The mouse and keyboard have been around for 50 and 140 yrs respectively – offering fast typing and precision cursor clicks at your fingertips, they have become the essential office tool. But outside the office, cutting-edge computer interfaces are changing our gaming and social lives. Xbox Kinect became the fastest selling electronics device when it went on sale two years ago – its motion sensing technology makes for a more intuitive, easy-access interface than the games controller, which explains its broad appeal. New interfaces are also revolutionising the mobile phone industry. Touch keys are out, touch screens are in; and with iphone 4S, the focus is on voice control commands thanks to Siri. What’s next…thought control?

Kinect became the fastest selling electronics device. Picture courtesy of amazon.co.uk

In fact, thought-controlled technology already exists in the form of thought-controlled wheelchairs and monkeys controlling robotic limbs and there is huge potential for expansion of thought-controlled applications for disability assistance. The technology represents the ‘brain-computer interface’ which uses our brain’s physiology. Nerve cells communicate via electrical impulses: when a nerve cell fires, most of the impulse passes onto a neighbouring nerve cell, but electrical leakage means that some of the signal escapes, making detection possible. Brain-computer interfaces detect and interpret electrical signals, and because the different thoughts and emotions that we experience are associated with different arrays of electrical impulses, a computer that can learn what these different signals mean could potentially read our minds. In practice, signals are detected using electroencephalography or EEG – electrodes are placed in different regions on the scalp and pick up the electrical signals from different regions of the brain.

Courtesy of reynouts.wordpress.com

This has immense potential to benefit the lives of the severely disabled. With the help of a brain-computer interface, ‘locked-in’ patients who are paralysed except for eye movements could control a wheelchair, create a message or even operate a robot. This possibility is becoming a reality thanks to technologies such as ‘BrainAble’ and ‘BrainGate’. Although helping the disabled has been the driving force for brain control interfaces, the technology already has more frivolous applications. For example, a ‘mind-reading’ gaming headset is already on the market. The ‘neuroheadset’ allows the player to control basic on-screen movements such as push/pull and lift/drop using thought alone. The headset also detects facial expressions using motion-sensing technology, which is used to project the player’s emotions onto their on-screen character.

A neuro-headset in action. Courtesy of nytimes

Imagine where the technology could take us: an ipod that could shuffle to different tunes according to what mood your headset picks up from your neural signals. And how about a smartphone operated by thought commands. Rather than talking aloud to your phone as with iphone 4S (“what’s the weather like in London” etc.), which can be rude or embarrassing in some contexts, you could find out more discreetly using thought commands. A rival technology hoping to offer smarter more discreet information access is Google’s augmented reality glasses. Location-specific information would be projected onto the lenses, for example, warning the user of tube disruption as they approach a subway entrance.

Let’s not get carried away – there’s a reason the gaming character could only carry out simple actions. By the time the neural signals have reached a headset they have already had to pass through quite a lot of bone and tissue and are therefore weakened and distorted. For disabled patients, electrodes can be surgically inserted into/on the surface of the brain to get a clearer signal, but few gamers would go that far for their hobby. It’s also unlikely that an external headset could be used to achieve accurate cursor placement and for this reason, the mouse is not likely to be rivalled by brain-controlled cursors any time soon. On the other hand, a thought-controlled cursor has been invented using electrodes placed on the brain surface rather than into the brain tissue. Once brain-computer interfaces are commercially available, they could have real potential to help paralysed patients.

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Is print dead? This has been constantly asked, re-asked and over-analysed during the last few years with the expansion of current media developments. However, focusing on the traditional newspaper’s death sentence precludes us from examining the real and very exciting changes that have taken place – and are currently taking place – in the news industry as a whole; that is, how newspapers and news sites are interacting with social media creating news that is centred on your photographs, your videos, and perhaps most importantly, your opinions.

