Played under investigation for Twitter prank at the LA police

Game changer ... Rapper denies playing Twitter prank at the LA police

The game is under investigation by the Los Angeles police for allegedly encouraging his followers to overburden them with phone calls. Police telephone lines were overwhelmed by a Tweet from the rapper's account invited his 580,000 twitter followers to call an emergency services hotline, claimed it was a number to apply for a hip-hop "internship".

In the first instance tweets seemed harmless enough: "Lookin 4 a intern," he wrote on Friday. "Men/women. Just pick some 1 random ... If u in LA and over age 18 witta car [Contact] me. "But the rapper reportedly tweeted a telephone number — since deleted – belongs to the Compton Sheriff's office, jamming lines with hundreds of studies.

"This was beyond irresponsible," Sheriff's captain Mike Parks told the LA Times . During the flooding of internship questions were the police could not receive many legitimate emergency requests. "Deputies ' ability to answer phones and send staff to help these people at risk was significantly reduced," said Parker. It took almost two hours to trace the cause of the deluge and contact game, asks him to call off its future trainees.

Reported the incident, the game released a coy response after the LA Times. "It was not me (voice of shaggy)," , he wrote, refers to the pop 2000 hit . He claimed it was an "accident" and joked about to get "hacked" also [. "p.s.", he leaves, "who killed Biggie and Pac???"

But the game may not laugh away the LAPD. It has officially opened a criminal investigation, with plans to pass a public safety complaint to the Los Angeles county district attorney's Office. "Every telephone call, made [open] the option for an additional fee," Parker said.

The game is preparing to release his fourth album, The R.E.D Album, on 23 August. He has previously scored two top 10 albums in the United Kingdom, including 2005 's The documentary film, which sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. In 2008, he served 60 days in jail for pulling a gun during a basketball game.

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Ofcom under requirements better service for disabled customers

Communication providers must give text Relay services for phone users hearing and/or speech impairment photograph: Graham Turner for the guardian

People with disabilities rely on communication services to make phone calls is set to take advantage of the new measures proposed by the communications regulatory authority Ofcom under.

By law, communication service providers (ISPs) give text Relay services for phone users consulting and/or speech impairment. The service allows users to write messages in a text telephone which is provided by a relay-Assistant to the recipient. The Assistant then converts your reply back to the text for the user.

Ofcom under research has shown that users are current communication services slow, with conversations sometimes lack flow naturally. Under the current service, users have to say "go ahead" after each part of a conversation.

The new features of the text Relay service will include permits users to interject during a conversation, rather than to wait until the end of a message. They will also give the service access to mainstream consumer electronics devices such as PCs and netbooks, as well as existing Relay equipment, such as textphones.

By Ofcom concerning consumer group Director, Claudio Pollack, said: "people with disabilities may face barriers when you use the communication services. Although the wide availability and use of broadband and mobile text services have given greater opportunities for people with disabilities to communicate, still people with hearing and/or speech impairment meet barriers when using voice telephony.

"The proposed measures aim to reduce these barriers by allowing conversations to flow naturally in real time."

Ofcom under also proposes the introduction of the video relay on a limited basis for registered users, British sign language. Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom under the obligation to meet the needs of the disabled and the elderly.

In May introduced regulatory authorities an emergency SMS system for 14,500 users with hearing and speech barriers to text details about events to emergency services, instead of calling 999.

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UK broadband connections only half as fast as advertised, says new Ofcom under research

"Consumers do not receive anywhere near the speeds advertised by some internet service providers,» says Ofcom under chief executive Ed Richards. Photograph: Getty Images

Millions of Britons are still sold "super fast" connections that are only half as fast, as announced, according to research Ofcom underby.

Data published by the communications regulatory authorities shows that although Britons enjoyed a 10% increase in average broadband speeds around the UK for six months to may, reached 6.8 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with 6.2 Mbps in November 2010, average advertised speed was 15Mbps.

