Facebook finishes first day of trading down $4 (£ 2.5) from early high
Facebook finished out its first day of public trading down by $4 (£2.5) from a strong opening around $42 (£26) to around $38(£24) by the sound of the bell.
The cost plummeted to $38 just before noon before making a steady rise in the afternoon and eventually falling back down back to $38, the same price as the social media giant's initial IPO.
"[Today's trading] doesn't have anything to do with what the company's worth," said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.
Facebook's first day of public trading may have ended on a slightly sour note, but the company did manage to break at least one record: Facebook's trading volume today was the biggest for any IPO in history.More than 460 million Facebook shares were traded today, narrowly surpassing the previous record of 458 million, reached by GM in 2010.
Facebook will find its footing in the market
Facebook amended its IPO documents earlier this month due to the fact that the company doesn't make ad revenue from mobile visitors, an increasingly significant portion of the site's users.The question of Facebook's long-term viability has also arisen, but at least one analyst thinks those worries are unfounded.
"It'll find an equilibrium price in the next week or two, but [today's trading] doesn't have anything to do with what the company's worth," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told TechRadar.
"I think that the breakdown here was that they offered too many shares," Pachter said. "And actually they sent a false signal to the Street on Wednesday when they decided to offer 50 million more shares, so the implication was that there was so much demand that we actually need more stock to satisfy it. And that turned out not to be right."
"That's only an extra $2 billion [£1.2 billion]," he added. "I mean, that's just too much - $16 billion (£10 billion) was more than the market had an appetite for today."
Pachter is confident that Facebook remains a sound long-term investment.
"I have a buy rating and a $44(£27) target, and I'm standing by it," he said. "That's a 12-month target, and that's really what I think it's worth."
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Students buy a PC, get a free Xbox 360 from Microsoft
Starting May 20, Microsoft will offer students purchasing a PC of $699 or more a free 4GB Xbox 360, presumably to aid in their studies.
Microsoft offered a similar deal last summer, and apparently it was successful enough to warrant a return.
With Windows 8 just around the corner, it may seem wise to wait to buy a new PC, but a free $200 gaming console is a particularly delicious carrot to dangle in front of college-aged teens and adults.
The deal won't be limited to the U.S., as Canadian students will be able to nab a free 4GB Xbox 360 as well with the purchase of a PC at $599 and up starting May 18.
Participating U.S. retailers include Best Buy, Dell.com, Fry's Electronics, HPDirect.com, Microsoft Stores, and NewEgg.com. Canadians can head to Best Buy, Dell.ca, Future Shop, Staples and The Source.
End dates for the promotion vary by retailer, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to TechRadar.
Students are important to Microsoft
Despite the well-known popularity of Apple's Mac computers with college students, the demographic is important to Microsoft, Microsoft's spokesperson told TechRadar in an email."Supporting students and education has always been important to Microsoft and each year we create student offers to make technology affordable and accessible," the spokesperson said.
"Every year during back to school season, millions of college students choose Windows PCs because they want technology that allows them to manage their school work and personal life with ease."
"With all the hard work students put in for their classes in college, they need some downtime, right?" reads a post on the Windows Team Blog.
Will Sony offer a similar deal?
Logically it seems Sony is in a position to benefit equally from a similar promotion, but it's unknown at this time whether the company plans to offer students any special deals for the summer.Giving away a PS3 with a Sony laptop could provide the same draw as Microsoft's Xbox 360 offer.
But a Sony spokesperson told TechRadar that the company has nothing to announce at this time.
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HTC Evo 4G LTE delay continues indefinitely
The HTC Evo 4G LTE Android smartphone is being treated like an expatriate fugitive, held at the U.S. border by officials while they investigate whether HTC complied with a court order from December.
A note from Best Buy to customers who pre-ordered the HTC Evo 4G LTE reportedly confirmed that they won't be getting the phone any time soon.
HTC lost a patent dispute with Apple last year, and in December the International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order against HTC and two of its subsidiaries.
The company was ordered to alter minor functionality in some of its phones, including the Evo 4G LTE and One X, by April 19 of this year.
HTC was presumed to have complied, but earlier this week the HTC Evo 4G LTE and HTC One X were delayed indefinitely at U.S. Customs.
The HTC Evo 4G LTE's troubled release
The HTC Evo 4G LTE was slated to be released this week, but Best Buy previously moved the date up to next week.Now the retailer announced to pre-order customers that Nokia has officially notified them of delayed, confirming the news from earlier this week.
"The U.S. availability of the HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order," HTC said in a previous statement.
"We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible."
The patent dispute
The patent in question has to do with the way the phone interprets phone numbers and email address within emails, websites and other text, allowing users to simply tap them to dial the number or send an email to the address.The functionality in HTC's phones was deemed to be infringing on Apple's patent, and HTC was ordered to alter it.
Hopefully HTC's claims of compliance are accurate, as further delays due to this patent dispute could potentially cause a major chilling effect for Android.
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Microsoft: Windows Phone inching past iPhone in China
Microsoft may be treading water when it comes to Windows Phone adoption in the U.S., but the platform has already narrowly eclipsed the iPhone's market share in China, where the battle has only begun.
After two years, Microsoft has few victories it can claim for the Windows Phone platform, which recently got a shot in the arm here in the U.S. with the debut of the Nokia Lumia 900.
Now, Redmond is ready to proclaim a minor victory for Windows Phone in China, where the mobile OS picked up 7 percent of an extremely lucrative market.
While we hear a lot about how popular Apple's iconic iPhone is in China, the company has barely scratched the surface of what's possible there with a mere 6 percent market share.
