more secure versions of Windows.

This has potentially left XP users more vulnerable to viruses and hacking.

Trip Advisor 'fake reviews' investigated in Italy

Trip Advisor reviews hold much sway over consumers' booking choices

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Travel-rating service Trip Advisor is being investigated in Italy over concerns the site is not doing enough to prevent fake reviews.

The Italian competition authority said it had had complaints from consumers and businesses about the website.

It has launched a separate investigation to see if agreements booking sites Expedia and Booking.com hold with hotels are preventing consumers from getting better deals.

The companies have yet to comment.

Trip Advisor is a highly influential site, where a volume of positive or negative reviews can strongly affect tourism businesses.

The Italian competition authority will try to establish whether Trip Advisor has sufficient measures in place to detect reviews made by people who had not visited the place in question.

The watchdog also said it was looking at whether Trip Advisor did enough to distinguish between content submitted by travellers and posts paid for by hotels and other travel businesses.

'Limit competition'

In a separate investigation, booking websites Expedia and Booking.com are to be investigated over clauses they put in place for hotels that are listed on the sites.

"The analysis centres on clauses applied by Booking and Expedia that prevent hotels from offering better prices and conditions through other online services and, generally, any other booking system (including hotels' own websites)," the watchdog said.

"The authority believes the use of such clauses by the main two platforms on the market may significantly limit competition."

The announcement comes in the same week that Italy launched an investigation into Google, Apple, Amazon, and games publisher Gameloft over "free-to-play" games.

The watchdog said it had concerns that the games did not make it clear how much it may cost to progress in the game.

"Consumers could wrongly believe that the game is entirely free and, in any case, that they would know in advance the full costs of the game," the watchdog said.

"Moreover, insufficient information seems to be provided to consumers about the settings needed to stop or limit the purchases within the app."

Computer and Video Games online magazine facing closure

By Dave LeeTechnology reporter, BBC News

The magazine's first issue cost 75p

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Computer and Video Games (CVG), which in 1981 was the world's first magazine dedicated to gaming, is facing closure.

The title, which has been online-only since 2004, may stop publishing at the end of a 45-day consultation period that began on 14 May, sources said.

However, its publishers Future are also believed to be looking into selling off the brand.

The magazine is behind the gaming industry's Golden Joystick Awards, a yearly event held since 1983.

In a statement, Future said: "We are currently exploring various options around how to evolve the CVG brand in particular and the market leading Future Games portfolio in general, in order to keep successfully meeting the needs of our consumers."

'Everything changed'

The first issue, published in November 1981, billed itself as the "first fun computer magazine" and cost 75p.

Its cover story was about Space Invaders, while a competition gave readers the chance to win a Vic computer, an 8-bit home computermade by Commodore.

The monthly magazine stopped publishing in 2004, with the focus turning to its website which had been up-and-running since 1999.

In 2008, Future re-launched the printed magazine as a bi-monthly title, but it stopped publishing in 2009.

As well as CVG, Future also owns other prominent gaming brands, including GamesRadar and PC Gamer.

Future recently launched a separate games website, Kotaku UK - a localised version of the already established Kotaku gaming news site owned by US firm Gawker Media.

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The first issue, in November 1981, promised a magazine that did not talk about hardware, but entertainment instead

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1/5

Veteran games journalist Rik Henderson, from Pocket-Lint, said if CVG is closed it will be missed by many.

"Everything in video gaming changed when CVG first hit the shelves," the former GamesMaster presenter said.

"Everything else around that time was either a dedicated machine-specific magazine, or there were small games sections in general computing magazines.

"There was nothing really saying 'look at this world of gaming'."

'Big legacy'

Early issues of the magazine were seen as being instrumental in helping small-time games developers to get their titles out there, said Mr Henderson - a trend that he thought was beginning to re-emerge as apps and mobile gaming have taken off.

But he argued that in a global, online publishing market, the brand's strength did not extend far enough.

"Something had to give," he said.

"Future have quite a portfolio of games websites, but everyone's fighting for a very small pot of advertising.

