Computers, Internet and mobile phones – those are an indispensable part of our modern lives. We are so dependent on the technology that even the slightest tech problems (remember Skype blackout?) can cause damage on economics, transport, even life.
The last decade has been pretty intense technically. More than two billion people are using the Internet compared to the 400 million ten years ago. The cellphone subscriptions have also risen to 5 billion – five times more compared to the 1 billion subscriptions in year 2000, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
O2 UK just announced it’s working on a nation-wide Wi-Fi service in the UK. Most importantly, the service will be free for everybody and not just for O2 customers. Rollout will begin immediately starting with the current hotspots in O2’s shops and own retail centers and will soon be expanded to include strategic places around the UK.
Their goal is to surpass the combined number of premium hotspots offered by BT Openzone and The Cloud in the country by 2013. Read more »
There’s change at the very top of Google – Eric Schmidt, who’s been Google’s CEO for the past 10 years, will be stepping down from that position moving to a position of an Executive Chairman. Larry Page will be replacing him starting 4 April – apparently all this is a planned effort to streamline decision making…
Opera just published its State of the Mobile Web report for December 2010 and this time the special feature part is dedicated to holiday shopping. According to Opera, the Amazon usage share reached 1.6% in December, compared to 0.9% in January. And that is despite the fact that the total number of users also rose 84.7% YoY to reach 85.5 million.
Which means that nearly 1.5 million people used Opera Mini to visit the Amazon web site last month, while in January 2010 only half a million did so. Read more »
In tech circles, Steve Jobs is nothing less than a legend. He’s been having health problems in the recent years though and now, he will be taking his third medical leave since 2004. This news caused quite a stir, especially since Apple is due to announce its Q1 earnings today, but Apple seems to have everything under control…
According to 27% of the people that took part in the latest Nielsen survey 4G is what the latest iPhone is called. True story!
With American carriers all keen to boast about their 4G networks to anyone who would listen, Nielsen decided to check how much people really know about 4G wireless tech. As it turned out 17% of the participants have never heard of it, while only 51% of the rest claimed to know what it means. Now that speaks volumes of the efficiency of those multi-million ad campaigns, doesn’t it?
And back to where we started, some 27% of the interviewed claimed that it was the name of the current iteration of the Apple iPhone. A new Android phone from T-Mobile was the answer of every 7th participant. Another 43% thought 4G stands for new devices that process data faster. Read more »
You remember Microsoft Surface when it was first showed to the public almost three years ago, right? Well, at this year’s CES Microsoft revealed their latest generation of the magic touch table.
This time they have cooperated with Samsung to create a truly impressive user experience, and although Microsoft claim it’s cheaper than the original and if you badly want one it’s going to set you back $7,600. Read more »
Samsung’s new generation of HDTVs is pretty sleek, we admit. But the remote control that they come bundled with is quite amazing on its own. Why? Just take a look at it. Does it remind you of something? Yeah, we thought so too.
The RMC30D Touch Control TV, as Samsung has kindly named it, shines with a 3” touch display and ton of features that aren’t very remote-control-ish. Read more »
The web-based VoIP client in Gmail was launched several months ago with free calls to the US and Canada until the end of 2010. Well, it’s either the Christmas mood or something else, I don’t know, but Google decided to extend those free calls through the whole 2011.
YouTube is looking back at the most popular videos of this year. Parodies won out at the end but at the 10th spot is one of Ken Block’s ludicrous driving videos, which got our tech-geek hearts’ beating. Looking solely at the tech section, the Apple iPad was among the fastest rising search terms this year…
Twitter is where rumors are born and distributed lightning fast. The social network just published their 2010 top tweet subjects and the top tech topics of the year turned out to be the Apple iPad and Google’s Android OS.
Samsung has been trying to bolster Samsung Galaxy Tab sales by offering free goodies instead of lowering the price. The latest offer is for the UK and comes to the tune of £200 worth in the form of an “entertainment package”. It’s not as good as it sounds though…
Facebook has been doing some redecoration to the profile page template and they’ve made it a better representation of you. The new Profile page starts with a concise summary (where you work, live, what languages you speak, etc.) and follows that up with a perfect incarnation of the “a picture is worth a thousand words” mantra…
It seems those offline breaks you had to take during long flights are coming to an end, as Lufthansa is launching a Wi-Fi service on its intercontinental flights. The servie, aptly called FlyNet, will be available for free until the end of January 2011 and will expand on all the company’s intercontinental flights throughout 2011.
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