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Posted by mike on February 26, 2010 · View Comments
This week’s BBC Click was, not surprisingly, focused on Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As the biggest mobile conference the world has to offer this is where handset manufacturers, network carriers and even software companies set our their stall both present and future.
Of course the Windows Phone made a big splash and, although the device itself didn’t really feature in the programme there was a good, albeit brief, interview with Steve Ballmer. Whatever you think about Steve I’m always left in awe of his ability to handle questions across the broadest of spectrums. Today’s it’s mobile devices in Barcelona, tomorrow cloud computing in Arizona and Friday we hit Broadway with your thoughts on the global financial crisis. Got that Steve?
In other news there was Flash coming to a phone near you with the release of 10.1 – not the iPhone mind, as clam-like a platform as you’re ever likely to find. Then there’s the new Firefox mobile browser with tabbed browsing, session sync with your desktop and a selection of plug-ins. There was also a demo of Opera on a giant iPhone though I daresay they’ll have it working on normal-sized iPhones very soon.
As far as phones were concerned there was of course the Windows Phone 7 Series, more people / relationship centric with real-time updates and Zune-like capabilities for media. I’m tied to the iPod for my in-car integration but I love the sound of the Windows Phone as a multi-purpose device. Given Click told me it would sync with iTunes I can have one of each and still get depressed being forced to manage my music via my least favourite piece of software. Actually I must investigate iTunes alternatives someday but trying to convince my wife to change is likely to be an insurmountable obstacle. She embraces any change on our home PC about as much as polar bears look forward to global warming.
There were also new devices from HTC – the Desire and Legend – and a very interesting looking UI designed to be operated with one hand which got about 3s of coverage. It was from Israel and called something like Else. Elsie maybe? Elf? Who knows. There were intelligent keyboards that change layout and function depending on context (I struggle enough as it is without having to deal with that added layer of complexity), a phone with integral solar-panel from Puma and an iPhone credit card reader. Good luck with that.
One thing that stood out was a phone for the over-50s. Having seen how much the “older generation” can struggle with small keys and small screens, a decent phone targeting that demographic and just being able to “make calls” will be welcomed with open arms I’m sure. And there was the iPhone scanner which Kate seemed very excited about. Excited out of all proportion with its capabilities I would say. I’m sorry but I just don’t get it. For one I can never recall a need to “scan something using my phone” and for another, if I really did, I’d just take a photo of it and turn it into a suitable format later. Clearly I’m missing something.
The serious theme of the show though was the growth in mobile data traffic. The charts showing the comparison between the rate of voice traffic growth (none) and data (lots) over the past few years was illuminating. At what point will our networks be overwhelmed? When will we need 4G to cope? Why do we still pay so much for voice calls? Are we all going to have to live next to a mast? These and other questions were tackled by Kevin Russell, CEO of network operator 3 who gave a refreshingly frank interview.
Me, I’m off to scan some documents with my phone. Photocopying is so passe…
Posted by sara on February 9, 2010 · View Comments
I missed the first episode of BBC Two’s new series ‘The Virtual Revolution’ but am glad I made time for Monday’s ‘Enemy of the State’. Starting with the development of the internet as a force for openness and the transfer of free information, it moves to explain how it has become a force for rebellion against governments and politics, control by member states and even terrorism and cyber war.
The show is presented by Dr Aleks Krotoski, who you might recognise from her regular column on culture and video games for The Guardian, or at last year’s Dconstruct conference, and demonstrates its gravitas by including interviews with Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Vint Cerf and Evan Williams.
The thread running through the narrative of the programme is the fight for power, the reinvention of warfare and the scramble to fill the vacuum left by the demise of the old centres of power and what that means for us.
The rhetoric is made vivid by real world examples like Twitter threatening the state when 2 million people from Iran sent tweets around the world claiming elections had been rigged. Power to the people!
As someone who hasn’t studied the origins of the internet I was fascinated by Vint Cerf’s motivation behind creating something that didn’t have any central control. The Government was in the middle of the cold war and wanted a highly reliable and resilient system so didn’t want it housed in one central place where it could be destroyed. Aleks then takes us to Mountain View in California where one of the 13 root servers is housed and I breathe a sigh of relief when she asks the one question I wanted her to ask: What happens when you pull the plug or power outage?
Here goes the answer: Most data centres around the world have bunch of redundancies, like uninterruptable power supplies, so if a root server goes down there are 12 others. Even if there is an attack on all 13, those 13 servers are a constellation of 191 other servers, so you would have to knobble a collection of servers to get an impact. As it’s a global, shared system no individual country could bring it down. An international independent body oversees the route servers, but even its role is limited. No-one has the power to regulate or turn the internet on or off.
More examples are given of the battles against authority and people. Wikileaks allows people to anonymously to blow the whistle on governments and organisations. It published the membership list of the BNP, classified documents from Guantanamo Bay, and exposed hundreds of alleged assassinations by Kenyan police. It offers a safe, anonymous way for people to submit this information, although I was left wondering whether the fact the information is out in the public domain actually stops any wrongdoing from continuing.
China is also discussed at length, focussing on the fact that the government is not only worried about information coming into its country, but more importantly about information exchanged within its walls. The programme delves into the intricacies of censorship and various tactics employed by governments and states.
Wrapping up with a bit of scare mongering themselves (and probably quite rightly too), Aleks highlights how vulnerable we are to cyber war – where there’s conflict in the real world, there’s conflict online – and the fact it’s very difficult to know who’s attacking you.
If you want to find out what you missed you can watch it on BBC’s iPlayer until 27th Feb, although it’s only available if you’re in the UK (blame the BBC, I love the internet, please don’t hate me).
This week’s BBC Click was, not surprisingly, focused on Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As the biggest mobile conference the world has to offer this is where handset manufacturers, network carriers and even software companies set our their stall both present and future.