"CVG does really well - but it just didn't fit in that portfolio."

Microsoft launches larger Surface Pro 3 to rival laptops

By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor

Michelle Fleury tries out Microsoft's new tablet, the Surface Pro 3

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Microsoft has unveiled the Surface Pro 3 - a bigger-screened, faster Windows 8 tablet than its predecessor.

The new model features a 12in (30.5cm) touchscreen, 38% larger than before.

The firm boasted that at 9.1mm (0.36in) thick - without an optional clip-on keyboard - it becomes the "thinnest PC" to be powered by one of Intel's higher-end Core processors.

One analyst said he believed there was pent-up demand for such a device in the corporate world.

However, the platform has previously been outsold by rivals.

Microsoft says the Surface Pro 3 is designed to replace a laptop

"The question that needs to be asked and answered is, 'Why hardware?'" said chief executive Satya Nadella at the launch event in New York.

"We clearly are not interested in building refrigerators or toasters. We are not building hardware for hardware's sake.

"We are not interested in competing with our OEMs [original equipment manufacturers].

"In fact, our goal is to create new categories and spark new demand for our entire ecosystem. That's what inspires us and motivates us with what we are doing in our devices and hardware."

According to research firm IDC, Apple, Samsung, Asus, Lenovo and Amazon have each outsold Microsoft with their tablets.

IDC says that the Surface platform as a whole accounted for just 1.5% of global tablet shipments - representing about 640,000 units - over thefirst three months of the year, down from a 1.8% share for the same period in 2013.

However, Microsoft is marketing the machine as being a "laptop replacement" - comparing it on stage to one of Apple's lightweight laptops rather than the iPad - and IDC research director John Delaney suggested it should be judged on those terms.

Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella introduced the New York event

"To talk about it having a small percentage of the tablet market partly misses the point, because it's designed to appeal to PC buyers," he told the BBC.

"I think there's pent-up demand for something that does the job of a PC, that's light and thin, and that's cheaper than something like the MacBook Air. If the Surface Pro 3 also delivers good battery life, then that's a package that could resonate with a lot of buyers

"We're also seeing enterprises looking to replace at least some of their PCs with a portable touchscreen product that's compatible with their existing Microsoft applications and infrastructure software. That's another market to which the Surface Pro 3 could appeal."

The basic Surface Pro 3 will cost $799 (£475), compared with the low-end MacBook Air that costs $899.

Microsoft says the battery life is "up to nine hours", 10% more than the Surface Pro 2.

RT no-show

Rumours that Microsoft would unveil a Surface Mini - powered by its Windows RT operating system - proved unfounded.

Microsoft said it had responded to criticism by designing a bigger trackpad for its click-in keyboards

The RT side of the Surface business has previously struggled, with Microsoft having at one point to write-down the value of unsold stock by $900 (£534m) after it introduced an unplanned price cut.

Windows RT tablets run on ARM-based chips - giving them longer battery life but a smaller library of compatible software than machines using Intel or other x86 processors.

Adobe's image editing software Photoshop - which was shown off at the launch running on the Surface Pro - is one of RT's notable missing applications.

One industry watcher said he would not be surprised if Microsoft now decided to focus its Windows hardware efforts exclusively on its newly acquired Nokia handset business and the Surface Pro line-up.

"I think the RT experiment has now passed," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, a tech consultancy.

"Bringing ARM and RT together really hasn't worked, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was phased out."

New AEB braking technology would 'make cars safer'

Dozens of lives could be saved on UK roads if the law was changed to make a new type of technology compulsory in all new cars, according to road safety campaigners and insurance companies.

They want autonomous emergency braking (AEB) to become as common as seatbelts.

But there are worries that the system could make drivers too reliant on the technology.

It uses radar, camera and laser sensors fitted to the vehicle to detect potential collisions.

If the driver doesn't take avoiding action it [AEB] will automatically brake the car to mitigate the crash or completely avoid it altogether

Matthew Avery, Director of Research at Thatcham

At the moment the system's only fitted in about a fifth of new cars.

