Modern Warfare 3 videogame launch

7 November 2011 Last updated at 20:24 ET

The latest addition to one of the world's best selling videogame series went on sale in the UK at midnight.

More than 500 stores held special openings to let gamers buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops, generated more than $1bn (�620m) of global sales over the first six weeks of its launch.

However, troubles at the studio behind the new title have threatened to overshadow its release.

The latest game follows on from events in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Players take on the role of special forces resisting a Russian invasion of the United States and Europe.

The campaign is set across locations in England, France and Germany as well as Africa, India and the Middle East.

Sacked

Modern Warfare 3 is the first title in two years to be developed by Infinity Ward, the creator of the Call of Duty series.

Critics are keen to discover if staffing changes at the California-based studio affected the product.

Activision fired Infinity Ward's founders, Jason West and Vincent Zampella, in 2010 accusing them of misconduct. The firm later described them as "insubordinate and self-serving schemers" who had negotiated with rivals while under contract.

The two men sued their ex-employer seeking unpaid royalty payments and damages. Activision countersued, alleging that the men had held secret talks with Electronic Arts.

A court in Los Angeles is set to consider the case in May 2012.

Mr West and Mr Zampella went on to set up a new studio, Respawn Entertainment, which signed a publishing and distribution rights deal with EA.

Several of Infinity Ward's other employees also moved to the new studio. Respawn's website reveals that 40 members of its staff previously worked on the Modern Warfare series.

Activision brought in one of its other teams - Sledgehammer Games - to help the remaining Infinity Ward workers complete Modern Warfare 3.

Several members of Sledgehammer's team had helped develop the highly regarded Dead Space series, helping restore gamers confidence in the project.

Demand

There is now huge interest in what they have been able to deliver.

A trailer of the new game, posted on YouTube on 21 October, has already attracted more than four million hits.

IHS Screen Digest predicts the title will sell more than 20 million copies worldwide before the end of the year, despite competition from EA's rival title, Battlefield 3, which was released over the last fortnight.

"It's not just about day one sales for these types of games - there's a heavy online-multiplayer aspect," said Steve Bailey, an analyst at Screen Digest.

"Gamers pay for enhanced subscription services such as Call of Duty: Elite's extra social/profile features, or direct-purchase other content such as map packs.

"The true test will be taking place over the next six months to a year, where we see who can support the gaming community best, retaining and engaging an audience in an ongoing fashion."

Not everyone has been willing to wait. French media reported that thousands of copies were stolen in a Paris heist, and pirated versions of the game have been spotted online.

Other titles fighting for a place at the top of the Christmas games charts include Skyrim, the fifth entry in the Elder Scrolls role-playing series, and the action adventure Batman: Arkham City.

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Google+ launches Pages service

7 November 2011 Last updated at 13:00 ET

Google has started allowing businesses and brands to set up their own pages on its new social network.

The US firm says the Google+ Pages facility will help companies and campaigns engage with their audience.

Organisations will not be charged to use the scheme and Google says it will not put adverts on their pages.

It is a further challenge to rival network Facebook, which offers its own Pages service allowing businesses to promote themselves.

Burberry, Barcelona football club and the Muppets are some of the organisations taking part in the launch.

Google says the service offers more than a shop window.

It says organisations can benefit from adding a "+" link to one of the adverts listed on the firm's results or to another marketing campaign. The page owners can then monitor how many people are clicking through to their Google+ page and where they clicked from.

However, Google says it will not pass on individual IP addresses or any other personal data.

Organisations will be able to use the site's Circles facility to match different information to different groups. They can also set up video chats with up to nine other users using the network's Hangouts service.

"Companies like being on social networks, it allows them to have a two-way conversation with their customers and get to know more about who they are," said Professor Jeremy Baker from the ESCP Europe Business School.

"It's a very persuasive and intimate atmosphere as the sites are seen as trusted places to be."

