Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 10 browser

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Microsoft Corp released Internet Explorer 10 to millions of new users on Tuesday, hoping the latest version of its market-leading browser will win back customers who have migrated to Google Inc's Chrome and help it establish a toe-hold in the fast-growing mobile browser market.

The world's largest software maker, whose Internet Explorer browser elbowed out Netscape Navigator in the early days of the web, said IE 10 is 20 percent faster at downloading sites than its predecessor IE 9 and allows for touch-screen commands.

The browser has been available since late October for users of Windows 8, Microsoft's new touch-friendly operating system, but now becomes available for the 700 million or so users of Windows 7.

Microsoft is hoping PC and laptop users will like the new browser enough to consider buying Windows 8 tablets rather than Apple Inc'siPad, which does not run Internet Explorer.

Various versions of Microsoft's venerable Internet Explorer franchise still dominate desktop browsing, with 55 percent of the PCbrowser market all together. But it has in recent years lost share to Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome, which now account for 20 percent and 17 percent respectively, according to tech research firm NetMarketShare.

IE 10 running on Windows 8 has got generally good reviews, and has been hailed as the best version of Internet Explorer yet, but it has not been considered decisively superior to Chrome or Firefox.

In the smaller but faster-growing mobile browser market, Apple's Safari is the runaway leader with 61 percent, owing to the popularity of its iPhones and iPads while Google's Android browser has 21 percent.

Tablets running Windows 8, including Microsoft's own Surface devices, have not sold strongly since they were launched last October, restricting IE 10's popularity so far. Only 2.3 percent of computer users are running Windows 8, according to NetMarketShare.

Egyptian regulator appeals against court's YouTube ban

 Egyptian authorities appealed on Thursday against a court order banning the video file-sharing site YouTube for a month over an amateur video that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad, saying the ruling was unenforceable. 

"The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has presented an appeal to halt implementation of the verdict," said a statement from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Egypt's administrative court ordered the ministries of communication and investment to block YouTube, owned by Google, inside the country because it had carried the film "Innocence of Muslims", said the state news agency MENA.

The low-budget 13-minute video, billed as a film trailer and made in California with private funding, provoked a wave of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of other Muslim countries in September.

The video depicts the Prophet as a fool and a sexual deviant. For most Muslims, any portrayal of the Prophet is considered blasphemous.

A statement issued after talks between ministry officials and the telecoms regulator said it was technically impossible to shut down YouTube in Egypt without affecting Google's Internet search engine, incurring potentially huge costs and job losses.

"The government cannot carry out the contents of the verdict within Egypt's borders," the statement said. The only step the authorities could take was to block the offending film within Egypt, which had already been done.

Only the United States had the capability to shut down YouTube, it said.
"Blocking YouTube would affect the search engine of Google, of which Egypt is the second biggest user in the Middle East," the statement said. This would cause losses to the economy of up to hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds (tens of millions of dollars) and affect thousands of jobs, it added.

In a statement, Google said it had created a simple mechanism for legal authorities to request the blocking of content viewed as illegal.

No 'Plan B' for Microsoft's mobile ambitions

 Microsoft Corp has not made much of a dent in Apple Inc's and Google Inc's domination of mobile computing, but a top executive hinted on Wednesday that it will not stop trying and does not have an alternative strategy.

"We're very focused on continuing the success we have with PCs and taking that to tablets and phones," Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, which was webcast.

Given Microsoft's lack of success so far, he was asked if there was an alternative strategy or 'Plan B' in reserve.

"It's less 'Plan B' than how you execute on the current plan," said Klein. "We aim to evolve this generation of Windows to make sure we have the right set of experiences at the right price points for all customers."
Microsoft now has two versions of its own brand Surface tablet for sale and released its newest Windows phone software last year. But the company has not made big inroads into either market.

Gartner estimates that Microsoft sold fewer than 900,000 Surface tablets in the fourth quarter, which is a fraction of the 23 million iPads sold by Apple. Microsoft has not released its own figures but has not disputed Gartner's.

Windows phones now account for 3 percent of the global smartphone market, Gartner says, which is almost double their share a year ago but way behind Google's Android with 70 percent and Apple with 21 percent.
To grab more share, Klein said Microsoft was working with hardware makers to make sure Windows software is available on devices ranging from phones to tablets to larger all-in-one PCs.

"It's probably more nuanced than just you lower prices or raise prices," said Klein. "It's less a Plan B and more, how do you tweak your plan, how do you bring these things to market to make sure you have the right offerings at the right price points?"

Klein did not say whether Microsoft itself was planning to move into the growing small tablet market, following the success of Apple's iPad mini, Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire tablet.
Along with its partners, Klein said only that Microsoft was "well set-up to deliver the most versatile set of experiences across form factors".