Matthew Avery is director of research at Thatcham, the insurance industry's research centre and says AEB is "the next seatbelt".

He said: "If the driver doesn't take avoiding action [it] will automatically brake the car to mitigate the crash or completely avoid it altogether."

The system works by using sensors fitted to the car which can detect if the car in front is slowing down or braking sharply.

It can then judge quickly if the car needs to come to an automatic emergency stop.

A car is tested using the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) technology

Road safety charities are calling for the government to make it mandatory for cars to be fitted with AEB.

They quote research from the insurance industry which suggests more than 1,220 lives could be saved over the next 10 years if that happened.

The Department for Transport has said there are no plans to make the system a legal requirement.

The technology has also been criticised over its cost, as prices range from anything from several hundred to several thousand pounds.

There are also concerns it could make drivers too reliant on technology.

Apple apps made to run on Android devices

Cider lets some Apple apps run on Android devices

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Android and Apple apps have been shown running side-by-side on the same devices thanks to software developed by US computer scientists.

The software, called Cider, has been created by postgraduate researchers at the University of Columbia.

Cider lets Android gadget owners mix and match the Android and iOS apps they load on their phone or tablet.

The research team said Cider was only a prototype and that they had no plans to turn it into a commercial product.

Deep link

The six-strong team of researchers said they embarked on the project to create Cider to get around the limitations that smartphone and tablet users are forced to accept.

For instance, they said in an academic paper about Cider that Android users cannot get at apps that call on media in Apple iTunes and iOS gadget owners struggle to use Flash-based content.

Cider would let people use just one gadget to access both, said the researchers.

Getting an application written for one operating system to run on another often involves a technique known as virtualisation.

To avoid the performance problems that virtualisation can introduce, the Columbia researchers adopted a different approach that involves the core or kernel of the Android operating system.

This approach works on the stream of instructions passing through an Android device and alters only those relating to the iOS apps. An additional software helper provides some of the specialised data those apps require to work properly.

A demo video produced by the researchers shows both iOS and Android apps running on a Nexus 7 tablet, though some commentators pointed out that the Apple apps run relatively slowly on the device.

In addition, some Apple apps that call on a phone's camera, GPS system or Bluetooth perform poorly and the researchers are continuing their work on Cider to fix these problems.

Obama asked to curb NSA surveillance

Cisco calls for curb on NSA surveillance efforts

Cisco equipment was intercepted by NSA staff to help the agency's surveillance efforts, claim whistleblowers

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The NSA's wide-ranging surveillance programme should be curtailed, says hardware-maker Cisco in a letter to President Obama.

Cisco boss John Chambers said faith in US technology companies was being eroded by the NSA's activities.

The letter comes after whistleblowers revealed the NSA regularly intercepted Cisco hardware to help it gather information on potential targets.

Mr Chambers said the NSA should be held to higher "standards of conduct".

The first allegations about NSA staff intercepting deliveries of Cisco hardware came from papers given by whistleblower Edward Snowden to journalist Glenn Greenwald.

"If these allegations are true," wrote Mr Chambers in a letter published in the Financial Times, "these actions will undermine confidence in our industry and in the ability of technology companies to deliver products globally."

In addition, pictures have circulated online of NSA staff opening packing crates containing Cisco gear. The NSA is believed to have intercepted and altered the networking hardware so the agency can more easily gather information about the people and companies it targets.

"We simply cannot operate this way," Mr Chambers wrote. "Our customers trust us to be able to deliver to their doorsteps products that meet the highest standards of integrity and security."

To restore confidence in Cisco and other tech firms, President Obama should draw up new rules to govern the way the NSA operates to ensure its conduct was held to a high standard, he said.

The allegations about Cisco were not the last to be published about NSA surveillance, said Glenn Greenwald in a wide-ranging interview with GQ. Mr Greenwald said he was saving some of the biggest leaks until last.

This final tranche of information would detail who in the US the NSA has been targeting and why it chose those targets, said Mr Greenwald.

"Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people we'd regard as terrorists?" he said to the magazine. "What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted?"

