O2 has branched out further into the provision of free advertising funded wi-fi by signing a five year deal with McDonalds to provide the free internet access in tehir 1,200 UK restaurants, users will have to sign up initially via a straight forward procedure and will then be able to access the service from the participating restaurants UK wide and any other O2 Wi-Fi hotspot.

The fact that users will primarily be signing up with their mobile devices means that their will be some advertising funded occasional promotional messages and texts to fund this offer.

“O2 announced its Wi-Fi rollout in January of 2011, along with an advertising-supported model that requires users to sign up with their mobile phone numbers to receive “relevant, timely content”.

Wi-Fi on the go:

McDonald’s had introduced free Wi-Fi back in 2007 working with The Cloud and BT Openzone, but teh fast fodo chain wants to promote a nationwide network of free and high speed wi-fi access poinst at their restairants.

Gavin Franks, managing director of O2 Wi-Fi.

“This announcement builds on the significant partnerships already secured by O2 Wi-fi in the past 12 months, enabling millions of people the length and breadth of the UK to access the internet for free whilst on the move,”

This new partnership builds on existing relationships that O2 have fostered with large UK businesses and councils such as House of Fraser, Mitchells and Butler (pub chain) and The Borough of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.

McDonald’s hopes that the O2 deal will raise network quality above what they currently expect, and with some 750,000 patrons regularly logging on, there does need to be some consideration to the future capacity as these figures are growing.

McDonald’s UK IT director Mark Fabes states:

“Recent figures showed that a staggering 750,000 McDonald’s customers are logging on in our restaurants each month and we are always looking for ways to improve our customer experience,”.

Source: TechWeekEurope

As much as I dislike BT in many ways, I can not help but sense that they are the only ones looking to invest some real time and money into the roll out of 4G across the UK, this includes first of all giving UK customers a decent Wi-Fi experience, and with this in mind it seems that they have now hit a milestone of 3.5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK and Republic Of Ireland….mainly donated by you of course!

Those hotspots by location:

[arrowlist]

• 380,000 in London
• 25,000 in Leeds
• 25,000 in Birmingham
• 20,000 in Manchester
• 20,000 in Edinburgh
• 20,000 in Sheffield
• 11,000 in Liverpool
• 11,000 in Brighton
• 11,000 in Bristol
• 11,000 in Cardiff
• 320,000 in Scotland
• 170,000 in Wales

[/arrowlist]

BT’s consumer managing director John Petter said:

“Millions of BT broadband customers are enjoying free access to one of the biggest Wi-Fi networks in the world,”

With over 900,000 downloads for the BT hotspot app that finds the nearest connection suitable for your mobile device (to paying BT customers) it woudl seem to be a success in terms of numbers, but is the experience any good?

Well reports are mixed but I have to say fair play to the company, at least they are trying to push technology where others are more cautious in a share and share a like kind of manner….who cares so long as it works.

The hotspots are currently free to BT’s six million home and business broadband subscribers and the new BlackBerry App will provide users with easier hotspot login. BT has released apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices which locate and connect customers to their nearest BT hotspot.

You can now ever get Wi-Fi underground at Charing Cross as a subterranean trial gets under way as well as 100 pubs in the London area after a deal with Heineken.

Are you happy to let your own BT wireless connection be used as part of the growing network in order to get your free access?

Are you waiting patiently for the slightly more advanced Lumia 900 which is due to arrive on UK shores soon, well you may be interested to know that the date for its arrival looked like it would be in June according to many reports and shots of the carphonewarehouse website.

Unfortunately for the Nokia fiends among you T3 has shown that this page has in fact been pulled and this leaves the UK release date of the Nokia Lumia 900 up in the air again.

Nokia Lumia 900 Specs:

[arrowlist]

• Windows Phone Tango Operating System.
• 800 x 480 pixels screen resolution
• 4.3 inch Multi Touchscreen Display with Corning Gorilla Glass
• Size:125.5 x 65.8 x 9 mm.
• 1.4Ghz processor with 1GB RAM.
• Connectiviy:3G,Wi-Fi,microUSB,Bluetooth.
• HD Video recording & playback.
• 16GB of internal memory.
• FM Radio with Recording.
• 3.5 mm jack audio jack

[/arrowlist]

With the Nokia Lumia 900 getting a release at CES 2012 it was shown to be a pretty sizable beast coming in with a larger 4.3 inch display and an upgraded (we hope) battery, it also brings in 4G LTE support.

