Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the website, along with other similar social networking sites are going to help usher in a new and unprecedented trend in sharing among users, one that isn’t just real-time, but also of greater volume. He predicts that as Facebook grows ever more popular and more people continue to patronize it, people are going to share more information about themselves, their activities and their preferences.

This is quite a bit alarming since we’ve also received word that identity crime is increasing. Two things seem to be helping cyber criminals along. One is that as technology is getting more sophisticated, these criminals are becoming more cyber savvy; and two, people are sharing more and more personal information on these social networking sites, making it easy for identity thieves to access personal information and commit their brand of crime.

In the past year alone, the cost of identity crime in New Zealand has soared to $200 million - a staggering amount. National Cyber Crime Center’s Detective Sergeant John van den Heuvel said that people freely posted information on the internet – from their date of birth to their pets’ names, where they worked and what they did.

This breach in security is also compounded by the fact that these social networking sites also have weak security, and often users do not even bother to avail of that security setting, leaving them susceptible to phishing scams and identity crime.

So, a word of caution to the trigger-happy micro-blogger or the enthusiastic status-updater slash photo-poster, be careful what you share about yourself on the internet, and filter the people whom you add to your circle of friends. If you do not know them, do not add them. And if you’re not sure that the information you want to post can be compromising to you in any way, don’t post it. If you can’t help it, then familiarize yourself with the site’s privacy settings and protect yourself as much as you can.

The new DSi XL doubles as an e-book reader. Compared to the original DS, shown in white, the DSi XL shown here in pink is definitely bigger than its predecessor.

Gamer? Check.
Avid reader? Check.
Gadget enthusiast? Check.

If you’re all three, like me, you’re gonna love what NZ is welcoming to its shores this April. Nintendo is releasing the latest gadget off its production line – the Nintendo DSi XL.

Just like its incredibly popular older brother, the DS, this baby is made precisely for gamers who also want more out of their portable gadget. And with the growing popularity of e-books through Amazon’s Kindle, Nintendo has come up with the perfect marriage between games and books.

Now, it could be argued that there are plenty of other devices already in the market that can offer exactly what the DSi XL is offering only recently. Fact though, is that it has already offered it before in previous versions of the DSi and the DS, but here’s why we like the latest addition to the DS line over its competitors as well as its predecessors.

First, the DSi XL has been upgraded with a bigger 4.2-inch screen than the previous versions, which were at 3 and 3.25 inches respectively. That’s even bigger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch diagonal display. Great news for those who have been struggling to read off of the smaller screens currently available.

Second, and here’s the kicker, I love that the DS’s two-screen format is the only gadget around that comes closest to the way we traditionally read books – unfolded down the middle (just like the DS), with two pages in view simultaneously.

This means that the DS can actually let you read an e-book by holding it up the way you would hold a normal book. Cool, isn’t it?
Can’t wait to get my hands on it when it hits New Zealand stores this April

They are the first all-Kiwi team to win in the BAFTAs, or any other award giving body for film for that matter – a fact that the team is extremely proud of and excited about.

Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew Jones, all digital effects artists from Weta Digital make up this award-winning team who created the amazing effects that allowed James Cameron’s “Avatar” world to come to life.

The film, which made more than $2 billion since its December debut was a 3-year digital labor of love for the Weta team. But for now, they are enjoying the award, which they accepted in London last Sunday, 21st of February, and are looking forward to the Oscars, which they are also nominated in for the same category.

Another Kiwi team was also nominated in BAFTA for their sound work for the film District 9. Michael Hedges, Brent Burge, Dave Whitehead, Ken Saville and Chris Ward were all thrilled to be nominated even though they lost to big winner Hurt Locker.
Great job, guys!  

(L-R) Richard Baheham, Andrew Jones, Stephen Rosenbaum and Joe Letteri

Why not? When the cellular blackout occurred in December and then in January of the following year, two things became pretty clear to me, and I’m guessing, most of the mobile users south of Taupo who had to endure a grueling number of hours without cellular service.

