As Brian Suda says, the fabric skin makes you rethink the fundamentals of design. However, while the video notes that the outer metal shell isn’t actually required for crash protection, I did find bastardbrother’s comment on YouTube, that “when you get into a head on collision.. the skin of the car wraps on you and [...]

“The conflict is obvious. A community of developers can enrich software with creativity, fun and all sorts of utility. But it is virtually impossible for a mob to keep it simple … Consider, for example, all the overlapping and not entirely integrated ways that Google users can take advantage of feeds and gadgets: iGoogle, Google [...]

“The upshot is that if Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, or so on received a wiretap order for text or voice flowing through their IM networks, they could (and would) be able to comply because the services are centralized … [Skype couldn't] Which means that it’s the most privacy-protective mainstream method of communicating through voice or instant [...]

Time’s “The Curious Capitalist” has an amusing anecdote about an interview with T. Boone Pickens, the American billionaire businessman who, despite owning millions of shares in Yahoo!, doesn’t know what the tech company actually does. But it seems an understanding of technology doesn’t mater when you’re a billionaire… In response to being read a breaking [...]

“The way broadband speeds are advertised is to be regulated under a voluntary code published by Ofcom. It wants companies to publish accurate estimates of the maximum connection speeds people can expect before they buy broadband packages.”
This is long overdue. The only thing missing is that it should be compulsory - ISPs shouldn’t have the [...]

“There are two obvious ways forward. Charge the users, or charge those who want to get at the users … The second option might look puzzling, but it has worked before, in the MP3 market … Twitter could do the same: charge for access to its API, or throttle requests over a certain limit from [...]

As I said in my recent post, I’m intending to get a proper review of the BarCampLondon4 sessions I attended written up tomorrow. In the meantime, if anyone’s interested I’ve uploaded my [slightly rough-around-the-edges] presentation on “The Geography of Technology” to Slideshare.

It’s not great as a standalone presentation - rather, it was more framed as [...]

News.com reports that Apple is to sell the iPhone in Japan. I don’t quite understand why. As the story notes, the flashy features of the iPhone are standard fare in one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, and I remember quite a few reports at the time of the first iPhone launch which commented [...]

This is cool! This is the first ever live ad shown in the UK - a group of skydivers spelling out “Honda”. I particularly love the “Hello Mum”
Video from YouTube. The official “Difficult Is Worth Doing” site is here.

Jack Schofield blogs on The Guardian website that Microsoft are to expand their support of open file formats in Office. Next year’s service pack will bring XPS, PDF, PDF/A, ODF, and (in a sign of the increasing importance of Chinese business) the Chinese national file format UOF as standard. Additionally, the next version of Office [...]

BBC News reports on the EU’s Directive on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices, which outlaws practises such as setting up fake blogs simply to promote products, or companies reviewing their own products on ratings sites. In theory, a great idea - these advertising tactics are bad for the consumer and underhand on the part of the [...]

Charles Arthur posted a superb piss-take on his Guardian technology blog a couple of weeks ago He takes a look at the new Microsoft Telescope software, starting with the installation procedure (11 lengthy, technical bullet points), followed by Microsoft’s claim of ‘Mac support’. Telescope’s revolutionary way of working on a Mac is to -er [...]

“Steps up to the entrance were deliberately built to ensure nobody would try to ram the building. Cameras and motion detectors are everywhere to be seen. The reflecting windows on the outside are fake … At each stage, at least two forms of authentication are required to enter various parts of the building, including door [...]

I just came across a post on Olly Jackson’s blog about Ordnance Survery finally opening up some of their data. There’s been widespread disquiet for several years over OS’s strict licensing regime for use of their data, including online use, which generally boils down to charging people a lot of money to use data collected [...]

“Social network Facebook announced Friday the debut of Facebook Connect, a new technology for members to connect their profile data and authentication credentials to external Web sites. It makes the company the latest major Web site to embrace the concept of data portability.”
It appears I’m behind the times in hearing about this, but this is [...]

Greg Clark MP recently introduced his Right to Roam (Mobile Phone) Bill in Parliament. The bill would encourage mobile phone companies to allow roaming between UK networks, in the same way that phone signals are seamlessly transferred on the European continent. While phones would preferentially connect to their home network, when the user went out [...]

I saw this last month but didn’t get round to blogging it. Showing what can be achieved when big business considers social issues, YouTube software has been adapted to help analysts from the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) find child pornography. In turn, this will allow solutions to be developed to [...]

Steve Jobs on following his dreams and facing death. A thought-provoking speech from a Stanford University graduation ceremony. On YouTube, here.

“The EU started with the premise of a ‘right to a private life’ and allowed only limited data collection exceptions to that right. Search engines can only hang on to European user data for six months, must generally treat IP addresses as ‘personal information,’ and must comply with the rules even if they are based [...]

Facebook’s much-anticipated IM client, Facebook Chat, has launched on a limited pre-beta release. Currently only available to certain networks, the new feature will allow friends to chat directly from within their web browsers. Initial reviews from those who have access seem very positive, and from Facebook’s point of view it’s bound to keep users on [...]