Comscore advises that Microsoft’s share of the mobile phone space has now dropped, from 7.5% for the three months to March, to just 5.8% as at the end of June.

HTC Mozart

Just under a year ago I had my first hands-on experience with some actual hardware, and while it was very obvious that Microsoft were trying their hardest to push this as the best thing since sliced bread, I still had my reservations.

The first production versions of the hardware came, but some primary features were absent, and many people also reported crashes and a lack of general reliability. All of this is supposed to be fixed with the upcoming release of the Mango update, but there are a couple of serious questions that now need to be answered.

First of all, will Mango be enough to save Phone 7?

Second, how long will manufacturers like HTC, Nokia and Samsung be willing to invest their money in a platform that’s not paying its way? In this realm, one must wonder at what sort of subsidies Microsoft may be paying to the manufacturers in order to keep this OS alive.

But finally, does anyone, beyond Microsoft, really care?

And to help us all understand the importance of the data that’s going to be collected, the ABS has created an interactive application on their website that uses a little bit of information about you to tell you a little about yourself, and how you relate to the rest of the people in the country.

infographic

Start by looking at a little bit about me. At the bottom of the page is a button where you can put in your own details, and see where you fit in to the picture.

And please feel free to add the link to your infographic here, as a comment; we’d love to see how you fit in with the rest of us.

Based upon a Grease Monkey script, this script will tell you if the site that you’re about to visit is owned by interests controlled by the Murdoch empire, and if so, it will give you the option of not visiting the site in question.

Available from the Firefox add-ons page

Yes, that’s right. You can now have people call you on a phone number, and you can receive that call on your iPad. And yes, you can make outgoing calls, too.

Line2

Available in the US and Canada for around US$10/month, this may well be a great way to not simply use your iPad as a phone, but what about if you’re traveling and you want to have a US number that people can contact you on, or maybe you have a business and a need for a us phone presence?

The more expensive plans also provide you with access to a US toll free number, which, from a business perspective, may well be a great feature to have.

The application is available from the App Store in about ten days time.

But not really sick, however.

Earlier this week Microsoft announced that its Windows XP operating system, probably the most successful version of Windows thus far, and perhaps the most successful operating system of all OSes (to date) was about to reach its official end of life, with all support for it ending in 1000 days – April 6, 2014, to be precise.

To be honest, I think that that’s a very generous date on the part of Microsoft – there’s no good reason why you should continue to struggle with XP – or any earlier version of Windows, when Windows 7 is just so good.

Yes, you may offer the excuse that your hardware is so old and it’s unsupported by Windows 7. Well, yes, that’s exactly what that is: it’s an excuse.

Today you can walk into any of the major stores and buy a brand you laptop PC – not just a netbook, but a laptop – for less than $400. And that system will include a version of Windows 7. Why would you not buy such a system, really?

And if you really must keep the old box running, then install a version of Linux on it; you’ll be safer, and you should be able to perform everything that you can do on your aging XP system, but with a greater level of security, better features, and a more up to date interface to boot.

And yes, it’ll still be supported, which your XP installation will not.

Please don’t come crying to us when your apps fail, or your system has a virus that you can’t remove because the OS is no longer supported. We’ll merely say that we told you so.

Comscore reports that as at the end of May 2011, the Android OS was occupying 38.1% of the market, ahead of Apple’s iOS with 26.6%.

RIM’s share was 24.7%, which, while seemingly good, was in fact down by about 4% from the previous month, and Microsoft’s share was also down, by almost 2%, to just 5.8%.

Hopefully only for the duration of the event.

Diagram from Apple Patent Extract

I’m certainly not going to encourage the illegal recording of these sorts of events, but really, don’t you think that this is just a little too Orwellian?

Besides, it’s also still just pissing in the wind: it doesn’t address the issue of those who use phones other than iPhones, or those who may be using straight out cameras.

While at this time this is only a patent application lodged by Apple, with no guarantees that it will ever become a production reality, is it an interesting potential use of technology?

Or maybe an interesting potential abuse of technology?

In the latest of a series of hacks against major technology companies, Sega confirmed today that information belonging to 1.3 million of its customers has been stolen from its database.

As part of this initiative, Sony is conducting a book donation drive to bring books to young students in South Africa, who may otherwise not have access to these learning materials.

PLEASE DONATE YOUR CHILDREN’S BOOKS UNTIL MONDAY 11 JULY 2011

Drop off your books between 9am – 4pm, Monday to Friday at the marked collection point in the loading dock of Sony Australia, 33-39 Talavera Road, North Ryde.

