Microsoft Zune affected by 'bug'

The problem appears restricted to first-generation 30GB Zune players

A software bug has affected 30GB first generation versions of the Microsoft Zune digital media player, affecting thousands of customers worldwide.

The company said it was aware of the problem, and offered advice to Zune users on how to solve it.

Customers have reported that their devices refuse to boot up, and freeze when the start-screen appears.

The Zune was launched in 2006 as Microsoft's contender to Apple's highly successful iPod player.

Uncertainty

Discussing the cause on some user forums, some owners have said they believe the problems are due it being the first time the Zune will have updated its calendars following a Leap year.

We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow Microsoft

On the Zune Insider website, Microsoft said it had been aware of the problem since early in the morning of December 31.

It said its technical team "jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue" - a fault in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.

Said Microsoft: "The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009.

"We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT).

"By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on."

When Microsoft launched the Zune in 2006 the company hoped it could become a serious rival to the iPod player.

But sales of the Zune so far have been a fraction compared to Apple's best-seller.

The problem appears restricted to 30GB first generation Zune players. Later 80GB and 120GB models appear to be unaffected.

Pioneer of cyberspace honoured

Professor Hall works for gender equality in the technological arena

A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

Wendy Hall created the "open hypermedia system" Microcosm with colleagues after joining the University of Southampton computer science group in 1984.

And in 1994 she became the university's first female professor of engineering.

Professor Hall, 56, was made a CBE in 2000 for services to science and technology and is considered one of the best computer scientists in the world.

She was president of the British Computer Society from 2003 to 2004, and in 2005 became the first woman to be appointed senior vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

More recently, Professor Hall co-founded the world's first interdisciplinary body to study the structure and sociology of the web, the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), with web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Southampton professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel Weitzner, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Click here to see an interview with Professor Hall about the web science initiative in March 2008

Throughout her career Professor Hall has championed the role of her female colleagues in computing and the sciences and worked to ensure developments in technology benefit women as well as men.

"I am thrilled to have been honoured in this way," she said.

"It is of course exciting for me personally and for my family, but it is also a tribute to all the people I have worked with in my career as a scientist and engineer both at Southampton and in the wider community."

Private firm 'may run' phone log

The addresses of websites visited would be recorded

A private company could be asked to run a huge database containing details of everybody's telephone calls, emails and internet use, it has been reported.

The option to tender out the management of the database will be included in a consultation paper to be published next month, according to the Guardian.

The Home Office said police had to keep up with technical advances and there would be wide consultation on the plan.

Critics, however, say it poses a serious threat to civil liberties.

Former director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald reiterated his opposition to the plan in light of the Guardian's report, dismissing official claims that additional legal assurances would ensure the information is not misused.

He told the paper: "All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen."

The database, which critics claim would cost up to

Silicon Valley looks towards 2009

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

Avoiding the fallout from the global credit crisis has been nearly impossible

The world of technology is set to face a challenging year in 2009 but many in the industry say it will weather the storm better than the rest of the US. Here Maggie Shiels presents the first of a two-part assessment of how technology will fare over the next 12 months.

Despite the continuing fall out from the global credit crisis, there is a mood of optimism around Silicon Valley, which is perhaps not that unusual given its "can do" reputation.

The other reason for this upbeat attitude is that in 2000, when the dot com bubble burst, Silicon Valley felt the pain deeply.

Venture capital firms all but shut up shop, deals did not get made and nearly a quarter of the workforce were laid off. This time round, things are simply nowhere near as bad.

So what does the coming year hold for this area of the world? Here are some of the views of those living and working in the Valley.

HIRING AND FIRING

There is no avoiding the fact that in technology a lot of people lost their jobs in 2008.

The blog TechCrunch has been keeping a track since the beginning of October and the litany of layoffs adds up to over 113,000 across the world. It chronicles pinks slips being handed out by everyone from eBay to Electronic Arts and from Yahoo to Sun Microsystems.

Job losses in the Valley have hit big and small companies

It seems no one is immune, yet on CNET's website, its so-called "spreadsheet of sunshine" shows companies are still hiring. The list includes Cisco, Digg, Salesforce.com and Napster among others.

One of the biggest firms in the business of hiring, finding and helping the industry retain talent is Taleo. It has nearly 4,000 customers, including most of the major Fortune 500 companies.

Taleo chief executive Michael Gregoire said that in the last quarter it had over 400,000 jobs on file but 10 million people applied for those jobs worldwide. He said he did not think that was an indication that the jobs market is especially tough, but more that "people are always looking to find a better place to work and looking to change their lot in life".

As to Silicon Valley, Mr Gregoire admitted that unemployment will hit the 6-7% mark next year, but that that will be well below the national anticipated rate of 9%.

"We are definitely in uncharted waters but if you look at what has happened on the East coast and some of the money centres like London and Tokyo etc, they have felt a very blunt and immediate pain," said Mr Gregoire.

