2008 December

December 31, 2008

Wi-Fi annoys hippies

by David Allen

Glastonbury in the West Country is well known for the world famous music festival and the new age travellers who have made it their home. Therefore, the local authority thought it would be brilliant idea to spend £35,000 on a wide area Wi-Fi system to encourage business and tourism to the area. In May this project was installed and ...

PAYG by Microsoft

by David Allen

Although pay as you go (PAYG) is an accepted concept in the mobile broadband and phone industry, when it comes to computers it is virtually unknown. Yet the mighty Microsoft has applied for a patent which is basically a PAYG concept. This process will see the consumer paying for the software and hardware they use, by meter. This would ...

Plusnet analyse Xmas surfing habits

by David Allen

The internet service provider Plusnet has been analysing internet traffic to see which sites came out on top with its customers over the festive period. The top four remained unchanged for both Christmas day and Boxing Day. Rank - Christmas Day 1 Google 2 Facebook 3 BBC 4 Amazon 5 iTunes 6 YouTube 7 eBay 8 MSN 9 Bebo 10 Microsoft Rank - ...

Google Calendar used by Phishers

by David Allen

It looks as if cyber criminals are targeting people through Google Calendar in an attempt to phish some information out them. Emails are being sent to users of Google Calendar, saying the standard things like the user's account will be deleted if they do not submit their username, password and date of birth. These emails appear to come from Google’s ...

Tiscali loses IPTV service

by David Allen

In Italy, subscribers of the broadband and telecom provider Tiscali have just been told that they will no longer be receiving the Tiscali IPTV service, as from the end of the month (today!). There are around fifty thousand IPTV subscribers in Italy, who all received the news by letter through the post. The company will be refunding the final month ...

Broadband guide from the Post Office

by David Allen

The Post Office, who are still trying to find their niche, not only in the broadband market but in the high street too, are bringing out an Internet Buddy Guide designed to help those who are new to the internet, and other users too, get to grips with the technology. Their research into the matter found that families who ...

December 30, 2008

Tiscali ends Italian IPTV service

by Janet Harris
Tiscali has rarely been out of the headlines lately, with plans for its UK division to be taken over by Vodafone, The Carphone Warehouse and Sky all eventually falling by the wayside. The ISP has now hit the headlines again, with the sudden announcement that it is closing its IPTV service in Italy at the end of the month. The move has ...

LG announces world’s first watch-shaped mobile phone

by Janet Harris
LG Electronics demonstrated its innovative spirit throughout 2008 with a number of world firsts. The company announced the world's first phone with built-in Bluetooth headset in June, and both the world's thinnest 8-megapixel camera phone and the world's first touchscreen 8-megapixel camera phone in September. It is now ending the year with a bang with the announcement of the world's first watch-shaped ...

2008: The Year of the Netbook

by David Allen
Laptop makers will remember 2008 as the year of the netbook - ultra-portable, low-priced PCs designed for surfing the internet and office applications. Since the Asus Eee PC launched in November 2007, netbooks have taken the world by storm. A year ago, almost no-one had heard of a netbook. With tiny screens and difficult to use mini-keyboards, everyone thought they'd be an overnight ...

MTI combats recession with WiMax and RFID products

by David Allen
Taiwan-based communications equipment maker, Microelectronics Technology (MTI), has announced new product lines for the first quarter of 2009, including WiMax CPE (customer premises equipment) and RFID (radio frequency identification) readers. President and CEO Allen Yen said the additional products will enable MTI to curtail the effects of difficult market conditions. MTI is currently working with a number of international vendors to finalise ...

PS3 to go 3D in 2009?

by David Allen

It looks as if computer games will be the next product to offer 3D, with characters jumping out of the screen and grabbing the user by the throat, or at least appearing to do so. Developers are said to have been busy working towards introducing the system into the PS3 some time during 2009. In the UK, developer Blitz Games ...

Orange launches new 3G network

by David Allen

It looks like Orange has been busy developing its HSPA network. The company has just completed an upgrade of over seven hundred and sixty sites in Northern Ireland and Scotland, which has given the network an improvement of twenty per cent for both mobile and data services. These upgrades mean that Orange can now claim a UK coverage of ninety ...

