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Techradar |
- Google steps up its worldwide 'war for talent'
- Tutorial: 7 handy Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks
- Weird Tech: Will electronic bras tempt tourists to Tokyo?
- Review: Eclipse Time Domain MK2 5.1
- Dell's announces 'weak' consumer sales
- MySpace teams up with Facebook to take on Ping
- Old Spice and BBC win at the .net Awards 2010
- Razer Nostromo gaming keypad announced
- Waterstones begins iRiver Cover Story pre-orders
- Waterstones begins iRiver Cover Story pre-orders
- Apple co-founder: Android will dominate phones
- Video: AR.Pursuit - first game for the AR.Drone arrives
- Video: AR.Pursuit - first game for the AR.Drone arrives
- Tutorial: 25 computer networking tips and tricks
- Apple iAd mobile advertising coming to UK in December
- Exclusive: HTCSense.com coming to the HTC Desire?
- Review: Exclusive: Icecrypt T2400
- In Depth: 3D console gaming on test: COD Black Ops
- Twitter Analytics: chart your popularity soon
- Game streaming service Gaikai launches open beta
- Gary Marshall: Dumping net neutrality could be disastrous
| Google steps up its worldwide 'war for talent' Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:03 AM PST  Google steps up its 'war for talent' this week, looking to hire over 2,000 new staffers worldwide. Google is looking to move into new markets and, as such, is currently listing 2,076 positions on its website. A war for talent Google's finance chief told investors back in September that the internet industry was waging a "war for talent," and the latest round of new job vacancies clearly shows that this was more than a vapid PR line. The number of job openings is up nearly six-fold from a similar tally of job listings pages conducted in March 2009. Google has bought over 20 companies this year, which has brought the total number of staff worldwide to over 23,300 as of September 2010. The latest number of total Googlers worldwide is up nearly 18 per cent since the beginning of this year. "We've been ramping up our hiring and the number of open jobs over the course of the last year," said Google spokesman Jordan Newman. Branching out from search Google already owns around two-thirds of the global search market, and is looking to diversify into other markets, such as Android smartphone operating systems and web-based productivity apps. Facebook is the biggest threat to Google in terms of attracting that all-important online advertising cash, while Apple is its biggest competitor in the fast-growing smartphone market. Google announced that it was set to give all employees a healthy ten per cent rise earlier this month. Check the Google UK jobs page if you fancy your chances as a Googler, which lists more than 70 current vacancies. 
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| Tutorial: 7 handy Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:00 AM PST  These days, our lives are almost completely dominated by email, and it really shouldn't be that way. Email should be a tool that enables you to get more done, rather than a relentless wave that washes both time and productivity away. Thankfully, Outlook is your friend. With just a few expert Outlook tips, you'll be able to purge inefficiency and make the most of your time. 1. Automate accounts Prior to Outlook 2007, you may have needed to know chapter and verse about your mail server, including port settings for SMTP and POP communication. Luckily, recent versions of the software have made this setup much easier. All of the settings required for commonly used mail accounts are already stored and Outlook uses your email address to try some of the more likely settings before bothering you with detailed setup. In most cases, all you'll need to enter are your email address and account password. You can use multiple email addresses with Outlook to access both work and home accounts at once. 2. Quickly attach files in Outlook Attaching a file to an email message can be a fiddly process, but you can streamline it and make sure you don't forget the attachment by using Outlook's filing system. Browse to the file you want to attach to a message and open Outlook at your inbox. Click and drag the file from its folder onto the inbox shown in your mail folders in Outlook. This creates a new message and attaches the file in one action. Now simply address it and add a covering note. 3. Tweet with Outlook Who needs a dedicated Twitter reader? With TwinBox, a small plug-in that's available from here, Outlook does it for you. It adds a dedicated Twitter toolbar you can use to read and post Tweets, all without taking your eyes from your other important data. You can download your Twitter messages and store them in a folder, and it even includes URL shortening in tweets, courtesy of bit.ly. You can manage multiple Twitter accounts and automatically sort incoming messages into folders based on the sender, or on keywords and hash tags. 4. Use Quick Parts Quick Parts are blocks of content you can include in messages. They're a lot like Auto Text, but can include links and pictures, as well as text messages. To create a new Quick Part, start an email message and enter the content you want to include. Select it and choose 'Insert | Quick Parts | Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery'. Now provide a name, category and description, and click 'OK'. Whenever you want to use this block of content, choose 'Insert | Quick Parts' and select it from the list. You'll see a small preview window for each Quick Part you have stored. 5. How to disable new message alerts in Outlook Incoming email can be a huge distraction, especially when you need to get some serious work done. However, if you close Outlook, you won't benefit from task and appointment reminders. Make sure you stick to your allotted email schedule by disabling new message alerts and then setting a reminder to check your email at the correct time. To disable email alerts, choose 'Tools | Options | Email Options | Advanced Email Options'. Now clear each of the tickboxes below the section marked 'When New Items Arrive in my Inbox' and click 'OK' three times to confirm. Make sure you set an appointment to check your inbox, though, or you might miss an important message. 6. Get organised with Outlook categories Use Outlook categories to help identify items that are important to you. By assigning colours to categories, you can quickly see what different messages, appointments and tasks relate to. To sort your categories, click the 'Categorize' button on the toolbar – it's next to the flag and shows four coloured squares. Choose 'All Categories' and rename the existing ones to labels you need. You can change colours, add new categories and set shortcut keys for each category here. To add an item to a category, select it and press the shortcut key. 7. Rename old emails Quite often, the subject line of an email bears little resemblance to its contents, especially if it's part of a longer thread that may well have started with a message simply entitled 'How are you?' You can apply retrospective filing to important messages by renaming their subjects to make them easier to find. Open the email in a new window and click in the subject line. Delete the old subject and type the new one in. Click 'Yes' to confirm the change. 
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| Weird Tech: Will electronic bras tempt tourists to Tokyo? Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:00 AM PST  Firstly, we take the Weird tech bus to Japan, a nation often - and unfairly, we think - associated with pointless, sexist inventions. It's also where you'll find the Tourist Bra, an outfit designed to make Tokyo more attractive to tourists. The wearer's skirt also unfolds to become a map complete with magnetic models of tourist attractions, while pressing down on the bra cups plays the message "Welcome to Tokyo!" in both English and Japanese.
ALL THE SIGHTS: Reuters discovers the tourist bra, designed to boost the economy rather than the wearer's assets Bacteria solve Sudoku Sticking with Japan for a bit longer, we turn to one of the pressing issues of our age: when will single-celled organisms be able to beat us at Scrabble?
