Ridden with inaccuracies, half truths, and plain old news.
Technology
What On Earth Is Chat Roulette?
Feb 25th
Unless you have been offline for the last month or so you are bound to have heard of Chatroulette. If not here is a quick lowdown: you go to the site and are connected to a chat with a random stranger on webcam (although there is a text only option). If you get bored with who you are talking to or they offend your sensibilities (this is quite likely) then you click ‘next’ and you are connected to somebody else. The possibilities are endless and you cannot control who you talk to or what they might say or do.
The video below was created by Casey Neistat and features a study he made of his experiences with Chatroulette. Other than a bit of bad language the video is safe to view at work whereas the actual Chatroulette site definitely is not. It is also worth checking out Casey’s other videos which are similarly entertaining.
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
Pay As You Go Hack: Free Unlimited Calls for £3.33 pcm
Nov 13th
If you already have a 3G enabled mobile phone you never need to pay for calls again. Using Skype’s VOIP application you can make free unlimited calls to anybody else with the same set up without the need for phone credit. You can also use Windows Messenger Live Mobile to send instant messages in place of texts. Surprisingly this is all legit and positively encouraged by 3 Mobile.
Here is how it works:
Step 1.
Sign up with 3 and they will send you two free SIM cards for use in unlocked (or 3 compatible) 3G phones.
Step 2.
Give the other free SIM to someone else i.e. whoever you call most often.
Step 3.
Top up every 90 days in order to keep receiving free stuff (Skype and WMM). You can still use these when your credit runs out.
Step 4.
Use Skype to make calls and Windows Messenger Mobile to IM.
If you top up £10 every 90 days you will be paying around £3.33 per month. This credit can be spent on calling people who don’t have Skype yet. You also get an allowance of free 3 to 3 calls, free voicemail, some free texts (I’m not sure how many) and a mobile internet each time you top up.
I haven’t actually used this service so I can’t vouch for how well it works (I have never used Skype for calls before) but £3.33 a month is a lot less than I pay at the moment. More details at Three’s free SIM cards page.
Solar Powered Wifi Flowers
Oct 2nd
When I was younger there were only four television channels so you had to watch whatever rubbish was on if it was raining (which was about 6 out of every 7 days). That is how I found myself watching an old black and white film about a plant that roamed around a town at night eating people. I’m not sure what the underlying themes of the film were (nature always prevails?) but it put me off my Broccoli.
Somebody has now invented a giant plant that provides free, solar powered, Wifi. The flowers have a seating area and solar pannels in the petals. They provide a Wi-Fi network and a chanrging point for mobile phones and other devices. They were created by Patrick Shearn and Cynthia Washburn who are artists from Los Angeles who are part of Poetic Kinetics.
Perhaps I aught to try and get one of these for my garden? I know my girlfriend likes it when I get her flowers (although perhaps not giant plastic ones that attract people with laptops like bees).
Spotify Temporarily Reverts To Invite Only
Sep 14th
Online music streaming service Spotify has reverted back to it’s original invite-only membership setup. On their blog Spotify said that the changes were only a temporary messure brought about by a large increase in the amount of new sign ups. The recent launch of Spotify’s iPhone/Android app has bought the service a considerable amount of publicity which has no doubt lead to the increase in those signing up.
There is a way to sign up without using an invite: get a premium account. A premium account is needed to install the mobile app and costs £10 per month. Premium users don’t have to listen to adverts although most Spotify users I’ve spoken to don’t seem to mind the ads too much.
The Register reports that every song streamed costs Spotify around 1p so selling their preimum account and mobile app is clearly vital for the service to survive.
Twitter to include location of tweets.
Aug 24th
Twitter have recently announced that they will soon offer the ability to include location data with tweets. Users will be able to have their approximate location shown alongside each tweet and have this data mapped. The feature will be entirely opt-in so users need not worry that their whereabouts will be broadcast without their knowledge.
One the data about tweet locations is collected users will presumably be able to see new tweets on interactive maps as well as browse by location. Being able to see what people in specific places are saying will be useful for keeping up to date with unfolding news events. It might also help us to become more involved in local events and see what is actually going on in our neighborhoods rather than online.
A possible negative aspect (or positive depending on your point of view) would be the ability of small businesses to reach out to those nearby. This could be a problem as marketers seem to be all over Twitter at the moment, although if this becomes a problem opting out is always an option.
Read about the changes on the Twitter blog here.
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