Windows phone inches ahead
Although that's an impressive number, Microsoft now claims to have narrowly passed it only two months after Windows Phone made its debut there with seven percent of the market."We've only just begun," claims Microsoft COO for the Greater China Region, Michel van der Bel, who is counting on the combination of Windows tablets and smartphones to help the company gain traction there.
Redmond may pat themselves on the back, but the road ahead is fraught with potholes - Google's Android platform currently owns the Chinese market with a whopping 69 percent market share.
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Trading on Facebook just got easier
A new product aimed at businesses wanting to take advantage of Facebook-commerce (f-commerce) has launched today.
The new YESfstore Facebook storefront, allows customers to view and purchase products, get recommendations from friends and make secure payments with their credit or debit cards without leaving the Facebook application.
Dr. Chandra Patni CEO & CTO, YESpay International says, "Facebook is the biggest IPO of our time and, in a way, we can say it is the third biggest country in the world. By captivating this social media opportunity, we have developed YESfstore that offers a web store experience optimised for and inside Facebook pages and canvasses. This allows merchants to give their customers a shopping experience without leaving the Facebook community pages."
YESfstore is a hosted Facebook social commerce service where retailers can display and market their goods and services, and take payments and offers the following features.
- Quick storefront creation in just 15 minutes
- 24 x 7 admin facility to manage storefronts, inventory and sales
- Template themes
- Payment support for Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover
- Multi-currency
- Import Product Catalogue via spreadsheet
- Management for product categories, images, sub-categories, stock, discounts and sale items
- Built-in sales order tracking including via email
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Samsung to bring more RAM to every mobile
Samsung is about to help the whole of the mobile market, as it readies a new memory chip for handsets.
Not only is Samsung responsible for the likes of the Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note and most recently the Galaxy S3, it also produces a wide array of components which are used by all mobile manufacturers.
Its latest development is 4 gigabit 20 nanometer low power DDR2 memory. For those of you lost in the gobbledygook, it means Samsung is producing a 2GB RAM chip for mobile phones.
More speed, less power, smaller size
To date, most next-generation handsets sport 1GB of RAM, including the Galaxy S3 and HTC One X, although you'll only find 512MB in the iPhone 4S and Nokia Lumia 900.What will this extra memory give us? Well the latest crop of handsets, with their quad-core processors, are lightening quick, but Samsung claims it "will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today's mobile devices."
The new chip is reportedly 20% thinner than previous 2GB offerings, which will allow handset manufacturers to continue producing incredibly slender devices, able slide into the skinniest of jeans with ease.
Samsung predicts the new memory will begin to ship later this year, which means we could see handsets sporting the new RAM by Christmas, but 2013 is really the time when this technology will be fully implemented.
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How to get to the top 25 in the App store
What do you need to be really popular on Apple's App store and to get into the overall "top free 25," list?The answer is in the US, you need to have at least 38,400 free daily downloads, or 3,530 paid downloads, according to some ball park** figures released by app analysts Distimo.
Mobile phone app analytics business, Distimo has revealed some interesting stats on what you need for success on the top 25 app lists in the US. As you would expect the number of downloads required to get onto the free top 25 is considerably more than the paid list, on average free apps need 13 times as many downloads to get into the free top 25.
Although this changes across categories. The games app category is the most popular and will require many more apps to be downloaded than say the medical category.
For example to hit the top 25 most popular free application in the Entertainment category, an application would need to have 6700 daily downloads, while an equal position in the weather category only requires 300 downloads. Where as, a paid app would need to have 350 downloads to get into the top 25 compared to 40 in the weather category.
There are also some other interesting features about the top twenty fives when you compare free to paid, while the top two categories are the same on paid and free, the lists diverge from three onwards. Social Networking apps are the third hardest category to get into on free apps, but are only seventh hardest in paid apps. Where as a free music app is the fifth hardest category to get into the top 25, in the paid apps it's the twelfth hardest category.
To get into the top five categories for free you need a minimum of;
- Games – 25,300 Daily downloads
- Entertainment – 6,700
- Social Networking – 5,800
- Lifestyle – 3,900
- Music – 3,900
- Games – 22,800
- Entertainment – 350
- Photography – 270
- Utilities – 210
- Healthcare and fitness – 170
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News in Brief: One More Thing: Woz goes to the movies
Woz Woz Ere – Sony has hired Steve 'The Wozinator' Wozniak to act as an advisor on its upcoming Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs: The Movie. So who will he be pitching to play him? We can't think of anyone. Woz is inimitable. He'll just have to play himself. [Gizmodo UK]
Cash injection – Nokia's sold at least one thing this year – its New York office which has gone to the exciting sounding Histogenetics for $12 million (around £7.5 million). Sounds like Histogenetics got it for a song, though – Nokia reportedly spent over $30 million reconstructing the offices in Scandinavian style. [IntoMobile]
Sexism of the day - If you're a woman and your chap (or female other half) has abandoned you in favour of Diablo III, you have two options. One: move to France, take a snap of yourself holding a copy of Diablo III and post it to French adult toy store Absoloo's Facebook wall. This will net you a free vibrator, thus solving all your problems. Two: get back in the kitchen and make him a pie. [Daily Mail]
Monmouth-mental – Once a small Roman fort, the Welsh town of Monmouth is going to be the world's first Wikipedia town. If you think that sounds like a dubious honour, you'd be right, as it means plastering the place in QR codes (related) which will call up the relevant Monmouthpedia pages. To be fair, the town-wide free Wi-Fi sounds ace. [Telegraph]