Regarding Microsoft's $2 billion loan to Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake to take PC maker Dell Inc private, announced last week, Klein suggested it was simply part of its efforts to support the "ecosystem" of PC makers.

Intel working on TV set-top box for internet movies

 Intel has announced it will sell a set-top box that brings internet-delivered movies and shows to a TV set this year.

Erik Huggers, general manager of Intel Media, said the company plans to sell a box that will offer "a vastly superior experience" to today's cable boxes.

There are various boxes today that bring internet content to TV sets, with popular ones made by Roku and Apple. But Intel wants to go further and make its box and streaming service a replacement for cable.

Rumours of an Intel set-top box and video service emerged last year. Mr Huggers did not say what the box and service would cost, or when this year such a device would come out. He said Intel's goal is to provide quality rather than undercutting cable pricing.

The video service would also be available on non-TV devices such as the iPad, Mr Huggers said. Cable companies have been making some content available on smartphone and tablet computers as part of their TV Everywhere initiative, but the selection of programmes and channels is limited.

Intel is the world's largest chipmaker, but has little direct contact with consumers.

Its chief business, making processors for PCs, is stagnating as PC sales are declining and consumers are moving to tablets and smartphones, most of which do not run Intel chips.

Mr Huggers said the company was motivated to get into the consumer business after realising that it needed to control every aspect of the service, from chips to software, to get it right.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs told his biographer before his death in 2011 that he wanted to revolutionise the TV, but Apple so far has not revealed anything about those plans.

A big obstacle is believed to be that movie studios and TV networks like the current cable model, under which TV customers cannot choose to pay channel by channel, but have their choices limited to certain packages. It's a profitable model for them, and they have been reluctant to open up to more flexible programming models.

Luxury mobile phone to be launched

 A luxury, hand-made mobile phone is to be launched with an eye-watering five-figure price tag.

Vertu's Ti is a titanium-cased, sapphire crystal-screened Android smartphone that will set back the discerning punter up to £14,200.

It is the latest high-end phone by the British company, formerly part of Nokia until it was sold to private equity outfit EQT last year.

It hit the headlines in 2002 offering a £15,000 Nokia phone available in 18-carat gold, white gold and top-of-the-range platinum cases.

Perry Oosting, Vertu's president and chief executive, said: "Vertu Ti is our most significant product for a decade. The Android OS (operating system) delivers a proven and intuitive environment for users while the design and craftsmanship of the handset is still uniquely Vertu.

"Vertu has pioneered and led the luxury mobile phone sector since we began in the late 90s and the great depth of our knowledge and experience can be seen in Vertu Ti. There is nothing else like it."

Prices for the handset start at £6,800, for the Titanium Black Leather model, rising to £14,200 for a version in red gold. Each one is hand-made and signed by a single craftsman at the company's factory in Church Crookham, near Fleet in Hampshire.

Its specifications put it alongside most other smartphones on the market, with an eight megapixel rear camera with flash, a 1.3MP front-facing camera and 64MB of internal memory.

The company claims its 3.7in sapphire crystal screen is "virtually scratch proof" and tested to be four times stronger than other smartphones against impacts. The company also claims its titanium case is around five times stronger than other smartphones.

Vertu has expanded on its concierge service that was available on previous handsets through a special button. It allows wealthy users to call their own personal operator and ask for anything from local information to a table at the most exclusive restaurant in town. The "Vertu key" on the new handset includes this but adds a 24/7 service including Vertu Certainty, which "helps protect the device, its data and, where necessary, the customer".

Apple and Samsung, frenemies for life

A powerful Asian manufacturer, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, uses Google Inc's Android software to create smartphones and tablets that closely resemble the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung starts gaining market share, hurting Apple Inc's margins and stock price and threatening its reign as the king of cool in consumer electronics.

Jobs, of course, had an answer to all this: a "thermo-nuclear" legal war that would keep clones off the market. Yet nearly two years after Apple first filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung, and six months after it won a huge legal victory over its South Korean rival, Apple's chances of blocking the sale of Samsung products are growing dimmer by the day.

Indeed, a series of recent court rulings suggests that the smartphone patent wars are now grinding toward a stalemate, with Apple unable to show that its sales have been seriously damaged when rivals, notably Samsung, imitated its products.

That, in turn, may usher in a new phase in the complex relationship between the two dominant companies in the growing mobile computing business.

Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate.

Samsung, meanwhile, has benefited immensely from the market insight it gained from the Apple relationship, and from producing smartphones and tablets that closely resemble Apple's.

While the two companies compete fiercely in the high-end smartphone business - where together they control half the sales and virtually all of the profits - their strengths and weaknesses are in many ways complementary. Apple's operations chief, Jeff Williams, told Reuters last month that Samsung was an important partner and they had a strong relationship on the supply side, but declined to elaborate.

As their legal war winds down, it is increasingly clear that Apple and Samsung have plenty of common interests as they work to beat back other potential challengers, such as BlackBerry or Microsoft.

