Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent

14:34 UK time, Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Tweeting the news

I'm betting you've never heard of Neal Mann, but for a while on Tuesday this young producer at Sky News became a cause celebre, on Twitter at least. Under the hashtag #savefieldproducer he became a trending topic, one of the most-discussed subjects on the social networking service.

The reason was the leaking of what appeared to be a very restrictive new social media policy at Sky. According to the Guardian, the policy included a ban on retweeting stories from rival news organisations or people on Twitter, and staff will now be instructed to stick to their own beat, only tweeting about stories to which they have been assigned - or retweeting other Sky journalists. What's more, Sky's newsdesk, not social media, should be the first port of call for any of its journalists with a breaking story.

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08:47 UK time, Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Fast broadband - who can compete with BT?

The price of broadband down your copper telephone line is about to come down, thanks to those nice folks at Ofcom.

The latest price controls on BT's wholesale division mean that companies like Sky and Talktalk, which supply broadband via the Openreach ADSL network, should be able to trim the cost to their customers.

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17:21 UK time, Friday, 3 February 2012

Fight! Fight! Microsoft and Google square up

Google's new privacy policy, which effectively puts all of your data from its various applications into the same pot, has not met with universal approval.

In Washington lawmakers have been asking some tough questions, and today an EU data protection committee has called on Google to "pause" the new policy while its implications are considered.

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11:18 UK time, Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Facebook’s IPO - it’s up to you

"If you're not paying, you're not the customer, you're the product." This warning to Facebook's 800 million users about the nature of the social network's business model has become something of a cliche. But, as the world awaits the most hotly anticipated IPO since Google, it's clear that what will be on sale is you, the user, and your 800 million friends. (With half of the UK population on Facebook, I'm assuming that you're likely to be a member.)

How much we are deemed to be worth is what will determine the value of the business when the shares are priced. Facebook, like Google, is an advertising business and one that has introduced a radical new way of reaching consumers. With Google it was via our searches, with Facebook it's our likes, dislikes and all the other data that we contribute freely to the site.

15:31 UK time, Monday, 30 January 2012

Apple and China - time for a new PR strategy?

For the past five years, two things have remained constant about Apple - an inexorable rise in sales and profits, and a steely determination to control its message in the media. But, just as the company basks in the admiration of the financial world after last week's amazing results, is customer concern about where and how all those iPads and iPhones are made going to force a change in its PR strategy?

Let me explain how that strategy works. Its fundamental principle is that Apple will only communicate with the outside world on its terms and to its timetable, and that means at exquisitely stage-managed events in California.

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