3 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)

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)

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)

15 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)

15 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)

18 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)

19 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)

33 Days Ago - 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)

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)

31 Days Ago - 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)