7 big changes coming to Facebook

1. Spherical videos on your News Feed and Oculus VR headset (if you have one). Facebook will soon support videos shot with 360-degree camera technology (the same way Google Maps' Street View photos are captured). These videos allow you to change the perspective you see by clicking and dragging on the screen.

Google (GOOGL, Tech30)-owned YouTube recently announced support for this format as well. As video content becomes the ubiquitous format for sharing, expect these two companies to launch even more features at a rapid pace.

2. Track your online purchases and communicate with businesses within Messenger.Facebook's standalone messaging app will soon be integrated into e-commerce sites. In the future, when you make a purchase online, you can choose to connect your Facebook account so that companies can send you notifications about what you bought directly in the Messenger app.

If you hate getting multiple emails that confirm your order, tell you when your order has been shipped, and if your returns have been received, you might be happy with this update.

3. Reply to messages using other apps. You can now open third party apps like animated GIF-creator Giphy within the Messenger app to send a message. Previously, you'd have to close the app, open Giphy, create a GIF, and then copy it into a message.

"We truly feel that, together, we have a shot at reinventing how a billion people communicate every day," said David Marcus, head of the Messenger team at Facebook. He also added his love for GIFs. "They make the world a little better."

Messenger also now allows compatible third-parties to prompt people to download their apps directly through the Messenger platform.

4. Videos you post on Facebook can be embedded elsewhere online. Previously, if you uploaded a video to Facebook, you could only share the video by linking to it. This is another attempt to make it more attractive for people to upload their videos on Facebook instead of YouTube.

5. If you comment on a story somewhere else online, it will show up on Facebook too. Next time you want to say something about an article you read, remember that it will soon show up automatically under the story posted to Facebook. This change is intended to make it easier for media companies to gain more engagement with their content.

Facebook connect partners BuzzFeed, EliteDaily, The Huffington Post, and Fox Sports are among the first media companies to test this update.

6. Get ready to control more devices with your Facebook account. The company announced new ways for its developers to build programs that can control everything from your garage door to your self-watering plant. It's Facebook's way of getting into the world of IoT, or the Internet of Things.

"We want to be there with you when you start experimenting with these things," Parse CEO and co-founder Ilya Sukhar told the audience.

It's not clear yet how Facebook will integrate with IoT devices.

7. Developers will get analytics for their apps. The free dashboard will let developers see who is interacting with their apps and where they're coming from -- across all devices.

Best Buy closes Canada's Future Shop

US consumer electronics chain Best Buy has announced that it is closing its Canadian subsidiary, Future Shop, and converting 65 of its 131 stores into Best Buy outlets.

As a result of the move, 500 full-time jobs and 1,000 part-time jobs will go, the retailer said.

Future Shop, Canada's biggest electronics brand, had been owned by Best Buy since 2001.

After the changeover is completed, Best Buy will have 192 Canadian stores.

Best Buy said it would be investing C$200m (£106.5m; $158m) in its operations there over the next two years.

There would also be restructuring costs of at least C$200m, it added.

Analysts say the move will rationalise Best Buy's offer in Canada and get rid of duplication. Best Buy and Future Shop outlets are often found in close proximity, they say.

Other observers took a mixed view of the development. "Best Buy may now be the 'de facto' big-box tech store in North America, but that power grab is coming at a stiff price," said technology news website Engadget.

BlackBerry surprises with profit despite weak sales

BlackBerry has surprised analysts with a small profit for the fiscal fourth quarter, but revenue was well down on expectations as sales of new smartphones and software disappointed.

A massive cost-cutting exercise has led to profit despite weak sales. The company has laid-off half of its workforce in the past two years and sold vast property holdings in Canada.

The company published its results for the three months to February 28 on Friday, showing revenue of just $660m (£443m). That income is down drastically from the $976m seen the year before, and some way short of the $786m expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Only 42 per cent of this came from hardware sales, as it sold just 1.6m smartphones during the period, with 47 per cent from services and ten per cent from software sales.

In recent months is launched the BlackBerry Passport and Classic but their reception failed to make a big splash, with high-profile releases from Apple, Samsung and HTC within months of it continuing to bag the majority of smartphone market share.

Analysts claimed in February that the company had just 700,000 users in the UK, with this number expected to fall to just 400,000 by 2017.

In 2014 Windows Phone ousted BlackBerry from its third-place position in the table of the UK smartphone user base.

Profit during the period was $28m, equating to four cents per share – significantly up on the eight cents loss seen a year ago.

