3rd June 2009
Britons say broadband ‘essential’
UK consumers now believe broadband is becoming as essential a utility as electricity or water, according to a panel of government advisers. Some 73% of those questioned described a high-speed connection as important. The Communications Consumer Panel’s research involved 16 focus groups and a face-to-face survey with 2,000 people across the UK. Its findings will be submitted to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain review, due to be published on 16 June.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8079637.stm
Time on social networks almost doubles in a year
Spending more time on social networks and blogs? You’re not alone, with the latest figures showing the number of minutes spent on social networking sites in the United States has almost doubled over the past year. Nielsen Online, which measures web traffic, said the number of minutes on social networks in the United States rose 83 percent in April from the same month a year ago, but found users were quick to move on and sites could quickly fall from favor.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5520OC20090603
Opera releases first test version of new desktop browser, winning mobile battle
Norway’s Opera Software released on Wednesday the first test version of Opera 10, the newest version of its browser, promising faster downloads, new design and new features. Opera is the world’s third-largest browser maker, but is far behind Microsoft and Mozilla Foundation. Competition in the browser market has escalated lately after Google launched its own Internet browser, Chrome, in 2008. Meanwhile, Opera’s mobile browser overtook Apple’s iPhone browser in May as the most popular mobile browser in the world.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55219R20090603
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/06/02/opera.beats.safari.mobile/
Nintendo the loser as big three rock E3
Want to know something crazy? Nintendo announced not one, but two new Mario games and the return of Metroid and still came a distant third in the battle of the big three’s keynotes at this year’s wonderful E3, says Techradar. The entire exhibition has been in a self-imposed doldrum for a couple of years, but E3 2009 has been a fabulous return to form, with both Sony and Microsoft raising the roof, and the game, with their blockbusting turns on the stage. Nintendo’s conference was actually fine; the New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Galaxy 2 alone made it a great event for the fans, and yet the company was blown out of the water by its next gen rivals.
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/nintendo-the-loser-as-big-three-rock-e3-604990
The City Of San Francisco Now Lets You Submit Complaints Via Twitter
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced today that San Francisco residents can now send direct messages via Twitter to the city of San Francisco, @SF311, to complain about street cleanings, graffiti, potholes, abandoned vehicles, garbage issues, noise complaints and more. 311 is the primary contact for city services; residents can call 311 to reach a call center to get answers to questions about city services or submit complaints.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/02/the-city-of-san-francisco-now-lets-you-submit-complaints-via-twitter/
Windows 7 arrives on October 22
Those waiting anxiously for the next version of Windows now have a date to anticipate. Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 will be launched on October 22, 2009. This date, which is referred to as General Availability (GA), is in line with Microsoft’s previous statement saying that it would have Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ready by the holidays. After the software giant unleashed the official Release Candidate on May 5, it became apparent that development on the follow-up to Vista was close to wrapping up.
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/windows-7-arrives-on-october-22.ars
Can the Donkey Kong world record be broken?
The star of the documentary, “King of Kong: Fistful of quarters,” Wiebe’s past attempts – and failures – to break the “Donkey Kong” world record have been well documented and discussed. But now at E3, Wiebe is taking another shot at the record – currently 1,047,200 points, and held by the other star of the documentary, Billy Mitchell. Already today – while most of the E3 world was focused on the big Nintendo and Sony press conferences – Wiebe had taken at least two shots at the record, and with one, had gotten close: He’d topped 923,000. But both times, he’d come up short. So now, with a couple hundred people watching and rooting him on, with shouts of “Let’s go, Steve!” ringing out, Wiebe got going. Could he break the record?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10255275-235.html
