Chris Marshall - My Life

MiLi Power Skin Battery Pack For iPhone

Chris Marshall — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:19:48 +0000

If the applications were the customisation that made the iPhone useful, and let’s be honest until Apple opened up the SDK to developers it really was very limited, then the MiLi Power Skin (£59.99) is the Unleaded Super 98 that keeps it running long enough for the iPhone to be of real use.

To be perfectly blunt, the iPhone battery is terrible, and that is doing it a favour. I am not a heavy user of the iPhone in so much as I maybe make on average 5 minutes of calls a day, send on average no more than 3 SMS messages a week, keep it charged every night for a minimum of 7 hours, yet am still lucky if it gets through a whole day without going into the red!

This is the world’s thinnest ever iPhone case with battery charger that nearly doubles the life of your battery. Say goodbye to chunky and clumpy additions to your iPhone that can make it almost impossible for it to fit in your back pocket.

It comes in a variation of colours and gives you up to a whopping 19 hours audio play time, 5.4 hours of video playing time and up to 230 hours of stand by time!

Not only does this battery pack give you unrivaled power reserves but it also protects your treasured iPhone from knocks and scratches with its hard shell case.

What do I use my iPhone for? Mainly to check emails, RSS and Twitter when I am not at my desk (so yes that will be a priority use for the iPad), and from time to time a QIK video. Seriously I don’t use it that much, no Bluetooth headset, no long phone calls ….. I couldn’t if I wanted to the battery is that poor.

By way of example on the recent AUAN protest march I got out of my car at 11.30am, with the iPhone fully charged. I used it to send a few tweets, a few streamed Videos and a few streamed phlogs, and that was it …… 90 minutes later and iPhone battery off to intensive care.

I kid you not, I have next to no confidence in the iPhone battery life, to such an extent that I have always carried a Nokia N95 around with me as a back up.

Well all that is a thing of the past now thanks to the truly liberating MiLi Power Skin. The way it works is pretty cool. The iPhone sits in it as a cradle/protective sleeve and the battery that is built into the Power Skin can be used to charge up the iPhone battery. All you need to do is press the small button on the Power Skin and ‘beep’ the iPhone starts charging.

You can charge the Power Skin while it is connected to the iPhone (it chargers the iPhone battery first and then the Power Skin battery), via the USB cable. It has a connection like those found on a Digital Camera so you can’t use your existing iPhone cable, and you can’t charge it in your car (well you can actually, more on that later) but the USB cable can be connected to a computer or a power supply, oh and in my case it connects to the USB socket in the Belkin TuneBase FM with Handsfree for iPhone that I use so if I need to charge in the car I am good to go.

The Power SKin is thin, but not Nano thin, or as we hope to soon find out iPad thin, BUT ….. and this is a pretty big thing for me, it makes the iPhone feel ‘better’ to me. I have always loved the design of the iPhone, but found it too light, and lacking in substance, to feel right as a phone (remember I was around in the 80’s and was a proud owner of the first Mobile Phones that they produced so to me everything since then has been a bit ‘wishy washy’!)

Thanks to the MiLi Power Skin I now have an iPhone that feels and lasts like a proper phone ….. shame I still don’t use it and what I do use it for will soon be partially replaced by the iPad!

Power Support Crystal Jacket for iPhone 3G (Clear) If you listen to the MacReviewCast you will know that I recently discussed with Tim the purchase of a case for the iPhone that...
Could A New iPhone Be The Answer!!! “It could only happen to me”. “You wont believe it but it is true!”. “Someone is trying to tell you something” All of the...
iPhone Update 5 Well as I write this the iPhone is ‘in the post’ and should be here within the week. I will document the unlocking process...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

iPad Initial Thoughts

Chris Marshall — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:07:19 +0000

Well the must have gadget for 2010 has been announced and will be available in the US and UK from March (WiFi Version) and April (3G and WiFi Version) if HRH Steve Jobs is to be believed, and let’s be fair they have a pretty adequate record recently for hitting launch dates. In the ‘good old days’ they used to launch a product at a Keynote, and then announce it was rready to buy straight away.

That said, I prefer this way as it gives people time to resist the impulse buy and figure out how the iPad fits into their technology needs, and in many cases (certainly in mine) figure out what it can replace and what I can do without.

First impressions during the launch? Looked great as you would expect, but felt it was a case of style over substance as who really needs a overgrown iPhone running iPhone applications? Don’t get me wrong the applications MAKE the iPhone, but that is because it is an iPhone. Surely they can’t have the same effect on a tablet PC?

Internet surfing without Flash and Java? Come on, that is just about OK on the iPhone (well actually it isn’t at all BUT I can live with it on the iPhone as I rarely use it to surf the net) but on a device designed and promoted as ideal for surfing the net you are having a laugh right?

Second impressions after a morning pondering and discussing it? Well it is inevitable that I will get one at some stage, even though on the surface and after much debate it is hard to come up with any reasons how I would actually use it but that isn’t always the point is it!

Undeniably Sexy

What Would I Use It For

Twitter: sat on the sofa, watching sport I can see this working well
Skype: docked in the lounge, with Skype running could be useful
Email: always useful to be able to check and respond to quick ones
RSS: because of blogging and work I check RSS feeds all the time
Blogging: quick posts and working on drafts
Media: viewing our photos and videos, as a control for iTunes

So this is the deal. I will get one no doubt, but not because I need one, just because I want one as I have a gut feeling it will turn out better than it currently looks. I am banking on my iPhone experiences here. When the iPhone first came out I bought one, but was pretty underwhelmed by it, and it was only once the applications starting hitting the iTunes Store did it become at all useful. I have a feeling that the iPad will be the same, with the bigger screen, and greater options I think we will see some pretty neat applications over the coming months, many based on controlling things ….. and let’s face it who isn’t excited at the thought of crashing on the sofa, sexy iPad in hand, turning the volume up on some speakers in a room that nobddy is in!

But I have agreed with Sands that I will try and make the purchase self funding by selling off some of the redundant Apple equipment that I reckon an iPad would enable us to do with out!

How am I going to do this?

Well first up I need to decide on which iPad, and that is pretty easy to be honest. As I have no intention at all of increasing my monthly costs to access the Internet I do not have any desire for a Wi-Fi + 3G Model, a Wi-Fi only will be fine (am sure that via Bluetooth will be able to tether to the iPhone anyway). I have no desire to duplicate files and content, so will rely on the cloud, and online content, so the smaller 16GB version will be just fine. Sorted!

Well apart from the accessories that is (see below). I really can’t see the point of the Keyboard Dock on the simple basis that if I am going to have a keyboard and a screen then I stick with the Mac Book and Mac Book Pro. The beauty of the iPad to me is the flexibility I think it will give using a ‘tablet’, so I have every intention of keeping it that way. No doubt I will get a case at some point, but as they are already been announced by third parties the options will be vast and I will worry about that at the time. iPad Dock ….. I do like to keep things neat and tidy, and I can see the iPad living in the living room, so yes, will probably go with one of these. Camera Connection Kit? Nope, no intention of breaking from current workflows so iPad will only be used to view existing stored media. USB Power Adapter? Maybe, I always ensure we have more than one means of charging a device.

Second I reckon I need to do a full inventory of the stuff that I currently have, and then figure out what the iPad would replace ….. so here goes:

Apple Inventory

Has been a while since I took stock of all the Apple ’stuff’ that we (well I) have accumulated over the years, and as I said above I think the iPad launch (and inevitable purchase) is a good opportunity to see what we can do without, and what it would replace, and ideally see if we can fund it through the sale of some older Apple items:

Chris

iPod’s: 5th Generation iPod with Video, 1st Generation Shuffle (used as a memory stick), 2nd Generation Shuffle, 1st Generation Nano, 3rd Generation Nano

iPhone: 3G

Computers: Mac Pro, Mac Book Pro, Mac mini (used as media center)

Services: Mobile Me

Other: Apple TV, Airport Express (2), Airport Extreme

Sands

iPod’s: iPod Mini, 1st Generation Shuffle (used as a memory stick), 2nd Generation Shuffle, 4th Generation Nano

iPhone: 1st Generation

Computers: iMac, Mac Book

Services: Mobile Me

In addition we have a whole bunch of cases, cables, and docking units that can go if the associated hardware is dispensed with.

So what does all this mean?

First to go will be Sands iPhone! Seems strange but as it isn’t 3G she really doesn’t benefit at all from the Data Plan that she currently subscribes to, so if she cancels the Data Plan we save 15€ a month. We will use this iPhone as a ’spare’ unit for our UK SIM card for as and when one of us goes back to the UK. Of coure she will need a phone but we have a few spare ones, and we will get her a iPod Touch as well, so not a huge saving up front, in fact additional cost up front but the saving on the Data Plan will soon add up. Movistar charge 1€ a day to access 3G on a PAYG basis, so as long as her phone is 3G (it is) and has buetooth (it has) she should be able to tether the iPod Touch and mobile phone if urgently require access and no Wi-Fi available.

Second to go could well be one of the Mobile Me accounts. Again not a huge saving per annum, but over the years it will add up, and I think that we can get by with one shared account to sync address book, calendar etc and have one set of documents stored online. It will be strange and we will need to set up and use groups and specific calendars carefully, but the plus side is that we can then genuinly pick up, share and use any computer or device and have access to the same information. No more ‘his and hers’, which I think will make the iPad much more useful to us if either of us can pick it up.

Third to go are the unused iPods, so will just keep the 2 latest Nano’s, and the 2 latest Shuffle’s. The Nano’s we use when running, walking or cycling, and the Shuffle’s I think are too cute to discard!