Regulator speaks out on hidden charges

by David Allen

The communications regulator, Ofcom, has further clarified the situation regarding hidden charges, which it feels is causing big problems for customers of broadband, telecom, digital TV and mobile communications providers. To put more pressure on these providers, Ofcom has given them until April to make these hidden charges much clearer to customers. Hidden charges can include all manner of ...

Websites could get age ratings

by David Allen

In a move that is bound to stir up the emotions of many internet users, the UK's Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, is looking to create a child safe internet by censoring websites and giving them age ratings like those on computer games and films. Not only that, he is also proposing to get together with the incoming US government ...

New piracy rules could leave ISPs liable

by David Allen

According to report in the Guardian, the campaign against piracy could be moving in a new direction if the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) gets its own way. In a proposal to stop the illegal copying and downloading of music and films from the internet, BERR is going to make it the responsibility of the internet ...

UK behind when it comes to broadband

by David Allen

The UK is still celebrating the introduction of super fast broadband services, even though this is going to be limited to specific areas. However this progress is not fast enough, because the UK is still in danger of lagging behind the rest of the world, according to Professor Christopher Bishop, chief scientist at Microsoft Research Cambridge. This failure to ...

December 29, 2008

IronKey protects against AutoRun worms

by Jan Harris
US-based IronKey Inc has upped the security of its flash drives even further with the addition of USB anti-worm malware protection capabilities. With AutoRun worms infecting over 70 million computers in 2008, this technology is designed to bring additional peace of mind to users of IronKey’s flash drives, which the company claims are already the most secure in the world. The patent-pending ...

Job losses expected in UK mobile sector

by David Allen
Thousands of employees across the mobile telecoms sector are expected to be made jobless in the first few months of 2009, according to a report in the Guardian. Economic slowdown and strong competition mean that mobile operators are being forced to cut costs. The UK's five biggest networks, O2, Orange, 3, T-Mobile and Vodafone, employ around 45,000 people in the UK. The companies ...

O2 launches high-speed, low-cost broadband

by David Allen
Network operator O2 has launched a new broadband product with a killer combination: low price and high speed. O2 mobile customers are being offered 20Mbps fixed line broadband for a recession busting £9.79 per month. This makes it the cheapest high speed broadband service in the UK, and it comes without a download limit. Also included in the price are 200 web texts ...

T Mobile offers “free” Asus

by David Allen

The mobile provider is going into the New Year with a new deal for customers signing for their brand of mobile broadband. Customers signing up for a twenty four month long contract at a cost of £25 per month will be able to pick up an Asus EEE PC904HD laptop with a free USB modem stick, 3GB monthly fair ...

£2bn in unwanted gifts for sale online

by David Allen

Once again, eBay was a big winner this Christmas. They have seen the same pattern emerge over the last couple of years - all of a sudden, on the big day, strange, single items appear in their listings. The items can include anything from jumpers to socks, saucepans to scarves and slippers. These are all unwanted gifts that people have ...

Fibre for four million

by David Allen

The good news is that four million broadband users will be able to connect to the super version of broadband within five years, according to a report by Point Topic. The bad news is, what about the other sixteen million broadband users? It would seem feasible that as whole sections of society are taken off the network, as they ...

Free offers from Sky

by David Allen

New customers could be packing themselves a bargain if they sign up for Sky TV before the 5th February 2009. Anyone doing so will able to get three months free broadband, free line rental and free evening weekend calls all thrown into one bundle. This means that with a starting price of just £17 per month new customers could ...

Broadband reaches half of welsh homes

by David Allen

Broadband in Wales has been making a bit of an impact recently both in terms of the technology being employed and the amount of the people who are able to use the product. In a recent survey for BT it was found that in the counties of Pembrokeshire, Conwy, Ceredigion and Anglesey, in Wales, there are more customers on ...

Al Jazeera joins Livestation network

by David Allen
Middle East-based news station, Al Jazeera Arabic, is now available live over broadband on the Livestation network. The 24-hour satellite news network joins a growing number of Arabic news channels on Livestation, including BBC Arabic, Rusya al-Yaum, France 24 Arabic, and Euronews Arabic. Al Jazeera's director of global distribution, Phil Lawrie, said the channel decided to broadcast on Livestation because of the ...

