It has been rumoured for a while, bit Toshiba finally confirmed this morning that it is joining the Blu-ray Disc Association. Applying for membership means that it can now take its place alongside Sony, Philips et al as makers of Blu-ray players and drives for PCs.

Toshiba said: "In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA."

For Tosh this involves in chomping on a rather large pile of humble pie. It invented and developed Blu-ray's competitor HD-DVD format which for a while actually outsold its rival.

Of course there is an argument that says this is too little too late and that discs of any variety are doomed.

Apparently not according to a new survey commissioned by Deloitte and YouGov and reported in today's Guardian. Of the 2000 or so people questioned 53% said they wouldn't watch more online TV even if they did have a faster, more reliable connection.

This sounds like one of those surveys where respondents don't really understand the question properly because of the way it is presented. Sure people watch online TV quite happily now, but if they are happy with their current connection they are either 1, getting a solid fast connection and have a really good experience of watching things like the BBC iPlayer, or 2 just used to slow loading video, drop outs etc.

I remember a few years ago and the hoopla surrounding next generation broadband services which promised speeds of up to 50Mbps. ISPs were adamant that we would be using all that extra bandwidth to watch a lot more TV some of it in HDTV.

In my opinion what has happened in the last few years is that people, especially the young, have got used to watching online TV on small-ish computer screens and are willing to overlook the odd drop out etc. What the broadband providers, government and broadcasters had in mind with their super fast broadband was delivering multiple HDTV streams to large screens in the home. This will happen one day but not in the forseeable future.

Ultimately what the survey does tell us us is that people are happy consuming video content via their computer. Who knew that eh?

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Here's a site that has great potential. Justbought.it combines everything that's regarded as cool on the web at the moment: Google Maps, social shopping and Twitter/Twitpics. Or according to the blurb, "it's a location based social shopping that allows you to share photos/tweets." On paper it sounds like a winning combination, a vertitable internet supergroup especially if you trust other people's recommendations when it comes to buying stuff (I don't). Just one problem. It's very difficult to get excited about it - yet.

Back in the early noughties a parade of companies including Motorola and Samsung (with its SPH-WP10) unveiled what they saw as the future of the phone - the wearable wrist watch style handset. Inevitably the tech writers who got to play with the prototypes made crap jokes about Dick Tracey and generally pooh-poed any chance of watchphones ever going on sale in the UK properly.
Well over the past year or so an array of watchphones, like the Swap, have started arriving in the UK from the Far East where they apparently becoming a real cult. The new breed of handsets aren't just feature-packed, they are easy to use providing your fingers are diddy enough to cope with their small, but perfectly formed touch screens.
And now the battle is set for the first mainstream manufacturer to claim the watch phone crown. Korean phone makers Samsung and LG have recently unveiled models and both will go on sale in the UK in the next month or so.
The LG GD910 is the prettier of the two and it had been snapped up exclusively by Orange. The model has a good range of features voice recognition, text-to-speech functionality, Bluetooth, an MP3 player and a 1.4in touch-sensitive screen. According to our sources it is apparently fairly simple to use too.
It will go on sale in France for €399 which is much less than the originally touted price of around £1000, so a UK price should be around the £300 mark.
Meanwhile LG's big rivals Samsung is rumoured to be launching its S9110 watch phone in the UK by the end of the month. Its headline feature is that at 11.98mm thick it is skinnier than any other watch phone currently on sale. Other goodies include a 1.76inch (slightly bigger than the LG) full touch screen, email via Outlook, an MP3 player, voice recognition, a built in speaker and Bluetooth. It sells in France for €450, so it could come in at around £350 in the UK.
The one big difference between the two is that Samsung's phone works on GPRS network, while the LG handset is 3G with data speeds of up to 7.2Mbps.
The fundamental problem though with all watch phones is that, unless you wear a Bluetooth headsets all day, every time the phone rings you will be sharing your conversation with anyone else in the vicinity. Still there's quite clearly a growing market for them among gadget lovers.

I haven't been able to move this week for news about 'sexting'. I must confess that I was only vaguely familiar with the term, thinking it had been made up by a journalist for publicity purposes and wasn't a real problem. How wrong I was. Now I read that teenagers in the US and Australia have killed themselves when their boyfriends/girlfriends have emailed/MMSed 'compromising' pictures to school mates/parents, usually after they've split up. But in a worrying twist it now seems that so-called compromising pictures posted on social networks are being used as evidence in court to mitigate in cases of sex crime.

Google Wave seems to be massively dividing the tech community at the moment. Some people expect it to revolutionise the way in which we work and reposition Google once more as an incredible innovator while others are a lot more cynical.
Here's how it might work on the iPhone, with this video courtesy of the fellas at Engadget.

There has been a lot of talk over the past few days about how media companies are going to charge for online content. We might soon have to pay a subscription for our favourite sites or just a few pence each time we read a story.
What is certain though is that paying for news content in the UK is coming and once one site starts charging well, they will all have to.
There are however a few problems the collective British commercial media will have to overcome in the meantime. Namely...