Fourth, and this is the ‘biggie’ is I reckon that we can get rid of Sands Mac Book. At the moment she does 80% of her work on her iMac and 20″ ACD in her study, with the Mac Book sat on a desk in my study with a 2nd display attached for when she wants to work in my study. From time to time she takes the Mac Book into the bedroom or lounge, but only for emails, Internet etc. As and when she goes to the UK she takes it with her, but again only really for emails and blogging. So ….. I reckon that if we share the Mobile Me account, we can use my Mac Book Pro in place of the Mac Book in my study, and still have one really powerful portable solution as and when we need it (primarily that is when I am out taking photos or video, or traveling on business). When that is out of the house Sands would still have access to the iPad for any portable computing she wanted to do. Sands will probably find it easier to take the iPad to the UK with her, and for the few weeks of the year that this happens I certainly aren’t going to miss it.

Obvioulsy this is the largest saving, and on its own will fund the purchase of the iPad, but I think it makes sense to dispense with the other stuff as well.

iPad Specifications

Size and Weight

Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model; 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G mode

Display

9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Wireless & Cellular

Wi-Fi Model

Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G Model

UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Data only
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location

Wi-Fi
Digital compass
Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

In The Box

iPad
Dock Connector to USB Cable
10W USB Power Adapter
Documentation

Capacity

16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chi

Sensors

Accelerometer
Ambient light sensor

Audio Playback

requency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
User-configurable maximum volume limit

TV & Video

Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Mail Attachment Support

Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

Languages

Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian
Keyboard support for English (U.S.) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
Dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian

Accessibility

Support for playback of closed-captioned content
VoiceOver screen reader
Full-screen zoom magnification
White on black display
Mono audio

Battery & Power

Built-in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Input & Output

Dock connector
3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Built-in speakers
Microphone
SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

External Buttons & Controls

Mac System Requirements

Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
iTunes 9.0 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
iTunes Store account
Internet access

Windows System Requirements

PC with USB 2.0 port
Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
iTunes 9.0 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
iTunes Store account
Internet access

Environmental Requirements

Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Accessories

At the time of launch Apple announced 5 accessories:

iPad Keyboard Dock

The Keyboard Dock combines a dock for charging your iPad with a full-size keyboard. The dock has a rear 30-pin connector, which lets you connect to an electrical outlet using the USB Power Adapter, sync to your computer, and use accessories like the Camera Connection Kit. An audio jack lets you connect to a stereo or powered speakers.

iPad Case

The iPad Case not only protects the iPad, it can be used in various positions. So it’s easy to type, look at photos and slideshows, or watch movies.

Pad Dock

The iPad Dock lets you dock and charge iPad. The rear 30-pin connector lets you connect the iPad Dock to an electrical outlet using the USB Power Adapter, sync to your computer, and use accessories like the Camera Connection Kit. An audio jack lets you connect to a stereo or powered speakers.

iPad Camera Connection Kit

The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card.

iPad USB Power Adapter

The 10W USB Power Adapter lets you charge your iPad directly through an electrical outlet. And the 6-foot-long power cable allows you to charge it from an even greater distance.

WWDC07 Initial Thoughts No real surprises – discounting Safari on Windows which seems kind of lame to me. iTunes on Windows was a great move at the...
MacBook & Mac mini – first thoughts As this is the second Mac mini I knew what to expect. The main reason for wanting this Mac is to hook it up...
More MacWorld Coverage & Post Event Thoughts Seems only fair to share with you yet more ways in which you can keep track of MacWorld, or if you are lucky enough...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Nespresso Magimix M190 Review

Chris Marshall — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:27:25 +0000

Living in Spain it is hard not to become a lover of coffee, and as a bit of a self-confessed gadget junkie I love the effective appliance of technology in every day life, and if you throw in some Apple like packaging and a range of cool accessories you pretty much guarantee making me a happy chappie.

The Magimix M190 certainly qualifies – am a very happy chappie indeed.

In an ideal world I would prefer a huge chrome coffee machine like the bars, cafe’s and restaurants have, that ground the coffee, frothed the milk, and made multiple coffees at the same time. I have absolutely no need for one that big but heh …… since when did need come into it when talking gadget desire?

Sleek, this and very trendy!

The machine itself is very neat, sleek and cool looking but by far it’s main strengths are the speed with which it makes the coffee and the total lack of mess, due to a neat combination of the use of capsules and a container to hold the dispensed capsules, so no coffee grains of drips.

Water container at the back, and very accessible

The water container at the back slips on and off easily, or can be filled by removing the lid and holds enough water for at least 3 days normal use.

Note the container for the used capsules

I have mixed thoughts about the use of capsules. On one hand they are more expensive, and I have a natural dislike of being tied into one supplier (although I assume that in due course some OEM Brand will emerge), but on the other hand they are so convenient and with the dispenser built into the machine so clean and efficient it is hard not to like them.

Nespresso have a pretty good range of capsules and they average out at 35¢ plus p&p which isn’t too bad at all.

Cool Cube for storing the capsules, and neat sleeves of capsules

There are a LOT of pretty cool accessories to enhance your coffee drinking experience and the Cube is a pretty cool way of storing the capsules and adding a bit of colour to your kitchen.

Particularly like the ‘creamy’ nature of the coffee

At the end of the day though the real measure is always how good does the coffee taste? With Nespresso you basically either buy a espresso capsule or something they call a lungo – which is effect makes a larger cup of coffee. In reality you can use the espresso to make a larger cup (just use the lungo setting) but I wouldn’t advice using the lungo for an espresso, or any espresso based coffee like a cappuccino.

If you are interested you can check out the different types of coffee drank in Spain here.

It was the taste actually that first convinced us to get the Nespresso system. Sands tried it at a friends one afternoon and came back enthusing about the quality, convenience and ease of use and when that happens years of experience has taught me that we will be buying one!!

Video

Video of the Magimix M190 in use with some excellent help from my assistant Sands, with a special guest appearance by Moreno at the end of the video.

Accessories

At 22€ the Cube is a pretty expensive box to keep your capsules in, but it does add a touch of colour to the kitchen, and ensures the capsules are handy to the machine and kept in one place.

Aeroccino+

This is way cool, I mean really really cool. Even if you don’t have a Nespresso machine I would get one if you drink Latte’s, Cappuccino or anything that requires heated or steamed milk.

With it’s separate base and power supply it can be used anywhere, and it has tow really neat little whisks that are attached to the lid magnetically when not in use. One is used to warm the milk, the other to froth is a la Cappuccino, and boy does it do it quickly, efficenty and very very well indeed.

At £46 it is reasonably priced and a simply brilliant addition to the Magimix M190, or any other coffee machine come to that.

Very effective and neat whisks, with a very cool magnetic fitting

As with everything from Nespresso, it looks great!

Perfect

Video

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records

Chris Marshall — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:23:29 +0000

As a Mac user I only ever use IE when testing something out via VMware Fusion, or when I get talked into helping out a neighbour or client with their PC, and each time I come away asking myself why??? – with Firefox, Safari and now Chrome all available across both platforms it just doesn’t make sense to me!

Anayway according to a recent report on Engadget it seems that more people are seeing the error of their ways

In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has beaten Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft’s 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You’ll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month — making the veracity of its claims pretty robust. One hidden sign of our collective laziness: 21 percent of all users last quarter were still fulfilling their browsing needs with IE 6

Google launches Chrome themes With computer users spending ever longer periods of time online, themes are a popular way of customising the look and feel of the browser...
Sony to install Google Chrome browser on PCs It is thought that Chrome will be installed on select Sony laptops in the coming months, putting Google in direct competition with Microsoft, whose...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Security Cam app turns your iPhone into a security camera

Chris Marshall — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:54:15 +0000

Couldn’t resit giving the 99¢ Security Cam application for the iPhone from Crowded Road even though I couldn’t see the point of it!

Apparantly the application was first submitted to Apple in December 2008 but hasonly just been launched as the concept of using the iPhone as a spying device proved a stumbling block.

Security Cam offers two camera-related functions: frequency capture, which lets you set a specific frequency for how often the iPhone’s camera will take a photo, and audio trigger, which takes a photo whenever a customizable, pre-defined level of noise is detected. A third mode, frequency and audio, combines the two features, taking photos at predetermined intervals as well as whenever the sound threshold is met. All photos are time and date stamped.

It does all of the above very well indeed but to me there are two pretty significant stumbling blocks:

You have to be with your iPhone holding it and pointing it at whatever it is you want to secure in which case I am pretty sure your presence will add far more security than the iPhone running Security Cam
You have to leave your iPhone pointing at whatever it is you want to secure in which case I am pretty sure any thief would happily pocket your iPhone!

Apple debuts speedier iPhone 3G S with built-in video camera Apple on Monday closed out its presentation at WWDC 2009 by introducing the new iPhone 3G S, the fastest iPhone yet with up to...
White iPhone 3GS reportedly overheats, turns a browner shade of white Why am I not at all surprised by this: Right after its launch, we noted the sundry problems reported by new iPhone 3GS owners,...
Phone security: Not beefy enough for businesses? It has to be said that I have always taken the view that the iPhone is a great consumer phone, but I am not...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Super-fast broadband for the whole country is vital to future prosperity

Chris Marshall — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:36:51 +0000

I guess it is time to worry when you find yourself agreeing with Gordon Brown! Maybe it is the cold weather, or the fact that I haven’t been out of the apartment all year yet still feal totally in touch with the world, but I fundamentally agree with his article today in the Telegraph

Broadband will soon be seen as indispensable as electricity, gas or water, argues Gordon Brown.

The severe weather gripping Britain has closed businesses and schools and left many people unable to get to work or keep appointments. Police advice – rightly – is not to travel unless your journey is essential. But if you urgently need to see a doctor, or keep a business running, you may feel that you must venture out in spite of the conditions.
Rural communities particularly suffer at such times. But imagine if you could hold a consultation with your GP over the internet in real time, or easily access your office computer network from home, or hold two-way video conferences. These are the very real possibilities that super-fast broadband could offer within just a few short years.

By investing now in this digital revolution, we can bring to households and businesses all over the country internet speeds 50 times faster than most people experience today.

