A few days ago I was thinking to myself what would I do if my iPad stopped working. It's an iPad 2 so relatively old, though other than being a bit short on memory (most of its 16 gig is full) it does everything I want from it. I could quite happily drop down in size and go for an iPad Mini. That size of screen is still large enough for me to use as a 'full size' device, but being that much smaller would make it more portable. The one thing that would hold me back is that I…
So there’s some talk about running a power cable from Iceland across to Scotland, thus providing Europe with a “green” source of electricity generated from Iceland’s surplus geothermal energy resources. China is already laying cables over 2,200 km / 1300 miles long, though these are above ground. For Iceland it would be around 700 miles underwater, a submarine interconnector distance that’s not been done before. Iceland has very few people / consumers and vast energy potential. Like it or not there is an increase of demand for energy across Europe, but in turn wants to move away from high carbon…
It appears that China is now the world’s largest smartphone market, and I can’t see that changing soon. The west is reaching smartphone saturation level so there’s not much room for new expansion (just on-going replacement at contract renewal time) while China with its billion+ population numbers (and fast growing middle class) has vast potential for whichever of the manufacturers can really get in there. It may mean a bit of sucking-up to the Chinese ruling party in order to get full trading authority but (as Google found, it turned out rather counter-productive when they got in a huff over official restriction…
Rumour has it that we might be seeing some Google stores opening in the not too distant future. I rather hope they do. Google may not have the same range of branded hardware as Apple has with their products, but it would give Google the opportunity to showcase directly to people the Android system as well as their various Nexus phones and tablets. There’s also the Chromebooks, and if Google Glass is going to be priced around the $500 to $1000 then I’d really be wanting to play with it before thinking of purchase. Each of the Google stores could…
In times gone by AOL was often seen as a bit of a joke by the technically literate (or even by a basically competent computer user). The sort of person who used AOL would be seen as the sort of person who thought the CD draw on their computer was a cup holder, or get confused when they couldn't find the 'any' key when told to 'press any key'. Through some clever (really annoying?) marketing at one time AOL was a very dominant force in the on-line information supply system, first in providing their own "walled garden" community, then as…
Time for a technology change cycle to come around again? Look back 20 years or so and the technology / mobile phone market was dominated by companies like IBM and Benefon, multinational companies providing some excellent (analogue) phones with big plans for the future. However they totally underestimated the speed at which the switch from analogue to digital would happen. Improved call quality and the extra features, especially text messaging, got the public's attention where companies like Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola stepped in with new and exciting products. The older giants with their existing development plans could not change quickly…
So it looks like Google is going to pay Apple $ 1 billion next year to be the default search engine within the iOS empire. Interesting how Google and Apple may be competitors in various areas, but Google does seem to be more open in its cross-systems attitudes, and rather say 'sod you, we'll just work flat out for our own system' they will still work with active competitors. (Both Mozilla and Opera benefit from Google funding.) I guess this reflects the power of of information obtained with long term data analysis compared to short term costs. It can also make…
So EE are currently claiming 45% population coverage with their 4G service, and by the summer this should be up to 55% coverage. As someone who likes his mobile internet I’d been following T-Mobile / EE 4G development over the last year, and their activation of the system in the second half of 2012 coincided with contract renewal time for me. However I was somewhat pissed off at their 4G prices, and totally pissed off at their data caps. So fora standard 12 month contract the cheapest is currently at £41 a month and with a 500MB data limit. So…
What’s this WebRTC thing and what about the future for Skype. Quite a few people I know use Skype. Of them not one person I know has had anything positive to say about Microsoft’s takeover of Skype and its integration in with Messenger. However how much of a future does Skype have? Recently I've noticed comments about something called WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication). The idea behind this to enable things like browsers (or any web based application) to be able to provide audio and video communications just as part of what they do. No plug-ins to configure or add-ons to download,…
So, what should happen to a person's social networking and internet presence when they die. The physical property that goes to make up the deceased person's estate can be distributed by the executors according to the will, or to next of kin, or however the law lays down. However where does that leave your social networking presence, what about your Facebook page or YouTube account. A few years ago these sites could have just been seen as a transitory 'bit of fun' and of no great importance, however now some of them can generate considerable income and have a substantial…