Ruling that gathering of personal data by StreetView mapping cars did no harm described as 'farcical' by privacy campaigners

The Information Commissioner has ruled that Google is unlikely to have collected "significant amounts of personal data" with its StreetView mapping cars.

The decision was described by privacy campaigners Big Brother Watch as "farcical".

The independent information watchdog has been looking at the data collected by Google to see whether it infringes personal privacy, and has now judged that there is "no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment".

In a statement to the press, the Information Commissioner's Office said: "While Google considered it unlikely that it had collected anything other than fragments of content, we wanted to make our own judgment as to the likelihood that significant personal data had been retained and, if so, the extent of any intrusion.

"The information we saw does not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person. As we have only seen samples of the records collected in the UK we recognise that other data protection authorities conducting a detailed analysis of all the payload data collected in their jurisdictions may nevertheless find samples of information which can be linked to identifiable individuals.

"However, on the basis of the samples we saw we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data.

"There is also no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment. Nevertheless it was wrong to collect the information. We will be alerting Privacy International and others who have complained to us of our position. The Information Commissioner is taking a responsible and proportionate approach to this case. However, we remain vigilant and will be reviewing any relevant findings and evidence from our international counterparts' investigations."

Google is facing investigations around the world including in the UK for its interception of personal data about home wireless networks, taken from the company's StreetView mapping cars. The search giant admitted to inadvertently intercepting extracts of personal data in May.

The Big Brother Watch director, Alex Deane, described the findings as a "whitewash". Speaking to the Guardian, he said: "This decision is little short of farcical. Information commissioners all around the world are investigating Google's Wi-Fi intrusion. In Britain alone, our commissioner has whitewashed the company's wrongdoing.

"The Metropolitan police are currently investigating Google over this very issue. If the allegations against Google merit an investigation by the police, who have to consider the criminal standard of fault, how can those allegations not be said to merit an investigation by the ICO?

"The ICO has really let British people down. We deserve better from those who are given the responsibility of protecting our privacy."

The ICO came in for criticism earlier this month from the pressure group Privacy International, which requested an investigation into Google's actions by the Metropolitan police. Speaking at a public debate on Google and privacy, the Privacy International director, Simon Davies, accused the office of being "both spineless and gutless" in its approach to the issue.

Google was unavailable for comment when contacted.

Court in Khabarovsk region orders internet provider Rosnet to block YouTube over ultra-nationalist video

Russia's blogosphere reacted with anger today after a regional court banned YouTube because it carried a single video containing "extremist" content.

The court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk region in the Russian far east ordered Rosnet, a local internet provider, to block YouTube as well as three online libraries and a website that archives deleted web pages.

The regional ban was made because YouTube hosted Russia For Russians, an ultra-nationalist video which was added to the justice ministry's federal list of banned extremist materials after a separate court decision in Samara region in November.

The other four sites Web.archives.org, Lib.rus.ec, Thelib.ru and Zhurnal.ru all carried copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Anton Nosik, Russia's leading internet guru, condemned the decision. "The level of crassness in this court ruling is typical of legal proceedings concerning the internet in Russia," he said. Google, the owner of YouTube, said the ruling violated Russians' constitutional right to freedom of information.

Many bloggers also decried the ban, warning it could be a slippery slope to tighter censorship across the country.

"I can imagine it now," wrote Ghost82 on LiveJournal. "Russia in 2015, YouTube is banned everywhere. In search of a gulp of air, people travel to the border with Georgia where they will sit with their laptops and pay unimaginable sums to connect to the internet via powerful Wi-Fi transmitters for a taste of depraved western civilisation."

Alexander tweeted on RuTvit: "YouTube has been given to understand that Russia, Pakistan and North Korea have much in common."

An engineer with Rosnet said the company had suggested prosecutors should contact the portals concerned directly to request they take down the offensive material, rather than issuing a blanket ban. "They [prosecutors] remained deaf to these pleas," he told the Gazeta.ru news website. Rosnet is appealing the ruling.

While television is tightly controlled by the state, Russia's soft authoritarian government has so far done little to rein in the internet. Social media and blogging sites are popular and provide a vital outlet for opposition and civil movements.

However, a package of laws to be reviewed by parliament in October could give the security services new powers to close down sites at short notice.

The YouTube ruling is likely to be an embarrassment for President Dmitry Medvedev, who recently launched his own channel on the video-sharing site.

Other countries that have banned YouTube include China, Pakistan, Turky and Iran.

Arthur Whitemore says System Restore will create a restore point on his PC running Windows XP, but it will only keep the latest restore point.

System Restore used to work OK, but now it only creates a restore point for the current day. A new one is created the next day, but the previous day's restore point is gone. My C drive has 12.3GB of free space and system restore is set at 12% of disk space.
Arthur Whitemore

System Restore mainly keeps track of changes made to your PC, including the Registry, so that you can go back to an earlier state if you run into a problem. You can see if there are earlier restore points because the calendar dates show up in bold. If you can't see any, try restarting your PC in Safe Mode. This loads a sort of "bare bones" Windows, which might not include the program that is stopping System Restore from working. This could be a virus or an anti-virus program. It's not too surprising if an anti-virus program tries to prevent changes to system files.

If System Restore does work correctly in Safe Mode, then your next challenge will be to find out what's stopping it. Running MBAM (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware) would be a good start. If it's neither a virus nor an anti-virus program, you could try eliminating start-up programs. While you can use Windows' msconfig for this, AnVir Task Manager Free is worth a go.

Of course, the most common reason for System Restore to stop working is that you have run out of disk space. There is a Microsoft Support page for this: System Restore "restore points" are missing or deleted. There's also a more useful document: Troubleshooting steps for issues when you try to use the System Restore tool in Windows XP.

System Restore typically takes up 200MB to 400MB on home PCs, so you should have enough space (12% of 12.3GB is roughly 1.5GB). However, you can look to see how much space it is taking up. To do this, you must be able to see hidden files and folders. To enable this, open Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Folder Options and go to the View tab. The Advanced settings option has a section for Hidden files and folders. Put a check next to "Show hidden files and folders" and clear the checkbox for "Hide protected operating system files". Click OK to exit.

Now go to your C drive and double-click the System Volume Information folder. Right-click on the "_restore" directory and select Properties to find out how much space System Restore is using. Turning off System Restore should empty it, and with luck you can start again from scratch.

I don't know of any free programs that do exactly the same job as System Restore. However, Erunt (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) will back up and restore a copy of Windows XP's registry. There's also ImageLAN's ConfigSafe, which takes snapshots of your system configuration. This is better than System Restore, but it's a commercial program. I used it for many years because it came free with IBM ThinkPad laptops.

Anyone unlucky enough to commute will know that dead tree media still rule the roost, as least on the nation's public transport. But ebook readers, including the odd iPad, are starting to creep in, along with mobiles, games consoles and even DVD players on long journeys.

There's a deep-seated resistance to digital versions of a centuries old traditional of printed books, which have rightly enchanted, educated and enlightened readers since movable type. So what will it take for ebooks to become mainstream?


Photo by cloudsoup on Flickr. Some rights reserved

There are dozens of ebook readers on the market, all largely comparable in size and offering from the lesser know Astak, Kobo and Alex readers to the Kindle, Nook and Apple iPad. Amazon's launch today of a smaller, cheaper Kindle is significant for two reasons: firstly, it pushes arguably the most popular ebook reader towards a more mainstream audience by making it more affordable.

Secondly, it's a sign of Amazon's increasingly aggressive strategy in competing with the iPad, which has stolen much of the spotlight in the ebooks debate (even though books are just one function of the iPad) because of its colour touchscreen. The iPad remains a more exclusive product for a wealthier section of the market, with ebook prices to match but it is also a notebook, and so has an LCD screen that is much harder on the eyes than sympathetic electronic ink.

For once, Apple is swimming uphill in the ebooks space with a publishing industry largely cautious of the format; it has seen the impact of Apple's iPod on the music space, and other limbs of the industry are concerned the ambitions of Google's ongoing books project.

Amazon, meanwhile, is keen to push Kindle as the mass-market alternative with 400,000 ebooks on sale at what it claims are the lowest prices. Digital books are a natural extension for Amazon, which can more easily 'escalate' its web-familiar customers to digital versions of books.

This all explains Amazon's slightly dubious claim to have sold more ebooks than physical books, with little evidence offered perhaps designed as a prelude to the new Kindle announcement.

eBook manufacturers, noted Gartner analyst Allen Weiner last month, are increasingly adopting the strategy of having their device, brand and books on as many platforms as possible a strategy Amazon has taken with Kindle apps for competing devices. And this could be the key to making the device more mainstream.

"The strategy of having your reading platform's interface/app on as many devices as possible as well as some in OEM [original equipment manufacturer] deals (such as Barnes & Noble on the Pandigital Novel) seems to be picking up steam. Making money from sales of your own device, books sold on your own device, and books sold on other devices may define not only the ebook retailing space but also begin to reveal who is in the hardware space for the long haul and who is just looking for a means to showcase their platform."

So mainstream? Not yet. But Amazon's move to offer a cheaper Kindle does make ebooks just slightly more accessible to slightly more people. For students with dull, bulky textbooks, ebooks are very practical. But for the public at large, ebook readers remain a novelty.

Neil Berkett says government should crack down on marketing claims if it wants company to invest in high-speed networks

The Virgin Media chief executive, Neil Berkett, has attacked rivals as "grossly misleading" in the way they market internet speeds to consumers.

He called on the government to crack down on advertising if it expects the cable company to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in rolling out high-speed broadband across the UK.

Berkett said that Ofcom's report into the difference between advertised and actual broadband speeds was a "milestone" in "naming and shaming" rivals but more needed to be done to address the issue.

"Yesterday was a good statement from Ofcom but it only goes halfway," he said. "Where is the incentive in operators like us investing hundreds of millions of pounds in broadband when we can't say how much better we are? The government want the footprint of high-speed broadband expanded [so we need] light-touch regulatory reform so that when people advertise they have to tell the truth. The lens of government is that it is encouraging investment in next-generation broadband but allowing those who haven't invested to cheat."

Ofcom has put together a voluntary code of conduct for internet service providers, which does not cover advertising, and Berkett wants a crackdown on marketing claims with support from the government to make sure rules are toughened.

"We have been arguing for over a year that DSL operators [companies who utilise telephone networks and not cable to deliver internet] talking about 'up to' 20Mb is grossly misleading; I won't say lying, but damn close," he said. "You can't talk about 'up to' 20Mb when the majority of customers are getting an average of 6Mb."

Berkett pointed out that Virgin Media's 10Mb service runs at "9 and a bit [Mb]" on average; last year it averaged 8.7Mb; and its 20Mb and 50Mb service run at about 90% of advertised speed.

However, he said there are providers over DSL that actually run services at about 35% of the speeds that they are marketed to consumers. He argued that some simple form of clarification, such as is used in financial advertising, would solve the problem.

"Our argument is that the government, Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority have got to introduce [something like] an average percentage rate [into advertising] the same as you see in financial advertising," he said. "We are happy to lead the way, we would immediately advertise our [actual] speeds in a nanosecond. We are trying to be the honest broker here. We need Ofcom and the government to push the ASA so consumers can buy in confidence. I believe the ASA needs to be stronger".

The ASA chief executive, Guy Parker, said: "The ASA is committed to ensuring that broadband ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful. Technology is developing quickly, which is why we recently asked the bodies responsible for writing the advertising codes to look at broadband advertising speed claims as part of a wider review of the sector. Ads can't, of course, contain all there is to know about a service but ... that doesn't justify headline speed claims that mislead."

"There is no end of talk from Virgin about its network but consumers are staying away in droves," said a spokesman for BSkyB. "Today's results show that Sky and BT together added almost 10 times as many broadband customers in the last quarter. Instead of railing at competitors, perhaps Virgin should ask itself why it's not having much of an impact with the people who really matter."

 To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

A crisp, bright screen makes this smartphone appealing but Samsung's new in-house operating system doesn't

What is it? Samsung Wave GT-S8500 the first device to run Samsung operating system Bada.

Category: Hardware and software, given the newsworthy nature of operating systems these days.

You'd use it for... On the move, personal or business. It's not going to intrude on BlackBerry's ground as leading high-performance business mobile device, but the Wave sits happily as a phone suited to staying up to speed while on the move.

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? Perfectly good look and feel to the phone, a sturdy but slender shell encasing a fairly high-spec bit of mobile kit. It's when you activate the screen things start to go downhill.

The home screen quite separate from the screen of apps has six iterations as you swipe your finger right-to-left, inching across a background of some picturesque eastern European town square.

Each of these five modules is for housing a quick access single widget but the access isn't so quick after four or five swipes of the finger. Navigating from the home screen to your downloaded apps directory takes another click. Granted, the software is snappy and quickly responsive, but these things all pile up in the "pointless" file.

And you can't swipe up to the URL bar in the browser, forcing you instead to press an on-screen button. Seems needless.

What does it really do well? Mobile internet has a well-suited clean font, made all the more appealing by the crisp super AMOLED screen. Put the Wave side by side with an iPhone 4 and a 3G you'll see the difference. FYI: guardian.co.uk looks better on a Wave than a 3G.

