Sat-nav to aid disabled motorists

By Geoff Adams-Spink Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website

The display is clear but accuracy can be a problem

A satellite navigation system made specifically to assist disabled drivers has been made by a UK company.

Gowrings Mobility - a specialist in adapted vehicles - is marketing the BB Nav, developed by Navevo.

The system contains a database of Blue Badge parking bays, accessible toilets, disabled-friendly petrol stations and accessible accommodation.

It covers 150 major towns and cities around the UK including all of the London boroughs.

"Many disabled travellers worry about the uncertainty of not knowing where to park... and consequently do not venture further afield than their own local area," said Janet Seward, sales and marketing director at Gowrings.

"We want to make disabled travellers' lives and journeys much smoother, easier and more spontaneous."

The BB Nav grades car parks according to their level of accessibility and also has the location of more than 10,000 on-street parking bays.

The device is also programmed with the varying parking regulations for Blue Badge holders as they move from one local authority area to another.

Other "points of interest" (POIs) include accessible beaches, shopping facilities, toilets and hotels.

Road test

In practice, the BB Nav delivers a lot less than it appears to promise.

The unit is small and slim - much like other in-car GPS systems.

But unlike other satnavs that rely on finger operation, the BB Nav has a telescopic stylus that is housed in the body of the device.

Something so small and fiddly can and probably would be easily lost in a car.

The on-screen keyboard is too small to allow it to be programmed by all but the most slender of fingers.

The system had a problem finding some parking spaces

And the display fonts are so small that older motorists will be reaching for their reading glasses.

On the plus side, the display is large, the map easy to read and all side roads are helpfully named.

The default female voice is clear and crisp but does have a tendency to repeat itself too often.

When tested in the outer suburbs of North-West London, the BB Nav was disappointing and - at times - mystifying.

It failed to locate on-street parking bays on Bridge Street in Pinner.

When asked to find an accessible toilet in Ruislip, it found its way to a residential street of pre-war, detached houses with not a public convenience in sight - accessible or otherwise.

And when accessible accommodation in Harrow was requested, it located a Hilton hotel in Wembley but directed the car to industrial units close to the football stadium.

When Navevo - the makers of the BB Nav - were approached to comment upon the problems encountered, they referred the issue to The Pie Guide, the company that provides the data for the device.

Mike Hudson, data manager for Pie Guide, explained that the data on parking bays came from local authorities in a variety of formats, the quality of which was variable too.

Referring to the absence of the parking bay in Pinner, Mr Hudson said: "I suspect that the council has not provided the data to us - hopefully it will be picked up in a forthcoming update."

He said that the hard-to-locate accessible toilet in Ruislip was "troubling" and that it would require further investigation.

Data on accessible hotels was, he admitted, "not great".

The information comes from a variety of sources depending on the part of the UK being searched.

And not all hotel chains submit to the verification process which they would have to pay for.

"There is no one, single data source to which we can go and extract this information," said Mr Hudson.

Data updates are planned for the future but are still the subject of commercial negotiations between Navevo and Pie.

For a product costing just under

Warning of infected auction tool

Auctiva has more than 500,000 users

A third-party add-on for eBay used by thousands of sellers is being flagged by Google as potentially malicious, after it became infected with a trojan.

Auctiva provides tools for sellers on the popular auction website.

The company confirmed a virus had attached itself to files on its servers but remedied the problem soon after.

However, Google continues to warn users searching for the site that it "may potentially harm your computer".

The trojan, called Adclicker, is classed by security specialist Symantec as a "very low risk". It is designed to "artificially generate traffic to certain web sites" and is used by malicious hackers to boost clicks to online banner adverts or to inflate web statistics.

On its community forum Auctiva said that it had "initiated a request with Google to have our site cleared from being reported as a malicious site".

Google works in partnership with the StopBadware.org organisation to warn users about potentially malicious websites that are infected with viruses and trojans.

Users warned

More than 186,265 websites have been reported to StopBadware for hosting malicious programs or web scripts, which can damage a a computer or, in extreme cases, hijack a machine.