"Here in Silicon Valley a number of things are different. There is so much innovation here and people from all over the world come here because this is where you can truly start a company, work with venture capitalists , get funded and get access to talent you wouldn't be able to get pretty much anywhere else in the world.

"If you think about it, the Googles and the eBays started in the dotcom bomb era and they have gone on to not only be huge companies themselves, but have spawned another world of start ups."

With industry forecasters estimating another 10,000 jobs disappearing in Silicon Valley in 2009, Mr Gregoire pointed to a major change in the bonus structure that will result in a new reality for many top executives.

"I think bonuses will come back to being paid for extraordinary performance. Coupled with that, I do think you will see a recalibration of people's lives.

"Many people unfortunately have tried to live their lifestyles off their bonuses and I think they will pare back and start living off their base salaries. There is no doubt about it that that's going to be painful. It's going to be painful for companies. It's going to be painful for individuals."

TECHNOLOGY SPENDING

2008 has already shown that everyone from the lowest to the highest paid has been tightening their belts. That is just as true when it comes to technology spending. And while the figures look bleak for 2009, some are hoping a creative approach will keep things going.

Technology spending is expected to concentrate on upgrades

Demand for products related to semiconductors, Silicon Valley's bellwether, is weakening. Industry trade group SEMI expects a 21% decline next year in equipment sales, following a 28% decline this year.

Overall, the dotcom bust resulted in spending declines of around 20% while industry experts are pegging it at around 4-5% for 2009.

However Logitech, the world's biggest producer of computer control devices like mice, trackballs and touchpads, said while budget managers will be looking to cut back on spending they will hopefully be doing so with a new twist.

"The big challenge out there is whether people will buy new systems in 2009," said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley.

"We expect less of that in the coming 12 months, but we do expect people to upgrade existing systems and upgrade them by investing in the interface. We are talking about maybe a better screen, a better mouse, a better keyboard."

Mr Dooley said he believes things will be nowhere near as bad as 2000, when Silicon Valley was the epicentre of the downturn. He also pointed to innovation as the key to the future.

"2009 will definitely be a tough year for the technology industry as a whole, but I also think that necessity is the mother of invention and it's these times that spur a lot of great innovation.

"The last recession we had of note was in 2000 and in the US as a whole it was in the early 90s," he said.

"That recession was tough on the Valley. It was really when things were getting outsourced big-time and people said Silicon Valley is going to die, and it was just before Netscape got launched and what became the internet generation came into being.

"I am optimistic that 2009 will be a tough year but will bring lots of good things as well," said Mr Dooley.

ROBOTICS, HAPTICS AND ALL THINGS GREEN

So if innovation is being seen as the Valley's way out of the recession, just what does that look like?

Clean tech investment is growing year on year

Industry watchers continue to name "clean tech" as an area of innovation and one that will attract a lot of venture capital funding. One of the most respected VC firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has bet a lot on this.

Earlier this year the company opened a $500 million (

Looking back to the future of fun

By Daniel Emery Technology reporter, BBC News

As 2008 draws to a close and with 2009 just around the corner, it has been an eventful year for the games industry.

Will the recession and a lack of triple-A titles make 2009 a year the industry will want to forget?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 surpassed expectations, Wii Fit showed us that you can play video games and still keep the spare tyre in check, Gears of War 2 proved the Xbox 360 was still a force to be reckoned with, selling over two million units world wide.

World of Warcraft released the Wrath of the Lich King and kept millions of gamers glued to their PCs for another six months, and Grand Theft Auto IV took the world by storm.

But with the economy cooling, games companies like Sony shedding jobs, and a shortage of triple A titles scheduled for release, what does 2009 have in store for gamers and the video game industry?

We put that question to some of the industry stalwarts, asking them for their thoughts on how 2008 has been for them and what they think the next year will bring.

PETER MOLYNEUX: Video game designer, Lionhead Studios

"2008 was the year that the Nintendo Wii got even better, more than anyone really thought possible when it first launched. The 360 did well, although it was put into the shade somewhat by the Wii. PlayStation 3 has been disappointing to say the least.

On the gaming front, GTA IV was a real moment for the industry. Rockstar nailed how you characterise a game and their engine and cut sequences are state of the art. However, only a few people actually saw all the cut sequences because the game was so tough to play. Are we making games too difficult? That's a question the industry has been asking itself of late.

We - as developers - are finally comfortable with the next-gen consoles and we saw a slew of sequels this year. Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Fable II, the seventh Tomb Raider.

One of my personal favourites was Little Big Planet; superb artistry and a fantastic marketing job by Sony - yet it didn't make the numbers. I wonder if Christmas is really the right time to release a new title. We've got into a rhythm [of sequels at Christmas] which is all fair and well while people are buying games but we have to make sure we don't get complacent.

