Category: Top stories
Top 20 ways to embarrass yourself on Bebo, Facebook or MySpace
It’s a hard life being a British tennis player. You’re constantly being compared unflatteringly to Tim Henman, you have to schlep around the world’s minor tournaments before going out in the first round at Wimbledon, and worst of all, you can’t boast about your burger and cider habits on Bebo without getting suspended by the Lawn Tennis Association. Harumph.
However, it’s not just tennis pros who are getting caught out. Social networks are meant to bring us closer together – which they do – but they’re also a minefield of potential shame and embarrassment. Here’s 20 more ways you can come a cropper – you get a prize if you’ve done more than ten of ’em.
1. Get dropped by your hard-partying kebab-munching friends when they read your Bebo profile and realise you’re really a teetotal fitness-focused tennis professional.
2. Reveal yourself as a two-faced hypocrite by praising both pirates AND ninjas on your Facebook profile. For shame.
Liveblog: Blyk promises free mobile calls funded by advertising
Heard of Blyk? You will. It’s a new ‘virtual’ mobile operator targeted at young people, which plans to offer free voice-call minutes in return for users filling out surveys and accepting targeted advertising.
The company is announcing its UK launch this morning, so I’m here liveblogging it. The latest entries are below, while clicking over the jump takes you to a full chronological report.
10.03: And we’re done. Here’s the basics: Blyk launches today in the UK, and it’ll be offering users free voice calls and texts in return for receiving text and MMS advertisements. It’s got over 40 brands signed up, including the likes of McDonalds, Coke, L’Oreal and NatWest.
You can only sign up if you’re aged 16-24, although when those 24 year-olds turn 25, they’ll be allowed to stay on. And there’s an authentication system to weed out older people masquerading as young folk to get free stuff.
Old Japanese people bored of robots already
The novelty of $4,300 “communication robot” Ifbot wore off after about a month of active service in a Kyoto nursing home, with elderly residents preferring the silent, unconditional love of teddy bears.
Most old people “see robots as overly-complicated and unpractical” says Ruth Campbell, a social worker in…
PlayStation Home delayed until 2008 – and no PS3 price cut, either
Home, the sort-of Second Life online world for PlayStation3, has had its launch delayed until “Spring 2008,” according to Sony’s Japanese boss Kaz Hirai.
It’s an odd move – the beta test of Home has been running for months, and the leaked news and images of the online…
Virgin Media to trial 50Mb broadband in Ashford, Folkestone, and Dover
While many of us hobble along on 8Mb or lower broadband speeds, three towns in Kent are set to experience 50Mb broadband, courtesy of Virgin Media. The pilot scheme has already been running in Ashford, with every resident capable of…
Asia gets its hands on the gold LG Shine
Bah. LG recently announced that it’s releasing a pink Shine handset for Christmas here, but Asian markets are getting a far blingier gold edition. I feel like leading a street protest until they release it here too.
iPhone UK launch: Everything you need to know about Apple's plans
So, Steve Jobs jetted over to London for this morning’s iPhone UK launch, announcing that the handset goes on sale on 9th November exclusively on O2, costing £269 if you sign up to an 18-month contract. We’ve been covering the launch in-depth, as you’d expect.
For the basic details of the UK iPhone, read our news story. If you want to see how things panned out at the launch, check Susi’s liveblog. Meanwhile, Alex has been doing the sums to work out exactly how much a UK iPhone will cost you in the long run.
A third of social networking users enter false information to protect their identities
A growing trend amid all the Web 2.0 hype is concern over whether your MySpace or Facebook profile is a security risk. Certainly if you’re a smart identity thief, you could probably retire from rooting through dustbins, in favour of simply scanning social networks for people who give up too much information.
It seems many people are aware of this, though. A survey conducted by research firm Emedia suggests that 31% of users have entered false information on their profiles to protect their identity, while 62% say they’re worried about the safety of their personal data on these sites.
Sony AIBO-like robot, the New4LR, is open-source and speccy
Yet another robot for you, this time in the shape of a wee lil puppy. Watch women all around you swoon at the sight of it. Coochie-coochie-coo! Coochie-coochie-coo!
As your robot-savvy eyes can tell, it’s slightly Sony Aibo-like in its appearance, but has a lot more to it than what meets the eye. The German University working on the robot has developed open-source software for the product, ‘New4LR’, powered by two AMD Geode 500Mhz processors…
iPhone UK launch: £269 on O2 from 9th November, but NOT 3G
Apple has finally announced details of the iPhone’s UK launch. As expected, O2 is the exclusive operator partner, and the handset will cost £269 on this side of the pond when it goes on sale on 9th November.