The contrast with other historic tech industry rivalries is stark. When Apple accused Microsoft in the 1980s of ripping off the Macintosh to create the Windows operating system, Apple's very existence was at stake. Apple lost, the Mac became a niche product, and the company came close to extinction before Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996 and saved it with the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs died in October 2011.

Similarly, the Internet browser wars of the late 1990s that pitted Microsoft against Netscape ended with Netscape being sold for scrap and its flagship product abandoned.
Apple and Samsung, on the other hand, are not engaged in a corporate death match so much as a multi-layered rivalry that is by turns both friendly and hard-edged. For competitors like Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, HTC and even Google - whose Motorola unit is expected to launch new smartphones later this year - they are a formidable duo.

THE WAY THEY WERE

The partnership piece of the Apple-Samsung relationship dates to 2005, when the Cupertino, California-based giant was looking for a stable supplier of flash memory. Apple had decided to jettison the hard disc drive in creating the iPod shuffle, iPod nano and then-upcoming iPhone, and it needed huge volumes of flash memory chips to provide storage for the devices.

The memory market in 2005 was extremely unstable, and Apple wanted to lock in a supplier that was rock-solid financially, people familiar with the relationship said. Samsung held about 50 percent of the NAND flash memory market at that time.

"Whoever controls flash is going to control this space in consumer electronics," Jobs said at the time, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The success of that deal led to Samsung supplying the crucial application processors for the iPhone and iPad. Initially, the two companies jointly developed the processors based on a design from ARM Holdings Plc, but Apple gradually took full control over development of the chip. Now Samsung merely builds the components at a Texas factory.

The companies built a close relationship that extended to the very top: in 2005, Jay Y. Lee, whose grandfather founded the Samsung Group, visited Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California, after the two signed the flash memory deal.

The partnership gave Apple and Samsung insight into each other's strategies and operations. In particular, Samsung's position as the sole supplier of iPhone processors gave it valuable data on just how big Apple thought the smartphone market was going to be.

"Having a relationship with Apple as a supplier, I am sure, helped the whole group see where the puck was going," said Horace Dediu, a former analyst at Nokia who now works as a consultant and runs an influential blog. "It's a very important advantage in this business if you know where to commit capital."

Samsung declined to comment on its relationship with a specific customer.
As for Apple, it reaped the benefit of Samsung's heavy investments in research and development, tooling equipment and production facilities. Samsung spent $21 billion (23 trillion won) on capital expenditures in 2012 alone, and plans to spend a similar amount this year.

By comparison, Intel Corp spent around $11 billion in 2012, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) expects to spend $9 billion in 2013.

But component expertise, cash and good market intelligence did not assure success when Samsung launched its own foray into the smartphone market. The Omnia, a Windows-based product introduced in 2009, was so reviled that some customers hammered it to bits in public displays of dissatisfaction.

Meanwhile, Samsung publicly dismissed the iPhone's success.
"The popularity of iPhone is a mere result of excitement caused by some (Apple) fanatics," Samsung's then-president, G.S. Choi, told reporters in January 2010.
Privately, though, Samsung had other plans.

"The iPhone's emergence means the time we have to change our methods has arrived," Samsung mobile business head J.K. Shin told his staff in early 2010, according to an internal email filed in U.S. court.

Later that year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S, which sported the Android operating system and a look and feel very similar to the iPhone.

New Dyson tap dries your hands after you wash

Dyson has turned its expertise in fans to an unexpected new arena - a tap with a built-in fan to dry your hands.

The Dyson Airblade Tap is based on the British company's successful hand dryer, the AirBlade, which can be found in thousands of pubs, clubs, shops and restaurants across the UK.

The Airblade costs £1,000 per tap, and uses infrared sensors to know where a user has placed their hands before pumping out water from the stem.

It can then automatically deliver high-speed streams of unheated clean air from the tap's branches, which dry hands within 12 seconds.

The innovation was made possible by a brand-new, re-engineered small digital motor, the size of a can of fizzy drink, and as powerful as a lawnmower.

Using digital pulse technology, it accelerates from 0-90,000rpm in less than 0.7 seconds.

Chris Osborne, Head of Dyson's Airblade Engineering, said: "It makes sense to have both functions in the same place. You don't want to have to wash your hands at one point, walk across the bathroom dripping water to dry your hands somewhere else."

He added the invention wasn't a result of customer requests: "We tend to be much more technology push, coming up with ideas, testing them and launching them to see whether people will like them rather than reacting."

Along with the tap, the new digital motor can also be found in two new hand-dryer models and the whole improved range comes after three years of intensive research and development. Overall it cost £40m and was carried out by 125 engineers.

Chris said: "Seeing the first manufactured tap machines was very satisfying. Until that point we had spent a lot of our time dealing with handmade prototypes, which although they are exciting in the early days, are pretty ugly - held together with glue and tape and bits of wood we found in the car park.