Next year, well, it's all looking a bit dry. All the triple A titles came out this Christmas and while there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me.

Everyone says games are good value for home entertainment, despite the relatively high price. I'm not so sure. I think we're going to see a lot of price pressure put on games.

And as for Lionhead: now we've got Fable II out of the door we can focus on our other project - it's super secret for now - but we might announce it next year."

PAUL BARNETT: Creative director, Mythic Entertainment

"Personally 2008 was like giving birth: lots of pain, struggle, huffing, and puffing. But the end result [Warhammer Online] was worth it; it's no longer ours, it belongs to the players.

It was a year of disappointing big games; budgets too big, development too long, platforms underdeveloped, and expectations were too high. The Wii produced some kooky games that defied logic, the 360 continues to do well, the PS3 is desperately trying to find a market, and the PC was coming to terms with DRM (digital rights management).

At the same time, 2008 was the year that web browser games came of age: proof that backroom coders, great art design, and business know-how can exist under the same roof: Passage, Shift, World of Good, and Portal were all very curious.

GTA IV was the most impressive game of 2009, because it's almost impossible to deliver a game that good. It was a proper computer game, it sold bucket loads, and it improved on the original. Not only that, but it was British! I'm not a fan of the game but I am really respectful of what they [Rockstar] have done.

Bioshock proved that art direction matters in a game - and it was truly a triumph of art. It looked good and every icon and element felt connected. People get wrapped up in the story and narrative. Bioshock never had a story - people pretended it does - it doesn't. It's simple and linear, but in terms of art it is fantastic.

That said, some people confuse games with art and developing a game as an art title (as opposed to a good game with great art in it) will lead us into madness.

As for Warhammer, we're going to make good on our promises. We've got RvR [Realm vs Realm] hobby experience; this means bigger battles, more character, a stronger campaign. Basically, war is everywhere.

As for next year, it's going to be a year of pain for all the big labels and a continuing fight between games defining themselves as 'art', 'design' and 'entertainment'.

The games industry is going to go through the pain the music industry went through when the traditional way of making and selling their products goes through a radical shift. The route to the customer is undefined and income streams are uncertain. Large firms have a history of not being responsive (and being fearful) of change - the DRM fiasco (with Spore) is a classic example of that.

I expect to see some large studios go under and some big name titles fail."

RICHARD GARRIOTT aka 'Lord British': Video game designer

"For me, the high point - quite literally - was spending 12 days on the International Space Station. As a result, I've been somewhat outside the gaming scene; I was in quarantine for nearly three months in 2008.

That said, Halo's sequel was a big deal. World of Warcraft continues to dominate the massive multiplayer arena - more power to them. If I had to pick a developer who has done a bang up job, it would be Blizzard [the development team behind World of Warcraft]. The number of people they have converted is just amazing. They have shown all of us what good game development is all about.

After 25 years at Origin, the last thing I wanted to make was yet another medieval fantasy game. Now, after a very interesting break, I'm keen to get back into the fray and work on a new game. Probably medieval fantasy and probably online; there's something very powerful about getting people together."

WILL WRIGHT : Video game designer, Electronic Arts

"2008 was the year that the console hit its stride, we're seeing the rise of mobile gaming (along with user generated content) and, as we hear every eight years, the death of PC gaming.

The Wii took everyone by surprise - not for its looks, but its accessibility. Games like Guitar Hero attracted non-gamers and Sony and Microsoft are responding to that with things like the 'Avatar' system and Little Big Planet.

Next year, we're going to see more connected games - more social networking rather than just multiplayer. What's more, they are going to be more fractal in nature; how you interact with the game will depend not only on what you play (360 vs mobile) but where you play. So, for example, a mobile game that interacts with a GPS (global positioning system) so that where you physically play the game in the real world will have a direct effect on the game you are playing."

JOHNATHAN 'Fatal1ty' WENDEL: Professional games player

"The high point for me was getting my new line of headphones. I've been working really hard to develop them with Creative and we saw our sales increase by 50% since 2007.

That said, I think the credit crunch and subsequent fall out really hurt sponsorship of professional gamers. We used to have 300 people making a living from playing games; now we have less than 100.

Because of that, I want to start sponsoring other gamers. They're having a tough time at the moment, so I want to give something back to help them follow their dreams to become a professional gamer.

I'm going to continue working on a professional series of headphones. I want people to use my headphones, not just to talk smack, but to use them in the real world by making them stylish and attractive. We're close to getting that finalised and then we can launch.

And as for the future, well I hope we'll soon start seeing real 3D. You already get that experience in an iMax cinema. I think games will eventually go that way. I still want to use a mouse and keyboard to play, but if I can get that kind of graphical feel, that would be great. We really need to change the way we view a game."

Looking back to the future of fun

Getting the most out of broadband

By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, BBC News

How fast does a fibre network need to be?

