Excellent video from Commoncraft on how the WWW works.
UK teenager ‘saved by Facebook’
BBC reports on how a UK teenager ‘saved by Facebook’
A British teenager who took a drugs overdose has been saved after the American girl he was chatting to online raised the alarm.
Robin Hood Series 3
Well I missed that one.
Last week saw the start of series 3 of BBC’s Robin Hood. Didn’t notice it was on, too busy watching Primeval I think!
Twitter on the front line
From BBC News
There may have been few things that protesters, politicians and activists share, but during the G20 meeting, they were united by their use of Twitter.
The micro-blogging service was heavily used by all those involved with the meeting, be they in the debating chamber, quizzing politicians after briefings, or protesting beyond the police cordon.
Touch coming to Windows 7
BBC reports on developments at Microsoft
The multi-touch controls familiar to Apple iPhone users will be built-in to Microsoft’s Windows 7.
Windows Touch will be a “first class way to interact with your PC alongside mouse and keyboard,” said the firm.
I do quite like Windows 7 as though similar in appearance to Windows Vista seems less clunky and smoother.
As a result of this new development, will we see a Windows 7 interface on a small tablet PC device which reflets the intuitive and ease of use that we currently have with the iPhone?
From my experience, so far no touch interface I have used has come close to the iPhone interface, but doesn’t mean in the future that nothing will match it.
iPhone Firmware 3.0
Apple have released details of the new firmware for the iPhone.
In-App Purchasing: Allows developers to sell additional content from within applications. Highlighted uses include magazine subscriptions, eBooks, additional levels and items for games.
Peer-to-Peer Connectivity: Find other devices running the app via Bonjour over Wi-Fi of Bluetooth. Good for gaming, but also other applications for sharing data.
Third-Party Accessory Apps: Allowing accessory manufacturers to create applications to interface with their hardware accessories.
Push Notification: Rather than using background processes that hamper battery life, utilize third-party server to push badge, text, and audio alerts from applications.
Turn by Turn: Apple will allow developers to use CoreLocation for turn-by-turn GPS directions.
Cut, Copy and Paste: Available across all apps. Shake to undo or redo.
Landscape keyboard: Available in all key applications, including Mail.
MMS: Picture messaging now available.
Voice Memos: Record notes, lectures, interviews, etc.
Spotlight Search: Available across all applications. Systemwide search available from main home screen by flicking to the left.
A2DP Bluetooth: Support for stereo bluetooth headsets.
In the Q&A Apple did say if the carriers supported it they would support tethering as a modem.
How Twitter users shaped Twitter
From TED
Is it a netbook or a notebook?
Amusing flowchart from The Register, is it a netbook or a notebook!
If a tree falls in the woods….
This cartoon from the Washington Post amused me.
Found it via Frances Bell’s amusing blog article which takes this cartoon five stages further! Have a read and a smile.
Leopard running on a Dell 9 minibook
Andy Ihnatko (who I regularly listen to on MacBreak Weekly) in his column this week in the Chicago Sun-Times talks about his efforts to run OS X on a netbook.
Questions like “If a computer that isn’t made by Apple is nonetheless running the Macintosh operating system and Macintosh software…can we still call it a Mac?” are more up my street, and it’s been much on my mind lately.
No wonder. For nearly a week, I’ve been running Mac software on a Dell Mini 9 netbook.
It’s an interesting article and does demonstrate how much easier it is these days to install OS X on a non-Mac computer.
I do like the netbook concept and having used a fair few they certainly have their place in the world (generally as a second or traveling computer). Problem is that these netbooks either run Windows XP or Linux. Not that I don’t know how to use XP, and I can even get by in Linux, but both lack the familiarity that I now have with OS X.
Am I interested, yes I am.