Such advanced communications will encourage more employees and employers to make greater use of teleworking. This can deliver benefits both to the firm and the worker, as well as the wider economy, society and the environment.

Teleworking can mean more job opportunities, for example, for the disabled and those with child-care responsibilities who wish to work part-time – or allow someone to take a job with a firm based too far away for a daily commute – while also improving work-life balance for many. Potentially, it can also contribute to reducing congestion and lowering carbon emissions.

The number of people working remotely from home more than doubled in the decade to 2007 and, as next-generation broadband becomes more widely available, this figure will only increase rapidly. All our lives will be transformed beyond recognition by the exciting opportunities for business, education, leisure and access to public services.

Indeed, it will soon be seen as indispensable as electricity, gas or water.

The private sector is rightly leading the way, and investing significant sums in next-generation digital communications and technologies. But, left alone, they are likely to reach only the two-thirds of communities, mainly urban and highly populated, seen as commercially viable. And I am clear that this revolution must benefit all, and so here there is also a role for targeted, strategic action by government.

We must complement and assist broadband providers to move farther and faster; to bring super-fast connections to households and businesses to every corner of the country. That is why we have set out plans for £1 billion of extra investment to ensure that all regions of Britain – including those with sparse populations – are covered by 2017. We are doing this, even in a recession, because the fastest and most modern broadband network will create and expand thousands of companies and mean thousands of new jobs.

The digital initiative is just one of the many ways through which we believe we can create 1.5 million new skilled jobs in the coming years. And no one area should be left out of this expansion in opportunity simply because of its location.

We are determined in particular to see rural communities benefit from this investment and the economic and social advantages that will inevitably follow.

So, by using the previously announced fixed-line levy to finance this, we must move forward quickly with digitalisation and extension of broadband to make Britain a leader in the digital world.

A comprehensive digital infrastructure is one of the key foundations of the UK’s future growth and prosperity. And government will help to unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit at which Britain excels, by releasing thousands of publicly held data sets, as a result of the vision of Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

When, for example, figures on London’s most dangerous roads for cyclists were published, an online map detailing where accidents happened was produced almost immediately to help them avoid blackspots and reduce injuries. After data on dentists went live, an iPhone application was created to show people where the nearest surgery was to their current location.

Thanks, too, to the exceptional work of Martha Lane Fox, our aim within the next five years is to shift the vast majority of large transactional services online. This should help secure even better value for money. Evidence from local authorities indicates that on average, carrying out a telephone transaction online can save £3.30 and switching from paper and mail to online can save £12 per time. In all, it is estimated that shifting significant transactions in this way could save £1 billion.

Yesterday, we launched a plan for going for growth – “Our Future Prosperity” – setting out how we will harness the value of enterprise, knowledge and of our greatest asset: people. And investing in a modern infrastructure, including high-speed rail and super-fast broadband, is critical to its success.

Without fast broadband, rural areas will wither At first glance, the Government’s recent commitment to a universal broadband service by 2012 may sound welcome. In fact, it could be catastrophic for...
Britain is lagging behind Europe in broadband technology Britain is lagging behind many other European countries in terms of its broadband technology, according to latest research. Countries such as Sweden, Norway, Andora...
UK broadband ‘not ready for tomorrow’ Britain’s broadband networks have been ranked 31st out of 66 countries in terms of quality According to the report from IT giant Cisco, the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Facebook users ‘buying fake friends’

Chris Marshall — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:28:20 +0000

I have never really taken to Facebook to be honest, primarily I think because I don’t really have any old friends that I particularly want to find as I tend to hold the view that if you are true friends you will have kept in touch anyway.

Another reason is pretty well summed up by this article on the Telegraph website, which says:

Users of Facebook and other social networking sites who fear they do not have enough friends are “buying” them to look more popular.

They are spending £125 for blocks of 1,000 friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The virtual friends are being sold by a small Australian company called uSocial.

Leon Hill, its 24-year-old chief executive, reported a surge of inquiries about his service over Christmas.

He told The Sun: “Social networking sites can be cruel if you’re unloved – they show exactly how popular you are.

“People are buying pals so they have more mates to chat to, rather than sitting alone on their PCs.”

However, many claim the service abuses the principles of social networking sites.

One objector, who set up a website leanbhill.com, wrote: “uSocial utilises armies of dummy accounts on social networking websites to cheat and promote content on behalf of its clients.

“In other words, uSocial violates online communities for money. This is shameful and deplorable.

“It exploits the assumption of trust and goodwill that allows internet communities to thrive.”

Lawyers for Facebook have also tried to get the service shut down

Facebook users spend three solid days a year on the site The average person who used Facebook in each of the last 12 months has spent 70 hours 26 minutes on the site during that...
Americans spend most of web time on Facebook During the month of June, Facebook attracted 87 million US users, who each spent an average of four hours and 39 minutes on the...
Facebook tests improved posting tool Facebook has started to test a new version of its Publisher, the tool that members can use to post notes, status updates, links, photos,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrids getting companion charging stations next year in Japan

Chris Marshall — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:41:37 +0000

Next Years launch of the plug in Prius Hybrids will be supported by a trial of solar charging stations.

The first place to test out the chargers is unsurprisingly Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where 21 stations will be built across 11 locales including government offices and train depots.

Toyota’s plug-in Prius hybrids goes into testing across the globe, on sale in 2011 No surprise that as an owner of a Toyota Prius Hybrid I am excited about the news that the PHEV (plug in Hybrid) may...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Top 10 gadgets of the decade

Chris Marshall — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:09:22 +0000

Every techie loves a list, especially a Top 10 at Christmas, so I was intrigued by the recent Top 10 gadgets of the decade in The Telegraph.

Personally I have 9, 4,3, 2 and 1. Have used a 5 and liked it, and am a big fan of GPS. Would love a Slingbox at some time …

10. Slingbox (2005)
The Slingbox is a TV streaming device which allows you to shift (or “sling”) television shows from your TV or personal video recorder to a computer anywhere in the world. It means you can watch the latest episode of Coronation Street from a hotel room in Dubai, or catch up with The Wire in Madrid. You can even “sling” shows to your mobile phone, to watch on the move.

9. iPhone (2007)
Apple’s iPhone redefined the mobile phone experience – its elegant touch-screen, superlative ease of use and handy features (including a built-in iPod and navigation software) set the new standard for phone design. And it is responsible for our insatiable appetite for apps – since the App Store launched in 2008, we’ve downloaded more than a billion restaurant finders, games and guide books on to our iPhones.

8. Asus Eee PC (2007)
The Asus Eee PC seemed too good to be true – an ultralight, ultraportable laptop that cost less than £200. The Eee PC kick-started the “netbook” trend – the emergence of a new category of inexpensive, low-spec computers designed for sending emails, accessing the internet, and carrying out simple word-processing tasks on the go. Dozens of other manufacturers have since jumped on the netbook bandwagon, but we’ll always fondly remember the Asus Eee PC for getting the ball rolling.

7. Flip (2007)
The Flip was the first pocket-sized camcorder to punch above its weight. Incredibly easy to operate, the Flip could capture around an hour of surprisingly good-quality footage for such a small device. But its best feature was the built-in USB stick that flipped out from the side of the camcorder, enabling users to instantly edit video and upload it to the web. It became the tool of choice for the YouTube generation.

6. TomTom Go (2004)
Once upon a time, if you wanted to get from A to B, you had to use a map. This meant knowing lots of things about cryptic Ordnance Survey symbols, and being able to find a way around traffic jams at a moment’s notice. But the sat nav changed all that; the TomTom Go was arguably the first truly mass-market sat nav device that appealed to people of all technical abilities. Farewell folding maps; hello advanced lane guidance, automatic congestion detection and re-routing, and speed camera alerts.

5. BlackBerry (2002)
We didn’t know it at the time, but the arrival of the BlackBerry meant life would never be the same again. With its ability to pick up emails on the go, the BlackBerry was the tool of choice for high-flying businessmen who needed to be in touch with the office at all times. But its always-on connectivity also meant the working day was never really done, with people expecting you to answer emails in the evenings, on weekends, and even on the family holiday – no wonder it’s been nicknamed the CrackBerry for its addictive qualities.

4. Nintendo Wii (2006)
Nintendo’s inexpensive, family-focused games console is credited with bringing a new generation of players to video games. It uses an innovative motion-sensing controller system, where players wave their Wiimote controls to mimick hitting a ball or cracking a whip. More than 56 million Wiis have been sold worldwide, and players can use it to experience everything from snowboarding to armed combat to balancing exercises.

3. USB stick (2000)
The arrival of the USB stick condemned the floppy disk to the dustbin of history. In 2000, IBM launched DiskOnKey with a then-huge 8MB of storage, around five times that offered by a floppy disk. It soon became the quickest and easiest way of transferring files between computers, and carrying backups of important documents. Modern USB sticks can hold gigabytes of data, and the future of the USB stick looks assured for some time to come.

2. Sky+ (2001)
Before Sky+ came along, taping your favourite television show meant navigating the complicated recording menus on your VCR, and then scrolling endlessly through VHS tapes to find the show you wanted to watch. Sky+ was a breath of fresh air – it was an easy-to-use personal video recorder with a capacious hard drive, allowing viewers to record hundreds of hours of programmes at the touch of a button. You could even pause and rewind live television, or record every episode in a series using the “series link” function.

1. Apple iPod (2001)
The undisputed gadget of the decade is Apple’s iPod music player. When it went on sale in October 2001, few could have predicted that this device – which could store up to 1,000 songs on its tiny hard drive – would revolutionise both the way we consume music, and the music industry itself. The iconic white earphones of the iPod soon became ubiquitous on Tubes and trains, while the launch of the iTunes music store, which allowed users to digitally download songs on to their iPod, has been blamed for the death of the album. The iPod made it possible to carry your entire music collection with you, and laid the foundations for the current generation of music players and mobile phones.