1 Blogs. Walled content gardens could actually spark a reniassance in blogging, especially when coupled with tools like Posterous (which works incredibly well with Twitter), as bloggers simply cut and paste (either physically or intellectually) subscription content from media sources and publish it freely.
2 The BBC. The corp is still going to offer all its content for free, so readers can still access one of the world's premium news sources for nothing. It makes paying that few quid each month to The Guardian look a lot less appealing.

Of these two issues the BBC is obviously the one that is concentrating the minds of media barons the most. How can they possibly charge readers for online stories when a first rate news organisations is offering their content for free?
The key to this lies with the relationship between the Conservatives and the media owners, specifically Rupert Murdoch. The Tories have certainly been taking an interest in the future of the BBC. Some see it as being anti Conservative; others recognise that the way in which the BBC works, in other words what it actually does and how it needs to be funded has to change. A BBC insider told me that Conservative MPs touring the BBC and asking difficult questions have become a weekly occurrence

So here's how the scenario could play out

Cameron needs the backing of Murdoch's papers, especially The Sun, to secure an election victory. If the economy picks up, as it seems it might do by next May, the two main parties could be very close.
As a quid pro quo for The Sun's support Murdoch could then insist that Cameron undertake a review of the BBC's online activities and the impact they have on other UK media players. Pretty quickly it would find that the BBC is stifling growth in mainstream media and the corp would be forced to make changes.
In theory the government could then limit the BBC's news activities online and even force the corporation into closing the news website.
Ok, so this all sounds a bit dramatic but there are two reasons why I think it could happen.

1 The media companies need to make money from online or else they will have to severely curtail their activities, the ad market is dire and there is no way online advertising will ever be able to fund the media organisations as they are. They have to find a new way of monetising their content. If they don't they could die.
2 Leading Conservatives are already starting to think the unthinkable when it comes to the BBC. Ed Vaizey, the Tories' arts and media spokesperson, has already made some suggestions about Radio 1 being spun off into the private sector. Vaizey isn't some barking mad backbencher either, he has worked in the media for many years and is the MP for a neighbouring constituency to, you guessed it, David Cameron. The pair are apparently very close personally and politically.
Ultimately dismantling the news website of public service broadcaster sounds a very draconian and extreme thing to do. So maybe there will be a compromise. My suggestion would be for the BBC to charge for its news content just like its rivals. So a subscription or a micro payment that's in addition to the licence fee. That would at least ensure a level playing field and bring money into the corporation. Hey the Beeb could even reduce the licence fee- which the Tories would absolutely love
Just a thought...

There's no denying that you have to doff your Outback Caps to the Aussies. They build beautiful cities in places where really no human should ever venture, boast some of the best cuisine (and coffee) in the world and dominate international cricket.
However when it comes to gadgets our friends from down under aren't even on the starting blocks.
Ok, so we Poms don't have a huge amount to crow about.
We can claim some pretty decent top-end AV companies, a huge mobile phone network and some interesting entrepreneurs who have developed some cool gadgets.
At a push we can also grab a slice of Apple (well Jonathan Ive is the main man there right?), Sony Ericsson (headquartered in London with very British sensibilities) and Nokia N series phones (based on Symbian architecture which was pioneered in the UK by the much missed Psion).
But the Aussies... in the Gadgets Ashes there is certainly no need for messrs Duckworth and Lewis.
So far I have come up with Røde the very cool microphone manufacturer, but that's it. Now there are plenty of Aussies in the UK running very successful tech companies - this one springs instantly to mind. There is also a strong SEO/web based community which has Problogger Darren Rowse as its patron saint. But it seems very few gadget companies and start ups.
I put the call out on Twitter, scoured Google and even emailed and spoke to a few tech savvy Aussies, but they couldn't add to the list.
So over to you. Is the gadget Ashes a five-nil whitewash to the poms? Are there any killer Aussie start ups? Prove us wrong.

David Cameron may think Twitter users are twats and the odd Archbishop reckons that micro blogging may stop people from forming real relationships, but that hasn't stopped London becoming the city with the most Twitter users in the world.

This has been coming a fair while thanks to the constant hyping of the micro blogging format by UK celebs and especially the BBC, however London's status as the capital of the tweet was confirmed by Twitter CEO Ev Williams in a rather odd interview for BBC's Newsnight.

All of this begs the question why do Brits love Twitter so much? Here's a few of my half-baked theories.

1 We did kind of invent it - Except it was called text messaging and was used on mobiles and you only shared with one person. The Americans never got texting the way we did so maybe Twitter is their text alternative.

2 As a nation we aren't that demonstrative - Stiff upper lips and all that. One of the reasons why blogging isn't as big over here is that we really don't have that much to say. 140 charactars give us more than enough words to express ourselves.