"We are already working on the next generation, looking to solve new problems. We are never completely satisfied, if we were, we wouldn't be any good at what we do. We are always looking to pick holes in what we have done and what our competitors do."

The second new product, the Dyson Airblade V, is 60% smaller than the current Airblade hand-dryer. But instead of placing hands inside it like that version, users place their wet mitts underneath the streams of air.

However, it is still far from the traditional down-blowing experience with two sheets of high-speed air fired out at 430mph and across a 115 degrees span to cover the width of each hand. It dries them in 10 seconds.

That machine is made from the same tough material used in police riot shields and costs around £500 while a new version of the famous Airblade has also been created stripping out more than 1kg of materials.

Chris said: "The new digital motor is still a high-powered 1600 watt motor but it is energy efficient because we can dry hands so quickly. It is only running for 10 seconds but a competitor product also with a 1600 watt motor could be running for anything up to a minute and may have another motor to heat the air."

Dyson engineers created over 3300 prototypes across the Dyson Airblade range and every component was subjected to hundreds of tests.

The Airblade tap itself had eight times the amount of pressure a conventional tap put on it - levels that would make a normal one explode. It uses the same type of stainless steel found in the construction of boats.

During the R&D phase, washing hands was simulated a mammoth 213 million times with the air circulated inside a Dyson Airblade hand-dryer during its lifetime enough to fill 26 million balloons.

Spotify-style services are now 15% of UK music market

British music lovers streamed more than 3.7 BILLION tracks in 2012 as the popularity of online jukebox services soared and illegal filesharing fell.

Services such as Spotify move away from the model of 'buying' music altogether - with subscribers paying a subscription fee to access a library instead.

Streamed music hasn't overtaken downloads yet - but the numbers are rising, as users abandon illegal download services for new, cheap ways of buying music.

The average household streamed 140 songs in the past year - with the streaming market now worth more than 15% of  digital music industry income.

The numbers, part of a state of the nation report pulled together by UK music industry body the BPI, also show far less people are filesharing tracks illegally.

A quarter of people purchased legal downloads or streamed content from one of more than 70 digital services available compared to just one in seven using peer-to-peer networks.

To date, there has been more than 114m albums and 938m single tracks sold as digital downloads with 30.5m digital albums sold in 2012, up 14.8% year-on-year.

Sixteen albums sold more than 100,000 copies on digital last year with a resurgence in the popularity of the single after 183.3m were shifted in 2012, a more than five-fold increase in 10 years.

Looking ahead, the research cites superfast 4G mobile broadband, the growth in tablet adoption and internet-connected car radios as reasons for even faster take-up of streaming n the next few years.

Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said: "There has rightly been a lot of focus in the past few weeks on High Street music retail. That will continue - we must do all we can to serve music fans who love CDs and vinyl.

"But as well as great music stores, Britain is blessed with a world-beating array of digital music services, which fans rate very highly for ease of use and value for money.

"And this is just the beginning. Labels are striking innovative new deals with mobile networks, hardware manufacturers, app developers and start-ups.

"The music fan will be the clear winner, as digital services evolve to deliver even richer music experiences via superfast broadband and 4G to tablets, smart TVs and the next generation of in-car audio."

Other findings from the BPI's pulling together of a host of different surveys and reports for Digital Music Nation 2013 include details of how well-known the main streaming services are.

Four out of five people have heard of at least one with two-thirds able to name Spotify and Napster and a third pinpointing last.fm. Just 13% mentioned Deezer or we7 and around one in 10 picked out Rdio.

However, according to figures from Spotify, Scotland is top of the pops when it comes to streaming with Edinburgh the top city using the service followed by Cardiff, Southampton and only then London. 

But Mark Mulligan, an expert on the digital music industry, believes the BPI research does not paint the whole picture.

He explained: "The BPI have put a very good positive spin the last couple of years on what's moving forward in the market however I have to counter that with the fact that a decade plus into this digital experiment the UK is still predominantly a CD market.

"Digital growth is happening well but it isn't happening quick enough and piracy remains a fundamental residual element of the UK music market. It is certainly contained but it isn't going away."

Mr Mulligan also believes there is still a strong market for CDs due to "gifting" but says bundles of music provided with TV and internet subscriptions are what will open the industry up to the mass market.

He feels streaming in the UK is still such a small part of the complex puzzle compared to the likes of Sweden, where 92% of music revenue comes from the service.

He added: "Since 2008, 5.5m people stopped buying music entirely in the UK so there's no doubt of the positives of the digital side but the contraction of the physical side of music buyers is an issue which hasn't been successfully addressed as yet.

"Streaming services are a small fast-growing part of the equation. It requires a leap of faith, the concept of moving from ownership to access, to ad-hoc spending to subscription spending, to cloud based access instead of something on your hard drive or shelf."

