Ridden with inaccuracies, half truths, and plain old news.
Posts tagged internet
A Digital Lifestyle?
Jun 18th
It has become the norm for us to digitize our lives and this is having a profound effect on our lifestyles. Those of us who grew up during the transitional period and more aware of this than most. I actually remember a time before mobile phones, digital cameras/music storage and the Internet. I also remember a time before mobile broadband when being on the internet meant a huge phone bill and the phone line being engaged for hours at a time. For the next generation this may be unthinkable but we were there and we saw phones the size of bricks and dial-up connections.
Previously photographs, videos and racks of CDs where found cluttering up living rooms around the country but digital storage is now taking over. Some hard drive companies are referring to “terabyte lifestyles” in an attempt to define the need for storage (You can just picture the look on the little Marketing types face’s when they came up with that one can’t you?).
All this constant collecting and documenting is The Fear. Anyone who has lost a year’s worth of photos or a great collection of obscure hard to find albums will understand that moment of panic when your computer will not turn on (hint: plug). The Fear leads us to backup, backup our backups and use online file storage and backup software.
The result of all this technological development is that physical copies are becoming less popular. This is affecting record companies in a big way as we know. Netflix has recently said that they only expect their mail-order DVD rental service to be needed for the next 5 years after which time downloads will take over. Does this mean that Ikea will have to sell digital storage rather then CD racks? Will archaeologists in the distant future be able to learn all about us by digging up a USB stick, or will they not have the necessary drivers?
Jack Schofield wrote an article about ‘Lifecaching’ in 2004 which seems to become more relevant as the years pass. He described the four ways in which recording our lives were (and are) becoming easier and easier.
First, new devices such as camera phones and digital recorders have made it much easier to record your life. Second, the use of digital media has allowed all the different types of record to be combined instead of stored separately. Third, the cost of disk storage has fallen to the point where many PC users can afford the terabyte or two of storage needed to keep everything. Finally, the internet has made it easy to share the results.
The advances in technology which Scholfield noted have lead to ‘Lifecaching’ or ‘Lifecasting’ becoming a real phenomena. Internet celebrities/attention seekers such as IJustine record their lives via blogs, live video streams and services such as Flickr and Twitte. Pay as you go mobile broadband makes it much easier for people to get connected, particularly those without a phone line. Advances in mobile connections have lead to the rest of us become more likely to record our everyday lives via photography and video.
The increased ease of blogging allows us to become more comfortable with sharing our offline life with our online ‘friends’. All the information we release is stored for posterity, to be viewed by whoever wishes (in the case of public blogs at least). Imagine if you could read your parents blog from when they were young, would you want to?
Broadband: You Couldn’t Give It Away.
Jun 11th
The Government is very keen for us to all get online. In particular they think that children without internet access are at a major disadvantage compared to their connected friends. Gordon Brown (still PM at the time of press 
) pledged to spend £300m to help poor families get online. He plans to offer vouchers that will be redeemable against computers and monthly ISP costs. The idea behind this is that web access is a vital part of learning. It has been suggested that children from homes with broadband achieve on average higher exam results. I would argue that this probably isn’t direct cause and effect. A broadband connection may just be a sign of a more privileged background. Still it must be a disadvantage to learn without access to all the information that is found online.
Huge amounts of money are also being invested in the mobile broadband infrastructure leading to an increase in coverage and speed that may result in traditional broadband (via a phone line) becoming an outdated idea. There is much debate about where this money should be coming from with the ISPs looking like they are going to have to cash up. The government wants all geographic areas of the country covered as well as all sections of society but doesn’t feel that they should have to pay when mobile broadband providers can expect huge profits.
A new study has found that almost half of those without a broadband connection wouldn’t even use one if it was given to them for free.
43% of adults who currently do not have internet access would remain disconnected even if they were given a free PC and broadband connection.
Perhaps this means that we have almost reached the point where everyone who wants a broadband connection has one. There are people who are quite happy to be offline and have no intention to get connected. I would expect this to be a generational thing seeing as how children these days grow up with web access in the home. It probably wouldn’t even occur to this generation to not be online. Those in our grandparents generation have to make a conscious decision to either ignore the internet or become a silver surfer.