Orange watch phone goes on sale August 27 Gadget fans will be able to get their hands on the £500 LG watch phone when it goes on sale next Thursday. The device,...
Mobile Broadband Last time I was in the UK I got fed up with having no WiFi, or having to pay stupid prices (Â£5 an hour...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Toyota’s plug-in Prius hybrids goes into testing across the globe, on sale in 2011

Chris Marshall — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:53:57 +0000

No surprise that as an owner of a Toyota Prius Hybrid I am excited about the news that the PHEV (plug in Hybrid) may be on sale as early as 2011, rather than 2012 as expected.

Toyota are planning to produce and ship just under 600 of the models over the next six months. That breaks down to around 230 for Japan, 200 for Europe, and just 150 for the ‘States. Government agencies, corporations, and universities are the primary recipients, and interestingly, half of those Euro-bound cars are going straight to Strasbourg, France.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrids getting companion charging stations next year in Japan Next Years launch of the plug in Prius Hybrids will be supported by a trial of solar charging stations. The first place to test...
Toyota Prius Hybrid Review If you buy a Toyota Prius Hybrid you better have, or develop, good bladder control! Last May when I was back in the UK...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When Will There Be Good News

Chris Marshall — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:35:28 +0000

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson is probably the best Kate Atkinson book that I have read.

In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend — Jackson Brodie — himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

Well written with good characters and a nice twist or two to the plot.

More Summer Reading Just read four, somewhat different books, over the last couple of weeks as the summer binge continues!! We are in the middle of a...
Looking Good Dead Really enjoyed this book. Great (but sick) back story of snuff movies . Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life....
Dead Simple Possibly my favourite so far! Clever (but warped) back story of a prank gone wrong. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Headset Buddy

Chris Marshall — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:41:20 +0000

Picked up a couple of neat headset adapters recently from the aptly named Headset Buddy company, that specialise in adapters for your headsets. As such it is possible, and extremely easy, to use your existing headsets with your PC, Mac, iPhone, Mobile Phone, Home Phone, Office Phone etc.

Having recently embarked on a bit of a de cluttering project I am all for anything that means that I can use less for more.

Now to be honest there isn’t much to review with products like this …….. they work! They are easy to connect (I mean you just plug one end into headset and the other end into the phone, computer etc) and that is it! The cables, refreshingly, aren’t excessivly long so don’t add metres of black cable to your set up, and they are colour coded in a pretty standard way to conform to most of your existing devices. The quality of the audio isn’t impaired at all, delivery was extremely prompt and they do exactly what I wanted them to do!

They are cheap enough, roughly between $6 and $10 depending on what you buy, packaged in a neat way and thankfully in small packages so not a big dent in the old carbon footprint!

Ode To The Headset Buddy

Thought the ‘ode’ that they included was pretty neat

I love my comfy headset,
People can actually hear me,
If only I could use it,
With my iPhone, home phone and PC!

Just when I thought all hope was lost,
After wandering aimlessly,
I finally found what I was looking for,
An adapter called the Headset Buddy.

You’ve saved me time and clutter,
You’ve saved me money too,
Use my headset with phones & PC’s?
Thanks to Headset Buddy,
My dream has come true.

Available Products

PC Headset to Phone – you can use your PC headset with home, office and mobile phones, they are available for both 2.5mm anf 3.5mm phones so work well with your iPhone, Blackberry, smart phones as well as regular mobile phones.

Phone Headset to PC – you can use your 2.5mm phone headset with your computer.

2.5mm Phone Headset to Smartphone – you can use your 2.5mm phone headset with your iPhone, Blackberry or any smartphone that has a 3.5mm headset jack.

Benefits

Save money by using existing headsets
Use existing headset with ALL phones and computers
Reduce clutter
1 Year Warranty

Some Techy Stuff

Connectors: Ni plating
Standard: Eu RoHS
Power: supplied by components

Connections

PC Headset Buddy: Female 3.5mm 2-channel microphone, female 3.5mm 2-channel headphone, male 2.5mm/3.5mm 3-channel mic/audio, 20cm

Phone Headset Buddy: Female 2.5mm 3-channel mic/audio, male 3.5mm 2-channel microphone, male 3.5mm 2-channel headphone, 7cm

Phone Headset Buddy for Smartphones: Female 2.5mm 3-channel mic/audio, male 3.5mm 3-channel mic/audio, 7cm

3 for the road from Miglia Now I am travelling a bit more again I am taking a bit more interest in devices that are designed more for the mobile...
MiLi Power Skin Battery Pack For iPhone If the applications were the customisation that made the iPhone useful, and let’s be honest until Apple opened up the SDK to developers it...
Review of the Jawbone 2 I have a perfectly good Bluetooth Headset already, the Blue Ant Z9, that I really haven’t used all that much so why did I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Public Beta 8 Brings Tagging and Much More to DEVONthink and DEVONnote

Chris Marshall — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:08:25 +0000

DEVONtechnologies, LLC today releases the eighth and supposedly last public beta of version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as well as of the smart note-keeper DEVONnote. The new release brings a polished appearance, a heavily revised column view, a much simplified installation, lots of additional and revised smart templates as well as, finally, tagging including support for OpenMeta.

Highlights in version 2.0 public beta 8
* Polished appearance
* Simplified installation
* New column view, enhanced tabs
* Smart tagging including support for OpenMeta
* Lots of new and revised smart templates
* Download manager
* Preparations for synchronization and iPhone client
* Internal improvements

The changes in detail

Many aspects of the user interface have been overhauled, from simple changes to an improved handling of states and a completely revamped column view. The new column view features a view/edit pane and so works similar to the music browser in iTunes. Tabs scroll automatically into position and are scriptable (in DEVONthink Pro and up). In addition a simple take note function has been added to DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office. The installation has been simplified tremendously, the applications and templates simply install themselves automatically if necessary.

“Now that DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.0 are almost feature-complete we’re beginning to make them easier to use, polish rough edges, fine tune the workflow. By automatically installing themselves and updating all components, if necessary, DEVONthink and DEVONnote reduce installation problems to nearly zero,” comments Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann, President of DEVONtechnologies.

Smart tagging combines the group and tag concepts in a most innovative way, making both ways to organize documents interchangeable. Tags can be manually entered almost everywhere, converted from comments, or are added automatically, e.g. from RSS feeds. DEVONnote and DEVONthink support OpenMeta for importing and exporting tag information. A tag view shows the whole database from a tag perspective. The tag view is still incomplete and will change substantially until the final release.

Version 2.0 public beta 8 also brings lots of new additional and revised smart templates, both with and without scripting (smart templates without scripting are now also available in DEVONthink Personal). It is now easily possible to annotate any document using smart templates as well as research on PubMed and have the results added to the database fully automatically. New reminder scripts for DEVONthink Pro add selected documents as tasks to iCal, OmniFocus, Things, or The Hit List.

“Our innovative approach to tagging, the large number of easy-to-use smart templates, the ability to add any document with a reminder to the major task managers as well as the upcoming synchronization functions and the iPhone client again cement DEVONthink’s position as the number 1 information and document manager on the Mac,” so Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann, President of DEVONtechnologies.

Internally DEVONthink 2.0 public beta 8 brings many changes for the upcoming iPhone client as well as MobileMe, WebDAV, and LAN/WLAN based synchronization. While the iPhone client will enable users to transfer selected parts of databases to their iPhone, view and search them on-the-go, and add new documents, the synchronization module will make it possible to reliably synchronize databases between local Macs or, using MobileMe or any other WebDAV server, between any Mac with an Internet connection. The synchronization module is currently in the works, the iPhone client in alpha testing and expected to be released in Q1/2010.

Finally, this public beta brings the Download Manager in DEVONthink Pro back to life and allows, again, downloading to databases. Media playback is optimized for QuickTime X on Mac OS X 10.6 ‘Snow Leopard’, and web pages can be zoomed using Safari-4-style zooming. DEVONthink Personal add a PDF Service so that documents can be ‘printed’ as PDFs directly to the database.

More about DEVONthink 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0

The version 2.0 upgrade addresses a large number of feature requests from the active user community and modernizes almost every aspect of the applications. These public betas are still incomplete but the already existing functionality is stable enough for sharing with the public. For the final release the new, yet incomplete tag view will to be revised and the user user interface will receive some more polishing.

New features of version 2.0 include but are not limited to: the ability to open multiple databases simultaneously (DEVONthink Pro), all advanced Boolean and proximity operators (as known from DEVONagent), wildcards and unlimited complex search terms, smart groups, unlimited undo/redo, an inbox, a trash can, and the support for almost all common file formats. The new Finder-like sidebar facilitates working with multiple databases.

DEVONthink 2.0 imports and displays Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), OpenOffice and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) files as well as Skim PDF packages and all other files that support or are supported by Mac OS X 10.5’s QuickLook. Using Spotlight importers and plugins for indexing DEVONthink can also search files that it cannot display due to the lack of QuickLook support (Spotlight does not need to be active). Metadata, e.g. from PDF files, email messages, or Office documents is imported, indexed, displayed, and can be selectively searched, e.g. using smart groups.

DEVONthink 2.0 allows to create documents from templates and DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0 shares databases with other users on the local network or over the Internet via an interactive web interface based on the latest web technologies. RSS, RDF and Atom news feeds can be added as self-updating groups to any DEVONthink Pro database and so integrate live content with local documents. The independent ‘Sorter’ panel lets the user add data to your databases even when DEVONthink Pro is not open. Tabbed browsing and editing as well as Cover Flow simplifies working with large numbers of documents. A PDF sidebar allows rearranging and deleting pages.

