Net Freedom

The right to a voice online, it seems, is of paramount importance all around the world. At Campus Party in Brazil last month, Al Gore called on the public to act in preserving what he believes is a system vital for democracy.  "Defend the internet," he said.  "Do not let it be controlled by governments or by large corporations. It is a network of people."
But there are signs that the web is becoming dominated by the few.
According to web analytics firm Compete, the top 10 websites were responsible for 31% of US page views in 2001, rising to around 75% in most recent estimates. Facebook alone accounts for around a quarter of all US internet traffic. "Al Gore's comments sound nice in theory but I just don't see how they will work out in practice," says Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of the Internet.  "It's inevitable that governments will be active online, simply because so much of public life happens online - and governments are there to enforce laws guiding public life.  "Likewise, I don't see how you can keep the corporations out - certain things can be done on the cheap and with the help of peer-to-peer alternatives but we surely can't expect that each of us will be laying internet cables to our own houses."
As seen at Campus Party, open source software that is free to use and for everyone to develop is a big part of web culture - "collaboration" and "openness" have always been big words for web enthusiasts.
But the internet is slowly changing, the internet has been flooded with the influx of apps. While often easier to use, apps contain content that is more easily controlled by the app's creator and creates a "walled garden" of information. This means more information is being selected and offered without users going out and searching for it.
This filter of information that is quite different from the free-for-all of the world wide web. And this shift in culture is having a big impact.

Anonymous Bank Emails & Microsoft IE9

Anonymous Symbol

Anonymous has released a cache of e-mails which it claims show impropriety at Bank of America. The leak details plans to delete sensitive documents. Bank of America has denied wrongdoing and called the claims "extravagant". The e-mails were initially posted online at http://bankofamericasuck.com. That website has only been available intermittently, having been overwhelmed by requests. Sites mirroring the content have appeared, which proves the rule "once on the internet its always on the internet". Anonymous members have engaged in a campaign of action against websites and companies that assisted the United States government in its attempt to isolate Wikileaks.

Microsoft has launched the finished version of its Internet Explorer 9 web browser. The company said IE9's graphics handling, security and privacy features put it on an even footing with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others. Microsoft said one key feature in IE9 was tools to stop people being tracked as they move from site to site. This information is often gathered by commercial firms to tailor ads to the specific habits of web users. IE9 also has hardware acceleration built in so it can call on the power of a PC's graphics card to display sites in more detail. Microsoft said the 40 million test, or beta, versions of IE9 that had been downloaded made it the most downloaded of all time. Already, it said 2% of Windows 7 users were running the latest version. IE9 does not run on Windows XP and can only be used with Windows 7 and Vista.

Clearer Broadband Speed, Skiver and Iphone bug



Skiver app

 New code of practice will force ISPs to be clearer about how they shape traffic and slow down users' speeds. Broadband providers have promised to make the way they slow down network speeds more transparent. ISP's have signed up to a new code of practice which means they will provide information about their traffic management policies in a way that is easily comparable. Video services such as the BBC iPlayer and YouTube have put pressure on broadband providers, who are struggling to keep up with the need for new investment in infrastructure. Restricting broadband speeds allows them to manage demand without crippling their service. ISPs insist that some network management is necessary, but proponents of ‘net neutrality’ – who say that all web traffic should be treated equally - say the practice risks promoting a fast lane on the internet.

Twitter, Facebook and blogs have been full of reports of US users' iPhones going back an hour rather than forward, in an apparent recurrence of the operating system bug that has struck several times before.

Earlier this year, a clock glitch prevented alarms from sounding on New Year's Day, and the devices also struggled to adjust to the end of daylight savings time back in November. On the previous occasion when American clocks moved, although the time on the iPhone 4 automatically went back, the alarm function didn’t for many users.

In other news, a new app has been developed which helps people invent reasons for not showing up to work. Skiver is a free app with the boast that "lying to your boss has never been so easy thanks to Skiver". Skiver allows the user to enter the number of days they want off and Skiver will provide a plausible illness along with symptoms and a cover story. You can also email this excuse from the app to your boss if required. But the cherry on top about Skiver is that it will suggest cool things for you to do on you day off like cinema listings and other events.

Kinect & Nintendo 3DS



Xbox 360 & Kinect controller



First thing in the news is that Microsoft's Kinect entered the Guiness World Record Books as the fastest selling gadget ever. The Guinness Book of Records has hailed the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect gaming system as the Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device ever after it flew off the shelves, with consumers going Kinect-crazy this Christmas. Guinness comments that 133,333 Kinects were acquired per day in its first two months of commercial availability. That's a complete total of 8 million sold worldwide between 4 November 2010 and 3 January 2011.



Next item I'd like to talk about is the Nintendo 3DS which is released in the UK on 25th March.

Priced at around £220, can this glasses-free 3D darling sock its rivals in the guts?

In terms of construction, the 3DS is similar to its predecessors, rocking a folding, clamshell design. When closed, the console measures roughly 135 by 20 by 74mm, which makes it almost exactly the same size as the DS Lite and DSi. It's reasonably lightweight too. The console is the first to include full stereoscopic 3d graphics without glasses. A built-in 3D Depth Slider allows you to immediately adjust the intensity of the 3D settings on the Nintendo 3DS system to your liking. The 3D effect can also be turned down completely—all Nintendo 3DS games and applications can be played in 2D.A built-in motion sensor and gyro sensor can react to the motion and tilt of the system. Although I'm looking forward to playing the 3DS I probably won't be buying one as the games are likely to be expensive and there is something you just don't get with handheld console that you do get with other platforms.

iPad 2, Android Virus and Cyber Attacks

Steve Jobs has come back from sick leave so he can release the second generation of iPads to the world. Apple has billed the iPad 2 as slimmer, lighter and faster than its predecessor. The iPad 2 goes on sale in the UK on the 25th March, fourteen days after the US.The new iPad features Apple's new dual core A5 processor which is claimed to be twice as fast as the original iPad. Along with the new hardware the iPad has included several new applications including video and music editors, iMovie and Garage Band. But some critics claim Apple is still behind Android when it comes to interfacing issues. One of the biggest issues is that notifications on the iPad force you to dismiss the notification before you can continue working. In essence this forces the user to do one thing at a time, which is slightly backwards.
While I have mentioned Android, it has been found that over apps available on the Android Marketplace contain a virus. Analysis suggests that the booby-trapped apps may have been downloaded up to 200,000 times. The malicious apps were copies of existing applications, such as games, that had been repackaged to include the virus code. But rest safe now because all the apps found to have the virus have been removed from the marketplace. The virus is known as DroidDream and sends sensitive data, such as a phone's unique ID number, to a remote server. It also checks to see if a phone has already been infected and, if not, uses known exploits to bypass security controls and give its creator access to the handset. This bestows the ability to install any code on a phone or steal any information from it.
In other news, South Korea has been hit by a series of cyber attacks which have targeted some of the country's leading websites. Government ministries, the National Assembly, the military headquarters, US Forces in Korea and major banks were among those hit.The web page of the Financial Services Commission, the country's financial regulator, was overloaded and an online stock trading system was shut down for a few minutes but both soon recovered.