Keyboard keys appear far too close together, but typing seems to work fine if not more usable than on the iPhone. When browsing the web, pinching zooms are clunky and not instantly responsive.

Video playback is impressive, on the eyes and the ears. Creating media is a good experience too, the 5MP camera shooting strong video and stills taking allowing nifty features like user-directed focus.

What's the cost? Around 300 sim-free; a 24-month contract with free handset will set you back between 25- 45 per month.

What's it up against? A smartphone market with less wiggle room than the App Store. It's a relatively ruthless market out there for high-end devices, software increasing in consumer importance at a rate of knots.

With Bada, Samsung is late to the party and forgot to invite its marketing muscle. For this reason alone, Wave falls short of the majority of recently released Android devices Samsung has plenty of work to do before the release of Bada-powered Wave 2.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: Quite a few headline tech specs come with the Wave: the 5MP video/still camera will draw the punters 5x zoom for stills and 720p video recording make the feature more than adequate; the Super AMOLED screen is a turn on, but likely only to the techies.

As light as any iPhone, the Wave is slimmer but only by a stitch. At 3.3 inch, the Wave screen limits its viability as a comfortable-to-use mobile internet device. With 2GB internal memory as standard, most users will require a MicroSD card (up to 32GB capacity).

What's it good for? Taking and sharing decent quality stills. It would be good for accomplishing tasks quickly if there weren't so many naggingly bad points of user experience making pretty much any task an exertion.

What are its failings? One word: Bada. A few more words: the cramped feeling while using SMS, the uneconomical use of the 3.3 inch screen made worse by the majority of the screen having a black (or very dark) background even when running apps.

Will I have to read the manual? Does anyone still read manuals? If new to Samsung, you may need to Google "Help! I've accidentally locked my Samsung Wave what now?"

How long is the battery life? With its 3G signal sensor turned off, the battery will last you more than 24 hours from full more than can be said for any iPhone before 4.

What's its USP? The Wave's USP would have to be the Super AMOLED screen which, on this score alone, puts it near top of the class for smartphones. That said, I don't know one single person who's been sold a phone on screen specifications and it's not great marketing fodder either.

Rating out of 10: 6.5

Finally, is it worth it yes or no? Not at the current price. There are countless devices (and countless yet to be released) doing a better job and with a better operating system. Don't hold out for the Wave 2.

Rating: 3/5

Xbox Live Arcade; 1200 Microsoft Points; cert 12+; Vector Unit/Microsoft Game Studios

There is a possibility that, one day, developers will run out of arcade classics to update for Xbox Live re-release. Clearly, it's not something we'll have to worry about ourselves, but we may have to break it gently to our grandchildren. For now, though, we can enjoy Hydro Thunder Hurricane, a rollicking remake of the cult Midway speedboat racer, which is utterly unapologetic about its hardcore coin-op roots.

The setup is simple. You race a series of progressively faster and more unstable boats through eight increasingly insane water circuits. Swishing over power-ups earns you a boost to your power, while discovering hidden shortcuts allows you to sneak ahead of the other 15 competitors. There's a basic race mode, but players can also take on extra timed challenges such as Gauntlet, which fills each circuit exploding barrels.

After a few seconds of sloshing about, some gamers will write this off as shallow, but they are wrong, wrong, wrong. The handling mechanic is utterly artificial, the water effects gloopy and inconsistent, but Hurricane is frenetic, sweaty-handed and challenging stuff, requiring reflexes and timing bordering on the inhuman. The environments are essentially theme park rides designed by maniacs: Monster Island has you slaloming through jungle swamps as giant aquatic beasts blast from the water, while Storming Asgard involves jetting through a citadel while gigantic statues of Norse gods chop at you with axes. But they all reward skilled racing, and will have a certain type of player coming back over and over again to shave micro-seconds off their times (or to beat the best performances of their Xbox Live friends, displayed on the menu before each race).

Complete with histrionic voice acting, echoing sound effects and relentless eye-gouging visuals, Hydro Thunder Hurricane also pays perfect presentational homage to its daft predecessor. Some will tire of its constant shouting and its endless demands and admittedly, this game is very much like shovelling sherbert and Red Bull into the mouth of a hyperactive teenager, then taking them out on a paddle boat ride. But it's also wonderfully designed, and with a great multiplayer mode to boot, it's a steal for anyone who so much as set foot inside a nineties arcade.

Rating: 4/5

Advertising banned and access to games restricted after cases of robbery and murder

Vietnam has banned the advertisement of online games and restricted access after several cases in which young people have committed murder or robbery to get money to play, an official said today.

The ministry of information and communications' decision to crack down on online games follows a public outcry about their negative influence on youngsters, said a ministry official, Luu Vu Hai.

The ministry has temporarily stopped licensing online games pending new regulations, banned advertising for them, and ordered internet service providers to cut off access after 11pm to shops that offer games.

Over the past year, Vietnam's press has reported several murders and robberies committed by young people to get money to pay for online games. State media reported that a 15-year-old girl was sentenced to 10 years in prison for strangling a four-year-old from her neighbourhood to rob her of earrings worth $10 to pay for online games.

Teenagers queueing in online game shops is a common sight in Hanoi, which has 7 million people and more than 3,000 such shops.

The government has licensed 22 gaming companies and 93 games, according to Vietnam News.

Hai said the government was determined to eliminate online games with violent and pornographic content.

Vietnam tightly controls the flow of information on the internet and has said it will not tolerate cyberspace being used to spread anti-government information, violence or pornography.

This week we find out what has happened to the startup companies that we've profiled in the Elevator Pitch over the past three years, such as Moo.com and Nestoria. Charles Arthur talks to the man who put the "e" into e-democracy Steven Clift about whether we should be forced to use our real names online. Plus Meg Pickard talks about anonymity and web publishing is it a good thing?

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Cyber Security Challenge contest is just one sign of growing fears and employment opportunities

As the world's military forces become increasingly vulnerable to attacks from cyberspace, a growth area is opening up in digital employment.

China has set up its first military cyber-crime department just months after the United States announced the opening of a new Pentagon "cyber command" to deal specifically with this threat. But it's not just governments bolstering their online armoury private companies too are waking up to the threat.

Now the UK has moved to secure the future of the digital space in both the public and private sector with a national hunt for future cyber-security professionals. The Cyber Security Challenge opened earlier this week, with more than 2,000 applicants already vying for the title of UK Cyber Security Champion.

Opening the competition, Baroness Neville-Jones, minister of security, said cyber security will only become more important as online access becomes increasingly woven into the fabric of society, pointing to a worrying shortage of professionals currently working in this sector: "It is already integral to the running of our economy, to our security and the organisation of ordinary daily life.

"Currently defending all of our interests in cyberspace is a relatively small cadre of talented and highly skilled public and private sector cyber-security professionals. These people are very valuable to us but we do not have enough of them.

"For far too long cyber-security has been seen as a rather techy activity, only to be called upon or invested in after accident or loss. Well, we have had some of those and we should now know better."

Ciaran Rafferty, UK manager of Sophos one of the software security companies involved in the initiative emphasised the dangers that lie ahead if the UK doesn't act quickly in getting more bodies into the online security space.

"In 2009, the FBI stated that there was more money being made by bad guys in the malware domain than there is in drug trafficking worldwide," he said.

"There is a fast-growing threat around malware, and the bad guys are building up a presence. The challenge is that it's an unknown unknown the bad guys are getting really, really organised in how they target companies.

"We need to find people to get into this market so that we can recruit into the private sector five years on from now this is still going to be a growing market."

Cyber-security is quickly becoming a permanent fixture of boardroom conversations, Rafferty added Neville-Jones had said earlier that the subject should be taught in schools.

Two separate competitions are under way, though entrants on Facebook are claiming to have already cracked one. Participants will first compete in a virtual competition before the most successful competitors go through to a face-to-face playoff round. Two more rounds of competitions follow, including a challenge to identify security flaws on dummy websites.

From there, the most impressive cyber-warriors will be invited to a masterclass where they will compete in a simulated real-world environment against fellow participants. The challenge will be run on several dates between September and December, with the Cyber Security Champion crowned early next year.

There are more than 30 prizes on offer, including bursaries for university courses, places on leading private-sector training courses, access to experts, and membership of professional bodies. Some may even bag job offers.

Judy Baker, director of the challenge, said it's about time the UK had a competition that is both fun and highly pertinent. "We're suddenly increasingly dependent on all of our technologies," she said. "The way that we have a convergence of technologies and the way that technology is becoming increasingly interdependent means that the impact of attacks and the impact of damage is much greater than it ever used to be.

"We have a need now, which is completely different from what it used to be, and we have a rate of change that there's no comparison at all to what it used to be. So you need new people.

"We found immediately there was an appetite for this in the UK. It was no surprise as we already had UK candidates signing in on the US competitions. We did a survey and found that 90% of the companies we surveyed had difficulty recruiting the skills they needed and nearly 60% said over the next five years they were going to have more jobs in that space. There's less people in the current shortage and an increase in demand. There was a problem and something that needed to be addressed there."

Anyone interested in taking part can register online to enter.

In 1,000 tweets the centenarian entertained her 56,000 followers with posts about food, family and meeting Gordon Brown

The oldest person on Twitter died today, after over 1,000 tweets documenting numerous fish and chip dinners, several episodes of Deal or No Deal and a friendship with Peter Andre.

Ivy Bean, 104, began tweeting last year from her residential home in the outskirts of Bradford, and amassed over 56,000 followers with posts telling of food, family visits, and even an invitation from Gordon Brown to meet the then prime minister in Downing Street.

Ivy had fallen ill last month, and her followers had been kept updated by Pat, the manager of Hillside Manor, over the last few weeks. It was Pat who bore the bad news today.

"Ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning," she wrote just after 10am, adding: "I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you but it was a very difficult thing to do".

Ivy had originally become an internet sensation through Facebook, before switching to Twitter last year.

Her insights into life in a care home warmed the hardest social media user, as she explained the nuances of northern bakery products clarifying that parkin "is like ginger cake", wished tweeters happy birthday and kept readers updated on her consumption of her favourite meal: fish and chips.

The great grandmother even struck up an unlikely friendship with Peter Andre, meeting him last year and again last month describing the singer as "wonderful".

Other celebrity friends included Gordon Brown, whom Ivy described as "really nice", and One Foot in the Grave actor Richard Wilson ("a right laugh").

Followers had perhaps been braced for the worst after a six-day silence from Ivy in early June was broken by Pat informing tweeters that she had been taken ill.

The care home manager kept followers updated as Ivy suffered from jaundice in hospital updating that a staff member from Hillside Manor had sneaked her in some fish and chips, earlier this month, before writing last Friday that Ivy had returned to the care home.

A further post promised Ivy would return to tweeting this Monday, but the message proved premature, and Twitter's oldest user passed away in the small hours of this morning.

Despite Ivy having been unable to post for almost two months, the sight of "Ivy Bean" trending worldwide less than an hour after the announcement of her death seemed a fitting tribute to a woman whose warmth and simple enjoyment of life proved such a draw to so many.

Sort of. Meet one of the seven trusted individuals who can fix the internet in the event of a major catastrophe

It sounds like a Fellowship of the Ring for the internet age a carefully chosen alliance of technology warriors, safeguarding a mythical key that could one day shut down the internet. According to yesterday's news reports, these keyholders will share responsibility for "rebooting the web" in the event of a catastrophic global meltdown.

Bath technologist Paul Kane one of the individuals in the "chain of trust" spent about 15 minutes revelling in his new-found fame before having to set the record straight. "It's just not as sexy as that," he says, in between TV interviews and a chat with Eddie Mair on Radio 4.

Kane, who is chief executive of a Bath-based tech firm called CommunityDNS, is part of a team that has spent 10 years working on a security system (DNSSEC) that companies can use to make their sites safer.

To demonstrate how secure their technology is, the launch included the coronation of seven "keyholders". In the event of a terrorist attack or major disaster, five of those keyholders would meet in a secure location in the US to restart the system.

So would that giant ctrl+alt+delete reboot the whole internet? "Nope," says Kane only the small proportion of internet sites using DNSSEC. "The rest of the internet would continue to function as normal."

And it's not actually a key it's a swipe card. And technically, just one fifth of a key. "Yes. I have a fragment of the key," says Kane, whose enthusiasm for dumbing down his hard work is clearly starting to wane.

Is there a chance that this system could be extended to the whole internet one key to rule them all? "Never. Even if there was such a key, it would trigger the balkanisation of the internet," says Kane. "The EU wouldn't want the US to have it, the Middle East wouldn't want the EU to have it, the US wouldn't want anyone to have it."

Toronto-based company i4i gets confirmation of patent that resulted in an injunction against versions of Word 2003

A software company that won a patent injunction against Microsoft has had the patent confirmed in the US.

The company, i4i, which is based in Toronto and has 30 staff, won an injunction in Texas last year preventing Microsoft from selling copies of Word 2003 that infringed its 1998 patent on custom XML. Jurors ruled that Microsoft should pay i4i $290m ( 186m) the technology giant is appealing against the decision.

