Iran 'uncovers espionage virus'

25 April 2011 Last updated at 11:23 ET

Officials in Iran say they have found a computer virus designed to target the country's government institutions.

The malicious software - dubbed Stars - was capable of inflicting minor damage, according to the head of Iran's civil defence organisation.

If the reports are accurate, it would be the second major attack in a year.

The recently discovered Stuxnet worm is thought to have been created to take control of equipment used in Iran's nuclear programme.

It would take some time to establish Stars' intended purpose, said Gholam Reza Jalali, military head of the Iranian Passive Defence Organisation.

"The Stars virus has been presented to the laboratory but is still being investigated," he said.

"No definite final conclusions have been reached."

Mr Jalali revealed that the virus could have been "mistaken for executive files of governmental organisations", but gave no indication about who might be behind the attack.

Stuxnet

Last week, the same official suggested that Stuxnet was the work of the United States and warned that it could have caused large-scale accidents and loss of life.

Stuxnet first came to light in July 2010. Analysis by security firm Symantec showed that, while it could be transmitted via the internet, it was designed to infect specific types of industrial controllers.

The machinery in question was used to control centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

Most experts who have looked at the case agree, given the scale and complexity of Stuxnet, that a foreign state was probably behind its development.

Iranian officials have previously pointed the finger at the US and Israel, although no firm evidence has been produced.

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Nintendo announces Wii 2 console

25 April 2011 Last updated at 07:10 ET

Nintendo has announced it will launch a new version of its Wii console in 2012.

No technical details about the machine have been revealed, but gamers will get an early preview at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June.

The original Wii proved a runaway hit for Nintendo when it launched five years ago.

However, sales have been gradually declining in the face of tough competition from PlayStation, XBox 360 and mobile gaming platforms.

Wii was the first console of the current generation to offer motion controlled gameplay.

In the past year, Microsoft has introduced its Kinect system for XBox, while Sony launched PlayStation Move.

Nintendo's chief executive, Satoru Iwata suggested that his company was preparing a fresh innovation.

"It will offer a new way of playing games within the home," he said.

Gameplay

Some observers had speculated that the Wii 2 would simply update the existing machine, adding a handful of features such as high definition graphics.

However Johnny Minkley, an editor at Eurogamer.net, believes that Nintendo could be planning a broader redesign.

"The talk was about Wii HD, but I do not see Nintendo doing that. It will do something more innovative," he told BBC News.

Mr Minkley noted that Nintendo marketed the original Wii around its motion-sensing handset, rather than technical specifications - something he expects to see repeated.

"PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 were part of the graphics arms race.

"Nintendo would never launch a console based on the strength of hardware. Theirs has to have a gameplay point to it," he said.

Sales slump

The Wii took an early lead in the battle of the consoles soon after it launched in late 2006.

A combination of its relatively low price and its appeal to non-traditional gamers - including women and older players - helped the company sell 20m units in the first year.

In the financial year 2009/10, Nintendo shipped 20.1m Wii consoles. However, that fell to 15.1m in 2010/11.

Market data suggested that Wii's share of new console sales had slipped to second place behind Sony's PS3

In the first three months of 2011, PS3 held a 36% share, compared with 32% for the Wii and 31% for XBox 360.

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Sony's 'father of CD' dies at 81

23 April 2011 Last updated at 14:56 ET

The former president and chairman of Sony, Norio Ohga, who was credited with developing the compact disc, has died aged 81, the company has said.

Ohga, who led the company from 1982 to 1995, died of multiple organ failure in the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

Sony's chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, said his predecessor's foresight and vision had transformed the company into a global entertainment leader.

Ohga was still a senior adviser to the company at the time of his death.

In 1953, Sony's co-founders recruited Ohga while he was still studying at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and hoping to pursue a career as an opera singer. They sensed his knowledge of sound and electrical engineering would benefit the firm.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

By redefining Sony as a company encompassing both hardware and software, Ohga-san succeeded where other Japanese companies failed"

End Quote Sir Howard Stringer Chairman, Sony

He was an executive by his 30s - a rarity in a Japanese company - becoming the president of CBS Sony Records (now Sony Music Entertainment) in 1970s.

From the start, he recognised the potential of the compact disc, and personally drove Sony's initiatives to introduce the format.

