TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Apple iPhone rollout marred by ‘bendgate,’ dropped cell service

By Christina Farr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two new Apple (AAPL.O) products hit speed bumps on Wednesday: iPhone 6 Plus buyers discovered their phones can bend when placed in back pockets, and the company pulled its latest mobile operating system after reports of dropped cellular service.

"Bendgate," as the problem has already been dubbed on social media sites, is a reminder of 2010's "antennagate," when iPhone 4 users reported a design flaw that caused dropped calls.

Apple did not comment on the bending-phone reports. But it did announce that it was investigating reports of an issue with an update of its iOS 8 operating system and in the meantime had pulled the version designated 8.0.1.

The bendable-phone situation might prove particularly troubling for those who wear skinny jeans, according to reports on Facebook and Twitter. The phrase "Your pants are too tight for your phone" has already received hundreds of mentions.

Some say the device, which has a lightweight aluminum shell, is more malleable than expected, but that might fall short of a design flaw, according to analysts.

Overall, evaluators seem flummoxed.

"A 'bendability test' hasn't been part of our breakability testing to date because up until this week we've never seen a phone thin enough to make this a potential issue," said a spokesman at SquareTrade.

SquareTrade, which provides warranties to iPhone users, said it planned more tests later on Wednesday.

Reports on the quirk first surfaced on Unbox Therapy, a gadget-review show on YouTube.

Brandwatch, a company that tracks and analyzes data from social media sites, said only a small number of people tweeted about the "bend" in the days leading up to Sept. 22. But after the release of the YouTube video, which had racked up over 6 million views by midday Wednesday, Twitter mentions of the "bend" had skyrocketed to 75,000.

Tweets are flying about the "bend in your pocket," the challenge of wearing "tight pants," and that the iPhone 6 Plus bends "with bare hands," said Brandwatch spokeswoman Dinah Alobeid.

Another key topic, she said, is a comparison with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone, which has nearly 4,500 mentions.

Apple spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but at least one rival smartphone maker jumped at the chance to weigh in.

"I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport," John Chen, Blackberry's (BB.TO) chief executive officer, said on Wednesday at an event in Toronto to unveil its newest phone.

On Monday, Apple said it had shipped 10 million units of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus since it began selling the phone on Friday.

Apple stock edged down 89 cents, or 0.87 percent to $101.75 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

(Reporting By Christina Farr and Anya George Tharakan; Editing by Andre Grenon and Jonathan Oatis)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Amazon's head of digital music, video to depart

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's head of digital music and video is departing the e-commerce company by the end of the year, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.



It was not immediately clear whether Bill Carr, who is a vice president, is leaving Amazon to take another job.



An Amazon spokeswoman said Carr is planning to spend time with family.



Carr, 47, has been instrumental in Amazon's push to take on Netflix Inc and Hulu in streaming online video, according to the Wall Street Journal, which initially reported the departure.



He also helped oversee the launch of original programming like "Alpha House" and "Betas" on Amazon's website, the report added.



He joined Amazon in 1999 as senior product manager in its DVD and video unit and was promoted to his current role in 2005, according to his LinkedIn profile.



(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)





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TECHNOLOGY New 'Bash' software bug may pose bigger threat than 'Heartbleed'

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - A newly discovered security bug in a widely used piece of Linux software, known as "Bash," could pose a bigger threat to computer users than the "Heartbleed" bug that surfaced in April, cyber experts warned on Wednesday.

Bash is the software used to control the command prompt on many Unix computers. Hackers can exploit a bug in Bash to take complete control of a targeted system, security experts said.

The Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, issued an alert saying the vulnerability affected Unix-based operating systems including Linux and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) Mac OS X.

The "Heartbleed" bug allowed hackers to spy on computers but not take control of them, according to Dan Guido, chief executive of a cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits.

"The method of exploiting this issue is also far simpler. You can just cut and paste a line of code and get good results."

Tod Beardsley, an engineering manager at cybersecurity firm Rapid7, warned the bug was rated a "10" for severity, meaning it has maximum impact, and rated "low" for complexity of exploitation, meaning it is relatively easy for hackers to launch attacks.

"Using this vulnerability, attackers can potentially take over the operating system, access confidential information, make changes, et cetera," Beardsley said. "Anybody with systems using Bash needs to deploy the patch immediately." 

US-CERT advised computer users to obtain operating systems updates from software makers. It said that Linux providers including Red Hat Inc (RHT.N) had already prepared them, but it did not mention an update for OS X. Apple representatives could not be reached.

Tavis Ormandy, a Google Inc (GOOG.O) security researcher, said via Twitter that the patches seemed "incomplete." Ormandy could not be reached to elaborate, but several security experts said a brief technical comment provided on Twitter raised concerns.

"That means some systems could be exploited even though they are patched," said Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with security software maker Veracode.

He said corporate security teams had spent the day combing their networks to find vulnerable machines and patch them, and they would likely be taking other precautions to mitigate the potential for attacks in case the patches proved ineffective.