Google says more than 40 million people have already opened an account with its network

"Facebook still has more than 10 times the number of users," said Ian Maude, head of internet at Enders Analysis.

"Google+ is growing very quickly. However, there is an awful long way for it to go before it becomes a major threat to Mark Zuckerberg's business."

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Carphone to shut Best Buy shops

7 November 2011 Last updated at 04:46 ET

Carphone Warehouse is to close all of its 11 Best Buy stores across the UK, the company has announced.

The move puts 1,100 jobs at risk at the outlets, which sell electronic goods, but the firm said it hoped to find the "large majority" alternative work.

The 11 Best Buy stores are part of Best Buy Europe, a joint venture between US group Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse.

The first Best Buy store in the UK only opened in April of last year. The outlets have failed to make a profit.

'Economic times'

Best Buy's 11 UK outlets are in Liverpool, Derby, Bristol, Nottingham, Rotherham, Dudley, Thurrock, Southampton, and three places in London - Croydon, Hayes and Enfield.

Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy initially planned to open 200 Best Buy stores across the UK and continental Europe.

Best Buy Europe was formed in 2008 when Best Buy paid �1.1bn to buy a 50% stake in Carphone Warehouse's retail division.

Carphone Warehouse said the focus would now be on selling more electronics goods from Best Buy Europe's 805 Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK, and 1,648 Phone House shops in continental Europe.

Best Buy Europe said in a statement: "Since 2008, the consumer electronics marketplace has changed substantially as a result of the economic times, the progress of online retailing and the growth of new products such as smartphones, tablets and apps."

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Malware warning for smartphones

6 November 2011 Last updated at 21:29 ET

A national computer security campaign is urging smartphone users to do more to protect themselves from unwittingly downloading malware applications.

Get Safe Online says that there has been an increase in smartphone malware as the market has grown.

Criminals are typically creating Trojan copies of reputable apps and tricking users into installing them.

Once on the phone, the app can secretly generate cash for criminals through premium rate text messages.

Get Safe Online, a joint initiative between the government, police and industry, said it was concerned that users of smartphones, such as Android devices, were not taking steps to protect their devices.

Get Safe Online said fraudsters are designing apps which generate cash secretly in the background without the owner realising until their monthly bill.

A typical scam involves an app designed to send texts to premium rate services without the user knowing.

Apps can appear to be bona fide software or sometimes masquerade as stripped down free versions of well-known games.

Rik Ferguson, a hacking researcher with internet security firm Trend Micro, said: "This type of malware is capable of sending a steady stream of text messages to premium rate numbers - in some instances we've seen one being sent every minute.

"With costs of up to �6 per message, this can be extremely lucrative. The user won't know this is taking place, even if they happen to be using the device at the same time, as the activity takes place within the device's back-end infrastructure."

Online banking

Another major security firm, Symantec, recently warned in its annual threat assessment that Android phones were at risk and that it had found at least six varieties of malicious software.

Minister for Cyber Security Francis Maude said: "More and more people are using their smartphone to transmit personal and financial information over the internet, whether it's for online banking, shopping or social networking.

"Research from Get Safe Online shows that 17% of smartphone users now use their phone for money matters and this doesn't escape the notice of criminals."

Tony Neate, head of Get Safe Online, urged people to check their phone's security.

"Mobile phones are very personal. I have talked to people who are never more than a yard away from their mobile phone. Because of that attachment, they start to think that they are in a way invincible.

"It's the end user that picks up the tab - it's your phone that incurs the costs. Whether you have pay-as-you-go or a monthly account, that money is going to come from the account and go to the criminal."

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Adidas sites suffer cyber-attack

6 November 2011 Last updated at 14:17 ET

Adidas has taken its website content offline after suffering what it described as a "sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack".

The German sportswear maker said it had no evidence that its consumers' data had been impacted, but that it was taking down the affected sites to protect visitors.

The news follows a series of attacks against Sony earlier in the year.

Millions of users details were compromised.