During the development of the CD, it was Ohga who pushed for a disc that was 12cm (4.8in) in diameter, because it provided sufficient capacity at 75 minutes to store all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Sony sold the world's first CD in 1982 and CDs overtook LP record sales in Japan five years later. Ohga's specifications are still used today, and have shaped formats developed since, including MiniDisc and DVD.

In 1989, he oversaw the $3.4bn purchase of Hollywood studios Colombia Pictures, which was criticised as unwise and costly at the time.

Ohga also presided over the launch of Sony's game business, which went on to develop the successful "PlayStation" console.

"By redefining Sony as a company encompassing both hardware and software, Ohga-san succeeded where other Japanese companies failed," said Sony Chairman Howard Stringer, using the Japanese honorific.

"It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony's evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san's foresight and vision," he added.

Ohga stepped down as Sony's president in 1995 and continued to serve as chairman and representative director until 2000.

He was also the chairman of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Outage hits Playstation Network

22 April 2011 Last updated at 09:27 ET

Millions of gamers are unable to play online as the Playstation Network continues to suffer a major outage.

In a blog post, makers Sony thanked users for their patience but warned the downtime - which has so far lasted more than 20 hours - could continue for "a day or two".

Users are seeing error messages stating the network is "undergoing maintenance" or is "suspended".

In recent weeks, Playstation has been targeted by hackers group Anonymous.

The network has more than 70 million users worldwide, but Sony were unable clarify how many players had been affected.

However, Twitter messages and blog posts have been posted from all over the world.

This outage is the latest in a series of problems for the network which has suffered extended periods of downtime over the past few weeks.

In response, angry gamers have flooded blogs, forums and Twitter with complaints.

"A full day and you guys still have no clue what is causing this," wrote user Slickshoes in response to the company's blog post.

Another user, Max Smith, contacted the BBC to share his frustration over the delay in news surrounding the problem.

"To be honest I think that Sony need to give more updates towards the gamers via their Twitter account. There has been no update in the past 18 hours which is really making the community go crazy."

Anonymous, the group which gained notoriety over Wikileaks-related attacks, strongly criticised the Japan-based entertainment giant over its treatment of George Hotz, an American hacker who unlocked the games console's closed operating system.

Sony filed a lawsuit against the 21-year-old, arguing that his hack had allowed pirated games to be played on the machine.

The case was dropped earlier this month after Mr Hotz agreed to sign an injunction banning him from similar behaviour in future.

A spokesperson for Sony was unavailable for comment.

Are you affected? Send us your comments and experiences.

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Google fined $5m over patent row

22 April 2011 Last updated at 06:37 ET By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

A judgement by a Texas jury against Google could have major implications for the search giant and the open source world said experts.

The internet titan was found guilty of infringing a patent related to the Linux kernel and fined $5m (�3.2m).

The software is used by Google for its server platforms and could also extend to its Android mobile platform.

The kernel is at the core of the open-source operating system meaning this verdict could be far-reaching.

The case resulted in a victory for a firm called Bedrock Computer Technologies which has also sued Yahoo, MySpace, Amazon, PayPal, Match.com and AOL.

"The amount of the fine is not what makes this an important issue," intellectual property activist Florian Mueller told BBC News.

"This is a modest amount considering Google is probably the largest scale Linux user in the world.

"The implication here is really that there is a huge number of Linux users who will be required to pay royalties if this patent holder knocks on their doors in the US. This is definitely a major impediment to the growth of Linux and makes companies, including Google, that rely on open source code particularly vulnerable to patent threats."

That is also the view of other industry watchers who expect a flood of lawsuits against companies who rely on open source code.

"Those looking to cash in on buried patents need only spend time pouring over code and looking for infringements," said Christopher Dawson of technology blog ZDNet.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Apple is going for the jugular by going after several Android device makers"

End Quote Florian Mueller Intellectual property activist

"It costs a lot less than $5m to hire a team of programmers in India to do code review. This, I'm afraid, is just the beginning and stands to do a fair amount of harm to industry momentum and to the private companies that provide vast incentive for the advancement of open source software."

But Google has said it will continue to defend against such attacks like this one on the open source community.

"The recent explosion in patent litigation is turning the world's information highway into a toll road, forcing companies to spend millions and millions of dollars defending old, questionable patent claims and wasting resources that would be much better spent investing in new technologies for users and creating jobs," said Google.