The data shown by a study of the domestic relations, 1,673 people.

The main difference in advertised and received broadband speeds came with copper-based DSL phone lines, used in more than 75% of UK homes. Customers with broadband packages offering speeds "up to" 20Mbps and 24Mbps actually received an average speed of 6.6 Mbps, according to research – and more than a third of these customers got average speeds of 4Mbps or less.

Ofcom under has long pressed for a change to the internet way ISPs, including BT and sky, announces "up to" broadband speeds, most customers are able to receive.

Ed Richards, Executive Director of Ofcom under, said: "we are now witness to consumers increasingly move to the higher-rated services and really enjoy faster speeds. Consumers also have access to better broadband information, allowing them to decide which provider to use based on actual speeds they can achieve at home.

"However, research is still telling us that some consumers do not receive anywhere near the speeds advertised by some ISPs. Ofcom under continued calls CAP and BCAP Committee to make changes to advertising their guide, so that consumers can make more informed decisions based on advertising they see. "

Advertising Standards Authority suggest advertising practice (CAP) and the broadcast Committee of adverting practices (BCAP) is expected to report in the early autumn of changes to the way in broadband speeds advertised.

Four of the largest ISPs – BT, Sky, Virgin Media and O2 – have signed by Ofcom concerning the new code of practice, which shall enter into force on Wednesday and dictate that customers should be an expected rate at point of sale.

The growing demand for faster packages – nutrition of traffic-intensive video services like BBC iPlayer and YouTube – popularity has put current infrastructure is under tremendous pressure, which means most ISPs are not able to deliver advertised speeds, especially during periods of peak usage, when large numbers of people use the services at the same time.

Customers with fibre optic connections get speeds much closer to those advertised, such as the ones from Virgin Media and Bouygues Telecom's Infinity package. Report shoes, average download speed on Virgin Media 30Mbps package was in fact marginally higher than the advertised speed.

Only about 22% of Britons have fiber optic connections, despite them being available to 57% of UK homes.

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Ofcom under the plans the end roll over contracts

Automatic contract renewals, which binds the home phone and broadband customers for further 12-month contracts are prohibited under the proposal of telecommunications Ofcom underregulator.

At the moment, find thousands of telephone users, typically come to the end of a 12-or 18-month contract, even sign up for another year unless they actively opt out renewal. These contracts, also known as rollover contracts currently offered by BT and several smaller Telecoms providers.

Consumers who fail to read their mail correctly, or is away at the time have found themselves bound to a new contract – often against their will.

Ofcom under estimates, around 15% of British residential consumers who roll over contracts. It mentions that they are anti-competitive and should be prohibited.

The regulator said that it will consult industry in a process that ends on the 12. Unless companies can justify why roll over contracts should continue, they will probably be banned "in summer".

Separately, Ofcom under the has this week warned it could yet TalkTalk faces a fine, even though it pays £ 2. 5 m compensation for former Tiscali customers over 62,000 defective invoicing.

Ofcom under says it received more than 1,000 complaints regarding incorrect bills from companies after people had stopped taking their services.

Problems are caused by the acquisition of Tiscali, TalkTalk in late 2009. The issue has been highlighted in the Guardian money many times.

Among billing errors received a customer bills for £ 110 from TalkTalk after she switched to another provider. Another customer paid Tiscali £ 610, despite cancelling her account in February 2006, after being sent bills from debt collection services.

Several customers have complained to the money they have been chased by the debt collectors to money, as they knew they did not owe.

TalkTalk says: "we are pleased Ofcom under has recognized the significant steps we have taken to resolve the billing issues. We moved our customers to our single billing platform at the end of January, and our focus on the ability to resolve any outstanding issues continue.

But the watchdog still receiving complaints and warned it could issue the TalkTalk with a fine, which could be up to 10% of its turnover – if it found evidence that it had continued to violate the rules.

Because TalkTalk had taken significant steps to solve the problem within the time limit set, says Ofcom under that, under existing rules could not be fine company for the original offence.