Chief executive John Chen said: “Our focus this past year was on getting our financial house in order while creating a multi-year growth strategy and investing in our product portfolio. We now have a very good handle on our margins, and our product roadmaps have been well received.

“The second half of our turnaround focuses on stabilisation of revenue with sustainable profitability and cash generation.”

PayPal in £5.1m payout for allowing illegal payments

PayPal has agreed to pay $7.7m (£5.1m) to the US government following claims it allowed payments that violated sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

The US Treasury Department said the payment firm had failed to adequately screen and prevent transactions.

They included a $7,000 transaction from someone listed by the US government as being involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

PayPal said it had improved the real-time scanning of payments.

In a statement, it said it had "voluntarily" reported to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) certain payments it had processed between 2009 and 2013.

Delays in scanning had allowed some prohibited payments to be processed, PayPal said.

"Since then, we've taken additional steps to support compliance with Ofac regulations with the introduction of real-time scanning of payments and improved processes," a PayPal representative told the BBC.

One of the cases involved Kursad Zafer Cire, who was named by the US State Department in 2009 as a person linked to programmes involving weapons of mass destruction.

Between October 2009 and April 2013, PayPal reportedly processed 136 transactions to or from an account registered in his name.

Other payments involved goods and services going to and from Cuba, Sudan and Iran.

In total, according to the Treasury Department, nearly 500 PayPal transactions, worth almost $44,000, had potentially violated sanctions that ban US companies from doing business with individuals or organisations on a blacklist.

Under the settlement, PayPal did not admit or deny it had violated the sanctions.

Twitter's new quality filter removes abuse from your timeline

Twitter is rolling out a quality filter designed to remove threatening tweets alongside spam in the service's latest move to tackle online abuse.

The filter aims to "remove all tweets from your notifications timeline that contain threats, offensive or abuse language, duplicate content, or are sent from suspicious accounts", and was first spotted by Twitter user Anil Dash.

Twitter told the Verge that the filter was currently only applied to verified users, which tend to be high-profile individuals or those working for specific organisations.

The new feature could result in celebrities and other public figures receiving significantly less abusive tweets than they are currently subjected to.

Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry and Robin Williams' daughter Zelda are among those who have previously announced their intent to leave the site after receiving abusive messages.

The move comes after Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo recently admitted that the platform “sucks” when it comes to tackling online trolls.

"We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," Costolo said in a leaked memo to staff.

"It's no secret that the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day."

The company recently banned its users from posting 'revenge porn', updating its privacy section to state: "You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject's consent."

Users who violate the new revenge porn rules will have their accounts locked unless they delete the offending information. Those who repeatedly post such material will see their accounts suspended.

Apple could be worth $1 trillion, says Wall Street

Apple is set to become the first company to reach a market capitalisation over $1 trillion (£670bn), analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald have predicted.

In the first Wall Street note to value Apple at more than $1 trillion, analysts at the investment bank said the launch of the Apple Watch and growth in China will propel the technology company to new heights.

Brian White and Isabel Zhu, the analysts, increased their price target for Apple shares from $160 to $180, which would value the company at $1.05 trillion. Apple’s current market value is $750bn.

The research has been published just weeks before Apple’s latest product, the Apple Watch, goes on sale around the world.

The analysts, said: “Next month, Apple will enter its first new product category in five years, while media reports over the past several weeks have highlighted potential new areas of future innovation. Also, we believe Apple’s iPhone portfolio and position in China have never been stronger.”

The analysts based their valuation on the assumption that the Apple Watch will sell 20.6m units in the first year and said that Apple could reach 15pc to 20pc of mobile phone users in China, which would potentially mean $133bn to $178bn of sales.

They also predicted that Apple will launch a television, based on reports that it has developed a new online streaming service, and said that if rumours that the company is working on a car are true this would represent a “$549bn opportunity in the US market”.

However, Cantor Fitzgerald also listed some threats to Apple on its path to a trillion dollar valuation, such as problems retaining staff and avoiding litigation with competitors.

Earlier this year Apple became twice as large as the world’s second-largest listed company, oil giant ExxonMobil. The company’s share price has been boosted by better than expected sales of the iPhone 6, while ExxonMobil has been dragged down by a 50pc collapse in the oil price.

HTC One M9 review: picture imperfect

If you're the kind of person who cares about the kind of smartphone you're using, and you don't own an iPhone, or any of Samsung or LG's high-end offerings, chances are you're using an HTC. Of the 'big four' smartphone manufacturers,HTC is the one that's been praised in recent years for offering near-perfect handsets for Android lovers, resulting in numerous awards but never truly translating to the sales figures the Taiwanese company perhaps deserve within the UK.

