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Internet

Elysia Graphic Novel Kickstarter Project Launched

In the past year or so, crowd-funding websites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have become a really popular way for individuals and companies to gain upfront funding/support for their projects from the people who would be interested in buying the end-product.

If successful, this method of funding means that these creative people can concentrate on producing their product rather than chasing around trying to gain funding from other sources such as banks and investors…therefore we all get to see their cool end-products much sooner than we might otherwise!

With that in mind, one of our very own writers here on Zath; Serena Obhrai, has launched the Elysia Kickstarter project for a brand new 300+ page sci-fi/fantasy graphic novel that she’s created with her illustration partner, Jennie Gyllblad.

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Netflix Launches In The UK – Will You Switch From LoveFilm?

After years of uncertainty and waiting whilst we watched our friends on the other side of the pond enjoy streaming services, Netflix has finally launched in the UK and Ireland! From today, anyone can head over to the Netflix website and sign up for a month’s trial completely free of charge so that you can try out its services and see what the company has to offer on its UK movie catalogue.

Once you’ve signed up, you will be able to choose from a catalogue of both movies and TV shows, although the content appears to be somewhat limited at first glance, perhaps due to content already tied up in contracts with LoveFilm. Whether content providers will choose to add more shows and movies to the service in due course, and how many may be added, is yet to be seen.

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Google eBookstore Launches In The UK

Love e-books but hate being tied down in an eco-system? Me too, and until now my only realistic option in the e-book market has been to use Amazon’s Kindle store and then remove the DRM from my purchased items so that I can read them on any devices that I may own in the future.

Thanks to Google’s eBookstore, however, there is some more choice available, which can only be good for consumers. Until now, it was only available in the USA, but today it has finally launched in the UK as well.

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‘My Windows Phone’ Launches Ahead of Mango, Adds Web Marketplace

In the eyes of many, including myself, Windows Phone is well overdue an update, and it’s in line to get one pretty soon if Microsoft is to be believed. And it just got a lot more credence given the recent launch of a new site called ‘My Windows Phone’, which aims to collect the bulk of the data stored on your Windows Phone device in one easy-to-use web interface.

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eBuyer Study Reveals The UK’s Geekiest (And Least Geeky) Cities

If you’re a resident geek in Cambridge, then you can start September with a big smile across your face, because you officially live in the UK’s geekiest city of 2011! Of course, by ‘officially’, I’m referring to a study recently undergone at eBuyer, but judging from the amount of tech they ship all over these great nations of ours, they’re a pretty solid source.

In the study, each city in the UK was given a ‘geek score’, which was calculated using three metrics: tech related product conversions per city, IT developer job opportunities per city and the percentage of those with at least one qualification per city. All of the scores were then weighted, with tech related product conversions being the main driver, and calculated relative to each city’s overall population to produce a positive or negative score. Sounds simple enough, right?

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Magix Website Maker 5 Review

This could quite possibly become one of the most perspective-driven reviews I will ever write, and for that reason it’s also one of the most difficult. But stop here if you’re looking for web design software that will allow great flexibility, offer tools to drive traffic to your site or indeed anything that a typically commercial or promotional website might want. Magix Website Maker is not for you.

However, if you’re someone merely wanting to make an imprint on the inexhaustible platform of resources that is the Internet, and are fearful of over complex web design software and methods, then you might want to give this review a read. It might well be what you’ve been craving.

You see, the big ‘problem’ with this software is that it exists entirely around Adobe Flash. Which, as well publicised, won’t work on your iPad (without jailbreaking) and many other tablets, or if you don’t have it installed on your PC. Now there are a number of reasons why Flash is a no go if you want a commercial website, or something that will attract large quantities of traffic for whatever reason.

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Facebook Tweaks Privacy Settings To Add Clarity And Control

Every company has its downfall. Whether it be a small startup with employee numbers in the tens rather than the thousands, or the billion dollar brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, there will be something, that one thing, that haunts it throughout its existence. For Facebook of course, it’s the much publicised and heavily criticised privacy settings. Yet here we are, Facebook now has improved privacy controls.