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Average broadband speeds ' less than half of them announced, says Ofcom under the

Millions of broadband customers sold Super-fast connections, internet their providers are not capable of delivering for fire-fighting, according to new research.

Data released Ofcom under theof, communications watchdog, shows that broadband average speed is still less than half of the average advertised speed.

The report, published on Wednesday, saying that the British have a broadband average speed of 6 2 megabits per second (Mbps) — less than half the advertised average speed of 13,8 Mb.

Ofcom under pressure for a change in the way internet service providers, announces including BT, sky and O2, "up to" broadband speeds at which most customers are able to receive.

Its results will participate in a consultation now launched of Advertising Standards Authority Committee of advertising practice (Cap) and the broadcast Committee of adverting practices (BCAP) in how broadband speeds advertised. That is expected to report in the next three months.

"The research shows that Internet providers must do more to ensure they provide customers clear and accurate information on the services they provide, and the factors that may affect the actual speeds customers receive," said Ed Richards, by Ofcom concerning the Executive Director.

"It is important that the rules around broadband advertising changes, so that consumers can make more informed decisions based on advertisements they see, and that advertisers are able to communicate more clearly how their products compared to others on the market."

Ofcom under perform functional tests in 1700 homes throughout the United Kingdom in November and December last year. The report is based on the 11 broadband packages from the UK's seven largest providers, including Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

The increasing demand for faster broadband packages has led internet providers to advertise the maximum speeds, despite current infrastructure could support them. The only ISP delivers close to the maximum speed was announced, according to Ofcom under the Virgin Media, with the advantage of a relatively new cable networks in many urban areas.

Typical broadband speed received by customers was much closer to the advertised speed of fiber-optic cable packages, which they are provided by Virgin Media and Bouygues Telecom's Infinity package. However, only 22% of Britons fiber-optic connections with 77% of the population by using copper-based DSL phone lines.

The main difference in advertised and delivered broadband speeds came with "up to" 20Mbps connections provided through current-generation DSL lines. Only 3% of customers with this package received an average speed close to 20Mbps, with 69% receive an average speed of less than 8Mbps.

The overall average broadband speed increased from 5.2Mbps in may last year to 6.2Mbps in December, the report shows, which means a typical five-minute song would take just under four seconds to download, compared with only slightly more than five seconds on the slower speed.

Ofcom under recommends that broadband speeds shall be advertised in a "typical throughput lies" – the speed at which customers can expect to receive. Regulators say typical speeds must "have at least prominent" to the heading, speed, and maximum speeds should only be announced "If it is actually achievable in practice by a material number of consumers".

Under by Ofcom concerning the recommendations would ISPs advertising DSL connections of ' up to ' 8Mbps service used by the majority of Britons – be forced to reveal that the typical speed is in reality between 2Mbps and 5Mbps.

However, BT said it had "real concerns" with by Ofcom concerning the approach. "Move to the typical speed areas will potentially very misleading as the average performance will vary depending on where people live," said John Petter, Managing Director BT Retail consumer business. "Enforce typical speed areas are also dangerous it could encourage more internet service providers (ISPs) to cherry pick customers who want to increase their average leaving customers in rural areas and suburbs of under-served. That would encourage digital exclusion rather than solving it. "

Sky said the debate on the headline speeds had the potential to be a "red herring", since the existing Ofcom under the guidelines, providers must give customers individual speed estimates at the point of sale.

Jon James, Executive Director of broadband on Virgin Media, described in the report as "still a serious accusation that consumers continue to be treated like mugs and misled by Internet service providers (ISPs), which simply cannot deliver on their claims on the advertised speed."

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Social networks under fresh attack as tide cyber-sweeps us scepticism

An American student control on his smart phone. Critics of social networking to say, it has an insulating effect on users. Photograph: Najlah Feanny/Corbis

Way, as desperately people communicate online via Twitter, Facebook, and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern folly, according to a leading American sociologist.