The new database engine incorporated into DEVONthink 2.0 not only speeds up working with large databases but also stores all files in their original file format, e.g. Microsoft Word files and email messages. Files are no longer converted when imported and can be edited using external applications. In addition, all documents can be accessed from outside DEVONthink using a standard URL. This highly improves workflow integration with third-party solutions such as iCal, OmniFocus Daylite, Bookends, or Endnote.
DEVONthink Personal 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 inherit the three pane view formerly exclusive to the Pro editions as well as separate document windows and the full screen mode. In addition DEVONthink Personal is no longer limited to 10,000 images.

Availability and Pricing:
The public beta releases of DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office 2.0, DEVONthink Personal 2.0, and DEVONnote 2.0 require Mac OS X 10.5 or later and can be downloaded from DEVONtechnologies online. DEVONthink and DEVONnote can be test-driven for free for 150 hours of non-continuous runtime until they need to be properly licensed. The public beta releases run without registration until February 28, 2010, before they need to be replaced by new betas or the final 2.0 releases.

DEVONthink Professional Office sells for $149.95 (USD), DEVONthink Professional for $79.95, DEVONthink Personal for $49.95, and DEVONnote for $24.95 in DEVONtechnologies’ online shop. DEVONthink Pro Office and DEVONthink Pro are also available with the Internet research agent DEVONagent as bundles. Users who purchased DEVONthink Personal, Pro, Pro Office or DEVONnote 1.x on or after July 1, 2008, are eligible for free upgrades. Users who have purchased before the grace period will be able to upgrade for attractive upgrade prices available on the DEVONtechnologies website.

DEVONtechnologies: http://www.devon-technologies.com
DEVONthink 2.0 Beta 8: http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/
Download: http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/
Purchase: http://www.devon-technologies.com/shop/
Screenshot: http://www.devon-technologies.com/files/screenshots/devonthink/devonthink-1.jpg
Press Center: http://www.devon-technologies.com/about/press/

Fifth Public Beta of DEVONthink Brings New iPhone Web App and More DEVONtechnologies, LLC today releases the fifth public beta of version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as well as of the...
Sixth Public Beta of DEVONthink Brings PDF Annotations and More DEVONtechnologies, LLC today releases the sixth public beta of version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as well as of the...
DEVONthink becomes even smarter with 2.0 public beta 7 DEVONtechnologies, LLC releases the seventh public beta of version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as well as of the smart...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitter launches new login API

Chris Marshall — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:34:27 +0000

In a bid to attract new users and stem stunted growth, Twitter has created a new ‘Sign-Up’ API (application programming interface) which will make it possible for anyone to create an account when away from the site.

So far the functionality is only live on US local online guide, Citysearch, and has not been released publicly. Businesses with profiles on Citysearch which create Twitter accounts using the new API, will have their tweets appear on their Citysearch business page.

Technology blog, Mashable, thinks the fact that Twitter chose Citysearch to launch the API on is indicative of Twitter’s future business model.

“It’s interesting that Twitter chose Citysearch to be the first to use the API. It’s clearly targeting businesses with this move. With the likelihood of paid accounts for businesses and brands coming this year, it’s understandable why Twitter’s focusing on these businesses and business users.

“Businesses keep looking for new ways to integrate with Twitter, but the launch of the Sign-Up API with Citysearch may be one of the most important integrations yet”, said Mashable’s Ben Parr.

Recently Twitter Japan announced it was to add paid for premium accounts from next January. It plans to introduce a tiered payment model that will charge audiences to view tweets from premium Twitter accounts.

Kenichi Sugi, chief operating officer of DG Mobile (a subsidiary of Twitter Japan investor Digital Garage), announced the changes at the Mobidec2009 conference two weeks ago. He said that Twitter would be adding paid subscription options from January 2010 – which would allow account holders to charge audiences for access to their tweets, links to external websites and images.

Mobile is also being prioritised by the business, which has famously yet to turn a profit – despite intense media coverage and a large userbase.

Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive, told The Telegraph at Web 2.0 in San Francisco, in September 2009, that mobile in countries like Japan and India – was a big focus because the reach and revenue potential are undeniably huge.

Two months ago Twitter signed a major SMS deal with India’s largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, enabling its customers to send tweets via texting.

The company is in talks with mobile phone carriers all over the world to secure similar SMS deals, which allow people to post and receive tweets via text message, without the need for web access.

Millions of people already post tweets via SMS, use Twitter mobile or third party apps on the go, but the intention is to ensure the company has deals with all the major mobile phone carriers in its target territories, so people can use Twitter at all times.

Twitter also working with handset developers to integrate the service as part of the phone. (Via Telegraph)

Twitter launching paid business accounts Personal and corporate accounts will remain free, but businesses will have the option of signing up to a paid account, which will offer a...
Sheep Rule 80% of Twitter There have been a number of articles recently around the fact that 80% of twitter accounts have less than 10 followers. While some have...
Twitter eyes mobile phone domination while sipping tea Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder has revealed that the company is aiming to convert all mobile phone users to using the microblogging service on the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Facebook and other social networking sites to be fitted with panic button

Chris Marshall — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:33:23 +0000

Panic buttons are to be installed on Facebook and other social networking sites to enable children to alert website operators when inappropriate material is posted on the sites.

Am still not a huge user of Facebook primarily because I haven’t figured it out yet!! Was interested to read this article on the (Via Telegraph) site though:

Some 140 firms and other groups have agreed to abide by internet standards drawn up by the government’s adviser on online safety, Tanya Byron.

The panic button system is similar to one that the networking site Bebo has already announced and involves a prominently displayed means for children to report offensive, obscene and other inappropriate material.

The standards should also give parents greater control over children’s use of the internet with controls that enable them to prevent access to pages with offensive content.

Sites will also have to offer a “safe search” service that stops children from inadvertently accessing unsuitable sites.

According to research by industry regulator Ofcom, about 35pc of children are able to access the internet in their bedrooms without parental supervision.

The Sunday Times reported that Ed Balls, the schools secretary, and Alan Johnson, the home secretary, would unveil the voluntary code on Tuesday and that Gordon Brown might also attend the launch.

Websites which are moderated by staff are the focus of the new guidelines, particularly internet chatrooms, search engines and instant messaging services.

Further details are being working on by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and these are due be published next summer.

The government also plans to launch an advertising campaign about using the internet safely. Parents will be advised to keep computers in areas where they can monitor their children’s use.

Middle-aged learning to love social networking sites Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are no longer the preserve of the young with middle-aged people logging on to them in ever...
Americans spend most of web time on Facebook During the month of June, Facebook attracted 87 million US users, who each spent an average of four hours and 39 minutes on the...
Facebook users ‘buying fake friends’ I have never really taken to Facebook to be honest, primarily I think because I don’t really have any old friends that I particularly...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Telegraph launches free Apple iPhone app

Chris Marshall — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:35:39 +0000

The Telegraph has launched a new and improved version of its news application to help Apple iPhone users keep up with the latest headlines on the go.

The Telegraph app is available free of charge, unlike some other news applications.

The application – a small piece of software installed on a mobile device – automatically pulls in the latest news headlines and weather forecasts from the Telegraph website, making it quicker and easier to see top stories and sports results.

The Telegraph app works with Apple’s iPhone, and can either be downloaded directly on to the device through the iTunes App Store, or copied across to the phone using a computer.

New features include the ability to instantly share interesting stories or pictures via email, Twitter or Facebook at the touch of a button, and access to video reports and picture galleries.

Users can also use the application to alert the Telegraph to a breaking news story. By clicking on the “Report” button, users can upload a photo and give a brief eyewitness account of breaking news.

“This new, improved app provides a really rich, multimedia news experience,” said Maani Safa, head of mobile at Telegraph Media Group. “We’ve made the software as easy to use as possible, and there are lots of features that readers will love.

“We can provide you with up-to-the-minute weather forecasts based on your current location, or show you a list of the day’s hottest news stories. And if you’re catching a flight or taking the Tube, all of the stories and photos are still available, even if you don’t have a mobile phone signal.”

The Telegraph launched its first iPhone application earlier this year, and also makes a variety of apps for the BlackBerry and handsets running Google’s Android operating system.

* You can find out more information about the Telegraph news app, and download your own free copy, at www.telegraph.co.uk/iphoneapp (Via Telegraph)

Apple reveals top 20 free / paid iPhone apps, iFart Mobile only ranks 16th All Apple fans LOVE lists, it is well known and undeniable fact, so I have no doubt that you will be absolutely enthralled by...
Apple shows iPhone OS 3.0 at WWDC, hits devices June 17th Apple’s showing off iPhone OS 3.0 at WWDC, and while we’ve seen most of it, there were naturally going to be a few surprises:...
Apple iPhone 3GS: O2 customers express anger over upgrade costs Disgruntled customers have been flooding web forums and Twitter with complaints about the fact that they will have to pay for the remaining time...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Hands-on with HandBrake 0.9.4

Chris Marshall — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:45:19 +0000

I am a big fan of HandBrake and have ripped over 500 DVD’s with it onto external hard drives. Not surprisingly I haven’t used it for a while!! That said, I need to rip a few in the next week or so was interested to read about 0.9.4

“Creation comes out of imperfection.”

x264
A large portion of these speed, size, and quality improvements come to us for free, from the x264 project. The past year, like every year, has seen some massive improvements for that video encoding engine. As always, it has been further hand-optimized for better performance. But it has also gained new features like macroblock tree rate control and weighted P-Frame prediction. The end result? Better picture quality, at a smaller size, faster.

So, if x264 alone gives us smaller, better, faster encodes…what have HandBrake’s developers been doing over the past year?

Oh, all sorts of things

New build system
HandBrake has a new, much improved compilation system, which allows easy 64-bit and parallel builds, as well as providing easy extendability for future improvements to the application. 64-bit builds tend to perform approximately 10% better than their 32-bit brethren. There is no Snow Leopard magic here: the performance gains can also be realized on Intel Macs running 10.5, as well as Linux systems.

