News Story Index for GuyClapperton

All About GuyClapperton (Guy Clapperton)
Author, 'This Is Social Media' (Capstone Publishing 2009); freelance journalist in the UK for the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Independent and others.
Apple Hardware

Apple tablet - delayed or fictionware?

2 Days Ago - Apple may have delayed the release of the tablet computer, according to a number of sources, because of component selection. Inevitably this has led to a number of reports that it's not going to happen after all; one website in particular believes the whole thing was a result of our overwrought... (Read More)

iPhone virus in the wild

12 Days Ago - An Apple iPhone virus is on the loose in Australia. According to reports it's an odd one; it replaces your wallpaper with a picture of singer Rick Astley and an inoffensive slogan. It affects only jailbroken phones, in other words phones whose owners have fiddled with the operating system to allow... (Read More)

iPhone monopoly lost in UK

Sep 28th, 2009 - The iPhone's going to be sold by Orange in the UK as well as 02. I confess I was surprised at the announcement since I'd assumed 02 taking on the Palm Pre was as good as a statement that they no longer expected a monopoly on any other smartphone. What's really interesting about this, though, is... (Read More)

iPhone battery issues

Sep 21st, 2009 - Apple appears to be having battery issues again - it is reportedly asking iPhone 3Gs users to get in touch if their batteries are running down. This tells us a number of things. First, that there is a real problem. When a business the size of Apple decides to ask its customers what the problem... (Read More)

Is this another service pack I see before me?

Sep 10th, 2009 - Apple has launched new additions to its iPod range and improved two of its working environments, iPhone 3.1 software is out, and joined by a new version of the iTunes store. Only...there isn't much new in any of this. Let's take a look at the iTunes store first. You can now buy music in 'LP'... (Read More)

If I Were Designing An Apple iPad...

Aug 26th, 2009 - Apple is looking more and more likely to be releasing a tablet computer either later this year or early next. I won't bore you with all the references online, there are too many. So, purely from my head, here is my wish list for what the device will actually be like. 1. Affordable. Yes I know... (Read More)

iPhone flaw to be fixed

Jul 31st, 2009 - One last quick entry before the weekend starts (and before the month ends) - I saw a story on Twitter today in which some hackers claimed they'd found a flaw in the iPhone that would allow a malicious person to take control of every one of those phones in rthe world at will. It sounded... (Read More)
Growing an Online Community

Retweet retreat from Twitter

7 Days Ago - Twitter has suspended its new retweet function. Now, this takes me back. When I started writing about technology this stuff was commonplace. A software company would announce a new version or a new package, its target date would come and go and then it would be released as buggy as anything.... (Read More)

Twitter, Facebook and theft

Aug 28th, 2009 - The wires are abuzz with stories of Twitter and Facebook customers being robbed. It's fairly simple; you Tweet or tell your Facebook friends that you're going on holiday and a thief reads it; they break into your house, knowing full well you're away, and you lose a load of stuff. Insurance... (Read More)

Facebook faces privacy trial

Aug 19th, 2009 - Facebook is going on trial for an alleged breach of privacy it appears. The full story is here. I don't know American law at all but I'm writing in the UK and over here, if a case is coming to court, we have to be very careful about prejudicing the outcome by commenting on it. Given that, plus... (Read More)

How did ITV sell FriendsReunited?

Aug 6th, 2009 - ITV has finally put all the rumours into perspective and sold FriendsReunited. It's lost millions in doing so and there's no getting away from it - it was a bad deal. It's worth noting a few details about FriendsReunited. It began as a tiny business putting people back in touch with old school... (Read More)
Cellphones, PDAs and Handheld Devices

Samsung's Bada Idea

10 Days Ago - Cellphone manufacturer Samsung has taken everyone by surprise by announcing its own operating system Bada - Korean for 'ocean' - will launch in December. The intriguing question is why the company wants to do it. The Smartphone arena is at the moment dominated by a handful of players - Google's... (Read More)
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Amazon launches Kindle in UK

Oct 7th, 2009 - It's official - Amazon is finally going to bring the Kindle e-book reader to countries other than the US, including my own UK. Thing is, there are going to be issues. The first is a practical one. In the absence of any specific announcement to the contrary, we're all going to be ordering the... (Read More)

Toshiba not quite in Netbooks

Sep 30th, 2009 - Toshiba has launched a new selection of notebook computers - but they look rather like Netbooks. Priced at the upper end of the cheaper notebook market (and the exact cost will depend on your territory, let's just say they're starting at £429 in the UK) they're called the CULV satellites - that's... (Read More)

Netbooks next?

