On the road: Citroën C4 1.6 Hdi-e

This one arrived with a man! From Citroën, talk me through it. It is nice. He gave me a private little presentation in my front room. It felt a bit naughty, and afterwards I saved a 20 on top of his pants ... not, of course, I do not. Be honest, I was worrying about which mainly root site was.

So told the man from Citroën me of objective profiles, market needs and provide the customer with what the customer wants; for increased comfort levels, bebølighed and the cabin atmosphere. I gave him a cup of tea, and because I am a Flechard coward I said it all so brilliant. There is a lie.

What I mean is that the C4 was previously a much, much more interesting car – a striking and distinctive design in the spirit of the Citroëns reputation for innovation. I am not saying it will be a classic, like a traction Avant or a DS or even a 2CV, but it can be. Replacement? Absolutely no chance.

Through compromise and market needs and listens to what the customer wants and trying to compete with the Ford Focus, they have come up with something that is indescribably dull. It looks like dozens of other cars. It is a Citroën focus. Or possibly a Citroën focus group. Oh, and the fixed hub steering wheel, which remained still in the Middle – gone too.

It is a pity it comes such dull package, because the new car is good. I try the environmentally respectful e-HDi, with an impressive engine stop-start system, which seems to know what I am doing before I do. Clutchless automated manual gearbox is a little weird and takes some getting used to — it's like a ghost change up and down for you. But it all adds up to some impressive fuel economy and emissions production – as low as 109 g/km, although my higher spec navigability out 114 (the extra 5 g would not kill any polar bears, however, is it?).

My "exclusive" model also means I got a lot of toys. I can customize my signal alerts – safety belt warning indicators, all of this. I got a cruise control and speed limiter, both useful and appropriate as I am taking it to Basingstoke for my speeding detention or driver awareness training as they call it (brilliant by the way, recommended). Be honest, there is no real temptation to way in this car. You are more likely to drive round to the parish priest, to tea.

Price £ 21,095
Top speed 122 mph
Acceleration 0-62 mph in 11.2 seconds
Average consumption 62.4 mpg
CO2 emissions 114 g/km
Eco rating 8/10
Bound to A little snoring
In a word Middle-aged

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Tenders for a bargain

My Paypal payments total last year £ 315.06, with the majority of this frittered away on vintage pieces found in the online Aladdin cave eBaythere is. I am not made strong enough things to be eBay a serious bidder. Just last month I lost out with a bargain pair of ' future vintage ' Swedish Hasbeens clog boots while trying to decide whether I really wanted to block boots or was just get caught up in stupid-starts-price hysteria.

When it comes to bidding, I officially small fish. There are big-shot bidders, however, as it will take much more seriously. eBay recently revealed their top five most expensive tenders and the items that were won.

Comes in as number one, watch Big Red Rolex Daytona Cosmograph was won for the entire £ 16,950 in 2010. Named after a 24-hour race by daytona International Speedway, allow desirable clock race car drivers to measure circuit time and calculate the average speed. Just what everyone needs.

One jewels States there are ten year waiting list model with Rolex and this exclusivity goes some way to explain his appeal to the non-professional drivers. Although with so much money to save Watchclub.com prices-a similar element of more than £ 20,000 may-Daytona owners have a racing car or two banks about…

For rough valuations on other topics represent the top five I buzzed me to some of Brightons many new and antique jewellery shops:

According to one diamond dealer, if this paragraph was authentic-the list does not mention a certification-could rock in this platinum ring be worth £ 11,500 alone.

Antique watch experts said that similar gold-envelopes dress timepieces to the development of the prestigious Swiss watchmaker can fetch between £ 7,000 to £ 8000 with the authentic signatures.

Jewellers agreed that the price of the bracelet, which boasts 198 diamonds in white gold on white gold, yellow is on the right, while admitting that "it is difficult to value if color and clarity is not specified".

Named after the style icon Grace Kelly, is this cult bag and other classic Hermès arm candy regular parties at traditional auction houses. Kelly has retrieved between £ 600 to £ 1,920 Christies on in recent years.

But as valuations, experts were eager to offer up their eBay horror stories.

The owners of Brighton lanes antique Centre said they deal with upset eBay customers each week: "the few myself worked, because the seller will indicate that an item has been valued at a certain quantity but often if it says £ 10.000de will be lucky to get £ 2000 to it."

Of course, there are risks when you buy such expensive items online, but while I have had to sell me on eBay to raise the kind of cash change hands (some have tried it before) believe that people are willing to part with itIf they believe they solved themselves some bargain bling.

So is the traditional auction houses concerned about competition? "Prices are telling their own story", said Julian Roup Bonhamsof. "They are very modest in relation to what Bonhams is to achieve in jewelry, watches and textiles."

But if your only knowledge of hammer-reigned auctions are taken from the day through TV programmes the following teams in matching pillaging, participate in a formal matter can be threatening. What if you sneeze and come to buy a yacht?

Buy online, on the other hand is a little too easy-you don't even have to get dressed – and the choice of the goods offered on eBay means that you will probably find something that takes your fancy.

I recognize this, it appears that the country's best-known auction houses unwilling to let the mammoth buy and sell site corner market in convenience.

Internet sale room Christie's LIVE was used by over a quarter of its customers in 2010. You can also download Christie's iPad and iPhone apps and Bonhams is currently rolling out of his own online tenders service.

Granted, falling in love with a four-digit vintage bag while you are crushed like a sardine in a commuter train transport may not be as glamorous as Trainspotting it across a grand auction space, but there is little doubtthat cut out the middle man is increasingly appealing to both buyers and sellers.

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How Sony can still deliver PS3s in Europe

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The Guardian reported on Monday on LG's latest patent strike against Sony in a wider patent battle over Blu-ray Discs, smartphones and video game consoles:

"European customs officers have been ordered to seize shipments of Playstation 3s after LG won a preliminary injunction against Sony [...] The ruling by the civil court of justice in the Hague means that all new PS3s have to be confiscated as they are imported into the UK and the rest of Europe for at least 10 days."

How much trouble is Sony in now? Is Europe about to run out of PS3s?

LG made a bold move that definitely ups the pressure on Sony. But it's important to understand that patent enforcement in Europe is still a country-by-country affair – even though there is a European Patent Office – and Sony can work around the Dutch decision by going through entry points outside of the Netherlands. That's a logistical nightmare, but it is a possibility. Sony is most likely already exploring such alternative routes.

(And in case you'd forgotten what the dispute is actually about: LG claims that Sony's Blu-ray playback infringes LG patents. Sony, meanwhile, filed suit in December against LG over smartphone technologies, and trying to stop their import into the US. LG, in response, is trying to get PS3 imports into the US banned. Now read on.)

In order to cause greater disruption to European PlayStation sales, LG would have to obtain injunctions in more EU member states than just the Netherlands, a country that accounts for only 3% of Europe's total population size.

While LG hasn't confirmed anything, and Sony's official statement doesn't say much, there's every indication that LG requested customs action against goods suspected of patent infringement in accordance with EU Council Regulation No 1383/2003 and additionally obtained a prejudgment seizure decision from a court in The Hague, Netherlands. The combination of those two measures means Sony has a serious problem in the Dutch market, but it's not the end of the world for the PlayStation in the whole of Europe.

As The Guardian reports, "Rotterdam [a Dutch seaport] and Schiphol [Amsterdam airport] are the main import points for PS3s for both the UK and continental Europe". But Sony could change that.

Other high-tech companies will be watching this with interest, and with concern. For example, Apple and Nokia are also battling each other in Europe, and other litigants can never know when their adversaries are going to seek European customs action as a way to increase the pressure on them.

In 1994 the European Community (nowadays known as the European Union, or "EU") passed a law for the seizure of counterfeit and pirated goods, amended it in 1999, and replaced it in 2003 with Council Regulation (EC) No. 1383/2003 concerning customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights and the measures to be taken against goods found to have infringed such rights.

Over time, the regulation had evolved from an anti-counterfeiting measure into a broader protection of right holders. In particular, patents were not within the scope of the regulation at the outset: while many counterfeit goods infringe patents, most patent infringers aren't pirates.