On social media, music is also found to be a major driver with four of the top five most-followed Twitter being musicians and on Facebook, three of the top 10 most-liked pages belonging to Rihanna, Eminem and Shakira.

Going forward, more than 50m connected cars with 4G or Wi-Fi networked audio systems are expected to be sold every year by 2017 and seven in 10 households are predicted to own a tablet within the next three years.

Networked home audio and speaker systems for streaming such as those from Sonos are also expected to rise in popularity with annual sales of more than three million by 2016. Already a fifth of Smart TV owners use theirs to access music services.

BlackBerry 10 vs iPhone

The new BlackBerry 10 operating system is widely seen as a last chance for the smartphone pioneer to keep up with hi-tech handsets from Apple and Samsung.

We spent a week with the Z10 - the first of two phones running the new operating system.

The BlackBerry Z10 offers a touchscreen, while the BlackBerry Q10 sports a more traditional physical keyboard and launches in April.

Bb10 is now competing against high-end smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 5, Android Samsung Galaxy S3, Google Nexus 4 and Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 920.

Should you upgrade to BB10? What if you're a BlackBerry die-hard - is it 'true' to the classic feel of BlackBerry? And most importantly, is it worth switching if you're not?

Close-up on the Z10

At 4.2-inches the screen is an average size - a little bigger than the 4-inch iPhone 5. The phone is very pocketable and the 1280x768 resolution ensures a good movie and browsing experience.

There is plenty of technology on board. The 16GB internal memory is expandable using a microSD card - unlike Apple's iPhones - and the phone also offers a super-fast 4G connection, and the 8-megapixel camera shoots full HD 1080p movies. Performance is ably handled by the dual-core processor, although it takes a while to start up. All-in-all the spec sheet is competitive and impresses - good work RIM.

The 'feel' of BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry 10 is a new operating system, and feels significantly different to iOS and Android. At the heart of BB10 is BlackBerry Flow, instead of navigating by opening and closing programs and using home or back buttons, you ‘flow’ between programs and notifications, using a series of swipes.  It’s a totally different way of navigating and not as immediately usable as iOS or Windows Phone, butbecomes more natural in days.

BlackBerry 10 offers a great messaging experience,via BlackBerry Hub, which unifies multiple message accounts including: email, SMS, BBM, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

You can view all messages in a single feed, or filter down individually to, say, one email account, and update a status or compose a message using any account from the same place.

There are quirks that need fixing.  When the message indicator blinks, you can swipe up from within any application to view the type of message ( Facebook, Twitter, email etc) and either return to the program or ‘Peek’ into the BlackBerry Hub and see the sender.  The idea is that with a single motion you can discover message details without having to interrupt your workflow.

But it takes you to the last place you were in the Hub, instead than the new message, requiring counter intuitive tapping of the on-screen back key. It’s certainly not as intuitive swiping down to viewing notifications like iOS or Android.

BB10 doesn’t offer the customisation of Android either. It supports true multitasking, so open programs are displayed as tiles on the homescreen, you can quickly move between,  but you can’t change the order - it feels much less 'personal' than Google's operating system.

The keyboard

BlackBerry smartphones had outstanding physical keyboards and the BB10 touchscreen keyboard continues this tradition. It's the best built-in keyboard on any smartphone.

Start typing and suggestions appear above corresponding letters and a simple swipe up selects a word. Over time it learns words you use the most and even where you tap the screen, adjusting to make the experience smoother and its easy to use with one hand.

Work and play

BlackBerry Balance is another highlight of BB10, enabling you to create separate profiles for Work and Personal, which you can swap between. The work profile includes work email, contacts and apps and Balance can be locked to keep work emails private.

BB10 isn’t compatible with apps designed for older smartphones like the BlackBerry Bold 9900. With its BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour, BlackBerry has worked hard to encourage app developers to create for the new OS.

The new BlackBerry App World launched with over BB10 70,000 apps, many of which are poor quality though, putting BB10 a long way behind the Android Market and Apple App Store, but with bags of potential.
 
Should you upgrade?

BlackBerry 10 on the BlackBerry Z10 is truly innovative and thanks to the intelligent keyboard and versatile BlackBerry Hub extremely effective for messaging, with useful features like BlackBerry Balance.

It’s not perfect - navigation isn’t as fluid as it should be and BB10 isn’t very flexible, but many of these issues might well be fixed with downloads.

If you’ve invested in iOS, Android and Windows Phone and bought apps, there’s very little here to make you move, but if you’re looking for a great messaging device for work and pleasure the BlackBerry Z10 is well worth considering.

Most Facebook users 'take a break'

Too much drama, boredom and irrelevant information are just some of the reasons Facebook users give for taking a break from the world's biggest social networking site for weeks at a time, according to a new study.