A statement on Adidas's group website said that the firm discovered the incident on 3 November.

It said it had since put in place additional data security measures.

"Nothing is more important to us than the privacy and security of our consumers' personal data," the message added.

"We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time".

The news comes less than a week after internet security experts reported that 29 chemicals firms had been targeted by a series of cyber-attacks.

Data was also stolen from Sony's PlayStation Network in April, compromising around 77 million gamer's personal details.

The firm's Sony Pictures website and Sony Music pages were targeted by subsequent attacks, prompting several apologies.

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Laser op 'can change eye colour'

5 November 2011 Last updated at 08:35 ET

A US doctor is trying to pioneer a laser treatment that changes patients' eye colour.

Dr Gregg Homer claims 20 seconds of laser light can remove pigment in brown eyes so they gradually turn blue.

He is now seeking up to $750,000 (�468,000) of investment to continue clinical trials.

However, other eye experts urge caution because destroying eye pigment can cause sight problems if too much light is allowed to enter the pupil.

Stroma Medical, the company set up to commercialise the process, estimates it will take at least 18 months to finish the safety tests.

'Irreversible'

The process involves a computerised scanning system that takes a picture of the iris and works out which areas to treat.

The laser is then fired, using a proprietary pattern, hitting one spot of the iris at a time.

When it has hit every spot it then starts again, repeating the process several times.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The pigment is there for a reason. If it is lost you can get problems such as glare or double vision"

End Quote Larry Benjamin Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK

However the treatment only takes 20 seconds.

"The laser agitates the pigment on the surface of the iris," Dr Homer - the firm's chairman and chief scientific officer - told the BBC.

"We use two frequencies that are absorbed by dark pigment, and it is fully absorbed so there is no danger of damage to the rest of the eye.

"It heats it up and changes the structure of the pigment cells. The body recognises they are damaged tissue and sends out a protein. This recruits another feature that is like little pac-men that digest the tissue at a molecular level."

After the first week of treatment, the eye colour turns darker as the tissue changes its characteristics.

Then the digestion process starts, and after a further one to three weeks the blueness appears.

Since the pigment - called melanin - does not regenerate the treatment is irreversible.

Lasers are already used to remove the substance in skin to help treat brown spots and freckles.

Safety concerns

Other eye experts have expressed reservations.

"The pigment is there for a reason. If the pigment is lost you can get problems such as glare or double vision," said Larry Benjamin, a consultant eye surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in the UK.

"Having no eye pigment would be like having a camera aperture with a transparent blade. You wouldn't be able to control the light getting in."

Dr Homer said that he only removes the pigment from the eye's surface.

"This is only around one third to one half as thick as the pigment at the back of the iris and has no medical significance," he said.

He also claimed patients would be less sensitive to light than those born with blue eyes. He reasoned that brown-eyed people have more pigment in the other areas of their eyeballs, and most of it will be left untouched.

"We run tests for 15 different safety examination procedures. We run the tests before and after the treatment, and the following day, and the following weeks, and the following months and the following three months.

"Thus far we have no evidence of any injury."

Testing in Mexico

Dr Homer originally worked as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, but gave up full-time practice in the mid-1990s to study biology at Stanford University in California.

He said he filed his first patent for the laser treatment in 2001. But it was not until 2004 that he began carrying out experiments on animals at a hospital facility.

To fund his research he used his own savings, attracted investments from venture capital funds and secured a government grant. Dr Homer said he has raised $2.5m to date.

Tests on humans initially involved cadavers, and then moved on to live patients in Mexico in August 2010.

"From a regulatory perspective it is easier," Dr Homer said, "and I can speak Spanish fluently so I can closely monitor how everyone is doing."

Seventeen people have been treated so far. All are very short-sighted. They have been offered lens transplants in return for taking part.

Dr Homer said the work is checked by a board of ophthalmology experts to ensure it is up to standard.

The new funds will be used to complete safety trials with a further three people.