Now i4i has had its Patent No 5,787,499 reaffirmed by US Patent and Trademark Office.

Speaking to the Guardian, i4i chairman Loudon Owen said: "It's been a long haul this far. Having your patent put into re-examination is akin to having one of your most prized possessions put up for questioning. It's been a very, very long haul.

"The office look at every nook and cranny of the patent and it really does narrow down the number of issues [i4i face in relation to XML infringement]."

Owen reiterated the company's pledge to vigorously defend the XML feature against possible patent-infringing software, but said the most important thing is that i4i continues to grow as a company.

In March, the federal court of appeal rejected Microsoft's petition for a rehearing, saying it had "wilfully infringed" i4i's XML patent. Microsoft has until 27 August to apply for a petition to appeal against the ruling at the supreme court, having previously asked for an extended deadline.

Is this three strikes and you're out then for Microsoft? "You never know how many strikes there are," said Owen. "The next step they've signalled is to apply to the supreme court for a petition to appeal.

"There's one step left and that's the applications to the supreme court and they take about 1% of cases. It means our odds are statistically good. We've won thus far and the patent has been confirmed now we're confident we'll continue to prevail."

In a statement to the press, Microsoft public affairs director Kevin Kutz said: "We continue to believe there are important matters of patent law that still need to be properly addressed and we are considering our options going forward."

Facebook: it's the world's biggest website, by some calculations, and fast overtaking Google as the technology poster child of our time. But don't underestimate Google, which is reportedly working on a new social networking project to try and rival Facebook's domination in the space.

Social networking is one area where Google has failed to get traction, at least in the English-speaking world. It owns Orkut, which is big in Brazil and India - but where Facebook is starting to close in on their market share, according to comScore. Buzz, Wave, Friend Connect - none have quite made the impact Google would have liked, though worthwhile experiments. So what's next?


Photo by Aaron Escobar (the spaniard) on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Google has been talking to games firms about integrating their games as just one part of a new social networking service, reports the Wall Street Journal. Disney's newly acquired Playdom, Electronic Art's reasonably newly acquired Playfish and Zynga have all been approached; and if the latter looks ripe for acquisition, you won't be surprised that Google recently invested a significant chunk in the firm.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt would not comment on the service this week but said "the world doesn't need a copy" of Facebook. The world might not need that, but what Google needs is a copy of the most advertiser-friendly parts of that and, as the Zynga investment shows, Google is keen to move in on one of the web's hottest - and most profitable - growing markets of casual gaming. As WSJ says, a Google offering would also be good news for developers worrying over over-dependence on Facebook.

Games are an important traffic generator which substantially increase the amount of time users spend on sites - ultimately good for the host site because of associated advertising and the developer, who. with the right game can attract a large audience. But as Facebook's audience and its advertising network continues to grow, it presents an increasingly serious threat to Google.

Expect relations to grow more aggressive between the two.

Randeep Ramesh meets Chris Quigley, the e-democracy champion signed up by the coalition

For Chris Quigley, the day Barack Obama took office in January 2009 changed his life. On arriving at the White House, the new president ordered the US government to make available as much information as possible "with a clear presumption: in the face of doubt, openness prevails".

This, says the e-democracy evangelist, was all the more remarkable since the Bush administration had instructed agencies to do the opposite. "It was the first thing Obama did. It was a bit of a geeky thing, sure. He was saying he wanted government to run and operate in a totally transparent way, a participatory way. It was very different from how Bush ran things."

Quigley, 32, had arrived in Washington the previous summer to help set up one of the first "policy crowdsourcing" attempts by the previous US government an attempt to yoke the wisdom of crowds. "It was about how to save money in healthcare using IT. The idea was: why pay consultants to come up with one solution when you could crowdsource ideas for free from the policy community."

One-way communication

While that foray was a success, most of the US government's web communication was still one-way. So Obama's speech calling for a new style of open government was a revelation, one that promised that his new administration would harness the web's capacity to create online communities and encourage two-way communication. "The idea is that the collective intelligence of the people is greater than any government body," says Quigley.

He now admits that it was "complete luck" that Obama's team called him to help harness the power of crowdsourcing to improve government. Quigley's e-democracy company, Delib, built an ideas-sharing website to "crowdsource thoughts" from geeks about how to design a portal that would monitor the US's $787bn ( 510bn) stimulus plan. The result was recovery.gov, which showed the American public in 2009 where taxpayers' cash was going and how many jobs it created.

Obama's insight, says Quigley, is twofold. One, is that providing access to data "creates a culture of accountability". Two, is that citizens "can actively help government do its work". Where America leads, Britain follows. So it's perhaps unsurprising that Quigley now finds himself popping in and out of the Cabinet Office.

"David Cameron really gets this stuff," says Quigley. "Over the last few years the British government have been moving towards it, but I think the coalition have really put this at the heart of what they do. They do say that citizens have to help government if we are going to solve the problems we face."

But the experience of the coalition's first crowdsourcing project was problematic. The Your Freedom website, launched by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and designed by Quigley, invited people to name laws they want scrapped. Clegg promised "raucous, unscripted debates" that will "throw up the best ideas" to form part of the freedom bill, published in the autumn. The result was that the website crashed submerged by the number of responses, many of which were little more than expressions of bile.

Quigley admits the website was "overwhelmed" and says he quickly added servers to handle the site's popularity. But he is unapologetic about the quality of the discussion, saying that there are moderators who censure people after they have "had their say".

Some have argued that to generate an ordered discussion, Quigley should have "pre-moderated" the debate by only allowing sensible posts. But pre-moderation has legal consequences, explains Quigley, because the person who posts the idea is legally liable, leaving the government open to a court case if it were to act as a filter. "It is also not practical when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of comments. The idea is to enable and encourage the crowd to self-moderate."

Among the oddest posts was one from a man complaining that he could not marry his horse. But Quigley says this is part of the "collective". "It's not a mob," he says, "and it works because people rate the submissions." Users of the site can award up to five stars, which are averaged to produce an overall rating.

To prove his point, Quigley produces figures showing that the top-rated ideas are largely sensible. For example, with 1,053 votes, at the time of our interview, was the call to scrap the law that says schools must hold collective worship, with a rating of 4.6. By comparison, the most debated but lowest rated was "Bring back the death sentence" rated as just 1.8 from 1,144 votes.

Empowered

The number of people contributing is impressive. There were 11,546 ideas backed by 72,836 comments and, most important perhaps, 190,175 ratings. Consultations have become embedded in many areas of public life, Quigley points out and people feel empowered when public officials are genuinely soliciting views, rather than simply using them as cover for a politically unpopular decision.

Quigley says that online consultations he ran a few years ago on London hospital reorganisations were a salutary lesson. Although the public were asked for their opinions, the results were largely ignored in a rash of proposed service closures. "People become cynical if they think government is paying lip service to their opinions," he says.

The change in how public consultations are conducted is palpable. His company ran the BBC Trust's consultation on the strategic review of the broadcaster, which had proposed closing Radio 6, and 60,000 people took part. The result was a success for democracy, Quigley says. "The clear outcome made off the back of the consultation was to change their initial decision and to keep Radio 6."

Under Cameron, online petitions, created and signed by the public to prod the government to adopt or change policies, have fallen out of favour. While popular under Brown, they were an example of old-style thinking and do not represent the "crowd at work", says Quigley. "Instead, I think petitions tend to become a bit of a whinge."

Quigley is not your typical geek by his own admission he "doesn't know that much about computers". But his love of technology and democracy, coupled with an ad man's eye for prankishness, has seen him carve out a unique space in open government circles. Like many internet success stories, his begins in the bedroom.

After leaving university and failing to get a job in advertising, he drove bin lorries for Bristol council. In his spare time he followed politics and began building viral videos and disfiguring party posters on his computer with a couple of friends.

In 2001, they built a political satire website, Spinon nothing quite like it existed. The site went viral, becoming a staple talking point for pundits during the 2001 election. "We ended up being interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Newsnight. It was all about young people and politics and this thing called the internet. Quite surreal, as he was in our kitchen," recalls Quigley. "Spinon was mainly made by a loose collaboration of animators and political troublemakers across the UK. We were ahead of the curve doing what political satire blogs like Guido Fawkes's Order Order do today."

The years that followed saw Quigley and his friends set up a media group that comprised an advertising agency and a film production company, though he remained in charge of his e-democracy company, Delib, which today has 35 employees.

Quigley first came across Cameron during the 2005 Tory leadership campaign. He had designed a website called Pimp My Party a reference to the TV show where old bangers are souped up by a team of mechanics.

"It was created for a Conservative thinktank during the 2005 leadership race," Quigley explains. "This was one of our first crowdsourcing projects, mixing gaming ideas with consultation. It was a big success for us more than 200,000 taking part in a month. Not sure what Cameron made of it. To the question, "Who should be the new leader of party?", the actor David Hasselhoff beat Cameron to top place. We thought it was hilarious."

Curriculum vitae

Age 32.

Lives London.

Status Unmarried.

Education Ampleforth College, York; Bristol University (BA philosophy).

Career 2010: works with UK coalition government launching ves London.

Status Unmarried.

Education Ampleforth College, York; Bristol University (BA philosophy).

Career 2010: works with UK coalition government launching its Your Freedom and Spending Challenge crowdsourcing initiatives; 2009: works on President Barack Obama's first policy crowdsourcing project in Washington DC, followed by work with the Department of Homeland Security; 2004: co-founds the Team Rubber group, comprising Rubberductions (film production company), Rubber Republic (viral advertising agency) and Delib (e-democracy company); 2002 03: works on first UK e-voting pilots with BT and Accenture; 2001: launches political satire website Spinon.co.uk, subsequently sets up first media company Rubberductions, making drum and bass music videos.

Interests Contemporary art, socks.

Technology editor Charles Arthur sees if he has the right stuff as he takes Parrot's Wi-Fi controlled quadricopter for a test flight

News that details of 100 million Facebook users was understandably met with some panic - particularly because the data was then dumped on file-sharing service BitTorrent alongside pirated music, bulk credit card details and the odd bit of legal content.

The real story was a little more curious. It was Canadian security researcher Ron Bowes who downloaded the data - 2.8Gb of it - by creating a crawler script to pluck information from Facebook's open access directory.


Photo by aralbalkan on Flickr. Some rights reserved

But all of this data was publicly available, because this data is open to search engines and includes any Facebook user who has not chosen to hide their profile from search results.

The data Bowes pulled included account names, profile URL and contact details - and also the names of those users' friends, even if they have chosen not to be listed in search engine results.

While alarming that Facebook's information should be harvested in this way, it is not illegal. Rather, it is a useful exercise in reminding people what 'public' really means, and that once your information is out there, you don't have any say over what happens to it.

It also opens the debate on openess, because until the majority understands the implications of being 'open', it may be wise to adopt 'opt-in openness'. That won't be popular with sites, who get faster take-up if friends can find each other more easily. But there is a price to pay for that.

So why did Bowes do it, and how?

He wanted to contribute to the open source Ncrack project, which is testing 'brute-force' login attacks. The data he'd collected from Facebook might be useful for other researchers, he thought, so he put it on BitTorrent. It has subsequently been downloaded several hundred times, and is also on Pirate Bay.

Bowes original interest was in spidering the site for data on the most popular names, Ars Technica explains. While that doesn't pose any risk to Facebook users, it could become the basis for automated cracking software that would target common usernames. Because Facebook is global, that makes it a more efficient target than a country-specific census, for example. Bowes found the top three usernames were jsmith with 129,369, ssmith with 79,365 and skhan with 77,713.

"As I thought more about it, and talked to other people, I realised that this is a scary privacy issue," said Bowes in a (cached) blog post. "I can find the name of pretty much every person on Facebook. Facebook helpfully informs you that "[a]nyone can opt out of appearing here by changing their Search privacy settings" - but that doesn't help much anymore considering I already have them all (and you will too, when you download the torrent). Suckers!"

Facebook has insisted that no private data was compromised. "People who use Facebook own their information and have the right to share only what they want, with whom they want, and when they want," it said in a rather defensive-sounding statement. "In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher and already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook. Similar to the white pages of the phone book, this is the information available to enable people to find each other, which is the reason people join Facebook."

Bowes has said that he wanted to raise awareness of the "scary privacy issue" of public data being used in this way, but even he must be surprised by the response. And how many times has this happened before, on any profile-hosting sites, without any of us hearing about it?

Don't think for a minute, by the way, that the cute kitten name that's your top secret password is anything like secure. Just a glance at the software on offer on a site like brothersoft.com will give you a minute window into the vast and subterranean hacking industry is. But remember, don't have nightmares...

G Data and Sophos launch temporary security patches to prevent criminals exploiting .LNK shortcut vulnerability

Two software security companies today released temporary security patches for the Windows 'zero-day' vulnerability affecting all versions of the Microsoft operating system back to Windows 2000.

The security flaw acknowledged by Microsoft can affect someone who simply opens a desktop folder containing an "infected" .LNK extension. Microsoft had rushed out a workaround for the problem, but the fix automatically disabled the displaying of desktop shortcut files.