So what does this mean? Well, users of Google+ might be familiar with the new settings on offer to users wishing to share anything on the site, because everything you do choose to share, will now be accompanied by options of exactly who to share it with. You can make it public, by choosing public, or just share with your friends, by selecting friends. There are some custom options too, but in the interest of simplicity, the ultimate aim of this change from Facebook, we’ll leave that to anyone who dares venture beyond the boundaries of what’s laid on a plate for them.

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BT Becomes The First ISP to Block Pirates, Starts Swallowing up the Internet

Newzbin2 has today become the first website to be blocked by an ISP on the grounds of distributing illegally copied material. I’d personally never heard of the site, so I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep after being told I can’t make use of it anymore, however there are, I’m sure, plenty of members on the website, which scours the Usenet forums for content and distributes anything it finds, who might take it a little harder.

This case is not about the size of the website being blocked though, nor is it a move to stamp out piracy once and for all. Not yet, at least, instead it’s more a mere landmark. A case that will be looked at as the first of many, I assume, and one that paves the way for a succession of other websites meeting a similar end.

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Amazon To Launch Game Download Store In The UK From October

In case you needed reminding, digital downloads are the future. I definitely subscribe to that vision, and clearly so does Amazon. In the wake of it launching its own Android app store, it’s come to the PC game distribution party in a bid to rival the likes of Steam, which has dominated the market for years now.

Having been made available in the US over 2 years ago, the store has a sure foothold in the industry already, however it’s also been a long time coming to the UK, with many users still having to wait for the postman to arrive with the new title they’re itching to play. It’s a terrible period of waiting once you’ve ordered a game online to the actual delivery, so as long as your broadband has the clout, then this is a preferable method.

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Who Will Win The Cloud Music War? Is It Really The Future?

For years we were stuck with the then necessary burden of keeping all of our music stashed in a drawer or cupboard, plucking out the track we’ve just arrived at the mood for and slipped it onto whatever variety of player we happened to have. In fact, it was that way for over a hundred years before the invention of the MP3 player – and that changed everything. But, could we be on the verge of another drastic shift in the methods we use to deliver, store and access our music? There are pretty strong hints that Apple will soon join the ranks of companies offering cloud-based music services, which already includes the recent additions of Amazon and Google, as well as the longstanding services such as Grooveshark and Spotify. And now the strongest, most powerful gladiators have supposedly entered the arena, it’s about time we asked the question: is it actually what the consumer wants?

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Google Facing Microsoft EU Complaint & Tax Investigation From China

If you’re not a fan of irony then you may want to skip this story as both parts are simply swimming in it! To start with Bill Gates’ brainchild Microsoft have in the past week (the same week in which Google +1 social search features were unveiled) taken another step towards out-and-out war with Google by filing a formal complaint to the European Commission for Competition claiming that the dominance of the company is restricting competition.

On the other side of the world Google is also in trouble this time in China as the authorities are investigating possible tax avoidance in three companies linked to Google Inc, two investigations which if they go against the search giant could leave them in very hot water.

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Google +1 Brings Facebook’s ‘Like’ Button Functionality To Search Results…Without The Social Network!

Last week Google announced the latest in a long list of new social features that will be added to their search service, but interestingly the idea behind it is remarkably similar to one that we have seen already in the form of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button and before that, from the likes of Digg.

Google’s version of the one-click button will be called +1 (or Plus One) and will be the most significant social feature that we have seen on the Google service to date given that we’ve not seen the appearance of a Google Me or Google Circles social network as has been rumoured in the past.

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MySpace Loses Millions Of Users In Just A Few Weeks – Could It Happen To Facebook?

Remember MySpace? Pretty much every pubescent socialite, unsigned artist or serial spammer at least had an account at some point, but the [sad] truth is, that it’s just not what it used to be. Why? It’s probably Mark Zuckerberg’s fault by taking Facebook to world domination of the social space.

The latest statistics emerging from industry analysts, as reported by the BBC, show that MySpace lost more than 10 millions users during the first two months of 2011. Considering that there was close to 110 million users in February of last year, and that figure grew worryingly close to just 60 million in the same month this year, there must be cause for concern in the MySpace headquarters.

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Sex Domain Extension .xxx Approved By ICANN – But Is It A Good Or Bad Move?

Perhaps somewhat disappointingly one of the main uses of the internet is for sex and although it is really quite difficult to gauge just how much of the internet is used for adult entertainment it’s pretty clear that it’s a lot.