Types of books required:

• English language books (preferably British English)
• Books suitable for ages 6 to 14
• Picture books, word books or story books for children who are learning to read
• Children’s reference books & encyclopaedias

Please avoid:

• Damaged or very dirty books
• Books with a lot of handwritten notes
• Books with unsuitable content for children
• School textbooks
• Outdated books e.g. Encyclopedias published before 1995

iOS 5 SDK Video Export Strings

The 9to5Mac website carries a story telling us that the export strings in the video API of the new release includes support for 1080p resolution, as indicated by their screen capture, shown here.

This means that, for devices that have the hardware support built in, you will be able to shoot videos in full HD and upload them to your favourite video sharing website for all to see.

A report has been released by the International Air Transport Association covering the years 2003 to 2009. It documents 75 separate incidents of possible electronic interference. The report is based upon survey responses from 125 airlines, and lists incidents that airline crew members believed were linked to mobile phones and other electronic devices.

This report indicates that twenty six incidents affected the planes’ flight control systems, and in one instance reported, actually disengaged the plane’s autopilot system. Other instances affected communications systems or produced responses in the planes’ electronic warning systems.

It should be noted here that nothing has been determined to be proven or conclusive, though.

Today Parrot goes even further with a number of announcements to enhance the piloting experience for players and fans alike.

· More playable platforms: Parrot AR.Drone is now compatible with OS AndroidTM Smartphones, bada (Samsung) and Symbian (Nokia)

· More games: Challenge your piloting skills on your own customised circuits: zigzag your way through trees, inflatable pylons and donuts and race against the clock with AR.Race, a customisable single or multi-player racing game for the AR.Drone.
There will be more surprises to add to the growing catalogue of games for the AR.Drone soon.

· More interactions: who will be the number 1 AR.Drone pilot in 2011? Parrot has set up the AR.Drone Challenges, an international competition* that will take place from June 24th till August 14th 2011 and will consist of three challenges for a chance to compete in the grand final in Paris in October 2011.

Parrot AR.Drone

More playable platforms: Android™, bada and Symbian

Android™ Smartphones users will find a free version of AR.FreeFlight’s piloting application developed by Parrot in July 2011 – also available on the Android Market. At the same time, Playsoft Games – for Samsung – and Nokia used the Parrot AR.Drone Software Development Kit (available free at https://projects.ardrone.org) to develop “Free Flight” (bada) and “AR.Drone” (Symbian) piloting apps.
The SDK’s allow new developers to create new applications for the AR.Drone across iOS, Android™, bada or Symbian platforms.

More games: Create customised circuits with AR.Race

AR.Race is a race game which allows one to four pilots to challenge themselves on the same circuit. Inflatable items – two pylons with a finishing point and a donut – are also available to add an extra element to the race. Players can create as many circuits as they want, such as creating zigzags with the pylons or using natural obstacles such as trees to create more unique circuits.
· Available free on App Store ™
· Available accessories on www.parrotshopping.com
· Discover the AR.Race video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEvmaU7chbM

Still to come: Parrot will launch a brand new game involving two players and a single AR.Drone.
A confrontation between the man and the machine, a track race where the target is not necessarily the one that we believe …

More interactions: AR.Drone Challenges
After registering at www.ardrone.com, participants* will be invited to compete with others in three “video” challenges, revealed online on June 24th, July 8th and July 22nd. Pilots will have to film their exploits and post their videos on the website before August 14th, 2011. The top 14 will win a place for the grand international final, on October 1st 2011 in Paris.

Calendar of the AR.Drone Challenges:

June 24 th: first challenge
July 8 th: second challenge
July 22 th: third challenge
August 14th: end of the competition
August 26th: announcement of 14 finalists
October 1st: grand final in Paris

*Competition is open to over 18’s only. Available regulations on www.ardrone.com

It’s a given that Apple are seeing increased demand for the iPad, while the Blackberry Playbook and several Android tablets are all being very well recieved, and tablet functionality and speed is improving all the time.

Many users really don’t need to have the full functionality of a PC all the time, and I think that in both the corporate and personal portable workplaces, tablet sales will continue to thrive.

MacDefender is a fake security program: while promising to clean your computer of malware, it actually is malware itself, and can cause all manner of problems for you.

The supposed FaceBook links offer videos of former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a hotel maid, or an X-rated video of celebrities Rihanna and Hayden Panettiere.

Not that I have a clue as to who they might be.

But the upshot of this is that the videos do not exist, these links are bad, and you should just avoid clicking on these sorts of things.

Simple, really.

In the first, we have the hacking demonstration that occurred at this week’s AusCERT security conference on Australia’s Gold Coast.

In a nutshell, one security person decided to demonstrate that privacy settings on Facebook don’t actually provide a high level of privacy.

There are many ways that this sort of thing can be demonstrated, but this security person decided that he would do this by using some photos of the wife of a competitor, and utilising a brute force hack method to get access to the data.