Now security companies G Data and Sophos have separately released potential fixes to the vulnerability.

G Data's 'LNK Checker' blocks the automatic execution of malicious files, displaying uninfected shortcut icons as normal, replacing with a red warning signal icon if infected. The LNK Checker is available here for free.

The Sophos Windows Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool will notify users when it detects an infected link, blocking the potential malware from running.

Ralf Benzmueller, head of G Data SecurityLabs, said: "This recent security flaw gives cyber-criminals a wide range of new possibilities to infect a PC. They only need to make sure that a .LNK file is displayed on the computer. The file which the link refers to does not necessarily need to be on the computer it can even be on the internet."

"Not only users of memory sticks are affected. In a company's IT network, for example, it is enough to save a primed and infected file on the network drive. Even basic software, like word processing programs and email clients, provide the possibility to display shortcuts. The potential for abuse is enormous. We expect that this vulnerability will be massively exploited shortly."

All versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 7 back to Windows 2000 are affected by the vulnerability. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, commented: "The threat from the exploit is high as all a user has to do is open a device or folder without clicking any icons and the exploit will automatically run. With an additional variant of the malware already on the loose, the potential for this exploit to become more widespread is growing rapidly."

Microsoft has a policy of not condoning third-party tools such as those from G Labs and Sophos, and that it will release a security update for the problem in the near future.

Are you planning to use the new security tools? Let us know how you get on.

Average speed 46% below that promised by ISPs
Mandatory code and clear penalties vital, experts say

Millions of broadband users are being sold short by providers that are delivering speeds far below those advertised, according to research published today.

Data released by Ofcom, the communications regulator, shows that the gap between the headline broadband speeds customers sign up for and the connection they actually receive has widened sharply in the last 12 months. The average actual speed is now just 46% of what was promised, down from 56% a year ago.

Internet service providers are even advertising maximum speeds which in practice no customers receive, according to Ofcom, which is now pushing for tighter controls on selling broadband in the UK.

"There is a very big difference between the headline services that are advertised and the actual speeds that are delivered," said Ed Richards, Ofcom's chief executive.

Consumer groups said the research showed that many ISPs were letting their customers down.

"If consumers pay for a Ferrari-style internet service, they should not get pushbike speeds. Broadband users should get what they pay for," said Robert Hammond, head of post and digital communications at Consumer Focus.

Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, demanded an end to "misleading claims" about broadband.

"Some internet service providers continue to advertise ever-increasing speeds that bear little resemblance to what most people can achieve in reality," he said.

There is growing demand for faster broadband packages as more computer users watch television and play games online, or share their connection between several PCs. This has led ISPs to offer faster services promising "up to" 20Mbps, for example, rather than the standard maximum speed of 8Mbps. However, the UK's communications infrastructure appears incapable of supporting such services.

Ofcom reported that nearly a quarter of broadband users said they received a slower service than expected, and this was the most common complaint to ISPs.

The only ISP delivering close to the maximum speed advertised, according to Ofcom, was Virgin Media, with the advantage of a relatively new cable network in many urban areas. There was a stark difference between the performance of Virgin and the various ISPs such as AOL, BT, O2, Orange and Sky which all rely on BT's ageing "last mile" local network.

While the average speed of an "up to 20Mbps" cable service is 15.7Mbps, this fell to just 6.5Mbps for a typical "20Mbps" DSL package, which uses copper phone lines.

Ofcom said that copper lines that connect homes and small firms to the local BT telephone exchange were being "stretched to the very edge of their capability" to support high-speed internet access. Longer phone lines can only support slower speeds.

An Orange spokesperson said Ofcom's findings were "disappointing", and questioned their accuracy as only a small fraction of its customers were tested.

Another issue is that many homes will effectively share a large broadband "pipe" in the local exchange, so average speeds fall at busy times.

John Petter, managing director of BT's consumer division, insisted that the company "continues to invest heavily in our network, bringing speed improvements to customers nationwide".

"Rip-offs must end"

ISPs typically offer broadband services promising speeds of "up to" 8Mbps, 20Mbps or 50Mbps. In a damning indictment of the current situation, Ofcom wants these advertising rules tightened up so that an ISP can only promise a maximum speed if "at least some" people can receive it.

"Our beef is that people were being offered up to 8mbps, and nobody actually got 8Mbps," said Richards. He also wants broadband services to be advertised with a "typical speed range", to give people a better idea of what they will get in practice.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, agreed it was important that the way broadband is sold should be tightened up quickly.

"We need to ensure people are not being ripped off, as the lack of transparency in broadband advertising risks damaging consumer confidence in superfast broadband. The Advertising Standards Authority has announced a review into the way broadband is advertised and the need for change is now urgent," he said.

Ofcom has also put together a new code of conduct for the industry. This would allow consumers to cancel their broadband service with no penalty within the first three months if the speed was significantly below what was promised. Richards said this would encourage ISPs to improve their service. Some experts argued a voluntary code was not enough.

"Simply strengthening it does not cut the mustard we need a mandatory code with clear penalties for those that breach it," said Matthew Wheeler, communications expert at uSwitch.com. Ofcom's data also showed that Britain still suffers a significant Broadband Divide, ten years after the first high-speed services went on sale. Average download speeds of 5.8Mbps were recorded in urban areas, versus just 2.7Mbps in rural areas - where average line lengths are greater.

Richards warned that this gap was "likely to extend further before it narrows", as BT starts to build a next-generation fibre-optic network in towns and cities that will offer speeds of up to 100Mbps in some locations.

BT plans to spend 2.5bn installing fibre-based broadband in two-thirds of the country by 2015. Richards said today's data showed the importance of investment to bring fibre to as much of the country as possible.

The coalition government has said it expects the market to take the lead in delivering fibre across the UK, but BT has warned it cannot extend coverage further without some form of government support.

This article was amended on 27 July 2010. We originally referred to "Virgin Mobile" in paragraph 11 - this has been changed to "Virgin Media"

Bespoke computing experiences promise a pipe dream of safety and beauty but the real delight lies in making your own choices

The launch of the iPad and the general success of mobile device app stores has created a buzzword frenzy for "curated" computing computing experiences where software and wallpaper and attendant foofaraw for your device are hand-picked for your pleasure.

In theory, this creates an aesthetically uniform, and above all safe and easy, computing environment, as the curators see to it that only the very prettiest, easiest-to-use and most virus-free apps show up in the store.

I'm all for it. After all, I've spent the past 10 years co-curating Boing Boing, a place where my business-partners and I pick the websites that interest us the most and assemble them into a kind of deep, wide, searchable catalogue of things that you should know, do, and marvel at.

We've recently launched a store, the Boing Boing Bazaar, consisting of the most interesting inventions, clothing, gadgets, decor, and assorted gubbins that our readers have created, as picked by us. My Twitter account mostly consists of retweets from other twitterers my collection of the best tweets I've seen today. I am a born curator, and have spent my life amassing collections and showing them off.

But there's something important to note about all these curatorial roles I enjoy: none of them are coercive. No one forces you to read Boing Boing, and if you do, there's nothing that prevents you from reading another weblog (or a couple hundred other weblogs). Order as many gizmos as you'd like from the Boing Boing Bazaar, we'll never tell you that you can't fill your knick-knack shelves from anyone else's curated wunderkammer. Follow me on Twitter if it pleases you, and feel free to follow anyone else you find interesting.

The beauty of noncoercive curation is that there are so many reasons we value things, it's really impossible to imagine that any one place will serve as a one-stop shop for our needs.

Two categories in particular won't ever be fulfilled by a curator: first, the personal. No curator is likely to post pictures of my family, videos of my daughter, notes from my wife, stories I wrote in my adolescence that my mum's recovered from a carton in the basement.

My own mediascape includes lots of this stuff, and it is every bit as compelling and fulfilling as the slickest, most artistic works that show up in the professional streams. I don't care that the images are overexposed or badly framed, that the audio is poor quality, that I can barely read my 14-year-old self's handwriting. The things I made with my own hands and the things that represent my relationships with my community and loved ones are critical to my identity, and I won't trade them for anything.

Second, the tailored. I have loads of little scripts, programs, systems, files and such that make perfect sense to me, even though they're far from elegant or perfect. There's the script I use for resizing and uploading images to Boing Boing, the shelf I use to organise my to-be-read pile, the carefully-built mail rules that filter out spam and trolls and make sure I see the important stuff. I am a market of one: no one wants to make a commercial proposition out of filling my needs, and if they did, your average curator would be nuts to put something so tightly optimised for my needs into the public sphere, where it would be so much clutter. But again, these are the nuts and bolts that hold my life together and I can't live without them.

In a noncoercive curatorial world, these categories can peacefully coexist with curated spaces. There are hundreds of places where I can find recommendations and lists and reviews and packages of software for my computer (Ubuntu, the version of GNU/Linux I use, has its own very good software store). I can use as many or as few of these curators as I'd like, and what's more, I can add in things that matter to me because they exactly suit my needs or fulfil some sentimental niche in my life.

But I fear that when analysts slaver over "curated" computing, it's because they mean "monopoly" computing computing environments like the iPad where all your apps have to be pre-approved by a single curating entity, one who uses the excuse of safety and consistency to justify this outrageous power grab. Of course, these curators are neither a guarantee of safety, nor of quality: continuous revelations about malicious software and capricious, inconsistent criteria for evaluating software put the lie to this. Even without them, it's pretty implausible to think that an app store with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of programs could be blindly trusted to be free from bugs, malware, and poor aesthetic choices.

No, the only real reason to adopt coercive curation is to attain a monopoly over a platform to be able to shut out competitors, extract high rents on publishers whose materials are sold in your store, and sell a pipe dream of safety and beauty that you can't deliver, at the cost of homely, handmade, personal media that define us and fill us with delight.

Complaints from software makers triggers investigations
European market for mainframe computers is worth 3bn

EU regulators have begun two investigations into IBM, the world's largest computer services firm, following accusations the American company has been abusing its dominant position in the market for mainframe computers. The European market for mainframe computers and software was worth 3bn ( 2.5bn) last year. If the investigation finds that IBM abused its position in the market it could face a multimillion-euro fine. The investigations, one of which was sparked by a series of complaints over the past 18 months, come after the EU slapped a record 1.1bn fine on chip maker Intel last year and completed its long running investigation into Microsoft. Earlier this year the commission began a preliminary anti-monopoly investigation into Google, examining its power in the online search and digital advertising markets.

In a statement, the commission said its first investigation into IBM follows complaints by software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules, and focuses on IBM's alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system.

The second is an investigation begun on the commission's own initiative of IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.

Mainframe computers are used by many large companies and government institutions to store and process critical business information. It is estimated that the vast majority of corporate data worldwide resides on mainframes.

IBM is alleged to have engaged in illegal tying of its mainframe hardware products to its dominant mainframe operating system. The complaints contend this shuts out providers of other technology which could enable users to run critical applications on non-IBM hardware.

In addition, the Commission has concerns that IBM may have engaged in anti-competitive practices with a view to cornering the market for maintenance services, in particular by restricting or delaying access to spare parts for which IBM is the only source.

The initiation of proceedings does not imply that the commission has proof of infringements. It only signifies that the commission will further investigate the cases as a matter of priority.

In a statement, IBM hit back saying "certain IBM competitors which have been unable to win in the marketplace through investments in fundamental innovations now want regulators to create for them a market position that they have not earned".

The company said that the accusations made against IBM are being driven by some of IBM's largest competitors, lead by Microsoft who want to further cement the dominance of their own products "by attempting to mimic aspects of IBM mainframes without making the substantial investments IBM has made and continues to make".

"In doing so, they are violating IBM's intellectual property rights," the company added, saying it intends to cooperate fully with any inquiries from the EU. "But let there be no confusion whatsoever: there is no merit to the claims being made by Microsoft and its satellite proxies. IBM is fully entitled to enforce its intellectual property rights and protect the investments we have made in our technologies.

"Competition and intellectual property laws are complementary and designed to promote competition and innovation, and IBM fully supports these policies. But IBM will not allow the fruits of its innovation and investment to be pirated by its competition through baseless allegations."

A sign of the times - Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of US joint chiefs of staff, responds via Twitter to Wikileaks war logs

How does the US military's public relations combat the release of 91,000 gruesome war logs from Afghanistan through the Wikileaks website? By opening a new front on the social media battleground.

Generals are often accused of fighting the last war but not Admiral Mike Mullen, the most senior US military officer as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Mullen today made his first public response to the war logs leak and instead of holding a press conference or releasing a statement, Mullen made his views known in 140 characters through Twitter.

Posting as @thejointstaff, Mullen wrote:

Appalled by classified docs leak to Wikileaks & decision to post. It changes nothing on Afghanistan strategy or our relationship w/Pakistan

Mullen was travelling in Afghanistan when the news of the war logs carried in the Guardian, New York Times and Der Spiegel first came to light. Shortly after tweeting his thoughts Mullen held a more conventional press conference in Baghdad.

Mullen's tweet came as President Obama made his first comment on the controversy, although Obama used the comparatively elderly format of a statement in the White House Rose Garden. "These documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan," Obama said.