BACT AT YOU: If bacteria can solve Sudoku puzzles, it's just a matter of time before they're driving cars [Image credit: Jelte / Wikimedia] That day draws ever nearer, my friends, because E.Coli can now crack Sudoku puzzles. Students at the University of Tokyo programmed bacteria to solve puzzles, although you need 81 types of bacteria to solve a 9x9 grid. See how they run Three blind mice / three blind mice / see how they run / see how they run / they all ran to College of Cornell University in New York City / Where they were fitted with experimental retinal prosthetics / and they could see a baby's face / and that's great news for the 25 million people worldwide who have lost their sight due to retinal diseases / three blind mice. The key that makes you go wheeeeeeeeeeeee Ford's latest Mustang Boss 302 has a secret: if you use a second, red, key you can turn the muscle car into a demented track day screamer, altering over 200 engine parameters, boosting torque and delivering an impressive 444 horsepower. Such videogame-style power-ups are increasingly common, and we fully expect the next Kia Venga to contain a secret Pipes game that you can unlock to fire live bees at your enemies. Introducing the grass mask We have to be honest. Some art leaves us cold. What's the point of it? We ask. What is it trying to say? We ponder. Is the café open yet? But other art is so obviously, fundamentally right that it needs no explanation.
GRASSY: This is called The Open. We'd have called it GRASS! IN YOUR FACE! That's why we're not artists Art like The Open, by Mattia Casalegno. To some, it might look like a helmet that presses a bit of turf against your face for no good reason, but to those in the know it's a "sensorial wearable device [that is] about the quality of sound to define a territory." We'll take three! 
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| Review: Eclipse Time Domain MK2 5.1 Posted: 19 Nov 2010 01:30 AM PST  This is not the first time we've auditioned Eclipse's speakers, but there have been changes made to the system, in particular the TD712 main/satellite speaker, which demand a new look. Plus, this the first time that a complete 5.1 channel system based on the latest and greatest models in the range have all been available in one place at one time. And let's not forget that the Eclipse proposition is unique – a much misused word, but completely justified in this case. Eclipse is a small autonomous group in the much larger Fujitsu Ten organisation, which is dedicated to the ideas underlying the Eclipse TD series. It is a labour of love, committed to a completely different way of designing speakers. Where traditional loudspeakers are intended primarily to maximise frequency response and power handling and to minimise harmonic distortion, the Eclipse (Time Domain) range is predicated on speed and timing. The mainstay of the system is the TD712, which in its current guise is known as the TD712z MK2, and which is available in silver or black finishes, the latter of which is probably the more popular of the two, because it blends in with typical domestic surroundings. The TD712 is available with a complex matching pedestal stand, which enables the speaker to be lined up to suit the listening room and seating position. The stand is available with two column heights, one appropriate for the main and surround speakers, placing them at head height when seated, while the alternative support has the same design features, but a much shorter column. This is designed primarily for the centre speaker in an installation where it is, typically, placed below a projection screen, although it would also be equally suitable for use below a wall-mounted TV. The final component in the system is the TD725sw subwoofer, which looks superficially fairly conventional. This system is a classic example of form following function. Time Domain is the reason the satellites look as they do, with a complex egg-shaped enclosure made from ABS, which houses a single 4.75-inch fibreglass cone driver unit that slightly disingenuously is described as full range (it isn't, but it gets surprisingly close). Intrinsic to the design is that there is no crossover, with all the phase and integration problems that those networks entail. The reason for eschewing multiple driver units is to avoid multiple non-coincident sound sources, and to ensure that all frequencies are radiated without audible time delay. The enclosure flows smoothly around the driver, which escapes most of the usual secondary sound radiation (diffraction), and the shape of the enclosure is also designed to eliminate as much resonant behaviour as possible. Internally, the enclosure is designed to feed reaction forces away from the it (where they would end up being audible after a short but inevitable delay), and down through the supports, dissipating the unwanted energy into the floor. There has been considerable development of the TD712 speakers over the years, and the current model has a 50 per cent larger internal cavity, plus a broader frequency response at both ends of the audio frequency band. How low can you get? Although the TD712 only has a single drive unit, Eclipse has not been able to produce deep bass from the same speaker, so this task is delegated to a subwoofer, but this is not a significant disadvantage as low frequencies can be made to meld naturally with the output of the main satellite.
The rather blunt design of the sub is nothing like as interesting as the TD712. It looks like a large, rectangular box, but it shares much of the same thinking, using two 10-inch ultra-fast drive units working in opposition (ie back to back) with an aluminium rod bracing the two against each other. This helps cancel out most of the unwanted energy, and the drivers are also decoupled from the main structure. A powerful 500W Class D amplifier keeps it all humming. Sweet success The system was tested in two distinct ways: firstly as a 5.1-channel home cinema array, using a high-end Denon Blu-ray player and Onkyo receiver, and then as a 2.1-channel stereo music system with an audiophile combination of a Denon CD/SACD player and stereo amplifier. In just about every way possible, it was remarkable successful in both generic applications, even though there are inevitable caveats. As a multichannel home cinema system it can, of course, be augmented by additional satellites, or with extra subwoofers, although in the latter case, the potential benefits are bass uniformity and maximum output level at the lowest frequencies, rather than to bass depth. Some remarkable sonic features were obvious with stereo and multichannel use. First and foremost, the level of detail is very high, with the sound presented coherently and with exceptional spatial imagery and focus. The bass from the subwoofer is deep and pure, and if set up with care, melds beautifully with the satellites. Even with prior experience with Eclipse, I was surprised by how good a job it made with difficult music in 2.1 mode; big Mahler symphonies breathed fire and menace and were completely gripping. And the same applied to other types of music such as Mary Coughlan's jazzy Moon Over Bourbon Street, as well as classical orchestral and piano-accompanied soprano voice. But, of course, the primary focus for this test was multi-channel home cinema, and it is true to say that this system would not be my first choice for one of the Terminator epics or Kill Bill, which are better served by more conventional systems. But I was more than impressed by slightly lower octane material where clarity, image focus and atmosphere are the order of the day, as exemplified by the lossless soundtrack in Earth, and mainstream but carefully engineered films such as Lost in Translation or Pleasantville, to name just two examples picked at random.