That's what makes you beau-ti-fuul - This year's iTunes Festival line-up has been announced with more than 60 artists playing over 30 consecutive nights at the Roundhouse in London. The headliners include Usher, Jack White, Norah Jones and – control yourselves – cheeky pop scamps One Direction. If you don't fancy hanging out with thousands of screaming One Direction fans, you can stream the concerts using the official iTunes Festival iOS app. But come on! ONE DIRECTION. Worth it. [iTunes Fest]
Siri sausage - We're pretty bored of these Siri phone gags, but we're contractually obliged to report that if you ask Siri what the least popular smartphone is, it'll answer, "The one you're holding" - i.e. your iPhone 4S. Okay, that's enough now guys. Step away from the voice-controlled personal assistant. [Cult of Mac]
Image credit: Cult of MacDurden - Over in Cannes, Mozilla has drafted in Edward Norton to announce the winners of its 2012 Firefox Flicks competition. The films are all about aspects of Firefox so they're all basically adverts for the browser, the European winner being Where the Weird Things Are Not which is about web security. It's nearly as thrilling as it sounds. [Firefox Flicks]
Image credit: Firefox FlicksParty time – The UK Pirate Party has had a huge boost by the recent Pirate Bay blocks – its UK site has gone from shivering in the cold outside the UK's top 100,000 sites in the UK to sitting pretty at 1,550th most popular. That's what hosting a proxy server for a blocked Pirate Bay and thousands of column inches will do for you. [Torrent Freak]
Sorcerer's stone - The PlayStation Network will now let you buy and download games ahead of their release date so that they're ready and raring to go as soon as they're released. The first game to get this fresh sorcery is, um, Sorcery. Sac magique. [Official PlayStation Magazine]
I Feel Love – We can't let a celebrity pass away without shoehorning them into OMT and Donna Summer is no exception. Since the disco diva's sad demise yesterday, Spotify plays of her songs have shot up by 3000%. [Spotify]
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Is the Kindle Fire about to get even cheaper?
The popular Amazon Kindle Fire may be about to get even cheaper if plans to introduce an ad-supported model are implemented.
According to AdAge, the online retail giant is exploring the possibility of placing ads onto the welcome screen of the Kindle Fire, with the ad income subsidising the cost of the hardware.
The Kindle Fire is Amazon.com's best selling product, but that's clearly not enough, as the company looks to cash in further with ad packages on the tablet rumoured to start at $600,000 (around £380,000) for companies looking for Fire-based promotion.
Nothing new here
This is by no means a new direction for Amazon, which already offers cheaper versions of its popular Kindle e-readers in the US, which sport full-screen adverts in the form of sponsored screensavers. You have to put up with a few ads but it saves you a few bucks on the hardware.There's no word on how much an ad-enabled Kindle Fire would retail for, but the Kindle Touch with "Special Offers", as Amazon likes to call it, is $40 (around £25) cheaper than its ad-free counterpart.
This could mean we see a Kindle Fire available for $150 (around £95) – which would be very reasonable for an Android tablet - although none of the ad-supported models have made it to any countries other than the US so far.
Speaking of which, the Amazon Kindle Fire is currently only available in the US too, but we expect the upcoming Kindle Fire 2 tablet to roll out to other markets around the world if it's released later this year.
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Exclusive: World may have moved on before NFC arrives, says PayPal
PayPal believes that NFC is not the holy grail of future payment, telling TechRadar that the world could have moved on by the time enough people have the technology on their mobile phones.
Many companies are pinning a good deal of hope on near field communication (NFC) technology, and many of the next generation of handsets will include the functionality.
However, one of the powerhouses of mobile payment, PayPal, has explained to TechRadar its doubts that it will ever fulfil its potential.
"We think it's a tech and payment industry obsession," said PayPal's Rob Skinner.
"…it's been seen by some as the holy grail and the problem is, first of all, very few consumers have NFC on their phones and if you think about the high street story, retailers only change their systems a few times a year and NFC makes them do something quite dramatic to their hardware.
"It's one of those things where maybe, when lots of consumers have NFC on their phones, it might work, but will it be something that they want to use?"
World moved on?
Skinner questions whether NFC will simply fall short of the critical mass needed to convince retailers to upgrade."NFC may well be interesting and transformational in a few years time but the reality is that the world may well have moved on by then," he added
"It's an interesting piece of technology but it requires a hell of a lot to really change anything."
Skinner: "It's an interesting piece of technology but it requires a hell of a lot to really change anything."
"We are not saying we are anti-NFC; our Android app enables NFC, but it goes back to the point about working across any platform."It doesn't matter if it's an iPhone or Android, a desktop or a mobile phone - it just happens with PayPal."
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Samsung: Our Ultrabooks are worth the premium price tag
Samsung reckons its Ultrabooks justify the hefty price tags they carry, even if the competition is cheaper.
Speaking to LaptopMag, Won Park, vice president of sales and marketing at Samsung, said the firm believes consumers will happily pay more for the right features, even though Ultrabook prices have reportedly taken a dip in recent times.
Park does admit "it's kind of an audacious move to go beyond the Ultrabook in terms of price", but Samsung clearly has confidence in its range of thin and lights, and the aggressive pricing strategy it has implemented.
Oh you show off
According to Samsung's senior vice president of PC sales and marketing Sungwon Song, the company is asking itself, "How can we deliver a product to consumers that they'll be proud to show off in public?"Song goes on to explain that Samsung thinks it beats the competition when it comes to the design and manufacturing process, resulting in more expensive Ultrabooks.
All said and done, we were impressed with the Samsung Series 9 ultrabook when we reviewed it, even if it does carry an eye-watering price tag.