With retail, housing and even hi-tech grinding to a bit of a halt in recent months, most commentators would agree that 2009 is going to be a slow year.

But in the world of broadband things should be speeding up significantly.

Both BT and Virgin Media will kick-start their plans for next generation access in the UK in 2009.

Virgin Media will upgrade its cable network to deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps (megabits per second) during the first six months of 2009. In addition, BT will start its

Smartphones drive mobile markets

By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

Fans of high-end phones were spoiled for choice in 2008

There is no doubt that 2008 was the year of the smartphone.

The last 12 months has seen the launch of iconic devices such as the iPhone 3G, Google G1, Blackberry Storm and Nokia N97.

It also saw the emergence of the electronic ecosystems needed to get the most out of such handsets.

But all is not rosy in the smartphone garden. The popularity of these devices has brought to light several problems that look set to become acute in 2009.

Customer control

"It was a goodish year," said Andrew Bud, chairman of mobile firm Mblox and director of the Mobile Entertainment Forum.

One of the high spots, he said, was the knock-on effect the launch of innovative smartphones had on the mobile market.

Many were using them to get at popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, said Mr Bud.

"We've also seen the emergence of applications as a whole new content category," he added.

Alongside the launch of the Apple and Google smartphones went shops that gave away and sold applications to run on the high-end handsets.

Nokia's Comes With Music coiuld set trends for 2009

Apple said more than 100 million applications had been downloaded from its App Store between July and September.

For Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum, the popularity of the smartphone was a signal that older technologies were coming of age.

"3G has really started to deliver on its promise," he said. "That's again something that has been talked about for a long time."

The success of 3G has been attributed to the use of a technology known as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA).

Dan Warren, director of technology at the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) Association, described HSPA as: "the original 3G service on steroids".

Mr Warren said data rates looked set to get a further boost in 2009 thanks to a follow-up technology known as HSPA+.

He said: "HSPA+ will start to become prevalent in 2009. It takes you up to 42Mbps but the maximum at the moment is 7.2Mbps in the UK."

Switch off

But despite the good news for the mobile world 2009 is unlikely to see that success continue.

For a start, said mobile analysts CCS Insight, 2009 will see sales of handsets shrink.

"This will be the first time the market has contracted since 2001," said an end of year report from CCS.

The firm said this slowdown could be blamed on the global economic downturn that will hit every part of the mobile industry.

The only place to buck these trends will be markets in developing nations, said the report. In particular, it said, India, sub-Saharan Africa and China still have low penetration rates by the standards of mature economies such as the UK.

Handset sales look set to dip in 2009 following years of growth

But, said Mr Hartley from Ovum, more customers in some markets will be a mixed blessing.

"As more and more people get a mobile you are going down the value pyramid," he said. "You get a lot of people but every single one is not going to be generating a lot of revenue."

The important thing that mobile operators have to get right in 2009 is increasing the numbers of people paying for data traffic, he said.

But, added Mr Hartley, the problem with pushing people towards using more data on the move is the knock-on effect it has on the infrastructure operators need to support those customers.

The global downturn could mean operators will find it hard to raise the capital needed to cope with significant growth, he said.

For Mr Bud from Mblox the growth of mobile broadband highlights another pressing issue for operators - how they price data plans.

Research by Mblox showed a huge discrepancy between the amounts people using different operators in different countries will pay when downloading or browsing the web.

In the UK, it found, some folk will pay about

'Boom year' for hi-tech criminals

By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

Hi-tech criminals took on a new tack in the past year

If 2007 was witness to the rise of the professional hi-tech criminal, then 2008 was the year they got down to work.

The underground economy is flourishing," said Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at security company Websense.

"They are not just more organised," said Mr Hubbard, "they are co-operating more and showing more business savvy in how they monetise what they do."

Statistics gathered by firms combating the rising tide of computer crime reveal just how busy professional cyber thieves have been over the last twelve months.

Sophos said it was now seeing more than 20,000 new malicious programs every day. 2008 was also the year in which Symantec revealed that its anti-virus software now protected against more than one million viruses.

The vast majority of these malicious programs are aimed at Windows PCs. Viruses made their debut more than 20 years ago but the vast majority of that million plus total have been created in the last two-three years.

Tidal wave

Criminal gangs generate so many viruses for two main reasons. Firstly, many variants of essentially the same malicious program can cause problems for anti-virus software which can only reliably defend against threats it is aware of.

Secondly, in the past security firms have tended to focus on the big outbreaks. By staging a series of small outbreaks the criminals hope to go unnoticed while their family of viruses racks up victims.

Spammers use tempting subjects to trick people into opening messages

Another statistic from Sophos reveals how the tactics of the online criminal groups are changing.

Before 2008 the preferred method of attack was a booby-trapped attachment circulating by e-mail.

Provocative, pornographic and personal subject lines were used to trick people into opening the attachment. Anyone doing so risked having hi-tech criminals hijack their home computer and turn them to their own nefarious ends.