Customs authorities are usually not equipped to make the technically and legally complicated determination of infringement that usually requires multi-year lawsuits. The regulation provides the possibility that customs offices may act at their own initiative (ex officio) if they suspect infringement, but its Section 2 sets out the practically more relevant scenario of a right holder applying for customs action in writing. In that case, a right holder doesn't bear the burden of proof that there is an actual infringement. It is merely sufficient that "goods are suspected of infringing an intellectual property right", such as a patent under the law of the EU member state in which the application is filed.

Yes, being "suspected" of infringement is all it takes. Looks lopsided, doesn't it?

But rights holders seeking to harm competitors must be careful. A rights holder whose infringement allegations aren't confirmed by a court of law may be liable for the damage inflicted under the law of the EU member state in which the application was made. In other words, if Sony prevails, it could sue LG for damages.

Also, seized goods will be released after 10 days if the relevant customs office hasn't been notified of judicial proceedings under national law. Even if a lawsuit has been filed, there is still a potential way out: "the declarant, owner, importer, holder or consignee of the goods shall be able to obtain the release of the goods or an end to their detention on provision of a security", pursuant to Article 14.

What sort of 'security'? "The security [...] must be sufficient to protect the interests of the right-holder", which means that Sony would have to deposit the amount of damages LG might be awarded if it prevailed in court. But in the Netherlands this doesn't seem to be an option for Sony, because LG appears to have obtained a preliminary injunction by a court in The Hague, ordering prejudgment seizure. As a result, the PlayStations detained there won't be released without LG's consent until the end of the lawsuit.

Courts hand down such injunctions only based on a summary judgment standard: it's a quick procedure, but the party requesting the injunction must show that it has a reasonable chance to prevail. By contrast, the application for customs action under the said EU regulation merely has to meet formal requirements without proving the infringement allegations by any standard at all.

While the European Patent Office (EPO) performs the centralized examination of European patent applications, EPO patents are just bundles of national patents, each of which is assigned a national patent number and can be enforced only in the one country in which it is valid. This is going to change: the EU is in the process of creating a single EU patent and patent judiciary, but this will take years to come to fruition.

The aforementioned European regulation requires a patent holder to claim an infringement only of a national patent. LG holds some Dutch patents that it apparently claims are infringed by the PS3, and didn't have to allege the infringement of patents in any other EU member state.

But the prejudgment seizure order issued by the court in The Hague is valid only in the Netherlands. Therefore, if Sony ships PlayStations directly into other EU member states, the local customs authorities there will not take that seizure order into account. They may pay attention to LG's application for customs action, but in that case Sony could bail out the detained goods on security after a maximum of 10 days. Any further detention would require an injunction in the relevant country.

Prejudgment seizure appears to be a particularly Dutch phenomenon. It is also mentioned in a very interesting Managing Intellectual Property article on how customs can help patent owners.

While other European countries may not provide prejudgment seizure, it would be possible to seek preliminary injunctions against the sale of allegedly infringing goods. This is an option in many European countries. In Germany, the largest EU member state (and home to the major seaports of Hamburg and Bremen as well as Frankfurt Airport, one of the world's 10 largest cargo hubs), it is possible to obtain preliminary injunctions in a relatively rapid procedure, but alleged infringers are usually given an opportunity to defend themselves prior to a preliminary injunction. Also, if a preliminary injunction is granted but fails to be upheld in a subsequent main proceeding, there is a considerable liability risk involved.

In order not to give LG any clues, Sony will likely not announce which alternative routes into Europe it is exploring for the PS3. This is a major logistical challenge – Sony needs to import an estimated 100,000 per week to keep up with sales demand – but it will probably go to extreme lengths to avoid the loss of market share in Europe. In that case, LG will have to chase the PS3 down across the EU, or at least in the largest markets. It will take much more than the surprise effect of the Dutch decision – however impressive it may be per se – to bring Sony to its knees.

That said, it seems that the patent wars between major industry players are ever more bitterly contested, and Europe increasingly becomes a battlefield.

If you'd like to be updated on the smartphone patent disputes and other intellectual property matters I cover, please follow me on Twitter @FOSSpatents.

A version of this post first appeared on Florian Mueller's FOSSPatents blog. It is used with permission.

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21st century, high-tech India: wrote the country on the planet

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A1,000-mile stretch of high hills blanketed in forests near India's west coast is one of the most remote places in the world. There are at least 5,000 types of flower. Elephants, snakes, tigers, and cave bats all live here, secluded from the rest of India. Zoologists who have occasionally ventured into the Ghats have found new species by the handful. The mountainous territory is inhospitable. The second I cross into it, civilisation disappears. I can't get a mobile phone signal.

And yet here in the middle of the Western Ghats, in what can reasonably be called nowhere, I descend into a steep valley and find myself in what will soon become one of the most advanced cities on earth.

I first read about Lavasa in an advertisement in an inflight magazine, and became intrigued by what the advert claimed will be a metropolis governed mainly by machines. A central bank computers will control everything here from household security to the transport network. It's a half-billion dollar project to build, from scratch, an urban dream in the middle of the mountains.

Standing on the promenade in the heart of Lavasa, I have a vantage point across the entire site. Ten years ago there was nothing here but a few tribal villagers living in low thatched huts. They grow food by terracing the slopes and waiting for the monsoon rains to feed their rice and vegetables. And now they can be found on the outskirts, watching this city rise from the valley, like a girl gazing at her mother while she puts on her makeup.

If it looks surreal to me, it must look bizarre to the villagers. There are tall, thin, multicoloured apartment blocks in long terraces; they appear to have been lifted brick by brick from the Italian streets of Portofino. The opulent chalets above me, nestled inside the forests, could be from Bavaria. In the brochure, the Lavasa Corporation has used pictures of Oxford to illustrate how picturesque Lavasa will look when it's finished. It's as if the developers have picked the most beautiful parts of Europe and transplanted them here.

Right now, though, it's a ghost town. Work has halted while the Indian authorities debate environmental issues surrounding the development, though few seriously doubt that the project will reach completion. The city is eerily silent. There's a state-of-the-art hospital, which looks deserted. Electricity pylons stretch from here to the horizon, standing tall in the sun like marching aliens. The only building that could be described as remotely busy is the canary-coloured town hall where men in suits and sleeveless yellow safety jackets stand outside for a smoke, but by any normal standards it's very quiet. This is the opposite of an  Indian city.

"Indian cities have not distinguished themselves in the annals of urban management in terms of how well run they are," says Scot Wrighton, the American city manager for Lavasa, whose small office is upstairs inside the town hall. He's responsible for running the city until it receives its first residents and elects a real mayor. Although this is an Indian project, the developers scoured the world for an expert who knew how to run towns with western efficiency and cutting-edge technology. Wrighton, who has previously managed a few midwestern cities, was their choice.

I imagine that travelling from the American midwest to the Western Ghats must have been a culture shock for him. Many Indian cities are unplanned and riddled with slums. Affluent districts have security guards on constant watch or locked gates at least. Since 24-hour access to any kind of amenity, from water to electricity, is rarely guaranteed, people who can afford it have their own electricity generators and water pumps.

So the challenge for Lavasa's planners is to create a city that doesn't suffer from these problems. The way they hope to do it is by wherever possible replacing human bureaucrats with machines.

Miles from the reach of even the police and the emergency services, Lavasa is, by accident or design (I can't figure out which), forced to be self-sufficient. The chairman of the Lavasa Corporation, Ajit Gulabchand, dreams of turning this city into its own governmental entity, so it can do whatever any other Indian city is allowed to do, from providing healthcare and education to levying taxes. His ambitious promise is that Lavasa "will be a city that governs itself" using technology, leapfrogging cities in the rest of the world.

But this isn't just an idealistic community. Lavasa is also a profitable real-estate development. Mumbai is only a few hours away. And the nearest city, Pune, is famous as an up-and-coming IT hub. In fact, the more I wander around the perfect pavements and delicate fountains in the blistering midday heat, the more I notice how hard they're trying to attract the kind of nerdy IT workers who are working in India's booming technology companies like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. There's a videogaming arcade opposite the American diner. In the next few years developers will also be building a space theme park, masterminded by the same people who created the American Space Camp in Alabama.

This may be India's first city designed for Generation Y. It's a geek's paradise. And not only will the geeks live here, the geeks will rule.