Windows Phone 7 still needs a bit of a kick start and while there are growing applications in their own marketplace, they are still leaps and bounds away from Apples offerings or the Android marketplace and I am personally unsure just how many app developers are looking at this alternative currently, my hunch is less than Microsoft would like despite little sweeteners to encourage more to join.

Why are the UK getting a 4G enabled smartphone anyway?

Some were questioning why we the UK would be getting a 4G enabled smartphone when we are so far off even deciding on a date to have the UK 4G spectrum auction, never mind actually roll out a full service to customers.

So it seems likely that the Nokia Lumia 900 handset should get released sometime this year and will be a 3G enabled device, with the Windows phone team getting cocky about the speed with which they can boot up facebook with their Smoked By A Windows Phone Crap….woopty f**ing woo….:)

I wonder if the impressive sounding (kind of) shipping figures will result in actual sales, as I hear mixed reports coming out about these figures.

Do not get me wrong I think Windows and Nokia could be on to a winner here in the long term, I have used a Lumia 800 and feel it makes Android look like one of those crap phones your Mum buys from Tesco/Walmart and claims she has bought an iPhone for £30.

Of course I fully understand their tactics and fair play to them, and good luck.

Minus the usual Ericsson name attached, Sony will be releasing the Sony Xperia S in the UK on the 30th of January, we finally have an update of the date courtesy of Play.com and it looks set to cost around £429.99 with VAT and SIM-Free.

With CES being the showcase for the Sony device we think with the feature and spec it has on offer that it will be a welcome new addition to the Android family though some may be disappointed that it will arrive with only a Gingerbread operating system with ICS promised some time after the initial release.

<h3.Who will carry the device?

The usual few will be carrying the Sony Xperia S, including:

[arrowlist]

• O2
• Three
• T-Mobile
• Orange
• Phones4U (offering exclusive white version)

[/arrowlist]

The talk is that Vodafone is not going to be adding it to their stock range but time will tell on that.

So what do I think of the Sony Xperia S?

Looks wise it looks great in product shots, nice and slim, powerful with a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor and with a sizable 4.3 inch LCH HD screen it is also impressive to look at, the camera is a huge 12 MP and it shoots in 720p.

But as is mentioned in the original article, this year is now all about the quad core smartphone and (hopefully) making phones a bit bigger so they can contain a larger battery, slim size zero smartphones are so 2011. Hopefully we can start using our phones as we want without fear of no life remaining in them after only a few hours.

So maybe for those reasons this device may be the last of a dying bred, albeit a sweet looking device and top of its class, it looks likely to get superseded pretty much as soon as it comes out by other beasts on the way.

All that said, bloody nice phone though, what do you think?

Tomorrow will see the UK release of the white version of the popular Samsung Galaxy Note, the padphone that many users say they love.

White Samsung Galaxy Note John Lewis:

Currently only exclusive to John Lewis on Oxford Street, you will need to be paying a visit to London in order to get yourself one of these slightly more chic devices.

The first 100 sold will also benefit from a few goodies thrown in, these will include £250 worth of films, music and books.

Later on in February more stockists throughout teh UK will get access to the white device so there is perhaps less of an impetus to get your ass down to London’s West End if you are hell bent on owning one of these smartphones

Simon Stanford, managing director, Samsung UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division.

“At Samsung we always want to offer our customers choice and are delighted to bring the Galaxy Note in white to the UK, the Galaxy Note is an innovative addition to the Samsung Galaxy family and a new category of device that consumers can’t get anywhere else.”

When we reviewed the Note we thought that the device was just (and we mean just) on the right side of big, but all in all loved the slightly confused smartphone.

With its Super AMOLED screen at 5.3 inches you can see why there are issues around size, but with great features such as the stylus pen and fast 1,4 Ghz dual core processor, with a stable Android 2.3 and a big meaty 8 mega pixel camera, it is a worthy device to consider if you are indeed in the market for a new smartphone.

I expect the device to retail at around £400 – £450, but have no actual prices just yet.

