Social Networking History

Monday, January 31st, 2011

If you are interested in Social Networking you could do worse than listen to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xw14v/The_Secret_History_of_Social_Networking_Episode_1/

Cutting edge IT, do we need the history? “How can you tell where you’re going if you don’t know where you are coming from.” Any way if you have been cutting edge for a while you may be a part of it!

Don’t throw tablet-sized rocks when you live in a glass greenhouse

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Toshiba is the latest computer manufacturer trying to muscle its way into the potentially huge tablet market. The Japanese giant has previewed an Android 3.0-based tablet with specifications very similar to those of the Motorola Xoom. Just as interesting as the actual product itself though, is the website promoting it, www.thetoshibatablet.com .

If you visit the site on a laptop or desktop computer with Adobe Flash Player installed, you get the usual specs, interactive graphics, photos and other information you’d expect from a product website. But what happens if you visit the site from a mobile device without Flash, such as an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch? You see the following page at thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/apple.html:

Slightly smug in tone, but nonetheless true for an iPhone or iPad visiting a Flash-dependent website. But not this particular Toshiba site if you remove the apple.html part of the address and reload. You then you get a mobile-optimised version of the site with almost all the information and photos from the full Flash site:

Although this mobile-optimised Flash-less site has now been taken down, it does undermine Toshiba’s smugly-made point about the lack of Flash on Apple’s iOS devices.

Although the iPad has its fair share of flaws, it’s still a pleasure to use and it has the advantage of actually being widely available. Unlike Toshiba’s as yet unreleased Android 3.0 tablet. Or the Libretto W100, Toshiba’s dual-screen Windows 7 tablet currently in very limited distribution. Or the Folio 100, Toshiba’s first attempt at an Android tablet which was hastily and mysteriously recalled shortly following its launch just before Christmas.

Plus, our own tests reveal that Flash video can drain your mobile device’s battery life more quickly than H.264 video. Its new tablet may turn out to be great, but Toshiba really shouldn’t count its eggs before they’re hatched or, as another old saying goes, throw rocks from a glass greenhouse…

ARM shows UK still has its part to play

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

I am not known for my outspoken patriotism and reeling off lines like “proud to be British.”

However, when I saw the news this morning that UK chip manufacturer ARM had usurped Intel’s place at Microsoft’s side and was set to be the latest tablet component, I did beam a little with pride.

As a UK techie, I often stare across the pond at the innovation in Silicon Valley or dream of the broadband technology of Scandinavia or the Far East.

We may have been at the forefront of invention when it came to the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web but we have dropped out of the spotlight somewhat and, in my opinion, without just cause.

It doesn’t help that our Science and Research funding is being slashed to bits by the Government – regardless of what they claimed during the spending review (see the proof here) – and our top techies tend to leave for more prosperous shores.

But perhaps with the (admittedly rehashed) idea of the Silicon Roundabout at Old Street – Tony Blair was said to have spearheaded this years ago – and proof with companies like ARM taking centre stage at events like CES, we can return to a time where being British was seen across the globe as being at the height of the technology field, rather than just by us believers remaining in the UK.

Tablets: ready for business?

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Every couple of years a bandwagon comes along that every technology company wants to jump on and take advantage of. In previous years, this has been netbooks and smartphones. This year it’s tablet computers, thanks to the popularity of the Apple iPad.

It was impossible to avoid tablets, or slates if you prefer, at this year’s IFA technology trade show and conference in Berlin. From high-profile manufacturers such as Samsung and Toshiba to lesser-known names such as ViewSonic and Hannspree, everyone seemed to be showing off a tablet running Android.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet

Tablets are great for consumers who want to browse the web and check Facebook while lounging around on the sofa, but are they of any use for businesses? The increasing uptake of the iPad among businesses, at least anecdotally, suggests that they are. The lack of a built-in hardware keyboard, which is a disadvantage for some uses involving lots of text entry, has proven to be an advantage for other uses where the immediacy of directly interacting with content is more important. However, we have our doubts that tablets, especially Android tablets, will catch on with businesses beyond niche environments and early adopters without significant usability improvements.