Users first flagged the problem with the Auctiva site last week after anti-virus software began to warn there could be a problem with the service.

Some users reported they were also receiving warnings on auction listings inside eBay.

The firm said it had removed servers in China that had become infected with the trojan and that it was "currently safe to navigate the Auctiva website".

However, until the website is cleared by the StopBadware organisation users will continue to get warnings from Google when clicking on the site following a search.

A spokesman for Google said the site was to be reviewed by StopBadware soon.

Investing in the next 'big thing'

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

YouNoodle wants to make backing start-ups less of a gamble

A San Francisco company has launched a tool to help investors decide where to put their money.

YouNoodle uses a scoring system that plans to turn the business of investment into more of a science.

The software measures the "buzz" surrounding a company via blogs and media reports along with a variety of factors including website traffic.

The scoring tool covers nearly 30,000 start-ups, ranging from biotechnology to gaming software.

"By watching the way the world responds to a start-up, we can give advance notice of what's hot and what's not," said co-founder Bob Goodson.

Researchers adjust the algorithm (the mathematical rating), based on more than 150,000 start-up related stories, every day. Those reports are then analysed in much the same way that Google ranks content on a web page.

Assessing the chatter on Twitter is one of the sources the score is based on

"While dollars are regarded as the best indicator of success, there are other good indicators out there before there is revenue," Mr Goodson told the BBC.

"Take something like Facebook, which is an example from Web 2.0. For two years there was rapid growth, rapid expansion, hiring, media coverage and so on without the revenue.

"So if you are in the business of needing to understand what's hot, then you need to know what is moving before the revenue numbers come through. For investors, getting in early is where the real money is made," explained Mr Goodson.

Early warning system

The algorithm behind the new scoring system was devised by New Zealander Dr Sean Gourley.

He has also worked on modelling the likelihood of terrorist attacks for the Pentagon and describes the start-up tool as "an early warning system" that highlights to people the potential of a company.

The public can check the health of a start up for free

"Maybe 20 years ago if you were a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, you knew everyone through your network and everyone came to you," said Dr Gourley, who is director of data tools.

"Today the world is a lot bigger and there is a lot of information out there. We wade through the noise and create value by making sense of it all and putting a spotlight on companies that could easily slip under the radar, because they don't come through the old boys' network."

While Dr Gourley talked of hoping to "create a meritocracy" for the start-up world, the reality is that venture capitalists have always relied on their trusted networks, personal referrals and their own gut instinct.

Ron Conway is a business "angel", who invests at an early stage of a company's life. Of the more than 500 start-ups he has put his money into, his successes include Google, PayPal, Digg and Ask Jeeves.

He is affectionately known as the Godfather of Silicon Valley for having placed more bets on internet start-ups than anyone else in the Valley.

He told the BBC he thought the scoring system "sounded like a useful tool that I think would be helpful to investors".

However he also said that for him, the personal connection was what counted.

"Most of my deal flow comes from the people in the more than 500 companies I have invested in. If the company is recommended to me by someone I have done business with in the past, then that will move it way up my list.

"For me, word of mouth and trust is even more important to me than a scoring system. But it might help as an add-on," said Mr Conway.

Best return

Investing in start-ups can seem like a risky way to make money given that there is no guarantee of a return and the belief is that most companies flame out within the first couple of years.

Mr Goodson said he believes this scoring system will take some of the gambling element out of the equation, as well as eventually boosting the $100bn (

Judge dismisses Google lawsuit

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Google's Street View has been criticised on several occasions

A legal claim by a Pittsburgh couple that Google's Street View feature violated their privacy has been thrown out by a federal judge.

Christine and Aaron Boring sued the search giant after photos of their home appeared on the free mapping programme.

The couple accused Google of privacy violation, negligence, trespassing and unjust enrichment.

In her ruling, Judge Amy Reynolds Hay said the Borings "failed to state a claim under any count".

"We are pleased the judge agreed the suit was without merit," said Google in a statement to the BBC.

Street View displays street level, 360-degree photographs of areas taken by specially equipped Google vehicles.