We have covered the issue of the Quad Core ASUS transformer prime Ice Cream Sandwich update problems and issues using 3G, and WiFi freezes on the device before this article (as well as pretty much every other Android device that has gone for the ICS update), so what has changed in the UK to warrant an update for owners of the relatively new ASUS device?

ASUS UK offer refunds:

Well, it appears that ASUS in the UK have dug deep and now come up with a pretty fair package, if your unhappy with your Transformer Prime, simply take it back for a full refund.

You can not say fairer than this but it has been at the cost of lots of friction and perhaps a tarnished reputation for ASUS in the UK as the Ice Cream Sandwich update has just been a total disaster for so many, there have been apologies from ASUS, attempts to fix the problems, and now a promise of a full refund if you are indeed pi***ed off with the ICS update plague.

As an Apple owner there is a rule to never ever get an iTunes update or Mac O/S update straight away, it is not that Android is inherently buggy, it is just that the fragmentation of the Android marketplace leaves much more room for errors on differing devices, and the first releases of new O/S’s may well (as can be seen) have many issues that need resolving over a short period, despite testing prior to release.

ASUS offer extended warranty:

ASUS are going one step further though and if you wish to keep your device they will now extend their warranty to 18 months in order to alleviate any worries that may surface now or after with this crappy update!

The UK’s shadow minster for media Helen Goodman has been sharply critical of the UK governments handling of the UK 4G auction that is expected at the end of this year.

UK taxpayers losing out:

The Labour Councilor claims that UK taxpayers are losing out the longer the auction drags on, According to Goodman, money raised form the auction should be bringing in some £2 billion and £4 billion in capital, and with license fees expected to bring in some £300 million per year, the UK is seemingly short changed the longer this process drags on.

There is also a knock effect to the UK economy with improved communication and speeds meaning increased productivity and associated revenues.

In a statement related to the issue, the minister said,

“The auction could have taken place in 2010 but this government decided not to give Ofcom the backup to go ahead with the sale of 4G,”

She then went on to state that with so many mobile and internet users in rural areas looking for improved communication options, the delay was not helping these people either get online with faster speeds or have an improved mobile device that will help to bring them more freedom with communication but also more revenue for the government.

Networks to blame:

It is thought that that the battle to gain the best possible license between the networks is at the heart of the delays coupled with the delayed responses from government, as a result it looks likely that one of the biggest countries in Europe will actually be the last country to gain a 4G spectrum option.

Kettle black?:

This statement could be construed as sounding pretty rich, coming from an ex government who got some £23 billion from the sale of the 3G spectrum and to which the UK taxpayer now seems to be pretty seriously in the red despite….who cares about a few hundred million now…!?

With the demand for mobile data expected to increase by 500% over the next five years in Western Europe, 4G is seen as the next step in offering speed and efficiency in delivering the kind of services we all expect for our mobile devices.

With the UK going pretty much fully digital by the end of this year, spectrum in the currently used 800MHz range is now becoming free, and along with a 2.6GHz band, will be auctioned off in Q4 of this year to networks to help facilitate 4G mobile services.

Ofcom amend original ideas about 4G:

Ofcom have amended their 4G spectrum coverage quota to include coverage to at least 98% of the UK population.

Could this finally mean that the UK eventually gets a 4G network that the globe can admire, while the UK currently languishes behind with pilot projects and can only look at areas such as the US and Asia with anticipation, Ofcom aim to bring 4G mobile to the masses some time soon.

Speaking about the decision an Ofcom spokesperson states:

“We are proposing a significant enhancement of mobile broadband, extending 4G coverage beyond levels of existing 2G coverage – helping to serve many areas of the UK that have traditionally been undeserved by network coverage.”

So how will Ofcom do this?

Ofcom want to be seen to promote two things;

Competition in the marketplace, and coverage for UK citizens who want access to high speed mobile internet.

Instead of forcing network operators to deliver the originally proposed 95% coverage to the UK population, which was the original guidelines for at least one of the networks who gained access to the 800MHz frequencies.

Idea number 1:

Ofcom will now possibly extend that requirement to a larger 98% UK coverage stipulation, this aims to make networks continue to build infrastructure in less economically viable areas which will benefit those who are living in such regions.