3 Moaning about the weather - Our national pastime and with Twitter we can talk about our favourite topic with a large group of people instantly. Brilliant!

4 Celeb stalking - Ok, so I might not be too bothered about what Philip Schofield has for
breakfast, but Brits do love to find out about their lives of their favourite celebs.

5 Public transport - In British cities this is obviously completely shit, so what better way to let the entire world know that you are few minutes late because you have ducked into Starbucks are waiting for the non existent bus

6 We love mobiles - And those all you can eat data tariffs mean that we can happily let the world know our every move without having to worry too much about the cost

7 Queuing - Well we are used to be being a little patient, so Twitter's consistent down time doesn't annoy us as much as it would say the Italians.

8 No ads - Yep it is almost a public services, a bit like the BBC. We are used to that

9 Flirting - We perfected the art of the flirty text years ago. Twitter enables us to take that coy but complimentary comment to another level.

10 We are too busy to blog - Allright so our economy might be going down the toilet but most of us are still wedded to that old Brit work ethic. So while we might not have the time to blog we can find just enough time to tweet

Over the last few months there have been many stories in both mainstream and social media chronicling the decline of blogging. Fewer people are apparently starting blogs, many blogs are not being updated and less people are reading them.

There is a fairly contentious debate as to why blogging has become less popular, but many commentators cite the growth of micro blogging or Twitter, as the most significant reason for its downturn.

I think they are right too. Twitter is a fast and instantaneous way of sharing information with a large group of people, it makes blogging look slow, cumbersome and rather one dimensional.

There are however still many good reasons why savvy individuals and brands will continue to use blogging software to deliver content.

1 I think that only very shallow minds can express everything they feel about an issue in 140 charactars.
2 Blogging should still be a major plank in website owners SEO strategy. For search engines original content on websites is still a massive draw and if a blog is updated regularly it will not only attract regular readers via RSS, Twitter or others sources but will pick up readers through Google, Bing etc

Why Posterous might be a game-changer

I think that blogging will still be a major part of the social media world if blogging software can evolve to make things easy for people to express their opinions. This is where Posterous comes in.

Posterous, along with its rivals Tumblr and Twitblogs, is the fourth wave of blogging software. It all began with basic systems like Blogger at the turn of the decade. Then more sophisticated systems like Wordpress and Movable Type enabled bloggers to produce more website-like feature-rich blogs. The third wave married blogging with social networking like the blogs on sites like MySpace as well as blogging software with social networking elements like Vox.

With Posterous and its rivals, we have blogging software that is optimised to not only ape the simplicity of micro blogging, but also to harness its reach, to syndicate content.

So is Posterous the future of blogging? At this point is hard to say. However given the way the Posterous has reignited many bloggers love of the format (I'd include myself here - nearly 100 posts in a month) I'd argue that it at the very least it will play an important role in shaping the future of blogging.

Posterous is not entirely new. It has been around for a year now, but it is now only really starting to gain traction with bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ease of use

What makes it so attract to bloggers is that it is so simple to use. With traditional blogging software users had to log into a site, input their text, upload images, size them and carry out other tweaks too. With Posterous there are two very simple ways of posting. Firstly users can email content. The subject matter of the email becomes the head, the body text the content and any attached images the pictures. It is incredibly simple to use and very effective when used with smartphones like the Nokia N97 and the iPhone.

Secondly Posterous users can download a bookmarklet which sits in the bar at the top of the browser. When they find a page they want to link to or write about, they click on the bookmarklet and it appears on top of the page. It grabs any images on the page - the user just chooses the one they want - and they add any text or links in the text box. They then press save and within seconds their post is published. Even complicated things are made simple. Producing image galleries can be done in seconds rather than minutes by attaching a lot of images to an email - the software automatically presents them as a gallery. The software is also smart enough to recognise video content and presents it in the correct way on the page without the user having to make any amendments.

Once the post has been published Posterous does several other clever things. The user can set their account up so that each time they post, details of the post are automatically sent to Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites. They can even use it to feed another blog.

So for example I very rarely post direct to Twitter now, but rather post a mini blog story on Posterous which automatically pings my Twitter account. The system's excellent tracking ability means that I can see exactly how many people have clicked on my post. Some bloggers use Posterous as an alternative to Twitpic in that they can share many images quickly and easily with the Twitter community.

It'll be interesting to see where Posterous goes in the next few months. An obvious move would be a deal with Google to allow users to monetise their blogs. Adding more advanced features so users can tweak their posts after posting would also be useful.

It will also be interesting to see if Posterous type features are incorporated into traditional blogging software like Wordpress and Typepad.

From this bloggers perspective though Posterous is the most exciting thing to happen to blogging software in several years. It might not slow the decline of the format but it will certainly attract hard core, time-poor bloggers and it could have some very interesting uses for both commercial and corporate bloggers.

How to choose the perfect blogging software

Normal-ish service will be resumed tomorrow morning. See you then