These simply sounded natural, with pinpoint imaging and a deal of depth. On such material the overcooked, over-dramatised quality that many systems brings to the party is not only unnecessary, it is potentially an active hindrance. Acoustic winner In musical terms this Eclipse system is superbly communicative and expressive, and ultimately it tells you more about the performer's intentions than almost any other, treating source material with the utmost respect. The same applies to 5.1 film soundtracks, although if you want earth-moving bass and enough output to shake the rafters, you might want to look elsewhere. Of course, £16,000 is a lot to shell out for a 5.1 array, but in terms of design, build-quality and pure audio performance, the Eclipse system has few peers. Related Links
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| Dell's announces 'weak' consumer sales Posted: 19 Nov 2010 01:18 AM PST Dell reported a disappointingly small growth in its consumer business this week, although profits were still boosted by computer sales to the business sector. Dell's profits were up on its last quarter, despite the minimal four per cent growth in sales to consumers. "We're seeing weakness in consumer demand, and we'll continue to manage that," said Dell's Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden. "We're improving profit in our consumer business, which is something we've been focused on." Weakness in consumer market Dell Inc reports that sales to large corporate customers were up 27 per cent in the same quarter, while public sector revenue was up 20 per cent and sales to medium-sized businesses were up 24 per cent. Around 80 per cent of Dell's overall sales come from business customers, with many now refreshing old PCs and servers as they emerge from the recessionary cost-cutting and belt-tightening of the last few years. As such, Dell's desktop PC sales were up 21 per cent and server sales were up 20 per cent. CEO Michael Dell said in a statement: "Dell is growing in the right areas, and I'm very excited about our momentum." Dell reaffirmed its forecast for full-year revenue growth of 14 per cent to 19 per cent. 
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| MySpace teams up with Facebook to take on Ping Posted: 19 Nov 2010 12:53 AM PST  MySpace has teamed up with Facebook in a ground-breaking move to gain and keep users, in addition to countering the threat from Apple's new 'Ping' social network. News Corporation owned MySpace and Facebook have announced 'Mashup with Facebook' this week to allow MySpace users to log into their Facebook accounts directly from their MySpace page. This will allow users to port over their likes and interests from Facebook and then receive relevant streams of entertainment from MySpace dependent upon these likes and preferences. The mashup is an updated version of MySpace Sync, which was announced back in August, and confirms reports that MySpace was planning a big link-up with its rival Facebook. Complimentary services "We feel this is a complementary service to Facebook," said MySpace chief exec Mike Jones. "This new feature is a great illustration of our strategy around social entertainment and enabling the real-time stream." Facebook's VP of partnerships Dan Rose said the sharing of info with MySpace "makes a lot of sense." Rose adds: "Sharing entertainment and music interests is part of many of our friendships, online and off. "MySpace is giving people an easy way to bring their favourite bands, celebrities and movies from Facebook to create a personalised experience on MySpace from the start." Forrester Research analyst Augie Ray opined: "People have come to think of MySpace in a certain way and while I don't think this deal will help them attract a lot of users it is necessary that those people on the site enjoy the MySpace experience and I think this helps. "This is also a good opportunity for Facebook to demonstrate that the information you have about yourself and about your friends belongs to you. In many respects this is about Facebook changing attitudes over ownership of data than anything else." Five years left for Facebook? Speaking at an Australian web conference this week, Dr Jeffrey Cole – who five years ago predicted the demise of MySpace – said that Facebook has around five years left. "The same thing will happen to Facebook but it's going to take a lot longer," said Dr Cole, a director of the World Internet project. "And it's not going to be replaced by one big social networking community but it's going to fragment." That said, Facebook has gained more than 50 million new users in the past year according to online metrics firm comScore. Which means Facebook currently has 620 million users worldwide. More than 33 million people in the UK use Facebook, according to the latest figures. MySpace has just under 3 million UK users and 91 million users worldwide, making it the fourth biggest social network in the world right now. 
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| Old Spice and BBC win at the .net Awards 2010 Posted: 18 Nov 2010 02:40 PM PST -200-200.gif) The .net Awards 2010 winners have been announced, with the BBC News website, the Old Spice ads and Ravelry all picking up gongs. The .net Awards are organised by TechRadar's publisher Future and this year's ceremony was at the London Ministry of Sound and hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall. The awards have been going for 13 years and celebrate the very best in web design and development. Viral campaign Nearly 100,000 votes saw Old Spice win 'viral campaign of the year' the BBC news site win 'redesign of the year' and photo sharing site Flickr pick up mobile site of the year. Ravely – an online community for crafters – edged out Facebook for the 'Community site of the year' award. Dan Oliver, Editor-in-Chief of .net, said: "We believe that our combination of public nominations and industry voting is the fairest and most transparent awards in web design and development, and that¹s backed up by the phenomenal year-on-year growth we've seen. "This year we clocked 95,399 votes, which was a 56 per cent increase on the previous year's figures. "The .net Awards have become the benchmark for anyone serious about web design and development, and this year's results reflect the continued growth and innovation in our industry. Roll on 2011!" .net Awards 2010 winners Podcast of the year: Sitepoint podcast 
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| Razer Nostromo gaming keypad announced Posted: 18 Nov 2010 09:31 AM PST  Razer has announced the arrival of its latest gaming keypad – the Razer Nostromo. The keypad has been co-produced by Belkin and is an update of the n52te Speedpad. There are a number of improvements that have been made and these include: the ability to switch instantly between eight keymaps (up from three), and the flexibility of storing up to twenty gaming profiles from the previous limit of ten. Chip change There is also a new onboard chipset and software driver that enables gamers to program macros of unlimited length. The all-new configurator software for the Razer Nostromo has an enhanced UI, which allows gamers to customise all the buttons with any game command to open up numerous commands and combinations. "A few years ago we had the privilege of working with Belkin to co-develop the highly successful Belkin n52te Speedpad," explained Robert Krakoff, President, Razer. "The Razer Nostromo is an update to this illustrious gaming keypad to meet today's competitive gaming demands. "Building on the Speedpad's proven ergonomic design, the Razer Nostromo incorporates the latest gaming technologies that Razer has developed over the past few years." The Razer Nostromo is available now and is priced at €69.99, which is around £60. 