Some believe the Ultrabook is nothing more than a fad which will fade in time in much the same way as netbooks fell away, only to open the door to tablet boom we see before us today.
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Olympus sends out mystery messages again
After the mystery package of nuts received a couple of weeks ago, Olympus is up to similar tricks, sending out mysterious scrolls.
Arriving in a large package this morning, unravelling the scroll revealed a quote by Charles Baudelaire which says " A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex, more obvious and more profound."
Either Olympus has been eating something dodgy, or this is a thinly veiled attempt to highlight the new 75mm portrait lens that was known to be in production some time ago.
Earlier in the year, Olympus revealed it would be producing two new lenses for its Micro Four Thirds lenses - the 75mm f/1.8 portrait lens and 60mm f/2.8 macro lens.
Specs
We already know that the lenses will feature the same metal build quality as the existing 12mm f/2.0 M.ZUIKO wide angle lens.Both of the lenses were said to be made available in the summer of 2012, but the mystery scroll appears to refer only to the 75mm lens.
It was only a few days after the nuts arrived in the post that the latest Olympus tough camera was revealed, so we can probably expect a full, official announcement containing specs and prices in the next few days.
Stay tuned for more as it, er, unfurls.
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Explained: Honda UNI-CUB: what is it and why would you want one?
If you've ever thought "wouldn't it be great if I could move around the place merely by twitching my buttocks?" then we've got good news for you: the Honda UNI-CUB could well be the answer to your lazy prayers. It's a "personal mobility device" that enables you to scoot about the place like something out of WALL-E. So what is it, and why has Honda built it?
The UNI-CUB is controlled by your bum
Unlike traditional personal mobility vehicles, the UNI-CUB doesn't have handlebars. Instead, it's controlled by the user shifting his or her weight. The UNI-CUB works out what direction you want to go in, and how quickly you want to go. If you'd rather use your digits than your derriere, the vehicle will also be controllable via smartphone app.The UNI-CUB won't fall over, much
To keep the UNI-CUB stable, Honda has given it the gyroscopic Honda Omni Traction Drive System we first saw back in 2009. As before there's a large wheel to propel you around the place, but this time there's also a rear wheel to help with balance and steering. The technology in the UNI-CUB was originally designed to keep robots such as Honda's ASIMO upright as they move around.The UNI-CUB can't do stairs
While stairs are beyond its remit — it has a wheel, not legs — the UNI-CUB can go up inclines as well as operate on level surfaces. You wouldn't want to take it up a mountain, but nobody's suggesting it's a rugged vehicle for outdoor use. Honda says it's for "barrier-free indoor environments".The UNI-CUB is quite fast and it goes quite far
The UNI-CUB's Lithium-Ion battery is good for a fairly impressive 6 kilometres per hour, and its maximum range is currently 6 kilometres. We're very good at sums, so we've worked out that the battery runs out of puff after an hour. 6Km/h isn't much compared to normal vehicles, but it's designed to be used where other people are walking: if it went much faster it'd be a hazard, not a helper.The UNI-CUB doesn't let you tower over people like a crazed seated overlord
Honda's deliberately made the UNI-CUB 74.5cm high so that when you're on it, you're neither looking up non-users' noses or towering over them like a movie villain, and its size and movements are intended to enable you to move among other people without taking up loads of space or running anybody over — something that doesn't always apply to today's mobility devices, or even the enormous Segway."This configuration promotes harmony between the rider and others," Honda says, "letting the rider travel freely and comfortably inside facilities and among moving people."
The UNI-CUB release date isn't any time soon
The UNI-CUB project is part showcase and part experiment: it's showing off what Honda's robot engineers are capable of, and it's going to let them test their technology in real-world environments. Honda says that the UNI-CUB project "will explore the practical applications of the device in a wide range of environments in Japan and other countries." Don't expect to see one in your local Honda dealer any time soon, though: while the UNI-CUB looks very close to a real, shipping product, Honda doesn't have any current plans to put it on sale. It's more likely that the technology will end up in various products, from robots to wheelchairs.
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Twitter now supports Do Not Track, loves privacy
Twitter has announced that it now honours Do Not Track requests so that users have more control over their privacy.
It's one way you can opt out of follow recommendations that are tailored to you based on visits to websites and other Twitter accounts.
If you decide you don't mind being tracked (or you use Chrome, see below) then Twitter will be showing more tailored 'Who to follow' suggestions to you based on accounts followed by other Twitter accounts and visits to websites in the "Twitter ecosystem".
Private Joker
"These tailored suggestions are based on accounts followed by other Twitter users and visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem," explains Othman Laraki, director of growth and international at Twitter."We receive visit information when sites have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets, similar to what many other web companies — including LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube — do when they're integrated into websites.
"By recognising which accounts are frequently followed by people who visit popular sites, we can recommend those accounts to others who have visited those sites within the last ten days."
Cookies and cream
Do Not Track is a standardised privacy setting available in some browsers; it tells sites that you have opted out of tracking by way of an HTTP header.By choosing not to be tracked at browser level, some websites will no longer allow third parties to note what websites you visit and when to inform advertising and analytics.
You may have noticed the use of the word 'some' several times there – and that's the main problem with Do Not Track, not all websites agree not to track you and not all browsers offer the option in the first place.
Currently it's only available for Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox, although Google promises that the option will come to Chrome browsers before the year is out (a Do Not Track Chrome extension is available now though).
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Business App of the week - Telmap Navigator for Blackberry
Telmap Navigator has been around for a long time as a standalone application – we reviewed it back in 2007 - but now it's free and it's available as a dedicated Blackberry app.