"A behaviour that has been typical can still express the problems, once caused us to see it as pathological," writes MIT professor Sherry Turkle in her new book, alone together, which leads an attack on the information age.

Turkles book, published in the UK next month, has caused a sensation in the Americas, which is usually more obsessed with the merits of social networking. She appeared in the last week on the Stephen Colbert late night Comedy Show, The Colbert Report. When Turkle said, she had been at funerals, where people controlled their iPhones, Colbert leave: "We all say goodbye in our own way."

Turkle's thesis is simple: technology threatens to dominate our lives and make us less human. Illusion to allow us to communicate better it actually isolate us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality is a bad imitation of the real world.

But Turkles book is far from the only work of its kind. An intellectual backlash in the United States calls for a rejection of some of the values and methods of modern communications. "This is a major setback. The various forms of communication, people are using has been something that frightens people, "said Professor William Kist, expert training in the Kent State University, Ohio.

The list of attacks on social media is long and come from all corners of the academic circles and popular culture. A recent bestseller in the United States, the legislative proposals, by Nicholas Carr, suggested that the use of the Internet changing the way we think, to make us less capable of digesting large and complex datasets information, such as books and magazine articles. The book was based on an essay, Carr wrote in the Atlantic magazine. It was very clear and was headlined: is Google making us stupid?

Another strand of thought in the field cyber-skepticism is found in the net of delusion, by Evgeny Morozov. He claims that social media has produced a generation of "slacktivists". It has made people lazy and enshrined the illusion, clicking a mouse is a form of activism equal to real world donations of time and money.

Other books include the Dumbest Generation by Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein – in which he claims "United States intellectual future looks dim" – and we have met the enemy by Daniel Akst, which describes problems with self-control in the modern world, where the proliferation of communication tools is a key component.

Downturn has crossed the Atlantic Ocean. In Cyburbia, published in the United Kingdom last year, James Harkin inquired of the modern technological world and found some dangerous possibilities. While Harkin was no clean cyber-skeptic, he was found many reasons to be concerned, as well as happy about the new technological era. Elsewhere, is the hit film social network was seen as a thinly disguised attack on the social media generation, suggests that Facebook was created by people who could fit into the real world.

Turkles book, however, has triggered the most debate so far. It is a cri de coeur to put BlackBerry down, ignores Facebook and Twitter disclaimer. "We have invented, inspiring and improving technologies, yet we have allowed them to reduce the US", she writes.

Colleague critics point to numerous episodes to back up their argument. Recently, focused media coverage of his death in Brighton by Simone back on a suicide note she had posted on Facebook, which was seen by many of her "friends" 1,048 on site. Yet no one reads help – instead of the traded insults with each other on her Facebook wall.

Turkles book has also hit home, because her earlier works, the other Self and life on the screen, seemed more open to technological world. "Alone together reads as if it were written by Turkles evil living twin," joked Kist.

But even setbacks now have a setback with many kreering in defence of social media. They point out that e-mail messages, Twitter and Facebook have led to more communication, no less — especially for people who may have trouble meeting in the real world because of the great distance or social difference.

Defenders say their is just another form of communication, as people may have difficulty in getting used to. "When you walk into a café, and all is silent on their laptops, I understand what she is saying about are not talking to each other," said Kist. "But it still communicates. I disagree with her. I can not see it as so black and white. "

Some experts believe that the debate is so sharp, because social networks is a new field that has yet to develop rules and etiquette, as everyone can respect and why events such as Simone Back death appears so shocking. "Let's face it, I see no signs of any link," said Kist. "But, perhaps, we need to involve a ' Netiquette ' to deal with the whole".

He also pointed out that the "real world", as many social media critics hark back to never actually existed. Before all raised on the bus or train with their heads buried in an iPad or a smart phone, traveled the normally only in silence. "We do not see people spontaneously talk to strangers. They just keep itself, "said Kist.

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