291 Posted Topics
 | This week I went to an annual press launch in London. Called [URL="http://www.myplaybite.com"]PlayBite[/URL], it's not half as salacious as it sounds, just a group of companies that share the same PR company (also called Bite, you can see where they're going with this) exhibiting stuff. There were a few gadgets …  |
| | It was surreal to read today that Microsoft's Apple iPod killer, the Zune, has gone all high definition. That's to say that the new version announced today will have high-def capacity. Reaction has been positive; connect it to a TV and it'll be great, everyone's going to want one. Well, …  |
| | Apple has launched new additions to its iPod range and improved two of its working environments, iPhone 3.1 software is out, and joined by a new version of the iTunes store. Only...there isn't much new in any of this. Let's take a look at the iTunes store first. You can … |
| | I think I must be turning into some sort of freak (fill in the kneejerk comment of your choice at the end of this blog, there are plenty to choose from). I've just read this interesting story that says Google is going to launch a microblogging search engine. It's [URL="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-to-launch-microblogging-search.html"]here[/URL]. … |
| | We've just had a public holiday in the UK. On the last Monday of August nobody works, including the postal delivery men. Which is probably why it wasn't until this morning that I received my copies of Snow Leopard - one for the laptop and one for the desktop - … |
| | The wires are abuzz with stories of [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] and [URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] customers being robbed. It's fairly simple; you Tweet or tell your Facebook friends that you're going on holiday and a thief reads it; they break into your house, knowing full well you're away, and you lose a load of stuff. … |
| | [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] is looking more and more likely to be releasing a tablet computer either later this year or early next. I won't bore you with all the references online, there are too many. So, purely from my head, here is my wish list for what the device will actually be … |
| | [URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] is going on trial for an alleged breach of privacy it appears. The full story is [URL="http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/18/237366/privacy-lawsuit-filed-against-facebook.htm"]here[/URL]. I don't know American law at all but I'm writing in the UK and over here, if a case is coming to court, we have to be very careful about prejudicing the … |
| | [URL="http://www.itv.com"]ITV[/URL] has finally put all the rumours into perspective and sold [URL="http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk"]FriendsReunited[/URL]. It's lost millions in doing so and there's no getting away from it - it was a bad deal. It's worth noting a few details about FriendsReunited. It began as a tiny business putting people back in touch … |
| | This is just odd, for too many reasons. [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8177285.stm"]A file sharer has been fined $675,000 for downloading illegal music[/URL]. He is a student. People have offered him money because they think it's an unreasonable amount to pay. He has turned them down. Why do I think this is odd? Well, … |
| | Skype might stop next year. The service's owner, eBay, has said that it is in dispute with the VoIP system's founders (see a report [URL="http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/news/rss/924222/Skypes-future-shaky-warns-eBay/"]here[/URL] but it doesn't say much more than I'm going to repeat here) and that if the new owners can't get the underlying technology from the … |
| | One last quick entry before the weekend starts (and before the month ends) - I saw a story on [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] today in which some hackers claimed they'd found a flaw in the iPhone that would allow a malicious person to take control of every one of those phones in rthe … |
| | There has been a lot of comment in the past on Gary McKinnon and his hacking into US military computers. Readers might understand that some of the comment in the UK has been about how he should have been tried over here, there's no need to extradite him and if … |
| | An interesting story on the BBC site says there's yet another search facility starting up, following the launch of [URL="http://www.bing.com"]Bing[/URL], [URL="http://www.wolframalpha.com"]Wolfram Alpha[/URL] and Google wave. This one's called [URL="http://www.splashtop.com"]Splashtop[/URL] and the idea is that you can be searching the Net withing seconds of switching on. In other words, it's a … |
| | Kazaa has decided to join Pirate Bay in becoming a legal peer to peer service. This raises interesting questions for moralistic pedants like me. The full details of the story are [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8159560.stm"]here[/URL] but that's not what I want to discuss. I'm more interested in what sort of message it sends … |
| | [URL="http://www.google.com"]Google[/URL] has confirmed that it is working on an operating system called [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html"]Chrome[/URL]. It will be a rival to [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL] Windows, a zillion flavours of [URL="http://www.distrowatch.com"]Linux[/URL], the [URL="http://www.apple.com/macosx/"]Apple[/URL] operating system and any other minority systems of which you might be aware. A lot has been said across the web about …  |