"Electronic governance is really nothing more than conducting the basic transactions of government via an electronic portal," says Scot Wrighton. This means replacing paper-based filing, official forms and bills with digital ones, and transferring every point of contact between the government and its citizens online. The philosophy behind it is that automating the government can make bureaucracy faster, easier and more transparent. (The idea itself isn't new. About a decade ago countries around the world, but particularly in Asia, began putting these ideas into practice in earnest, using the terms e-government and Government 2.0.)

Here in Lavasa, one of the major companies responsible for installing and maintaining the technology is Wipro, one of India's big three IT firms. The linchpin of the e-governance system is a website through which residents will be able to pay their bills, access emergency services, report any problems, make complaints and do anything else involving the government's help. Households without computers will have a digital automation unit fitted in their homes to give them access to the site. The hardware will be replaced every four years or so, and the software will be automatically updated through the internet cloud. It's a "slimmed-down, more efficient" infrastructure, Wrighton explains.

Click here to download a PDF of Pete Guest's graphic on the hi-tech subcontinent

The Lavasa public-relations team take me to speak to the person from Wipro responsible for installing the hardware. He's known here only by his initials, UGK. He won't tell me what the U stands for but the GK means Gopal Krishna. "Lavasa on a proactive basis would be looking at every aspect of infrastructure in the city," he tells me, "whether it is the streetlights, whether it is the roads, whether it is utilities. In the phase one, we would be having approximately 70km of optical fibre."

Metre by metre, researchers are mapping the city using a geographic information system. It includes water pipes, fibre optic cables, electrical wires, transport links, and the footprint of every building. If a pipe bursts, they will know exactly where it is.

UGK continues: "You will have smart metering enabled which will allow you to capture the points of failure on a predictive basis, a preventive basis. It will also exactly pinpoint where the fault is. All this would ensure that a resident at Lavasa would experience a very quick turnaround of faulty actions and repairs around that."

I'm impressed, but at the same time I can't escape the feeling that I'm being given the hard sell. Indeed, from the slick brochures to the manicured gardens, it all feels like a giant sales pitch. But I guess I should have expected this. If the Lavasa Corporation doesn't attract a critical mass of at least 100,000 residents, there simply won't be enough teachers, doctors, lecturers, shop staff and other people to supply and use the services. It will remain a ghost town.

The PR team and the staff continue to drill me with the idea that Lavasa won't only work here but can also be a role model for the rest of India. "We can't just cram more people into these already overloaded cities," says Wrighton.

"What we're going to have to think about is how to structure that and deliver those services differently. That's the laboratory of Lavasa. The vision of the chairman is that we can create a new governance model that can be replicated elsewhere. That's a terribly grand and idealistic goal, OK. It really doesn't exist anywhere else. So his idea is that we will be the laboratory, and figure out what works and what doesn't work."

He suggests that I check out the corporate video in the building next door. He's in it, he tells me, half proud and half embarrassed. It's as professional as a Hollywood movie. Over helicopter shots of the lush hills someone quotes Byron: "There is society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less but Nature more…"

Gulabchand appears on screen in sunglasses and a sharp suit. "Four hundred million people will migrate from rural areas to the urban areas in India over the next 40 years," he says, his thick, silvery hair fluttering as he walks past some bushes, the towering hills behind him. "This huge migration took a thousand years to happen in Europe. It will happen in India in just 40. India will have to expand its cities and towns." The solution, Gulabchand announces, is Lavasa.

The next morning I take a tour of the entire 25,000-acre site. Most is empty land, with only the odd bulldozer lazily nuzzling the dirt. Reaching the edges, where the black Tarmac gives way to dirt roads, we stray into tribal territory. The number of people living in Lavasa, I am told, will be capped at 300,000 to make sure that services aren't overwhelmed. The city will be a quarter of the size of Mumbai but with only 2% of the population. There isn't a town on earth I know of that is so tightly controlled that the size is decided upfront, except maybe a retirement village.

I also wonder what this means for the poorer families on the outskirts of the city. When the Lavasa Corporation arrived in the Western Ghats, 150 families moved out of the valley.

"They just moved from their land? Didn't they mind?" I ask.

"They were hardly connected to the city," a spokeswoman tells me. "There used to be a bus maybe once a day, maybe less." Now there are regular buses. And to help keep the peace, the corporation also gave them electricity connections for the first time, and built creches to educate the local children. "This is better for them," she insists.

I leave Lavasa the following day. Rushing to the airport, the driver is reluctant to take a shortcut. He tells me he's scared to go down the minor roads because people living outside Lavasa throw rocks at vehicles coming out of the city when they see them.

Some fear that the environmental impact on this corner of the Western Ghats may be too big, and that's why work is currently at a standstill. The Lavasa Corporation is waiting for clearance before it can continue construction, which, given the might of the project, I am sure it will do. But I wonder whether the geeky governance model being used here can be replicated, as the corporation seems to believe, or if it runs the risk of turning India into an even more split society by introducing a digital divide where economic divides already exist. Lavasans will be living their hi-tech, sheltered lives parallel to the forest-dwelling tribes just a few mountains away. For it to work, it would have to meet everyone's needs, not just those of the wealthy and privileged.

KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW: Biotech queen
Named one of the world's 100 most influential people last year by Time magazine and dubbed "India's mother of invention", Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon in her Bengaluru basement aged 25. Her aim was to make drugs affordable to everyone. Now Biocon is Asia's largest biotech company.

NR NARAYANA MURTHY: "India's Bill Gates"
Chairman of Infosys Technologies, a consulting and IT services company with offices in 33 countries and some 128,000 employees. Founded by Murthy in 1981 with just $250, Infosys is based in a vast Google-style campus in Electronics City, Bengaluru's answer to Silicon Valley. Murthy, 64, is now worth an estimated $1.6bn but lives a simple life.

NANDAN NILEKANI: Socially conscious tech guru
The charismatic former CEO of Infosys helped move India into the IT age. Now he's heading up India's new ID programme, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), which many believe will benefit the country's faceless millions.

G MADHAVAN NAIR: Space-race heavyweight
Until recently the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Nair supervised sending the Chandrayaan-1 rocket to the moon in 2008 and 27 other space missions.
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MANISH GUPTA: Spoken Web prophet
Runs IBM's Spoken Web, a voice-based internet service which could boost the number of internet surfers by hundreds of millions.
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AZIM PREMJI: Modest IT billionaire
Media-shy chairman of Wipro who turned a family business that produced cooking oil into a software giant, after entering IT in the 1980s. Premji, 65, is, according to Forbes, the 28th richest person in the world but drives a Toyota Corolla and flies economy class. His Premji Foundation, based in Bengaluru, recently donated £1.2bn to education in rural India. Killian Fox

Angela Saini is a science journalist. Extracted from Geek Nation, How Indian Science is Taking Over the World.

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TED: "there are an awful lot of brains out there" – all working days to save the world

At seven in the evening seem bags under Jamie Olivereyes has acquired bags of their own. He looks as if he has not slept in days. It may well be, for he has just spent an exhausting two-and-a-half months filming in Los Angeles for his new series, where he was banned from each school in the city, and moments earlier he had bounded to the stage TED ideas of the Conference and delivered a 6-minute talk about the progress of his food revolution.

"It was really hard," he told me. "I mean how to summarize a year in six minutes?" But he did it, why he flew in from South Beach, Florida, and delayed his return to the United Kingdom, it is because "there is more power in this room than there are in the Capitol Hill and Downing Street combined. These people can get things done. "

"The room" Long Beach Convention Centre, South of Los Angeles, terrace theatre and "people" is the 1350 persons pay more than £ 4,000 to participate in the four days of talks by some of the most interesting and dynamic people on the planet. A year ago of Oliver received the award in the TED, a $ 100,000 award that comes with the option to make "a desire to change the world" and a community of people who commit to make it happen. He then announced his wish was to "educate every child about food" and "empower people everywhere to fight obesity". It was a call to arms, a mission, a detailed breakdown of how food and food-related diseases are the major killers in America. It has since been seen by more than a million people on Ted.com and galvanized the TED audience to action.