Unveiled at Mobile World Congress earlier this month, the HTC One M9 is the company's newest flagship model. It follows on from the wildly lauded HTC One (M8), which was praised for its marriage of form with function but chastised for its average camera. With the firm hoping to gain further ground in the wildly competitive phone marketplace, can the M9 deliver on the M8's promises?

Design and screen

Firstly, the M9 is a good looking phone. Its all-metal unibody design makes it look and feel like a premium device whereas Samsung's Galaxy S5's plastic back was roundly derided for cheapening what was otherwise a great device. The model I tested was a combination of rose gold and silver, while a gold/pink combination and gunmetal grey and amber gold are also available. I wasn't overly taken with the colour combo, but understand it is HTC's means of differtiating the M9 visually from the proliferation of other high-end handsets on the market.

The 5-inch 1080p screen is crisp, and pleasant to watch TV programmes and films on, though a touch dark to my eyes.

Despite weighing 15g less than the iPhone 6 Plus (my regular phone), the M9's polished aluminium body felt heftier in the hand to me. It seemed bulkier and more cumbersome to hold during prolonged phone calls, but I realise this is largely a matter of preference.

The power button has been relocated from the top of the body to the right-hand side, just underneath the volume buttons, which given their identical size and near-identical finish is mildly irritating.

Battery life, reception and power 
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor ran muliple apps without a hitch, and the 2840 mAh battery lasted around a full day even following moderate to heavy use. While this is more than fine for the average user, and better than a lot of other phones at the moment, it's not a huge advancement on the M8 either. I did notice at times that the metal body became warm following extensive use, but not to the extent that it became an issue. I also didn't notice any specific reception problems using it in and around London.

The M9 comes with 32GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM, with the capacity to support an additional 128GB via microSD, a feature not available to M8 owners.

The BoomSound speakers meanwhile, are truly impressive. Partnering with Dolby Audio was a smart move for HTC, insofar as the M9 avoids the 'tinny' label which continues to dog so many smartphones and deliver the richest sound available without complementary speakers. The phone also comes with specially-designed earbud headphones, which fit nicely and sound great.

Software and features
The M9 is the first HTC handset to ship with new user interface Sense 7.0, layered on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Sense 7 has been designed to put the user at the heart of using the M9, allowing you to create your own custom themes from your own photos, resulting in new apps, backgrounds and colour schemes. How much you use this feature obviously hinges on how deeply you care about customising your interface, and as an iOS user it's not terribly high on my list of priorities. But no doubt there are many that will enjoy using the widget.

Picture organising feature Cloudex draws all your photos from Facebook, Flickr, Twitter etc and unites them in one easily navigated internal gallery, which is a clever solution to the first world problem of trying and failing to find the exact photo you're after. These features aside, there's not that much to differentiate the M9 from the M8.

UK inflation rate falls to zero in February

UK inflation rate fell to 0% in February, the lowest since records began, official figures show.

Lower prices for food and computer goods helped to cut the rate from 0.3% in January, official figures show.

February's figure is the lowest rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation since estimates of the measure began in 1988.

The drop in the CPI measure was sharper than many analysts had expected, with most expecting a rate of 0.1%.

Deflation expectation

Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, said UK "took another step towards deflation" in February.

"It looks likely the rate will drop below zero at some point in the coming months, and hover around zero for most of the year," he said.

Taylor Swift buys .porn and .adult web domain names, says report

Taylor Swift has bought the web domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult.

The addresses are part of a public sale by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The web domain names go on sale to the public on 1 June but some stars and companies are being given the opportunity to buy them ahead of then.

Microsoft Office has also registered Office.porn and Office.adult, according to a report by CNN Money.

The domains can cost up to $2,500 (£1,674) to register.

Another domain name being released in June is .sucks.

ICANN, an American non-profit group, expanded the number of generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, such as .com and .net in 2011.

There were 22 four years ago but now there are nearly 550 with new ones released every month.

The group says different endings to web addresses can help users arrive at their destination quicker because they know what they're getting.

It also says websites ending in .porn or .adult are easier for parents to monitor and block.

In January Taylor Swift applied to trademark five phrases from her latest album 1989 with the US government.

