Category: Columns & Opinion
Opinion: Why we should all smile as stars of CCTV
Yep, you’re right, that is an album by Hard-Fi but it’s a serious point, because a funny thing happened to me today – I went to the dentist! Nothing particular humorous in that, no you are right, but seriously I am telling the tooth! Ok, enough with the bad jokes already.
As I sat in the dentist chair, he said there was something he wanted to show me and quickly thrust it towards my mouth. I was a bit shocked but suddenly it all became clear – he’s had a techno-makeover in the surgery. And boy, what an exciting 10 minutes it was…
Opinion: Are we not clever enough to withstand Apple's spin
Jonathan Weinberg writes… Hands up who's going to be buying a new iPod after last night's announcements from San Francisco? Keep your hands up if you are all fools – and what is it they say about those and their…
World of Warcraft on console would be a disaster
Gary Cutlack writes…
I wish people would stop bleating on about getting a console version of World of Warcraft. It wouldn’t work. It’s not a console game. It requires more than six buttons and you have to type out words. It just wouldn’t work.
Opinion: The BBC should launch a DAB-enabled mobile phone with iPlayer functionality
Stuart Dredge writes…
Cor, did you see the story earlier on today, about the BBC getting into gadgets? It’s funding the development of Olinda, a prototype DAB radio with ‘social’ features, including the ability to see when one of your friends has their radio on, and tune into whatever they’re listening to.
Opinion: why I think Bluetooth Facebook is a grand (if stalker-ish) idea
Katherine Hannaford writes…
I take back every mean-spirited thing I’ve ever said about students. Yes, even on those nights out in Kingston, Hammersmith, or Clapham, when they’ve filled the gutters, emptying their stomaches of all the Snakebites they can hold, when I’ve resembled a middle-class snob, shaking my head as I pass them soberly (well, vomitless, anyway), muttering under my breath ‘damn students’.
Why am I suddenly revoking my student-hating membership card? Why, because the clever little sods have developed possibly the world’s best Facebook application. Yes, even better than the Karl Pilkington quotes app. We’re talking Bluetooth Facebook. Read on, social-networking fiends…
Opinion: Downloading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie shot with a mobile phone? Madness!
Stuart Dredge writes…
You have to feel sorry for the 21-year-old Aussie who was arrested this weekend for bootlegging The Simpsons Movie using his mobile phone, before uploading it to the internet. He probably just wanted to see if the mobile manufacturers’ promises of ‘DVD-quality video recording’ were true.
Rubbish user generated content is killing the internet – and the rest of the media world
I’m bored of simpletons videoing their mates on mobile phones, uploading it somewhere, and expecting me to somehow be impressed by this.
It’s just rubbish. The whole web – and print and TV and every other kind of media – is falling over itself to involve the audience and get them submitting stuff to pad out their sites, publications and shows for free…
Opinion: Philharmonic orchestras in Second Life? Come off it…
Stuart Dredge writes…
The biggest problem faced by classical music? The people who actually like it are all dying, and the only time The Kids are exposed to moving orchestral symphonies is if they hit the wrong button and accidentally tune into Double Clef FM in Grand Theft Auto III.
How to attract new audiences? One method is to hire a wind machine, a piano and get Myleene Klass in for another album session. Another option is *shudder* G4. And the third method is to turn your entire orchestra into avatars and have them play a concert in Second Life.
Opinion: Facebook numpties deserve to be defrauded!
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
Two days into the week and TWO Facebook security threats appear. The first in The Guardian on Monday warned secret code from FB’s inner-workings had been published on the internet prompting warnings of a security risk for users. Boring! Code, schmode, it’s far too technical.
But then this piece of wonder appeared today in The Times and it’s far more worrying, not least because everyone I know does it – and also because it involves a frog!
Freddi Staur is a cute green frog who has stolen email addresses and mobile phone numbers from users on the social network website – in an experiment to show how easily people give out their personal information to strangers…
Opinion: Welcome to widget world, Apple. What took you so long?
Stuart Dredge writes…
Hurrah for Apple! No, this isn’t another paen to the iPhone posted from Steve Jobs’ lower colon. I’m just excited about the fact that Apple has thrown its hat into the Web 2.0 bandwagon (gotta love them mixed metaphors) with the launch of My iTunes.
As we explained earlier, My iTunes is a collection of three flash-based widgets that can be embedded into your website, blog or social networking profile. They show your recent iTunes Store purchases, an artist tag cloud (again based on purchases), and music you’ve reviewed on iTunes.
