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Ping launches with 160m users

07/09/2010 – 11:50 am

You know something’s wrong when even the Apple fan boys have got their headphones in a twist.

Launched on 1st September, Ping has so far been met with mixed reviews with users complaining the service is ‘slow’ and ‘lacking in features’.

It was there and then it was gone…
Facebook integration was planned and was originally available on release (although most users didn’t notice), but has since been removed with the following explanation from Steve Jobs. The social networking site wanted ‘onerous terms that we could not agree to’, related to connecting with Facebook friends on Ping.

A lot of users are frustrated that they now have to use the ‘friend finder’ or send an email invitation to connect up to their friends – a problem that could have been easily solved with Facebook connector.

What’s wrong?
The spammers have been out in full force with promises of ‘free iPods’ and ‘free iPads’, with the profiles of popular artists their target. Apple are yet to respond to questions regarding this issue but rumour is rife that the problems are caused by the company not implementing spam or URL filtering within Ping.

Another shortcoming of the service is that you can only preview 30 seconds of a recommended song then you have to purchase it. With so many other services offering full streaming of songs, can Ping persuade users to use their service instead?

Is it really social if you can only use it within iTunes?
Unlike other popular sites such as LastFm, Ping relies solely on iTunes, meaning only songs purchased through the iTunes store will appear on your chart. Apple seems to be lagging behind in this department as sites including LastFm currently support iTunes, Spotify, Windows Media Player and Winamp.

Is it fair to compare it to LastFm?
LastFm was created solely for connecting people through their music tastes so it’s hard to compare Ping, which is effectively an iTunes add-on, to a site fully dedicated to music networking. Apple are late in joining the social networking world and a lot of users feel that this was a rushed job and Apple should have just put all their efforts in to making iTunes 10 a better experience for users.

Too soon to pass judgement?
So, should Apple have tried something half heartedly, pitting themselves against brands that are now established to join the social networking world? Is everyone jumping on the bandwagon too soon? Ping has only been in release for a few days so Apple can now develop on the base of what they have.

Hey, you never know, maybe Apple and Facebook can work out their issues and Ping will eventually connect to many other sites. But who knows, this is Apple after all?

By Cheryl Hilton

Grab your gadgets – September

03/09/2010 – 12:03 pm

Everybody loves their gadgets, but keeping up with all the new releases is a different story. Every month we’ll pick out some of our favourites and give a review of what we think is going to become a “must have”.

Samsung Galaxy Tab
Samsung will release their answer to the iPad this year, and people already have high hopes for the device.

The company have not yet released the specifications of it’s new device, but what we do know is it will be powered by Android and will have an integrated Flash player, integrated GPS with Google Maps, WiFi, SyncML support, Swype, and Bluetooth.

The Galaxy Tab is expected to be around half the size of the iPad, making it ideal for people who want something a little smaller.

Toshiba Libretto
The new Toshiba Libretto W100 is a ultra mobile PC offering dual 7” multi-touch screens that work both horizontally and vertically. The dual screen is completely touchscreen and has a virtual keyboard that allows you to navigate, type and browse through your favourite sites. With built in wireless, webcam and Bluetooth capabilities the PC has everything you need.

The Libretto specifications include 2GB RAM and a 62GB Solid State Drive, but with a disappointing 2 hour battery life it may not be suitable for people on the go.

The PC also comes with Windows 7, which allows for easy sharing, streaming and synchronization of all files and media.

Priced at around $1,400, it’s not the cheapest, but it sure looks good.

iPADock
The ultimate iPad/iPhone dock is set to be released by Japanese company PhotoFast Co. Ltd later this month, and it is an ideal component to hold all of your Apple products.

The docking station is able to accommodate the following combination:

Two iPads
One iPad and two iPhones/iPod Touch players
Six iPod Nanos
Four iPhones or iPod Touch Players

Not bad! But the ‘wow factor’ doesn’t stop there. The dock has seven USB ports and supports a large number of memory cards formats including SD, SDHC, mini SDHC, micro SDHC and micro SDHC; add all this with charge and sync capabilities, your left with the ultimate Apple product dock station.

At a retail price of around $80, this is sure to be snapped up off the shelves as soon as it’s released.

By Cheryl Hilton

Fact Friday – Most Expensive iPad Data Plans

27/08/2010 – 3:02 pm

The iPad is the new ‘must-have’ gadget, but the expense doesn’t stop at the purchase. Tableau Software have recently conducted a survey in to the most expensive iPad data plans around the world; below is the top 10 list:-

1. France – Orange – $25.47
2. Belgium – Mobistar – $21.77
3. Luxembourg – Mobistar – $21.77
4. Netherlands – Vodafone – $19.59
5. Netherlands – T Mobile – $19.56
6. United States – AT&T – $12.50
7. New Zealand – Vodafone – $12.03
8. Australia – Vodafone – $11.22
9. Australia – 3 – $11.15
10. United Kingdon – 02 – $7.80

The cheapest data plan is in Singapore, were users pay $0.51 with Sing Tel. Singapore carriers M1 and StarHub also offer a low price of $0.89 respectively.

