Computer News
August 26, 2010
The recession has obviously had an effect on PC sales, but matters are now picking up across Europe, according to figures for the second quarter.
The stats in question come from research firm Gartner (as highlighted by Tech World), showing that PC sales in western Europe have increased by 19.6% when compared to the same quarter last year.
However, the ...
PC market in UK slower to recover than Europe
by Darren Allan
August 25, 2010
The UK is on its way up in the world, but unfortunately, the particular global league which we're leaping and bounding up is the one that measures a nation's spam output.
These were the findings of anti-virus experts Symantec in the company's just published MessageLabs Intelligence Report for August.
This found that the UK has doubled its spam levels ...
UK moves up to fourth in world spam league
by Darren Allan
August 16, 2010
Toy Story 3 has held the top spot in the UK all-format video game chart (as compiled by Chart Track) for the second week running.
It was actually number one four weeks ago, as well, but was dislodged temporarily the following week by the massive spike in sales witnessed by Activision-Blizzard's StarCraft II after its launch on the PC.
Red ...
Toy Story 3 remains top of UK game chart
by Darren Allan
August 11, 2010
TIGA has published a new report entitled the State of the UK Video Games Development Sector.
In the report, which surveyed 78 UK games developers (75 of which were independent), the trade body of the UK games industry makes some interesting revelations.
The indie game developers showed a strong trend towards self-publishing, with nearly two-thirds or 64% of them publishing ...
Two-thirds of UK indie game developers self-publish
by Darren AllanZeus pilfers £675,000 from UK bank
by Darren Allan
August 10, 2010
Facebook is, of course, one of the biggest success stories ever seen on the Internet, with half a billion members logging on to the social network worldwide.
Although according to Experian Hitwise, Mark Zuckerberg's juggernaut may be stalling somewhat in the UK and reaching saturation point.
Facebook's July stats still make impressive reading – 7% of all UK Internet visits, ...
Has Facebook reached saturation point in the UK?
by Darren Allan
August 5, 2010
The UK version of the Kindle Store has opened its doors for business today.
The online retailer proudly boasts that over 400,000 books are crammed onto its virtual shelves, with 84 of the top 100 Nielsen UK best-sellers available to buy.
The move comes after the announcement of the new third-generation Kindle hardware, which Amazon has already started taking ...
Amazon UK Kindle Store opens virtual doors
by Darren Allan
August 2, 2010
Government departments will continue to use an outdated version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer for browsing the web.
That's because the cost of upgrading from IE6 would be too much of a burden on the taxpayer, the government has said in response to a recent petition.
The petition, which was to “Encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6”, ...
UK government thinks IE6 will have to do
by Darren Allan
July 31, 2010
Microsoft is going to showcase its new Kinect motion control system for the Xbox console at theme parks and events across the UK, so the public can try before they buy.
If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can get yourself down to the Kinect Galleries in Covent Garden, London. This opens to the ...
Microsoft starts Kinect UK tour
by Darren Allan
July 29, 2010
Amazon is preparing a big push for its e-reading hardware in the UK, making the new version of the Kindle available directly to Brits from Amazon.co.uk.
Amazon has redesigned the Kindle to make it sleeker, with a 20% smaller body, and the slimmer frame means that it's 15% lighter (weighing 250 grams).
The 6 inch E-ink screen is a new ...
Amazon Kindle revamped e-reader now available in the UK
by Darren Allan
July 28, 2010
Akamai's State of the Internet report for the first quarter of 2010 has been released, an assessment of broadband performance across the globe.
And the report's statistics claim that the average speed for a UK broadband line is 3.8Mbps. That's up from the start of this year, when Akamai estimated the average at 3.4Mbps.
However, it's far less than Ofcom ...
Average UK broadband speed is 3.8Mbps
by Darren AllanBritish CEO gets “key to the Internet”
by Darren Allan
July 27, 2010
In a not-really-all-that-surprising set of survey results, Birmingham Midshire Savings has discovered that 51% of Brits never leave home without their mobile. And the BM Savings research also indicated that 44% of folks said they couldn't live without their mobile phone, they were that addicted to it. The survey, which was highlighted by The Mail Online, also revealed that 75% of respondents ...