Last week he told me: "it was just amazing. All these people, you have just begun to put up their arms and offer me all this stuff. Not only money, but all kinds of things. This truck. The Home Page. All kinds of things. It was incredible. "

We sit in the truck, which he has parked outside. It is an 18-wheeler Big Rig and has been transformed into a mobile kitchen travel United States hosting roadshows and cooking workshops. Money to pay for them was donated minutes. And drag force Oliver has been able to win, the five permanent kitchens he has opened in the United States, the political pressures he has been able to use, has been in any card part due to his involvement with TED.

Because it is difficult to assess not only the power of people in Long Beach last week, nor their wealth – boasted some dinners a handful of billionaires each – but also their creativity and commitment. These people are behind some of our age of the biggest technological breakthrough — Bill Gates from Microsoft and Sergei Brin and Larry Page of Google for starters; researchers working at the forefront of human knowledge; and activists, environmentalists, artists, film directors and training people all endeavour to change their particular corner of the world.

Or as Oliver puts it: "there are an awful lot of brains out there." There is, and it is reassuring to know they are working on some of the world's most difficult problems, coming on an occasional basis with ingenious solutions. From Google's prototype self-driving car, where audiences got to accelerate around an obstacle course to Aaron O'Connell, quantum physicist, whose research has shown that "objects can be in two places at once", to the amazing moment when Anthony Atala, professor of regenerative medicineis called a colleague from the back of the stage and showed from a human kidney "which we printed earlier". Atala uses ink-jet printers to make human bodies with cells rather than ink. Bodies, which have been properly fixed to people like Luke Massella, who was born with spina bifida, and went on stage, suitable for healthy students.

It is not all about finding the cure for cancer or solve global hunger: unequal performance poet or New York indie rock band (Antony and the Johnsons) around, but sometimes it feels as were asked questions about the limits of the human conditioneven. From Daniel Tammet, a surprisingly high functioning autistic and savant, who explained the patterns and colors, informed how he perceives the world that Ed Boyden, a pioneer in optogenetics, includes who discovered how brain cells can be verified with the light, and whose work research into how memories can be downloaded, or transferred in the human brain.

There is a surface gloss and glamour to TED: all have their own Cameron Diaz moment (mines is on coffee bar) or the Goldie Hawn moment or Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore at the moment-but in this context, it is more exciting when, on my next trip to the coffee barI find myself standing next to Daniel Dennett, the great American philosopher of mind.

He has given three TED talks in his time "and you know, I have written some very well-selling books, but the effect of having these conversations online has been tremendous. I get emails every day from people who have seen them, far more than I can answer. And I have been struck by TED from being where dotcom millionaires would get this very elite and completely closed party and, in this amazing force of knowledge.

The last speech was by Roger Ebert, U.S. film critic and screenwriter who has lost his jaw and ability to speak – cancer, but through his wife, and speech software program, he told how computers had given him back his voice. "I can communicate as well as I ever," he said, and computers the power to connect us together was forming "a global consciousness".

These are big words, but in a room, as a Canadian doctor, Bruce Aylward, explains how and why he is working to eradicate polio and Jack Horner, an American paleontologist, how he is trying to reverse engineer a dinosaur from a chickenthey do not seem to be large.

Back in his cooking truck sees Oliver close to collapse. He has only committed to spread his food revolution in the next 20 years: "because that is how long I think it needs."

When he won the award in TED last year, some considered him an unlikely choice. He does not exactly match the rocket-scientist mould. But what TED recognised in its own way, Oliver is so radical activist as anyone, and it came, he says, "at precisely the right time. It just gave me the support in really needed. " It also means that just possibly he might succeed.

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Facebook takes fresh steps to open up for users ' personal information

Facebook is planning to make users ' addresses and mobile phone numbers available for apps, people use on the Web site, even though it says it would require users to give explicit permission for it to happen.

The company reiterated its plan to move ahead with the opening of the users ' personal information, which was first revealed in a blog post on its developer blog in January — encoding entitled "Platform updates: New User-object fields, Edge contents.remove event and more" — but suspended three days later in anger Privacy reactions from advocates.

That included a letter from the US Congress representatives Edward Markey and Joe Barton, who objected to the idea. "Facebook needs to protect the personal information of users to Facebook is not the phone book", wrote Markey. "There is, therefore, I ask for answers to these questions to understand better the Facebooks practice relating to possible access to users ' personal information by third parties. This is sensitive data and must be protected. "

Despite criticism from privacy advocates and lawmakers in the United States when plans were announced, the company said in a letter to the House of representatives by Marne Levine, its vice President for global public policy, published Tuesday, that "we expect atNår function [to share your mailing and mobile data] is reactivated, Facebook again want to allow users to allow the program to obtain their contact information. "But the Facebook" currently assessing methods to further enhance user control in this area ".

The change will make the data available to app developers via a "permissions dialog box," when users enable a app on the social network Web site.

Write on MSNBC, Helen Popkin said about the latest plan to "Facebook pot slowly heating the water and we, my friends, is the frog. Since we noticed our peeling skin, is another any hunk of our private lives long away. "

She commented that the Facebook announcement, writeback, and Re-announcement fit a repeating pattern: "this is how Facebook rolls: removing a large part of your personal information, shouting ' Our bad! ' and scroll back when users and/or personal information advocates complain. Then wait a little, and do whatever it is Facebook planned to do anyway. How! Boiled frog. "

Facebook, in the meantime been experimenting with a new privacy policy, which would be more a guide to how personal information is used, rather than a lengthy legal document.

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Working life: app developer

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Many of those familiar with the world of smartphones and other handheld computers will have daydreamed of inventing a killer app, one of the simple and often brilliantly useful little programs that run on touchscreen phones and tablet computers like the iPad. Perhaps we imagine our idea will become part of the zeitgeist, be downloaded millions of times and generate unfathomable profits, spawning lucrative toys, T-shirts and other merchandise.

As I stroll along Oxford Street to the head offices of Grapple Mobile, I think of a couple of my own money-spinning ideas: a football stadium app telling you where in the ground your seat is, local amenities and the ability to message other fans. Or how about an app that could tell you the real-time gender mix in a bar or club? But it doesn't take much time chatting to Justin James, head of development at Grapple, for me to realise I have no chance of turning my app fantasies into reality.

Although they are often minimalist in design and function, apps have become big business – according to research firm Gartner, global sales will reach 17.7bn downloads in 2011, worth around £5.8bn. Angry Birds – in which players catapult small fowl at pigs, and which is one of the most successful apps ever, having sold over 10m copies – was created by three Helsinki technology graduates already highly experienced in mobile game development. On the other hand, I am a journalist with no IT skills and less idea how apps are made.

Though he is far from an archetypal IT nerd, James is one such experienced app builder. He works in a trendy office in the West End of London, dresses smartly and enjoys travel and fine dining with his partner. The fact that he can rattle off a Star Trek reference is perhaps the only outward pointer to a life immersed in computing.

An Australian by birth, James began a management and finance degree at the University of Perth in 2000 but lasted only two years before deciding it wasn't exciting enough. He "bailed out" and began playing around with computers while working in a cinema. "I had always messed about with them," he says, "but it was at this point that I finally realised I could make a job out of my love of computers."

That epiphany came at a fortuitous time. While studying for a computer science degree, also in Perth, he did a module on software programming for mobile phones and realised he could become part of a new wave of technology. "While I was growing up, computers took off in popularity, then later the web exploded and now mobiles are too. The rolling stone is gathering moss and it's exciting to be a part of it."

Armed with this knowledge, James set about creating a future for himself. He knew he had to leave Perth to pursue his dream of working in the mobile tech sector, but like many residents of one of the world's most isolated cities, he had lifestyle reasons for leaving, too. "I'd never seen snow in my life," he laughs.

He went travelling before arriving in the UK, taking in jobs as a laboratory assistant at a school in Neasden, at a ski resort in Meribel and as a chef. He took trips all over Europe – even to Eurodisney, specifically to ride a rollercoaster. "I went on Space Mountain," he says, his eyes lighting up. "I love rollercoasters."

With the travel bug temporarily sated, James got a job with Apple computers in London before joining Grapple in August 2010 – the fledgling company had only launched seven months earlier. James started as a multi-platform developer (building apps that work on different types of phone) and instantly enjoyed his work. "As well as building the app a client wants, there is so much scope for experimentation," he marvels. "You can just grab an iPad and reinvent LCARS, the computer operating system from Star Trek. And I get to play with all the latest devices."

