Tag: tech Digest
Opinion: Creating our own content will never replace traditional media
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
2012, the year London is set to host the Olympics and also the year Nokia reckon a quarter of all entertainment will be created and consumed within peer communities. They think that in five years time, traditional media as we know it now, will begin to die out further with personally-created content becoming the must-read and must-watch for Internet users within their friend networks and social community sites.
But I just can’t see it. There’s no doubt it’s becoming more and more popular to make your own videos and post them on the web for all to see, but 99 per cent of it is absolute tosh – like the man who can juggle dogs while standing on his head drinking a glass of water and playing the harmonica! PS: Don’t try that at home, it doesn’t exist and we don’t condone cruelty to animals, I just use it as an illustration…
Opinion: Amazon's Kindle won't make E-Books popular but how hard can it be?
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
I don’t read as much as I used to, one look at the amount of books in my house is enough evidence to tell that story. Not that I don’t have many, oh no, I’ve got shelves full of novels and non-fiction. It’s just most of them are bought on a whim, and then a few pages in swapped for something else or put down to play the Xbox 360 or check out the telly.
Children too aren’t reading as much as they should. In fact, David Cameron, the Tory leader, is about to announce plans to try and get every
youngster up to speed with their reading by the age of six. It’s a massive failure in any education system when kids can’t pick out enough words to enjoy a story without it being spoken to them…
Opinion: Mobile phone deals aren't call for cash
They’ve always said you don’t get anything for free in this life, but flick towards the back of any of the tabloid newspapers in this country and you’d have to question that view.
FREE Xbox 360, FREE iPod, FREE laptop, FREE Wii, FREE PSP, FREE HDTV, FREE money – and all you have to do is sign up for a FREE mobile phone. In fact, some of the deals even give you a FREE handset with your FREE handset. Please, tell me, where do I sign…
Opinion: Corporate cash is never a bad thing!
So the boss emails me this morning and he says: “Can you do a post on either Microsoft buying into Facebook or Blackberries becoming more of an entertainment device?” ‘Mmm’ I thought, why don’t I do both! So here it is, cunningly combined by way of a tenuous techno link.
I can’t lie, I’m possibly one of the most corporate people you’ll meet. I love big business, capitalism and all the positives that come from it. And I’m overjoyed at Bill Gates grabbing a slice of my beloved Facebook. His firm has invested $240m in the social network site and while it’s less than a two per cent stake, there’s no doubt the company will start to exert some of its muscle amid the Poking and Fun Walls…
Bebo and Ministry of Sound team up for a remixing competition, tempt thousands of underagers into their clubs
Admit the truth – you used to be a Ministry of Sound fan, if not a Ministry of Sound club-goer. I’m happy to admit to the embarassing truth, many years back when I was a 15-year old anglophile living in Australia, I loved nothing more than scouring their magazines, dreaming of their amazing club nights.
And then I moved to London and discovered they’re shite. Whoops. That hasn’t stopped Bebo from targeting other 5-year olds with the temptations of MoS clubbing and probable-illicit drug usage, as they’ve just signed a big deal with each other allowing kiddywinks on Bebo to upload their own dance mixes.
Using…
Opinion: Why are robots still so rubbish!
So there I was on Friday, snowed under with work and wanting the weekend to arrive but take a bit longer than usual to get here so I could finish off everything I needed to do. And then it struck me, what I actually needed was some help around the house. No, I don’t mean an eastern European cleaner, or a girlfriend – the first is too expensive and the second a lot of hassle, or should that be the other way around?
And then I read on Tech Digest about the iRobot Looj: the robot that cleans your gutter. Now that’s more like it! A robot for cleaning my gutter, I WANT ONE! The fact my gutting doesn’t need cleaning and is currently free of leaves, is of no consequence…
Top 5 gadgets for David Cameron and the Conservative Party
It’s the Tory party’s political conference this week in Blackpool, and yes, you’re right – politics has no place on Tech Digest. But while the MPs are by the seaside, we thought it’d be a good time to check out a few gadgets for Dave Cameron and his mates.
Now, any good Chancellor of the Exchequer has to be up on his numbers. And if George Osbourne wants to sit behind the door of No11 Downing Street then this might be worthy of his first purchase. As long as it’s not put on his state expenses!
Opinion: iPhone in the UK – overpriced, overhyped and over here!
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
So the iPhone is finally landing in Britain on November 9 – well, whoop di doo! I’m told Steve Jobs did his usual brain-washing-style spouting at yesterday’s launch – he even turned up live, presumably so it’d work better than via video – and regular readers will already know what I think about that from my column when the iPod Touch launched.
Timewise I make it seven and a bit weeks until the scrum kicks off, so roughly seven weeks from today until a load of morons begin camping out in front of O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores up and down the country in a bid to get their hands on this so-called “holy grail” of gadgetry…
Shiny Media Poll: Shall we bring Web 2.0 to Tech Digest?
As you learnt on Monday, Shiny Media is expanding even more into the Web 2.0 world, with the recent creation of our Who Ate All The Pies football web community. We also have Shiny Fashion Forums for all our fashionista friends, but would you be interested in seeing a community targeted, well, at you? Somewhere to discuss general gadgetry and geekery, yet another excuse to skive off work?
iPhone UK launch: Steve Jobs makes the announcement
I was three rows away. Three freakin’ rows, as Susi might say. Do you understand what this means? It makes your Cons’ laces untie themselves with the sheer untarnished geek cool of it. You’re ready to whip out your credit card whether you want the damn device or not because he’s just so bloody personable. I was thisclose to Steve Jobs, an international inspiration for the modern CEO and personal hero, and what was the first thing that crossed my mind?