"Going for the jugular"

The Bedrock case underscores the increasingly bitter battle going on in the mobile space which is expected to grow globally by 58% in the next year.

The research firm Gartner also forecast that Android will account for about 39% of that growth.

Mr Mueller said competitors worried about Android are using any means necessary to thwart their rival.

He has estimated that in the last 14 months there have been 41 patent infringement suits levied at Google's Android platform and its rapidly growing developer ecosystem.

Just this week Apple said it was suing Samsung Electronics for allegedly copying the design of its iPad and iPhone.

Samsung's Galaxy products use Google's Android operating system. Samsung has in turn countersued Apple for violating its patent rights.

Last month Microsoft lodged a suit focusing on the Nook e-reader and Nook Colour tablet which run the Android OS.

Meanwhile a high profile patent trial between tech giants Oracle and Google is expected be held before November said a judge.

Oracle claimed Google's Android technology infringes on its Java patents.

Oracle bought the Java programming language through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems last year.

"Android is clearly being targeted by some of the largest tech companies as its market share grows and it becomes more of a threat to others," said Mr Mueller.

"Apple is going for the jugular by going after several Android device makers. In a way it has to do this to survive. No matter how good its financials are now, in a year or two they could see their iPhone business erode because of the Android threat.

"A Microsoft suit is just about seeking royalty bearing licence deals. And with Oracle that is about making Google pay and about who calls the shots when it comes to the Java programming language," added Mr Mueller.

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Samsung returns Apple legal fire

22 April 2011 Last updated at 01:30 ET

Samsung Electronics is suing Apple, claiming its rival violated its patent rights, days after Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly" copying designs of its iPad and iPhone.

The patent lawsuits, filed in South Korea, Japan and Germany, involve infringement of up to five patents, Samsung said in a statement.

Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung last Friday for violating its patents.

It is the latest patent dispute in an increasingly competitive industry.

Rivalry intesifies

"Samsung is responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property," the statement said.

South Korea's Samsung is one of the fastest-growing smartphone makers in the telecommunications industry.

Its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers, which use Google's Android operating system, have emerged as the top competitors so far to Apple's iPhone and iPad.

However, Samsung is also one of Apple's main suppliers of components such as chips and LCD displays.

The legal battle could therefore hurt the earnings of both companies as strong sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad mean added revenue for Samsung.

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Amazon fault takes down websites

21 April 2011 Last updated at 09:56 ET

Scores of well-known websites have been unavailable for large parts of Thursday because of problems with Amazon's web hosting service.

Foursquare, Reddit and Quora were among the sites taken offline by the glitch.

Amazon EC2 is the retailer's cloud computing business. It provides processing power and storage to companies that do not have their own data centres.

No reason has so far been given for the outage.

Visitors to the website of location-based social network Foursquare were greeted by an apology.

"Our usually amazing datacentre hosts, Amazon EC2, are having a few hiccups this morning, which affected us and a bunch of other services that use them.

"Everything looks to be getting back to normal now," read the statement.

Amazon's cloud service last hit the headlines when it decided to stop hosting a mirrored version of the Wikileaks website.

Like a number of American-owned web hosts, it had come under pressure from the US government over the leaking of confidential State Department files.

Several of the web services that took action against Wikileaks suffered reprisal attacks by hackers.

However, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that the most recent outage was related to the Wikileaks controversy.

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Kindle gets library book lending

21 April 2011 Last updated at 07:42 ET

Users of Amazon's Kindle e-reader will soon be able to borrow electronic books from libraries in the US.

The retailer is teaming up with Overdrive, which already offers an e-book lending service through 11,000 American libraries.

Until now Kindle owners have been unable to download titles because the device uses a unique file format.

Overdrive also operates in the UK, however Amazon would not confirm if its plans include Britain.

It said the US system would launch later in the year.

Borrowed books will be available on Amazon's own Kindle reader as well as other devices running the Kindle software, including iPads and Android tablets.

Anyone wanting to borrow a publication must be a member of their local library.

Titles are downloaded through the library's website and are automatically removed after a set number of days, with a maximum loan time of three weeks.

Publishing system

Overdrive has been in business for several years and offers hundreds of thousands of books to readers whose devices use the e-pub file format.

However, Amazon has its own, proprietary version of e-pub which includes a digital rights management system to try to prevent copying.