Freedom banner

The continuing revelations about the NSA have also prompted action by China which has said it plans to beef up its internet security defences in response to "overseas hostile forces".

Journalist Glenn Greenwald tells the BBC how he almost missed out on the Snowden scoop.

Such forces were using the net to "penetrate and destroy" China, said Wang Xiujun, the state official in China's Internet Information Office who directs the nation's net regulation system.

"A few countries have used their superiority in internet resources and information technology to conduct large-scale internet surveillance and to steal a large volume of political, economic, military and corporate secrets", Mr Wang is reported to have said.

Information from documents released by Edward Snowden suggest the NSA had managed to get at servers run by Chinese communications giant Huawei to look at documents and monitor messages passing between executives.

In addition, he said, many people were using the banner of "internet freedom" to attack and slander China and undermine its stability.

The improved defences against external threats and improved monitoring and censorship of internal activity would help China win "the struggle for ideological penetration", Mr Wang said.

Researcher creates 'holodeck' with Oculus and Kinect

Oliver Kreylos has combined three Kinects with an Oculus Rift to import a 3D representation of himself into virtual reality.

The Kinects' video stream is merged before being fed into the Oculus headset, giving the impression of a solid 3D object.

In this instance, the object is Mr Kreylos, who can be seen sitting in a virtual office.

Low resolution and prone to glitches, the device is still an early prototype.

The three Kinects - peripherals for Microsoft's Xbox - are positioned in an equilateral triangle to accurately capture the subject, whose image is then beamed into Facebook's Oculus Rift headset.

Mr Kreylos is able to control the camera in such a way that he can see himself in both a first and third person perspective.

Unlike an ordinary 2D camera, the Kinect is equipped with a 3D camera, which provides the missing bits of information necessary for 3D reconstruction that a regular camera does not have.

Mr Kreylos, researcher at University of California, Davis, said in his blog that despite the low quality of the image, it still feels very real.

"I believe it's related to the uncanny valley principle, in that fuzzy 3D video that moves in a very lifelike fashion is more believable to the brain than high-quality avatars that don't quite move right."

The Uncanny Valley principle is a hypothesis that suggests human features that are designed to move similarly, but not exactly, like natural human beings - such as in robotics or 3D animation - can cause revulsion in observers.

Mr Kreylos first started experimenting with the Kinect back in 2010 and this appears to be the first time the device has been used to create this particular effect in conjunction with the Oculus Rift.

More Google 'forget' requests emerge after EU ruling

Continue reading the main storyGoogle has said the EU's ruling is "disappointing"

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A man who tried to kill his family is among the latest to request removal of search results from Google.

A European court this week ruled that an individual could force the removal of some search results.

The BBC has learned that more than half of requests sent to Google from UK individuals involved convicted criminals.

A business has also sought for links to negative reviews on a forum to be removed.

As the European Court of Justice made its ruling on Tuesday, many speculated that a flurry of similar requests would come Google's way.

On Thursday it emerged an ex-politician seeking re-election has asked to have links to an article about his behaviour in office removed.

A man convicted of possessing child abuse images had also requested links to pages about his conviction to be wiped.

Tax scammer

More requests came to light on Friday. They included:

• A man who tried to kill members of his own family who has asked for links to a news article to be taken down
• A celebrity's child who wanted links to news articles about a criminal conviction removed
• A suspended university lecturer who asked for the removal of links to articles mentioning the disciplinary action
• A convicted cyberstalker who, after being cited in an article about cyberstalking law, wants links to it taken down
• An actor who has asked for links to articles about an affair he had with a teenager taken down
• A man convicted of running a tax scam who wants all links referencing the event removed

Since Tuesday's ruling many have come forward to question the practicality of the EU's decision.

Rory Cellan-Jones: "One can be sure that Google's lawyers will be trying to find a way out of this"

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales described it as "astonishing" and a form of "wide-sweeping censorship".

However, the EU has defended the move, saying that in cases where the public interest case is more pressing than the individual's privacy rights, links should not be taken down.