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| Waterstones begins iRiver Cover Story pre-orders Posted: 18 Nov 2010 09:15 AM PST  A touchscreen e-reader to rival the Sony Reader Touch has landed in the UK, with Waterstones putting the iRiver Cover Story up for pre-sale. The ebook reader offers touchscreen controls, and supports a number of file formats including EPUB, PDF, TXT, FB2 and DJVU. It has a USB port for transferring content on to it and an SD card slot is also on board. When it comes to extra features, the iRiver Cover Story can display Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents and you can also look at image files on the device. Cry me an iRiver The iRiver Cover Story has been updated, so it is lighter than previous models. The screen on the e-reader is six inches in size and offers 600 x 800 resolution. Unlike Sony's touchscreen ebook, the iRiver Cover Story has Wi-Fi connectivity and it comes with an email client, so you can check your mail on the go. The Wi-FI Cover Story (EB05W) is available to pre-order now exclusively through Waterstones.com and is priced at £149. 
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| Waterstones begins iRiver Cover Story pre-orders Posted: 18 Nov 2010 09:15 AM PST A touchscreen e-reader to rival the Sony Reader Touch has landed in the UK, with Waterstones putting the iRiver Cover Story up for pre-sale. The ebook reader offers touchscreen controls, and supports a number of file formats including EPUB, PDF, TXT, FB2 and DJVU. It has a USB port for transferring content on to it and an SD card slot is also on board. When it comes to extra features, the iRiver Cover Story can display Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents and you can also look at image files on the device. Cry me an iRiver The iRiver Cover Story has been updated, so it is lighter than previous models. The screen on the e-reader is six inches in size and offers 600 x 800 resolution. Unlike Sony's touchscreen ebook, the iRiver Cover Story has Wi-Fi connectivity and it comes with an email client, so you can check your mail on the go. The Wi-FI Cover Story (EB05W) is available to pre-order now exclusively through Waterstones.com and is priced at £149. 
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| Apple co-founder: Android will dominate phones Posted: 18 Nov 2010 08:53 AM PST  Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, has given praise to one of the company's biggest rivals, revealing that he believes Android will be as dominant in mobile phones as Windows was/is dominant in the PC market. In an interview with a Dutch language newspaper (De Telegraph), Wozniak says about Google's Android OS that the operating system of Google "seems to win the race". And like Windows dominated the PC world, it is the Android platform for phones that offer the same possibilities as computers. Direction: Apple He did say, however, that "Apple has the direction, while Android phones have more features." Wozniak also believed that while Android is dominant, quality and user satisfaction could be better. When it comes to the iPhone, it has few weaknesses and it is leading in quality. Wozniak is always been known as outspoken, but it is refreshing to hear someone from Apple not downright dismissing the competition. Given that he also says that Android will soon be as good as iOS4 as an OS, it shows that Apple is taking the rise of Google in the smartphone market very seriously. 
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| Video: AR.Pursuit - first game for the AR.Drone arrives Posted: 18 Nov 2010 07:14 AM PST  The AR.Drone has been given its first augmented reality game on the App Store – a two-player pursuit that shows off the flying capabilities of the device. The AR.Drone, created by Parrot, is an absolutely mental WiFi quadricopter that's equipped with two cameras and can be controlled by your iPhone/iPod/iPad. Virtual pursuit AR.Pursuit is a game that you can play via your Apple device, which will map the real-life AR.Drone to a virtual game of cat and mouse. In the game you can 'shoot' down a mate's AR.Drone with virtual missiles and machine guns. The person who lands the most shots during the game is the winner. "AR.Pursuit is an enthralling game which makes the most of the extreme maneuverability and stability of the AR.Drone and launches the players into a world where the real and virtual collide… A first," says the release. Having seen the device flying around at last year's CES we would have to agree. The AR.Pursuit app has a UK release date of 26 November and will cost £1.79. The AR.Drone is available now from HMV for £299. 
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| Video: AR.Pursuit - first game for the AR.Drone arrives Posted: 18 Nov 2010 07:14 AM PST The AR.Drone has been given its first augmented reality game on the App Store – a two-player pursuit that shows off the flying capabilities of the device. The AR.Drone, created by Parrot, is an absolutely mental WiFi quadricopter that's equipped with two cameras and can be controlled by your iPhone/iPod/iPad. Virtual pursuit AR.Pursuit is a game that you can play via your Apple device, which will map the real-life AR.Drone to a virtual game of cat and mouse. In the game you can 'shoot' down a mate's AR.Drone with virtual missiles and machine guns. The person who lands the most shots during the game is the winner. "AR.Pursuit is an enthralling game which makes the most of the extreme maneuverability and stability of the AR.Drone and launches the players into a world where the real and virtual collide… A first," says the release. Having seen the device flying around at last year's CES we would have to agree. The AR.Pursuit app has a UK release date of 26 November and will cost £1.79. The AR.Drone is available now from HMV for £299. 
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| Tutorial: 25 computer networking tips and tricks Posted: 18 Nov 2010 05:00 AM PST  Running a home network is pretty essential in this day and age. Thankfully, modern hardware and software has reduced the complexities of configuring networks down to a few setup screens, and the relevant hardware often comes free with an internet connection. If you have multiple computers, the chances are they're already talking to each other, either through wires or wirelessly. However, while your home network might be up and running, optimising it takes some doing. Follow our simple tips to extract the last drop of juice from your network hardware. 1. Change channel number Wireless routers operate on a fixed channel. Since most routers ship with a pre-selected channel, the wireless signal may interfere with other routers in the vicinity that are operating on the same channel. Changing the wireless channel from the factory default is a good starting point if your wireless signal strength is poor. 2. Give the router space to breathe The biggest advantage of a wireless router is that it can penetrate doors and walls – but that doesn't mean you can just stuff it next to a wall or cordless telephone, or use it as a stand for your stack of DVDs. Treat it with respect. Try to keep it in a central location, away from other wireless devices; make sure it's not in direct sunlight; lift it off the carpet; and ensure its vents and air holes aren't covered. 3. Improve reception Try as you might, you'll find it's sometimes not possible to put the router in a good spot. One way around the problem is to buy a router with multiple antennas and point them in a variety of directions covering your home. Alternatively, if you've already got a router, check whether it's possible to upgrade its antennas to something stronger. However, don't get disheartened if your router doesn't have any antennas. A wireless repeater compatible with your router is a perfect solution. 