Half of Brits are mobile phone addicts
by Darren AllanIn a not-really-all-that-surprising set of survey results, Birmingham Midshire Savings has discovered that 51% of Brits never leave home without their mobile. And the BM Savings research also indicated that 44% of folks said they couldn't live without their mobile phone, they were that addicted to it. The survey, which was highlighted by The Mail Online, also revealed that 75% of respondents ...
July 26, 2010
“Wanted: Cyber Experts to Defend UK Online”. Such is the clarion call on the official Cyber Security Challenge website, the organisation which aims to find the next generation of net security experts for the country.
The competition to find them begins today, with the broad aim of inspiring participants to consider a future career as a cyber-security professional. Apparently ...
UK Cyber Security Challenge begins
by Darren AllanToy Story 3 hits top of the UK video game chart
by Darren Allan
July 23, 2010
Last week Ubisoft announced very impressive sales figures for its first fiscal quarter, and today the company has confirmed that performance.
First quarter sales were 161 million Euros, which was up 94%, or nearly double the same period the previous year.
This far exceeded analyst expectations of around the 145 million Euro mark, and the performance was down to excellent ...
Ubisoft announces it is number two publisher in the UK
by Darren Allan
July 15, 2010
It seems that the target date of 2012 for hooking up all the broadband “not-spots” (out of the way rural areas that can't get a connection) in the UK is going to be pushed back. The Telegraph and Guardian both reported that Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was not practical to meet Labour's previous pledge to get rural areas hooked ...
UK broadband for all target pushed back to 2015
by Darren AllanIt seems that the target date of 2012 for hooking up all the broadband “not-spots” (out of the way rural areas that can't get a connection) in the UK is going to be pushed back. The Telegraph and Guardian both reported that Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was not practical to meet Labour's previous pledge to get rural areas hooked ...
UK races up the spam charts
by Darren Allan
July 12, 2010
The government has launched yet another new website; this time it is the Spending Challenge site.
It has been designed to offer the general public the chance to have their say on where they feel the government should cut back on the UK’s spending.
The government has to reduce the deficit and there are only a couple of ways ...
Government launches Spending Challenge website
by David Allen
July 7, 2010
Justin Bieber has beaten Lady Gaga – not literally, of course, she'd kick his butt from here to Disneyland – to become the new most searched for person on the Internet in the UK.
So says the Ask Jeeves website. Well actually, the Facebook page for the site says: “Bieber rules the net! My Jeevesometer top search results show ...
Justin Bieber becomes most searched for celeb
by Darren Allan
July 6, 2010
According to research carried out by the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM), the number of people accessing the internet has grown.
The firm says that getting connected to the broadband network at home has never been easier, although that would also depend on the location too!
One of the reason that internet use is increasing has something to do with ...
UK internet use on the rise
by David AllenSkobbler sat-nav app hits 72,000 UK downloads on iPhone
by Darren Allan
June 24, 2010
The police could be looking into a complaint by the human rights organisation Privacy International, about the way that cars gathered information for the Google Street View project.
It became known that Google had also been collecting information on Wi-Fi networks as the Google Street View cars drove around the streets taking images for the service.
Now it seems that ...
UK police look into Google street view complaints
by David Allen
June 11, 2010
Just as the World Cup kicks off, the media regulator Ofcom has announced that Freeview has reached its target of 50 per cent UK coverage.
The free-to-view high definition digital TV service was launched back in December with only 7 per cent of the UK being covered.
However, it has to be said that, as with many rollouts in the ...
Freeview HD has 50% coverage
by David Allen
June 7, 2010
Not that long ago the proposed rollout of digital TV services looked to be on track in Ireland and then, with little warning, the whole deal began to fall apart, leaving the country with the prospect of no digital service in the near future.
Now it seems that the minister of communications, Eamon Ryan, has made the commitment that ...
Irish DTT will launch this autumn
by David Allen
June 5, 2010
There is some good news for commercial TV broadcasters as Group M, a buyer of media content run by Sir Martin Sorrell, increases its advertising growth forecasts for this year.