In the United Kingdom prices range from $2.34 with Orange to $7.80 with 02. Countries like ours benefit from having more than one provider, unlike France who only have the one and therefore have to pay the most expensive price.

The average global rate is roughly $7 per GB. Click below to view full list.

By Cheryl Hilton

ESET NOD32

23/08/2010 – 11:23 am

You’re infected! There’s something you never want to hear.

There is one antivirus that stands out above them all and that we continually recommend to all our clients to protect their systems.

ESET NOD32 is rapidly becoming one of the best selling anti-virus software solutions available, with its effective protection and advanced features. The software itself is simple to install, although the administrator console could prove a bit overwhelming for first time users.

Not having missed a In-the-Wild virus since 1998, NOD32 Antivirus proactively detects and eliminates more viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware, phishing, root kits and other internet threats than any program available.

NOD32 has proven to be one of the best performing anti-virus software on the market with both its home and business versions; and now with the addition of smartphone protection, it’s sure to give it a foothold in the market for a long time.

Anti-Virus for Smartphones
As application markets are growing, so are the risks of attacks and exploits. ESET Mobile Antivirus has low CPU, memory usage and minimal updates so as to save data bandwidth usage. All email attachments and other file transfers will also be protected

How does it compare?
Symantec, BitDefender, McFee, Kaspersky, TrendMicro, Panda and AVG are the other products currently on the market.

System Usage
Unlike Symantec, which seems to take over your system, NOD32 only has a small footprint and does not take up much system resources.

In-the-Wild Virus
Compared to ESET’s record of no wild infections, the other seven antivirus vendors range from a small amount of missed viruses, to hundreds; the worst being AVG.

ESET NOD32 is an all round antivirus with a proven track record in the market and it’s rate of virus capture can’t be compared.

By Cheryl Hilton

Fact Friday – Search engine optimisation

13/08/2010 – 12:46 pm

A lot of companies don’t realise that good SEO can have a major effect on their business. Search engine optimisation can help to build your search engine ranking and in-turn generate more leads and traffic for your site.

A recent survey showed that a lot of businesses still don’t utilise the tool.

47% of all business websites have none or very basic levels of SEO

74% have no basic website analytics software for tracking site visits

12% of all business websites are not indexed in any search engine

0.6% of business websites are under construction

82% have no HTML sitemap

75% have no XML sitemap

69% have no Robots.txt file configured

35% do not have unique Page Titles

56% do not have unique Page Descriptions

Only 3% of all business websites could be considered to have advanced levels of SEO

Over 70% of companies with less than 50 employees have none or very basic levels of SEO

By Cheryl Hilton

Spotify – The Music Streamer

11/08/2010 – 11:53 am

What do people like more than music? Free music of course!

In October 2008 Spotify, a peer-to-peer music streaming service, was launched and it is now the most popular player of its kind. The application has an estimated seven million users with around 250,000 of these paying members.

So, what’s the fuss about?
Spotify allows users to stream music from popular artists and create playlists and share them with friends.

The Spotify library currently consists of music tracks from major and independent record labels including Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner Music Group. These companies allow streaming of some of their most popular artists and you are able to buy tracks directly from Spotify partner 7digital.

Paid or Free?
Should you splash out on a paid account or stick with free streaming? The free account allows you to listen to 20 hours of music per month which seems like a fair deal, but there is a downside, adverts!

Visual adverts are fine, but after listening to a number of songs a voice interrupts your listening pleasure and rambles on about random services they think you’ll be interested in. However, I do think you have to expect this kind of thing from a free service.

Both the Unlimited and Premium accounts take away the adverts and time limitations, and at a starting price of £4.99 you can’t really complain.

Where is it available?
Spotify is currently available in UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

What platforms?
Desktop applications are currently available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Is it available on my mobile?
You can stream your music on the go with your iPhone, Android or Symbian mobiles. A Windows Mobile application is currently in the works.

Pricing

Open – FREE
20 hours per month of streaming music

Unlimited – £4.99 per month
No advertisements
Unlimited streaming of music

Premium – £9.99 per month
No advertisements
Unlimited streaming of music
Spotify on your mobile
Offline mode for playlists

By Cheryl Hilton

The Price of a Tweet – would you pay someone $25,000 to post something on Twitter?

09/08/2010 – 3:27 pm

Today we have a bit of a Twitter sum for you – Carol Vorderman style.

Do you get paid for posting a tweet? For those of you that are unsure, the answer is no.

What does American socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian get for posting 140 letters on her Twitter account?

The answer is…. drum roll….a staggering $25,000!

International clothing giant Armani paid Kardashian, who currently has 4,340,754 followers, $25,000 for just one tweet, which in-turn drove 40,000 visitors to the Armani site within 24 hours.

Did they get the results they wanted? Of course. Is this the way forward for online marketing? Maybe.