The extra coverage requirement comes on the back of a donation made by the UK government of £150 million to build extra infrastructure in these “hard to reach” or “economically less viable” areas, so Ofcom are hoping to make the networks add to this original percentage rather than take from this seemingly helpful situation.

Idea number 2:

This idea could be used in conjunction with the above proposals and would mean that one of the 800Mhz operators would have to provide 4G coverage that at least matched 2G coverage but also extended into the less viable areas.

Ofcom want current competitiveness to stay the same:

“The UK benefits from being one of the most competitive mobile phone markets in Europe. This means that consumers pay less for mobile communications services and have the choice to shop around for packages that suit them best. As the UK enters a new generation of mobile communications, Ofcom’s objective is to promote effective competition and to stimulate both investment and innovation.”

Ofcom believe that the UK need at least four network wholesalers of mobile services need to be in the UK marketplace to ensure that the price stays competitive in the marketplace.

Everything everywhere unhappy:

In the new proposals, Ofcom have also halted plans to reserve some of the sub 1GHz spectrum for Everything Everywhere, one of the three big wholesalers of mobile services in the UK.

Everything everywhere has said that they are unhappy that Ofcom have failed to realise the importance of the sub 1GHz spectrum which they say could be used to

“The importance of sub 1GHz spectrum, which delivers service and cost benefits, has been recognised by other regulators across Europe and supported by economic analysis. All of the regulators bar Ofcom have made vigorous efforts to support healthy and sustainable competition by ensuring that the imbalance of sub 1GHz holdings is redressed.”

Ofcom also stated that the are looking into reserving some of the spectrum from a fourth national wholesaler other than, Telefonica, Everything Everywhere, Vodafone.

A Three spokesperson said:

“Today’s proposals appear to be a pragmatic step towards bolstering the prospects of a competitive market for mobile data which would benefit all UK consumers.”

A Vodafone spokesperson said:

“We welcome Ofcom’s revised proposals, which bring the UK closer to a fair and open auction that will benefit the wider economy, increase competition and ultimately lead to the creation of innovative and exciting new services for consumers.”

An O2 spokesman said:

“It is good to see Ofcom’s latest publication, which details modifications in its terms for the forthcoming spectrum auction. This comes as a result of the first consultation process, which we took the opportunity to contribute to.”

4G will mean money for the Government:

The UK government is expected to make around £3-4 billion from the new eventual auction of the spectrum available late this year or early next year.

Ofcom is also no longer looking at reserving some of the 800Ghz spectrum to a 4th bidder in the most valuable of spectrum spaces on offer.

You may have already heard of Anonymous, Lulzsec and other online so called “hacktivists” that seemingly cause havoc on large organisation that they have moral issues with.

With a new mission called Operation AntiSec, all the above Hacktivist groups, and others, are engaged in trying to outdo others by taking down prominent online assets of organisations that they have issues with

Target of the Xmas period for Anonymous: Stratfor.

Strafor is a global intelligence provider based in Austin Texas who came to prominence in the late 90’s after covering the war in .

The lunatics have taken over the asylum:

So you would have thought that being secure online was second nature for such a company, you know, ensuring that credit card details of members was locked under high end encryption, and passwords were not created with such simple terms as the name of the company or other lazy choices?

Well no, it would appear that one of the globe’s most respected authorities on all things security, does not encrypt passwords, and apparently allows the most basic of hacking tools to enter their databases and retrieve information such as credit card details and password to email accounts.

So how is their website currently looking weeks after the attack:

“As you may know, an unauthorized party illegally obtained and disclosed personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our subscribers.

We are currently investigating this unfortunate event and are working diligently to prevent it from ever happening again. As a result, we have delayed restoring our website until we can perform a thorough security review. Stay tuned for our relaunch.

In the meantime, our main concern is the impact on our customers. As a result, we have provided paid subscribers with identity protection coverage from CSID, a leading provider of global identity protection, at our expense for 12 months.”

Robin Hood tactics may cost charities money:

Now I personally like the fact that a group such as Anonymous expose huge organisations as to how crap they actually are in many areas, but reports of taking money off client credit cards and placing this into charities sounds like a funny prank.

If time is money then it would seem that the charities affected will have to cough up, with very little chance of compensation, and this may end up being quite costly for the charities affected, in all honesty, I am unsure this is morally acceptable.