A report from the Pew Research Centre's Internet and American Life Project found that some 61% of Facebook users had taken a hiatus of at least several weeks for myriad reasons, whether they were weary from an onslaught of gossip, or for the more pious, the arrival of Lent.

Yet the use of Facebook, whether constant or not, is pervasive in America. Of the American adults who use the internet, 67% are on Facebook, Pew found. That compares with 20% who use LinkedIn and 16% who are on Twitter.

But users do come and go, some temporarily and some for good. Seven percent of internet users said they used Facebook at one point but no longer do. By its own count, Facebook has 1.06 billion users worldwide who check in at least once a month. This includes millions of duplicate and fake accounts. More than 150 million users are in the US.

The largest slice of users, 20%, said that they were simply too busy with their own lives to follow the constant stream of status updates, quotes and baby photos.
Privacy and security concerns, which have received plenty of media coverage, were low on the list. Only 4% of people gave these reasons, combined with concerns about ads and spam, as their "Facebook vacation" motivation.

Lee Rainie, director of the Internet and American Life Project, said privacy is more of a big policy question that people do not concern themselves with day-by-day. Rather, people are contemplating how they spend their time and allocate their attention.

"People are making interesting calibrations and recalibrations" about how they spend their time and about the worth of constantly staying connected to friends, family and others online, Rainie said.
And while people do take Facebook breaks, internet users are logging in more frequently than ever, the study found.

Responding to the report, Facebook said that its growth and user engagement remains strong.
"As we announced last week, Facebook has grown daily active users across all regions, ending the year with more than one billion monthly active users, 618 million daily active users and 680 million people accessing Facebook from mobile devices," a company statement said.

"Our announcement came on the heels of independent analyst reports which concluded that Facebook is the most downloaded mobile app in the US, and that time spent on Facebook accounts for over 20% of all time spent on mobile apps in the US."

Top tips for sharing photos safely online

Every day, millions of us share photos online - but even seemingly innocent snaps can pose security risks.

Many smartphones 'geotag' photographs, and sharing tagged photos can give away an address to criminals.

On social networks such as Facebook, privacy settings can also leave photos 'open' to the wider world - not ideal for family snaps.

As part of Safer Internet Day 2013, Flickr, Yahoo!'s photo hosting and sharing service, has offered guidelines on how to share photos safely online.

Every day, 3.5million photos are uploaded to Flickr - 2,500 a minute - but the tips are applicable to most photo-sharing services, and underline risks that many of us might not be aware of.

Jennifer Davies, European Product Marketing Manager for Flickr, says: "Every day we upload millions of pictures to the internet, each one telling its own story - and so does the data attached to it."

"This year, as part of Safer Internet Day 2013, Flickr is helping you understand how to make sure your photos are as secure and private as you want them to be."

1.  Watch your privacy settings

"As with all social network data, make sure you are aware of your privacy settings. Flickr allows you to make your photos as private as you want them to be and change the default photo privacy settings accordingly – you can change these for your whole account or for each individual photo on Flickr, and choose from the options of 'Public', 'visible to Friends', 'visible to Family', 'visible to Friends & Family', or 'Private'."

2.   Be careful about geotagged photos
"Some photos store data that carries map locations – 300million Flickr photos are geotagged. Double-check to make sure your photos are not geotagged if you don’t want people to see where they’re taken.

"Flickr also allows you to set up geofences around locations such as your home or your children's school which automatically ensures that pictures taken here never publicly show the geolocation."




3.  If you see inappropriate photos, report them

"If you stumble across a photo you know shouldn’t be there or you feel should include stricter content control, report it! This way services can review it, restrict it and take it down if needed."
 
4.    Let others use your photos - if you want

"At Flickr, your photos are always yours. You can also choose to make your photographs available for others to use through the many flavours of Creative Commons licenses – there are currently over 200 million Creative Commons-licensed photos on Flickr."

"Along with some of our partners, we have a lot of great ways to get involved this Safer Internet Day. Check out our ideas, and let us know how you’ll be involved. We’ll be covering the events of Safer Internet Day on Twitter at @YahooSafely."

The worst cyber-security mistakes you can make

Many people are unaware that cyber criminals target mobile devices - or think that putting a four-digit PIN code on their phone is sufficient protection.

But cybercrime on mobiles is already real. In the UK, 22% of users report that they have received text messages requesting that they click a link or dial a number to access a ‘voicemail’ message - a common attack used by cybercriminals

App stores such as Google's Play are also filled with 'fake' apps - often made to look like real hits such as Angry Birds - which can infest phones with adverts or even run up huge bills calling numbers abroad.

Mobile adware - or 'madware' - attacks have risen 210% in the past year, according to figures from Norton.

'Your smartphone is as sophisticated if not more than your PC,' says Norton's director of security response, Kevin Haley. 'It has all the same information, it’s got your work information and your personal information. It even has financial transactions on it. Why wouldn't the bad guys target it?'

