Internet Use/New Technologies
14 October 2007
Skype in deal with 3 to offer free mobile telephone calls in the UK The Times
The attack on the mobile phone market from some of the internet's biggest names is escalating, with Skype planning to offer free mobile calls to Britons.
13 October 2007
Plasma TVs: The SUVs of the Living Room New York Times
That sleek flat-panel TV may look small, but it could well be a big power hog. When the Australian government wanted to create a six-star system to rate the energy efficiency of television sets, it found that most of the big plasma sets wouldn't meet its minimum requirements. They could be banned as a result.
61 Billion Searches Conducted Worldwide in August comScore
The Asia-Pacific region saw 258 million unique searchers conduct 20.3 billion searches. Europe reported the second-most searchers (210 million) and searches (18 billion), followed by North America, with 206 million searchers and 16 billion searches. The Latin American region demonstrated the heaviest search activity per person, with more than 95 searches per searcher in August. The search market in the Middle East-Africa region is the most underdeveloped thus far, with the fewest searchers (30 million), searches (2 billion), and searches per searcher (70). ... Google Sites ranked as the top worldwide search property in August with 37.1 billion searches conducted (31 billion occurred at the Google search engine and 5 billion at YouTube.com). Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 8.5 billion searches, while Baidu.com followed in third place with more than 3.2 billion searches. Microsoft Sites ranked in fourth place worldwide, while Korea's NHN Corporation, which owns Naver.com, ranked fifth with 2 billion searches worldwide.
12 October 2007
Ultrahigh-speed Internet2 gets 10x boost in anticipation of particle collider for physicists Sydney Morning Herald
The ultrahigh-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster, partly in anticipation of rising demand for capacity after the world's largest particle collider opens near Geneva next year.
Britain's '11 minutes a day' Facebook habit The Times
Britons spend an average of 5.8 hours a month on social networking sites -- nearly twice that of any other European country
Nobel prize for men who made iPod possible The Times
Two scientists whose work made possible the development of the iPod and powerful laptop computers were rewarded yesterday with the Nobel Prize for Physics. Albert Fert, a Frenchman, and Peter Grünberg, a German, have been jointly honoured for creating the technology used to read data on hard disks.
11 October 2007
Getting online a mission for Cuba's bloggers Reuters
When 32-year-old Yoani Sanchez wants to update her blog about daily life in Cuba, she dresses like a tourist and strides confidently into a Havana hotel, greeting the staff in German. That is because Cubans like Sanchez are not authorised to use hotel internet connections, which are reserved for foreigners.
U.K. Social Networking Site Usage Highest in Europe comScore
Social networking sites such as Bebo.com, Facebook.com and MySpace.com facilitate informal communications and information sharing across the Internet. The European social networking community stood at 127.3 million unique visitors in August - reaching 56 percent of the European online population. U.K. participation in social networking usage proved to be the highest in Europe, with 24.9 million unique visitors - 78 percent of the total U.K. online population - now belonging to the country's social networking community.
07 October 2007
The Fakebook Generation: Op-Ed Contributor New York Times
... For young people, Facebook is yet another form of escapism; we can turn our lives into stage dramas and relationships into comedy routines. Make believe is not part of the postgraduate Facebook user's agenda. As more and more older users try to turn Facebook into a legitimate social reference guide, younger people may follow suit and stop treating it as a circus ring. But let's hope not.
BT invites homeowners to share their broadband with passers-by The Times
Homeowners are being invited to share their internet connections with passers-by in return for the right to access the network via other people's connections.
Global computer usage, mobile phone ownership jump InfoWorld
Increased computer usage and better e-mail and Web access may narrow the digital divide, although globalization critics may perceive such changes as a threat to local cultures and economies, a new Pew Research Center study suggests. The globalization survey released Thursday by Pew Research Center said that while technology inequality between countries has lessened, an ongoing backlash threatens globalization.
06 October 2007
Google says closing gap with China rival ZDNet
Web search leader Google said on Thursday it is closing the gap with rival Baidu in China, after years of trying to increase market share in the world's second-largest Internet arena.
05 October 2007
Google Purges The Payola Forbes
Googlers like to think of their company as the Web's library. But as Web sites come up with more ways to wring profit from online advertising and sales--often using methods that Google opposes--a better analogy might be the Web's watchdog. In recent months, that watchdog has barked at sites it accuses of shady practices--and it may be starting to bite.
Yahoo; MSN overhaul search engines ComputerWorld
Yahoo Inc. has made significant enhancements to its search engine, and the company said the changes will boost the speed of searches and improve the accuracy of results.
Online Video Streaming: Not There Yet PC World
Streaming video--particularly television--has received a lot of attention lately, what with sites such as Joost.com, MLB.com, and the soon-to-beta Hulu.com all talking it up. Even most TV networks offer some degree of streaming for select shows. But is streaming really the wave of the future for video downloads? I'm not convinced.
Searching Beyond Google Time
If you tallied up the number of searches executed any given week, the top four search engines combined -- Google, Yahoo Search, MSN (and its new Live search) and Ask.com -- would account for 98.3% of all searches in the U.S. Those top four engines clearly have a hold on the American public. But new search sites, perhaps inspired by the financial gains of Google and Yahoo, are still being introduced; as of last week, a total of 1,592 different search engines were visited by U.S. Internet users.
04 October 2007
Japan becomes broadband paradise, but is the speed worth the cost? International Herald Tribune
The United States and European Union might be the largest economies, but when it comes to Internet connections at home, many of their citizens still live in the slow lane. By contrast, Japan is a broadband paradise, with the fastest and cheapest Internet connections in the world.
30 September 2007
Navigating to Nowhere on the iPhone New York Times
In less than two weeks, people downloaded 80,000 copies of the Navizon location software for the iPhone. It's now useless after Apple's phone software upgrade.
29 September 2007
Apple iPhone warning proves true BBC
An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.
Monasteries enter the internet age Reuters
A monk's life is still a simple one of prayer and austerity, yet many monasteries have moved online for business, communication and even headhunting purposes. Brother Luke Armour of the Abbey of Gethsemani in central Kentucky says the Trappist houses in the United States are communicating more effectively than ever before.
Clicks and links will bring all the walls tumbling down The Guardian
The New York Times has just abandoned its two-year effort to charge for content online, taking down TimesSelect, the pay wall around its columnists and much of its archives. So content is now and forever free. That isn't because people won't pay for content - some did. It's because there is a new economy of content online that isn't built on scarcity and control but instead relies on the idea that content must be public and permanent to realise its value in the wider conversation.
28 September 2007
uk: Ofcom opens door for 10 times faster broadband connections The Guardian
British internet users can look forward to surfing the web at more than 10 times the speed currently available after Ofcom, the communications watchdog, called on the telecoms industry yesterday to spend billions on next-generation networks to keep pace with countries such as France, Germany and the US.
Why mobile Japan leads the world The Guardian
A combination of an urban lifestyle and infrastructure advantages mean that the fixed internet is being left behind by the mobile in Japan.
26 September 2007
Australia's broadband penetration is healthy regardless of world ranking PC World
The war of legitimacy that erupted several months back over whether the OECD's broadband ranking for Australia (at 16) is more accurate than Market Clarity's ranking (as high as 6) is unnecessary, according to research by Ovum.
TV on cellphone screens? No thanks, say Europeans Reuters
Europeans' interest in watching mobile television is as tiny as cellphone screens, a new study showed on Monday, even though the industry has been buzzing about offering TV on handsets for years.
