Sunday 24 July 2011

Untitled

Getting ready to edt Tech Europer http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/ for the next two weeks

Saturday 19 February 2011

High Prices Threaten to Kill Tablet Adoption

This piece echoes my feelings. Tech devices always start off expensive, then fall in price quite rapidly. So far tablet PCs haven't quite followed that trajectory. The potential 'iPad killers' that have come along so far are actually more expensive than Apple's product.

This writer suggests this may kill off the market. I doubt that. My feeling is that it's simply that manufacturers were caught flat-footed by the sales success of the iPad. After all, it's less than a year since it came to market. My guess is we're probably a year away from real competition in the form of a device which offers an experience to compete with the iPad at a significantly lower price.

Friday 18 February 2011

Real journalists can’t write - Caledonian Mercury

What is a journalist? Is it the same as a writer? Has the internet destroyed journalism or could it be its saviour?

Thursday 10 February 2011

Who says the revolution won't be televised? Just look at Aljazeera now

Actually, to be fair to Gil Scott-Heron who coined the phrase 'the revolution will not be televised', he was writing over 40 years ago. Also one of the last desperate acts of the old Muberak regime was to try and close down Aljazeera and intimidate journalists. The failure of the dictatorship to silence the media is one of the reasons the people. I hope, have won. 

 

Tuesday 8 February 2011

PR stunt bites back - Anonymous Hacks Security Firm Investigating It

Cyber law and order's always bit like the Wild West with a somewhat hazy line between goodies and baddies. There are those that break the law for the "right" reasons and those that purport to uphold the law, but employ methods that are at best morally dubious.

At the same time, often those making the money are the ones supporting the law while the outlaws make nothing. And because the whole thing's so secretive it's easy for both sides to make exaggerated claims.

It's hard not to smile when you read this story from Wired. A few days ago a US security firm claimed it was in a position to reveal the identities of some of the leaders of Anonymous, the group that's carried out cyber attacks on companies that didn't support WikiLeaks. Now Anonymous claims to have hacked the security firm to expose it's poor, er, security.

Ever been bitten by your own PR stunt?