In 2008, said Graham Cluley from Sophos, the main attack vector started to shift. Increasingly, he said, attackers have tried to subvert webpages by injecting malicious code into them that will compromise the computer of anyone that visits.

By the close of 2008, said Mr Cluley, Sophos was discovering a newly infected webpage roughly every 4 seconds.

The type of page being booby-trapped had also changed, he said. Prior to 2008 gambling, pornographic and pirated software sites were much more likely to be unwitting hosts for the malicious code used to hijack visitors' machines.

In 2008 the criminals turned their attention to mainstream sites that had very large audiences and were vulnerable to the code-injection attack.

Bug report

For Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, 2008 was the year in which some hi-tech criminals got much more sophisticated.

The best example of this, he said, was the virus known as Mebroot.

"We saw it very early in the year and it continues to be a very complicated case," he said.

One of its most remarkable features is its built-in bug reporting system, said Mr Hypponen. When Mebroot is detected or malfunctions revealing its presence it sends off a report to its creators who then turn out a new version with the bug fixed.

Most attacks are aimed at PCs running the Windows operating system

"It's amazing that the bad guys were capable of pulling this off," said Mr Hypponen.

Dan Hubbard from Websense said 2008 was also notable for some hi-tech criminals turning away from viruses completely and embraced another way to make money.

Many, he said, were turning out bogus security programs that look legitimate but do not work. Once installed they purport to carry out a detailed scan of a machine and always turn up many instances of spyware and other malicious programs.

Cleaning up a machine using one of the bogus security programs always involves a fee, said Mr Hubbard.

"They are testing legal boundaries that are a grey area right now," said Mr Hubbard.

In mid-December 2008 the US Federal Trade Commission won a restraining order to shut down several firms that ran so-called "scareware" scams.

Research by Israeli security company Finjan suggests that up to five million people around the world have fallen victim to such scams.

A US court granted the FTC an injunction which stopped those behind the scareware products advertise their products, from making false claims about their efficacy and froze assets in the hope that duped customers could be refunded.

2008 also saw other big successes against criminals. In mid-November spam volumes around the world plummeted briefly following the closure of US network firm McColo.

Despite this, said Mr Hypponen, 2008 was a good year for the bad guys. The successes, he said, came due to action by ISPs, other net bodies and the media rather than from the action of law enforcement agencies.

This was mainly due, he said, to the trans-national nature of hi-tech crime that made it very difficult to quickly carry out an investigation and make arrests.

"The vast majority of these cases do not seem to go anywhere," he said.

Crowning the king of the consoles

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News

2008 has seen a three-way tussle between console makers

Technology editor Darren Waters looks back at an eventful year in the world of game consoles.

At the start of 2008 there were three key questions that needed answering about the future of the games industry:

Could the Xbox 360 sustain a lead over the PlayStation 3?

Would anything derail the success of Nintendo?

And could 2008's video games match the heights of 2007?

If you are reading this and pushed for time, then the short answers are Yes, No, Not quite.

Early lead

At the start of the year the Wii was way out in front in terms of an installed base with 20 million machines in homes. By comparison the Xbox 360 was in 15.5 million homes and the PS3 nine million.

Analysts Screen Digest predicts that Nintendo will more than double its installed base of the Wii by the end of this year to 42 million, amplifying its lead over Sony and Microsoft.

The Byron review highlighted worries over game ratings

Piers Harding-Rolls from Screen Digest said Nintendo had enjoyed a "fantastic year".

"The Wii has maintained its price and they gain a profit from every bit of hardware sold," he added.

But a significant slowdown in sales in November and December in Japan points to a trickier 2009 for the company in which it may not enjoy the same blockbuster success.

The picture in 2008 was mixed for Sony and Microsoft, he said.

"The 360 and PS3 have performed fairly similarly, with just a few hundred thousand units difference over the year between them."

Screen Digest predicts that the PS3 will have an installed base of 19 million by the end of 2008, while the 360 will have 24 million.

"When we looked at the 360 at the beginning of the year we didn't think it was going to do as well as it has done."

An aggressive price cut and marketing campaign across Europe has seen the 360 do well in traditional PlayStation heartlands around the continent.

By contrast, the lack of a price cut for the PS3 combined with difficult economic circumstances for many consumers has seen the console fail to ignite as some predictions foretold.

"We think there have been corporate pressures to aim towards profitability," said Mr Harding.

"They are pretty exposed on price. Adoption has slowed and will be delayed.

He added: "We always felt that 2008 was the year that PS3 kicked off - but we think that will now be 2009."

Playing safe

This year was always going to be one of transition and development, rather than shock and awe. With no new consoles or significant hardware launches, the focus was firmly on hardware sales and software development.

The first big industry event of the year was the publication of the Byron report. In it, Dr Tanya Byron won the praise of many developers and publishers for highlighting the positive impact of gaming on children, but sparked a row which has yet to end over how games should be classified.