Safe use of smartphones will come into focus once more on Tuesday, February 5, which is the tenth Safer Internet Day.

Below are some common errors which can leave smartphones vulnerable to cyber-criminals.  

1. Not using a password

Many smartphone users keep personal details such as social network passwords and banking details on phones - and 44% of users don't use a password to protect their phones, according to KnowTheNet.

Of those who do, one in nine use '1234' - handing cyber criminals access to email accounts that can yield addresses, bank details and even passwords.

Recent research by Symantec shows that 50 per cent of lost phones will not be returned and 96 per cent (including those returned) will have data stolen.

Marian Merritt, Norton's internet safety advocate, says: "Make sure your mobile phone is pin-protected so all your personal information stored on it is safe. Download a security app which allows you to remotely wipe any personal data." 

2. Using 'free' public wi-fi

‘When you go on a public wi-fi network - say BT - you have no way to determine whether it’s a real network run by BT, or a fake run by a spotty guy next to you,’ ,’ says Tom Beale of Vigilante Bespoke, a company which tests networks for security ‘holes’.

‘The problem’s particularly bad on mobile, where you really can’t tell if you’re on a fake network set up to steal your data. If you’re going to use public networks for business, use a laptop, because the browser will warn you of security breaches - your phone won’t.’

3. Downloading fake apps

Fake apps are rife on marketplaces such as Google's Play Store. 'Clones' of popular apps such as Angry Birds Space instead infect your phone with malicious software.

The only defence is to be wary about downloading apps - particularly free ones - from the store. Look for apps that have large numbers of positive reviews and developer names that you recognise.
Some simply serve you annoying adverts. Others, though are far more sinister - adding huge amounts to your bill by dialing foreign numbers or using premium SMS services.

4. Using your web browser for banking
Banking apps exist for a reason - mobile browsers can pose security risks, including plug-ins that may store data.

Banking over public wi-fi via a browser is particularly risky.
According to Norton's research, 65 per cent of European users limit the sites they visit on their mobile device - preferring to bank via apps or via a home PC.  

5. Leaving personal details stored on phones

Some security errors leave you vulnerable not just to cybercriminals but to ordinary thieves. If a phone is stolen, criminals will often look through for bank details and other information that can be valuable.

KnowTheNet's research found that 38 per cent of British adults keep key personal data such as online banking details (4 per cent) and social media passwords (18 per cent) on their device.

Leaving yourself logged in to apps such as banking or shopping means that if your phone is lost or stolen, the damage can be far worse.

Users should ensure they log out of any such apps after use - and if details are stored on a device, they should be stored in a free, password-protected app such as SecureSafe.

PS4: Everything you need to know

Things just got very exciting over in the world of PlayStation. On 20 February Sony is hosting an event for what looks like the reveal of the PlayStation 4.

So the next-gen is coming, but what exactly will it be like? Read on to find out everything you need to know about the PS4 based on the rumours and news so far.

PS4 hardware

Until Sony lifts the lid on the new PlayStation proper, everything we have to go on are pretty much rumours. Naturally, there are a few assumptions you can make, like the PS4 being more powerful than the PS3 and that it will use Blu-rays.

Just how much more powerful though? Well, rumours suggest an AMD x86 quad-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB HDD.

Things will of course be Full HD at least, although given all Sony's shouting over UHD 4K at CES and the fact that Final Fantasy Agni's Philosophy was demoed in 4K, who knows? At the moment, the PS4 is said to be ten times more powerful than the current gen PlayStation, so its entirely possible.

PS4 release date

Right here is when things get a bit foggy. The 20 February date is for the announcement of whatever Sony has planned - the Wall Street Journal is citing sources saying it will be the PS4 but we may all get a surprise. Our own sources also hint at the unveiling of the next PlayStation too, however. Other than that, we think we'll have to wait until E3 for actual play time with any games that may be launch titles.

The WSJ says Sony went for the early announcement in order to pip Microsoft to the post and that it is entirely possible the system will be going on sale around Christmas time. At the moment, that's all we have, but we will be updating things as soon as we have a firm date, naturally.

PS4 controller

Sony is said to be ditching the classic DualShock design for the PS4 in favour of something entirely different. While we doubt it might be quite on the level of the Wii U's craziness, there are rumours suggesting some form of touch screen will be involved with the PS4's controller.
CVG says designers have been tasked with creating something that emulates "the same user interface philosophies as the PS Vita". This could mean biometrics and a touch sensitive back. It is all part of Sony's attempts to tie all its systems together.

PS4 price

When it launched, the PlayStation 3 was an expensive bit of kit. The PS4 however, if rumours are true, may not be quite as costly.

At the moment, the rumoured PS4 price tag sits around $400. According to VGC, Sony wants the console to be "very affordable". It is very possible that this is the case, given the threat of affordable Android and PC gaming systems like OUYA and the Steam Box.