Sureblades will produce a new type of recyclable blade in a factory metres from the Vestas plant one year after its closure

Nearly one year after Danish wind giant Vestas closed the UK's only major turbine plant, a new British blade manufacturer is opening just metres from the old factory.

Sureblades, run by a team including three former Vestas staff on the Isle of Wight, is pinning its hopes on a new type of blade that will be 100% recyclable.

Working with Southampton University for the certification of its blades, the new company already has an order placed with Irish renewable energy company C&F Green Energy for 1,000 of its blades. The 4.6m-long structures will be used in 15kW turbines, enough to power a community.

Sean McDonagh, who is heading up operations at Sureblades, said the project had been a "beacon of light" for those involved in the Vestas plant closure last August, which led to 425 employees being made redundant. "It's been tough as no money was coming in for our families, but we knew it would work in the end, because this is a product the country needs for where it's going," McDonagh said.

Based on the same industrial estate as the former Vestas factory, which workers occupied during a 11-day roof-top protest against its closure last year, the company forecasts it will take on 40 staff within the next two years. "There are two big industries down here and people [former Vestas workers] have been on one-month contracts and not able to live their lives. When people heard about us, it's like they could get on with their lives, so they've been getting in touch," said McDonagh.

Working alongside McDonagh are the former Vestas employees Keith Hunsell and Glynn Milton, and Penny Smout a former special adviser to Ed Miliband. Unlike conventional turbine blades which use an epoxy resin that cannot be broken down, the company's blades will use a material that can be melted down and made into new blades after old ones are worn out. Sureblades said it also has another two potential orders in addition to the C&F deal, and it hopes to be fully operational by September.

Last year Vestas said the closure of the Isle of Wight plant was a result of a lack of demand and planning problems in the UK. Ditlev Engel, the CEO of Vestas, said at the time: "In the UK, there is a clear division between what the government would like to see happening and what certain local politicians want to see happening, or rather not want to see happening ... there is not necessarily the same ambition levels."

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT), which represented and supported the Vestas workers last year, welcomed the new company. The general secretary, Bob Crow, said: "The former Vestas workers behind this imaginative new project have completely destroyed the argument put forward by the company at the time of closure that there was no market for UK manufactured turbine blades. Through their efforts to create jobs they have blown apart the bogus grounds put forward at the time for closure and redundancy of the workforce."

He continued: "RMT is very proud of what our former Vestas members have achieved so far and we are right behind them. They have also shown that it is far too easy for companies in the UK to soak up government grants and then just cut and run when it suits them without any meaningful consultation, never mind a ballot of the workforce."

Those wacky characters from Toy Story 3 dominate the UK's game chart as well as the box office this week

Leisure software charts compiled by GfK Chart Track
2009 ELSPA (UK) Ltd

No date yet, but at least we know that Microsoft is admitting there are 40m Xbox 360s out there

Microsoft has announced the pricing for the Kinect bundle - you know, the you-move-it-moves system that Peter Molyneux has brought to fruition (possibly with a little bit of help).

Sitting down? OK:

"Kinect for Xbox 360, which will include the Kinect Sensor and the video game "Kinect Adventures," will retail for US$149.99 when it launches Nov. 4 in North America, the company revealed. The Kinect Sensor will work with each of the 40 million Xbox 360s currently in households worldwide."

(Useful stat, Microsoft: we'll note that 40m figure for the future.).

Oh, the UK price? 129.99. Yes! Welcome to Treasure Island - again! At the prevailing currency exchange rate, that would be 98; add on VAT at 17.5% and you get 115.40 (though once you get 20% VAT, it would be 117.60. (We're not sure what magic has been woven on the product to make the price go up as it passes over water, but make sure not to wave it over the bath.)

OK, executive quote time: Josh Hutto, director of product marketing for Xbox, said that Kinect represents a great value for new and existing Xbox 360 customers. "Kinect truly is a revolutionary product," he said. "We're bringing controller-free entertainment into the living room. With one purchase, families get Kinect and the most complete and affordable way to have fun."

So - now you know how much it is going to cost, are you going to buy one? Or are you preferring the Sony Move?

A detailed email from the company which owns supportonclick.com and onlinepccare.com says its staff don't tell people their PCs have viruses - or they get fired. Could ex-staff be behind the scam?

Following our stories earlier this week about phone calls in which people are cold-called with claims that their PC "has a virus", we've been in touch with Pecon Software, the company behind supportonclick.com (presently shut down) and onlinepccare.com, which offer "remote PC" support. Pecon Software is based in Kolkata, an Indian city that has a lot of call centres. Quite separately, a lot of the scam sites that I've been trying to investigate seem to be linked to addresses in Kolkata, though none matching Pecon Software's address or other details.

On Monday I spoke at length to Vikas Gupta, who describes himself as the customer relationship manager for Pecon Software. Now he has sent a followup email which I'm reprinting (with the approval of himself and the company's managing director, Mahesh Kumar Shah).

On Monday I asked him about Pecon's connection with Supportonclick, which has been mentioned in a number of online forums as part of complaints about cold calls, which is registered to Pecon Software, and which was one of 19 shut down by the Metropolitan Police e-Crime Unit in April. Here's his response (I've tidied the grammar and spelling very slightly). His response is in blockquotes, my explanation/expansion in standard quote.:

"I would like to clarify a few points to you which may help you in your future articles on the same topic."

"When you called us, I did not have much information on SupportOnClick. But you took me wrong by mentioning that I denied knowing SupportOnClick. I did mention that I know Support on Click but did not know much of the history behind it."

(For clarification, Gupta told me he joined Pecon Software in November 2009. Supportonclick.com was registered in February 2006,)

"Today I had a discussion with the senior management where I requested them to tell me something about SupportOnClick. What I came to know was that SupportOnClick was our URL which we used to register customers from the UK & USA."

(Gupta's assertion is that Pecon Software would call people and offer them a remote support service, explaining what was involved, but without scare tactics.)

"You were correct that SupportOnClick's URL was suspended and the reason was that there were some complains that were reported to the UK-Police against this website."

"This was a shocking news for the management as well and we have contested this with the Registrar of the website & UK Police as well. After communicating to the UK Police for some time, they suddenly stopped answering our mails. We are still in the process of appealing to get the url unblocked. But as we already had a URL named www.onlinepccare.com which was then being used to register Australian Customers only, we started using OnlinePcCare as a single url for registering all new customers. As we had the registered customer database, we had then sent a mail to each and every customer and at the same time tried calling each and every customer to inform that they can still avail [themselves of] the service and are still giving a monthly checkup call to each and every customer that we have registered."

"We have plenty of evidence where we can prove that our services have been Helpful and Cost Effective for majority of our customers. But like any other business house, we may have not lived up to the expectations of some customers. As it was a new domain of business for us as well so with every mistake we have learnt and improved our services."

Now we come to the question of whether any of the 200-strong team (Gupta's figure, provided on Monday) of telemarketers who were cold-calling people in the UK, US and Australia offering Pecon's services ever introduced themselves as being "from Microsoft" or "Windows support services" or similarly misrepresented their reason for calling, and whether they would ever tell people from the outset that there were problems with their PC, rather than ascertaining if there were.

That's the continual complaint on multiple blogs and forums against the galaxy of sites (and, it seems, companies) that are calling people in this way. So, I asked Gupta on Monday, had Pecon Software ever found any of its staff doing this, and if it had, did it take any action? Or was the "something wrong with your machine" line part of the script for every person?

"Following the customer concerns, we took the strictest of actions against any tele-marketer who tried to mislead any customer. In many instances we have terminated such employees as well."

According to an email seen by the Guardian to Gupta from Mahesh Shah, head of Pecon Software, the company has terminated its contract with "around 30 employees in last two years."

"Some of the terminated employees did start a process of their own and we are in no position to check their operation's quality of marketing or services. But this does not mean that we are running a "Scam" or this "Business Model" is all about scamming."

It's worth noting that it would be entirely possible for someone to claim to be from any website (or company) and then direct you to a generic login site for the remote support software, notably LogMeIn, which is a legitimate product with legitimate uses, but which is used by scammers in this case to get access to your machine.

"We noticed that some of the customers went on to Blog against us. If you notice, you will seldom find any existing customer of Support on Click on these Blogs. The Blogging Community is generally Tech-Savvy and our services does not sound appealing to them. That is why they think that the cost of registration for our services are worthless. This again does not mean that we are Scamming people."

"You can also easily make out that their main concern is tele-marketing. You will find that people on blogs complain about the telephone calls that they are receiving in regards to their computer and with a preconceived notion about the subject from the various sources like print media or digital media, they suspect all tele-marketting calls to be fake or scams."

I had also pointed out that many of those blogs and forums with complaints about attempted or successful scams using this method were often then invaded by people claiming to have had marvellous experiences - but all written in similarly poor English, unlike the complainants, and with IP addresses indicating the writer was based in India.

"In reference to your question on India IP address in Blog: As I said, being a technology based Company, Pecon Software Limited would not do such a silly mistake. If you check some of the complaining Blogs are also from Indian IPs."

That's not my experience, though if anyone can find an example please put it in the comments.

"This was surely a strategic move against us from some of the "Mushroom" Companies that came into existence after being terminated from Pecon."

Gupta did suggest the names of a couple of sites that he thought were perpetrating this scam, though I can't repeat them for legal reasons just here.

I had also asked him where Pecon Software/supportonclick.com/onlinepccare.com got the names of people who were cold-called.

"In reference to List of People we call: If you remember, I did tell you that we have an SEO team which makes continuous effort to search for prospective clients and divert it to our site and apart from that we have a general tele-marketing approach to people whose names are available on Online Directories but we Remove "Do Not Call" Registered numbers from there. I have noticed that this has been the biggest concern in[comments on] your article and I can understand why."

"The wild guesses of people in blogs and the example given in your article where someone gets a call just after they have had some interaction with call centres based in India are baseless and most of the instances that I read in the blogs are mere coincidences. ISPs, Broadband services, Bigger Brands which people think are leaking data are generally associated with BPO's [Business Process Outsourcing] to international standards with all data protection security measures in place. Even a small company like ours takes data protection as a high priority issue. So there is no chance of getting any form of bulk data for tele-marketing from them."

"Tele-marketing can be annoying for many but the fact remains that it has been a successful tool of getting prospective clients. But we agree to the fact that it should not be misleading or "Earning by Deceiving" people."

"We are also equally worried if innocent people are being targeted by some group of people, and are interested to bring out the truth. This is not only the question of people in the UK or the "English-speaking world", it is also the question of the future of this industry [call centres] which millions of people are depending upon, directly or indirectly. It is also the question of reputation of call centres based in India and the BPO industry as a whole. Reputable companies such as Iyogi [remote computer support, registered in 2005, based in Delhi] and Qresolve [based in Gurgaon, registered in 2006], doing the same business, with thousands of employees may also get affected by the negativity being created by such articles or online blogs."

"We are open for any feedback which may improve operating style and suites our international audience. Your inputs will be very valuable for us."

So, what are your inputs, people?

Recreating existing Flash ads with HTML5/CSS3 might seem pointless, but for designers and sites looking to beat ad-blocking it might be the future. See how well you can spot the differences...

Make the HTML5 ads go away! Photo by Seeds_of_Peace on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Cover your eyes, AdBlock users: the future of the web is here, and it includes adverts.

Unless of course you reckon that Adobe's Flash is always going to reign supreme when it comes to creating animated content online, so that the combination of HTML5 and CSS3 will just never become important, or that browsers capable of displaying HTML5/CSS3 content won't become pervasive enough for it to matter.

But if you don't... over at sencha.com, you can now - assuming you're using a sufficiently modern browser - take a quiz: see if you can spot which one of the pairs of ads is done in Flash, and which is done in HTML5/CSS3. (We're not hosting them here because (a) that would be rude (b) it would be a huge hassle getting the path to the CSS files right. Off you go and take the quiz.)

Obviously, this is quite easy to figure out if you have a Flash blocker installed (or are on a platform that doesn't provide Flash - hello pretty much everyone on mobile), or if you have a browser that's not capable of displaying HTML5. But if you view it on Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera, you may find it tough to call.

This is encouraging, or scary, depending on your viewpoint: if designers can do things with HTML5/CSS3 that they used to need Flash for, then blocking out the messages (which has been a topic of heated debate from time to time) that help to pay for some ads become much more difficult - because it's all just HTML. (Though perhaps you then start to have "CSS-blocking" parsers which will watch for things such as ":hover" and "-animation-duration" in the CSS file - see for example the content of http://www.sencha.com/deploy/css3-ads/hertz/style.css, used for the Hertz ad recreation.

The details, if you're interested, of how to do the recreations are on another Sencha blogpost. Would-be HTML5 designers, take note.

With the international games industry gathered on the south coast for the Develop conference, Tech Weekly cornered legendary game designer Peter Molyneux and locked the developers behind Mass Effect, Monkey Island and the Buzz quiz series Greg Zeschuk, Tim Schafer and Caspar Field into a hotel suite together to discuss the future of gaming. Plus, one UK developer reacts to Ed Vaizey's keynote speech on government support for the games business.

