There are plenty of human rights, particularly in democratic countries where free speech and the practice of religion are often pushed to limits that are almost impossible to fathom. And while the debate as to whether internet access is a right that should be established and enforced, the fact that our society lives and breathes with the help of the net is already known to most.
Medical studies are already looking into the internet as a cause of many behavioral problems. There are mental disorders that are caused or escalated by internet usage since the media is not only available at all times, but also because the internet provides a pseudo society in which one can be a part of. When dealing with sensitive psyches, the presence of an alternative reality can be quite significant.
In the bigger picture of things, internet access provides news, updates and information geared specifically to the relevant interests of users. Many people state that they would not be able to function properly without the internet. Business and organizations also rely heavily on the ability of the internet to allow people to easily communicate with each other as well as share important information.
With many people now becoming more and more engrossed and reliant on their Facebook accounts to keep in touch with friends and family, many are starting to feel a degree of alienation and isolation when faced to live without internet access even for just a day. Studies have shown that many young adults from rural areas are encouraged to go to the city so that they can live with accessible mobile networks and internet access.
However, establishing internet access as a right also has its drawbacks. Once enforced by the government, it would also be controlled and censored.
Get to know more about internet access rights at the Telegraph UK.
Tags: Internet
Say goodbye to the noisy bunch of keys you bring with you on a daily basis. Yet another Apple patent has surfaced, this time involving the replacement of traditional keys with the use of your iPhone.
Dubbed the iKey by the Daily Telegraph, the newest patent application from Apple looks like an extension of a previous patent regarding the iPhone NFC system.
The Near Field Communication (NFC) system is a communication technology that allows an Apple device to emit a signal to a compatible gadget within a limited area. Apple’s new patent evolves this older concept by adding a Motion Sensitive Input Selection that can allow the user to open any type of door by entering the correct PIN code and waving the Apple device over a fitted electronic security box.
The iPhone was cited as an example in the patent. Considering the fact that another previous Apple patent mentioned NFC in the iPhone 4.0, it is likely to be the device of choice for this sort of application. However, there is no reason why Apple will not also integrate it into the iPad or the iPod Touch. All three devices run on the iPhone operating system so Apple only needs to include an RFID chip in new models to implement the iKey technology.
The iKey technology is not only limited to opening doors. This system can also serve as an electronic wallet or an all-around ID pass. With this in mind, what would stop people from listening in and stealing personal information right off the device?
The patent mentioned employing encryption technology in order to protect the information stored in the mobile phone. With Apple security the way it is now, the technology may have a long way to go before it convinces most iPhone owners to get rid of their traditional house locks and cut up their credit cards.
More information about the iKey can be found at Ubergizmo.
Tags: Apple-iKey
The Sony Ericsson Satio is getting some interesting new updates just before SE launches some brand new phones –good to see that product support for older phones does not die out with newer models.
Anyway, for those of you wondering why the Satio’s name sounds familiar, it may be because you have seen the major advertising campaign that Sony Ericsson has dished out for the smart phone –the one that involves people bouncing around on giant colored balls all over the world. It was a pretty big campaign that would have certainly cost millions –millions we think that the device was hard pressed to earn back.
Despite the amazing features and capabilities of the Satio, the device suffered from an early set of problems that severely crippled the phone’s firmware. The problem was so bad that retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U have suspended sales of the device until Sony Ericsson was able to release a fix for it.
In an amazing twist, the update actually improved the battery life of the device beyond its optimal listed rate –something that SE decided to use on the Aino and the Kita devices as well.
Anyway, the new update for the Satio will be bringing even more features to the SE smart phone. First off, Satio will now be compatible with video recording of 864 x 480 pixels (WVGA standard). The Satio will also be given more social networking integration with a Facebook app in the PlayNow menu, instant photo uploads to Facebook, video uploads to YouTube and threaded messages.
Media transfer has been enhanced with DLNA support and the user interface has been updated to improve performance. The update is also said to fix a few minor issues still present in the device.
Get to know more about the Satio update at Softpedia.
Tags: Sony-Ericsson-Satio
Incumbency and culture are two easily misunderstood topics. And unlike what Steve Ballmer says it is more of a “Chicken and Egg” scenario than as cause and effect.
According to the man behind Microsoft’s Bing, the Google search engine got it right when no other search engine can. During the early days of Google, there was plenty of steep competition among different search engines. Systems such as Alta Vista, Lycos, Infoseek and Ask Jeeves were among the first on the scene. Right before Google came around; Yahoo! was dominating thanks to the addition of its free webmail service –rivaled then by Hotmail and similar web services.
