Author: Paul Lamkin
Mobile roaming charges slashed
There’s good news coming out of Brussels (don’t say this to anyone who voted UKIP) regarding mobile phone roaming charges. From July the cost of using your mobile phone abroad could be slashed by a whopping 60%.
Rules drawn up by the EU mean that the costs of a text will be cut to around 10p (€0.11 to be precise) down from the usual 25p – although I know from experience O2 charges 35p.
The costs of calls has been reduced too, although the ridiculous practice that you pay for calls received as well as those made still applies – albeit with price reductions. The cost of a call made will be cut to €0.46 a minute (work it out in pence yourselves, you lazy so-and-sos) and calls received will be €0.22 a minute. These prices will be further reduced in 2010 and 2011.
The cost of web browsing is still astronomical whilst abroad though so unless you’ve got plenty of dosh, avoid this. Prices have been reduced, but only to €1 a MB, meaning a song streamed from last.fm or a video watched via YouTube is still going to cost you a few quid.
Alternatively, sign up with Vodafone’s Passport scheme and receive free roaming for three months this summer. You simply pay the usual UK charges – have a read of this post from last month for more details. Or go direct to Vodafone.
(via Digital Lifestyles)
Facebook usernames, what will you christen yourself?
On Saturday morning at 5.01am UK time, Facebook usernames goes live. Users will have the chance to register a username which will develop a unique URL for their profile. Currently the URL is populated by random characters and the move will make it “easier for people to find and connect with you” according to Facebook.
As with any change that involves the social networking giant, the announcement has created a big debate online. Some users have been requesting the service for a while now, whereas some users are stringently against it.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the positive and negative impacts the move may cause:
Positive – The creation of usernames should improve shareability, which has got to be a good thing in terms of a social media. Instead of having to search for an individual’s actual name via Google or Facebook directly, users can now search by username – which has proved popular on other platforms like Twitter and MySpace.
It will also be much easier to give your Facebook details to new people you meet. You could even have it printed on a business card if you are really cool/sad.
It will also make it easier to link all of your social networking tools together – providing you use the same username for every platform you are registered with.
Negative – As with any change to Facebook, concerns are going to be raised about privacy and security. Protest groups have, not surprisingly, already been set up.
There are also major worries that people won’t be able to get their desired user names. Facebook has over 200million members, remember. That’s a lot of people competing to get usernames. There’s bound to be issues with username squatting as well, as there are with domain names currently.
The move also leads to comparisons with MySpace – a service that many people stopped using as the popularity of Facebook began to take hold. It could be argued that usernames are a bit of a backward step.
Either way, expect Facebook to freeze up at 5.01am on Saturday as the race begins. I’ll be awarding a gold star to anyone who manages to register ‘markzuckerberg’ as their username.
Read the full FAQs here.
118800 to give out mobile details to anyone
118800 will, from next week, begin to sell people’s mobile phone contact details to anybody who requests them.
Annoying telesales companies, charities, your ex-girlfriend who stalked you for three years or even the local ASBO kids will all be able to get hold of your details and give you a call, or even a text.
And do you know what? It’s all your fault. That’s right, because you didn’t tick that little box at the end of one of the many applications you’ve filled in, you’ve allowed your details to be passed on and you’ve effectively given up any right you had to any privacy.
For just £1 118800 will pass on your details, providing you’re one of the 15million people listed in their database.
118800 insist that people’s privacy is paramount to them and you can have your number removed from the database upon request. This sounds like a bit of a cop-out to me though, surely if they were that concerned with people’s privacy they wouldn’t be buying numbers or giving out details in the first place.
Sorry to get all Daily Mail in this post, but this has annoyed me quite a bit. For years mobile users have got away with not being pestered by unwanted phone calls. It seems that now we could be heading down the landline path, where every other phone call seemed to be someone trying to sell you something.
(via BBC)
Toshiba's new Satellite range of laptops announced
Toshiba is remaining pretty tight lipped as to the exact technical specifications of their new laptop range but we do know that all models will feature an eco utility management system that allows users to reduce the amount of energy being used. And remember, green is good kids.
Here’s a quick look at what we do know about the four models that have been announced:
A500
This looks like being the more multimedia based one of the litter. A 16-inch TruBrite HD screen, 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1366×768 resolution will be perfect for movies and games, particularly on the premium version which will have a flush screen – i.e. an edge to edge picture.
The impressive picture will be assisted by equally impressive sound – all versions will ship with Harman Kardon stereo speakers. A HD webcam that records in widescreen will also be a welcome addition to web-video creators.
The premium version is the only one which will contain a DVD drive, sadly, though. Available on all versions, however, is the Multi-Touch control pad that provides the ability to use fingers to pinch, swipe or rotate using just the trackpad – a bit like you use the iPhone screen I imagine.
Looks wise, it doesn’t look too dissimilar to the A350, which we previewed back in January although there will also be a silver version available. Also, looks like there is a little remote control in there which would be a nice touch for a multimedia machine.
U500
This looks like a scaled down version of the A500 to be honest, this time with a 13.3-inch screen which isn’t quite HD but 1280×800 WXGA instead.
Again, they’ll be a premium and a standard model with, again, only the premium containing a built in DVD drive, to go with its edge-to-edge (or “chrome-trimmed” as they’re calling it) screen.
Interestingly it will be available in “Luxe Brown” in order to “give a big impression” whilst “on the move”. Can brown ever give a big impression on the move? Err, well I suppose……
L500 and L550
I’ve lumped these two together because Toshiba has done the same in their press-release. And if they’re going to be lazy then so am I.
These are the wide screen versions, both HD, the L500 is 15.6-inch and has a resolution of 1366×768 and the L550 is a mammoth 17.3-inch and has a resolution of 1600×900.
That’s about all I know on these ones, apart from the fact that the keyboard is available in silver as well as the black as shown in the picture.
Keep your eyes peeled for further details of this range on Tech Digest, as always we’ll do our upmost to keep you all in the loop.