Motorola ships luxury Aura handset

by David Allen
Motorola ships luxury Aura handset

Struggling mobile phone maker Motorola has decided upon a cunning strategy to end its woes: overpriced handsets for a credit crunched world. Motorola's latest offering, the Aura, comes with a high-tech swivel mechanism. Swivel-mechanism aside, the Aura looks like little more than a glorified clamshell that you'd expect to cost £200 on an expensive ...

XP lives on, for now

by David Allen

It looks as if fans of XP will be able to get a new computer with the operating system for some time to come, even though the cut off point for computer manufacturers to obtain Windows XP licences was going to be the end of January. This date has been extended once more, allowing makers to get licences right ...

Increased use of mobile web

by David Allen

With almost everything in decline, there is still one thing that is on the up and by a significant amount too - mobile web browsing has seen a huge, ninety four per cent increase in use, and that is just in the UK. In the UK, Facebook heads up the list for social networking site visits, and it is ...

Broadband users missing out on free TV

by David Allen

All the major broadcasters in the UK offer mainly free catch-up services through their websites, yet in a recent study it has been found that over seventy per cent of the UK public do not use these video on demand services. The study found that it is parents who are least likely to use these services as they have ...

Freeview users get online listings

by David Allen

Freeview users can now check their TV listings online, enabling them to plan their viewing up to a couple of weeks ahead. They can even get email alerts to remind them of programme changes and previews. With this service users can search for shows and news on their favourites celebrities too, making it essential for those people who like ...

Orange see huge rise in mobile broadband sales

by David Allen

Mobile provider Orange has been quietly promoting its mobile broadband service, yet according to figures released through the Digital Media Index, the service has grown significantly, despite a slow start. This growth is almost unprecedented at an amazing two thousand, one hundred and thirty nine per cent (2,139%) which by any standards is a remarkable figure and represents a ...

BBC proposes charge for iPlayer

by David Allen

For a year now the use of the BBC’s iPlayer has grown, and for most of that time the internet service providers have been complaining that it is costing them money and that something should be done about it. Well it seems that something if finally about to happen, and it is not the BBC that is going to ...

December 24, 2008

HMV offers in-store music downloads to USB drives

by Jan Harris
Visitors to HMV stores can now download music and film trailers onto USB keys and flash drives in new Download and Information Kiosks. The kiosks are initially being trialled at HMV stores in Westfield shopping centre, High Wycombe; Reading Oracle shopping centre; London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Covent Garden. If the service proves successful, the kiosks will be introduced to stores across ...

December 23, 2008

Mobile social network visits up 277%

by Janet Harris
Orangeâ€™s latest Digital Media Index shows a whopping 277% increase in people accessing social network sites, such as Facebook, from their mobile phone, between June and October this year. Since the last survey, which covered the period from November 2007 to January 2008, Orange has gained 1.3 million 3G customers, representing an 86% increase. The statistics point to the increasing popularity of ...

Google Staff Christmas Bonus: G1 Smartphone

by David Allen
Google staff are used to tradition - and one of their favourites is the yearly Christmas cash bonus. Bonuses in excess of $20,000 were not unheard of. However, with the credit crunch pinching finances, Google is breaking with tradition this year and is giving staff a Google G1 Android smartphone instead of cash. An internal email sent out by Google management to employees ...

ICUK gives heavy users a bonus

by David Allen

Customers of the internet service provider, ICUK, who like to download a lot of content, have been given a bit of a break, with their data usage allowance being increase to a respectable 100 Gb per month. The ISP would like to point out though that this allowance is off peak (peak hours being 08:00 through to 19:59, and ...

Kangaroo offers to sell shows to rivals

by David Allen

As the time begins to run down on the Competition Commission's review of Kangaroo, the multi broadcaster owned Video on Demand (VoD) service, the team behind the service are considering the Competition Commission's recommendations. The commission feels that unless the group are prepared to allow their content to be sold to other rival platforms there is little chance ...

BBC lowers offer for Woollies DVD business

by David Allen

When BBC Worldwide offered £110 million, a couple of weeks ago, for the forty per cent stake that failing retailer Woolworths owns in DVD distribution business, 2entertain, the people in charge should have grabbed it will both hands. However, they did not and now they are counting the cost of not making a quick decision. 2entertain is not part ...