One, that we are increasingly dependent on our mobile phones for instant communication and connectivity to a wide world of personal and business contacts as well as for information about what’s happening in our immediate and sometimes wider environment.

Most of those who experienced degraded mobile service if not outright couldn’t use the network to send and receive calls and messages found out that it was not only extremely inconvenient but also costly to not be in contact via mobile phone. Many business owners and professionals were crippled as a result of the network blackout.
Two, service reliability is something that customers are willing to pay for, and if XT continues to act up, subscribers will not hesitate to switch to a different network.

Which is why chief executive of Telecom’s Gen-I business unit Chris Quin has been touring affected areas together with Telecom retail head Alan Gourdie. The two have been trying to calm down subscriber fears of another XT outage in order to stop the bleeding.

Aside from this, Telecom has recently announced that they will be deploying 33 extra XT cell sites to strengthen mobile coverage, saying that this was something slated for 2011, but that in light of recent setbacks, the construction of new cell sites will be pushed to start this year.

This should allay some fears and calm some nerves. Subscribers need to know that something is being done to make sure that they stay connected and that this doesn’t happen again, which is something Telecom management wants as much as subscribers do.

The network outages may have cost them more than a few subscribers jumping ship. After the second outage, Telecom has announced that it will compensate users who were affected and that the total compensation package amounted to around $5 million. Add to that the recent financial losses as its stock plummeted in the market, and you can see why Telecom must be working hard to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Apple vs. Everybody Else           Round 1: Taking on the World Apps Market

Need I elaborate on the reasons behind Apple’s dominance not just of the high-end phone market with its iPhone, but also of the mobile applications market with the iTunes App Store?

The mere reality of this situation has prodded telecommunications companies around the world (24 of them to be precise) to get together try to wrest back control of the mobile applications market from Steve Jobs’ successful takeover.

Short of ganging up on Apple and taking down the biggest competitor, these companies, namely, Singtel, Vodafone, Orange, AT&T and Chinaphone to name a few, seem to be intent on getting their slice of the mobile applications pie.

Now these companies, collectively known as the Wholesale Applications Community, are trying to get developers to create applications that will run on a universal platform.

Let’s hold up there and take in the implication of the WAC’s primary objective. Creating universal platform apps will allow users to run the same applications on their phone, regardless of device or software.

If you think about it, this does sound kind of fair to everyone involved. Creating a universally accepted application will reap the following benefits:

• Developers don’t need to write more than one version of their application to run on different devices or platforms. Less work is required.
• Developers will be able to market their applications to a worldwide market that doesn’t narrow down the customer base to the number of platform or device users in need of that specific app version. That’s around 3 billion consumers all over the world.
• Users don’t need to subscribe to different app stores just to square in on their specific device, any app store will give them the app they need.
• Telcos will get a fair share of the app market and everyone will get a slice of the applications pie.

Seems like everyone will benefit, that is, everyone except Apple, whose monopoly of the applications market will surely be broken.

But, oh the dreams of a utopian society! Though this seems like the perfect solution, some tech big wigs are questioning the feasibility of this venture saying that it’s always been the dream that will never be fully realized. This is precisely because developers often have a bias towards a certain software or platform, and that deciding on one universal platform to run on all phones will cause a great big debate that not even a cooperative of telecoms will be able to agree on.

To Gmail users reading this, you probably already heard of Buzz, or encountered it when you opened your Gmail accounts starting last week. Buzz is Google’s answer to Facebook. It is a social networking tool that allows users to connect with their friends, loved ones and acquaintances by relying on the principle that your email contacts, especially the ones you send messages to the most, are also the ones you would want to keep in touch with on a social basis; and much like Facebook, it works by allowing you to post status messages, upload photos, links and the like to share with this network of people.