James impressed the Grapple bosses enough to become head of development after just four and a half months, having worked on successful launches such as a multi-platform app for wine magazine Decanter, as well as client pitches. "We often get asked to build something speculatively for a client and it's great fun to let your imagination run wild, especially if the app ends up being given the green light," he explains.

It is the experimentation that James clearly savours. He also enjoys working on apps that can run on iPhones and BlackBerries as well as Nokia phones and devices running the Android operating system. Indeed, much of Grapple's success has been because it allows programmers to use standard HTML coding (used by website designers) to produce mobile apps, allowing it to recruit from a larger, more talented pool than that offered by mobile-only developers.

Grapple is based on Great Marlborough Street, close to Carnaby Street's fashion boutiques and the flagship Apple store on Regent Street. Inside, things are equally lively. The office is decorated in fluorescent purple, orange and green and the workforce looks young, inspired and global. At a developers' meeting, James is bombarded with questions and comments from his team – accents are flung at him from across Europe, the US, and even Brazil.

During the meeting, James seems very keen on ensuring a couple of new developers are getting along OK, and implores everyone to help them out, especially "if they are looking blank". There is much chatter about anyone being able to pick up someone else's work and continue where they left off and I sense a collegiate, collaborative atmosphere that is rare among large groups of staff.

The number of people in the room (I count at least 30) belies Grapple's humble origins. The firm began with three people but now, only a year later, there are almost 60 staff.

In total the firm has created over 70 apps across five different mobile platforms in less than a year of trading, going from an initial two apps a month to 35-40 per month.

Watching James at work, I note him moving tiny replicas of iPhones and BlackBerries around on his computer screen as he tests an app in development. But I am equally distracted by his colleagues' screens, noting apps under construction for a major sportswear manufacturer, a popular global fashion house, a vehicle rental agency and even a rival newspaper group that has contracted Grapple to build it a Royal Wedding app.

James tells me what his job is all about. "It often involves taking large chunks of data and making it work for the user. It's about coming up with different solutions to the same problems. You're building on stuff all the time, taking what has worked with something else and applying it to a new app."

Most often, a corporate client will approach Grapple with what they want from an app, Grapple will take that idea, cost it out, produce wireframes (walkthroughs of how the app will work) and a design aesthetic (if needed) and build the app for as many different types of mobile platform as the client needs. Grapple has completed fistfuls of popular, recognisable app including BT's Phone Book and the XBox Kingmaker – an innovative geo-location-based social gaming experience.

James's job is to take a brief from the client, create the app and deliver it on time and on budget. It is easier said than done: "It can be straightforward or it can be difficult. With the Decanter wine app, we had a huge database of wines and regions that the user had to be able to access. We had to find a way of displaying that information quickly and we decided to force the app to access the internet to do it. Even then, that's a large chunk of data for a mobile phone to process so we had to find ways to slow the user down and stop them getting angry if it took too long to find what they wanted."

James calls the solution to these problems "the twist", as in: "The client owns the app, but we bring the twist." And clients pay handsomely for it, too. Apps can cost a corporate client around £30,000, even more for a quick turnaround – at one point I note James asking: "Is the end-date critical, like the Britain's Got Talent app?"

So while some apps can be built in days, others can take a fortnight or up to a month. It depends on the level of complexity; Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and even email integration will take longer. Grapple has in-house testers to ensure the finished product ticks all the boxes and, most importantly, is exactly what the client wanted.

This is mobile app development in 2011; it is no longer the domain of IT nerds knocking up games in their bedrooms, but an industry worth billions of pounds and employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. It's nothing short of a revolution, offering new revenue streams to all sorts of industries (including the Guardian).

I leave James with his colleagues as they discuss their work schedules for the week and as I saunter along Oxford Street once again, my head quickly becomes full of more app possibilities. It's not long before I've got another cracking idea – the one that could make me a fortune. All I need is £30,000 and someone like James to build it for me.

Pay Junior developers get around £20,000 pa, with James one step up from there.

Hours 9am-6pm most days.

Work-life balance Fine. "I got into computers because I was working with them in my spare time anyway. You could say my hobby is my job."

Best thing "Getting to play with the whole range of mobile devices out there and be part of the new explosion in technology."

Worst thing Judging when to stop. "I don't have forever to build an app, so I have to stop myself from running wild. It means I have to stop myself from over-complicating things. But it sucks, as the potential for creativity and how far you can go is endless."

Justin is a big travel fan and loves visiting rollercoasters. "My next trip will be to the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey to ride Kingda Ka – the tallest coaster in the world and the fastest in North America." Justin also loves cooking and attends "most of the food fairs" in London, including the Taste of Summer and Real Food Fair. "My favourite restaurant ever is Herb Farm, just outside Seattle, which serves incredible food – we had a seven-course meal there and there were five different wine glasses on the table to go with it.

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More than 50 Android apps found to be infected with a rootkit malware

More than 50 programs Android on Google's market has been discovered to be infected malware called with "DroidDream", which can compromise personal data by taking over the user's device, and which has been "suspended" from the store.

Google removed apps from the market immediately on being alerted, but it is not clear whether it has removed them from the entities to which they are retrieved. As many as 200,000 Android devices may have become infected.

The revelation comes from Android police, a news site on Google's operating system, which calls it "the mother of all Android malware", noting that its investigation had found that the "stealing almost everything: product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country and userID. But it is all child's play; true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download additional code. In other words, there is no way to know what the app does after it is installed, and the possibilities are almost infinite. "

LookOut, one company, security, as in a blog post shows the 50-plus apps discovered to be infected. (The list is also below, via the Lookout).

Smartphones running Google Android software have been extremely popular and is the manufacturing company to be close to taking over the entire world as ahead of Finland's fastest-selling smartphone the Nokia platform. Its growth has been fuelled by the fact that the software is free license, and for developers that are free or control to put apps on the market – in contrast to Apple's iPhone App store, which checks each app against a suite of tests for suitability before allowing it in its inventory.

This has led market is growing rapidly, but also to situations such as the latest – which is not the first case of malware found on the market – harder to avoid.

The malware was first discovered by a reddish user Lompolo, who spotted, develops a malware apps also had the posted pirated versions of legit apps, using the developer name "myournet". But two other developers products have also found to include DroidReam.

Lompolo remarked that "myournet" had "taken 21 popular free apps from the market, injected them root exploit [code] and re-released". More worrying, they had seen between 50,000 and 200,000 downloads completely in just four days.

DroidDream contains code that can "root" – take control of – a user's decice, and send detailed information such as your phone's IMEI (International Mobile equipment identity) and IMSI (International Mobile subscriber identity) number and send them to remote servers. But as Android police team found, the code can go much further in rooting through a telephone.

Update: details about how the root code hereworks. Note that this is a "privilege escalation" attack-when the app starts, it uses the fact that it has user rights to jump out of his sandbox and root the phone.

It is a rather brutal reminder that Androids openness is both strength and at times like this, a weakness – but Google's quick action, which withdrew the apps from the Android market within just five minutes of being alerted, are encouraging.

It now looks likely that security companies will begin to compete to offer antivirus and anti-malware products for Android devices – which, given its rapid growth could prove a fruitful area for those with PC sales flattened.

If you have downloaded apps below, you must contact your telephone company.

Full list of infected programs published by the "myournet": • fall • Super guitar solo • Super history Eraser • Photo Editor • Super Ring tone Maker • Super Sex positions • Hot Sexy Videos • chess • ???? _Falldown • Hilton Sex Sound • Screaming Sexy Japanese girls • fall Ball Dodge • scientific calculator • dice rolls • ???? • advanced currency converter • App Uninstaller • ???? _PewPew • Funny • Spider Man • paint ???

Full list of infected programs published by the "Kingmall2010 5?: • Bowling time • advanced Barcode Scanner • Supre Bluetooth transfer • task Killer Pro • music box • sexy girls: Japanese • Sexy Legs • Advanced File Manager • Magic Strobe light • ?????? • ????Panzer • panic ????Mr. Runner • ?????? • advanced App to SD • Super stopwatch and timer • advanced compass Leveler • best password safe • ??? • ????