Initially the group was sticking to its prediction of zero growth in the UK advertising market as a whole for 2010. But recently something has changed within the marketplace ...
UK advertising sector to grow
by David Allen
June 1, 2010
The iPad – a giant iPhone, or a magical device set to revolutionise portable computing?
As far as the sales numbers go, the iPad certainly appears to be cementing itself as a success story rather than a mere niche based novelty.
Apple has released its latest figures for how many units of the tablet have been shifted, with the international ...
Apple iPad sales hit two million plus
by Darren Allan
May 27, 2010
The UK has been ranked 33rd in a Global League table of broadband speed tests in a table produced by Ookla, the internet speed testing leader.
While the leader of the download speeds is South Korea, with an average of 34.19 Mbps, the UK clocks up a miserable 7.69 Mbps - though many users here will be lucky to ...
UK comes 33rd for broadband speed
by David Allen
May 24, 2010
There are huge problems in our country, and big meaty issues the government needs to deal with. A colossal debt mountain for one thing. Yet according to an O2 survey (conducted in conjunction with Populus), it's the little things that the citizens of the UK are concerned about, more than the big issues. In a survey of 2,000 people, 41% of folks ...
O2 says slow broadband is big UK issue
by Darren AllanThere are huge problems in our country, and big meaty issues the government needs to deal with. A colossal debt mountain for one thing. Yet according to an O2 survey (conducted in conjunction with Populus), it's the little things that the citizens of the UK are concerned about, more than the big issues. In a survey of 2,000 people, 41% of folks ...
May 20, 2010
Although the internet seems to be full of news, surfers only spend around 2.8 per cent of their time looking at it, just slightly more that the 2.7 per cent of time spent looking at adult sites!
In fact according to the research carried out by the United Kingdom Online Measurement Company (UKOM) the amount of time spent ...
Brit’s online time increases
by David AllenUK iPad App Store opens doors
by Darren Allan
May 18, 2010
A quarter of TV viewers in the UK are watching their favourite shows in high definition, while a large percentage of those who are not currently watching HD television are interested in what the free to air digital TV service Freeview has to offer.
The survey, conducted by the consumer magazine Which?, was made up of 2,324 people.
They ...
Quarter of Brits watching HD TV
by David Allen
May 14, 2010
The BBC, or to be more precise the News produced by the BBC, is more important for the image of the UK than the Armed Forces or the Royal Family, according to the director general, Mark Thompson.
This claim comes as the DG attempts to justify the amount of money that the BBC is getting and more precisely, the ...
BBC is great for Britain
by David Allen
May 10, 2010
Today's the day, and on schedule as planned, the Apple iPad is available for pre-order in the UK from this morning.
The “magical” iPad, which has sold over a million in the US, can now be pre-ordered from the Apple store (http://store.apple.com/uk).
If you want the plain wi-fi version, that costs £429, £499 and £599, for the 16GB, 32GB and ...
Apple iPad officially on UK pre-orders
by Darren Allan
May 7, 2010
Finally, Apple has revealed the exact date and pricing details for the iPad in the UK.
The iPad will be out on May 28th, three weeks today, and pre-orders will start on May 10th, next Monday.
While the good news is that there aren't any more delays (touch wood), the not so good news is that the pricing came in ...
UK Apple iPad dated and priced
by Darren Allan
May 6, 2010
It seems that the appetite for television is still growing.
The results of a study put together by Thinkbox show that the average UK TV viewer watched 30 hours and 4 minutes of TV during the first quarter of the year.
That is up by 2 hours and 29 minutes on the same time last year.
The results show that ...
British watch 30 hours of TV a week
by David Allen
April 29, 2010
So where does most of the world's spam come from?
From Minnesota in America, actually. Home of the Hormel Foods Corporation who make the dubiously coloured and textured meat product we all know and, er, know. (It's coming back in fashion though – thanks recession!).
But America is also the biggest producer of the electronic variety of spam that arrives ...
America top of spam table, UK is ninth
by Darren Allan
April 27, 2010
The use of online video continues to grow in the UK by an astonishing rate.
In fact an incredible 5.5 billion online videos were watched by UK internet users during the month of February this year, an increase of around 37 per cent on the same month in the previous year.