If you think about it, Google was actually working on a really good premise by allowing email contacts to interact with each other. After all, that’s how you usually find your friends on Facebook too, aside from the Friend Finder method. One of Facebook’s chief tools for helping you find friends is by importing your contacts list from your primary email accounts.

The problem, however, that cropped up in the first week of its release was that Gmail users who were introduced to Buzz (and let me emphasize here, usually without really wanting to use it, because Buzz is integrated with Gmail and if you want to check your Inbox or send a message off to someone, Buzz is right there, a colorful little tab in your left hand panel, attached, bonded and packaged with Gmail) found out that they were now following email contacts or were being followed by said email contacts automatically!

Definitely an issue of privacy. Why so? This is because Gmail assumes that the people you email automatically pass your privacy screening standards, and doesn’t ask for confirmation of whether you want to follow or be followed by them. A big no-no for people who keep a contact list over email whom they don’t want to interact with socially – like bosses, or clients and the like. It also exposes your contacts to each other, allowing say, a boss to find out that you are also in contact with, say, a rival company.

Now, I can easily say that I don’t have to use Buzz, even as I’m using Gmail because I can just ignore it and let it sit its colorful bubble on my left side panel, but the fact that it exists, and that it does some things automatically that I am not yet aware of or prepared for is an issue for me. Hey, I didn’t sign up for it like I did Facebook and it being integrated in my mail automatically doesn’t fly well with me.

I would rather that Google had advised its users of the introduction of Buzz before actually launching it and providing users with the option to either agree to integrate Buzz into their Gmail accounts or reject it, leave it out of Gmail but give them an option to reintegrate their social networking tool at a later time. The fact that it’s integrated with email can be a big advantage over having separate accounts, but if that’s the case, users should have the freedom to choose to integrate or not, depending on how users actually utilize their social networking pages and the degree of privacy that they require, which, if you think about it is really the issue of utmost importance here.

To Google’s credit, after getting negative feedback over privacy issues in Buzz, the company has already begun to address issues of privacy control and are now working on ways to make Buzz a better companion to its infinitely better email counterpart.

A Netbook Like No Other: Apple Launches the iPad

“Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”  Or at least, that’s what the boys over at Apple claim their new product is, and for all the anticipation and excitement and mystery that has surrounded the development of the iPad leading up to it’s January 27 launch in San Francisco, I’ve got to say, this new device seems to be living up to most of users expectations.

I’ve been listening to tech gurus all over the world predicting the future of technology and intuitively visualizing a trend that sees the perfect merger of smart phone and laptop technologies somewhere down the line. For most people, this combination embodies itself in the netbook, a sized-down laptop with most of the capabilities of a smartphone – e-mails, mobile web browsing, and most can even make phone calls out of their netbooks.

Ideally, this seems to be the perfect technology – a light, carry-anywhere device that let’s you do plenty of things even while you are mobile. There’s a catch though. Netbooks simply aren’t better at the things that smartphones and laptops can do individually. They’re slow, clunky pieces of equipment that I would personally hurl into the air in frustration – and believe me, I’ve come quite close to doing that.

But just when I thought I’d be doomed to eternal frustration with the slew of netbooks out in the market today, here comes Apple with its revolutionary new device – the iPad.For a device that’s supposed to fall under the netbook category, it sure looks nothing like one. Picture an oversized 9.75-inch iPhone or iPod Touch and you’ve got a perfect idea of what an iPad looks like. It has a slim, half-an inch thick body, an aluminum and glass enclosure, which Apple claims is environment friendly, and a gorgeous TFT display.

Need we talk about the power that Apple puts behind all its products? With stunning display, a new custom-built A4 chip, an awesome accelerometer and ultra-responsive multi-touch screen, the iPad is built to have techies like me drooling like a Pavlovian dog at mere sight. How’s that for visually stimulating?