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The technology scene has echoes of the post-dotcom exhaustion of 2002 as we wait for mobiles to catch up

Where have all the social networks gone? Of course, this is exactly the right time to be asking this question. Haven't I noticed that Facebook is now claiming 500 million users, in the manner of Doctor Evil in Mike Myers's Austin Powers movies? Haven't I noticed that Twitter is getting its very own data centre, all the better to spread "unimportant trivia" ( all tabloid papers) such as the Crown Prosecution Service's decision not to press a manslaughter charge over Ian Tomlinson's death ?

Well, yes, I have. But my question is actually about the broader subject. What I'm really asking is where all the new social networks have gone. In the past two years, especially as Twitter has risen over the media horizon like a sunrise, barely a week has passed without a new network culled from the web 2.0 name generator take a verb ending in -er and remove the "e" being announced, often with a press release smelling ever so slightly of desperation that another "me-too" product could become the "us-instead" replacement.

To which the response is always: that hardly ever happens. Despite the insistence of web executives everywhere that rivals online are "only a click away", you actually have to screw up royally to turn a successful service into one that people leave in droves. (So congratulations to the former managers at MySpace and Bebo: you deserve your place in those MBA case studies of the future.)

Look around, though, and sites such as blip.fm haven't taken off. True, services such as FourSquare and Gowalla seem to be on the rise although, as Leo Hickman pointed out last week, people haven't quite grasped the threat that they can pose to users. So we're back at the original questions: where are all the new social networks? I think they're gone. Done, dusted, over. I don't think anyone is going to build a social network from scratch whose only purpose is to connect people. We've got Facebook (personal), LinkedIn (business) and Twitter (SMS-length for mobile).

Today the technology scene has echoes of the post-dotcom boom exhaustion of 2002-4. Then, the ideas which sank on the reefs of too-slow internet connections and too-few internet users had to wait for computers to catch up. Digg in 2004 and Google Maps in 2005 heralded much of the expansion, showing how a mashup of information meant new possibilities, and the whole "Web 2.0" concept began to germinate.

Now we're waiting again for mobiles, and especially smartphones allied to mobile networks, to catch up with what ambitious startup companies want to do. Apple's insistence in 2007 that iPhone users should have unlimited data plans yanked the entire mobile business forward about 10 years, and briefly showed us how everything should be working by 2012. No surprise that in recent months the mobile networks, unable to invest fast enough, have been rowing back on the "unlimited data" commitment, taking us back to 2007.

The next big sites won't be social networks. Of course they'll have social networking built into them; they'll come with an understanding of their importance, just as Facebook and Twitter know that search (an idea Google refined) and breaking news (Yahoo's remaining specialist metier) are de rigueur. Nor will they be existing sites retrofitted to do social networking, despite the efforts of Digg and Spotify.

So what will they be? No idea, I'm afraid. If I knew that, would I be here writing? Hell, no I'd be off making elevator pitches and vacuuming up venture capital. Which brings us to business models. Facebook makes its money not just by sucking up ad impressions from the rest of the internet, using its remarkably detailed targeting ability; it also gets a cut from virtual transactions using its own virtual currency. LinkedIn, similarly, can precisely target its executive base. Twitter is different again, selling its user-generated content for big money to Google and Microsoft's Bing, as well as experimenting with direct payment for its EarlyBird sales system and "promoted tweets".

The point being that "ad-supported" isn't the only game for startup revenue. The big sites of the future won't necessarily be about ads as a way to make money, and they won't be about social networks. Now, hunker down and wait. Or get out there and build it.

Snark using put-downs to undermine an adversary is a great online tool. But don't mistake it for real power

This Saturday, I appeared on a panel at the Netroots Nation conference, devoted to "Bringing the Snark After Winning Elections". I shared the panel with some amazing people, who were far better at being on panels than I myself was, and I was honoured to be there. But as I sat there, advocating for snark, I'd started to realise that my own uses of it unlike, I hasten to add, those of the very effective and responsible people I was speaking with were not always admirable.

"Snark" is one of those fundamentally goofy internet neologisms that we could try to fight, but are better-off just learning to work with. The word denotes mean humour: sarcasm, venom, the art of the put-down. Mostly, it's an attitude. Snark is the kids at the back of the class, heckling the substitute teacher; it's the voice of people who feel stifled, talked down to, or left out; the tool of people who have discovered that honing in on the weaknesses of those in power, exposing them publicly (if only to their own circle of friends), and reducing them to figures of fun (if only in their own minds), makes them feel a little less helpless.

Of course, it's a powerful tool in political writing. But like most sources of political power, it should be regarded with some healthy distrust, especially by those who feel called to use it.

It's stupid to condemn "snark" across the board. For one, it's often a genuine pleasure to read. And it has a valuable place within political writing, specifically. It makes people feel better; it renders intimidating issues more approachable and makes bad news seem less overwhelming.

Snark, when used correctly, is fantastic. And taking a stand against jokes is a supremely unrewarding position; you feel like the aforementioned substitute teacher, pleading with the delinquents in the back to be quiet, knowing that no one in that classroom is on your side.

Or else, you feel like New Yorker film critic David Denby, who wrote an entire book on the subject, calling it a "nasty, knowing strain of abuse" that was spreading, in a fairly indelible metaphor, "like pinkeye" through the national conversation. Aside from comparing semi-mean internet humour to a disease that's contracted by getting faeces in your eye, however, he didn't have much to contribute. Things he did not like were deemed "snarky", and things he did like were deemed funny, and that was that.

To be fair to Denby, most conversations on the subject don't get any further; we can complain about the internet, and how it has made us all meaner, but no one can reasonably argue that all comedy should be kind, that jokes should be designed not to offend any potential listener, or even that being cruel is always uncalled-for.

But cruelty alone even deserved, funny cruelty can't create lasting, positive social change. Making fun of the opposition is gratifying, sometimes necessary. It's especially convenient to be able to do it online: if you're sick of hearing your co-worker go on about how evolution is atheist nonsense, you can make fun of creationists in a comment section on your lunch hour and feel much better about your day. But you haven't necessarily done anything to change the fact that this person's decidedly non-scientific ideas might be taught in your children's science classes.

And you haven't created anything resembling a dialogue with the person in question.

Political humour, at its worst, can be nothing but bullying. We find our targets however fringe or insignificant they are, it doesn't matter; what matters is that we disagree with them today pummel them rhetorically, leave them for dead, and congratulate ourselves for our "activism" after the fact. I know I've done it.

And I also know that, on the rare occasions when the subjects of my pummellings read my articles, they didn't exactly express gratitude to me for pointing out the holes in their arguments. Nor was the world changed because I'd made fun of an article I'd found in my RSS feed. I had created entertainment; I hadn't engaged in activism. The most I could hope for was that some real activist had read me and had been inspired to ... well, act.

Mockery and derisive laughter are the natural responses of people who feel powerless and pushed around; if there's nothing else we can do but register our discontent, we should register it. And if we can make the whole ordeal less painful with a few jokes, we should do that, too.

But we shouldn't mistake the relief it gives us for actual power. If we let it go to our heads, we run the risk of becoming slightly ridiculous. Of becoming pompous, or self-satisfied, or of blithely oversimplifying the issues for our own gain.

And on the internet, a ridiculous person is always fair game.

India's new $35 tablet computer needs manufacturing success and demand if it is to revolutionise IT literacy it has neither

Kapil Sibal, India's minister for human resource development, recently announced that Indian scientists had developed a tablet computer that could be manufactured for just $35. The device has been developed primarily for students and is part of the government's ambitious plan to connect 25,000 Indian colleges to broadband. The push is no doubt linked to MIT's 2005 offer to Asia to make available know-how for building $100 laptops. But it needs two critical support struts manufacturing success and demand to be successful.

On the manufacturing side, the bill of materials currently going into the tablet has come up to $47. This does not include labour, supply chain costs or profit. Even if the government sticks to its current stance of subsidising the product by $15 it is unlikely to retail at $35, let alone the $20 the government eventually hopes to sell it at. Further, a manufacturer has not been chosen yet. The risk with any premature announcement is that it would fizzle out, leaving the government with very little to show. In February 2009, the Indian government announced a $10 laptop, which has not hit the shelves yet. It likely never will.

The comparable mobile phone revolution in India was driven not by affordable handsets, but by palpable demand, which led to the effort of building and making available cheap handsets. The Simputer story has shown beyond doubt that mere computation or digital recording ability is not sufficient to create demand in India. The locally developed and open handheld hardware was available in a relatively cheap price range between $194 and $266, yet sold a mere 4,000 units in 2005. Today, it has disappeared without a trace. Access to the internet is critical to building demand for low-cost computers. Unfortunately, the internet story in India, in sharp contrast to the mobile phone story, has been a dismal let down.

The average Indian does not lack access to typewriters, typists or calculators: he lacks usable knowledge that creates transparencies, cuts out intermediaries, reduces the power of discriminatory networks and induces growth. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recognised as much in its national broadband policy consultation paper, released in June. In noting the growth effect of the internet, it recorded that in low- and middle-income economies, a 10% growth in internet penetration created a 1.12% growth in per capita GDP. With a population of 1.26 billion, India had just 15.24m internet users as of December 2009. More worryingly, internet minutes consumed had actually fallen from their peak during December 2008.

Official statistics also present a frightening picture of non-performance by the government. There were 8.75m broadband connections in the country by the end of March 2010, against a target of 20m subscribers in 2010 set in 2004. Net broadband additions per month are running at just 100,000-200,000 in contrast to 18m mobile connections per month.

Part of the problem can be traced to the government's monopolistic approach. Currently 104 providers offer broadband services in India. Of these, BSNL, a government-owned provider, has a 61.45% market share. This disparity exists because the most popular access method, used by 86% connections, is largely available solely to BSNL and MTNL both public sector undertakings. To increase pervasiveness of use and geographic dispersion, India needs to deploy fibre optics-based access.

Beyond the issue of proper connectivity infrastructure, demand will come only with awareness and computer literacy. Unless it channels and meets the demand for usable, accessible knowledge, the $35 tablet will remain an interesting oddity, a shortsighted solution and a fledgling power's fist-waving response.

This article was amended on the 29 July at 12.41 pm to correct the price of the Simputer which retailed at $200, not at less that $35

... Zero. Yes, zero, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California Annenberg School For Communication And Journalism. We already know thanks to several other surveys that consumers aren't exactly rushing to pay for social networking online, but the Annenberg School's study shows the most extreme reaction so far, especially considering that 49% of the internet users among the 1,981 survey respondents said they did use social networking sites like Twitter.


Photo by JacobEnos on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Says Jeffrey Cole, the director of the Center for the Digital Future, "Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free. (For the record, Twitter hasn't said it has any plans to charge and Facebook now says on its home page that it will always be free).

The survey also echoed others that show that consumers - unsurprisingly - would prefer not to pay for content online. Fifty-five percent said they agreed or strongly agreed that they "prefer having free access to online content that has advertising accompanying it rather than having to pay for the content". Only 16% strongly or somewhat disagree, while the remainder say they're ambivalent.

The iPhone 4 debacle reveals how much Apple has to learn about life at the top

Over the past two months, Apple's market capitalisation (ie its value as measured by the stock market) averaged out at $229.8bn.

The corresponding figure for Microsoft was $215.9bn. And yes, you read those numbers correctly: Apple is now worth significantly more than Microsoft, and the difference isn't just a flash in the Wall Street pan.

This has implications for all of us who follow these things. The mainstream media, for example, need to discard the rose-tinted spectacles through which they have viewed Apple ever since Steve Jobs returned to the helm in 1997. Apple is no longer the Lucky Little Company That Could but a looming, secretive, manipulative corporate giant.

Recent developments suggest that Apple itself also needs to adjust to its new status as just another company. Last month it released the iPhone 4, the latest version of its smartphone, to near-universal media acclaim. But shortly after the release of this magical device, complaints began to surface about problems with its wireless reception specifically that if one held the phone in a certain way while making a call, then it dropped the connection.

Apple at first ignored these irritating complaints, but eventually issued a soothing "Letter from Apple regarding iPhone 4". "The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple's history", it began, in best Listen With Mother style. "It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them." The "letter" went on to explain that the problem was caused by a mistake in the algorithm (ie mathematical formula) used to calculate the number of bars in the signal strength indicator. A software update would, it said, soon be available to fix that.

This patronising "letter" proved to be a spectacular (and misleading) misjudgment. "I couldn't believe this was meant to be taken seriously," wrote Dave Winer, one of the blogosphere's elder statesmen. "It's the kind of story The Onion might have written on a bad day. Or Jon Stewart. That a corporate PR team wrote this says how unseasoned their people are. That they thought this answer was going to satisfy anyone says how out of touch they are with the world they are in."

In fact the algorithm excuse was a smokescreen. The real problem was that if you hold the phone naturally, your fingers bridge the gap between the two segments of the antenna contained in the device's bezel. (Which might just explain why Steve Jobs carefully held the phone by its top and bottom edges when showing it to the Russian president recently.) So it wasn't a software problem at all, and the resulting "shitstorm" (Winer's term) grew and grew. Things got so bad that Apple eventually decided on the nuclear option: a Steve Jobs press conference.