LittleBigPlanet was eagerly awaited by PS3 owners

Should it be the BBFC's role as an independent classifier, or self regulation through PEGI? Dr Tanya Byron seemed to be on the fence when she suggested a dual approach.

This infuriated all sides involved in rating games and it is still not clear how games will be classified in the future.

In June, E3 returned to its spiritual home of the Los Angeles Convention Center. But the more sombre and professional approach to a trade show only succeeded in making the event seem cheap and second rate.

There were few highlights from the show. Microsoft showed off its New Xbox Experience, a new front end and UI designed to take the best bits of the existing system and replicate the success of Nintendo's family-friendly Mii approach.

Sony's pitch was all about emphasising the long game. "Don't judge us now; judge us in 10 years," was the mantra, as Jack Tretton, head of PlayStation's US business, told the audience: "It took some time for mass market migration from PlayStation to PlayStation 2."

At least Sony had some decent games to finally talk about, including Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet.

Nintendo's press conference was the biggest disappointment - Wii Music garnered groans and sales on release have confirmed the limited appeal of the title, there were no updates on a new Zelda or Mario game, and the Japanese giant seemed to be resting on its laurels.

The UK games industry enjoyed mixed success in 2008.

Two of the biggest releases of the year, LittleBigPlanet and Fable II, were home-gown titles, but the financial pressures on developers were reflected in the closures of firms such as Pivotal Games, Sega's Racing Studios and NCSoft's European development office in Brighton.

Gears of War 2 was a favourite among FPS fans

And with the end of the year approaching it seemed that the most high profile closure would be Free Radical, the makers of Haze and TimeSplitters.

On the content side, the big winners of plaudits were Gears of War 2, Fable II, Dead Space and Fallout 3.

Games like LittleBigPlanet and Mirror's Edge continued to prove the level of vitality and creativity that remains in the industry.

But modest sales for the latter showed that gamers' tastes may be more narrow and limited than are suggested by opinion polls - which often decry the sequel-heavy nature of gaming.

Looking forward to 2009 I expect a few of the following questions to be answered:

Will Killzone 2 disappoint after a protracted development cycle and endless hype?

Can Heavy Rain really offer the narrative freedom that the developers seem to suggest?

Will Xbox Live in Europe start to offer decent film and TV content or will it continue to be second rate?

Do we really need a next-gen version of Wolfenstein?

Has Bungie squeezed every last drop of creativity from Halo or will Halo 3: Recon prove there's more left in the tank?

Can the community-developed recreation of Half-Life, Black Mesa, really be as good as the trailer suggests?

Putting the brakes on car theft

Digital Planet Alka Marwaha BBC World Service

80% of stolen cars in Rio end up in the 'favelas', slum areas of the city

From August next year, the Brazilian government will be equipping every new and imported car with an anti-theft and tracking system.

A car is stolen every 12 minutes in Rio de Janeiro and every three minutes in Sao Paulo.

Digital Planet's reporter Helen Clegg visited Rio de Janeiro to find out how this tracking device will work in practice.

It is mainly criminals and drugs traffickers who are behind the car thefts in Rio.

They manage to steal around five cars an hour in thefts that are often accompanied by violent assault.

Pablo Schargrotsky had his car stolen from one of the supposedly safest and wealthiest areas of the city.

"It was in Leblon, a very rich place. I was working there and it wasn't very late, seven PM," he said.

"They put a gun in my head and they said 'give me everything', then they took the car away and I called the police," he added. "They could never find the car."

Many of the stolen cars end up in the northern part of the city, an area dominated by the slum housing and industrial estates known as favelas. According to statistics from the federal police, 80% of Rio's stolen cars end up there.

Community support

She was shot in back of the neck, she died on the spot Rosemary

The private team that recovers the stolen vehicles is made up of off-duty police officers, who have developed their own methods of retrieving cars from these areas as it is very unsafe for them to enter on their own.

"Nowadays [going there] is prohibited by the state government because of the conflict with criminals and exchange of gunfire that can occur there," said Officer Carlos Silva.

"So we ask for the support of the police together with our team to carry out the recovery. We also have a contact and we can request that if the car is inside the favela they can bring it outside.

"We work a lot as a team together with the residents in the community," he added.

"The cars will come already pre-installed with the device, you are able to block your car while it is driving and no-one steals it when it is parked," said Francisco Maximo, who works for Car System, a company that produces anti-theft systems.

"It begins when your car gets stolen - you just let the thief take your car," he said.

Drug traffickers are behind much of the car crime in Rio

"Then you go to the next phone, you call the centre and say that your car is stolen," he added.

Each driver will be issued with a password that they give to the police along with the details of their vehicle.

"They ask you where and they send a signal. Your car receives the signal, blocks the car and our recovery team is on the way with the police," he said.