4. Use WEP Running an unsecured network will earn you brownie points from neighbours and hackers with cars, but that's about it. Wireless routers support a variety of encryption methods, such as WPA and WEP, but these aren't enabled by default. WPA2 is the most secure method at the moment, but before deciding on an encryption method, make sure your network cards and adapters support it as well. Bear in mind that older machines – and games consoles such as the Nintendo DS – don't support WPA. 5. Restrict access to specific PCs If you really don't want to use encryption, you can force your router to only connect to specific PCs. Your router identifies each computer by the unique MAC address of its network gear. Feed it a list of MAC addresses to connect to and you save yourself the trouble of entering a password each time you log in. The disadvantage is that you'll have to add the MAC address of any new computer before it can get on your network – which is probably a more annoying way of getting things done. 6. Disable SSID broadcast All wireless routers have a Service Set Identifier (SSID) that identifies them to network computers. Routers from the same manufacturer generally ship with the same SSID; 'Netgear' or 'Cisco', for example. You should first change the SSID to something unique to set your router apart from those of your neighbours. Then, once all your hardware has been set up, it's better to turn off broadcasting the SSID altogether. This ensures your router isn't displayed in the list of available networks, and won't be a target for potential hackers. 7. Keep the firmware updated Router manufacturers keep working on firmware, even after hardware has been shipped. In addition to tweaks in the user interface, new versions might make better use of the various components in the router, or add extra features. Just like with an operating system, it's a good idea to upgrade the firmware of the router regularly – check the manufacturer's website for a new version. In the good old days, there was the risk of a botched firmware upgrade bricking your router, but it's a lot safer today. 8. Familiarise yourself with the router manager All routers ship with a browser based manager. To use many of the tips in this article, you'll have to log in to this interface – try typing 192.168.1.1 into your web browser for the most common location. It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with the various options and settings you can tweak from within this software. Many routers also have detailed documentation that's updated regularly, so hunt out the latest manual online. 9. Check your connections There's nothing more irritating than receiving a 'cannot connect to remote machine' error. To ensure a solid connection, use Ethernet cables where possible. It's also a good idea to check the connection between the two PCs with the ping command. To do this, simply open a command line and type, for instance, ping 192.168.1.2. You'll need to replace the address given here with that of your target machine. Ping works identically on Windows, Mac and Linux. 10. Forward ports
Many servers and applications – for example, file-sharing software, FTP servers and music-streaming servers – need to serve people outside the network. These applications accept connections on specific ports. With port forwarding – check your router's interface – you can poke holes in your router and ask it to direct incoming traffic on a particular port (or, if you wish, a range of ports) to a specific computer that's on the network. 11. Change DNS providers DNS is what fetches you a website by translating the human-friendly address, such as www.pcplus.co.uk, into a bunch of machine-friendly numbers. It also displays the '404 page not found' error, corrects misspelt URLs and finds the fastest route to a web server that hosts the site you want to visit, along with lots of other cool things. Generally, it's up to the ISP to put up a DNS server. However, there are other free services as well, including the likes of OpenDNS and Google Public DNS. 12. Use USB adapters These days, it's difficult to find a laptop or netbook without a built-in wireless module, but if you've used one, you'll know that they can't always be relied upon. Network cards with antennas are the best option, but they're really only suitable for desktops. If you really need both mobility and assurance, make sure you get a USB adapter. Most of them ship with a Windows driver, but many work out-of-the-box on Linux as well. 13. Enable Dynamic DNS The Dynamic DNS feature enables you to connect to your computer remotely. Back in the day, when real-estate on the web was expensive, it was a wonderful option to show off your HTML skills and host your own website. Now, by associating your dynamic IP address with a domain name, DDNS enables you to connect to the internet-exposed home computer from anywhere in the world. In addition to enabling the feature on your router, you'll also have to register with a dynamic DNS provider, such as DynDNS.org. 14. Save power with Wake-on-LAN What's the point of keeping a print server on when there's nothing to print? The smart way to save energy is to use the Wake-on- LAN feature of the network card. Thanks to this, you can put the machine to sleep after it's been configured to wake upon detecting network activity. 15. Encrypt your online activity With the range of snooping tools now available, it isn't safe to do anything online without covering your footprints. There are lots of tools that promise to encrypt your online activity, making it completely unintelligible to anyone who might be listening in. Some of the best ones to try are the Enigmail plug-in for Thunderbird, Psi for Google Talk and FireGPG, available for Gmail. 16. Get a Firewall distro You can configure a firewall on a Windows or Linux machine, and there are also a bunch of third-party software firewalls available. However, building a firewall isn't easy. If you're serious about putting one up, download a dedicated firewall distro, such as Ebox. 17. Install the software Ebox is distributed as a Live CD ISO and there are VirtualBox/VMWare images as well. It's based on Ubuntu Server 8.04. You can also pull in Ebox packages to a standard Ubuntu Server 10.04 installation. You can find it at www.ebox-platform.com. 18. Configure settings Ebox can be adapted flexibly to your network. You can use it to restrict services that can be accessed and slice the network to keep some areas more secure than others. The distro runs a browser-based interface for adding, removing and configuring the components. 19. Filter content Besides the firewall, intrusion detection (via Snort) and filtering content (via DansGuardian) are two other highlights of the distro. DansGuardian can also plug into the ClamAV antivirus scanner and filter content based on known virus signatures. 20. Exploit other features In case you're still not satisfied, Ebox can also act as a gateway and provide a host of other services. It bundles various applications that enable you to turn your network into a VPN, host XMPP chat sessions or run a Postfix mail server, a Squid web proxy and more. 21. Turn on UPnP Universal Plug and Play helps smart devices that support UPnP to discover each other without any user intervention. Once turned on from within your router, UPnP enables a compatible infrared device, a Bluetooth phone or a FireWire camera to see and talk to each other. 22. Write files remotely The most logical use of a network is to share files. This is the job of the SMB protocol. Thanks to it, you'll be able to write files to a remote network share via Network Neighbourhood. On Linux, the SMB protocol is implemented by Samba. 23. Share printers remotely In addition to sharing files, SMB can be used to share printers attached to a Windows machine. Once configured via the Windows Control Panel, a printer can be used to accept print orders or even be managed from a remote machine, irrespective of its operating system. 24. Format shareable partitions as FAT PCs running Windows can easily see each other and share files. For Linux or Mac machines, ensure the partitions are formatted with the FAT filesystem. Create them as Samba shares and they'll show up under Network Neighbourhood. 25. Plug in USB drives Once, if you wanted to share files on the network, a network-attached-storage, or NAS, device was the best bet. Not any more. New routers enable you to plug in one or more USB devices that are automatically accessible by all the users connected to the router. 