"Party like it's 1989", "this sick beat", "cause we never go out of style", "could show you incredible things" and "nice to meet you, where you been?" were all apparently registered by the singer with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Greek and German leaders meet amid cash shortage fears

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel amid mounting concern that Athens is running out of money.

The two countries have been at odds over Greece's efforts to renegotiate the terms of its international bailout.

It follows a pledge from the European Union (EU) to provide €2bn (£1.45bn) to Greece to ease what it called the country's "humanitarian crisis".

But Mrs Merkel said on Friday there would be no new money without reforms.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the €2bn fund would be spent on growth and "social cohesion" in Greece.

"Humanitarian crisis, it has been called, and it is indeed a humanitarian crisis," he said.

He said the EU would provide Greece with €2bn worth of development funds to boost economic growth, cut youth unemployment and help the poor.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed the move, stressing a common need to tackle the humanitarian crisis.

Bailout

EU leaders say Greece is due to produce a fresh reform plan to fend off bankruptcy.

Mr Tsipras has pledged to end austerity - but so far, his plans have met resistance from Greece's EU creditors.

The new crisis comes less than a month after the German parliamentapproved a four-month extension of rescue finance for Greece while the new government attempts to enact economic reforms.

But relations between Germany and Greece have since deteriorated, with Greece threatening to seize German property as compensation for a Nazi atrocities in World War Two.

Earlier this month, Mr Tsipras also accused Spain and Portugal of conspiring against his country during February's bailout negotiations.

RIP Internet Explorer: Twitter mourns and mocks death of Microsoft’s browse

Internet Explorer will soon be no more after Microsoft announced it was rebranding the beleaguered web browser.

It was once the king of the browsers, but has spent recent years in the doldrums, overlooked and ignored by user opting for the slick Chrome or Firefox.

Microsoft has since confirmed the browser will not disappear immediately and will be available with some versions of Windows 10.

Whatever its eventual fate, IE is certain to remain in the hearts of many internet users who remember the days when you couldn’t use the phone and be online at the same time.

Tag Heuer will launch 'luxury smart watch' by Christmas

Tag Heuer has confirmed that its luxury smart watch, first announced late last year, will be launched in time for Christmas and run Google’s Android operating system on a processor provided by Intel.

The announcement was made at the Baselworld conference in Switzerland where the planned device was described by the three companies as the first luxury Swiss Android smart watch.

Apple recently announced its Watch Edition with a gold case and a price tag of up to £13,500 which could easily make a claim on being the first luxury smart watch. It is, however, manufactured in China.

No details of the new watch or its expected price were announced, with Tag Heuer chief executive Jean-Claude Biver telling the audience that “we don't want the competition to know what we are going to do.”

"Silicon Valley and Switzerland are going to conquer the market of the connected watch,” he promised.

It will not be the first time that the watchmaker has strayed into consumer electronics. In 2011 the Telegraph reviewed Tag Heuer’s Link mobile phone, which cost up to £16,350 depending on specification.

Matt Warman, then consumer technology editor, called it a “piece of jewellery” but warned that the gold-accented case would “not be to everyone’s taste”.

Analysts estimate that 720,000 Android Wear watches were sold last year and that the market as a whole will expand rapidly now that Apple are close to launching their own devices.

New Apple TV with App Store and Siri 'will be unveiled in June'

Apple will unveil a new version of its Apple TV set-top box in June that boasts an App Store and Siri, its virtual personal assistant.

The iPhone maker is planning to announce details of the next-generation television product at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Buzzfeed reported.

The Apple TV box is expected to feature a new design and updated operating system to support the Siri voice control and Homekit, which enables users to turn their house's lights on and off and change heating levels via an app. It could also come with a new remote control.

Apple told The Telegraph it does not comment on rumour and speculation.

The latest version of Apple TV would be released in addition to an online television service, allowing users to stream video content from around 25 channels on their iPhones, iPads and set-top boxes, which was reported on Tuesday.

The company is in talks with US broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox to launch the service, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It is thought that Apple's online TV service will be accessed via a subscription, costing between $30 and $40 per month. The new service could be announced in June and launched in September. Apple refused to comment on the report.

Apple's Tim Cook offered liver to dying boss Steve Jobs

Apple chief executive Tim Cook offered a part of his liver to a dying Steve Jobs, according to a new book due to be released this month.

The book, Becoming Steve Jobs, excerpts of which have been published online, throws light on life inside Apple as it grew into one of the world's most powerful technology companies.

It also charts the relationship between Mr Cook and Mr Jobs.

According to the book, Mr Jobs angrily turned down Mr Cook's offer.