Full list of infected apps under Developer name "we20090202 5?: • • Finger Race • piano • bubble Shoot • Advanced Audio Manager • Magic Hypnotic Spiral • Funny face • color blindness Test • bind a necktie • quick notes • Basketball shots now • Quick delete contacts • Omok five in a row • Super sexy ringtones • ????? • ????? • ????

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MACS give me a syncing feeling

In 2007 I wrote a column titled "I hate MACS". I call it a column. It was actually an unbroken 900-word anti-Apple -screed. MACS, claimed was "glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous-learn how proper computers work. "

In 2009, I again lamented: "better-designed and more ubiquitous they are, may not be the more I like them ... I don't care if every Mac product comes with a magic button on the page that makes the piddle gold coins and resurrect the dead. I do not buy a, so Close and go home. "

Lady protests too much. A few weeks later in the buckled and a iPhonepurchased. And you, what? It felt good. In the course of minutes switch it on, sliding these dinky little icons around on the screen, I was connected. This was my gateway drug. Before long I also toting an iPad. And after it, a Macbook. All the stuff people said about how MACS were just better, whether they are a pleasure to use ... it was right, the whole thing.

They make you feel good, Apple products. The small touches: rounded corners, strokeable screenshots it satisfies the requirements referred to in the clunk as you fold the Macbook shut down – it is calm. Privacy. Like stays on Valium.

So, are you trying to do something Apple does not want you to do. How clear you over your shiny comrade is not on your page. It does not understand even pages. Only Apple: always Apple.

Here is a familiar and mundane scenario: you have an iPhone with loads of music on it. And you have a laptop with a new album on it. You want to place the new album on the phone. But you can't get them up and simply drag-and-drop files as you could with, ooh, almost any other device. Apple insists instead you go through iTunes.

Microsoft Gets a lot of stick for the manufacture clunky software. But even in those dark days in the animated paperclip or outrageous ".docx" extension, the Word pursue never out of something so heinous that iTunes – a hideous binary turd, which converts the sparkling world of music and entertainment at a sharp, unintuitive worksheet.

Connect your old Apple iPhone to your new Apple Macbook for the first time, and because the two machines have not been formally introduced, iTunes will babble about "synchronization" one with another. It claims it is simply to delete everything from the old phone before putting any new things on it. why? It will not tell them It would just cheerfully. asks whether you want to continue, as well as an optimistic robot butler, do not understand, why you crying.

No user words such as "sync" in real life. Nor C3PO. If I sync my DVD collection with their, I end up with one, two, or any copies of the Santa Claus the movie? It is like to try to draw the consequences of time travel, but less fun and with absolutely no chance of being adapted into a successful manuscript.

Apple's "synchronize" bullshit is a deception, which pretends to make your life easier when it is actually all about wresting control from you. If you could freely transfer files you want on your gadget, Apple could lose out on a few molecules of gold. So rather than risk that they will choose – every time – to limit your settings without so much as blink.

Sure, you can get around the annoying sync-issue, but doing so requires a degree of faff and brainwork, just as resolve famous logic of com a load of foxes and poultry on a river without it all ends in feathers and death. And even if you find it easy, it's an Apple does not want you to solve the problem. They want you to give and go back to dumbly stroking, shiny screen, pause periodically to wipe drool off your chin.

Apple constantly trying to scrape together even more money from something that could conceivably pass through iTunes ' tight, leathery anus. Take ebooks. Apple's own iBook reader app may be nauseatingly beautiful, but it is not a patch on Amazon's Kindle, which is far from being just a stand-alone computer, is a surprisingly cool cross-platform "Cloud" system, which lets you read books on a wide range of devices, including the iPhone and iPad. It even remembers what you were on, regardless of what machine you read the last page. (It makes the "synchronization"-but we will forgive it, because a) this happens seamlessly and (b)) you never lose any of your purchase.)

Now Apple, is typically no longer content to let read Kindle books on their iPhones and iPads without muscling some of the money itself. So that they have changed their rules in an attempt to force Amazon (and other) to provide in app purchasing for their products. What this boring sentence means in practice is that Apple wants to have a 30% cut each time a user buys a Kindle book from within the iPhone Kindle app.

So 30% less for authors and publishers, and 30% more for the world's second largest carrier. And it is assumed will let any old book pass through the App store: given their track record, probably they will refuse to treat something they find objectionable. Still, if they start banning books, never mind. The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh look great on the iPad.

All commercial Apple makes a huge play by how easy their units. But it is a superficial friendship. To Apple you nothing. They will not even give you a power lead long enough to use my phone while it is free, so if it rings have you climb around on your hands and knees, like a dog.

I hate so no longer Apple products. I actually use them every day. But I have never called for in the own them. I will hire them more from Skynet.

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Google Nexus S ' Gingerbread ' Review

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Let's get something out of the way first, and then we can get into the review proper. Ready?

Better than the iPhone 4. That's my review in a nutshell: the basic version of the Google Nexus S is better than the basic version of Apple's iPhone 4, assuming both are on a data contract - and that you have a Google account, which is pretty much essential to use an Android phone. That's based on nearly two months' use of the Nexus S, enough to have prodded around all its little foibles and either gotten used to them or remained frustrated by them, and comparing it for some time in parallel to an iPhone 4 (generously loaned by 3) and the rest of the time to an iPod Touch.

Unlock: keys to the kingdom
Home screen: make yourself at..
Battery life: it's got some
Buttons: a standard layout at last?
Web display: functionally better
Phone: it's meant to do this too
Press-and-hold: the key to the context
Notifications: another improvement on iOS
Keyboard: Houston, we have a prrebjsl
Autocorrect: this may be a failing
Market: or car boot sale?
Video: too
Multitasking: all together
Voice input: perhaps
NFC: nifty, if...
Overall: the verdict

That isn't to say that there aren't areas where the iPhone 4 is better than the Nexus S; there are. For instance, camera picture quality, keyboard autocorrection, keyboard, unified mailbox view, inbuilt ability to forward contacts via MMS, trustability of the app store, stability of apps.

But for me, using the Nexus S as a phone and a connectivity device with a Google account, the flexibility of the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system puts it ahead of the iPhone 4.2.1 in a number of areas: notably, the ability to pin phone numbers to screens, contextual settings, webpage display for reading, notification system, and - noticeably - battery life.

Let's begin then with the basics. The Google Nexus S is available via the Carphone Warehouse, and is Google's second venture into "own-branded" handsets (the first being the Google Nexus One about a year ago). It's actually made by Samsung. It has a slightly curved shape which fits well to the face. My biggest gripe there is that it is featureless - no physical buttons on the front face - that I found it difficult on pulling it from a pocket to know which way up I was holding it.

One feature of Android that I've always liked is its unlock system: rather than a PIN, it lets you swipe a pattern covering at least six points on a 3x3 grid to unlock it. (This is the system used within Google itself.) This seems to me the best match of easy to remember by the owner, yet hard to crack by others; and you can do it with one hand if you need to. A PIN system (like that offered by Apple, and Android as an alternative) is typically only four numbers, and harder to do one-handed because you have to lift your thumb from the screen.

You get five screens, each able to hold 16 (4x4) apps; the constant element in each is an icon menu which goes to the phone interface, the full apps folder, and the browser. By default the main home screen is empty - a perplexing choice, since you would at the very least want your contacts, email, text/MMS messaging and calendar apps there.

It's easy enough to add apps from the main folder, but forcing you to do it seems perverse. There's minimal, and then there's hands-off. This is the latter. Compare the iPhone, and Symbian, where the home screen comes pre-populated.

Worth mentioning this early. It's excellent - I could easily get two days from a full charge with constant 3G data access and Wi-Fi use. (Other people have reported different experiences, but this was Nokia-class, ie very good.) It's better than the iPhone 4, which starts looking peaky after a day of heavy use.

This being Google's design, the choice of button ordering on the bottom of the screen should be optimal, shouldn't it? (It's an OLED screen, and the buttons are virtual rather than physical.) The huge variation in Android phone button order has been rightly criticised, and Microsoft's decision to standardise it in Windows Phone 7 rightly praised. Here, it's Back / Contextual menu / Contextual search / Home. (On WP7 it's Back / Home / Search.) If Android phone manufacturers standardised around this layout, it would make it easier for Android users to switch phones without upsetting muscle memory. Then again, perhaps the manufacturers view that upset as a useful barrier.