Telmap Navigator can be downloaded on Blackberry's AppWorld and allows Blackberry users to turn their devices, into a real local search, mapping and navigation system with in-car navigation with 3D moving maps, voice-guided instructions, a dedicated pedestrian navigation mode, and a postcode business and address search that's specially tailored for UK users.
In addition, Telmap Navigator can help you find the nearest restaurants, pubs and accommodation via TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet.
Telmap Navigator, also lets you keep in touch with your community through integrations with Facebook, Twitter, and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Additionally BBM users will also be able to communicate their location through BBM and locate their BBM contacts, all from within Telmap Navigator.
Telmap Navigator is available for free download on Blackberry's AppWorld
It's available to UK users, on the following Blackberry models (both touch and non-touch devices): BB9900, BB9810, BB9790, BB9380, BB9360, BB9800, BB9320, BB9300.
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Sony Tablet P Ice Cream Sandwich update incoming May 24
If you were brave enough to splash the cash on a Sony Tablet P, then you'll be glad to hear that the Android 4.0 update will be landing on May 24.
Sony's other slate, the Tablet S, got its Ice Cream Sandwich update a few weeks ago, which has left Tablet P owners feeling a little envious.
A Sony press release in Japan has now confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich is on its way to the Tablet P, and although it doesn't make it clear if it's a worldwide release or not, we saw the upgrade roll out to the Tablet S on the same day worldwide so here's hoping.
A game of two halves
The impending update will allow Tablet P owners to do things such as accessing the camera app direct from the lock screen, take panoramic photos, new home screen actions including folder creation and more.The Tablet P was an interesting addition to the tablet market, with its unique clamshell and dual-screen design offering customers something very different to the standard tablet experience.
It managed to score a respectable 3.5/5 in our in-depth review, which shows the Tablet P certainly has some potential.
Check out Sony's handy video below, showing you all the additions which come with the Ice Cream Sandwich update. Although it's a Tablet S in the video, we expect pretty much the same features to appear on the Tablet P.
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Gary Marshall: ISPs are filtering more than porn
As the father of a young girl, the last thing I want her to encounter online is East Dulwich. The very idea of it, the thought of her innocent little eyes seeing uncensored East Dulwich content... I don't mind admitting that it makes me want to punch somebody in the face.
Thank God, then, for the mobile network operators. Thanks to them, I can let my daughter use the mobile web without supervision, safe in the knowledge that anything to do with East Dulwich will be filtered long before it reaches my phone.
If you're wondering what on earth I'm on about, I'm looking at the latest report on internet filtering from the Open Rights Group. It's been asking people to report sites that their mobile operators block, and the results - surprise! - show that some sites are being blocked that shouldn't be.
I've encountered this myself: when I moved to Orange, I had to call to get their smut filter lifted because I wanted to look at BoingBoing. But it's not the only innocuous site blocked by a filth filter. There's Coadec.com, a tech startup site; lrug.org, a site for Ruby developers; Ethicalhacker.net, GigaOM, sites about exploring abandoned buildings, sites about video games, sites about wine and a site about East Dulwich.
East Dulwich! Grrrrrr!
This matters, not just to the sites being blocked for no good reason, but to all of us: if moves to filter our broadband connections by default to protect kids are successful, there'll be many, many more sites falling foul of the filters - and they won't all be blocked because of human error.
It's not just sex, it's speech too
I'd always assumed that my mobile operator's filter was there to block donkey porn and midget wrestling, but it's wider than that: as ORG reports, many sites are blocked because they're "hate sites". The list includes angry blogs, but it also includes the BNP, and that's interesting: while I'd happily give the BNP and its supporters their own idiot island, far from the shores of sanity, the fact remains that they're a legitimate political party in the UK.Anybody else worried that we're blocking perfectly legal organisations because we don't like their views?
There is a big difference between blocking pornography and blocking speech, no matter how odious it may be, but filters brought in to block the former inevitably end up blocking the latter. Today it's the BNP, and extremism, and The Pirate Bay. What will we have to protect our children from tomorrow?
There are loads of things online I don't want my daughter to see when she's older. It's a long list, but it includes anti-vaccine hysterics, mobile phone scaremongerers, medical woo-pushers and anything designed to make people hate and fear other people or themselves.
But keeping her away from Mail Online is my responsibility, not my ISP's - and protecting her from adult content is my job, not yours.
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Hands-on review: Leica M Monochrom
Although it is based on the Leica M9, the Leica M Monochrom has no colour filter array, so it can only record black and white images.
This means that every one of its 18 million pixels is used to record brightness values, and there is no demosaicing of the red, green and blue signals to create a full colour image.
Removing the RGGB (red, green, green, blue) filter array above the sensor has a number of effects. Firstly, more light can reach the sensor, which is good news for noise control because the signal requires less amplification, which is prone to introducing noise.
The fact that more light reaches the Leica M Monochrom sensor means that it is effectively more sensitive than the Leica M9's sensor, so the base sensitivity setting is higher.
Consequently, the Leica M Monochrom's native sensitivity range runs from ISO 320 to ISO 10,000, but there's also a low-end extension setting of ISO 160. In comparison, the Leica M9's native sensitivity runs from ISO 160 to ISO 2,500, and there's an expansion setting of ISO 80.
Traditionally, Leica cameras are favoured by reportage and street photographers, and these users often need to use middle to high sensitivity settings, so the Leica M Monochrom's higher base setting is likely to be good news for them. Those who need to use very fast shutter speeds or shoot with a wide aperture can resort to shooting with an ND filter over the lens.