Soft subtitles
HandBrake can now include subtitle tracks that can be turned on and off, instead of rendering them onto the video track permanently (which also reduces video compression). This means you can include Closed Captioning data from DVDs and TV broadcasts, or find SRT text subtitle files on the ‘net and include them. When using the Matroska container, you can also store the graphical subtitle images (VobSubs) from a DVD as a separate track. An added benefit is that multiple subtitle tracks can be included in the same output video.

Live preview
Ever wished you could test HandBrake settings before spending hours on a full encode? Now, you can.

The picture settings and preview sheet has been broken out into a filters and picture settings inspector, and a preview window. The preview window can show you still frames from your source, like always. But it also lets you start to encode a short clip from the current preview with the currently selected settings, and view the results right there inside of HandBrake.

Better input support, for DVD and non-DVD sources alike
HandBrake now uses a better DVD reading library called libdvdnav. This means it can now read some DVDs it had trouble with before, and it can also select different angles on a DVD. As well, some bugs in underlying libraries have been patched.

For non-DVD sources, HandBrake now offers improved transport stream support, especially for high definition sources. A number of decoding bugs have been resolved as well, so Windows users will no longer need fear AAC audio, nor Mac users fear VC-1 video.

Constant quality encoding
No more looking for the perfect bitrate for a source–HandBrake is migrating to quality-based encoding. This means that instead of telling encoders to use a specific size and vary quality to meet it, we tell the encoder to vary size to meet a given quality level. Overall quality improves, since bits are spent only when they are needed, and are saved when they are not. While this means output size is somewhat unpredictable, the results in picture quality speak for themselves.

As part of this change, the quality slider has been made more prominent, and now works off the quality values used by the video encoders, instead of a confusing, custom, percentage scale.

Another result is that 2-pass encoding is not needed. A single pass at a constant quality provides just as much compression efficiency as two passes at an average bitrate.

Presets
There are no more presets for the PSP, PS3, or Xbox 360. Quite frankly, they didn’t work well. None of the development team members own the devices, so testing was minimal and support was nonexistent. Keeping up with the firmware vagaries and ambiguous specifications of these devices was not fun–we get enough of that from Apple’s kit, and those we all have around to test on. The new “Normal” preset should work perfectly fine on any device that supports standard Main Profile H.264 with AAC-LC audio in an MP4 file, which the PS3 and 360 ostensibly do.

There are no more Film, Animation, or Television presets. Instead of a confusing series of content-targeted presets, there is now a single, constant quality, High Profile preset with automated filtering and all the H.264 bells and whistles. This preset should work on the PS3 and 360 too, although we make no promises.

It is now possible to import individual presets in all the graphical interfaces, and to export them as well, in the Mac and Linux GUIs.

Focus on what we do best
As we’ve had on our roadmap for quite awhile now, one of our goals for version 0.9.4 was to refocus on HandBrake’s key strengths and to remove dead weight. As part of this process, several containers and a codec have been removed from HandBrake.

AVI: AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake’s AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn’t even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read and maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.

OGG/OGM: HandBrake’s OGM muxer is just as out of date. It hasn’t been actively maintained in years either, and it too lacks support for HandBrake’s best features. It requires conditionals to work around missing functionality too…only this one gets tested so infrequently the conditionals were never even put in the code, so it just fails when you try to do anything advanced. This one is not coming back either. And yes, we’re aware of HTML 5. For patent-free muxing, HandBrake still has Matroska, which is a much better container anyway.

XviD: HandBrake, these days, is almost entirely about H.264 video, aka MPEG-4 Part 10. This makes it rather…superfluous to include two different encoders for an older codec, MPEG-4 Part 2. When choosing between FFmpeg’s and XviD’s, it came down to a matter of necessity. We need to include libavcodec (FFmpeg) for a bunch of other parts of its API, like decoding. Meanwhile, XviD’s build system causes grief (it’s the most common support query we get about compiling, after x264’s requirement of yasm). Since we mainly use MPEG-4 Part 2 for testing/debugging, and recommend only H.264 for high quality encodes, Xvid’s undisputed quality edge over FFmpeg’s encoder is inconsequential, while FFmpeg’s speed edge over XviD is important to us.

But wait, there’s more!
Audio-video synchronization has been further improved.

HandBrake can now pass-through DTS audio from a source when encoding to the Matroska container, just like it has previously for AC3 audio.

Mac users can now encode AAC audio using OS X’s Core Audio, rather than using the open source libfaac. Core Audio offers far superior audio quality.

A new custom anamorphic mode allows precise control of all parameters, for power users.

Decomb now offers an optional, slower, better quality deinterlacing method called EEDI2.

Library updates for (besides x264) FFmpeg, libtheora (1.1), libmp4v2, libfaac/faad, libvorbis, and libmkv.

Of course, there have also been countless improvements to the user interfaces, and many technical changes under the hood to improve things like sample interleaving and framerate shaping.

Wirecast 3 Wirecast at $449 isn’t exactly cheap, but it comes from a good stable over at Flip4Mac, including one of my favourite applications ScreenFlow. Wirecast...
Every Mac Loves Toast! If PathFinder is a cult application in the Mac community, then Toast ($99.99 or $149.99 Pro) is truly iconic. I have mentioned before how...
Apple debuts speedier iPhone 3G S with built-in video camera Apple on Monday closed out its presentation at WWDC 2009 by introducing the new iPhone 3G S, the fastest iPhone yet with up to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitter turns red for World Aids Day

Chris Marshall — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:32:32 +0000

The makeover is designed to mark World Aids Day, which aims to raise awareness and funds for HIV/Aids projects across the world.

Twitter’s new red livery also contains a link directly through to the Twitter page of Product Red, the HIV/Aids awareness charity founded by U2 singer Bono which hopes to fight the spread of Aids in Africa.

Twitter users are also able to add a virtual red World Aids Day ribbon to their Twitter picture. The virtual ribbon, known as a Twibbon, is displayed on top of a user’s profile picture on all of their tweets.

There is also a special hashtag, #red, which changes tweets red to pick out mentions of World Aids Day. And celebrity Twitter users are also throwing their weight behind the awareness campaign.

Stephen Fry said the red tweets were “cool”, and urged fellow Twitter users to show their support for Aids charities: “The tworld has gone #RED for #WorldAIDSDay. You can visit www.worldAIDSday.org to read real stories about HIV and show your support.”

The actor Ashton Kutcher, who has more than four million Twitter followers, tweeted: “10% of world population is in Africa. 67% of all HIV cases are there. Get involved #red”

It’s the first time Twitter has changed its layout or colour scheme to mark an event in this way. Other websites, such as Google, regularly display special “doodles” or logos to mark notable dates. The Google.com webpage currently has a red ribbon logo on it, with a link through to Google.org, the search giant’s philanthropic division, where web users can find out more about HIV/Aids projects. (Via Telegraph)

O2 Turns on to Twitter Updates The UK’s second largest mobile phone operator O2 has announced that from August it will allow its users to keep keep track of their...
Twitter to introduce live video-tweeting Twitter users may soon be posting real-time video tweets in addition to text tweets under plans to modernise the site. The upgrade, which is...
Twitter now blocking bad URLs, but imperfectly Hoping to deal with a growing problem, Twitter has quietly introduced a feature to prevent users from posting links to malicious Web sites. But...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Space firm to send Christmas Day tweets to dead people

Chris Marshall — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:01:37 +0000

Bereaved Brits desperate to send a message to their departed loved ones this Christmas could instead simply alert hostile aliens to our tenuous Earthly existence.

The Bereavement Register – a useful service to help bereaved families avoid being deluged with junk mail and cold calls targeted at their dead relatives – is offering the chance to beam into space “a personal message in remembrance of someone who has died”.

The Bereavement Register will forward the messages to “Our broadcast service provider, Deep Space Communications Network (DSCN)… located next to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA”.

DCN will then squirt out all the messages on Christmas Day, “as a single data package into an area of deep space where there are no known satellites”.

This will be done using “state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment (inclusive of redundant, high-powered klystron amplifiers connected by a travelling wave-guide to a five-meter parabolic dish antenna)”.

While the service may have an appeal to bereaved folk looking to feel a connection to their dear departeds at a particularly difficult time of the year, it ignores the obvious dangers of sending random messages out into deep space.

Just two years ago, a brace of space thinkers – Michael Michaud, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science and Technology, and Dr John Billingham, former chief of the NASA SETI office – expressed their dismay at the active SETI initiative.

Michaud said it was “a deliberate attempt to provoke a response by an alien civilization whose capabilities, intentions, and distance are not known to us”. Such initiatives should be a matter of government policy, he said, not left to madcap scientists with access to a satellite dish.

The fact that the Bereavement Register is restricting messages to a Twitter-style 140 characters gives further cause for concern, as any life form that picks up the message is likely to take one look and write us off as a non-intelligent life form ripe for harvesting. (Via The Register)

Twitter needs to teach people to tweet Technology journalists are often accused of blowing Twitter out of proportion, and for good reason. Leaving the cozy tech bubble and talking to people...
UK retailer apologizes for faux Iran Tweets If you’re among the many who’ve been searching Twitter for digital howls of revolution over the disputed Iranian presidential election, you may have turned...
O2 Turns on to Twitter Updates The UK’s second largest mobile phone operator O2 has announced that from August it will allow its users to keep keep track of their...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Jibbigo

Chris Marshall — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:29:17 +0000

Living in Spain as a British Expat I am always keen to look at applications that make my limited use of the Spanish language better, so I was excited to take a look at Jibbigo which promised:

Your world just got smaller thanks to a speech-to-speech translation app for your iPhone.

Hmm what is the point of having a application launch on an iPhone with the message that this is the first time you have launched the application and suggesting you watch the introductory video which ……….. doesn’t work on the iPhone!

As first impressions go that was terrible. I mean really bad!!! Now I know that it is a major weakness of the iPhone the lack of flash BUT they know that so why make the first experience of the application such a negative one?