61% of those who said that they had no intention of going online had never used a computer. These must be the kind of people left searching for the ‘any’ key when the dialogue box on screen says ‘press any key to continue’ bless ‘em.
“Broadband is becoming increasingly important to people’s ability to participate in the economy and society. The report shows that some creativity will be required if we wish to capture the imaginations of those who have yet to engage with the benefits the internet may bring,”
Ofcom’s Peter Phillips.
Interestingly 73% of those asked said that they considered broadband to be an essential utility such as water or electricity. This just shows how much of an essential part of (most of) our lives it has become. This is incredible when you consider that it wasn’t even known about by the general population before the 1990s. It’s only going to become more integrated in our lives in the future, to the point where there will be no ‘offline’ – everything will be connected all of the time. The next generation may be amazed when they realise that our grandparents never even touched a computer…
Are Vodaphone Exaggerating their Mobile Broadband Speeds?
May 20th
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Broadband is the speed. Those of us who remember the bad old days of dial-up connections will know how frustrating it can be to wait for a page to load. Whilst Broadband is faster than dial-up it is a well know fact that advertised speeds are not likely to be reached by all users all the time. Speeds are normally listed as ‘up to XX Mbps’ and this has left some people feeling that they are not getting what they pay for.
Even the best mobile broadband connection is by it’s very definition normally not as fast as a fixed line. The benefits of Mobile Broadband include it’s portability and the fact that a landline is not needed. But as the market for Mobile Broadband increases the companies involved get more competitive. Claims about speeds are very closely watched and monitored.
Vodaphone currently advertises speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps but competitors claim that this is unrealistic for most users. They claim that Vodaphones does not provide 3G coverage for all of their users who can mostly expect speeds of around 1.8 Mbps. Vodaphone claims that higher speeds are available in London and at airports but that might be considered irrelevant by most of their users.
Pay as you go mobile broadband provider Three claim that their coverage is greater than that of Vodaphone. They have reported a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority regarding Vodaphone’s speed claims.
Time to replace Internet Explorer with Firefox?
Dec 16th
It has recently been announced that current versions of Internet Explorer have a serious security flaw. Antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. has said that the vulnerability could be “adopted by … financially motivated criminals for more serious mayhem”. The flaw allows criminals to take control of an infected computer and steal passwords.
“If users can find an alternative browser, then that’s good mitigation against the threat.”
Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro
With this is mind perhaps it is time for IE users to switch the Firefox which is a far more advanced system. Firefox is faster and more dynamic than Internet Explorer with plenty of add-ons available to customize it to your needs.
For more information about the security alert see the BBC news story.
Firefox can be downloaded here. Information about how to install it here.
Sony and Samsung Android phones on the way.
Dec 12th
Sony Ericcson, Vodafone and now Samsung look set to launch high end mobile phones running on Android. The Mobile Device Platform developed by Google was first launched on the T Mobile G1 phone which was released in October. It has been called a “flexible, upgradeable system” and includes a web browser. This , combined with a 3G connection provides an internet connection much faster than than via WAP. It still has some way to go before it is a quick as a broadband connection via a standard landline however.
Sony Ericcson, Vodaphone and Samsung have recently joined the Open Handset Alliance which was set up to develop open standards for mobile devices. They are expected to include software created by the Alliance (Android being the only release so far) on their next generation devices.
Sony’s Xperia 1 is due for release in summer 2009 and features a (surprising low quality) 3.2MP camera, a 800 x 480 touchscreen, and an optical joystick. The first release is due to run on Windows Mobile but a second release running on Android is expected.
Sony Ericcson are also expected to release the C905 which will be a 3G model with an 8 megapixel camera and GPS. There are unconfirmed reports that this will run on Android.
Samsung are rumoured to be creating a touchscreen phone called the Memoir. It should feature a camera with optical zoom which would be a big step forward in the evolution of on-phone cameras. A photo of a Memoir prototype can be seen below.
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