So who was affected in UK and US defence positions after this hacking expose:

It appears that from the US there were some 173 individuals who are serving in Afghanistan who had details published about their affiliations with Stratfor along with information about the vice-president Dan Quayle and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

The UK had some 221 people affected including military officials and 242 NATO staff, as well as advisor’s to Britain’s Joint Intelligence Organisation, who are a group who report on sensitive information directly to the Prime minister David Cameron.

So who was affected in total?

The data that was obtained also contained around 850,000 email addresses and passwords to people who had subscribed to the site, as well as 19,000 email addresses which belonged to US military personnel.

As ell as email and password data, 75,000 subscribers has their credit card numbers and addresses revealed.

All in all quite a bonanza of data easily scraped from an unsecured database run by a high end security agency, are you worried?

Recent work:

Anonymous have also been involved in other politically motivated attacks on companies and states that they feel need exposing as cruel or against their own perceived ideals of right and wrong.

So last Summer, we have had the widespread targeting of companies who have made Wikileaks’ life difficult, so Paypal received a DDoS attack last year in a targeted attack aimed at stopping the processing company from being able to run its website, after the blocked payments for donations from Wikileaks via tehir system.

And in recent times, Syria’s Ministry of Defence has been hit with a defacement of their website after the anonymous hackers took the side of protesters of the bloody crackdown imposed on them by government and military officials in the country

So what do you think of these “hacktivist” group(s)?

Useful highlighters of issues that need addressing?

Or, pesky nuisances that need to think more clearly about the way they do things for fear of causing more problems than they perhaps hope to highlight and solve?

We have heard rumours that the UK arrival of the Amazon Kindle Fire will be some time soon, with varying release dates ranging from the end of January right up to March being tipped as the correct release schedule.

We have already done a review of the Amazon Kindle Fire, and found that the device certainly had its plus points.

One of which was the obvious price level that it was being sold at, coupled with access to a huge Amazon owned eco-system and their own version of Android running the tablet.

It seems like a great alternative to more costly versions of tablets running the Android O/S, and obviously Apples own premium priced iPad 2.

Amazon sell millions of Kindle Fires over Xmas:

With Amazon selling upwards of five million units so far, it will be interesting to see if the same success is replicated in the UK.

This will likely come down in many ways to what price level they decide to sell the tablet at.

On the amazing sales so far of the Kindle Fire, Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO and co-founder states:

“We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle,”

Amazon Kindle Fire or iPad 3?

Of course this is an unfair comparison in many ways, but just ask yourself the question:

If you were given the choice of waiting for the arrival of the next iPad 3 release, or probably waiting a shorter period of time and saving yourself a couple of hundred pounds in the process on top, which would you choose?

That is assuming that there is only one version of the new iPad being launched. As we hear there is a strong chance that two variations of the next iPad will be offered, with one cut-price version attempting to compete with the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire which will undoubtedly be eating away at Apples bottom line now that it is fully unleashed.

Let us know your thoughts below.

Research in motion released the Blackberry Playbook tablet to UK audiences in June last year, and we have already reported on how the Playbook price cut in the US aimed to get rid of their old stock.

UK buyers see RIM Playbook price reduction also:

Now UK consumers can benefit from RIM’s decision to “get rid”, as they have seemingly reduced the unit price for retailers in the UK, as most we have looked into are selling the models at varying prices from:

[arrowlist]

• £169,99 for the 16GB playbook
• £199,99 for the 32GB playbook
• £329,99 for the 64GB playbook

[/arrowlist]

UK buyers will have sliding price scale it seems:

As RIM do not sell their playbook tablets via their online store in the UK, and only go through high street and online retailers. It is interesting to see that the blanket price that US buyers received for their playbook tablets has not been passed onto UK consumers.

I am personally unsure if this is UK retailers and networks cashing in on what you would normally expect the price range to be, or just a reflection of the relationship that UK businesses have with the Canadian firm.

In the US, the playbooks are ALL selling for $299, for the 16GB tablet, right up to the 64GB model.

So what do you think of this deal, would you still like to get onto the Blackberry bandwagon when you have a choice of iOS or Android as an alternative to the RIM operating system.