The buttons did cause me problems sometimes. For example, in the official Twitter app, the "reply to this tweet" icon is on the bottom left of the screen - scant millimetres above the hard-coded back button, which takes you back to whatever you were just doing (which might or might not be reading Twitter). Many, many times I hit the "all back" rather than "reply" button - and remember that this was over the course of two months, so it wasn't a novice mistake. I simply could not adapt to it. My fingers never got smarter, and the screen certainly wasn't going to get larger.

The iPhone moved web display along dramatically through its use of the MobileSafari browser, which could give you an accurate rendition of a standard web page. Gingerbread goes one further, though: double-tap on a page and the text reflows so that you get the text, and any inset pictures (say that take half a column) are pushed aside. That makes it an excellent browser for reading the web; the typeface used is very legible.

The phone app is neat enough, breaking it down into a straight phone interface, call log (showing incoming, outgoing and missed, but not subdivided), contacts and favourites. It's good enough, but only as good as Windows Phone 7, which I didn't think was optimal.

The function is actually done better on the iPhone, which shows you "All" and "Missed" calls, and also has a tab to connect directly to voicemail. (With visual voicemail, it would be even better.) But of all the major platforms, Nokia actually does this best, with the Symbian interface showing you incoming, outgoing and missed calls. (Get it while you can - only 150m left.)

What's best is the ability to take a specific phone number and pin it directly to a home screen - so if you have a number (your home, office, spouse etc) that you want to be able to call with a single touch, you can pick it from a full contacts entry (eg if there are three or four numbers for your spouse, you can pick one). That's really excellent functionality which you can't get on Windows Phone 7 or the iPhone.

To add one of those numbers to a home screen - and indeed to do a lot of things on Android - the essential action is "press and hold" (also known as the "long press") - either on an element such as a phone number or contact or URL. This brings up a contextual menu which adds all sorts of functionality - share a URL on Twiter, say, email link, and so on. Press-and-hold the Home button and you get the list of the eight most recently used active applications, and you can then switch by touching any of them.

Context is all: press-and-hold on a contact on the Google Nexus S running Gingerbread shows a contextual menu

"Press and hold" ("long press") is such a useful functionality that when I was using the iPhone I found myself holding down icons and names uselessly and wondering briefly why nothing was happening. If Apple is smart it will find a way to add this function to future iOS releases.

Yet - and here's the surprise - Google has apparently ruled out press-and-hold from future OS releases (it isn't in Honeycomb, the tablet OS; that has a dedicated multitasking button), apparently because it thinks that the functionality isn't discoverable enough - as in, people don't realise it's there. If that's correct, it's a surprise: it's a simple way of adding lots more functionality to a button and screen.

Notifications in Gingerbread on the Google Nexus S: informative

Another thing that Gingerbread handles miles better than the iPhone: telling you when something has changed - email comes in, Twitter mentions, voicemail, whatever. The iPhone either throws up a dialogue that interrupts you (for example if a Wi-Fi network hoves into its view, or a calendar appointment comes due), or makes a noise.

You can pull down the 'Notifications' tab to find out what's been updated

On Gingerbread, by contrast, the top bar (where the phone and battery strength are always visible - are you listening, Windows Phone 7?) is also given over to "notifications" about Wi-Fi strength, phone diverts, Twitter mentions and messages, voicemails, downloads, installs and so on. You can then pull these down to examine them, and navigate straight to them from there, or clear them. You can also get a chime for texts.

Apparently Apple is overhauling notifications for an upcoming iOS release - not before time. Android runs over it on this one.

There's been a lot of excitement on some forums among users of earlier versions of Android about the "Gingerbread" keyboard (you can even download an independent developer's version for free from the Market).

iPhone 4 and Google Nexus S keyboards: identical sizes. So far so good...

Personally, after a long time of use and effort, I didn't like it. I found it difficult to be accurate over any length of time or at any meaningful speed. That's despite the fact that I used it every day for two months (a fact I keep emphasising because I know that otherwise people will say I haven't made the effort).

Beginning to type 'thid' on an iPhone and the Nexus S: the iPhone will autocorrect to 'this' when a space is hit; the Nexus might

And it's also despite the fact that the keyboard is exactly the same size as the iPhone keyboard, which I've also used regularly (on an iPod Touch). In theory there shouldn't be any difference in typing on them, should there? But there is.

I think the cause of the problem is down to Gingerbread's autocorrect. The Gingerbread system offers spelling corrections as you go along in a strip below the display area: what you've typed appears in white on the left, and the "best pick" word choice beside it in bold orange, and other choices appearing as you keep typing.

If you're mistyping and see the word you meant in that strip below, then you touch it and it's substituted. This does work. But often I found that because the strip in which the words appear is narrow, it's easy to hit a key instead, or something in the display area, either of which completely disrupts what you're doing and makes the problem worse.

An alternative correction system is to hit the space bar, which will again substitute the first pick; but the problem there is that the space bar is (again) scant millimetres from both the "context" and "search" buttons, so in mid-flow you can suddenly find yourself thrown off into picking a URL or a picture. That's confusing, but a natural consequence of the multiple functions being squeezed into a small space. I lost count of the number of times I swore at the keyboard as it put up that giant hurdle to productivity.

The autocorrecting algorithm isn't that good either. The reason why I can type better with the iPhone/iPod Touch keyboard is, i think, because it's better at working out what I'm (mis)typing.

Trying to type the same sentence on the iPhone 4 and the Nexus S (without looking at the screen in either case): the result isn't good for the Nexus.

Indeed, the keyboard interface remains the one - very significant - element that makes me wary of the Nexus S. The iPhone interface doesn't offer those additional contexts. Arguably, that's a defect in the iPhone, because you have to be more organised in how you collect data (say, if you want to tweet a URL or picture), but multitasking is available on either phone, so you can swap between apps, copy a URL and paste it in. I'd rather be able to type accurately.

At this point seasoned Android users will be saying "How stupid - you should just download a different keyboard from the Market!" (Swype was mentioned by some people, but it's not available on the Market, only from the site itself via beta.) Two thoughts on that: most people won't (just as - shock! - the vast majority of people won't root their phone) and second, this is meant to be Google's showcase phone and its showcase smartphone OS version. We're comparing defaults here. Swype may be very fine, but it's not installed. Yes, there are free keyboards on the Market which you can download and install. Pragmatically, though, defaults rule the world.

And: I did try Swiftkey. No difference, I'm afraid - the keyboard is the same size, which meant I kept making mistakes. My advice would be: try the keyboard carefully before buying.

Which takes us logically to the Market. Like the iPhone App Store, there's living proof of Sturgeon's Law there, but without the reassurance that Apple offers that Google is standing behind it. I did download a number of apps - including one which adds the (to me essential, yet omitted from Gingerbread) capability to forward contact details by text message. (With most of the world still on featurephones, this is still a common task, Google.) Plus an app for taking notes. Yup, note-taking should be in the next Android version, Google.

The improvement to the Market by putting it onto the web and letting apps download there is a big step forward, but all the app stores now face a crucial problem. Unlike the web, they don't have reputation and linking. There is no PageRank algorithm. The difference between the Market and the App Store feels to me like the difference between a bazaar (or perhaps a car boot sale) and a bank. You can get fantastic stuff in a car boot sale; you can also get royally ripped off. And banks can get broken into. But on balance, your money is safer in the bank. This seems like a crucial difference; until that gap is closed, there can't be a really successful paid-for ecosystem revolving around the Market.

Take one example: Cineworld, the national cinema chain. There's an iPhone app from within which you can book and buy a ticket anywhere in the country. On the Market, there are two unofficial apps which will show you what's playing where. No book, no buy. Arguably Cineworld is the one that's missing out here, given the popularity of Android phones in the UK. These things are chicken-and-egg, though; what does it take to get big organisations like that to think of writing Android apps?

Yet possibly Google actually likes it that way. After all, ad-funded apps give it more chances to sell ads; it gets nothing from developers' payments.

Everyone wants to know about video performance, as if we lived our lives watching video on our phones. It's good. YouTube plays well. I'm afraid I didn't try Farmville. So sue me.

