Articles about Digital Lifestyle

UK media regulator Ofcom has published the results of its latest Adults' Media Use and Attitudes report studying the media habits of people aged 16 and over.

Among the findings are that younger people spend more time online and that the number of over 65s accessing the web has increased by 27 percent between 2012 and 2013.

Continue reading →

Wearable technology has yet to really make an impact, but its time is coming. There are more and more products being released by many of the world's top tech firms, and shows focusing on wearables are popping up across the globe.

Amazon today joins in the wearables craze by launching a one-stop shop where customers can find and buy the latest in wearable technology, including activity trackers, smart watches, and wearable cameras. There are products on offer from the likes of Samsung, Jawbone, GoPro, Basis, and Misfit.

Continue reading →

A little while back I wrote a post asking you, the readers, if you planned on getting rid of your pay TV service this year. The response was overwhelming, but the comments were also somewhat surprising. Many of you had already done it.

For those who have not, I thought it would be a good opportunity to point out the services available that can help to fill that time when you sit on the couch simply wanting entertainment to relax to. I don't promise that this will make up for everything, but let's see how close we can come.

Continue reading →

It seems that the world of technology is much like the world of politics and religion -- oh yes, we are going down that road -- you pick your side and you stick to it. While it is great to be decisive in what you believe in, it can also be very limiting. It creates a sense of black and white, ignoring the myriad shades of grey that undeniably exist. It stunts the palate and narrows the mind. This is the effect that Google has had on the world, or the world of technology at least. Just as many people will unquestioning accept what is proffered by their religious text of preference, too many people fail to look outside of what Google has to offer.

It seems that Google is a god to many people, and this is worrying. My colleague Joe Wilcox has written extensively about the importance of writing for one's audience rather than for Google. Refusing to tailor one's content to meet the demands of Google's ever-changing algorithms may mean fewer hits, but it will almost invariably mean higher quality content and a more enjoyable, readable and unique experience for readers. And at the end of the day, that is what matters. Google is not my god. I'm an atheist -- and I'm extremely glad to be.

Continue reading →

My last column discussed the intersection between Big Data and Artificial Intelligence and where things might be heading. The question for this column is can I (Bob Cringely) be replaced by a machine?

Look below the fold on most news sites and you’ll see ads that look like news stories but aren’t: "One Weird Trick to Grow Extra Toes!", or "The 53 Hottest Ukrainian Grandmothers!" I’m waiting for "One Weird Trick to Becoming a Hot Ukrainian Grandmother with Extra Toes!" Read the stories and they are total crap, that is unless you have a fetish for Ukrainian Grandmas… or toes. They are all about getting us to click through page after page and be exposed to ad after ad. Alas, in SEOWorld (the recently added 10th level of Hell) some people call this progress.

Continue reading →

Much of the buzz in the tech world at the moment surrounds the internet of things, the idea that every piece of electronic kit might one day be connected via the web.

There are plenty of benefits from this but it also presents a number of challenges. Home automation specialist Custom Controls has released an infographic showing what needs to happen for the internet of things to work.

Continue reading →

I enjoy running, but require motivation to get started and keep going. Thankfully there are plenty of apps which can help here. I’m a big fan of Zombies, Run! and the similar BattleSuit Runner, both of which offer episodic stories that unfold in between tracks from your playlist as you run.

Occasionally though I just like to put on some running music, and for that I have a new favorite app -- RockMyRun. This is essentially a large collection of mixes from various DJs, covering a wide range of genres -- 80s, 90s, Rock, House, Pop, Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Christian Rock, Oldies, and so on -- that have been designed specifically for listening to when running (the last 15 minutes are higher energy, to encourage you to keep going). Mixes can be streamed on 3G/4G, or downloaded to your device via Wi-Fi.

Continue reading →

I have just recently finished my review of the new Amazon Fire TV, a box I found tremendously likable and easy to use. However, that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Not all of us utilize Prime for our video content.