Screen
Like the Leica M9, the Leica M Monochrom has a 2.5-inch monitor with 230,000 pixels. This is disappointing enough in a camera that has a retail price that's just a shade under £5,000 or $7,000, but it in a camera that retails for around £6,000 in the UK or $8,000 in the US, it is staggering.
Reviewing images on the screen of a pre-production sample Leica M Monochrom revealed that the screen isn't as detailed or as sharp as that of a mid-range DSLR that costs a fraction of the price.
One difference between a Leica rangefinder and a DSLR or compact system camera (CSC), however, is that the screen is only ever used to review images. There is no live view system.
Accordingly, images are composed in the Leica M Monochrom's optical viewfinder. As in the Leica M9, this provides a larger field of view than the mounted lens (down to 28mm), and it displays the most basic exposure information in large red LEDs.
Naturally, focusing is manual only and uses a rangefinder system whereby the lens ring is rotated until the floating image lines up with the one visible through the viewfinder. This takes some care and practice.
Build and handling
Leica's M-series cameras have a build quality that is second to none. It's not really news then that the Leica M Monochrom has a wonderfully solid feel, it is constructed from a single piece of magnesium alloy with a textured leather coating and brass top and bottom plates. It is a thing of beauty.
Although its body is large in comparison with the current crop of mirrorless compact system cameras, it's important to remember that the Leica M Monochrom houses a full-frame sensor and it is considerably smaller than the full-frame DSLRs that are currently on the market.
Although the LCD screen isn't the most detailed, it is useful for checking exposure, since the shadow and highlight warnings can be set to operate at levels that suit the photographer. The warnings are shown in red, which stand out well against the monochrome image.
Like the Leica M9, the Leica M Monochrom has none of the exotic modes found on the average digital camera - it is intended for use by a photographic purest who wants to concentrate on the key aspects of exposure and composition.
Nevertheless, it is possible to select one of three tones (Sepia, Cold and Selenium), which can be applied to JPEG images as they are recorded. There are also a number of filter options that emulate the effect of using optical filters on black and white film photography.
Performance
As yet we have only been able to inspect the results from a pre-production sample of the Leica M Monochrom, but they are very impressive. Noise appears to be very limited, and even in the shadows shots taken at ISO 2500 have only a fine grain visible at 100 per cent on the computer screen. Tonal gradations also look natural and smooth.We spoke to Leica Akademie tutor Brett (he doesn't use his last name) who used the Leica M Monochrom with the new Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens (£5,400/$7,195) for a couple of days. He told us that although he is very impressed with the camera, it will take a little while before he learns how to get the absolute best from the DNG format raw files.
Because he has found that the Leica M Monochrom records a lot of detail in shadows and noise isn't a major issue, he recommends that images are exposed for the highlights.
He's also a fan of the new Summicron 50mm lens, but warns that it is so sharp that it emphasises the drop-off in focus, which is quick, so it's absolutely essential to get the focus spot-on, especially when shooting wide open.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Early verdict
Clearly with a retail price of around £6,000 in the UK or $8,000 in the US, the Leica M Monochrom isn't going to sell in huge numbers, but from the reaction to its launch it is obvious that it holds huge appeal to the Leica faithful. It seems to sum up both the history and the future of Leica as a great photographic brand.It's about getting the best black and white photo possible, and this means gathering the maximum amount of luminance data in-camera. It comes with Adobe Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, recognising that in the modern age some adjustment is often necessary to get the desired look.
Results may look good straight out of the camera, but there is usually room for improvement. Traditional black and white photographers shoot to produce a negative that has all the information required to create a print, and dodging and burning are just part of the process. It's just the same with digital photography.
While the Leica M Monochrom can produce JPEGs for that instant result, the DNG raw files have the most data for manipulation.
It's early days yet, and we have yet to test a full production sample, but the Leica M Monochrom looks like it could be the ultimate camera for shooting black and white images.
We anticipate that many well-heeled and professional Leica users will invest, keeping their existing Leica M9 or Leica M9-P for colour work while the Leica M Monochrom is reserved for black and white shooting. Nice.
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Steve Jobs 'worked closely' on iPhone 5
Former Apple boss Steve Jobs worked closely on the firm's sixth-generation iPhone before he passed away in October of last year.
Rumours surrounding the iPhone 5 suggest that it will come sporting a display at least 4-inches in size, and it looks like Jobs may have had a part to play in that decision.
According to Bloomberg sources familiar with Apple's plans, Jobs "had worked closely on the redesigned phone before his death".
All change please
As predicted by many, the sources go on to confirm the iPhone 5 will see a new design for Apple's iconic mobile phone, after the same basic body was used on both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.Details on the iPhone 5 are still thin on the ground, but its thought that it will pack a quad-core A6 processor, iOS 6, a better camera and NFC technology, as well as a bigger display.
The iPhone 5 looks set to arrive in September/October, in keeping with the Apple's annual product cycle after last year's hiccough.
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Are these the Canon 650D specs?
Suggestions that Canon will announce a new camera to sit in its entry level line-up are increasing by the day.
Recently rumoured specs for a Canon EOS 650D/Rebel T4i, to replace the 15 month old 600D include an 18 million pixel sensor and a touchscreen LCD.
It's not known whether the sensor will be a new design, or adopted from one of Canon's existing cameras, such as the one found in the 60D, an enthusiast level camera.
A touchscreen would be a very exciting development for DSLR technology, making this the only DSLR with such a function if true. It could mean features such as touch-shutter, or touch focus point could be incorporated, something that is very popular on the growing number of compact system cameras on the market.
Other rumoured specs include 9 cross-type AF points, and continuous AF in LiveView mode.