The car will then be located by GPS and a signal is sent directly to the vehicle, blocking its electrical system - literally stopping the car in its tracks.

Car Systems engineers busily install up to 60 systems a day. Rosemary, who declined to give her surname is one of their customers. She decided to have an anti-theft blocking system fitted after one of her friends was killed for her car.

"I lost a friend, she was leaving college and her father had given her a new car," she said.

"She hadn't put it in the garage, she was 25 years old, she resisted because it was a new car and she was shot in back of the neck, she died on the spot."

Only time will tell if implementation of this new law will have a significant impact on car crime rates in Brazil.

Digital Planet is broadcast on BBC World Service on Tuesday at 1232 GMT and repeated at 1632 GMT, 2032 GMT and on Wednesday at 0032 GMT.

You can listen onlineor download the podcast.

US questions net overhaul plans

Icann oversees much of the basic functionality of the net

Plans to offer hundreds of new web addresses as alternatives to .com have been criticised by the US government.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees net addresses has floated plans for the radical change to the existing system.

But the US Commerce department has questioned both the benefits and the costs of such a scheme.

Officials have also raised concerns about whether the plans will destabilise the current system.

Clear rationale

The US government's response includes two letters sent separately by officials raising concerns about the plans.

In a letter sent last week, Commerce Department official Meredith Baker questioned Icann's proposed pricings for the new addresses.

The net body planned to offer between 200 and 800 new addresses for sale at $185,000 (

The virtual battle of the sexes

By Tamsin Osborne BBC News

Online games' emphasis on combat has led many to paint them as male pursuits

Picture a typical player of a massively multiplayer game such as World of Warcraft and most people will imagine an overweight, solitary male.

But this stereotype has been challenged by a study investigating gender differences among gamers.

It found that the most hard-core players are female, that gamers are healthier than average, and that game playing is an increasingly social activity.

Despite gaming being seen as a male activity, female players now make up about 40% of the gaming population.

The study looked at gender differences in more than 2,400 gamers playing EverQuest II.

What we think might be at play is that it's not that games are good for you, it's that TV is bad for you Dmitri Williams

The participants, who were recruited directly out of the game, completed a web-based questionnaire about their gaming habits and lifestyles.

In addition Sony Online Entertainment, Everquest's creator, gave the US researchers access to information about the players' in-game behaviours.

Gender bias

The results showed that, although more of the players were male, it was the female players who were the most dedicated players, spending more time each day playing the game than their male counterparts.

Lead researcher Scott Caplan of the University of Delaware said the result demonstrated how out-of-date stereotypes can be.

"In many cases, stereotypes reflect what I would call a 'cultural time lag'," he said.

"What we think about men and women and videogames may have been true 10 or 15 years ago, when there were mainly console video games or single-player games.

Attitudes to games may date from the early years of consoles, say researchers

"But what were seeing now is that games become social, and as these online games become communities then the attraction for that kind of behaviour might increase for women," said Prof Caplan.

"I think a lot of our stereotypes are based on the way computer games have been, rather than where they're going."

The pressure to conform to traditional gender roles might mean that some women are put off activities seen as "masculine", whereas women who reject traditional gender roles might be more likely to play MMOs such as EverQuest II.

Perhaps in support of this the survey revealed an unusually high level of bisexuality among the women who took part in the study - over five times higher than the general population.

"These are not people who are following strict gender stereotypes," said Prof Caplan.

"I think that the game itself is right now a very non-traditional activity for women, and so I think what you would find in this population are going to be people who are in other ways less traditional than the majority population."

Consumer focus

Another unexpected finding was that the online game players - particularly the women - were healthier than the general population, though this was drawn from self-reported levels of exercise and body mass index.

Dmitri Williams, a researcher at the University of Southern California and a co-author on the study, said one possible explanation could be that playing computer games reduces the amount of time spent in front of the television.

Consoles such as the Wii have won a cross-gender audience

"What we think might be at play is that it's not that games are good for you, it's that TV is bad for you," he said.

"With television, what you get is an endless stream of commercials telling you to buy things and to consume things, and what we think we're finding is that when you remove all that consumption impulse you are probably less driven to consume."

In games such as EverQuest II, players spend their time completing quests and killing monsters, so it's possible that such in-game activities might influence players in real-life, said Prof Williams.

"It could be that games inspire a more active lifestyle, instead of sitting in front of a TV."

The study also found that men and women played computer games for different reasons, with men more likely to play to win and women more likely to play for social reasons.

Furthermore, a high proportion of women reported playing the game with their romantic partner, supporting the idea that game playing is becoming an increasingly sociable activity. The researchers say that this trend is reflected in patterns of general computer and internet use.

"If you go back 20 years and talk about people using computers and the internet, I think the stereotype would have been of a young male," said Prof Caplan.