In 2004, Mr Jobs announced that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer and by 2009, the Apple chief executive was very ill, unable to come into the office and waiting for a liver transplant.

Mr Cook regularly visited Mr Jobs at home and after one visit he "left the house feeling so upset that he had his own blood tested", according to excerpts published by Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli, who co-authored the book.

Fellow author Brent Schlender is a journalist who interviewed Mr Jobs several times throughout his life.

Transplant feasible

Mr Cook found out that he, like Steve Jobs, had a rare blood type, and guessed that it might be the same.

According to the book, he went through a series of tests and discovered that a partial liver transplant was feasible.

But when he shared the news with Mr Jobs, the dying Apple boss reacted angrily, according to the book.

"He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth," an excerpt says.

"'No," he said. 'I'll never let you do that. I'll never do that.'"

"Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them," Mr Cook added.

Swatch reveals plan to compete with smartwatch rivals

Swatch Group, the world's bestselling watchmaker, is to introduce models that can make contactless payments and display data sent by smartphones.

The Swiss company's chief executive said the first of the tech-enhanced timepieces would go on sale in May.

But he said he had no plans to sell the kinds of fully featured smartwatches being offered by Apple, Motorola, Pebble and others.

Swatch accounts for 18% of all watch sales, according to industry data.

The company, which makes devices under the Omega, Breguet, Calvin Klein, Rado and other brands, as well as its own, has consistently increased its market share over the past five years.

It recently reported 8.7bn Swiss francs ($9.2bn; £6.2bn) of sales for its last financial year, a 3% improvement on the previous period.

However, some observers believe it and other mainstream watchmakers face disruption from tech industry giants who have begun selling wearable products.

NFC and Bluetooth

• NFC (near-field communication) - a chip that can be used to trigger contactless payments and open hotel doors and other compatible locks. The first NFC-capable watches are set to be released in two months.

• Bluetooth - this chip will allow watches to send and receive data to smartphones. This could be used to show news updates, text messages and other notifications. Mr Hayek said the first Bluetooth-enabled models were due in "the summer"

Swatch's chief executive Nick Hayek said his company was planning to introduce two types of wireless communication tech to its wristwear:

Swatch said it had teamed up with China UnionPay, a Chinese credit card association, to provide touchless payments in that country. Reuters news agency reported that a similar deal with Visa is believed to be in the works for other parts of the world.

However, Mr Hayek indicated that Swatch would leave it up to others to unlock the full potential of its moves.

"Whatever usage you want, you ask some creative people to create some apps and then our chip has different layers that you can program yourself - we give it to you," he told a press conference in the Swiss town of Corgemont.

"You buy your Swatch, the one you like, and then you configure it."

He added that he believed that his company's expertise in manufacturing "ultra-low power" watches gave it an advantage over tech firms, whose products typically need to be recharged daily

Russia cuts interest rates as rouble crisis eases

Russia's central bank has cut its key interest rate by one percentage point to 14%, as concerns over inflation recede as Russia's economy falters.

The move, which was widely expected, comes as the rouble stabilises following its radical 46% decline in 2014.

That drop prompted the bank to increase rates up to 17% in an effort to halt the plunge.

The rate rise strengthened the rouble against the dollar.

In January, Russia's central bank surprisingly cut rates from 17% to 15%.

Interest rates were increased last year to encourage saving rather than spending after the currency's plummeting value prompted some Russians to snap up foreign goods in case its value fell still further.

Demand for goods during that spree allowed shopkeepers to raise prices, prompting high inflation.

Although inflation still remains high - February's reading showed that prices were increasing by an annualised rate of 16.7% - economists expect that depressed economic conditions, including rising unemployment, will lead to decreased demand and lower prices.

Russia's economy has been hit hard by the declining oil price as well as the impact of Western sanctions of its involvement in Ukraine.

Google is becoming wireless carrier

Soon, you will be able to buy a smartphone not through Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile -- but with Google Wireless.

Google (GOOGL, Tech30) will start selling cell phone service, the company's products chief Sundar Pichai announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Google will formally announce its plans "in the coming months," with a launch coming at a later date.

PIchai said that the scale of Google's wireless service is expected to be small -- it won't be building out its own nationwide infrastructure. Instead, Google will piggyback on existing carriers. Multiple news reports say Google's service will operate on the Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) networks.

Similar to Google Fiber's small rollout, Pichai said the point of Google Wireless won't be to unseat the established Big Four wireless giants. Rather, the point is to showcase wireless innovations and pressure the carriers to do the same.