"Everybody is scrambling to patch all of their Internet-facing Linux machines. That is what we did at Veracode today," he said. "It could take a long time to get that done for very large organizations with complex networks."

"Heartbleed," discovered in April, is a bug in an open-source encryption software called OpenSSL. The bug put the data of millions of people at risk as OpenSSL is used in about two-thirds of all websites. It also forced dozens of technology companies to issue security patches for hundreds of products that use OpenSSL.

Bash is a shell, or command prompt software, produced by the non-profit Free Software Foundation. Officials with that group could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Ken Wills)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Huawei to invest $4 billion in fixed broadband R&D in next three years

BEIJING (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it would invest more than $4 billion in fixed broadband technology research and development (R&D) in the next three years.



Huawei, which has shifted its focus to the mobile device market in recent years, said in a statement on Thursday that fixed broadband - the pipes connecting homes and offices - remained a "key direction for strategic investment."



The Shenzhen-based company said it would research basic technologies such as photonics used in fiber optic cables as well as software-defined networking.



Huawei said investing in fixed broadband technology will be important given the rise of high-resolution video technology, which for instance powers 4K television sets as well as commercial big data operations that also consume significant bandwidth.



Fixed broadband has largely been overshadowed by the runaway growth of mobile broadband, which has grown 20 percent this year in worldwide users, according to a UN report this week.



Originally a maker of fixed-line switches, Huawei rode the wave of mobile telecoms growth worldwide during the 2000s to become a global force, winning contracts to build cell networks for carriers around the world. In 2012 the company overtook Ericsson to become the world's leading telecoms equipment maker.



(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)





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TOP TRENDING NEWS: #BLNtrending #BBCtrending What happened to #BringBackOurGirls?

In April more than 200 girls were seized from a boarding school in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram fighters.



The incident sparked one of the biggest social media campaigns of the year - under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls - which called on the authorities to do more to free the girls.



Five months on, the hashtag is still trending, and has now been used more than five million times. BBC Trending looks at how the hashtag has developed over time.



Produced by Greg Brosnan and Ravin Sampat You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending.

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EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Should 16-year-olds get the vote following referendum?

More than 100,000 teenagers registered to vote in the Scottish referendum.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the voting age in UK elections to be lowered to 16 by the 2015 general election. Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party would give all 16 and 17-year-olds the vote.

So should the voting age be lowered?
Speaking in the Scottish parliament for the first time since Scotland rejected independence, Mr Salmond said 16 and 17-year-olds had shown themselves to be "serious, passionate and committed citizens" in the referendum and there was an "overwhelming, unanswerable" case for giving them the vote in all future elections in Scotland and across the UK.

"There is not a shred of evidence for arguing now that 16 and 17-year-olds should not be allowed to vote.

"All parties in parliament should make a vow to urge Westminster to make it happen in time for the next general election," he said.

Speaking at the Labour conference, Mr Miliband also addressed the issue, saying: "It's time to hear the voice of young people in our politics." He pledged to give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote if elected.

There has been a long-standing debate on lowering the voting age to 16 - which would affect more than 1.5 million teenagers in the UK.

Teenagers can join the British army at 16

The Lib Dems promised the change in their 2010 manifesto. The Conservative Party has historically opposed the move.

Proponents of the reduction argue 16-year-olds can live on their own, get married, pay taxes and join the British army.

They point to countries such as Austria, Germany, Norway, Argentina and Brazil where voting at 16 is common practice.

Others argue there has been a generational shift in terms of slowing down the development of young people. People are going to school for longer, joining the workforce at an older age and getting married later.

They also point to figures that suggest turnout tends to be lower among younger voters.

Scottish referendum first-time voter Ivy Hare, aged 17, shows off her polling card

It's too early to know exactly how many 16 and 17-year olds voted in the Scottish referendum.

There were 109,533 youngsters aged 16 and 17 registered to vote - but the number who turned out on the day hasn't been tallied up yet.

Nor do we know how they voted.
A snap poll by Lord Ashcroft the day after the referendum - when Scotland voted against independence by 55% to 45% - found that 71% of that age group voted "Yes". But the sample size was only 14.

There simply isn't any reliable data on how that age group - who were expected to make up about 2.5% of the electorate - voted because surveys that have been conducted so far won't have had a big enough sample size, according to polling expert Prof John Curtice, from Strathclyde University.
However, he says it's not surprising that Mr Salmond has called for change following the referendum.

"If you are looking for evidence to support the supposition that 16-year-olds should vote, you are going to do it when there's a high turnout - and this was the highest turnout in Scottish national history.

"But what would happen in the UK government elections - when turnout is normally about 60% - is debatable," he says.

Dr Jan Eichhorn, from Edinburgh University's School of Social and Political Science, agrees it's too early to take any lessons from the Scottish referendum results.