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| Apple iAd mobile advertising coming to UK in December Posted: 18 Nov 2010 04:47 AM PST  Apple has announced that it is to bring its iAd mobile advertising service to the UK and France in December and will come to Germany in January. Mobile phones are being seen as the next big thing in advertising, what with print declining and television advertising choked by the rise of the EPG and VoD. Jobs and co have had success with iAd in the US and they now hope to emulate this in Europe. Valuable revenue source Speaking about the service Andy Miller, vice president of iAd, said: "In just four months, we've doubled the number of advertisers on the network and thousands of developers now have a valuable new source of revenue." Although there has been talk that some advertisers being put off with the tight controls Apple puts on them, the UK launch will see Unilever, L'Oréal, Renault and Absolute Radio use the service. In September, figures showed that Apple's iAd service was closing in on the more established Google mobile ad sales, with both companies looking to own around 21 per cent of the mobile ad market by the end of the year. 
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| Exclusive: HTCSense.com coming to the HTC Desire? Posted: 18 Nov 2010 03:41 AM PST HTC has hinted that its cloud-based HTCSense.com service may be made available to older handsets in the near future, with the original HTC Desire looking likely to get the functionality. A TechRadar reader kindly gave us a tip-off that HTC had contacted him about the HTCSense.com service. While the phone company couldn't confirm if the HTC Desire was compatible with HTCSense.com, it did reveal that more details should arrive 'by the end of the year'. While we knew HTC was looking at porting the service to other compatible devices, it's the first time we have heard of any sort of timeframe. Makes Sense HTCSense.com was announced back in September and it is currently only available on the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z handsets. If you have these phones then you can log on to HTC.com to lock your handset if you have lost it, track its location and even take it off mute so you can hear its ringtone. The service is completely free and also allows you other synching options. The rather cryptic message our reader got from HTC was as follows: "At this time we are unable to confirm when the Desire will be compatible with HTCSense.com. "We hope to make this available before the end of the year." We have contacted HTC to see if there is any official information/confirmation on this. 
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| Review: Exclusive: Icecrypt T2400 Posted: 18 Nov 2010 03:35 AM PST  The appeal of free-to-view TV platforms is obvious, but 2010's addition of hi-def channels in the shape of Freeview+ HD is starting to convince Sky and Virgin subscribers that there is another way. The Freeview+ HD recorder has been blossoming of late with tempting boxes from the likes of Humax and Philips, but Icecrypt's imminent follow-up to the T2200 receiver has gone one-up on its rivals by including a 1TB hard drive on the T2400 as standard – and a Western Digital Green Drive, at that. As well as storing recordings (a stunning 250 hours of HD or 500 hours of SD), that HDD can pause live TV and store other digital files. Both 500GB (£309.95) and even 2TB (£TBC) versions will also be available, the latter in 2011. The back of the T2400 presents more evidence that this is a serious candidate. Two Scarts are joined by outputs for HDMI and composite video, while audio-only feeds can travel via its analogue stereo audio outputs or an optical digital audio cable.
The latter suggests home cinemas and surround sound, and the T2400 can handle both uncompressed PCM and Dolby Digital audio, though neither are yet broadcast over Freeview HD platform, which uses compressed stereo sound to free-up space for the HD channels.
Back there we also spotted an Ethernet LAN port and a USB slot, both of which can play the likes of DivX and MP3 files from an external USB drive, respectively. Home networking will be introduced to the T2400 experience, though not in time for the initial sale date; the early review sample we're looking at here is still being tweaked before going on sale very soon.
We've no complaints about the picture quality from the T2400's DVB-T2 tuners, with high definition channels in particular producing spotless images. A transmission of The One Show on BBC One HD presents some detailed close-ups while a broadcast of Planet Earth on BBC HD demonstrates some smooth and detailed panoramas of Western Australia that teem with colour and life. Standard definition programmes are a notch below expectations; there's an over-arching softness that suggests a less than impressive upscaler inside the T2400, though Icecrypt assures us that the drivers will be updated in a software upgrade due next week.
Insert a USB stick and the T2400 adds an extra dimension you might not have expected to find on a Freeview HD recorder – digital media playback. Press the media button and there's a choice of MP3, Photo or Media – the latter applying only to video files. AVI files encoded with XviD or DivX work fine, and we even managed to get a bevy of DivX HD files – saved as MKV files – to play without hitches. Here the picture quality is highly watchable, though hardly benchmark – we spotted a touch of grain amid a slight jerkiness to playback. This, say Icecrypt, will also be addressed imminently by new drivers.
After tuning-in digital channels over a couple of minutes, the T2400 presents a good-looking eight-day electronic programme guide. A mere one hour's worth of schedules over just five channels are shown on a single page, though colourful and hi-res graphics are used to devastating effect. Well-defined lettering and easy to read fonts meet a colour scheme of yellow and white text on a black and grey background; the end result is an EPG as attractive as any in the recorder market.
While the EPG is being inspected, and schedules searched (by keyword or genre), a window in the top-left-hand corner plays a thumbnail of the current TV channel, while the audio plays interrupted beneath. Recording is a cinch; click on a programme from the schedules and a choice of single record/series record/reminder is presented. Choose record and it's added to a list of scheduled recordings that's accessible via a 'fastext' shortcut option. If you pick three programmes to record simultaneously, a 'conflict' banner appears that offers you a choice of 'alternate instance' (another broadcast time or date is found) or 'manual method' (do it yourself).
Our only complaint is some slight colour banding in parts of the guide page, and that the schedule grid flickers while it's being toggled through. We also noticed that some options seem to have been named by a non-English speaker, with 'reservation' used instead of 'record', and 'resolve OK' where something more descriptive such as 'alternative broadcast found: recording scheduled' would have been better. Although only days from going on sale, Icecrypt is overhauling the Englishness as we write. Another oddity is that the remote lacks a 'recordings' button, and finding a simple list of what's been recorded is actually quite difficult. Eventually we found a button sporting a graphic of a page, which we guess is a logical icon for a library; it leads to a simple list with the title, date and transmission time recorded.
This same translucent page gives details of the space left on the HDD, options to create and name folders of recordings, and move files either within, or to a USB drive. A 30-minute episode took just over a minute to move a USB stick, with the resulting MPEG4 files saved as a TRP formatted file. It's not rocket science to find a media player or some file converter software that handles TRP files, but nor is it particularly easy – Windows Media Player nor Quicktime natively support TRP. Recordings can be skipped through very easily using the remote's arrow keys, with the percentage of the programme gone shown on a progress along the bottom of the screen. Half or quarter speed slo-mo is also possible, while the 'jump' button can be set to between one and 10 minutes. Aside from those minor issues, the T2400's interface comes across as quick, good-looking and easy to use – helped by a remote control that's large, well weighted and comprehensively labelled – but it's not the slickest set of controls imaginable.