| | [URL="www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL]'s page on which the location of the head of MI6's flat was available has been taken down. You also can no longer find information about his family and their whereabouts, which you could on the site previously. There has been a debate about this, of course. For Americans who … |
| | [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] has been in the headlines again. You can now pay a company to find potential followers, approach them and ask them to follow you and it's apparently a very innovative approach. It must be, that's why the BBC thought it [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8130456.stm"]newsworthy[/URL]. Actually I'm not so sure. I think I've … |
| | Security stories abound on the Internet, and as we enter a new month an old one has resurfaced. There are legal questions over the Sarah Palin hacking event last year. Graham Cluley has [URL="http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/07/01/legal-arguments-sarah-palin-email-hack/"]blogged[/URL] about it. For me he's buried the main point right at the end of the story. … |
| | This just has to be one of the best pieces of news ever - there is agreement for a standard for mobile phones. It's really as simple as that. Here's the story, [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_8124000/8124293.stm"]on the BBC's junior site[/URL], would you believe. I just can't work out why it has to be … |
| | I hate bloggers and Twitter users that bandwagon something like the tragically early demise of Michael Jackson. This isn't the right platform for tributes even if I were his biggest fan anyway. Nonetheless, there is a lesson to be noted in terms of technology. The fact is that the Internet … |
| | You might have seen the announcement [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8116387.stm"]yesterday[/URL] that Microsoft is going to start offering free antivirus protection to its customers. The initial reaction is no doubt going to be reasonably positive, and speaking as someone with a family member who's been hit by a computer virus fairly recently, the easier … |
| | There's a new campaign on [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] about fixing [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL]'s flagship email program, Outlook. Outlook 2010 will be coming out next year (just say if I'm going too quickly) and it renders emails oddly if they're in HTML. There are details [URL="http://fixoutlook.org/"]here[/URL]. Let's ignore the fact that the Fixoutlook page is … |
| | I've been doing a lot on social networking lately, mostly because of the book I've been writing on the subject. Social media is a real market-changer. Something else that's been happening quietly and in the background is the emergence of games as a serious computing application. A [URL="http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/DigitalPM/News/914688/Official-gaming-not-just-geeks/?DCMP=EMC-Media-PM-Bulletin"]new study[/URL] says … |
| | Twitter was all a-twitter overnight (UK time) about the iPhone version 3.0 software upgrade. It was falling over, people weren't able to download, it was agony and then it wasn't working apparently. I hope you don't enjoy reading that sort of stuff. I'm not able to write it, you see; … |
| | Now here's a thing. The web browser [URL="http://www.opera.com"]Opera[/URL] is coming out in a new version, Opera Unite, and it's going to let you host all the music, photos and social media you want. On your own computer. Here's the [URL="http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKTRE55F1EI20090616?feedType=nl&feedName=uktechnology"]Reuters report[/URL]. Initially I can see this will look like a … |
| | I have to confess my initial reaction was the same as that of Daniweb colleague [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4429.html"]Bill Andad[/URL]; the lack of a coherent upgrade path for the new iPhone 3G S is some sort of idiocy by UK operator 02. But then I got to thinking. And it's not. It's unfortunate … |
| | A couple of months ago I put a note out on [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] about how my car had been written off. I also put a note on this very forum to the same extent. I had a predictable response - nobody said anything except one wit on this blog, who added … |
| | This is a good idea. Not for the first time the American President is keeping his earlier word. This time he is appointing a [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8073654.stm"]Cyber Tsar[/URL]. This, it strikes me, is an excellent idea. In the UK we have a data protection commission and a commissioner in charge of that. … |
| | [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] has struck again according to reports. The German elections had their results leaked online, both on Twitter and over the open Internet. In the same week that the UK heard that it was going to have insufficient broadband bandwidth to meet the needs of the [URL="http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx/"]Digital Britain[/URL] initiative, critics …  |
| | Yet another report suggests that marriages are splitting up and people are blaming the Internet or Cyberspace for their real-life troubles. There's an account on British newspaper the Guardian's website [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/may/27/divorce-cyber-affairs"]here[/URL], at the end of which there is a reasonably comprehensive listing of actual incidents reported in the press of … |
| | It must be about 15 years since I was standing on a boat in Los Angeles at a press party, talking to a computer executive from the States. I don't remember his name; he'd had a couple of drinks by that time and there were a few people from the … |