So really it should come as no surprise that for the last 10 years the industry has be trying to get it’s own top level domain .xxx,  but finally the battle of the virtual red light district is over and the internet overseer ICANN has approved the application meaning that very shortly it will become a reality.

Unsurprisingly given the context, debate over whether or not this is such a good idea has been going on for some time and has drawn some surprising divides between not only the general public, but also between pornographers themselves.

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Google Improves YouTube By Buying A Parrot!

If you actually look at number of companies that the giant-that-is-Google owns you may actually be quite surprised, true examples like YouTube and Blogger aren’t that surprising, but you may be surprised to know that Google own BeatThatQuote.com and as of today the Irish company Green Parrot Pictures.

The latest of these acquisitions is an attempt to boost the quality of the videos that are uploaded to YouTube by using the technology developed by the small Dublin based firm, technology that has been used in many big Hollywood films such as X-Men and Spiderman.

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New ‘Google Circles’ Social Network To Launch Soon? Or Just Another Rumour?

It won’t be the first time, but I’m pretty sure Google will hope it will be the last, and thus the most successful, that Google might be launching a social networking site. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about this kind of possibility with rumours of a ‘Google Me’ social network in the past, so far nothing has appeared to take some sort of sizable chunk out of Facebook’s ever-increasing market share. A market share that can’t keep increasing as it continues to steam-roller the likes of Bebo, Facebook, Friendster on its path to web-world domination.

Anyway, rumour has it that Google is once again stepping into the game, with ‘Google Circles’, its latest and hopefully greatest social networking site. So far, all that the rumours suggest is that you’ll be able to share photos, videos and status messages. That’s nothing new. At all. So there must be more, or once again it will be back to the drawing board for the brains at Google as once again, nobody migrates from Facebook.

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Google Chrome 10 Web Browser Update Released – Boasts Better Speed, Security & Syncing Features

Despite only being released back in late 2008 Google’s internet browser Chrome has been exponentially increasing in popularity to the point that in this January it had risen to over 10% of all browser usage, the third most popular behind Firefox and Internet Explorer.

This week Google announced on their Chrome blog that version 10 of the Google Chrome Web Browser will feature an updated version of the JavaScript engine which should bring with it a 66% improvement with JavaScript performance, increases security from malicious web pages by extending Chrome’s sandboxing technology to the integrated flash player and offers password sync enabled by default.

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Steve Jobs Isn’t The Only Flash Hater, So Is The Firefox Vice President! Do You Feel The Same Way?

Apple, or more specifically CEO Steve Jobs, gets constant criticism for the lack of Adobe Flash on its iPad and iPhone devices. The reason being cited is quite a simply one: it’s not very good. It’s a controversial opinion, what with a great chunk of web-based media being flash-based, and in some cases entire sites. However, it turns out that Steve Jobs is not the only one who hates Flash.

The Vice President of Firefox projects at Mozilla, has today followed suit and has had this to say when asked whether Flash would eventually become irrelevant:

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European-Based Website Cookies Set To Crumble Thanks To EU Directive

Just in case you don’t know what a cookie is (other than a tasty snack) it’s a small piece of text that is saved onto your computer by websites which is then used for things like authentication, storing preferences and even your shopping cart details – it basically tells the website who you are and when you’ve been on that website before.

However, they do have their nasty side in certain circumstances and it is because of this that new European laws have been introduced to try and regulate the manner in which businesses can use cookies on their websites something which could have a real effect on how we use them.

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RightMove To Display Broadband Speeds With UK Property Listing Details

Having recently put our house up for sale, I can say that I’m no stranger to RightMove, having trawled endlessly through the extensive catalogue of homes on the site as well as looking at other newer services such as the PrimeLocation iPad App. However, one thing that I have questioned when viewing houses online is the Internet connection. That is to say, do they have access to fiber optic cables, as well as the traditional copper wires provided by BT.

It’s something essential in mine, and many other people’s life, the Internet, so it is more or less essential to know the possibilities before buying a home. It’s a safe bet, providing you don’t live somewhere so remote it ceases to be of any importance to the civilised world, that you will have the copper wiring BT provides, and that is resold by every other ISP in the country.

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