Google did not arrive until three years after Yahoo! and yet the search engine easily bested every single other service out on the net –quickly gaining the top spot and favoritism among users. When Google expanded to offer even more services, people began flocking the site for invites to try out the then-invite only Google Mail service.
According to Steve Ballmer, it is all about simply getting it right first. But to take that explanation at face value would be to imply that Google got lucky. In fact, it was more than luck; Google became successful because they approached the concept of web searching differently –in a well mannered method that made them the most reliable search engine to be used.
Google’s presence singlehandedly changed the way keywords and SEO works.
To say that incumbency is without ties to Google’s culture is a big mistake for the man who presented the amazing Windows Phone 7 user interface. There is something about Google’s internal culture that has made it the success that it is today –to say otherwise would be an affront to the genius behind the company.
Get to read more about Steve Ballmer’s opinions about Google at the Guardian UK.
Tags: Google
Sony Ericsson’s upcoming XPERIA X10 Mini will be coming next month and it looks like Vodafone will be carrying the new handset.
The new smart phone has been shown off at the Mobile World Congress and has taken plenty of us by surprise. We have already confirmed that the X10 would indeed have a mini version with the previous reports of the XPERIA Robyn, but nobody expected the device to be ready and on the floor at Barcelona, Spain.
The Robyn does not come alone too. Sony Ericsson has also brought out the XPERIA X10 Mini Pro. The Pro edition actually squeezes in a slide out QWERTY keyboard on the already small smart phone. With very few Androids sporting physical keyboards, the Mini Pro is sure to be a hit.
Speaking of surprise gadgets, there was also a third debutante at the MWC Sony Ericsson booth; the SE Vivaz Pro. Like the Mini Pro, this device also sports a physical QWERTY keyboard for the Symbian smart phone –though it drops the 8 mega pixel camera for a 5 mega pixel cam and still retains 720p HD video recording capabilities.
As expected both the Mini and Mino Pro share the exact same specifications. While it has yet to be confirmed that the existing 1.6 Android Donut will be updated, many are already expecting the update to Éclair to be available in matter of weeks. With the XPERIA X10 already coming this March, Sony Ericsson will have to update the OS else it gets left behind by its Android competitors.
It is estimated that the X10 Mini will be priced at £299.99 while the X10 Mini Pro will be £339.99.
Get to know more about the new SE XPERIA X10 Mini and Mini Pro smart phones at Mobile Choice UK.
The same problem that plagues the Google phone Nexus One is the very same reason why not many people in the UK have been able to try out the new Motorola Milestone.
Now, here’s an Android phone that many of us thought we would never get to use. After all, when the Motorola DROID was first announced, the sentence ended with “Verizon exclusive” –not only was the device limited to a US region, it was even locked to a carrier. Motorola quickly broke the good news by announcing that the device would be renamed and launched in the UK as the Motorola Milestone.
Sadly, when the Milestone did arrive, internet retailer eXpansys was first on the scene to claim exclusive dibs on the Android smart phone. Since December, the Milestone was not available through any other means aside from ordering online.
Now, Carphone Warehouse is first to bring us the good news that the Milestone exclusivity is not just over, they are also offering the device on their store shelves for everyone to get. They are also offering T-mobile contracts for the smart phone at their stores.
For those wondering about what makes the Milestone such a great device; this Motorola masterpiece is a mid-range spec device that runs the new Android 2.0 Éclair operating system. The large capacitive touch screen is complemented by a slide out QWERTY keyboard –the first Android device to have a physical keyboard.
It’s a great combination that has gotten everyone eager to try out the DROID when it was first leaked. When the Milestone was brought over to the UK, Motorola added multi touch function on the device –a feature missing in the original US release of the Android smart phone.
Read more about Carphone Warehouse’s deals for the Motorola Milestone at Mobile Choice UK.
Tags: Motorola-Milestone
While it may seem a little early, LG has already confirmed that it is not just working on the first Windows Mobile 7 device, but they are pretty much deep in progress now. Recent reports show images of the new phone and speculations regarding its features.
First off, the facts; we do know from last week that the new series will be set into three various chassis types. While the keyboard layout was not number 1, it was definitely number 2. The images of the new LG Panther clearly show a smart phone that is ready to pounce –or not. It is actually a little boring. None of the hard edged stylishness seen on the XPERIA series from Sony Ericsson or even the futuristic look of the Motorola DROID is present on the Panther.
The only thing visually pleasing about the new phone is its keyboard. The slide out QWERTY keyset shows some pretty nice textures. Of course, it is pretty hard to tell what kind of feedback they give -and that usually spells out whether users will be able to manage typing well on it or not. At least the keys look evenly spaced and raised to a curved form for a more comfortable typing experience.
