Internet Use/New Technologies
08 May 2014
Yahoo's Marissa Mayer: Our Mobile Traffic Will Soon Pass Desktop Wall Street Journal
Yahoo's mobile users will soon outnumber its desktop users, a shift that will put pressure on the aging Internet portal to make money from smartphones and tablets.
07 May 2014
Internet well on way to 3 billion users, UN telecom agency reports United Nations
Releasing new statistics today, the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced that by end 2014, there will be nearly three billion Internet users - two-thirds of them from the developing world - with mobile-broadband penetration approaching 32 per cent.
05 May 2014
Online video and advertising: Media firms are making big bets on online video, still an untested medium The Economist
"The internet is the great leveller," pronounced Mark Thompson, the boss of the New York Times Company and former director-general of the BBC. "Video used to be the sole preserve of broadcasters." No longer. Mr Thompson took the stage on April 28th in a Manhattan warehouse pulsing with about 500 guests, to show off his newspaper's video vigour. It is launching 14 online "channels" and creating short shows inspired by its newspaper columns. One, called "Verbatim", features comedians mocking court proceedings. Its website will also host videos produced by advertisers.
01 May 2014
Cisco invests in UK internet of things startup Evrythng The Guardian
British internet-of-things startup Evrythng has secured a $7m Series A round, including investment both financial and in-kind from US networking giant Cisco.
30 April 2014
Social Media in Afghanistan Takes On Life of Its Own New York Times
Afghans have long been resistant to central authority -- as the United States has found to its frustration -- with Afghanistan divided along tribal, cultural, religious and linguistic lines. Its mountains and valleys have stood in the way of communications breakthroughs that have unified other societies.
23 April 2014
WhatsApp grows to half a billion users CNET
Messaging app WhatsApp now reaches 500 million people each month and is growing fastest in Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, the company said Tuesday. Collectively, the application's users are sharing 700 million photos and 100 million videos on a daily basis.
21 April 2014
Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online New York Times
Whoever said, "Money can't buy you friends," clearly hasn't been on the Internet recently. This past week, I bought 4,000 new followers on Twitter for the price of a cup of coffee. I picked up 4,000 friends on Facebook for the same $5 and, for a few dollars more, had half of them like a photo I shared on the site.
16 April 2014
Social media used to recruit new wave of British jihadis in Syria The Guardian
In a basement beneath the Strand in London, just metres from the cafes of Somerset House, two academics sit hunched over their laptops.
14 April 2014
UK buying more legal and illegal drugs online, survey finds The Guardian
More drug users are buying their drugs online - including so-called legal highs as well as illegal drugs such as cannabis and MDMA - because they say the quality is better, there is more choice and it is more convenient, research has found.
12 April 2014
In France, a Move to Limit Off-the-Clock Work Emails New York Times
Given France's 35-hour workweek, generous vacations and persistent, if not altogether accurate, reputation for indolence, it may come as a surprise that the French are only now considering limits on the work emails and phone calls that come at all hours of the day and night.
08 April 2014
New USB plug promises to turn frustrated users’ world upside-down The Guardian
After almost two decades of trying and failing to plug in USB connectors the right way up first time round, computer users' difficulties may be coming to an end.
07 April 2014
Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say Washington Post
Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of Web surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won't commit to.
06 April 2014
Google and the flu: how big data will help us make gigantic mistakes The Observer
As Google's attempt to predict the spread of flu by using search terms shows, lots of data can cause plenty of confusion
05 April 2014
What Will The Internet Look Like In 25 Years? by Nathaniel Borenstein, chief scientist, Mimecast Forbes
The World Wide Web (WWW) turned 25 on March 12th. According to a recent PEW survey, of the 87% of Americans using the Internet today, a large majority say it's been a good thing both for them personally (90%) and for society (76%). However, as we look toward the next 25 years and the accelerated growth of Web infrastructure and Internet capabilities that will no doubt come along with it, will Americans stay so overwhelmingly positive about the personal and societal implications of the WWW?
03 April 2014
Social media explosion powered by dirty energy, report warns The Guardian
The rise of social media is being powered by dirty forms of energy such as coal, a report from the campaign group Greenpeace said on Wednesday.
Mobile broadband services add billions to Australian economy, ACMA research shows The Australian
Australia's love affair with mobile broadband services is leading to a significant bump in economic activity with new research from the communications watchdog showing that use of the services helped contribute $33.8 billion in the last year or more than 2 per cent of the nation's total GDP.
28 March 2014
A New Facebook Lab Is Intent on Delivering Internet Access by Drone New York Times
Watch out, Google. Facebook is gunning for the title of World's Coolest Place to Work. And its arsenal includes unmanned drones, lasers, satellites and virtual reality headsets.
27 March 2014
Can instant messaging damage your health? Doctor warns of 'WhatsAppitis' The Guardian
A doctor in Granada is advising fellow physicians to be "mindful" of the injuries that can result from using instant messaging services, after she diagnosed a 34-year-old pregnant woman with "WhatsAppitis".
Instagram reaches 200m users The Drum
It's a very good week to work in the Facebook press office - not only has the company bought the virtual reality Oculus Rift platform for $2bn, but Instagram has reached 200 million users.
25 March 2014
Apple in talks with Comcast to allow 'special treatment' for streaming-TV The Guardian
Consumer groups reacted angrily Monday to news that Apple is reportedly in talks with cable giant Comcast to launch a streaming-television service that would give Apple special treatment and bypass congestion on the web.
20 March 2014
Ted 2014: Larry Page on Google's robotic future BBC News
Larry Page wants patients to hand over their data to researchers in order to save "100,000 lives".
Rise of the machines will drive telcos' new growth Australian Financial Review
Planes, trains and other machines connected to the internet via mobile networks will be the next vital source of revenue growth for telecommunications companies such as Telstra and SingTel-Optus, new research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows.
19 March 2014
Tomorrow's Internet starts now: get ready! Europa
With some 2.5 billion users world-wide, today's Internet is an established part of our lives. But new challenges are arising all the time and Europe needs to think ahead so that Internet can continue to offer new services, applications and business opportunities. From 18th to 20th March, more than 400 European scientists, researchers, business people, users, service and content providers will attend the Future Internet Assembly (FIA) in Athens @FIAAthens2014 to discuss tomorrow’s Internet.
17 March 2014
How the Internet of Everything Will Shape the Next 25 Years of Internet History Cisco
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, an important milestone as we look at how far we've come and how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is shaping our future.
14 March 2014
The Innovation Enigma by Joseph E. Stiglitz Project Syndicate
Around the world, there is enormous enthusiasm for the type of technological innovation symbolized by Silicon Valley. In this view, America's ingenuity represents its true comparative advantage, which others strive to imitate. But there is a puzzle: it is difficult to detect the benefits of this innovation in GDP statistics.