Sep 18th, 2009 - This week I went to an annual press launch in London. Called PlayBite, it's not half as salacious as it sounds, just a group of companies that share the same PR company (also called Bite, you can see where they're going with this) exhibiting stuff. There were a few gadgets coming out - mostly... (Read More)

The Zune goes HD

Sep 15th, 2009 - It was surreal to read today that Microsoft's Apple iPod killer, the Zune, has gone all high definition. That's to say that the new version announced today will have high-def capacity. Reaction has been positive; connect it to a TV and it'll be great, everyone's going to want one. Well, tough,... (Read More)
Promotion and Marketing Plans

Hamleys loses site

17 Days Ago - It's almost reassuring to see a large company make basic mistakes like this - UK toy store Hamley's (one of our best-known retailers, a tourist destination in its own right so I'm told although personally I find it looks a little dated) forgot to renew its domain for a few days. Inevitably it... (Read More)

Google's latest mail outage

Sep 24th, 2009 - Another day, another Gmail outage - well, that's the way it can start to seem. Twitter was all a-quiver with how the system was down; people didn't know what to do about it and one wag put a note up saying the human species can last six days without water but only about eight minutes without Gmail.... (Read More)

Twitter advertising may be possible

Sep 11th, 2009 - Twitter founder Biz Stone has confirmed that the network might take advertising at some stage. More specifically he's refused to say it won't. The company has just revised its terms and conditions and as part of the overhaul Mr. Stone has said on a blog that he's keeping the door open to... (Read More)
OS X

Ads in your OS?

28 Days Ago - Sometimes you see something and you really, really hope it's a hoax. Take this story on Slashdot, which confirms if true that Apple has applied for a patent to put advertising into its operating systems. I really, really don't want adverts when I switch my computer on. Actually that's not... (Read More)
Windows Vista and Windows 7

Insights from the cloud

29 Days Ago - So I'm helping host an event for Google yesterday - called Atmosphere, it was based in London and had about 300 CIOs present. I was lucky enough to be chairing a couple of panel discussions (and will put YouTube links in here if anyone's interested in what CIOs from Amazon, Jaguar Landrover and... (Read More)

Launches ain't what they used to be

31 Days Ago - The Microsoft Windows 7 launch is all but upon us and I can't say I'm sorry. Not that I'm directly affected as a Mac user but Vista is now almost officially acknowledged as a flop and it'll be good to see Microsoft back in the game properly, in terms of a good system as well as market share. The... (Read More)

Google declares war on Microsoft - but what about Europe?

Jul 8th, 2009 - Google has confirmed that it is working on an operating system called Chrome. It will be a rival to Microsoft Windows, a zillion flavours of Linux, the Apple operating system and any other minority systems of which you might be aware. A lot has been said across the web about how this will affect... (Read More)
Network Security

People still fall for scareware?

32 Days Ago - Symantec has published one of those rare things - a report that contains an actual surprise. It seems some 4 million people have fallen for Scareware in the last 12 months. I'm stunned. Not because people are installing fake antivirus systems. That's a shame but in some ways it's inevitable;... (Read More)

Hotmail security breach

Oct 5th, 2009 - Smaller businesses and people who use Hotmail as n email system or backup email system need to change their passwords - Microsoft has confirmed it's investigating a security breach. It seems that in spite of the industrial strength security everybody of any size applies to these systems - and... (Read More)
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Injuncted via Twitter

Oct 2nd, 2009 - A judge has said a lawsuit can be delivered via Twitter. It's an interesting case, an odd idea and a pity there are going to be so many logistical obstacles. The scenario is simple. Someone is posing as a (real) right-wing blogger - they've effectively 'borrowed' his name for a Twitter account... (Read More)

Thoughts on Gary McKinnon

Jul 31st, 2009 - There has been a lot of comment in the past on Gary McKinnon and his hacking into US military computers. Readers might understand that some of the comment in the UK has been about how he should have been tried over here, there's no need to extradite him and if America's military systems are such... (Read More)

