PocketSurfer2 handheld mobile Internet device coming to UK in August

pocketsurfer2_portable_internet_communication_device.jpg

Earlier this month we said that DataWind’s PocketSurfer2 was coming soon, and today more specifications, and a definite UK launch date and price, have been announced.

The PocketSurfer2 is an ultra-thin and portable Internet communications device featuring a built-in GPRS modem and SIM card, GPS location information, 5 hours of battery life with 5 days standby, a built-in high performance antenna, 640×240 VGA colour screen with transreflective backlighting, and a backlit QWERTY keyboard.

Steve Jobs tops Blender's chart of online music influencers

steve_jobs_ipod.jpgUS music magazine Blender has crowned Steve Jobs the most influential people involved ‘behind the scenes’ in web music.

They view Jobs as a technology trendsetter, thanks to the iPod and iTunes

“The iTunes Store and the iPod have done more to change the way people listen to music than anything since the CD, and maybe since the sound recording,” said Craig Marks, Blender’s editor-in-chief.

BT Total Broadband don their detective caps and conclude that OMG MEN SHOP ONLINE!

menshopping.jpg BT don’t just churn out the nation’s broadband and phone services anymore, oh no, it appears they spend a heck of a lot of time doing HIGHLY IMPORTANT RESEARCH FOR THE NATION’S WELFARE. In other words, they’ve just completed a survey amongst men where the results are rather un-shocking. Turns out men like shopping after all, and that vast chasm of goods otherwise known as THE INTERNET is to blame. Is to blame for them no longer buying us women flowers, I mean.

BT Total Broadband has concluded that “the traditional stereotype of men being reluctantly dragged around the shops by their wives and girlfriends has been replaced by a new era dominated by men out-shopping their partners online from the comfort and secrecy of homes and offices across the nation”.

With 72% of men having their arms twisted behind their back and forced to decrease the alleged amount of time they spend on the net buying clothes, gadgets, and assorted other necessities, BT has dubbed this the ‘Me Moment’….

Blogging is ten, maybe twelve, or twenty-four years old

blogging_platforms.gifThe Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article over the weekend suggesting that blogging is now ten years old.

According to the article, the first blogger is “regarded by many to be Jorn Barger”, who “began his business of hunting and gathering links to items that tickled his fancy, to which he appended some of his own commentary, on Dec. 23, 1997.”

What appears to be closer to the truth is that Jorn Barger was the first person (or one of the first people) to coin the phrase ‘blog’, because other sites reckon that blogging has been around for much longer than a decade.

DatingDirect.com partners with Vodafone to offer mobile dating service

dating_direct_vodafone_service.jpgDatingDirect.com, the UK’s largest dating service, has announced a new partnership with Vodafone to bring a mobile dating service to the Vodafone Mobile Internet service.

This will give Vodafone users complete access to the Dating Direct website, and its 3.5m active members, straight from their mobile phone.

The new service has been developed and optimised for mobile phone use, and will allow users to browse images and profiles, manage their own content, upload photos, and even sign up as a new member directly from their mobile.

Which? calling for insurers to cover digital downloads

musicnotes.jpgLeading consumer organisation “Which?” has called for insurers to move into the 21st century and begin acknowledging customer claims for loss of digital downloads.

Its own research suggests that less than half of the insurance companies it polled will cover the loss of music, video, and other downloads due to virus or hard drive failure.