Category: Columns & Opinion
Music is worthless
Gary Cutlack Writes…
Now hang on. I don’t mean the last Muse album was rubbish, so don’t go slagging me off just yet. This column’s actually going to be about how the internet has devalued music, making it a boring, worthless, pointless investment.
Opinion: BlackBerry on the beach? Keep gadgets sand-free and have an iRest
Andy Merrett writes… A recently published survey suggests that a third of Britons take their BlackBerrys and laptops on holiday with them, with three-quarters taking a work telephone call and 60% sending a work-related email. I think we all know…
Opinion: I Facebook therefore I am… but when did it get so complicated?
Andy Merrett writes…
Oh no, not another opinion piece about Facebook?
Yes, Facebook is now almost as ubiquitously talked about in non-geek circles as the iPhone or the iPod, or Potter’s latest escapades.
Irritating isn’t it?
Oh sure, Facebook is now the fastest growing social network for over-25s in the UK (much to the disgust of their kids, I imagine), but when did it start getting complicated?
No, the system’s not technically difficult to use – that’s the whole point and is why you shouldn’t really be taken aback when your gran adds you as a friend, however wrong that might feel socially.
What’s more complicated is managing all these pesky applications.
The Ten Tech Trends that will define 2007
By definition, technology is always evolving faster than any expert can keep up with it, no matter how much of a boffin they are. But right now, in 2007, the pace of change feels more rapid than ever.
Around us, consumer technology products are evolving, converging and spawning new gadgets like mad. Simply keeping up with the main developments is an exhausting (not to mention expensive) process. Still, that doesn’t stop us trying. In recent weeks, I’ve been analysing the ten consumer technology trends that I think are going to be most interesting in the second half of 2007.
Opinion: Can Blu movies make HD exciting?
Jonathan Weinberg writes… IS anyone else bored to tears with the whole Blu-ray v HD-DVD debate. I know I am. Rival film studios and techno firms are falling over themselves to tell us how great their particular new format is,…
Opinion: Social networking sites bring people closer, but what happens when you break up?
Katherine Hannaford writes…
Several months into what my mother would deem a ‘casual courtship’ – you know, those brief days/weeks/months/years (oh, I pity you in that extremity), when the officiality of your lip-locking has as yet not been classified, he popped the question. “Would it be ok if I changed my relationship status on Facebook to ‘in a relationship’?”, he asked. I didn’t need to hesitate twice – after all, not only was [redacted] an amazing guy, but with a pitch like that, how could I refuse. Yes, it was the perfect way for one geek to ask a fellow geek if she’ll always be there on his couch to watch re-runs of X-Files and battle over Wario Ware and Rez…
Opinion: I don't care WHO gets the iPhone in Europe, as long as it's 3G
Stuart Dredge writes…
The speculation about who’s going to be selling Apple’s iPhone here in Europe is already rather tiresome. A couple of weeks ago, Vodafone was the cast-iron certainty, yet earlier this week it was T-Mobile, and now apparently it’s O2.
Opinion: Ad-supported music downloads hit all the wrong notes
Stuart Dredge writes…
The music biz is an industry in search of a viable business model right now. Figures released by the IFPI earlier this week showed that while legal music downloads rose 85% last year, that growth was outweighed by an 11% drop in physical CD sales – meaning that overall, global music revenues fell by 5%, which represents more than a billion dollars less than in 2005.
Opinion: Thinking Manhunt 2 should be banned DOESN'T make you a reactionary idiot
Stuart Dredge writes…
The British Board of Film Classification’s recent decision to Manhunt 2 banned in the UK for “sustained and cumulative casual sadism”“>refuse a certificate for Manhunt 2 – thus banning it from sale in the UK – has caused a predictably huge uproar among gamers and the mainstream media.
Opinion: Gadgets aren't a green issue
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
I’m green – but not in the way all those leftie liberals out there would like me to be. I’m green because I feel sick, sick because some nutters now think my Sony Bravia is responsible for global warming. Do I really need to apologise to the people of South Yorkshire for the damage my TV has done to their flooded homes? Water load of bilge!