Facebook and MI6

Jul 6th, 2009 - Facebook's page on which the location of the head of MI6's flat was available has been taken down. You also can no longer find information about his family and their whereabouts, which you could on the site previously. There has been a debate about this, of course. For Americans who aren't sure,... (Read More)

Sarah Palin Hacked Off

Jul 1st, 2009 - Security stories abound on the Internet, and as we enter a new month an old one has resurfaced. There are legal questions over the Sarah Palin hacking event last year. Graham Cluley has blogged about it. For me he's buried the main point right at the end of the story. I don't want to seem... (Read More)
Mac Rumors and Reports

WorkSnug - a new overlay for iPhone

Sep 25th, 2009 - Occasionally you see something exciting, which is why I'm very pleased to tell you about WorkSnug - a new iPhone app, also coming to Android, I was shown by the founder a day or so ago. It's one of those things that addresses a need you didn't know you had before. You take your iPhone 3Gs (and... (Read More)
Networking Hardware Configuration

Why more WiFi?

Sep 14th, 2009 - The UK has finally ratified the 802.11n standard for WiFi at last. Although we've had '802.11n-ready' kit on the market for a fair while, it hasn't been official as yet. I can only hope people in stores will be able to explain what people are buying. I say this because of what happened the last... (Read More)
Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Facebook buys Friendfeed

Aug 11th, 2009 - Facebook has got in the way of Google and acquired Friendfeed. This is not great news for Google. The search giant has one major chink in its armour; you can't search social media in real time. Once entries have been around for a while you can find stuff; I've certainly turned up Tweets from... (Read More)

Overused searching

Jul 24th, 2009 - An interesting story on the BBC site says there's yet another search facility starting up, following the launch of Bing, Wolfram Alpha and Google wave. This one's called Splashtop and the idea is that you can be searching the Net withing seconds of switching on. In other words, it's a bit faster... (Read More)

Free images on Google

Jul 10th, 2009 - Google is making it much simpler to work out which photos you're allowed to use for what, and which you aren't. The company is allowing people to search for pictures and you can filter by what's available for reuse, what's available for reuse without modification and so on. It's using the Creative... (Read More)

Michael Jackson and web events

Jun 26th, 2009 - I hate bloggers and Twitter users that bandwagon something like the tragically early demise of Michael Jackson. This isn't the right platform for tributes even if I were his biggest fan anyway. Nonetheless, there is a lesson to be noted in terms of technology. The fact is that the Internet had... (Read More)
Site Layout and Usability

File Sharer turns down donations

Aug 4th, 2009 - This is just odd, for too many reasons. A file sharer has been fined $675,000 for downloading illegal music. He is a student. People have offered him money because they think it's an unreasonable amount to pay. He has turned them down. Why do I think this is odd? Well, one by one: the amount is... (Read More)
Windows Software

Skype under threat, warns eBay

Aug 3rd, 2009 - Skype might stop next year. The service's owner, eBay, has said that it is in dispute with the VoIP system's founders (see a report here but it doesn't say much more than I'm going to repeat here) and that if the new owners can't get the underlying technology from the old, then it's unlikely that... (Read More)
Upcoming News Stories
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Start a business, break the law

Jul 20th, 2009 - Kazaa has decided to join Pirate Bay in becoming a legal peer to peer service. This raises interesting questions for moralistic pedants like me. The full details of the story are here but that's not what I want to discuss. I'm more interested in what sort of message it sends out when people... (Read More)
Show Off your Projects

Buy friends on Twitter

Jul 2nd, 2009 - Twitter has been in the headlines again. You can now pay a company to find potential followers, approach them and ask them to follow you and it's apparently a very innovative approach. It must be, that's why the BBC thought it newsworthy. Actually I'm not so sure. I think I've seen things like... (Read More)
Cases, Fans and Power Supplies

Unified phone plugs at last

Jun 29th, 2009 - This just has to be one of the best pieces of news ever - there is agreement for a standard for mobile phones. It's really as simple as that. Here's the story, on the BBC's junior site, would you believe. I just can't work out why it has to be mobile phones only, though. Of course there are... (Read More)


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