"We don't intend to be a network operator at scale; we are actually working with carrier partners," Pichai said. "Our goal is to drive a set of innovations we think should arrive, but do it a smaller scale, like Nexus devices, so people will see what we're doing."

This has been a long time coming.

For years, Google has been assembling just about all the pieces it needs to become a mobile provider.

The search giant already makes the most-used mobile software on the planet, it designs and sells phones online, and it has become an Internet service provider with its Google Fiber initiative. It even has its own VoIP phone service called Google Voice, which allows people to get a Google phone number and call people through Gmail or Hangouts over Wi-Fi.

The missing link has been the cell towers needed to build out a nationwide network.

Google is expected to pay Sprint and T-Mobile just $2 per gigabyte, according to Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen. That means Google could choose to provide super-cheap service that gives Verizon (VZ, Tech30) and AT&T (T, Tech30) something to worry about.

Google declined to name its partners.

Step inside the world's first Google shop

Google is opening its first ever store this week.

Rather than offering a retail experience, the shop in central London is more like a Google-themed amusement park.

Visitors can press big red buttons to work an interactive display ofGoogle (GOOG) features, including a play pod and screens showing Google trends (filtered to make sure the results are family friendly).

They can take pictures in a photo booth, and fly a helicopter around the world using a giant screen and pumped-up version of Google Earth.

The store is selling Google hardware, such as wearable gadgets, Android phones and Chromebook laptops. But above all, it's pushing the Google brand.

Apple's App Store and iTunes go down

Millions of Apple users are unable to download music and apps from iTunes and the App Store due a problem with the applications.

The crash has generated a wave of complaints on social media, with other Apple users claiming to have difficulty logging-in to iCloud.

The problems are estimated to be costing Apple more than $4m (£2.7m) in lost sales from iTunes and the App Store. With these systems down, users are unable to buy new apps or install updates to ones that they already own. They will also be unable to buy music or videos from iTunes.

Apple's website said the problems had begun at 9am UK time, meaning that as of 7pm in the evening the company could have lost $40m in sales.

Apple has apologised for the problems. In a statement, it said: "We are apologise to our customers experiencing problems with iTunes and other services this morning. The cause was an internal DNS error at Apple.

Zuckerberg Reveals His One Rule When Hiring!

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Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the one rule he uses when hiring staff.

Asked what he looks for in a prospective employee, the social network's founder said: "I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person.

"It's a pretty good test and I think this rule has served me well."

He added: "Facebook is not a company for everyone in the world."

The entrepreneur, who is worth around $35bn (£22.9bn), was speaking at a question-and-answer session at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Facebook is one of the toughest technology companies to get hired by because it has a relatively small staff compared with other Silicon Valley firms.

Mr Zuckerberg said: "The most important thing is to keep your team as small as possible.

"Facebook serves more than a billion people around the world but our team has fewer than 10,000 people. It's only possible because of modern technology. Big companies get bloated."

Among those hand-picked to work at the company by Mr Zuckerberg is Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer.

He told the audience he considered her a mentor who had helped him create a "healthy organisation".

Apple launches 'thinnest, lightest' MacBook ever

Apple has launched an updated MacBook which it claims is the “thinnest, lightest and most beautiful” notebook that it has ever made.

At its thickest point the machine is just 13.1mm deep - 24 per cent thinner than the existing 11-inch MacBook Air - and new battery technology provides a claimed nine hours.

The new laptop is smaller and thinner than the existing MacBook and also claims to be the most environmentally friendly machine it has ever produced.

Speaking at Apple's Watch launch event in San Francisco on Monday evening, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, claimed that it was the “world’s most energy-efficient notebook”.

For the first time the entire case is made of metal and it features a single cable socket which combines several different technologies including charging and HDMI.

This combined connector is called USB-C and Apple says it will be seen on more products soon, including those from other manufacturers.

Other innovations include the trackpad which does not physically click, like existing models, but uses a "taptic feedback" device to produce the sensation of clicking.

Force sensors hidden underneath also allow different actions to be performed depending on how hard the user presses - video playback can be made to speed up when a button is pressed harder, for instance.

The 12-inch laptop manages to squeeze in a 2,304 by 1,440 resolution.

It's powered by a 1.1GHz Intel processor, with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB flash hard disk.

The all-new MacBook will begin shipping Friday April 10 for £1,049.

It can also be upgraded to a 1.2 GHz processor and 512GB of flash storage for £1,299.

It will come in silver, “space grey” and gold.