I’m not entirely sure of the professionalism of taking that approach, and especially of using the images of the competitor’s wife and child to make his point; why not just have an employee set up a dummy account? The same point could then be made in a much more professional manner, I feel.

Be that as it may, the hack was demonstrated and publicised, but then the Qld Police decided to get involved, spilling their marinade all over their faces by arresting smh.com.au journalist Ben Grubb for merely doing his job and writing an article on the presentation.

Why was Grubb arrested? The police felt that Grubb’s iPad may have contained some evidence about and alleged crime that may have been committed. Grubb refused to provide his iPad to the police, and so in a gesture of friendliness and professional police work, they arrested him to get access to the iPad.

Not a good look, and their excuses, when offered seemed to be, basically, laughable.

The second item relates to a resident of Blaine, Minnesota, in the USA. 45 years old Barry Vincent Ardolf seems to be the ultimate nice neighbour. He hacked into the wireless network of a neighbour, posed as that neighbour, and proceeded to make threats against the US Vice President.

Clearly a delightful guy, he changed his plea to guilty just two days into his trial, and in so doing, plead guilty to charges of identity theft, distribution and possession of child pornography, unauthorized access to a protected computer, as well as making threats to the President and successors to the presidency of the USA.

Some quite tasty morsels amongst that lot, aren’t there?

Rodney Reed Caverly was working on a project that involved the bank’s ATMs, and whilst engaged on that project, he wrote some code that permitted cash to be siphoned off from the machines, but without it affecting any clients’ transactions.

The Security Week article contains further details of what was done.

Last week the Australian Business Traveler website, AusBT.com.au, carried a story of some technology from Panasonic revealing that the Japanese technology company was releasing some android powered tablet devices that were suitable for installation in the seat backs of the seats on planes, as the EX3 in-flight entertainment system.

Here we are talking about in-flight systems for passengers that go way beyond the mere provision of entertainment though. With a capacitive touch screen they’re looking at providing interactive systems that would permit you to order your meals, surf the internet, check your emails …. the list is truly endless.

The EX3 is powered by Google’s Android operating system, and I look forward to hearing more about the development of this sort of technology in the future.

While it certainly employs some cool technology, it’s not exactly the technological leader of the pack. Rather, I expect it’s because the MacBook Air is so light, so thin, and so portable. It’s basically like an iPad with a built in keyboard.

Which leads me to bring to your attention the new cases for the Air manufactured and designed by Cartella in the USofA.

These are cases that are made of plywood and leather, and they’re designed to make your Air look like a book.

And in so doing, they add bulk: weight, size, and heft. Yes, by all accounts, these are of very good quality, but they leave me wondering why, if you’ve bought a MacBook Air, you would also buy one of these.

Unless you’re buying the Air for all the wrong reasons.

But not just any screensaver or iPhone.

This was released through Cydia, for jailbroken iDevices.

Which created an interesting set of circumstances, and left a lot of people waiting to see how long this would be permitted to continue.

Which turned out to be about one day from when the story broke.

However, it wasn’t always so, and it was just 30 years ago that Adam Osborne unleashed onto an unsuspecting public the Osborne 1, which was, essentially, a computer in a sewing machine case.

With a floppy disk drive and CRT monitor, it was a fully usable computer.

Provided you had access to an electricity supply.

You need to download one of the apps from the App Store, and then you can enjoy your world of iPhone 3D goodness.

How good is it? Initially it’s only available from Target stores in the US, and so we’ve not yet had a chance to sample one for ourselves.

However, the press release is very clear about this, stating “MY3D provides consumers with a jaw-dropping 3D, 360-degree entertainment experience” and “an experience that pushes the envelope for gaming and entertainment“.

Who are we to doubt what somebody might say about their products in a press release?

Google's Houdini Doodle

Google refers to these banners as “Google Doodles”, and they’ve just been granted a patent for “systems and methods for enticing users to access a website” specifically dealing with “special events” as well as anything that “provide search results relating to the special event.”

Yep, that’s a patent for a Google Doodle.

As usual, there were people queueing outside Apple stores for days in advance, even though iPads could also be easily obtained at other retailers, commencing at the same time.

Online sales commenced early on Friday morning though, but for most people, the shipping date was in the realm of two weeks or greater.

The staff at the centre where Alice was surrendered knew that she would be a difficult dog to place, due to the special training and attention such an animal would need. Not being able to hear commands is a serious impediment for most people when it comes to training dogs.

Enter Marie Williams and Mark Morgan, a deaf couple who happened to be looking for a dog. They saw Alice and decided that she would be a perfect match for them.

Alice is learning commands in sign language, and can sit, come, and roll over.

Internet Explorer 9 is a relatively small download, and first impressions are that it’s a significant improvement over its predecessors. It’s faster, with seemingly better functionality.

You can download IE 9 from Microsoft’s web site.