There is no doubt that the price looks attractive, but with Amazon due to release their Kindle Fire in the UK some time soon, is it really all that attractive when there are so many options out there with perhaps better eco-systems.

We covered the arrival of the $45 Aakash tablet computer a while ago and were pleasantly surprised at the ingenuity and desire of UK based Datawind to bring computing to the masses in rural India as well as in more populated areas.

Two weeks in and talk of new factories being needed:

Amazingly at only two weeks into selling the tablet online, Datawind have said that demand for the tablet is in the region of 100,000 per day, and they have a pre-order totalling some 400,000, to keep up with demand they are looking to create three new factories, and will also be looking to release a new model in mid January. This will be a slightly more powerful 700Mhz processor and will have a SIM card slot and the ability to access GPRS and 2G connections.

Aakash Ubislate 7:

The new tablet will be named the Aakash Ubislate 7 and cost around 3000 Rupee compared to the Aakash’s price tag of 2500 Rupee, and the new device is quite simply a natural progression in terms of specification on offer from the company who are there to help the Indian population move forward in the mobile technology sector that is so prevalent in many other countries.

And with India being only second to China in terms of population, each person may not have the largest amount of disposable income but the market is so huge that this reduced level of value per person still offers rich gains for those who can go in at a lower price and offer the same kind of services that more developed countries come to expect.

Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, says:

“We never expected such a high response from both corporate and individual buyers. We plan to supply 70,000-75,000 units per day once the factories are in place by April,”

Emergency on day one of selling online:

Indeed the demand for India’s cut price tablet is that huge that on the first day of selling the tablet online they were informed by India’s computer emergency response team that the site was probably under a cyber attack, such was the high traffic shitting the site due to the demand for the new tablet.

With the iPad costing around 30,000 rupees it is easy to see why many people in India can not afford this high end model, and Datawind have obviously found a decent price level that will satisfy a large proportion of the people in the rural and city areas.

Who owns this tablet and can you please tell us your thoughts if you do, we would love to hear about it from the source so to speak.

We all know that mobile technology is white hot right now, but the figures that are being released on a monthly basis make for seriously interesting reading.

Smartphone ownership doubles:

Smartphone ownership in the UK is now at 37% which is nearly double the figure from the same period in 2010.

In July 2011, Ipsos MORI polled over 1,000 people over the age of 15 and asked them about their smartphone and tablet ownership and how they use these devices.

Some of the findings show that owners of iPhones and Blackberrys are generally under 35, and in the UK both manufacturers have around 13% of the market share.

16% of adults are now accessing the internet via a TV.

The iPad and tablet market is still relatively young in comparison, with just 6% of the adult population owning one, though 7% of males over 35 own one, perhaps showing that gadgets are still a “mans” thing by and large.

The way we access the internet is changing dramatically:

Over 1/3 of UK adults access the internet using their mobile devices, with people citing the desire to check their email as the main reason they go online and we assume this will hold true for PC and mobile.

We have already discussed the growth in Internet access from mobile devices and how this is killing the humble PC.

This trend can only continue, as we ditch our PC’s and start using our mobile devices to access the internet wherever we are.

I expect this data to have an upward trend in most areas.

The nine month long trial is starting this week and will run up until the summer of 2012 when the Olympics will be in town. The areas covered will be the most densely populated parts of the capital and will include: Canary Wharf, Soho, Westminster, South Bank and Kings Cross. This will take in 25 base stations and will put O2 firmly on the map as pioneers for the UK in terms of a 4G LTE network.

O2 UK chief Ronan Dunne said in a statement.

“Today’s launch of the UK’s first 4G London trial network demonstrates our commitment to delivering 4G to our customers at the earliest opportunity, the work we are doing now will lay the foundations for our commercial 4G network when it launches in the UK.”

But is this really 4G or a “just passed version”?

LTE was not considered part of the 4G criteria until December last year when the ITU said that LTE and WiMax and “other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third-generation systems now deployed”.

Basically they were saying that until 4G proper comes along you can now market this technology as 4G, even though it is more closely related to improved 3G.

LTE 4G a bit of a con?

Unlike LTE advanced which will offer around 100mbps and should be able to work “in motion” the o2 trial of LTE in London starting this week will only offer half those speeds and will still struggle “in motion”….this basically means that using the connection while walking or travelling in your car will be problematic in the main.