'Slow and cumbersome'

Getting that balance right is a delicate issue, said Michael Sandys from Liverpool-based Jackson & Canter Solicitors.

"Lawmakers will need to ensure they find a way to allow some information to be removed in a timely fashion while at the same time not allowing history to be rewritten," he said.

"If an individual goes to court about an article or piece of data which is found to be defamatory or inaccurate then there are levers in place for Google to quickly remove it from the search results."

But he argued that Google could do more to deal with genuine cases of incorrect information.

"I have made requests on behalf of clients a number of times for the removal of content which defames them. Sometimes it is dealt with well but other times the process can be slow and cumbersome."

Google's official statement on the matter, unchanged since Tuesday, described the EU's ruling as "disappointing".

Apple and Google settle patent row

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Mobile phone industry giants Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss lawsuits they had brought against each other over technology patents.

In a joint statement, the companies said they would work together in "some areas of patent reform".

But the deal did not include licensing their technology to each other.

Apple - which produces iPhones - and firms that make phones using Google's Android software earlier filed dozens of lawsuits against one another.

Earlier this month, a jury in California ordered South Korea's Samsung firm to pay Apple $119.6m (£71m) for for infringing two of its patents.

The court also ruled that Apple infringed Samsung's patents and awarded $158,000 in damages.

Android software is now installed on some 80% of new phones sold every year.

Minnesota introduces kill switch bill for mobile theft

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• Phone anti-theft put through paces
• Smartphones 'black market' exposed
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Minnesota has become the first US state to introduce so-called kill switch legislation.

It means that all smartphones sold in the state from July 2015 must be fitted with anti-theft software.

Such software allows owners to remotely disable and wipe their stolen handsets.

Police departments across the US have lobbied for such legislation. According to the US telecoms regulator, an estimated one in three robberies involve smartphones.

In the bill Minnesota legislators lay out the requirements: "Any new smart phone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015, sold or purchased in Minnesota must be equipped with preloaded antitheft functionality or be capable of downloading that functionality."

California is close to introducing a similar bill, while Congress is mulling national legislation.

Global initiative

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What is a kill switch

• A "hard" kill switch would render a stolen device permanently unusable and is favoured by legislators who want to give stolen devices the "value of a paperweight"
• A "soft" kill switch only make a phone unusable to "an unauthorised user"
• Some argue that the only way to permanently disable a phone is to physically damage it
• Experts worry that hackers could find a way to hijack a kill signal and turn off phones
• If a phone is turned off or put into aeroplane mode, it might not receive the kill signal at all, warn experts

London Mayor Boris Johnson has lent his backing for a push for international agreement on the need for a kill switch.

Along with New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco district attorney George Gascon, he joined the Secure Our Smartphones initiative last summer.

The campaign is designed to put pressure on the phone industry to help solve the issue of smartphone and tablet theft.

Sensitive data

Many handset manufacturers already have kill switches installed on their phones. Samsung has such a function and Apple offers a facility to track its devices via a service called Find My iPhone.

As well as GPS tracking, it also allows users to remotely wipe their phones.

Microsoft and Google have similar functions for their handsets and there are a variety of apps to locate, lock and wipe stolen smartphones.

"A large majority of smartphone users already have these capabilities and don't know it," said mobile analyst Chris Green.

He thinks that such a feature is more important for the business world than the consumer market.

"Companies are keen to clamp down on data theft as more and more people are using their phones and tablets to store sensitive data," he said.

And while the mobile industry largely embraced the idea of making phones installed with kill switches, there needed to be a move to create "one single standard" for such software, he added.

In the US Apple, Samsung, Verizon, T-Mobile and others have agreed that from July 2015 all handsets in the US will be fitted with anti-theft software, although it will not be switched on by default.

Some have questioned how effective such technology is though.

"A kill switch signal could do more harm than good. It is open to abuse from hackers sending kill switch signals to phones," said Grant Roughley, a senior forensic analyst at Essential Forensics.

And thieves too might find ways to get around the problem.

"Some phones are worth more in parts, so a stripped-down phone could be sold on for the same value," he said.