Failure

The photographs at the centre of the lawsuit, launched last year, were taken at the foot of Mr and Mrs Boring's driveway and shows their house, a pool area and detached garage. Signs marked the road as private.

The suit alleged that Google's Street View had caused Mr and Mrs Boring "mental suffering" and diluted the value of their home.

Google removed the offending pictures after the lawsuit was filed

"While it is easy to imagine that many whose property appears on Google's virtual maps resent the privacy implications, it is hard to believe that any - other than the most exquisitely sensitive - would suffer shame or humiliation," Judge Amy Reynolds Hay of US District Court for Western Pennsylvania wrote in her 12-page decision.

The judge also suggested that the Borings' lawsuit made it possible for more people than ever to view the picture of their home.

"The Borings do not dispute that they have allowed the relevant images to remain on Google Street View, despite the availability of a procedure for having them removed from view," wrote Judge Reynolds Hay.

"Furthermore, they have failed to bar others' access to the images by eliminating their address from the pleadings, or by filing this action under seal," she said.

The publicity has actually perpetuated dissemination of the Borings' name and location, and resulted in frequent re-publication of the Street View images, the judge concluded.

"The plaintiffs' failure to take readily available steps to protect their own privacy and mitigate their alleged pain suggests to the Court that the intrusion and that their suffering were less severe than they contend," wrote Judge Reynolds Hay.

The Borings had sought $25,000 (

Mobile broadband next-gen battle

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, Barcelona

Advertisement

Rory Cellan-Jones takes a look at the wireless internet to replace 3G currently being tested on the streets of Barcelona

A number of companies at the Mobile World Congress are demonstrating hardware they think will make up so-called fourth generation or 4G solutions to succeed the current 3G technology.

The explosion of interest in mobile broadband - and consumers' insatiable craving for faster connections - means that this more forward-looking part of the industry is filled with contenders.

In the UK, the highest mobile broadband speed available is 7.2 megabits per second (Mbps), and Vodafone has successfully trialled a 3G network in Spain providing 20Mbps.

However, just like fixed-line broadband, the upper speed limit that is quoted is rarely reached, with a number of variables affecting a user's speed limit at a given time. The same is true for these 4G demonstrations.

Highway

Two very different rivals are on show here, with two very different technological pedigrees: WiMAX and LTE.

Driving around Barcelona during the Congress are two vans, demonstrating the truly mobile capabilities of both approaches.

Two rival formats are competing to succeed existing 3G technology

"What you've seen so far, this 2G and 3G, is the end of one road. This is the beginning of the next, the highway," says Noel Kirkaldy, a director of marketing solutions for Motorola.

WiMax is, roughly speaking, an evolved version of the Wi-Fi effort and works at similar frequencies. It is being championed largely by the computer industry.

The communications industry tends to back LTE, short for Long-Term Evolution - and is much more well-represented at the Congress, organised by the industry's umbrella organisation GSMA.

Both are capable of providing speeds higher than today's High-Speed Packet Access, or HSPA, that drives current mobile broadband, with upper limits depending on with whom you're speaking.

Both are step changes in the technology, requiring new hardware on the ground to transmit, and new hardware in whatever mobile device you have in your hand to listen.

Here today

The demonstrations in the vans are to prove that the technologies can accomplish one of the more difficult aspects of any cellular technology: the "handoff" that occurs as you move further away from one base station and closer to another.

For a call not to drop or a download not to crash, the handoff has to be seamless.

For WiMAX, says Intel's Tim Sweeney, that problem has long since been cracked, and the crucial part of the debate is that WiMAX is here, now. Worldwide, only one commercial contract has been signed to deliver a complete LTE network.

We're deploying WiMAX networks today Tim SweeneyIntel

"We're deploying WiMAX networks today," Mr Sweeney told BBC News. "We have the whole city of Portland, Oregon covered - In the US alone, $3 billion in deployments will be invested this year.

"There is no LTE that can be deployed today."

A few commercial speed tests in the van show download speeds around six megabits per second.

In the LTE van, a constant video feed from the Congress show floor is being fed in high-definition.