"Nowadays, if you look at MySpace and Facebook and all of the social uses of the internet, the number of women who have it as part of their everyday life has gone up phenomenally," he said.

"In the same way that the stereotype of a computer user has become more gender-neutral, I think we'll see that with games too."

Controlling the hi-tech helpers

Some schools have been using phones alongside more traditional tools

Mobiles in schools are not necessarily bad, says columnist Bill Thompson, but they need careful management.

Most weeks I am fortunate to hear about interesting and innovative developments in technology around the world as the in-house commentator for Digital Planet, the World Service radio show presented by Gareth Mitchell.

We hear about solar-powered wi-fi in Brazil, computing in Nepal, driverless cars in the USA and silicon chips that can tell when their calculations have been affected by cosmic rays.

We get to interview interesting people like Feargal Sharkey, former Undertone and now a lobbyist for the music industry, author Steven Johnson and head of the Mozilla Foundation Mitchell Baker.

And we find out about new initiatives and projects that could shape the emerging networked world, like One Laptop per Child.

Social justice and equality of opportunity need to be balanced against our drive toward digital engagement, in the classroom as everywhere else. Bill Thompson

Test case

But having a worldwide audience doesn't stop us being interested in developments closer to home, and last week reporter Anna Lacey went to Park House school in Newbury, where they have been experimenting with the use of mobile phones in school.

Instead of banning phones and giving detention to any student foolish enough to take out their mobile in class, the school has been part of a nine-month research project into whether they can be used effectively in teaching.

The results are interesting to those of us who have seen how our children embrace new technologies.

During 2007 and 2008 Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young from the Learning Sciences Research Institute at Nottingham University and her colleagues explored ways in which students in five secondary schools could use smartphones in class.

They started from the premise that mobile phones are now "small, personal computers, providing clock, calendar, games, music player, Bluetooth connection, internet access, and high-quality camera functions in addition to voice calls and short messaging", and decided to find out whether they had a role in class.

The conclusions were hardly surprising. During the nine-month experiment, the range of activities that the smartphones could be used for was impressively broad, from timing experiments to listening to foreign language podcasts to accessing the school's student support system remotely.

Some students even recorded their teacher reading a poem to use for revision.

Hi-tech helper

Yet all of the schools involved in the project had formal policies in place that effectively outlawed the use of mobiles, even if the policies were often disregarded in practice - as they have been over the years in my childrens' schools.

Phones are starting to be made specifically for children

The current restrictions are absurd, and will not last much longer. But there is a difference between letting students use their phones to keep in touch with parents or friends and expecting them to use them in class.

Simply bringing down the barriers will not, in itself, transform pedagogic practice and will raise new problems that must be addressed.

For one thing, today's smartphones, are not actually very good when it comes to searching the web, editing documents or videoing classroom experiments.

Most, apart from the G1 and the iPhone, are primarily designed to enable users to make voice calls and send texts, and the cool user interface features are there to let their owners download and play music or take and send photos and grainy videos.

Few school students have business-oriented Blackberries, and even simple tasks like sending and receiving e-mails or reading documents sent as attachments are impossible on the average teenagers' phone.

Simply entering a web address can be a slow and painful business, and doing a proper search for sources could take a whole lesson.

Within the classroom there is also a class divide between those who have the latest models and the latest phones and those from poorer families who may not have smartphones or even any phone at all. In the research project many of the students were given phones to use, but this is not going to be the case generally.

Equal access

I was one of the first students at my school to get a pocket calculator, back in the early 1970's. It was a Sinclair Cambridge that one of my friends fathers had built from a kit, and used Reverse Polish logic, so you entered 2,2,+ to add two and two.

Of course, I wasn't allowed to use it in class, and couldn't take it into exams. But having one at home definitely gave me an advantage in maths because I spent less time doing grunt arithmetic and more time thinking about mathematics.

Divisions can appear when parents cannot afford high-end phones

The same thing could easily happen with mobiles. I'm plugged into technology, and affluent enough to provide my children with the kit they need, but there are a lot of kids at school with them who are not so fortunate.

Middle-class parents who can afford home computers, fast broadband and even laptops for their children are already giving them an advantage and we don't want the same to happen with mobiles.

The report authors are aware of this, and they point out that "the cost of wireless internet smart phones means that they are not ubiquitous among secondary school students", and note that "cost and ownership go hand in hand as issues to consider".

However, this is just the sort of concern that is likely to be missed as policy develops and guidance is issued.

We could easily see a more liberal attitude to the use of smartphones in class without any attempt to ensure equality of access or provide resources for those students who do not already own appropriate devices, and that would only serve to perpetuate the inequalities that already disfigure our education system.

Since we're unlikely to convince the department for children, schools and families to give every child under 16 their own smartphone, we should think very carefully about how we move towards opening classes up to mobile technologies.

Social justice and equality of opportunity need to be balanced against our drive toward digital engagement, in the classroom as everywhere else.

Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.