The fact that Overdrive is finally adopting that technology has been broadly welcomed by industry watchers, but has left some distinctly underwhelmed.

"This is a me too move," said Martin Hoscik, who runs the website eBook Magazine.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is a me too move... there is no innovation here."

End Quote Martin Hoscik eBook Magazine

"There is no innovation here. It is like congratulating Channel 5 for broadcasting their pictures in colour when everyone else has been doing it for years."

Nevertheless, the dominant position of Kindle in the e-book market is likely to raise the profile of library lending.

"I am in favour of anything that gives readers an opportunity to read more books via a library system," said Phil Bradley, vice president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

UK libraries

Currently in the UK, 33 out of the country's 151 library authorities make use of the Overdrive system.

If that was to be extended to Kindles, questions would need to be answered about its implementation, said Mr Bradley.

In particular, he called for more details about Amazon's plan to let users add notes to e-books. "How will those remain confidential?" he asked.

Amazon has indicated that it will respect the terms of lending use laid out by publishers.

In the case of Harper Collins, the company has stipulated that its books, once purchased by a library, can only be made available for 26 loans, before being erased permanently.

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Nokia market share falls further

21 April 2011 Last updated at 06:57 ET

Mobile phone maker Nokia has posted better-than-expected profits for the first three months of 2011, down 1% to 344m euros (�304m).

But its market share fell 4% to 29% as cheaper rivals and the popularity of competitors' smartphones ate into Nokia's dominance.

Nokia also said that it had struck a long-awaited deal to develop smartphone technology with Microsoft.

Investors welcomed the news, sending Nokia shares up almost 3%.

Stephen Elop, chief executive, said: "In the first quarter, we shifted from defining our strategy to executing our strategy. On this front, I am pleased to report that we signed our definitive agreement with Microsoft and already our product design and engineering work is well underway."

The Finnish comany's slow response to the smartphone threat from Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry handsets has been one of investors' key concerns.

On Wednesday Apple unveiled a 95% rise in first-quarter profits, and said it sold a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter.

Under the Microsoft deal Nokia will start using the US company's software on its smartphones instead of its own Symbian platform.

Nokia said the deal will enable it to cut annual costs by around 1bn euros.

Nokia's group sales rose by 9% to 10.40bn euros, while smartphone sales were up 6% at 7bn euros.

The company's key phone unit reported an operating profit margin of 9.8% for the January-March period, well ahead of analysts forecast of 8.6%.

However, Nokia said that for the full year, margins would fall to within a 6%-9% range.

"Finalisation of the agreement with Microsoft means Nokia can now focus on execution, but margin guidance underlines that difficult times lie ahead as it transitions the portfolio," said analyst Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight.

Despite the drop in Nokia's market share - the first time in a decade it has fallen below 30% - Sami Sarkamies, analyst at Nordea, said: "The first quarter was very strong, much better than expected.

"It seems the situation is under control, there were no dramatic changes," he added.

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Apple iPhone sales double in 2011

20 April 2011 Last updated at 17:23 ET

Latest profits for the computer giant Apple beat hopes, including a higher-than-expected rise in iPhone sales.

Net income for the three months to March jumped 85% on the same period a year ago, with iPhone sales of 18.65m - a rise of 113%.

The figures are the latest in a string of good results from the US's technology companies.

Intel's figures, released on Wednesday, were also well above hopes and helped share prices to a three-year high.

Apple reported quarterly net profits of $5.99bn (�3.6bn), 95% up on the $3bn it made a year ago. Revenue was $24.67bn, a rise of 83%.

Sales of the company's computers were strongly higher, up by 28% from a year ago driven by its tweaked MacBook Pro.

Apple's figures were not uniformly positive. It sold 4.69m iPad tablet computers in the quarter, below expectations.

Another disappointment was sales of its one-time star, the iPod, down by 17% on the year at 9m units.

Most analysts were enthusiastic about the figures.

Channing Smith, portfolio manager at Capital Advisors growth fund, said: "Dynamite numbers across the board. The only hiccup is lower than expected iPad numbers."

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in a statement: "With quarterly revenue growth of 83% and profit growth of 95% we're firing on all cylinders."

Mr Jobs, who went on medical leave in January with an undisclosed illness, continued: "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year."

The day-to-day running of Apple is currently being done by chief operating officer Tim Cook.

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