It's the Freeview+ features that make this new generation of free-to-air hi-def recorders so enticing, but it's the sheer size of the HDD and user-friendly interface that makes the T2400 an attractive option. Others will love the chance to playback digital files. We liked: An attractive and quick EPG coupled with decent functionality and an easy to use remote control meets a huge hard disk and playback, streaming – and even export – of a bevy of digital files. What's not to like? We disliked: The chance to export recordings to a USB stick is excellent, though considering the size of the HDD we'd only want to do that to watch a programme on-the-the-move – so the TRP format of exported files is slightly awkward. There's also no streaming, or a Common Interface slot, which rules out Top-Up TV viewing cards. Verdict: It's not without its faults and the T2400 doesn't always produce cutting-edge image quality, but this versatile and fully featured deck has some nice extras nevertheless. Taken together the T2400 makes for a fine Freeview+ HD recorder with recording capacity that just can't be beaten. Related Links
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| In Depth: 3D console gaming on test: COD Black Ops Posted: 18 Nov 2010 03:00 AM PST  On 9 November, Call of Duty: Black Ops, went on sale in the UK. And by the end of the day it had sold 1.4 million copies in the UK alone, making it the biggest launch in the history of console gaming. Everyone who picked up a copy knew they'd bagged themselves the latest entry in the annually updated, frequently excellent Call of Duty series. But how many people knew they'd also bought arguably the highest-profile showcase yet for the new 3D technology? Activision, the studio behind the game, announced just weeks before the game launched that it would be playable in 3D on both Xbox 360 and PS3, using one of the new breed of 3D HDTVs. And while the decision seemed alarmingly last minute considering the effort needed to create a convincing 3D image, it certainly chimed with the widespread belief in the AV world that it will actually be games that make or break 3D's latest quest for world domination, rather than films or TV shows. The potential for 3D to enhance a gaming experience is clear. It should, for instance, help make a game world feel more real, engaging and, above all, immersive. Furthermore, the addition of depth could be used to introduce an extra layer of skill to shoot-em-ups and driving games. Basically, adding 3D to games could make them feel more lifelike, thus satisfying what's seen as one of the holy grails of modern game development, at least where certain genres are concerned. Black Ops 3D on Xbox As ever, though, the proof of the 3D pudding is in the eating. So it's time to don our camouflage gear and a pair of 3D glasses, and settle down to the cold, hard business of shooting things in the third dimension. Will 3D help engross us more in the game world? Will it give us an edge or prove a hindrance, especially in the super-fast world of online play? And will it deliver the same experience on both the two main consoles? Kicking off with the Xbox 360 version, choosing the 'Stereoscopic 3D' mode from the options menu immediately kills the mood. For up comes a page of dire warnings about the potential effect long-term 3D viewing might have on your health. This hardly fills you with confidence about the experience that's to follow, and you have to question if any technology that comes with a health warning can ever become truly mainstream. Trying to put such thinking behind us, we fired up the Executive Order single player level, on the grounds that it contains an impressive mix of very wide, open spaces and tight corridors that should test everything that 3D has to offer. And pretty much immediately we felt mixed emotions. Sense of depth On the upside, the sense of depth is, as expected, more pronounced than it is in 2D mode. However, the impact isn't quite as strong as we would have liked, suggesting that the game designers 'played it safe' in depth terms as a result of applying 3D retrospectively to an already complete game engine rather than designing it with 3D in mind from scratch. It might have been helpful if the option to shift the sense of depth yourself had been provided, as it was with the first 3D console game, Avatar. The depth effect is still sufficient, though, to boost the sense of space that you're dealing with and moving within. A bit of good technical news, meanwhile, is that while the game runs a tad slower in 3D, things still feel pretty fluid. In fact, there actually seem to be less moments of slow-down during very action-packed sequences than there are when playing in 2D. It becomes apparent once the shooting starts that having a real third dimension to aim into does change the gameplay mechanics. Though not necessarily in a good way, as the gameplay actually feels harder. There appear to be two reasons for this. First, if you press the left trigger button to look down your gun's sight, the extremely sudden shift in depth of the picture throws your vision off momentarily, leading you to lose focus briefly on your target. More disturbing, though, is the fact that aiming just seems to become less accurate in 3D. Your crosshair's relationship with what you're shooting at isn't as tight, turning even fairly accurate players into 'spray and hopers' at times. Not ideal if you're playing on the game's intensely tough Veteran difficulty. The more we played Black Ops in 3D, the more we started to feel convinced that it's not just enough for a game to be available in a 3D render; the gameplay itself should also ideally be tweaked to suit 3D play. If this proves true of all games, it could be a real problem for 3D, since it could make the cost of making 3D games substantially higher. There are two other more technical issues you should be aware of when playing Black Ops in 3D on the Xbox 360. First, the picture is noticeably less detailed and sharp than in 2D. The game requires you to set your console into 720p mode rather than 1080 'full HD' before the 3D output will work. Then, crucially, it outputs the left and right images needed to create the 3D image onscreen simultaneously, which inevitably means you're going to suffer reduced resolution as effectively two images share one set of pixels. Crosstalk noise The other big problem is crosstalk noise. This, actually, isn't as much to do with the game's production as the ability of current 3D screens to keep up with the extremely rapid frame rate required by full HD 3D. The glasses you wear with 3D TVs use a shutter system to alternate full HD images between each eye so fast that you get a 3D effect tin HD, but if a screen can't refresh its pictures fast enough it can result in double ghosting over parts of the picture. This is crosstalk, and it really can be extremely distracting, making the picture look unfocussed and causing your eyes to feel fatigued very quickly. In fact, with the two LCD TVs we played Black Ops in 3D on, Samsung's 46C8000 and LG's 47LX6900, the crosstalk issues both hindered our gaming abilities and made playing for more than half an hour at a time really tiring. Oh well - we guess that's one way of curing our Black Ops addiction. Happily the crosstalk issues were much reduced when we played the game on a plasma 3D TV - Panasonic's P42VT20 - reaffirming our growing sense that right now, at least, plasma is the only technology capable of delivering a truly convincing 3D picture. Even on the P42VT20, though, crosstalk appears just often enough to make us suspect that many people will go back to their pristine 2D pictures instead. Black Ops 3D on PS3 On paper, at least, the PS3's 3D performance should fare better. For instead of putting both left and right stereoscopic images on screen at the same time, the PS3 makes use of its high-capacity HDMI 1.4 connection (vs 1.3 on the Xbox 360) to present its 3D pictures 'stacked' vertically, delivering a tidy 720p HD frame to each eye. Oddly, though, we didn't really feel that this potential jump in detail or sharpness materialised. In fact, if anything the 3D PS3 Black Ops looked a touch softer than the Xbox one. In any case, though, this was rendered a more or less moot point by the fact that the PS3 seems to struggle with its 3D load; gameplay feels rather slow, making the controls slightly unresponsive and generally reducing our usual sense of COD adrenaline. The only thing in the PS3's favour is that for some reason its pictures suffer a touch less with crosstalk. No killer app The bottom line with all this is, as you've probably guessed: Black Ops in 3D isn't exactly the 3D 'killer app' we'd hoped it might be. The developers have played it a touch too safe when adding depth to the image, meaning that 'going 3D' doesn't add as great a sense of depth to proceedings as expected. Much more troubling, though, are the technical issues with both the 3D screen hardware currently available, and the two games consoles (resolution and crosstalk with the Xbox, sluggishness and softness with the PS3). These concerns actually make you feel more detached from the game rather than more immersed in it, as well as making you feel at more of a gaming disadvantage. In other words, our 3D experience of Black Ops was more or less the exact opposite of what we'd hoped we'd find. Here's hoping the upcoming launch of Gran Turismo 5 in 3D turns out to be a rather more successful poster boy for the supposed 3D revolution, otherwise our already nagging doubts about the public's appetite for 3D will really start to take hold... 