The Nexus S handles this well (though apps seem to be suspended, rather than running concurrently). One annoyance is that various apps, including system apps, sometimes crash (or halt permanently). The phone itself did the same a couple of times, for no obvious reason, though never during a phone call.

This is reckoned (by Google) to be its triumph: you can use voice input for all sorts of things, such as writing texts or searching. It even has a dedicated button on the keyboard. Is it good? It's serviceable (and needs a good data connection - it's not done locally on the phone), but in lots of cases you don't want to be mumbling to your phone. Voice is potentially the biggest step forward in smartphone control; the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 both offer it to varying extents.

The Nexus S includes Near-Field Communications capability, which could be useful if we ever get mobile payments worked out properly in this country. (They're coming on Visa cards, but their advent to phones is slower.) Useful, at some point.

Pros: excellent functionality in operating system; press-and-hold ("long press") adds contextual elements; very good integration with Google services; future-proofed if NFC becomes effective.
Cons: keyboard can be extremely frustrating; Market still lacks apps from many big organisations; lack of markings on phone makes it hard to figure out which way you've got it up.

Basically, Gingerbread is arguably the best smartphone operating system you can get at the moment - if you can live with the keyboard. (If we had a more subtle star system, I'd give it 9/10.)

You can get it SIM-free at Amazon for £480. Or at Carphone Warehouse and other outlets.

You can also compare alternative deals via Top10.com - around £25 per month gets you 500MB and a free phone which looks like the best at the moment, but of course caveat emptor.

Further reading/reviews: Engadget; TechRadar (4/5); TechCrunch; Pocket Lint (9/10); CNet UK (9/10).

Have you tried it? Have you compared it? Let us know.

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iPlayer app will cost less than $ 10 per month

International BBC iPlayer iPad app will cost less than $ 10 (£ 6.13) a month, when it starts later in the year, according to Director General Mark Thompson.

He said the global version of corporation's catch-up online service for iPads will launch "final years", adding that it will cost, "a small number of dollars per month, absolute fewer than 10". International iPlayer iPad app also gives subscribers access BBC archive for programming.

Speech at FT digital media and television Conference in London on Wednesday, Thompson added: "we are exploring internationally what the right prices and models is ... the most important thing is the consumer pricing is right".

He said, iPlayer app allows the BBC to "sell directly to consumers" without showing be relaunched or reformated, which often happens when UK shows purchased by international broadcasters.

When asked what effect Iplayer's international launch will have on the business model of the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, Thompson said corporation after in Hollywood's footprints and "look at a number of windows", shows that "optimize value throughout the life cycle".

International rights windows for films and television programs typically means they are only available on DVD and broadcast and online pay-per-view services, followed by subscription and free-to-air TV.

He also said he wants tv, mobile phone companies and the Government to get together to create a "roadmap" for mobile tv.

"I think that there are strong arguments for United Kingdom television, mobile phone operators and Ofcom under the Government to meet to develop a roadmap for the introduction of mobile TV in this country," added Thompson.

"It would be complementary to the availability of television content on demand, whether streamed or cached on the device and would enable the public to access time-critical content – news, major sports events and so forth – regardless of where they are."

Speaking afterwards he said no meetings are planned, but he believes that the process should be rocken.

Thompson added that confounding convergence predictions made five years ago, TV view has actually increased in the period.

In January was 162 m programs – an average of six per household – also available for download via the iPlayer in the UK.

"The greatest month for month growth now is not on personal computers or cable-tv, but on iPads, iPhones and other smartphones and game consoles."

Thompson added: "people have always seen less TV as they move through adolescence and early adulthood with their consumption of then rising with age."

But he warned that "there is good evidence that this dip becomes sharper."

His figures showed viewers born in the 1960s and 1970s when they were filled 10 monitored around 21 hours a week of tv for total television, compared with 16 hours per week for those born in 1995.

Thompson said: "the questions that we do not yet have an answer as to whether they are even younger cohort-those who grow up in a completely digital world – will follow this pattern and come back to these very high levels of view as they grow older. Or whether there will be a permanent shift downward in future consumption. "

He reiterated that "the BBC will never retreat from delivering news online".

Thompson excluded Corporation to launch a social network but said it was in talks with Facebook and said that YouTube has been a great environment for "sampling" and "marketing" of BBC programming.

He warned the simplicity that key, adding "even though lots of televisions manufactured with IPTV", "almost no one connected to them ... no sheep page 26 or whatever of the instructions!".

Thompson concluded: "the challenge for us now ... should concentrate on quality, value and memorability of our content, not just in tv but across our services.

"Science on BBC1 with Bang goes the theory, last week he particularly in Libya, Proms as last year reached 18 million people in the United Kingdom on the BBC tv over the season. It is our direction of travel. "

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Arianna Huffington AOL deal sparks accusations of a political sales

arianna huffington has long reigned as Queen of the United States ' chat ring classes, using her huffington Post home page as a platform to transform itself into a darling of the U.s. left-leaning media elite.

But no longer. When she announced that HuffPo was sold to web giant AOL been for $ 315 m Huffington , accused of being a political sellout and a person who made a personal fortune from the labour of thousands of bloggers who write for no pay.

U.s. Newspaper Guild, the journalists union, has begun a campaign to target the Huffington Post as having a business model, have done great harm by not paying contributors. It has demanded that the Huffington donate some of her AOL deal profits to invest in paid journalism. "After the construction of a media empire based on unpaid writers and republish the works of others. .. We call on Arianna Huffington to invest in quality journalism by sharing a part of this success," said guild's President, Bernie Lunzer.

That appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears. HuffPo spokesman Mario Ruiz denied home page was a problem for the industry, says: "it is wrong and insulting to insist that HuffPo takes advantage of journalists".

But since AOL deal was announced this month, there has been an avalanche of criticism of the website and its smooth-talking founder. "In order to understand its business model ... you need the image to a galley red of slaves and led by pirates," blasted the Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten.

Blogger and cartoonist Matt boron's effect revealed that he refused a HuffPo offers to put his work on the site, because it would not pay him. He called the HuffPo business model offers publicity and exposure instead of money "abominable". Media critic David Carr, New York Times referred to Huffpos business practices in an article the main name "on the media companies, a nation of serfs".

Despite HuffPo bloggers joined the condemnation. One, RB, Stuart, regretted posting content on HuffPo, which she estimated was worth $ 25,000, writes: "Carmen not only sold her soul as well as her ship of slaves, but created the seeds of her demise with this action of greed and exploitation". Other bloggers said they would never be able to write to her again and a Facebook page was set up to make HuffPo to pay its bloggers. It was called "Hey Carmen, you can save a dime"? ". Advertising age columnist and critic Simon Dumenco HuffPo, gleefully cataloged all criticism in one piece with the title "Welcome aboard anti-HuffPo wagon".

It is a remarkable turnaround for the Huffington's image, which has long bathed in a glow of positive publicity. After the founding of HuffPo in 2005, the former Republican and socialite turned quickly to one of the world's most influential websites and a self-declared liberal alternative to the conservative Fox News channel. It won her applause from new media evangelists and U.s. afflicted Democrats. She was a regular pundit cable news shows and a set of democratic social circles.

But not so much now, especially after the Huffington said she had always imagined HuffPo as more than just a policy website, and said it had no overall ideology. Dim site Liberal campaign to many observers, who worked as a deliberate paraphrase of the past, and certainly a strong suggestion that AOL firmæts ownership would see it.

"Backlash is well deserved," said Professor Jack Lule, journalism professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. "She has made a fortune on the back of the freelance writers working for nothing, but also there is a political betrayal. She betrayed the ideals of a lot of people who were happy to work for something because they trøde, it was for a job. "

Others agree, says Huffingtons history to change its policy from Republican Liberals probably should have been warned many future work shift would. "She has been a little disingenuous. It is not surprising, I guess, "says Professor Chris Daly, who teaches journalism at Boston University. He added, however, there was perhaps an inevitability about the backlash against Huffington, which stemmed from envy on her success as much as the view that she had misled and exploit human beings.

"There is some sour grapes involved here. Some people look at her success and that she turned a blog in a large mountain of cash. It is a dream for a lot of people, but they will not be able to make it to the same extent, "he said.

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