Turns out that you’ll have a choice of what browser you’d like to use from March next year. Microsoft will release an update which will allow a choice of web browsers and not just the pre installed Internet Explorer to include; Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. Finally I hear you cry…
Richard Patterson who’s the marketing director for Broadband-Expert.co.uk claims that British consumers seem to be addicted to new technology. Following a market study from Ofcom which stated more and more of us brits were turning on our TV’s and laptops during our free time.
“The findings show that the UK population has been quick to adopt new technologies and has a love of gadgets, there may be more of a premium on high end broadband services to recoup investment made by the providers,” he added.
So is this due to a drop in the price of tech? I don’t think so; I think it’s due to the usability of new tech. Take the iPod for instance, possibly one of the most widespread MP3 players on the market, so popular due to Apple making them desirable as well as functional. Then we have the devices that take the sting out of everyday life, my sense of direction, geography (not at all hot on capitals for countries to be honest) and the ability to find places is, well, rubbish so my little TomTom one is invaluable to me.
Can’t not mention the mobile phone, I don’t think I know anyone without one. I personally have a HTC HD2 and despite having mixed reviews to both extremes I think it’s an exceptional phone. Not sure I see where people are coming from when they slate the windows OS that’s on it but again its personal choice. Blackberry seems to be the ‘weapon of choice’ for a lot of you but I’m personally not a big fan of the 
styling but again we’re back to that personal choice aspect.
You guys have digital cameras? Sure you do. Remember the hazy days of taking a random film to be developed not quite sure as to the contents, waiting a week for the prints only to find out that there are only 3 good snaps out of 30 on there and paying 8 quid. Well now you can zap away to your heart’s content review the pics then do as you please with the digital images; upload them to Facebook, burn them to disc and give them to your Nan or just bore everyone who comes to your house with 200 pics of your last trip to Italy.
Then there’s the popularity of the games console. Sure they’ve been around for years but up until the last few years they’ve been kind of exclusive to hardcore gaming fans. Not any more though, who hasn’t sweated whilst playing on the Wii? Nintendo played a blinder with this console – inexpensive, adequate graphics but more fun than a barrel full of monkeys! They also, in a roundabout sort of way, got gamers of the couch and doing exercise but more than that it gets 
the whole family involved. Good work Nintendo bods.
How about something much smaller, something you probably use all the time but take for granted – the USB pen drive. These marvels of the modern age are fantastic. You can put whole operating systems on the and allow PC’s to boot from them, use them for ‘Ready boost’ to speed up Vista/Windows 7 (although I don’t know many sane people using Vista – sorry Bill) or just something as simple as transporting data around.
I’m almost certain people reading this will have at least one of the above, you addict you… 
Ok, so internet piped directly to your TV? Will it be good enough to draw us away from our traditional desktops/laptops? Well let’s take a little look-see at the ins and outs. The BBC trust has given a provisional go ahead which could lead the way for internet TV. Now from what I’ve seen it’s currently VERY unimpressive. Some TV’s just having a handful of sites on them to navigate too – like an additional channel. Some actually do have a web browser but use the TV remote like a mobile phone key press input. Some just have links to social networking sites and then allow text input via an on-screen keyboard. All of this may sound great and sure it’s a step in the right direction but none of this makes me want to spend 2 grand on a new ‘Internet TV’.
I’m a bit of a geek, as you may or may not have realised, so I have my PC going through my TV anyway. I have this for many reasons; firstly I was able to get a Blu-ray player from LG for around the £60 mark so I can enjoy first class quality movies for next to no cash, had that for nearly a year too and the players have only just begun to come down in price. Secondly I can access all the on demand TV that I like and have it played on a good TV at a decent resolution. The final reason, well PC gaming, naturally.
Looking around the internet today to correlate stories on this feature it seems a little limited as to what’s actually on offer. Jo Average will traditionally already have a DVD player, Freesat, Virgin or SKY also and now this new device as an additional ‘Set Top’ box (a phrase which needs phasing out. With the advent of flat panel TV’s it seems a little antiquated) so initially the service isn’t even going to be integral? So Internet TV manufacturers are truly trying to push things forward but the BBC are making and additional device to go under the TV, doesn’t seem like any real progression. If you take a step back from this though and look again at it from Jo Average’s point of view it’s a lot of extra entertainment for the cost of the box (around £200). I suppose it does also put a kind of family access PC into the living room at a very reasonable price. So I guess we’ll all just have to keep an eye on this one…
Social networking supremo Facebook is under fire this week for increasing the divorce rate all over the world. “I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook.” Stated Mark Keenan, MD of Divorce Online. I’m assuming the temptation to cheat due to meeting old flames or an even new and possibly more interesting person is rife in the social networking community. Personally I use it to keep in touch with friends not cruise for a partner.
350 million people use Facebook so I guess the odds of re-kindling old ties are quite strong. Does this suggest an increase in boredom? Why are these people not injecting some extra pizazz into their current relationships? Surely if you’re prepared to marry your partner you must see good qualities in them? So is it boredom or just plain laziness? All good question sadly with no answers.
“The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to.” Mark Keenan Added. So does this mean it’s the ‘thrill of the chase’ feeling? It’s very puzzling to me. Turn your PC’s off people and go out for a nice meal or get away for the weekend, heck it’s even the season to go for an awesome snowy walk!
This is a strange one. After reviewing the apparently genuine footage of this bizarre flying pyramid I’m a bit sceptical as to the validity of it. I absolutely love the paranormal, the theory that we are not alone especially. Anyone into the whole Roswell story has to have asked themselves at some point “… So a major in the United States Air Force couldn’t determine the difference between a weather balloon and a downed aircraft…” anyway, a couple of Russian bods driving at night filmed this object appearing to hover over the Kremlin.
The news story I saw also showed the object in the daytime so why didn’t more people spot it? I don’t often walk down the street making sure I look to the sky periodically, heck who does. Surely lots of other people would have seen it though? Witnesses claimed it to be approximately a mile wide and resembled an imperial cruiser (for those of you adept with identifying Star Wars ships) and was said to hover for hours over red square, probably the largest tourist draw in Russia, so again why wasn’t there more attention drawn to it? As ever draw your own conclusion…