It’s easy for big companies to pay celebrities thousands of pounds to promote their products, but it’s not possible for smaller businesses to part with that type of money. However, Twitter is great for promotion on any scale so smaller businesses aren’t exactly “priced out” of the market so to speak; they just need to go about it in a different way.

What makes Twitter good for online marketing?
Speed. You post your link and it’s instantly broadcast to millions around the globe, or in Kim’s case those 4,340,754 followers. Companies want a fast response and immediate results and Twitter seems like it’s proving to be the way forward for online advertising.

Marketing for the big companies
So is this how the large corporations should be promoting their products online? It’s hard to say if it will carry on in the long haul but for now, as we can see, the results speak for themselves. Using celebrities for any sort of marketing endeavour is usually a sure thing, so as the Twitter base continues to grow it looks like more people will be using it to their advantage.

By Cheryl Hilton

Fact Friday – World’s Most Expensive Domain Names

06/08/2010 – 11:05 am

If you had a few million pound spare, what would you spend it on? Holiday, house, car, boat? How about a domain name? Yeah, me neither.

The world’s most expensive domain was set by Business.com after its sale in 1999 for $7.5 million and it retained its title until 2006 when Sex.com was bought for $14m.

The record changed hands again in 2009 when Insure.com was sold for $16 million to QuinStreet; the site was originally owned by Insure.com and was acquired in 2001 for $1.6m. What a difference eight years makes!

Top 10 Most Expensive Domains

1. Insure.com – sold to QuinStreet for $16 million in 2009.
2. Sex.com – sold for $14 million in 2006.
3. Fund.com – sold for $9.99 million in 2008.
4. Porn.com – sold for $9.5 million in 2007.
5. Business.com – sold for $7.5 million in 1999.
6. Diamond.com – sold to Ice.com for $7.5 million in 2006.
7. Beer.com – sold for $7 million in 2004.
8. Israel.com – sold for $5.88 million in 2004.
9. Casino.com – sold for $5.5 million in 2003.
10. Toys.com – sold to Toys ‘R Us for $5.1 million in 2009.

By Cheryl Hilton

Fact Friday – Internet usage

30/07/2010 – 5:01 pm

There are 1.8 billion internet users in the world, but what countries have the highest web usage?

Top 10 countries
China – 420.0m
United States – 234.4m
Japan – 99.1m
India – 81.0m
Brazil – 72.0m
Germany – 65.1m
Russia – 59.7m
United Kingdom – 51.4m
France – 44.6m
Nigeria – 44.0m

Some facts…

The top 10 countries on the Internet have a combined total of 1.17 billion Internet users. That’s 65% of all Internet users in the world.
There are 32 countries with more than 10 million Internet users.
India is the fourth largest country in terms of Internet users, despite only having an Internet penetration of 6.9%. This is due to its huge population.
China takes the top spot both in terms of population and Internet users. China has almost twice as many Internet users as the United States.

What countries have potential growth?

Below are the countries with the best growth potential in the top 10. With each country so vast, each has the potential for major growth within the next few years.

China 1,330.1m people – 420.0m internet users
India 1,173.1m people – 81.0m internet users
Brazil 198.7m people – 72.0m internet users

By Cheryl Hilton

The rise of Windows 7

30/07/2010 – 3:37 pm

As Vista continues to be taken off the shelves, Windows 7 is helping Microsoft regain some of its respect back. The company have recently announced that is has sold 150 million copies of Windows 7 within its first eight months of sale.

Although it’s looking likely that Windows 7 will soon overtake Vista in sales, Windows XP still dominates the share of the OS market with 58%. Users seem to have continued with XP since its release in 2001 because of it’s stability and reliability, and we should expect it to stay around for the next few years.

What makes Windows 7 different from Vista?

It looks the same, it feels the same, so what makes it different? It’s good.

One of Vista’s most annoying features? User access control.

Do you want to open this? Yes
Are you sure you want to open this? Yes
Are you really sure you want to open this? YES!!

I may be exaggerating slightly and Microsoft did try to improve this, but it’s the lack of annoying “features” like this which have made users want to switch to the Windows 7 OS.

A source of complaint about Vista was the amount of system resources it used. From the gadget filled sidebar to the TaskBar, these have all been replaced with less memory hoarding graphics. Also, after folder locations caused a lot of frustration within Vista, Microsoft have tried to go for a more simpler ‘XP style’ which seems to be a lot more user friendly.

Some features…

Side-by-side windows auto-size – Compare two documents on the screen at once.

Customisable notifications – Instead of disabling all notifications, you can customise what notifications you want or don’t want.

Boot time – The boot time of Vista was very slow, Windows 7 is a lot quicker.

No more clutter – Various free programs on now available for download from the Microsoft site, rather than having everything pre-installed on the OS.

User Access Control – The UAC is a lot more relaxed within Windows 7 and gives the user a lot more control.

The general consent between most Windows users was that Vista was trying too hard to please everyone. They put in every possible feature they could think of, but with this came a large memory usage and a very cluttered OS. With Windows 7, they have gone back to basics and what we are left with is the upgrade Windows XP deserved.

By Cheryl Hilton

IT Answers