For me, it’s tablet, touch screen format is a draw. There’s nothing like holding such a powerful tool right in your hands, and its touch screen feature makes me feel like I am truly in control of the device – a very interactive feeling. And at a starting price of low starting price for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, the iPad will definitely be an instant bestseller.

Many critics will probably dismiss the iPad as a bigger version of the iPhone, but I beg to disagree. Once those critics have got one on their hands, I bet they’ll all be turning tail and wagging in the opposite direction. Steve Jobs and the boys over at Apple have once again done something truly revolutionary, and I must say that this Apple fan will definitely be adding a new member to her Apple family.

If you missed out, our advice is…. lie.

Tell your work colleages you got something from our “techy-top five cool xmas gadget list”   (sheesh I can hardly even type that let alone say it)

Number 5 Nintendo DSI
A cool present indeed. But was it bought for you or do you have to share it?  They also come in pink

Number 4 The Vodafone MiFi
A cool present indeed, for around $499 you and four buddies can share a mobile internet connection… it’s like you have you own personal WiFi.  imagine how popular you’re going to be!

Number 3 Sony Ericsson U1i Satio
Sony are bringing out their new  Android phone in a few months  but some people just can’t wait….enter the “Satio”. Powered by their Symbian S60T operating system we think it’s quite an awesome cool phone. The Satio features a 3.5″ full touch Screen, 3G HSUPA, WIFI & GPS and is powered by the Symbian S60 T operating system.

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Number 2        The “ALT of CTRL”  T-shirt
Becuase we know some one that got one in the office and it really is true that they are out of control.They proudly wore it today and told me it was very reasonably priced.

The Number 1 Top Tech gadget for Christmas 2009 has been… The  Apple iPhone 3GS   32G Black ….faster, sleeker, better battery, it’s a cool upgrade from your old model and has been the model of choice.

Go will provide the security and performance of a compilled language like C++ while having the speed of a dynamic language like Python.

Go - The latest Google open source language

Who is Go aimed at?

Google describes GO as ” Go is an experiment. We hope adventurous users will give it a try and see if they enjoy it. Not every programmer will, but we hope enough will find satisfaction in the approach it offers to justify further development” You can find more information about GO at Golang.org which is the official site for the open source language.”

Google is using this language internally so this is a good testament. But, what will external users think of it?

Google describes Go in thier recent blog

“Go attempts to combine the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. In our experiments with Go to date, typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go is designed to let you move fast. We’re hoping Go turns out to be a great language for systems programming with support for multi-processing and a fresh and lightweight take on object-oriented design, with some cool features like true closures and reflection.”

Watch the video for more information about Google GO.. or check out GO for yourself

So, you’re already using social media, email and trying to share documents online between groups of people then you should check it out. Wave is likely to be able to rid you of issues of where-did-that-email-go-i-can’t-find-it-in-inbox-folder-sent-sheesh syndrome.

If you have not used Wave before it is It is a web application and computing platform that is designed to bring together your -mail, IM, wiki, and social networking, there’s a strong collaborative focus, mixed with spellchecker and some translator extensions, which are all able to work in real-time.

So if you’re a coding or desiging for a client and you’re using email as the primary communication tool and it’s going back and forth to communicate, you’re losing time waiting for the mail to come through, finding that you’re unable to decipher the ammendments, starting multiple threads its going to jeopordise the quality and standard of work.

Google Wave is prooving to be an ideal choice for

- remote brainstorming sessions
- meeting notes and data sharing
- projects, group projects, freelance projects
- interactive games

Ask any IT freelancer webdesigner about a project they had and why it wasn’t succesful the answer you are given is likely th to inlcude include poor customer/client mis-communications. Wave is proving to be a good option, view the video we found that cuts through the bloat to give you the overview you need.

Google Wave: The quick guide and explanation

“Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more” - Google

It’s amazing to find that email has been in the same format more or less for 40 years which also shares the same year that the lava lamp was invented. Are you using Wave in the workplace ?< >< ><-->