| | I've been reading about VNUNet's choice of the top ten most disappointing technologies - stuff that really didn't deliver. I'm sitting here typing with a wireless keyboard and mouse talking to my Mac by Bluetooth stunned that they chose Bluetooth as one of them, and enough Linux addicts have Tweeted … |
| | First let's deal with the big negative I've seen on a number of websites including the BBC: [URL="http://www.wolframalpha.com"]Wolfram Alpha[/URL] is American-centric. Well, yes, it kind of is. This will be because it's starting up and America is the biggest market it has to serve. Personally I find that understandable - … |
| | Jonathan Ive (there, I bet you thought the headline was a typo) is not as famous as perhaps he ought to be. Next to Steve Jobs he has been responsible for turning the Apple brand around, making it desirable again, chiefly by designing the iPod, the first eMacs and substantial … |
| | So I get up to work first day after a hard time relaxing over the public holiday weekend and guess what - the web's full of rumours that [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] is about to swoop and buy [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL]. The value being put on the deal by anyone wanting to tout the story … |
| | The UK Government's communications agency GCHQ has issued a rare statement saying it has no plans to monitor every individual's emails. Instead, the Home Secretary says we should all be ready to have our ISPs record [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8032367.stm"]all our Internet contacts[/URL]. I've met a few ISPs. They're going to be delighted, … |
| | A new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has gone into public beta. I say search engine but it's not quite that; it's a new concept that takes a question asked by the user, goes and has a look online and offers a proper answer in return rather than a series of … |
| | On the day that the annual [URL="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2241289/european-commission-criticises"]Infosec[/URL] show starts in the UK we have a call for a Euro cyber security tsar. I was surprised at this. In many ways it's the perpetuation of all that I feel is bad about security management. A handful of readers might have heard … |
| | I had a call this morning asking me to go on the radio tomorrow morning. It was from BBC London and I'll be on at 7.20am UK time, thanks for asking - discussing this story about the [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8019948.stm"]terrorist Cyberthreat to the 2012 Olympics[/URL]. The man suggesting there is such a … |
| | For American readers this is probably a bit of an ordinary day - you go about your business and there's every chance that when you wake up tomorrow things will be much the same as they were when you woke up today. In the UK that's not the case. In … |
| | It's probably a little early to be looking for implications of Oracle buying Sun (no, it's official, here's the [URL="http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018363"]press release[/URL]). They've only just confirmed it's happening, and as one of the journalists who covered Novell buying Lotus many years ago I can confirm things aren't done until they're done, … |
| | This is going to be important - although some lawyers are saying it's not going to stick outside Sweden. The Pirate Bay people, who aren't so much advocates of Internet file swapping as proud boasters of their activities in it (the clue is in the name), are going to jail. … |
| | The [URL="http://www.twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] controversy rages on, by the looks of things. In the UK the latest influencer to condemn the micro blogging service is one Matthew Gwyther, who edits Management Today, one of our major management sites. He's written about how useless the service is because, among other things, you can't … |
| | Here we go again. It seems like only last month I mentioned the legal efforts to restrain Google's Street View system in the UK (probably because it was). Now we're starting to see active resistance to it. Residence of Milton Keynes have made it clear that [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/7980737.stm"]a handful of them … |
| | Sometimes someone you'd written off surprises you. Take Palm, for example. My first ever hand-held computer was a Palm - or PalmPilot as they were called then. So was my second, and my third. I really, really liked them. Then things moved on a little, or indeed a lot. Compaq … |
| | This is going to be a high-risk blog entry, I know. But I'm in the UK, it's 1 April at eight minutes past ten in the morning and so far we've had no reports of mass outbreaks of the Conficker virus. The BBC was suggesting it was all overblown in …  |
| | I wasn't surprised to read that the Apple iTunes store had been hacked. It was just a matter of time. I was even less surprised to see that the applications were a prime target for the hackers and pirates. I can see that peer to peer networks and illegal downloads … |
| | It's not the users for whom I feel sorry. Yes, they'll have to learn a bit more about how they're going to interact with - sorry, use - their computers when multitouch comes into significant amounts of hardware with Windows 7.0, but if it's as easy and intuitive as some … |
| | This is excellent. A map of Britain in which the forthcoming extra-fast Internet is highlighted. It's [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/interactive/2009/mar/23/broadband-fibre-cabinet-bt-map"]here[/URL] on the Guardian website. A number of things become clear from this. First, unsurprisingly, there's a lot of concentration around London and Manchester, with Edinburgh getting a respectable look-in. This is pretty inevitable … |
The End.