High speed video streaming for all

by David Allen

HDi is a new internet application which could mean that UK broadband users will be able to download and stream HD video from the internet, no matter how fast their broadband connection is. This technology is set to revolutionise the viewing of video over the internet for millions of viewers worldwide who already subscribe to internet based television services. ...

Technology lags behind mobile broadband demand

by David Allen

Telecom providers are being told that in order to keep up with the growing demand for mobile broadband services, they are going to need to make some important decisions with regards to the rolling out of new technology. Mobile broadband has the potential to beat the Wi-Fi services being offered by providers like the Cloud, but without some ...

Sky steps back from Tiscali

by David Allen

As with other internet service providers that have expressed an interest in the UK division of Tiscali, Sky appears to have taken a step back from the deal before it really started and, once again, it is an issue over the value of the business that is the stumbling block. In February, it will be a year since the ...

December 22, 2008

New fibre test products from Fluke Networks

by Alan Harten
Fluke Networks, the company behind Network SuperVision Solutions, has recently introduced new products designed to test telecommunications networks and enterprises while monitoring them and analysing them. This new products are the Simplifiber Pro Optical Power Meter and Fibre Test Kits. They are designed to increase the speed and performance of testing enterprise and telecommunications networks, allowing a technician to test and monitor ...

ITU-T G.hn spec endorsed

by Alan Harten
HomeGrid Forum is a worldwide non-profit organisation, which is currently promoting International Telecommunication Union’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T) G.hn standardisation attempts for next generation home networking. It announced today that ITU-T has gained consent for the PHY and architecture sectors of the ITU-T G.hn arrangement, at its Geneva assembly help at the United Nations, between the 1st and the 12th of December. The ...

Introduction of video server line by BitBand

by Alan Harten
BitBand has introduced Vision Ti4 hardware, a flash-based video server, to IPTV service providers, to provide increased flexibility and performance. Rapid price decreases in solid-state drives are offered with the introduction of the Ti4 and it allows for the added flexibility of using hardware that is deemed to be commercially available off-the-shelf. With flash disk drives becoming somewhat of a commodity, the ...

4Caster C4 encoder shipping begins by Envivio

by Alan Harten
Envivio Inc. has today declared that it has deployed its 4Caster C4 three screened encoder with an assortment of mobile network sources and content aggregators world wide. The encoder, which was recently awarded the 2008 TelcoTV Vision Award, is used in delivering 32 diverse mobile TV profiles over four video channels, providing a compression platform for those operators that are presenting ...

Cumbria suffering from slow broadband

by David Allen

The picturesque area of Cumbria may look like a wonderful place for holidays, but try to get onto the internet in the area and it may turn out to be less idyllic. According to the local press, the area has the slowest broadband speeds in the UK and is way behind the rest of the country when it comes ...

Ofcom fines BBC

by David Allen

Once again the BBC has found that they are on the receiving end of another ruling by the regulator Ofcom, who has slapped a £95,000 fine on the broadcaster for running competitions in which there was little or no chance of winning. This comes after the BBC scandal that not only cost the Corporation a lot of money but ...

Ofcom offers charge guide

by David Allen

A lot has been going on in the broadband marketplace on the subject of pricing. Ofcom and the internet service providers have been attempting to come to some solution on a number of pricing issues and in particular the problem with hidden costs that was highlighted last week. The proposals from Ofcom are as follows: Non-direct debit charges should be ...

BBC to launch junior iPlayer

by David Allen

The BBC has finally launched a pivotal part of the plan for the iPlayer and that is to offer a junior version of the catch up service. The CBBC iPlayer will allow children to catch up with all of their favourite shows on the CBBC channels and at the same time will give parents peace of mind in knowing ...

Dumb Warner slams YouTube deal

by Brian Turner

In a typically dumb music mega-corp move, Warner are threatening to pull its music videos from YouTube - on the grounds that the advertising revenue received is "staggering low". What Warner don't seem to realise in their mixed-up marketing world view, is that YouTube has become the new way for consumers to find music recommendations they can buy on. When ...

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