Fireworks are for sale only to over-18s
But he says there are definitely signs things can be learned from the process.
"There was a suggestion 16 and 17-year-olds would vote differently, be governed by national identity and ideology, but surveys ahead of the vote showed the most important thing to them was exactly the same thing that was most important to adults - the economy," he says.

Some of the other criticisms - that young people would simply copy their parents - also didn't materialise.
"More than 40% of 16 to 17-year-olds had a different view to their parents - young people made up their own minds," he says.

He also credits the 16-year-old vote with increasing engagement among adults. "Young voters learned about the issues at school and went home and talked to their parents - it was dinner-time conversation," he argues.

However, Philip Cowley, professor of parliamentary government at the University of Nottingham, thinks people should be very wary of trying to draw lessons from the Scottish referendum.

"What we had in Scotland was very high-octane, very simple, an existential system where the stakes were incredibly high on both sides. You don't get that in general elections," he says.
He also argues 18 is a "main indicator" in the UK. "You can't buy a firework until you are 18, you can't buy cigarettes until you are 18 - things are being nudged upwards rather than downwards."

Cowley says he understands why it would be "a bit strange" to deny 16 and 17-year-olds a vote in the 2016 Scottish parliament election now, but argues it would be "bizarre" to make a UK-wide decision based on what's going on in Scotland.

"There are 10 times more people in the rest of the UK than Scotland - the momentum is clearly growing but I cannot think of a better example of the tail wagging the dog," he says.

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SHOCKING NEWS: French hostage Herve Gourdel beheaded in Algeria

Media caption

Francois Hollande told the UNGA that Herve Gourdel's killing was a "cowardly assassination"

France has confirmed that an Algerian jihadist group linked to Islamic State (IS) militants has beheaded tourist Herve Gourdel, seized on Sunday.

Jund al-Khilafa killed Mr Gourdel, 55, after its deadline for France to halt air strikes on IS in Iraq ran out.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the killing as a "cruel and cowardly" act.

He said that French air strikes which began on IS targets in Iraq last week would continue.

Speaking at the UN general assembly, Mr Hollande said that Mr Gourdel's abduction and decapitation was a barbaric act of terrorism which presented a problem not only for the region but also for the world.

He said the fight against terrorism should know no borders and that France was now in mourning.

"It is not weakness that should be the response to terrorism but force," he said.
Jund al-Khilafa posted a video of Mr Gourdel being killed which was entitled "Message of blood for the French government".

Police are guarding Herve Gourdel's home in Nice, south-eastern France

Posters in support of Herve Gourdel were put up in the village of Saint-Martin-Vesubie, south-eastern France, on Tuesday

The Kabylie region is a rugged and mountainous area of Algeria
IS itself has beheaded three Western hostages since August: US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines. Their deaths were all filmed and posted online.

The group has also threatened to kill Alan Henning, a taxi driver from the UK, who was seized while on an aid mission to Syria in December.

On Sunday, it warned it would target Americans and other Western citizens, "especially the spiteful and filthy French".

'Odious ultimatum'
Mr Gourdel worked as a mountain guide in the Mercantour national park north of Nice, his home town.

He had also been organising treks through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco for some 20 years, AFP news agency reports.

The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said it was difficult to contain the "deep sadness" he felt.

"Today a war was declared on France," he said. "We've been turning a blind eye to what's happening in our back yards. And this is where it has led us."
The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Paris says news of Mr Gourdel's killing has hit France hard.

Our correspondent says that it is the first time that France has lived through the threat and brutality of this kind of killing.

The fact that Mr Groudel was a tourist in a region popular with French holiday-makers has added to the sense of shock, our correspondent says.

In the video posted by his killers, he is shown on his knees with his hands behind his back in front of four masked, armed militants.

He is allowed briefly to express his love for his family before one of the militants reads out a speech in which he denounces the actions of the "French criminal crusaders" against Muslims in Algeria, Mali and Iraq.

The beheading, the spokesman says, is to "avenge the victims in Algeria... and support the caliphate" proclaimed by IS in Iraq and Syria.

Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) pledged allegiance to IS on 14 September.

Until then it had been known as part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which grew out of an Algerian militant group and is now active across North and parts of West Africa.

Who are Jund al-Khilafa?
Previously part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which grew out of Algerian Islamist groups involved in 1990s civil war

Carried out numerous attacks in Kabylie region - in April, ambushed an army convoy, leaving 11 soldiers dead
Many residents have fled the region's forests and mountains in recent years because of insecurity Group said to be led by Abdelmalek Gouri, known as Khaled Abou Slimane, 37 On 14 September, pledged allegiance to Islamic State

The group claimed Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin, as a member after he killed seven people in south-western France in March 2012, French radio reports.

The militants said that they were responding to the IS call to attack citizens involved in strikes on Iraq and would kill Mr Gourdel unless France ended its military operation.

France's public position is that it does not negotiate with militant groups but there have been reports of French citizens being released in West Africa after ransoms have been paid.

Four Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger were freed in October 2013 amid reports of a 20m-euro (£16m; £25m) ransom being paid. The government in Paris denied that was the case.

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