Stroma Medical then intends to raise a further $15m to manufacture hundreds of lasers and launch overseas - ideally within 18 months.

A US launch is planned in three years' time, because it takes longer to get regulatory approval there.

Stroma Medical believes the treatment will be popular; its survey of 2,500 people suggested 17% of Americans would want it if they knew it was completely safe. A further 35% would seriously consider it.

There is also evidence of a growing desire to alter eye colour overseas - a recent study in Singapore reported growing demand for cosmetic contact lenses.

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Calls for BT to block Pirate Bay

4 November 2011 Last updated at 13:15 ET

UK arts lobby groups have demanded BT block access to the BitTorrent file sharing website, The Pirate Bay.

Music industry trade body, the BPI, said it would take legal action if the telecoms firm refused to co-operate.

The movie industry has already forced BT to block Newzbin 2, a members-only which aggregates illegally copied material.

BT said: "We can confirm we are now in receipt of a letter from the BPI. BT is considering its response."

The telecoms operator added that a court order would be needed before any blocking could begin.

A source told the BBC the firm was unlikely to fight a lengthy legal battle as it had in the Newzbin case.

"We would not tolerate Counterfeits 'R' Us on the High Street - if we want economic growth, we cannot accept illegal rip-off sites on the internet either," said the BPI's chief executive, Geoff Taylor.

Richard Mollet, chief executive of The Publishers Association added: "It is crucial that the creative sector keeps up the momentum of getting internet companies to do their bit in tackling illegal sites."

The Motion Picture Association, independents trade body PACT and the Creative Coalition Campaign also voiced their support.

Illegal

The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 by a group of friends from Sweden and rapidly became one of the most famous file-sharing sites on the web.

Although it hosts no files itself, it does allow users to search for and get at copyrighted content including movies, games and TV shows.

In April 2009, the Swedish courts found the four founders of the site guilty of helping people circumvent copyright controls.

They ruling was upheld after an appeal in 2010, but the site continues to function.

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Groupon share sale raises $700m

4 November 2011 Last updated at 06:01 ET

The sale of shares in Groupon has raised $700m (�437m) after the public offering was priced higher than had been expected.

Shares in the company were originally priced in a range of $16 to $18 a share, but were eventually sold at $20.

It values the business at almost $13bn.

Groupon offers coupons to its subscribers, which give them discount deals that are available that day only on anything from restaurant meals to spa treatments.

Groupon increased the number of shares it was selling to 35 million shares from 30 million shares, but that was still only about 5% of the company.

The shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange later on Friday.

Groupon's $12.7bn valuation makes it the second biggest internet company to make a market debut, behind Google, which was valued at $23.1bn in 2004.

But some analysts have suggested that the high valuation has only been achieved because such a small proportion of the company has been sold.

"Groupon is expensive. The valuation is only achievable because of the low float," said Rob Romero, head of technology-focused hedge fund firm Connective Capital Management.

There have also been concerns that Groupon is vulnerable to competition from, for example, the soon-to-launch Google Offers.

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Russia and China 'top cyberspies'

3 November 2011 Last updated at 17:54 ET

China and Russia are the most active perpetrators of economic cyber-espionage against US companies, a US intelligence report says.

The report specifically cited Chinese "actors" and Russian intelligence as the top culprits.

Robert Bryant, US national counter-intelligence executive, told reporters that online spying was "a quiet menace to our economy".

Both China and Russia's embassies have denied the allegations.

The report, titled Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace, says both private firms and cybersecurity experts have reported an "onslaught" of computer network intrusions that they say originated from China.

However, they have not been able to track the ultimate culprit of the intrusions.

Google said in 2010 that it had lost data to Chinese hackers.

'Unwarranted allegations'

According to the report, attacks from Russia are a "distant second" to those from China, but were "extensive" and "sophisticated".

The proliferation of methods used to hack into the computer systems of both research organisations and private companies also means that it is harder to identify and track who is stealing information.