Release date
Suggestions are that a June release date for the camera could be on the cards, with many also expecting Canon to reveal its mirrorless camera soon after or even at the same time.As a mirrorless model has the potential to eat into entry-level DSLR sales, it will be interesting to see how Canon differentiates between the two in its marketing output.
It's worth noting however that rumours of a new mirrorless model have been around for some time, with nothing coming to fruition so far.
Keep following to find out more as it unfolds.
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Opinion: Why is Flash video so awful?
Why is Flash video so awful?
Can we have Flash now? So went the tasteless internet meme just moments after he who was once known as his Jobsness passed from 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino California to, well, the infinite loop.As a pretty PC-centric computing enthusiast it would be all too easy to sneer knowingly at Jobs' fundamental refusal to allow Flash video onto his iPads and iPhones.
It's certainly hard to square Jobs' claim that the iPad offered the best possible browsing experience with the fact that he'd locked users out a massive chunk of the web.
As it happens, the lack of Flash video support is the only reason why I don't own an iPad. But I don't want to get into an argument about that. Instead, I'm going to contradict myself and say that Jobs had it right. In fact, I'd like Flash banned on PCs with immediate effect. Because Flash video is by far and away and without a shadow of a doubt the worst thing about using a modern PC.
At this point I probably need to qualify things a little. Casual PC users probably won't have a major issue with Flash. Light web browsing with one or two browser windows or tabs open isn't enough to out Flash's awfulness. Not most of the time, anyway.
Per-tab threading
As a proper web junky, however, I've finally and comprehensively lost my rag with Flash. For the record I'm a Chrome user. It ain't perfect, but for better or worse it's my favourite browser. But it pretty much perfectly showcases how awful Flash video is.Chrome is threaded, of course, which should mean that your general browsing session just keeps on trucking, no matter what. But Flash isn't threaded. So when it bombs out, it's brings your entire browsing world down, all 68 tabs of it.
You could argue it's my tendency to have a ton of tabs open that causes a lot of the problem. But even if that were true and it wasn't the case that it's about time Adobe coded it for efficient per-tab threading, Flash has plenty of other problems.
Can HTML5 save the day?
As I sit and write this, the Daily Show stream on 4oD I'm half watching has just hung. For the third time. If I want to pick up where I left off, I'm going to have to sit through no fewer than five full length ads. Again, for the third time.Meanwhile, over on my laptop, the video turns green after five seconds in iPlayer. I can fix that by turning off hardware acceleration, but then my CPU gets hammered and my battery life goes south. A graphics driver update might do the trick, but why should I have to bother when I rarely going on never have any issues with other video formats? It's just Flash.
I used to think Jobs was being a bit of a bully in his dealings with Adobe regards Flash. But I've had enough now and as far as I'm concerned Adobe got no more than it deserved for allowing Flash to remain so shonky.
Of course, HTML5 is coming to save the day. But it's taking its sweet time. Until it has entirely taken over, Flash will be my number one computing enemy.
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7 Days in Gaming: Amazing Alex shows angry bird to Diablo 3 servers
For the umpteenth week in a row, 7DiG comes piling into your Friday reading list like a large plodding asteroid before splitting into annoying speedy chunks as it comes under fire from a thrilling news round-up.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we live in interesting times; you might be wondering why every game seems to have a number on the end but before you utter the phrase 'creatively moribund' we'd like to start with amazing news…
Blizzard: "We sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure."
Amazing Angry Alex Birds Angry Birds is obviously pretty much dead in the water, perhaps like some form of disgruntled duck, what with only getting a billion downloads and all, so maker Rovio has announced its new project Amazing Alex. It looks absolutely nothing at all like Cut the Rope. Got that? Nothing at all.Get unreal man You wanna glimpse at the future of gaming graphics? Well, how about the new Unreal Engine – which should be given a more public airing at E3 next month. Flaming hammers have NEVER looked been as realistic. If they existed that is. [CVG]
More Future Awesome! And while we are future gazing into the near future of games looking prettier, Nvida took some time to chat to us about its work in cloud gaming. "The benefit of cloud computing is convenience; it is the most convenient computing model we have ever known," Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told TechRadar. Unless you have a crap internet connection of course, then it's bloody dreadful.
Cloudy with a chance of downloads Which allows us to neatly segue into another forthcoming cloud service. You'll now be able to control and see what your Steam account is up to from any connected device.
Diablo-logical 7DiG has spent a large time of its gaming allowance on Diablo 3 this week – that is apart from the rather large amount of times when we couldn't get on the servers. Blizzard has apologised for the inconvenience rather beautifully, saying: "we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure." Cloud computing ftw? [CVG]
Before our round up of great links from across Future's gaming sites we wanted you to watch the brilliant 'How it should have ended' series take us to Skyrim.
OXM
Dragon's Dogma review
FIFA 13 players: how Messi, Ronaldo and Crouch have grown
ONM
Mario Tennis Open 3DS review
FIFA 13 Wii U in development
CVG
Diablo 3 review
The 10 most cynically milked franchises
NGamer
Donkey Kong Country's dirty little secret
The seven greatest animal helpers in gaming history
OPM
Max Payne 3 PS3 review
10 of the best PS3 RPGs
Golden Joysticks
Hitman Absolution Sniper challenge gameplay
Max Payne 3 video review
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Mobile madness as wrong sites censored by telecoms providers
Mobile browsing took a hit this week with news that a number of seemingly legitimate websites have been blocked by mobile networks – everything from technology to fashion sites have been hit.
According to the Open Rights Group (ORG), which is keeping a close eye on mobile site blocking, 19 sites have been added to a block list, with no real reason for them to be on there.