However, it’s not the only game in town. Other companies are making competitive boxes, though I can't say I've had occasion to try them all. For instance, I do not have, nor have I used, the offerings from both WD and Apple. However, for the three I have used, I have some early impressions to share that could, hopefully, serve as a bit of a guide towards your next purchase.

Continue reading →

The set-top box market recently grew a bit more crowded, as Amazon unveiled its offering, taking on stiff competition from Apple, Roku and Google. However, with a strong ecosystem for content, the retailer seems up to the challenge.

Like its Kindle Fire tablet line, the little box runs a highly customized version of Android, but don’t let that fool you into thinking the Play store will be there -- it isn't. You are living in the Amazon universe now, but the company doesn't force it wares on you, as there are other services you can also use.

Continue reading →

The internet has been responsible for changing the way we go about many of the tasks in our day-to-day lives. Not least it has changed the way we shop.

Customer experience specialist Baynote has released a new infographic map showing the growth of e-commerce across the world.

Continue reading →

Amazon's Fire TV, a previously much-rumored device, is now officially on the market, with reviews cropping up around the web -- our own will be coming shortly. One known issue that seems to pop up is that the voice search only encompasses Amazon. But that landscape is already beginning to change.

Today, the retailer announces new partners in this endeavor. Hulu Plus, Crackle and Showtime, which were already present on the tiny set-top box, will now be included in search, starting this summer (a rather vague time frame).

Continue reading →

It seems that there have been few big names left unaffected by the Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. Google may have rushed to patch the flaw, but the number of websites and services that fell foul of the discovery is staggering. It seems that even stalwarts of security are finding themselves in troubled waters, and this includes anonymizing service Tor.

Put very simply (very, very simply!), Tor works by not only encrypting data that is transferred online, but also bouncing it around a number of servers, making it all but impossible to trace to a particular user or computer. It transpires that some of the Tor nodes that are used in the process are running versions of OpenSSL that are vulnerable to Heartbleed, and this has led to calls for the affected nodes to be closed down. Writing to the Tor mailing list, developer Roger Dingledine suggests that up to 12 percent of the network's capacity may be lost if all of the vulnerable nodes are taken offline.

Continue reading →

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the home theater market, with a few major releases, including the Roku streaming stick, but also Amazon's much anticipated Fire TV and the latest offering from Harmony. The Logitech-owned company offers a number of smart remotes, but now also has the Smart Keyboard, designed to control your home theater.

The introduction of Amazon's Android-based box seemed to offer a challenge, as the remote is Bluetooth, but Harmony has stepped up and made it work.

Continue reading →

Not long ago, I conducted a rather unscientific survey, asking readers if they planned to cut the cord in 2014. There was no voting, it simply relied on comments, as I wished to know your thoughts. A number of you had already taken the plunge, but we are dealing with a tech-oriented crowd. This isn't something my mom and dad will be doing -- they’d think I spoke a foreign language if I used the word Roku.

Morgan Stanley, who we don't tend to think of when it comes to media, went a bit further, taking a more scientific approach and collating the results into a nice graphic format.

Continue reading →

Google has a lot of mud thrown at it, and while a lot of it slides off, there is a good proportion that sticks. There are a variety of accusations levelled at the search giant -- evil, self-serving, monopolistic, nosey, invasive, overbearing, corporate, et cetera, et cetera -- but could it be that the power the company wields is actually a good thing? Could Google use the sway it holds over website owners to make the web a better place? But before we start praising Google, there's no harm in sticking the boot in first, eh?

For many people, Google is a bully. In the constant search for page views, ranking in Google matters -- it matters a lot. My colleague Joe Wilcox argues that writers should write for themselves and their readers rather than Google -- something I would strongly advocate -- but until this notion gathers momentum, there are still countless bloggers panicking themselves silly about what impact the latest search algorithm changes will have on their position in search results. It can be a constant game of catch-up, requiring endless changes to optimize content for maximum visibility -- all too often at the expense of readability and reader experience.

Continue reading →