The event was an instructive shambles. In summary, the message was: Apple is good and makes great products; all smartphones have reception problems; Apple loves its customers, which is why it built all those cool retail stores for them; the iPhone problem can be fixed by fitting a rubberised "bumper" over the bezel; and Apple will give everyone a free bumper, so what's the problem?

The press conference was instructive because it provided such a vivid demonstration of how inexperienced Apple is in its new role as just another company and how inept Jobs is when faced with the hostile scepticism that is the routine experience of other CEOs.

"When it comes to responding to hostile or sceptical media coverage," wrote one experienced commentator, "Jobs & co seem to be like a presidential contender who's been able to skip the primaries and go straight to the general election missing all the vetting and the hundreds of debates that help to surface any weakness or issues of concern, providing time to develop the skills necessary to respond to any situation. Jobs demonstrated what I've never seen him do in front of an audience: he not only lost his cool, he lost his charm. He was a like an arena rock star who can't perform acoustic."

And no free T-shirt from the gig, either.

Adults banned from searching children's computers or phones under a new law passed in Chongqing, southwest China

It is a ruling that teenagers around the world will regard with a certain amount of envy. Parents in one Chinese city are to be prevented from snooping on their children's online activity and text messages.

Adults, including family members, are banned from searching through children's computers or phones under a new regional law passed in Chongqing, southwest China, state media reported today. The regulation outlaws snooping into their emails, text messages, web chats, and browser history. The regulation is designed to protect the rights of children, but is surprising given widespread concern in China about excessive internet use among young people and their access to unsuitable material. Psychologists have sought to have internet addiction listed as a clinical disorder and treatment camps have sprung up across the country. The Chongqing Evening Post described the new regulation, adopted on Friday by officials in Chongqing, as the first of its kind in the country. Other Chinese media said it expanded an existing national rule. But both experts and children doubted whether it would have an impact in practice.

Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, told China Daily that children were unlikely to take their parents to court.

"Parents who habitually check such information won't stop due to the regulation," he said.

Eleven-year-old Song Jingbo, from Xi'an, told the newspaper he did not think his mother and father would be able to access his data anyway, adding: "I am far more internet savvy than them."

China has the largest population of internet users in the world and minors alone account for more 126 million of them, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

If you want your free 'bumper' for iPhone 4, you'll need an app - but time limits on applications have led some to ponder whether a redesign is in the works

Want a free case - aka "bumper" - for that iPhone 4? There's an app for that. No, really: Apple has launched the program via an iPhone app (iTunes Store link) about which it says "If you are experiencing reception issues with your iPhone 4, you are eligible to receive an iPhone 4 Bumper or other selected third-party case from Apple at no charge."

Download it and you can apply. Of course, though anyone can try to (and perhaps succeed) download it, "Only iPhone 4 owners are eligible for this program" because the app will check the phone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number and serial number. If you bought before today (23 July), your request must be in by 22 August; other requests must be in within 30 days of purchase.

And, notes Apple, "all iPhone purchases must be made by September 30, 2010, to qualify for this program".

It's that final date - plus the news announced by Apple today, at exactly the same time as the free bumper app, that the white iPhone 4 has been delayed yet again which has some people sniffing the air and calling "hardware revision".

The white iPhone 4, after all, is (to the untrained eye) no different from the black one, except that it's, er, white. Yet Apple hasn't released any yet, which is perplexing, given that it has been making white-hued products for absolutely ages (remember the iPod?).

Apple's statement in full reads: "White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected."

Which has led some people to think that this means that inside its SECRET UNDERGROUND LABORATORY, Apple is preparing a revision of the iPhone 4 with the antenna that has caused so much woe inside the case, or at least covered up.

Personally? I think that the reason why we haven't seen white iPhone 4s is because it actually is difficult to make them. Don't forget that the main casing isn't metal or plastic; it's actually ceramic (or "aluminosilicate"). Quite possibly it actually is harder to make iPhones using that material in white.

But that doesn't answer - and Apple hasn't answered - why the free cases program only goes until September (which happens to be the end of its next financial quarter).

The chances that Apple is working on a new revision to the iPhone 4 design that puts something around the antenna? Hard to evaluate. Two things to consider:

1) Apple absolutely can do this if it wants to. It's had a few months to redesign this, and perhaps even to test it.

2) Steve Jobs reportedly loved having the antenna exposed on the outside, which might mean that the best you would get would be some sort of transparent casing or layer.

So our guidance: chances of a redesign in early October are a bit less than half, because of the Steve Jobs factor. He'd hate the idea of a design which means an acknowledgement of bad design. Plus, as John Gruber pointed out, Apple probably rather likes the idea of getting a chunk of the iPhone case business - and hates giving them away. So it might just be that by the time October rolls around, Apple's response to anyone demanding a free iPhone 4 case would be "you know, if you haven't heard about all this 'antennagate' stuff, you should have."

Our shallow obsession with gadgets disguises a conservatism where real change takes place at numbingly slow speed

A milestone has been reached, a Rubicon crossed. With the news, announced on the Guardian's front page on Wednesday, that ebook sales on Amazon have outstripped hardbacks for the first time, I have decided no longer to pay attention to hi-tech company marketing memos. That means that next time Mark Zuckerman converts another half billion users to Facebook, Jeff Bezos converts another half million words to Kindle ebook format, or Steve Jobs farts to the left or will it be to the right this time? I won't be reading.

It's not that such announcements aren't sometimes genuine news. The latest Amazon press release, for example, does confirm an admittedly fairly widespread suspicion that when consumers buy overpriced shiny gadgets, they spend a certain amount of money using them. IPhone users download apps. ITunes users download songs. Kindle users download paid-for ebooks..

No one could deny that ebook readers are catching on. What surprises me, though, amid the endless "what format do you prefer?" real and e-navel gazing that goes on whenever someone says "ebook", is how slow this catching on process is proving to be. Ebooks are cheaper to produce, aren't made out of trees, don't take up space, don't weigh anything, do fit in your pocket (as a whole library), can be viewed in a customisable font size, are easily annotated, readable in the dark, better, cleverer and better again. But still everyone says, oh I don't know, surely real books are better because, oh I don't know, you can read them in the bath. (To which the answer is yes, but you can't get real books read aloud to you while you have a proper bath).

What news stories like this really show is that the rampant technology fetishism, which runs like e-wildfire through our i-society, is really only skin-deep. To be sure, the fetishism is real enough, evidenced by the way in which our interest is so often more in the medium than its content. "What format do you read your newspapers in?" (not: "Did you read the news today?"). "Does your phone have a wide enough angle to take in the ceiling of the Sistine chapel?" (not: "The Sistine chapel's ceiling is too much to take in in one go"). If the future develops along the lines being laid by the present, the question of the century won't be: "Where were you when Barack Obama was assassinated?" but "Did you read about the dematerialisation of Steve Jobs on the iLavatory Mk 3.14 or Mk 3.14159265? Mk 3.1? Oh dear, you must be distraught?"

But the reality is that these shallow obsessions disguise a simple, pervasive conservatism. Imagine if William Caxton had returned to Westminster with his new printing press and everyone had said: "What's this newfangled nonsense? Hand-copied is much better you really get the sense you're getting something for your money. (And besides, what are you doing with this euro-tech? You can't trust it you know.")

Sure, there will have been some moaning from the guild of copyists or some such, but you wouldn't have caught Caxton printing questionnaires asking readers whether they like the new technology or not.

It's not just media technology, either. Can you imagine the architects of the great cathedrals trying to get planning permission today, or even obtaining agreement on how best to honour the spirit of the past? Hagia Sophia was built in five years following the destruction of the fifth century church, yet it's taken the architectural, engineering, design and financial might concentrated on Manhattan island nearly nine years to replace the fallen twin towers with this.

We flatter ourselves with endless talk about living at the "cutting edge" in an era of "constant change" and "permanent technological revolution". Most of the time, though, by conspiring to keep capacity at a set distance from potential, the progress implicit in the technological cycle of perpetual upgrading is an illusion we use to distract us from the numbingly slow speed at which real change actually takes place. How else do you explain that, over 80 years after women obtained equal voting rights in this country, we still can't get more than four of them round the cabinet table, or more than one woman for every nine men into our company boardrooms?

Still, at least we can read all about it on the latest iDespair format while waiting distractedly for society to upgrade itself.

Microsoft announces 22% rise in three months to June
Profits near $6bn, underlining recovery in technology sector
Results beat record from rival Apple

Microsoft added to the growing sense of recovery in the technology sector last night by reporting record quarterly revenues, driven by strong sales. The software giant pipped Apple, one of its greatest rivals, with a 22% jump in revenues to $16bn ( 10.5bn) in the three months to the end of June. Operating profits jumped 49% to $5.9bn during the quarter.

The figures beat Wall Street estimates, and sent Microsoft's shares up nearly 3% in after-hours trading. But they also showed that the company is still heavily reliant on its Windows operating system and Office suite, despite years of huge investment in online services and computer gaming.

Revenues at Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division soared by 44% to $4.5bn, with operating income up 59% to $3bn. Its business division increased revenue by 15% with operating income up 21% at $3.3bn. Analysts said the results showed that businesses have begun investing in new computers again, following the economic downturn. In contrast, losses rose at Microsoft's online services arm, which includes its MSN web portal and the Bing search engine. Revenues rose by 13% to $565m but operating losses were up 19% to $696m.

Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, acknowledged that Windows 7 and Office 10 had driven Microsoft's performance, but insisted the company was developing other strong products. Kinect is a motion-sensitive control system for the Xbox 360 that is meant to replicate the success of Nintendo's Wii system.

Microsoft reported that it has now sold 175m Windows 7 licences, while Bing has increased its share of the search market for the last 13 months.

On Tuesday, Apple cheered investors with its best-ever quarter, reporting revenues of $15.7bn. Chipmaker Intel also posted strong results on Wednesday, in a sign that PC sales were more robust than expected. Amazon, though, disappointed Wall Street after reporting a 45% rise in earnings less than analysts had expected and its shares fell 14%. Amazon also warned that its operating income would probably miss expectations this quarter.

Text, text, text, that's all they think about: but are all those hours on the phone and Facebook turning teenagers into screen-enslaved social inadequates? Jon Henley finds out

"I'd rather," deadpans Philippa Grogan, 16, "give up, like, a kidney than my phone. How did you manage before? Carrier pigeons? Letters? Going round each others' houses on BIKES?" Cameron Kirk, 14, reckons he spends "an hour, hour-and-a-half on school days" hanging out with his 450-odd Facebook friends; maybe twice that at weekends. "It's actually very practical if you forget what that day's homework is. Unfortunately, one of my best friends doesn't have Facebook. But it's OK; we talk on our PlayStations."

Emily Hooley, 16, recalls a Very Dark Moment: "We went to Wales for a week at half term to revise. There was no mobile, no TV, no broadband. We had to drive into town just to get a signal. It was really hard, knowing people were texting you, writing on your Wall, and you couldn't respond. Loads of my friends said they'd just never do that."

Teens, eh? Not how they were when I was young. Nor the way they talk to each other. Let's frighten ourselves, first: for a decade, the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been the world's largest and most authoritative provider of data on the internet's impact on the lives of 21st-century citizens. Since 2007, it has been chronicling the use teenagers make of the net, in particular their mass adoption of social networking sites. It has been studying the way teens use mobile phones, including text messages, since 2006.

This is what the Project says about the way US teens (and, by extension, teenagers in much of western Europe: the exact figures may sometimes differ by a percentage point or two, but the patterns are the same) communicate in an age of Facebook Chat, instant messaging and unlimited texts. Ready?

First, 75% of all teenagers (and 58% of 12-year-olds) now have a mobile phone. Almost 90% of phone-owning teens send and receive texts, most of them daily. Half send 50 or more texts a day; one in three send 100. In fact, in barely four years, texting has established itself as comfortably "the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends".

But phones do more than simply text, of course. More than 80% of phone-owning teens also use them to take pictures (and 64% to share those pictures with others). Sixty per cent listen to music on them, 46% play games, 32% swap videos and 23% access social networking sites. The mobile phone, in short, is now "the favoured communication hub for the majority of teens".

As if texting, swapping, hanging and generally spending their waking hours welded to their phones wasn't enough, 73% use social networking sites, mostly Facebook 50% more than three years ago. Digital communication is not just prevalent in teenagers' lives. It IS teenagers' lives.

There's a very straightforward reason, says Amanda Lenhart, a Pew senior research specialist. "Simply, these technologies meet teens' developmental needs," she says. "Mobile phones and social networking sites make the things teens have always done defining their own identity, establishing themselves as independent of their parents, looking cool, impressing members of the opposite sex a whole lot easier."

Flirting, boasting, gossiping, teasing, hanging out, confessing: all that classic teen stuff has always happened, Lenhart says. It's just that it used to happen behind the bike sheds, or via tightly folded notes pressed urgently into sweating hands in the corridor between lessons. Social networking sites and mobile phones have simply facilitated the whole business, a gadzillion times over.

