| Technology Blog - iPadling out of recession |
| Monday, 01 February 2010 13:51 |
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Technology Blog – by Tom Brookes (on behalf of UKITA) 1st February, 2010 Last week, we saw the hyped unveiling of the Apple tablet – the iPad (my report here). Not so ‘magical’, it is basically an over-sized iPhone tablet, but will inevitably be the gadget to have for 2010, but is not out until the summer. It has already had much disparagement online and has been labelled as the ‘open innovation’ killer by some industry experts. The iPad will primarily promote eBooks and games; one would simply go too far to say it's the i-assassin of the newspaper. The other big Tech news was surrounding broadband: BT launched a new 40mb/s super-fast broadband last week, amidst criticism from rivals Virgin that they will cap it at 20GB usage. It will cost anything from £30 upwards a month. BT is spending £1.5 billion on a new fibre network, hoping to reach 10 million homes for the 2012 Olympics. The first aim is access to it for 4 million homes by 2011. Virgin Media have already upgraded their broadband to reach over 12 million homes with their own high-speed lines. The BBC hit back today claiming they might assign £1billion of licence fees into broadband supply, but this has been criticised as too much of a benefit for BSKYB. The theme of 2010 might be one Tech company coming out with an ambitious idea then their rival responding by public fuelled denigration, nothing new there I hear you say, but this time with more online comment and voices. Oracle completed the £4billion take-over of Sun Microsystems, passing EU approval after 9 months. Oracle, the second biggest software company, will now produce new software – with them now acquiring Java and Solaris. The fear for some is that MySQL might be stopped. The NHS has been in the spotlight for a vulnerable, ageing browser network that needs massive wide-scale upgrading. This older set-up is also used by government departments, who responded timely with a large-scale plan for their own super ‘cloud’ network plan. Whether this will actually happen or not is unseen and unpredictable, it could all simply be a trend fuelled smoke-screen. The China-US relations continued to show potential strains as the US fights for Internet Freedom and world network security whilst China basically stands for Censorship and self-governance. This of course stems from the Google attacks and hacking by Chinese rebels. Several Business experts have come out to say that should recent polls be correct - and the Tories do get into government that they are undecided as to what to do with RDA’s (Regional Development Agencies). This could be a sign that they have no real considerable ‘change strategies’ yet. Schools are investing in computers, with a focus on giving children access to You Tube – who also launched their pay per view movie service. Over 10 million TVs were sold last year also, as we prepare for the Digital switchover. 3DTV also had its first trial with live football. It was also stated that 25% of all songs/albums are bought online – I expect this will rise this year. Bill Gates also plans to donate £5billion to a world vaccination programme – insert your own ‘virus’ jokes here. And in lighter news, even the Pope himself has urged the Catholic Church to become digitally savvy and blog! Expect a milder March.com |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 09 February 2010 15:25 |