The sites include GigaOM, a technology website, The Wine Society and the BNP's official page.
Block around the clock
Whatever your political stance is, the British National Party are allowed a say in the UK, and it is the blocking of their site and others that is causing the ORG to worry about the new blocks."These new reports highlight the breadth of over-blocking happening on mobile networks," said Jim Killock of Open Rights Group.
"The debate often focuses on adult sexual content. But mobile networks are making much bigger judgements about what people under 18 should be able to see, including decisions about political websites. They are making decisions that are best made by parents."
Killock believes that the blocking of sites through mobile phones sets a worrying precedent of what is to come if the Conservatives get their way and push ahead with default site blocking.
"Claire Perry's suggestion of default adult blocks for broadband ISPs would inevitably lead to a similar range of sites being blocked for adults in the UK. If children are to be protected by default, then why would the protection exclude chat sites, extremist sites, gambling, or alcohol?
"Whatever you think about the BNP's politics, political speech is at the core of the activities protected by freedom of expression rights. So long as they remain within the law, political parties' websites should never be blocked by ISPs. Schools and families are of course able to install their own blocking software if they want to make this choice."
The full report and a list of all the sites blocked can be found at www.openrightsgroup.org.
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How to use Google Docs in your business
Does your business really need a copy of Microsoft's Office? Google Docs could deliver the office suite your enterprise needs and all for free
For decades Microsoft's Office Suite reigned supreme. Every business uses a word processor and spreadsheet, and with few alternatives, Office had become the default choice. However, as the Internet – and the business services it could deliver – expanded, many began to question whether an installed application like Microsoft Word was able to deliver the services businesses today need.
Over the last two years application have been moving off desktop installed software and onto software hosted in the cloud, where they could be used on any device connected to the Internet. And that's the power for small businesses. You don't have to spend hundreds on software licences, as Google Docs contains a fully featured word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application.
Google Docs is part of Google Apps that are a suite of applications that can help your business work smarter. Small businesses can start using Google Docs for free, or add additional features for $5 per user a month. You can view an overview of Google Apps via this YouTube video and there's an online calculator to help you decide on how much you'll save with Google.
Putting your docs on the web
A service like Google Docs offers a great opportunity to small businesses that want to reduce their start-up and running costs. Once you have created a Google.com account – if you use Gmail you already have an account you can use with Google Docs – you can begin to create, store and most importantly, share the documents you have created.The power of moving your documents, presentations and spreadsheets to the cloud is versatility. Your business no longer needs to concern itself with data storage or backup as this is handled by Google. If you have a smart phone, tablet PC or work on a variety of desktops at different locations, all you need to do is open an Internet browser to start editing or creating new documents.
And if you thought switching to Google Docs means moving away from the industry standards your business, its commercial partners and customers use, think again as Google Docs is fully compatible. With Google Docs you can:
- Convert most file types to Google Docs format
- Invite other people to collaborate on a doc with you, giving them edit, comment or view access.
- Collaborate online in real time and chat with other collaborators.
- View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version.
- Download Google Docs to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip files.
- Translate a document to a different language.
- Email your documents to other people as attachments.
Crunching the numbers
For spreadsheet users Google Docs offers all of the basic editing features you would expect from Excel, but offers a whole new level of collaboration with other users. Need to chat in real time about a spreadsheet with a colleague? You can with Google Docs.
The spreadsheet application offers:
- Import and convert .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data.
- Export .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data and PDF and HTML files.
- Use formatting and formula editing so you can calculate results and make your data look good.
- Chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet.
- Create charts and gadgets.
- Embed a spreadsheet, or individual sheets of your spreadsheet, in your blog or website.
Collaborate and present
The last of the office application trinity is the presentation. Google Docs presentations are equally fully featured offering:- Share presentations with your friends and co-workers.
- Upload and convert existing presentations to Google Docs format.
- Download your presentations as a .pdf, .pptx, or a .txt file.
- Insert images and videos, and format your slides.
- Publish and embed your presentations in a website, allowing access to a wide audience.
- Draw organisational charts, flowcharts, design diagrams and much more right within a presentation.
- Add slide transitions, animations, and themes to create show-stopping presentations.
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Nano-SIM wars: RIM, Motorola back down, Apple relentless
Join us as we enter the thrilling world of SIM card design and a spat between manufacturers over the next generation of nano-SIMs that pits Apple against RIM and Motorola.
What's happened is this: Apple designed a nano-SIM. A coalition consisting of RIM, Motorola and Nokia designed another nano-SIM.
There can be only one standard nano-SIM design but none of the companies in question wants to give any ground and apparently things became quite heated at the last meeting to discuss the design.
Control yourselves
But of course someone will have to concede ground, and RIM and Motorola have been the first to relent (with the mysterious exclusion of Nokia, who may simply have given up on it all).The two companies have updated their joint proposal to accommodate some of Apple's requirements and Apple is said to be working on a modified design too.
The problems arise in niggly little issues like this: Apple uses SIM trays on its iPhone and iPad products so it's not too fussed about having notches that allow the SIM to lock the chip in place and be easily removed. But these are essential to RIM and Motorola whose SIM mechanism is quite different.
Nightmare. But RIM and Moto have made some concessions to Notchgate in their updated design (below) that features just one small notch in an otherwise smooth-edged design.
Image credit: The VergeWho knows if Apple will be happy with that or if it will have another competing design to enter the fray. A mutually-agreeable decision will have to be made before the next generation of smartphones be made, so let's hope everyone manages to play nice at the next standardisation meeting on May 31.
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