PS4 games

Get ready for speculation overload. There really isn't anything at all to go on in terms of gaming yet, as nothing has been announced. The Final Fantasy tech demo we mentioned earlier is stunning to look at and could very well end up being used to power PlayStation 4 games.

Then there is Unreal Engine 4, which we imagine will become a bit of a staple of the next-gen consoles. Unreal Engine 3 has been responsible for a large number of games on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, partly due to its ease of development, so UE4 could very much do the same.
Watch Dogs is one very real possibility, wowing us with its graphics at E3 last year. Then there are Star Wars 1313 and of course Battlefield 4, due out in 2014. GTA V is looking like it will be the last hurrah for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but who knows, it might turn up looking a whole lot sharper on the new Sony and Microsoft consoles

Hackers attack Twitter accounts

Twitter has become the latest victim in a number of high-profile cyber-attacks against media companies, saying hackers may have gained access to information on 250,000 of its more than 200 million active users.

The social media giant said in a blog posting that earlier this week it detected attempts to gain access to its user data. It shut down one attack moments after it was detected.

But it discovered that the attackers may have stolen user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to 250,000 users. Twitter reset the pilfered passwords and sent emails advising affected users.
The online attack comes on the heels of recent hacks into the computer systems of US media and technology companies, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Both American newspapers reported this week that their computer systems had been infiltrated by China-based hackers, likely to monitor media coverage the Chinese government deems important.

China has been accused of mounting a widespread, aggressive cyber-spying campaign for several years, trying to steal classified information and corporate secrets and to intimidate critics. The Chinese foreign ministry could not be reached for comment today, but the Chinese government has said those accusations are baseless and that China itself is a victim of cyber-attacks.

"Chinese law forbids hacking and any other actions that damage internet security," the Chinese Defence Ministry recently said. "The Chinese military has never supported any hacking activities."

Twitter said in its blog that the attack "was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident". "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organisations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicise this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the internet safer for all users."

One expert said that the Twitter hack probably happened after an employee's home or work computer was compromised through vulnerabilities in Java, a commonly used computing language whose weaknesses have been well publicized.

Ashkan Soltani, an independent privacy and security researcher, said such a move would give attackers "a toehold" in Twitter's internal network, potentially allowing them either to sniff out user information as it traveled across the company's system or break into specific areas, such as the authentication servers that process users' passwords.

He said that the relatively small number of users affected suggested either that attackers were not on the network long or that they were only able to compromise a subset of the company's servers.

New hi-tech systems could see your phone replace your wallet

Five decades after the first credit cards were introduced to Britain, the country is suddenly awash with hi-tech new ways to pay.

And 2013 promises to be the most revolutionary yet - with hi-tech payments including tap-to-pay mobile phone systems and cards with LCD displays.

Using your smartphone to pay by tapping a device in stores is going to become significantly more widespread in 2013.

Near-field communication chips, which is used in contactless payment cards and Oyster travel cards, has struggled to get going in UK phones - although phones such as Samsung's Galaxy SIII have the chips built in.

The chief stumbling block has been brokering deals between phone manufacturers, networks, banks and payment processor firms like Visa and MasterCard.

Barclays is offering the service via Samsung Galaxy S III handsets on the Orange network.

Failing that, Barclaycard offer a PayTag sticker that you can place on the back of your phone that does the same thing, only with credit rather than debit.

Apple's iPhones are not yet equipped with the NFC chips needed for 'tap-to-pay' transactions.

Phones could also be used as 'mobile shops -  in America, thanks to the successful 'Square' app, customers are increasingly able
charge for goods by simply swiping customers’ credit cards with a reaer attached to a phone.

Although Square has yet to arrive in the UK, a host of rivals - iZettle,  Payleven, SumUp and mPowa–will all next year provide devices on Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices.

The dongle, which transmits the details to the fund-processors just like a restaurant-type device, is simply plugged into a tablet or smartphone and connects via Bluetooth.

The costs vary. Izettle is available for £20 at EE stores. The others are free and can be obtained online.

But merchants will pay a commission of between 0.25% and 2.75% or a flat rate of 25p for each transaction.

Hi-tech new cards with LCD displays could also revolutionise mobile commerce.

Online bank transfers are becoming an increasingly common way to pay for items as more and more banks agree to instantly send the cash to each other.

One problem with this method, however. is that it often requires a separate security device with a screen and buttons to generate a one-time payment authorisation code.

But the MasterCard display card, which merges such a device with a debit card, will be released via Standard Chartered Bank in the test hotbed of Singapore in January.

The cards contain a clock that is synchronised to the bank’s time and produces the correct code at any given minute.

The technology is likely to be rolled out in the UK by the end of 2013 and, with it, cards may later be able to display your balance or details of previous purchases.