For Professor Patti Valkenburg, of the University of Amsterdam's internationally respected Centre for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media, "contemporary communications tools" help resolve one of the fundamental conflicts that rages within every adolescent. Adolescence, she says, is characterised by "an enhanced need for self-presentation, or communicating your identity to others, and also self-disclosure discussing intimate topics. Both are essential in developing teenagers' identities, allowing them to validate their opinions and determine the appropriateness of their attitudes and behaviours."

But, as we all recall, adolescence is also a period of excruciating shyness and aching self-consciousness which can make all that self-presentation and self-disclosure something of a perilous, not to say agonising, business. So the big plus of texting, instant messaging and social networking is that it allows the crucial identity-establishing behaviour, without the accompanying embarrassment. "These technologies give their users a sense of increased controllability," Valkenburg says. "That, in turn, allows them to feel secure about their communication, and thus freer in their interpersonal relations."

"Controllability", she explains, is about three things: being able to say what you want without fear of the message not getting through because of that humungous spot on your chin or your tendency to blush; having the power to reflect on and change what you write before you send it (in contrast to face-to-face communication); and being able to stay in touch with untold hordes of friends at times, and in places, where your predecessors were essentially incommunicado.

But what do teenagers make of this newfound freedom to communicate? Philippa reckons she sends "probably about 30" text messages every day, and receives as many. "They're about meeting up where are you, see you in 10, that kind of thing," she says. "There's an awful lot of flirting goes on, of course. Or it's, 'OMG, what's biology homework?'. And, 'I'm babysitting and I'm SOOOO bored.'" (Boredom appears to be the key factor in the initiation of many teen communications.)

Like most of her peers, Philippa wouldn't dream of using her phone to actually phone anyone, except perhaps her parents to placate them if she's not where she should be, or ask them to come and pick her up if she is. Calls are expensive, and you can't make them in class (you shouldn't text in class either, but "lots of people do").

Philippa also has 639 Facebook friends, and claims to know "the vast majority" (though some, she admits, are "quite far down the food chain"). "I don't want to be big-headed or anything, but I am quite popular," she says. "Only because I don't have a social life outside my bedroom, though." When I call her, 129 of her friends are online.

Facebook rush-hour is straight after school, and around nine or 10 in the evening. "You can have about 10 chats open at a time, then it gets a bit slow and you have to start deleting people," Philippa says. The topics? "General banter, light-hearted abuse. Lots of talk about parties and about photos of parties." Cred-wise, it's important to have a good, active Facebook profile: lots of updates, lots of photos of you tagged.

Sometimes, though, it ends in tears. Everyone has witnessed cyber-bullying, but the worst thing that happened to Philippa was when someone posted "a really dreadful picture of me, with an awful double chin", then refused to take it down. "She kept saying, 'No way, it's upped my profile views 400%,'" says Philippa. It's quite easy, she thinks, for people to feel "belittled, isolated" on Facebook.

There are other downsides. Following huge recent publicity, teens are increasingly aware of the dangers of online predators. "Privacy's a real issue," says Emily. "I get 'friend' requests from people I don't know and have never heard of; I ignore them. I have a private profile. I'm very careful about that."

A 2009 survey found up to 45% of US companies are now checking job applicants' activity on social networking sites, and 35% reported rejecting people because of what they found. Universities and colleges, similarly, are starting to look online. "You need to be careful," says Cameron Kirk, astute and aware even at 14. "Stuff can very easily get misunderstood." Emily agrees, but adds: "Personally, I love the idea that it's up there for ever. It'll be lovely to go back, later, and see all those emotions and relations."

Pew's Lenhart says research [by Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research] has revealed a class distinction in many teens' attitudes to online privacy. "Teens from college-focused, upper-middle-class familes tend to be much more aware of their online profiles, what they say about them, future consequences for jobs and education," she says. "With others, there's a tendency to share as much as they can, because that's their chance for fame, their possibility of a ticket out."

The question that concerns most parents, though, is whether such an unprecedented, near-immeasurable surge in non face-to-face communication is somehow changing our teenagers diminishing their ability to conduct more traditional relationships, turning them into screen-enslaved, socially challenged adults. Yet teens, on the whole, seem pretty sensible about this. Callum O'Connor, 16, says there's a big difference between chatting online and face to face. "Face to face is so much clearer," he says. "Facebook and instant messaging are such detached forms of communication. It's so easy to be misinterpreted, or to misinterpret what someone says. It's terribly easy to say really horrible things. I'm permanently worrying will this seem heartless, how many kisses should I add, can I say that?"

He's certain that what goes on online "isn't completely real. Some people clearly think it is, but I feel the difference. It's really not the same." Emily agrees: "It's weird. If I have a massive fight on Facebook, it's always, like, the next day, did it actually matter? Was it important? I always go up to the person afterwards and talk to them face to face, to see their emotions and their expressions. Otherwise you never know. It's complicated."

Emily is fairly confident that social networking and texting aren't changing who she is. "I'm the same online and in person. All this is an extension to real life, not a replacement." Olivia Stamp, 16 and equally self-aware, says she thinks social networking actually helps her to be more herself. "I think of myself as quite a shy person," she says. "So it's actually easier to be myself on Facebook because you can edit what you want to say, take your time; you don't feel awkward. I definitely feel more confident online more like the self I know I really am, beneath the shyness."

These new communications technologies, Olivia says, are "an enhancement, an enrichment actually. They bring people even closer, in fact, without replacing anything. We're not socially abnormal. Look at us!" And the experts seem to back that up. Valkenburg says: "Our research gives no reason at present for concern about the social consequences of online communication but it's early days. What if the constant self-confirmation teens experience online turns into excessive self-esteem, or narcissism? We don't know yet."

Lenhart puts it another way. "Our research shows face-to-face time between teenagers hasn't changed over the past five years. Technology has simply added another layer on top. Yes, you can find studies that suggest online networking can be bad for you. But there are just as many that show the opposite."

We should, she suggests, "Step back. The telephone, the car, the television they all, in their time, changed the way teens relate to each other, and to other people, quite radically. And how did their parents respond? With the same kind of wailing and gnashing of teeth we're doing now. These technologies change lives, absolutely. But it's a generational thing."

This article was amended on 27 July 2010 to make clear the origin of research findings about class distinctions in teenage attitudes to online privacy.

Teenagers: how addicted to Facebook are you? How much do you use technology and what for? Post below or email g2feedback@guardian.co.uk

Experiments like 'Please Rob Me' indicate that what people reveal via location-sharing apps could potentially be harmful to them - and survey finds concerns among users

More than half of people with geolocation-capable mobile devices worry about "loss of privacy" from using their location-sharing features, a survey has found - even though location-sharing apps such as FourSquare and Gowalla have millions of users checking in every day.

Among UK respondents, 52% said they were "very or extremely concerned" about loss of privacy from using location-sharing applications - even though the same proportion said that they geotag photos, indicating where they were taken, when uploading them to the internet.

The survey, commissioned by security company Webroot, interviewed 1,500 owners of devices with geolocation capabilities, including 624 people in the UK.

Yet other data shows that there are more than 1m lonely hearts now looking for location-based love via an iPhone application, and touching two million users checking-in with Foursquare, sharing whereabouts is the social currency du jour.

But that can be risky, as a trio of developers showed earlier this year, grabbing the headlines when they launched Please Rob Me, a live stream of people sharing their location on Twitter, the site playing on the fact these people were out of their homes. After doing what it set out to do - bring attention to the risk associated with location sharing - the stream was turned off.

Yet FourSquare and Gowalla have continued their upward trajectory of users, investors and commercial partners, such as Dominos Pizza, the Huffington Post, MTV and the Wall Street Journal.

But according to David Bennett, director for Webroot in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, "It's not about securing the hardware anymore, it's about securing the person as mobile internet-connected devices become widespread." He reiterates the challenges associated with attitudes towards publishing personal information online: "If you look over the last year, it takes about a year for people to be educated about putting stuff on Facebook - I think it'll take that same amount of time for geolocation applications."

This, Bennett says, gets to the nub of the concern: "A lot of people don't necessarily know what they do or what the implications are of these services. Of the half that thought there was a problem, how many people know that the pictures they're taking can be geotagged? Say if you move into a new house, and you say 'Here's a picture of my house', you then take a picture of you and your family on holiday - this is where cybercrime really expands. What's to stop a certain segment of the marketplace burgling your house? That's the challenge as we go forward."

"I think it's the new version of the telephone directory," Bennett says of the presence of food chains on Foursquare. "Can you be sure the company you're interacting with is really the company? That's one of the biggest challenges. when you rang them up you knew it was them - if it's online how can you be sure? But that's the way the business marketplace is going to go - the next generation of bringing people to the doorstep."

And to the doorstep goods and services will come. Skout is a location-based "social dating application" that connects singletons within metres or miles of your exact location. Last week Skout welcomed both profitability and its one millionth user. But news like this is anathema to the cause of "securing the person". Bennett continues the refrain: "When you're online it's so easy to pretend to be someone you're not. Everyone's hidden behind the keyboard if you start going into some of these dating areas.

"There are certain parts of our information that should always be private. It comes down to people understanding what they're doing."

The research

Webroot commissioned a survey of 1,645 social network users (including 624 UK-based) who own geolocation-ready mobile devices on June 7 and June 8 2010.
- 39% (around 600 of the sample) of mobile device users use location-tracking applications on their mobile phone
73% of those use a "geo-tracking application" to do so
Of this 73%, more than a quarter used location-based services to share their whereabouts with "strangers" and 14% use them to meet new people
55% of respondents said they worry over loss of privacy incurred from using geolocation data
One in 11 respondents have used geolocation applications to meet a stranger, either digitally or in person. This is predominantly within the 18-29 age group
64% have accepted a friend request from a stranger
41% are "aware or extremely concerned" about letting "potential burglars know when they are not at home"
In the UK, 46% of women are "highly concerned" about "letting a stalker know where they are," compared to 27% of men
52% of UK respondents tag their whereabouts in a photograph online
In the past year, 30% of UK respondents have shared their geographical location with "people other than their friends"

Sometimes, a slightly updated version of an old car is no bad thing

Multipurpose vehicles are like buses in more ways than their spatial dimensions. You wait all year for one to come along, then two arrive back to back in the space of a week. Last week it was the Peugeot 5008, which I liked and which proved highly convenient with a party of five 10-year olds.

This week it's the Ford S-Max Titanium or, to give it its official title, the New S-Max Titanium. The original S-Max was a big critical and commercial success, and was voted European Car of the Year in 2007. But that was so three years ago.

For if necessity is the mother of invention, familiarity is the father of innovation. As good as the S-Max may have been, we'd all grown bored by it, faintly sick of the sight of that MPV-looking MPV. What was required was a fresh approach.

And lo, here is the New S-Max, with an imperceptibly altered bonnet shape and subtly changed grille, some chrome around the side windows, and other developments not necessarily visible to the human eye. So it's a whole new ball game, a completely different way of seeing, thinking, driving and, indeed, living. Or possibly a slightly updated version of exactly the same car.

As it's the S-Max, however, that's no bad thing, because it was a fine car to begin with. It's up there with Ford's other big-hitters. Just as the Focus is a great hatchback and the Mondeo an excellent saloon, so the S-Max was, and is, a very fine MPV.

Owing to the car's FoldFlatSystem, you can easily slip the second and third rows of seats into the floor, creating enough storage space to transport a beached whale or your other smaller, more economical car. Alternatively, you can keep the seats up and pack in a sports team, a book group or a collection of civil enforcement officers (sic), who seem to like congregating in minibus-style environments when they're not, for example, persecuting those who've forgotten to display their resident parking permits (so I'm told).

The other possibility, and the one I elected to take, along with most MPV owners, was to drive around on my own, trailing a vast theatre of emptiness. With its new Power Shift automatic gear system, it's a smooth, comfortable, safe, responsive drive, everything you would want out of a large family car/removal van. There's also a full-length panoramic roof and a decent trim level of fixtures and furnishings. And I've got a soft spot for the U-shaped handbrake.

But I must confess, after a fortnight of driving successive MPVs, I was eager to return to the lilliputian world of a four-seater or, even better, a two-seater. Something with less purpose and more justification.

Ford S-Max Titanium 2.0 Duratorq TDCi

Price 24,995
Top speed 126mph
Acceleration 0-60mph in 9.8 seconds
Average consumption 47.1mpg
CO2 emissions 159g/km
Eco rating 6/10
Bound for Underuse
In a word Airy

Statistics from Facebook tell us which countries it has made the greatest inroads into - and which it hasn't. Presented as a map for you
Get the data

You want to know which countries Facebook has made the greatest inroads into? Happy to help.

With data from Nick Burcher, plus some data about the world population (thanks, Wikipedia), plus a little bit of SQL, plus OpenHeatMap, we've got an interactive map you can play with to see where Facebook is all-conquering - specifically, which countries it has the largest (and sometimes smallest) number of the population signed up for, in hitting its 500 million user mark.

So here's the map. (Note: can be slow to load.)

And below is the data, as a handy table - country, Facebook users, population, and percentage penetration.

If you have more data about countries that aren't on this list then please add them in the comments.

Download the data

DATA: download the full spreadsheet, including ISO country codes

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