The FBI alerted more than 100 US companies in the past year that their online security had been compromised.

The report is notable for its unusual candour on naming countries suspected of "collecting" material online, including trade secrets, intellectual property and technology.

Officials said while several countries were suspected of cyber-spying, the report singled out Russia and China because of the severity of the threat.

According to the report, US counterintelligence is also worried about "small-scale" actors becoming involved in espionage, effectively providing cover and expertise for foreign intelligence services.

Both Russian and Chinese officials in the US denied the report.

"We are opposed to willfully making unwarranted allegations against China as firmly as our opposition to any forms of unlawful cyberspace activities," embassy spokesman Wang Baodong told the Washington Post.

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Google acts on 'paedophile' claim

3 November 2011 Last updated at 13:04 ET By Claire Marshall BBC News Midlands correspondent

A business owner accused in a Google review of being a paedophile and a thief has said he is delighted that the search giant has removed the entry.

The message was placed on Google's Places review service 18 months ago.

Toni Bennett said he had planned legal action to force Google to delete the false posting after the firm said it did not qualify for removal.

The move comes amid calls on the internet giant to address the rapidly growing problem of fake online reviews.

Online reputation consultants say Google should review its policies and take part in an "honest web summit".

Accusation

A comment by "Paul" was posted on Google's site about Mr Bennett's business - That Computer Chap - on 26 April 2010.

A few days later, Mr Bennett saw it while checking his listings.

"I had to re-read it a few times, to check it was talking about me," he told the BBC.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked."

The review said: "Robbed My RAM and Touched 9 Year Old What a scam artist, he stole RAM from my computer and replaced it with smaller chips hoping I wouldnt notice and also I later found out touched my 9 year old inappropriately. A Violator and a rogue trader. DO NOT DO TRADE WITH THIS MAN!"

Mr Bennett contacted Google on numerous occasions through email.

The IT consultant said that he called a directory assistance service for a contact number, but when he called it no-one answered.

He went to the police, but he said that while they acknowledged the allegations against him were false, they were powerless to intervene.

"It's mad, it's just mad that someone can do this and it's so anonymous that someone can put on something about a crime against a child - you can't get any worse than that, bar killing somebody. And they can get away with it."

Legal action

Mr Bennett estimated that he has lost 80% of his local business. As a result, he said he had intended to sue Google for defamation.

Google told the BBC that it did not comment on individual cases.

"We have rules against things like hate speech or impersonation, but we're not in a position to arbitrate disputes," a company statement said.

"However, we've built a free system that allows business owners to claim their listing, which means that they can then respond to reviews and share their side of the story."

However, the company later removed the posting. It told the BBC that from time to time it re-reviews comments flagged as inappropriate.

Reputation

Chris Emmins set up Kwikchex eight months ago.

The firm offers businesses and consumers help tackling inaccurate feedback posted online and other reputation issues. It is part of a growing industry.

So far Kwikcheck said it had dealt with 3,000 cases of online defamation. Mr Emmins added that it was possible to sabotage a business within five minutes, and that the problem was widespread.

"I think of all the review resources we're looking at at the moment, we are particularly critical of Google," he said.

"You can't really trust anything. There is no verification process whatsoever... There is no easy way of having falsehoods removed."

It is difficult to know how many review sites there are on the web.

From Tripadvisor and badtattoos.com to yetanotherreviewsite.co.uk, tens of thousands spring up every year.

Mr Emmins wants the internet firms to take more responsibility for their content.

He called for Google, Tripadvisor and other review sites to get together for an "honest web summit."

A change in the law could be needed. The relevant statutes were drafted back in the 1990s, when review sites didn't even exist.

"Freedom of speech is a fantastically valuable thing," Mr Emmins said, "but at the moment it's being corrupted entirely... through lack of diligence and possibly lack of ethics."

"The resolutions aren't that difficult."

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