Those who are involved in the trail will be using mobile dongles from Samsung: model: B3730 which are supposed to support speeds up to a huge 100 Mbps. Portable hotspots and headsets will also be trialled, they will utilise the 2.6Ghz spectrum which is said to be capable of delivering speed of up to 150 Mbps.

Mobile Vidoecalls and HDTV to the masses?

With the pressure on data rates being pushed all the time, there are current limitations that occur for the average user when they are out and about. One of the main power hungry platforms is video. The move to improve the amount of data that can be transferred on a mobile connection will be welcome news to TV lovers and networks.

4 year delay caused by disagreements between networks including o2:

4G was suppose to be available in the UK in 2008, yes 4/5 years ago, and it still looks like the spectrum will not be put on the wholesale market for another year or more after these tests and other issues between mobile networks are resolved.

Who is involved in the trial?

The O2 trial will use technology from Nokia Siemens and also Cambridge Broadband Networks and NEC, with other smaller “trials” already taking place in the UK in Cornwall and Slough earlier this year it is not until the London trials really bring in some hard data that companies can finally see how the technology has worked on a mass scale in a dense urban environment where its ability to pass through buildings due to the particularly high bandwidth offered at this frequency will be of serious interest to businesses and consumers.

The trial will bring in the John Lewis department store, members of the institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and people visiting the o2 arena in London’s Docklands.

UK behind on 4G and costs business nearly £1 Billion a year

With the UK languishing behind the US, Australia and Germany with the 4g roll out, an Open Digital study has claimed that UK businesses are losing out on more than £730 million a year in productivity due to the slow introduction of 4G to the UK.

With the US launch of Google TV last October, the service and device was expected to be available in the UK late last year also, however the updated schedule now for the UK arrival is within 6 months, so some time in late winter or early spring of 2012 seems to be the best guess.

How does Google TV (GTV) work?

Google TV works on the set top box principle which is connected to your TV and internet, this then allows users with an internet connection access to a multitude of services from traditional TV networks right through to catch up services online from video hosting sites such as YouTube which Google obviously own, and in the UK this will include online catch up services such as iPlayer and ITV player.

Smartphone or voice activation acts as remote control if desired:

Once connected, users are able to switch between watching content on the traditional TV and Internet with one click, access to services such as TV guides will also be controlled by a remote control, and this can come in the form of a voice activated command or a smartphone with a Google TV application running on it that turns the device into a smart remote control.

This is distinctly different from watching TV on your computer obviously.

The Edinburgh film festival seems likely to be the venue that will hear of the news in more detail, when Eric Schmidt the executive chairman of Google will address the crowd.

HD YouTube service to be available:

It is highly likely that with broadband speeds increasing on average each year, Google will include a special HD version of YouTube that can be accessed via GTV (Google TV) boxes, whether this will be true HD or more likely a highly compressed version remains to be seen.

Android O/S will be the software behind the Google set top box and Chrome will be the browser of choice to browse the Internet, there will also be access to applications for download that may offer services such as previews, TV guides and perhaps even greater connectivity with live shows.

It seems likely that the new Google TV developers platform will pave the way for much more integration of applications to the user experience and will tie in nicely if all goes to plan for the UK arrival.

Content issues in the US – Will the UK have the same problems:

The US film, music and TV industry is not particularly known for looking forward in current digital times especially if it’s power is under threat. And while the US do produce some excellent examples of TV dramas (HBO) and have a plethora of high production value news, comedy and drama networks and production houses and access to a huge film industry, the disappointing fact for Google is that US networks have not been particularly keen to jump on board this new technology.

Why? Most likely for fear of losing control of an unknown distribution model compared to the traditional current models that are both trusted and measurable avenues for content distribution and monetisation, with associated advertising revenues that shareholders and account teams keep close tabs on.

The UK industry is quite a different beast. Known for its more diverse output, and resting on publicly funded institutions like the BBC and Channel 4, the TV industry in the UK is lead by innovation for the people much more than the largely corporate US TV industry which is lead more by profit and margins. This unfortunately for most American citizens leads to fairly sub standard viewing experience and a hell of a lot of ad breaks unless you opt for paid services such as HBO which are in another league and almost lead the way in quality production values, casting and creativity globally.