Loading it up for a second time I was faced with three language pairings to select from:

English (International) – Español
Español – English
English (US) – Español

Now not having been able to view the video I was unsure which to choose. As a fully fledged proper English speaker from the United Kingdom, I wanted English. Technically I only recognise that as the English option anyway!!! I have always felt that English (US) should be called American, and I have no idea whatsoever what English (International) means? To me it has always been and always will be English.

But that wasn’t my dilemma! The issue was the direction as I was going to be speaking in English and wanted a translation into Español I wanted the Español – English option, but wasn’t sure if that meant I would be expected to speak in Español and it would be translated to English.

I selected that option anyway and …….. I got a screen that had the Español flag at the top saying Hola, and a American flag at the bottom saying Hello, so:

It was requiring me to speak in Español with that selection, but
It was saying that English was actually English (US)

Hmm not good, and as it seemed to be assuming that the world evolved around the English (US) setting I thought I would adopt an American approach of three strikes and you are out.

So I thought I would change the settings, which it seems requires the application to be closed down and restarted.

After much internal debate and with fingers crossed I selected the English (International) – Español option, and wouldn’t you know it I got the Union Jack flag at the top of the screen, and the Español flag at the bottom.

I thought I would give it a quick test, so pressed the red record button and said “knife”. After a bit of whirling the top box came up with the phrase “The Bus” and the Español translation of “El autobús” which was fine, but I can’t cut my steak with an el autobús!!

So on the three strikes and you are out rule I gave up!

24 hours later, and having reflected that I had kindly been given the opportunity to review the application I thought I would try again. As I was hungry I said “dinner”, which somehow ended up as “where”, which was translated to “dónde”. Again accurate translation, but not of the word that I asked for.

I am genuinely sorry BUT this application, for me, was a total waste of time.

The website does carry this ‘warning’:

Version 1.0 contains a bug that affects the audio output on some iPhone/iPod models. Please update Jibbigo via the App store or via iTunes to version 1.01 (released on November 3rd, 2009). If you used the workaround, remember to set your date back to normal.

I thought it prudent to check which version I had – 1.0.1 so that wasn’t the issue.

I also saw on the Support page that:

Q. What if I’m having trouble getting Jibbigo to recognize my voice?
A. Jibbigo has an optional adaptation mode that adapts to your voice and noise environments. The switch is on the backpage.

But as I had tried with this setting both on and off it wasn’t that either.

For the record I did contact the developers about the issues above. As far as the video goes it is a issue with the 3G iPhone as I suspected but that doesn’t deflect from the initial impression it leaves.

As for the application not recognizing any of the words I was advised to try saying phrases not words, and bizarrely that worked! I know weird or what ….. say a phrase and it works, say one word and you get some random word replacing it.

Having got it working though it was fun, but slow! The translations were 100% accurate every time, but they took an eternity to come up. I doubt that anything can be done about that and the technology is pretty amazing, but as far as been able to use the application in a busy food market (where I tried it out) it was just too slow. I can see how it has value as a learning aid but as a day to day assistant I found it far to slow for practical use.

At $24.99 the application isn’t cheap, but it is very clever.

As I say it is a shame, but a review is a review and this is my experience of the application and I wouldn’t be doing anybody any favours by not been 100% truthful.

iPhone App Development I spent the best part of two days earlier in the week in the UK ‘brainstorming’ with Danny, Tom and the team at Miglia...
Skype on the iPhone! More a ‘proof of concept’ and certainly a very (very) complicated workaround but appears that using Skype on your iPhone (which it seems that...
Could A New iPhone Be The Answer!!! “It could only happen to me”. “You wont believe it but it is true!”. “Someone is trying to tell you something” All of the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

iPhone conquers half the (smartphone) world

Chris Marshall — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:55:54 +0000

Apple’s iPhone now accounts for 50 per cent of worldwide smartphone usage, according to a new report. But off in the distance, there’s an Android approaching.

The latest traffic figures (PDF) from AdMob – the mobile ad-servicing shop recently acquired by Google – are less kind to Symbian and Palm. According to the report, Symbian’s market share is nose-diving, and after a recent flirtation with growth, Palm’s share is down as well.

The AdMob report – the latest installment in its ongoing Mobile Metrics series – must be taken with the requisite grains of salt, however. As the company freely acknowledges, the report is based upon data that AdMob acquires from its own ad-serving network. It “does not represent the traditional view of market share based on the number of handsets sold.”

Still, information taken from billions of ad placements on 15,000 mobile Web sites plus iPhone and Android apps can provide insight into overall trends in the mobile marketplace.

Taken as a whole, the trends are clear. First, in the category of “tremendous grasp of the obvious”, is the fact that smartphone usage is growing rapidly. A comparison of data taken from AdMob’s Mobile Metric reports since early 2008 shows that worldwide smartphone usage has doubled from 22 per cent of handsets to 44 per cent:

More interesting are the trends in smartphone operating systems. Early last year, AdMob’s data showed that Symbian-based smartphones held a commanding lead over any and all competition. Since then, however, the iPhone has crushed not only the Symbian OS, but other competitors as well.

Two data series stand out in AdMob’s analysis. First, Palm’s offerings (in the chart below, a combination of Palm OS and webOS) steadily sank until webOS was released on the Pr? earlier this year – but the company’s numbers have again begun to slide.

Second is the rapid rise of Android, which began taking off in late spring. AdMob reports that Android requests have risen by nearly a factor of six since April. Android phones have now out-polled formerly healthy RIM to take third place behind Apple and Symbian. A distant third, to be sure, but a broze medal still gets you onto the winners’ podium.

But although the slope of RIM’s trend line is negative, AdMob suggests that a BlackBerry resurgence is underway. Although the company’s share numbers may be slipping, the raw number of ad requests is growing. “Worldwide requests from RIM devices increased 44 per cent over the last six months in the AdMob network,” the report, well, reports.

AdMob – which also tracks ad requests by individual handsets – says the recently launched RIM Tour and new the versions of the Curve (8900 and 8520) are “gaining traction.”

Interestingly, the BlackBerries that AdMob suggests you keep your eye on are keyboard-equipped and not iPhone imitators like the less-successful Storm, which AdMob’s data indicates holds a 12 per cent share of the worldwide BlackBerry market. The healthiest BlackBerry remains the 8300 Curve, which has garnered about 45 per cent of the RIM share for the past six months.

It’s also apparent that there has been an ongoing shakeout of smartphone competitors, with less-successful companies watching their share shrink drastically or disappear entirely. A look at AdMob data based on handset manufacturers and not operating systems shows that the share held by “other” has dropped to a quarter of what it was in the beginning of 2008.

The smartphone market is maturing, and to break into it will now take a player with not only deep pockets but also nerves of steel. And having an OS partner as determined as Google won’t hur (Via Register)

Find My iPhone has its first real world success story In what is almost certainly the first incident of many to come, iPhone owner Kevin Miller was able to retrieve his lost and stolen...
12% of early iPhone 3G buyers report ditching their BlackBerry Approximately 12% of consumers who visited a retail store this past weekend to make their iPhone 3G S purchase said they were replacing a...
iPhone grabs 32% of global handset profits Apple’s iPhone now accounts for 8% of all mobile phone revenue and a whopping 32% of the industry’s handset profits, according to figures published...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Black Friday Deals @ DEVONtechnologies

Chris Marshall — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:20:11 +0000

DEVONtechnologies, LLC has announced their Black Friday deals – offers 25 percent discount on all new purchases of its software products on Black Friday, November 27, 2009.

Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann, President of DEVONtechnologies: “Black Friday is the one-day shopping event for the Mac community. And so, following an old tradition in the USA, we’re offering our well-known applications DEVONthink, DEVONagent, DEVONnote, and the Infoworker’s bundles (consisting of DEVONthink Pro or Pro Office and DEVONagent) with 25 percent discount on this year’s Black Friday. If you’re thinking about going paperless, Friday is the day!”

Exclusively, traditionally, and only on Black Friday, November 27, 2009, DEVONtechnologies is proud to offer a 25 percent rebate on their software products from DEVONnote to DEVONagent and DEVONthink. More information about the deal can be found on the DEVONtechnologies website (links will become active on Friday).

Users can put any discounted product they want to purchase into their shopping cart with the 25 percent Black Friday discount. The shop page’s ‘Continue Shopping’ link will lead them back to the promotion page, so that they can easily add another product to their shopping cart in case that tehy want to purchase more than one application with the discount.

Black Friday Promotion: http://www.devon-technologies.com/shop/promotions/blackfriday2009.html
DEVONtechnologies: http://www.devon-technologies.com/
Media Assets: http://www.devon-technologies.com/about/press/

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Jailbroken iPhones exposed to second worm, this time malicious

Chris Marshall — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:19:30 +0000

As inevitable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West, an innocuous iPhone worm has been transformed into a malicious bank details-stealing virus.

The second recorded iPhone infection operates on exactly the same principles as the first, as it targets jailbroken handsets with SSH installed, but this time adds the ability for the hacker to remotely control and access the phone. By throwing up a purported ING Direct login page, he (or she, or they) can collect your online banking credentials and, presumably, all the cash they are supposed to protect.

Presently isolated within the Netherlands, this outbreak may spread further still, as it is capable of infecting other jailbroken iPhones on the same WiFi network.

iPhone 2.0 Jailbroken With the news that the iPhone Dev Team have jailbroken 2.0 my plans are a little clearer! As I understand it the current position...
Upgrading iPhones to 3.0 Had two iPhones to upgrade. My 3G one and Sands 1st Generation one. Both were jailbroken and unlocked, and both where still on Version...
iPhone 3GS gets jailbroken, hack available online The first jailbreaking application for the iPhone 3GS is now available. The tool, called purplera1n, will only allow the installation of unofficial third-party applications,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Dead Simple

Chris Marshall — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:52:01 +0000

Possibly my favourite so far! Clever (but warped) back story of a prank gone wrong. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life.