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| Twitter Analytics: chart your popularity soon Posted: 18 Nov 2010 02:44 AM PST  Twitter has started to invite users to try out its new analytics tool, which can drill into a Twitter account and mine it for data. Twitter Analytics is a service which has been mooted for some time by the micro-blogging site and will be able to chart snippets of data from a Twitter feed, including how many mentions you have had in a specific time and how many followers you have gained and lost. Analyse this Twitter Analytics is probably not for the average person using the site. Most of us can track the handful of retweets we get by checking our history, but for companies it will be invaluable. They will be able to understand which tweets work the best and use this to refine their social media message. Although Twitter hasn't officially announced the tool – Mashable has got word it is happening – Evan Williams is set to talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week so expect him to show off the service. 
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| Game streaming service Gaikai launches open beta Posted: 18 Nov 2010 02:36 AM PST  Game streaming service Gaikai, which allows gamers to instantly try any demo of a game in a browser, has launched an open beta test this week. Invites have gone out to the first batch of 11,000 users, with CEO David Perry (he of Earthworm Jim fame) officially announcing that the beta test is open for business. Unlike other streaming and cloud-gaming offerings from the likes of OnLive, Gaikai is looking to make money directly from videogame developers and publishers, by offering their customers the opportunity to test out demos of games instantly and for free. Gaikai plans to make its money based on the number of minutes users spend playing publisher's game demos. Free, instant game demos Perry confirmed in a blog post earlier this week that the first 1,000 invites were sent out on Sunday and will be followed by a further 10,000 this week. Perry added that 15 of Gaikai's 24 worldwide servers are currently being used in the open beta testing. "No issues have been reported that we can't fix this month, and so we will continue to send out invite blasts in waves of 10,000 until all issues are fixed," said Perry. The open beta is running BioWare's Mass Effect 2. Perry added that: "The Second Life team (from Linden Lab) has also been working away on a special build that they wanted to stream with no friction. They sent out a tweet and people started hitting the servers, it worked well." Whether cloud-gaming services such as OnLive and Gaikai can be proven to both work and capture the imagination of the gaming public in 2011 is one of the biggest questions being asked by games publishers and developers right now. Head over to Gaikai for more, or if you fancy getting involved in the beta test. 
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| Gary Marshall: Dumping net neutrality could be disastrous Posted: 18 Nov 2010 02:16 AM PST  Corporations are like Pit Bull Terriers: sooner or later they'll go bad and eat a baby. It's not their fault. They're made that way. They exist solely to reward their investors, and what's good for those investors is rarely good for the rest of us. Give them the internet and they won't ask, "how do we make this better for the good of all mankind?"; they'll ask, "how can we screw every last drop of profit from this?" So it's pretty depressing to discover that when it comes to net neutrality, culture minister Ed Vaizey reckons the corporations are the ones to listen to. Were the people who actually use the net, whose livelihoods depend on the net, consulted? Don't be daft. The companies who want to make each data packet pay have promised they'll be good. Sooner or later, they'll eat a baby. Eating the open internet In this case the baby they'll eat is the open internet. If ISPs can say to firms, "nice data you've got here. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it" they can ensure that the next YouTube, the next iPlayer never takes off. Bear in mind that many ISPs aren't just carriers: they're also in the media business, so for example ISPs such as BT, Sky and Virgin have services that could be seen as competitors to, er, YouTube and iPlayer. That should be reason enough to worry about net neutrality. You can tell a lot about a debate by who's supporting each side - so if you're on the same side as Hitler, Pol Pot and Gillian McKeith, you've probably made the wrong call. In this debate you've got the BBC and Tim Berners-Lee in the pro-neutrality camp; on the other, the Conservatives and a handful of very big and very profitable telecommunications firms. Those firms are hardly hurting: for example Virgin Media, whose boss describes net neutrality as "bollocks", is doing rather well. Virgin, like many other ISPs, also wholeheartedly supports the government's plans to make the BBC help fund rural broadband, so if net neutrality is abandoned it's possible that the BBC will be paying not just for the pipes its iPlayer content travels down, but for the bandwidth it uses too. That's a nice little earner for ISPs, but I'm not convinced that it's the right way to pay for UK broadband - and not just because the BBC's money is our money. A fairer way Let's assume that the ISPs are telling the truth. Let's assume that video is eating the internet, that ISPs haven't been under-investing, that bandwidth scarcity isn't artificial and avoidable and that a capacity crunch is looming. Even if those things are true, abandoning net neutrality isn't the fairest solution; pricing is. Is it fair for my ISP to charge more for guaranteed service quality at peak times? Sure. Is it fair for it to demand cash from websites to deliver their content? No. Given the choice between listening to Tim Berners-Lee or listening to firms that hope to profit from a two-tier Internet, I think I'll go with Sir Tim. Four years ago, he wrote: "We may pay for a higher or a lower quality of service. We may pay for a service which has the characteristics of being good for video, or quality audio. But we each pay to connect to the net, but no one can pay for exclusive access to me." He was right then. He's right now. 
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