Contacts already signed in the UK:

It appears that signed contracts with both Channel 4 and 5 and inherent access to BBC iPlayer and ITV player (two free to access services developed to watch TV online) will be major draws for people when it comes to choosing Google TV.

Schmidt has spoken more openly about the opportunities that the UK television industry seems to be presenting to Google:

“I have always been a profound optimist about the potential for technology to improve people’s lives – though I am also a realist and understand it can be immensely disruptive in the process. So I look forward to discussing the opportunities and challenges ahead for the TV industry in Edinburgh.”

Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola and Sage TV could mean new technology for the UK:

With Google taking over Motorola mobility earlier this week, the options to manufacture a new set top box have increased, so there could be a new rethink to how Google deliver there IPTV services.

So all things considered, what are your thoughts on Google TV, an unnecessary box in the corner of the room, or a new revolution bringing a potentially more connected TV viewing experience to the masses?

Revenues And Customs Web Robot To Hunt Tax Cheats

HMRC’s new “connect” computer system helped to track down issues with incorrect tax liabilities from 2008-2010 has brought in a little brother to help monitor online tax dodgers. termed “Bots On The Prowl” we look at what this means for the average Joe using the web to earn a little more money.

Reports have been numerous about the poor level of service that the tax office has been producing for the last few years, and this looks like a way to let automation help in some way with the management of a modern countries tax system, now so much is online.

Web robots to scour the web for tax evaders on Ebay, and Gumtree.

In a seemingly open gesture by The Tax arm of Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs HMRC’s Director of Risk and Intelligence Mr Wells said:

“By being open about our areas of interest for the coming year we hope to maximise that exchange of information and ensure we reduce the tax gap and help customers pay what they owe.”

Wells went on to say:

“It will be more expensive if we come and find people, so I urge them to come forward and disclose voluntarily.”

Moonlighting clampdown:

So for sake of argument if you were working in an office doing your 9-5 salaried job five days a week and in your spare time selling a few phones on Ebay or Gumtree, teaching piano lessons privately or putting up wallpaper for cash in hand etc these seem to be the people the HMRC want to find.

If you are not declaring this in your personal self assessment tax form at the end of the year, you would likely be looked into closer if you were found by the new robots that look for cross correlations of names and data that tie up existing anomalies with a persons financial situation.

The kind of people the HMRC are looking into are traders online, and private tutors who offer there services online but can hide behind a vagueness currently.

What about big business and their clever tax avoidance schemes that cost us many more billions a year?

Shall we all forget the HUGE amount of tax avoidance that is flaunted in front of our faces by the high street businesses that claim they need to stay competitive?

Vodafone, HSBC, Tesco, this list goes on and on, but we need them dont we, they provide us with love and goods and services we simply have to purchase…..bollocks.

Question of data privacy?

I just wonder to what level they are going to snoop, if they are actually going to look at bank accounts and email and IP addresses of traders and advertisers, this leaves a lot of privacy questions to be answered.

If however they are simply looking for adverts with blatant information…..John Smiths Piano Lessons – 16 The High Street, Dagenham, Call for best prices, etc.

Then we wonder if this robot would be as easy to avoid as simply never giving too much detail away on the actual advert or in your accounts on Ebay or Gumtree.

Or should “moonlighters” say that we have a subsidiary in Bermuda and that this is why we pay only around 60+% of everything we earn from our main job into the HMRC coffers (VAT, N.I, Duties, Income Tax).

The excuse to give the HMRC:

Due to the Global financial situation, and utilising our strategic subsidiary in the Caribbean, we are seeking to consolidate our precious spare time and resources, making sure we as a company are as competitive as possible in a Global market, with the threat of more redundancies and possible reduced hours and pay freezes, right now, we are trying to make some extra cash in our spare time to support a family and then spend this cash on the high street, thus propping up a failing economy and not paying even more tax for the privilege. So we have decided to put all the tax we should have paid the HRMC into our account in Bermuda for a rainy day.
…its OK, we still shop at Tesco’s while are there though, and buy Tetley tea for our minuscule breaks.

Until things are a little more fair in this country I can not help but fight for the guy on the street trying to make a bit of extra pin money to lead a decent life.

Rant over…best to pay your taxes though!

Ask Al.