It is possibly the only book that actually made me gasp out loud at one totally unexpected plot twist, very unexpected indeed.

Still a great read …. as ever couldn’t put it down and finished it in about two days!

I must confess that I do like the use of ‘copy n paste’ that he uses from one book to another ….. gives a nice sense of continuity. If you don’t know what I mean read a few and you soon will!

It was meant to be a harmless stag night prank. A few hours later four of his best friends are dead and Michael Harrison has disappeared. With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Grace – a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife – is contacted by Michael’s beautiful, distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper. Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison’s whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot to gain – more than anyone realizes. For one man’s disaster is another man’s fortune . . . Dead simple . . .

Would certainly recommend it highly as always.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the book if you have read it.

Looking Good Dead Really enjoyed this book. Great (but sick) back story of snuff movies . Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life....
Dead Man’s Footsteps Really enjoyed this book. Great (but tragic) back story of 9/11. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life. If I...
Recent Books Read I seem to have worked my way through a number of books since I last posted on books read. At least one was a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Looking Good Dead

Chris Marshall — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:47:06 +0000

Really enjoyed this book. Great (but sick) back story of snuff movies . Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life.

I don’t think I have any criticism of this book. Kept me guessing right to the end, realy well written and the plot had more twists and turns that a downhill slalom course. Couldn’t put it down!

Still a great read …. as ever couldn’t put it down and finished it in about two days!

I must confess that I do like the use of ‘copy n paste’ that he uses from one book to another ….. gives a nice sense of continuity. If you don’t know what I mean read a few and you soon will!

Tom Bryce did what any decent person would do. But within hours of picking up the CD that had been left behind on the train seat next him, and attempting to return it to its owner, he is the sole witness to a vicious murder. Then his young family are threatened with their lives if he goes to the police. But supported by his wife, Kellie, he bravely makes a statement, to the murder enquiry team headed by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a man with demons of his own – including his missing wife – to contend with. And from that moment, the killing of the Bryce family becomes a mere formality – and a grisly attraction. Kellie and Tom’s deaths have already been posted on the internet. You can log on and see them on a website. They are looking good dead.

Would certainly recommend it highly as always.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the book if you have read it.

Dead Man’s Footsteps Really enjoyed this book. Great (but tragic) back story of 9/11. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life. If I...
Dead Simple Possibly my favourite so far! Clever (but warped) back story of a prank gone wrong. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy...
iWoz I was excited when I got the iWoz book for Christmas, not because I was surprised as I had told Sands it would be...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Dead Man’s Footsteps

Chris Marshall — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:44:46 +0000

Really enjoyed this book. Great (but tragic) back story of 9/11. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life.

If I had any criticism it was that compared to other books by Peter James it became too obvious what the twist was going to be a little early compared to other books.

Still a great read …. as ever couldn’t put it down and finished it in about two days!

I must confess that I do like the use of ‘copy n paste’ that he uses from one book to another ….. gives a nice sense of continuity. If you don’t know what I mean read a few and you soon will!

Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne’er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifetime, to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country. Six years later, the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman’s body in a storm drain in Brighton, leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton.

Would certainly recommend it highly as always.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the book if you have read it.

Dead Simple Possibly my favourite so far! Clever (but warped) back story of a prank gone wrong. Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy...
Looking Good Dead Really enjoyed this book. Great (but sick) back story of snuff movies . Great characters, including the continuation of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s life....
More Summer Reading Just read four, somewhat different books, over the last couple of weeks as the summer binge continues!! We are in the middle of a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitter launching paid business accounts

Chris Marshall — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:17:56 +0000

Personal and corporate accounts will remain free, but businesses will have the option of signing up to a paid account, which will offer a “special layer of access”, including feedback and statistics. Many big name brands and companies have embraced Twitter as a way of communicating directly with consumers and engaging with customers.

“This takes advantage of some of the commercial use of Twitter we’ve seen from businesses like airlines and big box stores,” said Stone. “We want to present to them a layer of features that allows them to become better at Twitter, show them some of the analytics.”

Twitter, which is valued at around $1 billion, has yet to settle on a business model for the service, and paid-for business accounts will provide a welcome revenue stream for the microblogging platform.

Stone also confirmed that Twitter would consider signing deals with other companies to license its content and live streams to other sites. He didn’t rule out the possibility of partnerships with news agencies and media organisations, which often use Twitter feeds as part of their newsgathering operations.

News of earthquakes, terrorist acts and other crucial events often spread first on Twitter before being picked up and verified by the mainstream media. The first photograph of the plane that crashed in to the Hudson River appeared on Twitter.

“I felt there was a wonderful partnership to be had here,” he said. “It is an interesting time for news organisations and I am looking forward to seeing what we can create if we open our doors to them.”
Last month, Twitter signed deals with Google and Microsoft Bing to integrate its real-time search results in to both search engines. (Via Telegraph)

Twitter launches new login API In a bid to attract new users and stem stunted growth, Twitter has created a new ‘Sign-Up’ API (application programming interface) which will make...
Twitter to release revenue-generating feature by year’s end So Twitter looking to make some money at last. I can’t see the problem with that, nor do I think they have to look...
Twitter needs to teach people to tweet Technology journalists are often accused of blowing Twitter out of proportion, and for good reason. Leaving the cozy tech bubble and talking to people...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

MacGraPhoto Giveaway – 21 lucky MacGraPhoto Buyers will receive Bonuses

Chris Marshall — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:04:16 +0000

Apparent Software today announces a special offer for MacGraPhoto bundle in which 21 buyers until November 24, 8am GMT will receive one of three gifts: his money back, free HoudahSpot license or free upgrade to ImageFramer 3.

MacGraPhoto is a software promotion which gives Mac users 7 premium graphics applications for the price of one or even for free. Applications in MacGraPhoto satisfy most of imaging needs of any Mac user from photo editing and geotagging to vector drawing.

Most Mac bundles lack focus – they collect unrelated applications, and many Mac users usually need only a couple of them. MacGraPhoto bundle is focused exclusively on graphics: it is a hand-picked selection of 7 premium applications from 7 different companies. Most of these applications received Apple “Staff Pick” or Apple Design Award.

All applications participating in the bundle are full versions without any limitations:
* Picturesque – Make images gorgeous (Original price $30)
* GraphicConverter – Universal genius for photo editing (Original price $35)
* ImageFramer – The Mac way to add frames to your pictures (Original price $39)
* Funtastic Photos – Makes photos amazing (Original price $35)
* DrawIt – Simply draw it! (Original price $39)
* HoudahGeo – Know where you took that photo! (Original price $30)
* Graphic Designer Toolbox – Computer generated graphics for designers (Original price $43)

Purchasers of MacGraPhoto until Tuesday, November 24, 8am GMT could win one of the following:
* Full refund of the bundle purchase
* Free upgrade to ImageFramer 3 (10 units)
* Free HoudahSpot license, Spotlight utility from Houdah Software license (10 units)

Pricing and Availability:
MacGraPhoto costs $39.99 (USD), while the total retail cost of the included applications is $251. MacGraPhoto also introduces a rewarding friend-referral program that allows users to get the bundle for free. MacGraPhoto has an affiliate program that allows websites or users to earn money for referring people to MacGraPhoto. The bundle started on 16 November 2009 and will last for 2 weeks

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

MacGraPhoto Bundle: Focussed On Graphics

Chris Marshall — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:43:21 +0000

Unlike many of the recent Mac Bundles, the MacGraPhoto bundle focuses on one subject, and one subject only – graphics. So, while a mixed variety of applications can be fun, and many useful, the MacGraPhoto bundle provides a hand picked selection of seven premium applications, many with the Apple “Staff Pick” or Apple Design Award, that will satisfy most of your imaging needs: image editing, applying effects, format conversion, batch processing, vector drawing, geo-locating your photos, framing them or even creating posters and postcards and much more.

The Bundle includes: Picturesque, Graphic Converter, DrawIt, ImageFramer, HoudahGeo, Funtastic Photos, Graphic Designer Toolbox.

You can get the 7 GREAT applications for the price of $39.99 simly by clicking here. With a retail prices of $251 for the seven applications this is a great deal!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

BuyMyTronics.com

Chris Marshall — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:39:36 +0000

As you would expect from someone that owns a Toyota Prius Hybrid I tend to try and protect the environment when I can. I am not a saint, and I am not obsessed by recycling, but there are certain common sense actions that can be taken, and when possible I try and take them.

A while back I wrote about how to recycle your Mac involving www.buymytronics.com.

I was looking through some stuff the other day and ended up on their site. Wow it has changed a lot, and in a pretty good way!

BuyMyTronics.com is here to give you an eco-friendly avenue to get rid of electronics while pocketing some extra cash. We offer a fast, simple and green way to get money for your gadgets—free shipping included. We currently purchase cell phones, Apple iPods, iPhones, laptops and desktops, plus most smart phones and PDAs (Blackberry, Treo, Nokia, HTC, LG, Motorola, etc.) Zunes, MP3 players and game consoles (Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Wii). We don’t care about the condition—we will take it broken or used. Get top dollar for your gadgets while keeping your eWaste out of the landfill!

I asked Brett Mosley, President and CEO, what he was most excited about regards the new look site and business behind it:

One of the things we’re most proud of is that, overall in two years since our original launch (and especially in this economy) we have grown tremendously. We have aggressively expanded into all Apple Products and eBook Readers, as well as a number of other items, and still offer competitive pricing for used electronics and free recycling for broken gadgets.

If you have an electronic gadget that you no longer need then it is worth giving these guys a look, you could end up with some cash in your pocket AND do the planet a favour at the same time!

You can foolw them on Twitter at: BuyMyTronics

Twitter “twitpocalypse” affects iPhone apps Tweetie can’t search, Twitterrific entirely broken The surging popularity of the Twitter messaging service has broken at least one Twitter client application and affected...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.