"That's eight megabits, over the air," says Mr Kirkaldy.

Downturn effects

The number of factors in the battle - along with the number of acronyms - is staggering.

The allocation of spectrum, which determines the upper limit of broadband speeds, is a matter still being hashed out for both technologies.

The "digital dividend" debate in the UK has shown how valuable each band of frequencies can be.

Future speeds are, of course, the bottom line. Mr Sweeney says that by this time next year WiMAX2 will be on show, with double the current speeds.

LTE proponents quote numbers up to 100Mbps, but because the only thing on offer is demonstration networks, the final hardware and specifications are still up in the air.

What will ultimately make the world of mobile broadband go round is money.

At present neither WiMAX or LTE has a clear lead over the other

Many industry analysts believe that WiMAX may fill a gap while LTE is developed further, standardised, and deployed. But in the longer term, the telecoms industry's capital and existing customer base will act as the 800-pound gorilla that pushes LTE through as the industry standard.

Motorola has its feet in both camps, with clients for both its WiMAX solutions and LTE development.

Motorola's Ben Ansell says that current economic conditions may give WiMAX more foothold in the market in the longer term.

"It was all reasonably clear until recently, when the economy fell to bits," he says.

"LTE learned from WiMAX, built on that and has all the financial muscle of the Oranges and T-Mobiles. Once it gathers momentum it could steamroller WiMAX.

"But to deploy a full LTE network, you're talking billions of dollars, and that's got to be borrowed from somewhere. So companies put that off for a couple of years, by which time WiMAX has gathered more momentum - because they're quite cheap and quite easy to deploy."

Sylvain Fabre, research director for mobile networks at analysts Gartner, says that things are not incredibly clear because LTE is still in its very early stages.

"A lot of these LTE announcements are to a large extent just PR," he told BBC News. "You ask about deployments and they're much more careful with their language."

Nevertheless, Mr Fabre says that regardless of short-term global economic concerns, WiMAX will "always be a distand second" to LTE.

"As far as where the investment money going to go, it's going to be LTE. WiMAX is going to exist, it has a place in some markets, but it's not going to be a real alternative to LTE."

Facebook 'withdraw' data changes

Mark Zuckerberg started the site to help students connect

The founder of Facebook says the social network will return to its previous terms of service regarding user data.

In a blog post Mark Zuckerberg said the move was temporary "while we resolve the issues that people have raised".

Users had complained after new terms of service seemed to suggest Facebook would retain personal data even if someone deleted their account.

Originally defending the changes, Mr Zuckerberg said it was to better reflect how people used the site.

stressed that users "own their information and control who they share it with".

Concern grew when amended terms of service for the site deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time.

Facebook, which has 175 million users, said the changes reflected how people used the site.

Comments will remain on the site if a user deletes their account

Mr Zuckerberg said the changes were made to ensure that if a user deletes his or her account any comments or messages he or she had left on a friend's Facebook page would not also disappear.

He said: "We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear."

He added: "In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want."

Some Facebook users have created groups on the site to oppose the changes.

It is not clear just how much data, or what types of data, is retained on Facebook if a user decides to shut their account.

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.

Pirate Bay joy at charge change

Two of the defendants argued their innocence on Sunday in a webcast

Half of the charges levelled at the founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing site have been dropped.

Swedish prosecutors dropped charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement" leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available copyright material" on trial day two.

Pirate Bay co-founder Frederik Neik said it showed prosecutors had misunderstood the technology.

The music industry played down the changes as "simplifying the charges".

Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, said: "It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay.

"In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."

The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and quickly established itself as the world's most high profile file-sharing website. In February 2009, it reported 22 million simultaneous users.

At the start of the trial in Stockholm, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and Carl Lundstorm were facing a large fine and up to two years in prison, if convicted.

"This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday," defence lawyer Per E Samuelson told the TorrentFreak website, which reports on developments in the BitTorrent file-sharing community.

BitTorrent is a legal application used by many file-shares to swap content because of the fast and efficient manner it distributes files.

No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users computers.