The iPad currently supports features that we’d consider essential for businesses considering a portable computing device, such as configuration profiles, encryption and remote data wiping. Android 2.2 has finally added support for remote wiping, but Google needs to add and improve the others much more quickly if businesses are to seriously consider an Android tablet instead of an iPad or a traditional laptop, especially where security is a priority.

However, even when Google finally add these features to Android, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to take advantage of them on whatever Android tablet you’ve chosen to deploy. At least some of the upcoming Android tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab which was the most promising of the ones we saw at IFA, will have their own customised interfaces.

If our experience with Android smartphones is any indication, this means Android OS updates will only be released for these tablets very slowly, if at all. This could prove to be a support nightmare if you choose to deploy more than one model of tablet from more than one manufacturer. Although businesses will be less concerned than individual consumers with updating to the latest OS as soon as possible, businesses should be in control of when they upgrade to the latest OS and not at the whim of manufacturers.

The popularity of the iPad is no doubt due in part to the vast number and type of available apps on the iTunes App Store, both those designed specifically for the iPad and those designed for the iPhone but which will also work on Apple’s tablet. No matter what kind of app you want, there are bound to be several apps available for the iPad that could fit the bill. A tablet is nothing more than a glorified keyboard-less laptop for web browsing and reading emails unless there’s a compelling selection of apps to use on it.

Although the selection of apps available on Android is continuously improving, there are still fewer Android apps than there are iPhone/iPad apps. We’ve also yet to see or hear of any particularly compelling types of apps that are available for Android but not available for the iPad (although we’d love to be proven wrong). There are numerous things Google could improve about the Android Market to boost the number and quality of available apps, such as improving the layout of the store and combating app piracy more pro-actively.

Surprisingly, Android developers can only charge for apps in the US, Japan and a select number of European countries. Increasing the number of countries where developers can sell apps is almost certainly the most fundamental improvement Google can make. Without a bigger market for their paid-for apps, Android developers are less likely to develop the quality apps businesses will demand.

Android tablet-enthusiasts would counter this by saying that HTML 5 apps will soon supersede native apps, but this has yet to happen. We’re not entirely convinced this will happen soon either since, as far as we know, none of the stock Android apps are HTML 5 apps. If Google isn’t confident enough to publish mission-critical HTML 5 apps, we doubt third parties are either. This could change once ChromeOS is released, but the recently announced Android tablets have yet to be released, never mind any hypothetical Chrome tablet.

In a way, Apple has had a headstart on the various Android tablet manufacturers since it’s already been making a mini-tablet for several years now – the iPod Touch. Although sold as a MP3 player, it’s also able to run almost all of the apps available for the iPhone and it’s cheaper than the combined cost of an iPhone and a mobile contract too.

The latest iPod Touch has almost all of the same features as the iPhone 4. It’s therefore not a second-best substitute for most uses unlike some of the cheap but poorly built and specified Android phones and tablets. These are often poor relations to the more expensive and better designed Android products, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the HTC Legend.

This may change soon though, as several consumer electronics manufacturers, such as Samsung, Philips and Archos, have finally announced their own Android-based MP3 players at IFA. If designed and priced sensibly, these could provide both budget-minded businesses and consumers with affordable mini-tablets.

None of this should suggest that the iPad is a perfect tablet. Until iOS 4.2 arrives in November, clunky third party apps are required to print documents from the iPad. Office document editing and compatibility is poor judging from the apps we’ve seen and networking with local file servers is non-existent. Plus, the iPad doesn’t have any USB ports or a user-accessible file system, so the task of copying files to a USB flash drive, which is trivial on a laptop, is impossible on an iPad. It’s an obviously essential feature, especially when access to the internet and online storage services is restricted or totally unavailable.

Despite its limitations, the iPad appears to be making inroads among businesses. Any competing tablets, Android, ChromeOS or otherwise, therefore not only have to be as good as the iPad but have to be better with features and a user experience superior to Apple’s. Judging from our hands-on experiences at IFA, the first batch of Android tablets and MP3 players aren’t quite there yet but they’re catching up fast.

Please don’t cut, Cable

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

I used to be a massive fan of Vince Cable. A colleague even photo-shopped a fantastic picture of him to put on my wall at work.

