The cool actions of experienced newsreader Alison Rooper, who has frequently presented the news on Radio 4's Today programme and the World Service, meant that listeners were unaware of the glitch, although colleagues are fuming at the latest flaws in the BBC's technology.

Rooper had arrived at Broadcasting House at 6.15am on Wednesday expecting to present the hourly bulletins as normal on Rob Cowan's Radio 3 breakfast show. But as she went in search of coffee she encountered a BBC engineer ( Read more... )
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Google Insights' list of terms with the most significant growth is dominated by terms relating to Black Friday sales and those referring to the New Moon movie.

Black Friday sales will take place on November 27 in the US, with retailers expected to reduce their prices significantly for the one-day only specials.

Many businesses will open their doors to the public at 5AM local time while the majority of US online retailers will start their Black Friday sales just after midnight.

Adam ( Read more... )
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But Mark Thompson also made a fierce defence of the independence of the Corporation and claimed that public service broadcasters around the world were under threat because of the downturn in the media economy.

Mr Thompson, who is leading a strategic review of the BBC, said the Corporation would be cutting back areas of its output following the switch-off of the analogue signal in 2012. "Expect to see reductions in some kinds of programmes and content ? look, for example, at the current scope ( Read more... )
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Jim McDowell, northern editor of Dublin-based Sunday World, suffered severe cuts and bruising to his head and body after being punched and kicked to the ground by four men yesterday evening.

The 60-year-old ex-rugby player and boxer believes drug dealers were behind the brutal attack which happened during a visit to the Continental Market.

?They came at me from behind ? they didn?t even take me face on. I was trying to get up and they beat me back ( Read more... )
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Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) posted underlying profits of £201 million for the year to October 4 - down from £262 million after it was hit by the steep slump in advertising revenues amid the recession.

But its Daily Mail title bucked the wider gloom in the industry, with adjusted profits maintained at the second highest level on record for the newspaper.

This helped its Associated Newspaper national arm achieve a "very satisfactory result", according to DMGT, ( Read more... )
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Wikileaks.org said it was releasing over half a million US national text pager intercepts covering a 24-hour period on the day when Al-Qaeda militants slammed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon while another plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The first message is from 3:00 am on September 11, 2001, more than five hours before the first attack, and the last is 24 hours later.

Wikileaks did not say how it obtained the pager ( Read more... )
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Earlier this year, the firm unveiled its new communication concept, "Sport and Glamour", designed to raise global profile by fusing Tag Heuer's sport heritage, spanning the first three Olympic Games of the 20th century, using new "signings" Uma Thurman and Brad Pitt.

"When I joined the company I decided we should go back to ambassadors," Babin explains from a suite in the Soho Hotel. "Tag Heuer had been one of the first to use them when Jack Heuer launched the Monaco watch by putting together ( Read more... )
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His investigation, pictured, into the environmental damage done by the world's cheapest vegetable oil, palm oil, beat news reports from the BBC, Channel 4, Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph's coverage of the MPs' expenses scandal, which was commended.

Published in the Saturday magazine on 2 May, "The Guilty Secrets of Palm Oil" also won the environment category at a ceremony at the Park Lane Hotel organised by foreign correspondents based in London. The 3,000-word ( Read more... )
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"Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries," the Mountain View, California-based search giant said in an ad signed "The Google Team."

"We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google," Google said.

The Google ad appears on a page of image search results for Michelle Obama which includes the offensive depiction of the wife of President Barack Obama.

"Search engines are ( Read more... )
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But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it.

Murdoch is considering removing News Corp's news from Google's Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much.

If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking ( Read more... )
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Some of the classic movie quotes being tweeted on the social networking site are, "'How 'bout I draw a line down your head so it looks like a butt?' - Cool Runnings," "'there must be something else to life other than being really really really really good looking' - Zoolander" and "'You shoot me in your dreams, you better wake up and aplogize' - Reservoir Dogs."

The real-time communication tool developed by Google, Google Wave, continues to appear in Twitter's ( Read more... )
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A majority of the searches for "Chrome OS" are being generated by people in Taiwan, China, the Netherlands and India on the morning of November 24.

Google opened up the Chromium OS open-source project to the public on November 19 as part of the larger Chrome project. This announcement received wide-ranging publicity in technology blogs and news websites, in turn generating a much higher rate of Google searches for Chrome OS.

Searches for the teen vampire flick New Moon, the ( Read more... )
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1. CSI: Modern computer technology at its best. - a set of images hosted on imgur.com that show how CSI can capture criminals using modern computer technology and imaging.

2. What's wrong with our economy? - a comic hosted on imgur.com that shows cartoon strip characters Calvin and Hobbes' explanation of why the economy is so bad.

3.

Google is at the centre of the debate once again after reports yesterday that Microsoft, which this year launched its rival search engine Bing, had entered talks with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation to begin paying for top index content from his newspapers, including The Times and The Wall Street Journal, on its pages.

According to a report in The Financial Times, Bing would agree to the payments system on condition that Mr Murdoch takes steps to remove all his content, or links to his ( Read more... )
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Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife.

When Blanchard called Manulife to inquire why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television.

She said that Manulife cited several pictures Blanchard had posted on her social networking website page, including ( Read more... )
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But all good things must come to an end, and there could have been no worthier winner than Archie Norman. Even if his qualifications to succeed Michael Grade remain tantalisingly opaque, the important thing is to make it crystal clear that his appointment has not one iota to do with his political past. Sad to say, some may regard this as a further sign of the media firmament rearranging itself in readiness for a change of government.

Why would ITV want an erstwhile Tory ( Read more... )
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Clever and rather obsessive readers who work in the advertising business, when faced with this question, will immediately begin reeling off the names of the hottest advertising agencies around the globe. But stop there. This is a question for all of us, not just ad nerds. We?ll come on to the (dangerously controversial) matter of which ad agency produces the best advertising in the world later. First, which company, which brand, makes the best ads?

Go on, have a guess. ( Read more... )
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Far greater than the ideological differences that have traditionally set apart the great national titles, this divergence in opinion ? over whether the written word should be a free commodity or one that is charged for ? will set the news industry at each other?s throats.

The battle lines became clearer last week, as Rupert Murdoch?s senior executives proclaimed from the ramparts, or at least from the luxury hotels of western Europe, their determination to erect a pay ( Read more... )
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And Mr Murdoch also separately described Mr Brown as a ?friend of mine?, and seemed to put some distance between himself and his overzealous editors back in London.

Many people will say these episodes only provide further evidence of the media tycoon?s insincerity, and no doubt they are partly right. Mr Murdoch?s protestations of affection put one in mind of a sentimental mafia boss who regretfully instructs his heavies to bump off an old friend and associate, and ( Read more... )
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The idea of 3D TV was great, but having to wear those glasses with red and green lenses was a bit of a turn-off. Surround sound sounded wonderful, but the practicalities of having speakers and trailing wires all over the living room put many people off. And interactive TV was OK in principle, but users sometimes found they had time to make a cup of tea after pressing the red button on their remote control before they got any of the services requested.

However, two new developments in British ( Read more... )
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