The new device is pretty slim despite its smart phone form. While this means that it will be really slim when you expand the phone, at least it will be easy to store and move around with.
WP7 uses a new screen setup that bleeds off the rest of the menu on a touch screen display. Users will be panning around to customize and focus on contents –even better, the new Tiles system gives what the widget cannot: a fully customizable box.
Get to know more about the new LG Panther on Pocket Lint.
Tags: LG-Panther
Well, this is simply speculation for now. But Facebook has finally gotten its 2006 patent approved and they now own the rights to creating the news feed of social network updates.
It may sound silly as they filed the patent back in 2006 way after Twitter was already on the scene. Still, this is very significant because this actually gives Facebook the leverage to fight it out with other social networking sites. So far, Facebook seems to have no desire to enforce their newfound power, though it is probable that they are going to be able to get more approved patents with this one already under their belts.
So, back to the title at hand, what about Google Buzz?
Google Buzz originally started out as a harmless idea from Google, but with the sudden implementation of the service, many people were put in a very dangerous position that has exposed the contents of a contact list. Many private email addresses have been compromised and in the very end, Google had little to nothing to offer in terms of actually doing something.
Facebook ought to take down the Buzz. Not that the two companies need to foster an enmity, but at least with Facebook’s legal claim, Google can easily fold up this sad excuse of a social networking tool and chalk it up to legalities. It is an easy way out for the tech giant.
The bottom line here is that it’s a good thing that Facebook has gotten the patent approved. It has been almost four years in the making and at least they know how to handle social networking. They are the most successful social networking site and they are continuing to grow each year.
Read more about the patent approval for Facebook at the Guardian UK.
Tags: Facebook, Google-Buzz
While Nintendo paved the way for video games to hit a significantly larger market and eventually cause the rise of hard core games that many gamers now enjoy, the Japanese game company actually started making hits with very casual titles.
This is where Shigeru Miyamoto and Mario begun.
Now, over two decades have passed since Donkey Kong kidnapped the Princess and brought her to the top of an unfinished construction site and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be awarding Shigeru Miyamoto with the distinguished fellowship award.
This places the man at the same rank as creative geniuses such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. With BAFTA having started to recognize the many creative and artistic talents behind video games in the past couple of years, it comes as to no surprise that they are now paying tribute to the man who basically started it all.
Mario was not the first video game character. Donkey Kong was not the first video game. Before all that, Pong, Asteroids and many other titles have been around. But it was not until the arrival of Mario into the scene that the world of video games changed.
So what does this mean for the rest of us? Unknown to many, Shigeru Miyamoto is the genius behind the evolution of many video game genres. Super Mario Bros is considered to be one of the most important platforming titles ever developed. The Legend of Zelda has created the standard for what we know now as a real time dungeon crawler RPG.
Metroid set the bar for heaving deep storylines and an amazing ending –not to mention the pioneer for having a strong female character in the video game (a surprise fact that is revealed at the very end of Metroid).
Read more about Shigeru and BAFTA at the Telegraph UK.
Tags: Shigeru-Miyamoto
Straight from ZDnet, a podcast reveals the three different chassis types for WP7.
The type 1 chassis will feature the regular touch screen smart phone look. This will most probably be the standard for all WP7 devices as the user interface will need a large capacitive touch screen to be used properly. It is what we commonly see with the recent WP7 user interface screenshots. All in all, this is pretty much expected already.
The type 2 chassis is only slightly different than the type 1. Type 2 will come with a slide out QWERTY keyboard which makes it a great choice for users who are heavy message senders. The type 3 is rumored to be a candy bar phone, though that hardly matches the style suitable for the new UI.
In any case, regardless of what chassis will be coming, the general prediction is that the device will be running on a Qualcomm processor (possibly the Snapdragon 1GHz CPU). Since Windows Phone 7 series seems to be heavily reliant of high loading speeds and heavy animations, the processing power of the Snapdragon will make for a perfect fit. It has also been reported that Asus will be working with Microsoft to create the very first WP7 device.
WP7 is shaking things up in the mobile platform industry by delivering a new OS that could potentially surpass the Android and the iPhone OS. Though with the launch if the iPhone 4G coming soon, the title is still up in the air.
So far, no confirmed release date for the OS can be confirmed. While it has been said during the presentation that the device is expected by the holidays, some reports are pointing to an early October release.
Get to know the new Windows Phone 7 series and get to see the different chassis on Softpedia.
Tags: Apple-iPhone-3gs, Windows-Phone-7
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