But since the coalition came into force, my love for the guy has waned. Yes, I know he may just be a mouthpiece now for Cameron’s Conservatives and doesn’t have the luxury of being the outspoken Lib Dem without the sword of power to wield anymore, but I genuinely cringe when I read some of his announcements or listen to his speeches.

The latest one to get on my wick is yesterday’s confirmation funding from the Government for science will be cut – along with everything else on the chopping block.

Cable claimed he supported “blue skies” research but believed a lot of money was being wasted on unnecessary projects at the cost of our country’s economy.

Look Vince, scientific research is not so easy to separate into worth it or not worth it. Discoveries are made by breaking a few eggs if you will and often, smaller projects can lead to bigger things, bigger finds and bigger impacts on the world as we know it.

It also does nothing to encourage children in schools to follow the scientific path. We have all seen the numerous reports showing interest in the sciences is falling at school level, but it is likely to fall further if there is no prospect of research jobs after graduation.

As a nation, the UK has revolutionised the world with some of its scientific discoveries – from Newton’s law of gravity to Tim Berners-Lee’s web. We should not only be proud of that, but also want to carry on the strong tradition of leading the way in certain fields, not fall behind because a cuts happy Government has come into power.

I’ve got something (ringing) up my sleeve

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

I don’t know about you, but when I leave home I have a little mantra I say to myself to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything.

Yours will vary of course, but mine goes – wallet, phone, cigarettes, keys, lighter, Oyster.

It tends to ensure I have everything to keep me going throughout my day without a massive panic and, of course, the wallet (and perhaps cigarette) is there in case of emergency.

I don’t think it will be a shock to you that I manage to put said items into a bag to carry. I can’t say I have a classy Chanel handbag or anything – I actually have a freebie netbook bag that does the job fine – but I manage to carry everything around without concern or thinking to myself: “If only I could carry these things within my clothing.”

No, I didn’t think you had gone through that process either, but guess what? This is the key selling point of a new product set to launch in the UK.

For us women who don’t have the luxury of multiple pockets for all our bulky gadgetry, we will soon be able to eliminate the need to carry our mobile around at all by having one built into another female staple – the little black dress.

Oh, I wish I was joking. The M-Dress will reportedly keep your SIM card under the label and use ‘special gesture recognition software’ to establish when you lift your arm in order to answer the call.

“The M-Dress (Mobile Phone Dress) was designed after our research showed that very often phone calls are missed because mobile phones are quite awkward to carry, especially for women, that have garments with small or no pockets,” read the website of London-based designers, CuteCircuit.

“To allow women to stay connected while remaining stylish, CuteCircuit designed the M- Dress. A mobile phone in its own right but built out of soft circuitry.”

Let me start by saying – if we want to talk stereotypes of women – there tends to be a bag involved somewhere. As I previously mentioned, I may not fall into that category, but I have seen enough episodes of Sex and the City to know women like bags as much as they like shoes, dresses and painfully unsuitable men. So, no matter how small the bags are, the phone will fit.

Secondly, research. They really researched this? I am sure many people would have said they didn’t get in their pocket in time to answer a call before but how many said the answer was implanting it in their sleeve? I am guessing very few.

Thirdly, I have to question stylish. Nothing wrong with the dress at all for looks, it is just a sleek little black number. But how is one expected to look stylish when they are walking around talking to their wrist or unable to lift their arm for fear of drop calling somebody in their phonebook?

I get that the future will be full of quirky little tech objects that will soon become old hat for many, but I truly cannot envisage a Saturday night on the tiles with all the women wearing the same dress just so they didn’t have to splash out on a bag to keep their mobile in.

But for those of you who are interested, it is set to be released in the shops from next year.

Sorry, got to go, my wrist is ringing…

Do designers dream of electric slugs

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Her name is Valentina. She is young, beautiful and has just invited me for lunch. How can I tell her I have seen things she will never believe and all those moments will be lost like tears in the rain when I finally hang up my mouse? And that my stomach muscles are incredibly well developed and protrude over the top of my waistband. Perhaps it is best that we continue our relationship in a digital world? (more…)

Press F2 to enter bios set up

Monday, July 19th, 2010