Archive for July, 2010
Well, my first thought for most questions like this is “America”. But when you look at the Eastern countries, especially Japan, we see a technological development that they have embraced and that their cities are well set up for.
With our internet facilities still picking up, Japan are at a level where they can stream live TV through their mobile phones – how did this happen so quickly?! Because they have an efficient system, and when updates are needed, they get them done and leave room for future improvements.
Despite the weird and wonderful “H-Bouya USB Toy” and the man/fish toy, and many other things that just don’t seem right, Japan still leads the way when it comes to tech.
All over the UK, people go online every day – to check emails, to work, to shop, to chat to friends, to send out invitations, to order the food shopping – to do many different tasks that can save them time, money and keep them connected to those living further away than the bottom of the road.
But some people get way faster speeds than others. Why? Location, location and time of day.
With Digital Subscriber Line services running on the old copper wire telephone network, the signal strength is ultimately determined by physics – how far away you are from the exchange.
The survey found that for DSL services advertised as being “up to” 20Mbps, only 2% of customers got speeds in the range of 14-20Mbps. Of the others, 32% were getting a 8-14Mbps service and 65%, 8Mbps or less.
Add to this the rush hour traffic, and you have got a situation similar to a work day commute to London city centre – not much fun! Although there are talks of legislating how these services are ran, how can this realistically be improved without ripping up the old, and relaying new?
Over the last few years, Apple have risen as the phone to have. Nokia, RIM, Samsung, LG, Motorola, etc, have all seen drops in sales and profits, but Apple have steadily increased (not by percentage of units sold, but by percentage of profit made). The other manufacturers make valiant efforts every now and then to break back into the market, but rarely get further than the initial press release.
In this market, where multi-capabilities (where the user needs them or not) is the key to getting the big sales in, and to continue getting them in. So, without a music player, a PC or novel way of combining them all, how can other manufacturers even compete?
As an avid online shopper, I am still reluctant to purchase clothes or shoes online unless I have tried them on in the store first. The reason? Fear it won’t fit, and the disappointment of having to send it back, etc.
Well, help is at last (nearly!) at hand!
An Estonian firm have developed an “online torso”, that you can input your measurements, and have it “model” the item for you. At first the developers thought it wasn’t possible, but by starting off on the simplest form (the male of the species!), they have developed the torso to “shape-shift” into 100,000 different shapes and sizes to allow male shoppers to gauge a better idea of what the garment would look like before buying it.
It is not currently ran in real-time (someone has to dress the mannequin and take pictures, etc, for now) but once it is through the testing stages, we should see it used by a lot of online stores.
“Respect your elders” was a common phrase in my rural community when growing up; for a young person, being perceived as being disrespectful to the elderly would have gotten you an immediate telling off from the person who noticed, and a BIG telling off from the parentals.
These days, being old can be the coolest thing ever, and attract followers such as Chris Evans, an ex-PM’s wife and Peter Andre. For those of you in the know, I am talking about Ivy Bean, Twitter’s oldest (unconfirmed) Tweeter.
In the year Ivy was online (she has recently passe away), she gained 56,653 followers, and posted 1,000 tweets. Although the posts mainly consisted of her day to day activities, she seems to have engaged a wide variety of people, and touched a lot of people.
This is one of those stories where technology really can bring people together.