According to research carried out by comScore, Google ...
UK video use on the rise
by David Allen
April 23, 2010
The first of the 3D Ready televisions has gone on sale.
It seems that John Lewis has got the jump on the rest of the High St and is currently offering the Samsung UE40C700 40 inch 3D Ready TV with built in Freeview HD tuner.
The television is available to buy online and from certain stores such as the flagship ...
UK’s first 3D TV goes on sale
by David Allen
April 22, 2010
The phone and broadband provider, BT, is hard at work upgrading its exchanges so that they are able to support the Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) service, which should offer the end user broadband connection speeds of up to 24 Mbps.
To this end BT has announced that it will be upgrading 150 exchanges with the WBC technology.
The company is ...
BT to upgrade more exchanges
by David Allen
April 21, 2010
The UK will require an investment of between £5 & £15 billion in order to bring its broadband network up to a standard that compares with the top connected countries in the world, according to Prof Peter Cochrane, who used to be the head at BT Research.
He claims that the government thinks the UK is up there with ...
UK has poor IT network
by David AllenGoogle makes government censorship figures public
by Darren Allan
April 15, 2010
As Best Buy finally begins its planned launch in the UK, details are being released of what the UK consumer can expect to find on the shelves of the Best Buy stores.
The first stores will be opening in Thurrock in Essex, Hedge End in Southampton and Merry Hill in the West Midlands.
Apart from having a connection to The ...
Best Buy has deal with Virgin Media
by David Allen
April 12, 2010
It appears from research carried by the British Video Association (BVA) that there could be millions of UK consumers who have purchased an HD Ready television but unwittingly think that nothing else is required to view channels in high definition.
According to the research by the BVA, over six million consumers are currently under the impression that they are ...
Brits love HD TV but cannot make it work
by David Allen
April 9, 2010
The iPad was launched by Apple last weekend and by all accounts sales have done well in the first week, so when is the iPad going to be released in the UK?
All indicators are pointing the 24th April, but there are some issues with that date!
The 24th has been suggested as the possible launch date for the iPad ...
iPad in the UK on the 24th April
by David Allen
April 2, 2010
It has been a long trek since the first digital switchover took place in 2008 and still there are two years to go before the UK is fully digital and the analogue TV signals can finally be switched off.
This week saw Wales become the first digital nation in the UK, which may not seem to be a big ...
Countdown to the end of analogue TV
by David Allen
April 1, 2010
Good news for British Palm fans – the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be heading this side of the pond, it would seem. So says the rumour mill, after The Unwired site spotted the fact that the Global Certification Forum (GCF) has approved two new Palm handsets for European usage. These are, so the site asserts, almost certainly the Pre Plus ...
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus set for UK
by Darren AllanGood news for British Palm fans – the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be heading this side of the pond, it would seem. So says the rumour mill, after The Unwired site spotted the fact that the Global Certification Forum (GCF) has approved two new Palm handsets for European usage. These are, so the site asserts, almost certainly the Pre Plus ...
March 17, 2010
The UK based set-top-box component business, Elonics, has announced that it will be supplying equipment to the Taiwan digital TV service provider CNet.
The arrangement will see CNet taking the Elonics E4000 multi standard silicon tuner for its CCT 770 terrestrial digital TV set-top-box, which comes with full internet access for instant access to online TV.
The set top box ...
Elonics to supply STBs to Taiwan
by David Allen
March 11, 2010
Once again, spending on digital television services has increased.
To the end of 2009 the figure for subscription based services was £4.6 billion, which shows an increase of 6.4 per cent.
According to Future Source Consulting, in total a staggering £19.7 billion was spent on media products, with pay TV taking around a quarter of that total.
Packaged digital entertainment products ...
UK pay TV subscriptions increase
by David Allen
March 10, 2010
As the DTG Summit continues, claims and counter claims from the major players continue to take place.
One of the best comes from the MD of Freeview, Ilse Howling.
In a speech she predicted that half of the UK will be able to watch the World Cup in South Africa in HD.
This would imply that Freeview is expecting ...
Half of UK could watch World Cup in HD
by David Allen