Newspapers and news sites have responded to demands with a new age of digital, personalised and unedited news. Whilst sites are exploring different angles, the overall agenda is the same; giving us an enhanced experience of the news where we all take part. The BBC News website’s ‘Have your say’ and ‘Your pictures and stories’ sections are just a couple of examples amongst countless. CNN uses ‘iReport’ – a user-generated site where ‘the way people like you report the news’ – influencing the way that CCN itself reports the news. And perhaps most groundbreaking is the ‘Guardian Zeitgeist’, a news feed application that literally captures the spirit of the times, pulling in stories from the main site according to ‘social signals’ (i.e. reader trends and mentions on Twitter). The day’s ‘Zeitgeistiness’ is calculated at midnight each day and is frozen in the archives for posterity. We create each day’s Zeitgeist; the news has been democratised.

Since news is now presented as something to which we should respond, actively contribute, and shape, the traditional client-editor relationship in the media has been overhauled. We now expect to have a voice in the news – to play a part in the debate – whereas in the ‘Letters’ section in traditional newspapers, the editor decides which of our opinions are worth publishing. The power has shifted from the editor to us; our opinions have become part of the news and the way it is told.

The relationship between news sites and social media is therefore ever-changing and increasingly significant. Recent turmoil has proved this: the London riots showed the BBC to be getting much of their information from Twitter, enabling journalists to collate news from many different places simultaneously; and Twitter is particularly useful in covering the Middle Eastern conflicts, as Syria for example have banned journalists. Twitter has become a new Reuters. Does this make the journalist redundant by simply using information from tweets? News sites certainly no longer appear to be the front line for news. However, we perhaps need journalists more than ever to sift through the copious amounts of information; not only creating a story, but actually providing an analysis.

If sources from ‘non-professionals’ have become the norm, can we trust the news? What are people’s Twitter agendas? There is no regulating body – or even necessarily an incentive – to maintain a reputable journalistic standards on Twitter. In which case, perhaps we should be increasingly sceptical of the news the more democratised it becomes. Whilst we assume news sites check their sources, these are becoming increasingly difficult to track down with the anonymity of the internet. Or, alternatively, should we potentially regard tweets as having less of an agenda than journalists’ articles, allowing Twitter and its counterparts to provide an oasis of democratisation in the agenda-driven world of journalism?

If recent years have indeed seen the democratisation of the news, can we say that this is for the best? Inevitably, new media can be used for good and bad, but where can the media go from here? Whilst having space to voice our opinions is undeniably significant, is there perhaps too much equality, and have we lost a sense of what is important news and what is self-important rambling?

BBC, Guardian Zeitgeist, iReport, newspaper, social media, traditional jounalism, Twitter

The standout moment at last month’s eG8 summit in Paris saw Nicolas Sarkozy offer a foreboding warning that the internet must not become a ‘parallel universe without rules’ – only days before David Cameron had been at pains to distance himself from the idea of state regulation of the internet. But why is it that the same morality and rules of law that we defend culturally are seemingly so inapplicable to human interaction over the net? The question is one which is rapidly forcing internet moguls like Mark Zuckerberg, who also addressed the eG8 summit, straight into the ring with political leaders.

Courtesy of Mail Online

It’s clearly an issue for governments and the internet industry to consider. Responsibility for regulating the web has for too long seemed a question impossibly gargantuan, perhaps too hopelessly multifaceted to be properly addressed by heads of state. A more accessible dialogue on what law is needed in cyberspace might have prevented the abuse of its liberal merits by tabloid newspapers in privacy scandals such as the failure of Ryan Giggs’ gagging order, whereby papers stake claim to a better representation of our rights as net-users than law courts do.   As with the Space Race and contested rights to Deep Sea Oil Reserves in the antarctic before it, the internet seems to lack the clear geographical or institutional boundaries which would validate an open discussion on its regulation in national or global fora.

Interestingly,  Rupert Murdoch was amongst the crowd who received Sarkozy’s assertion that governments must not allow the internet to remain unchecked. Looking at British politics (almost unavoidably through the window of a Murdoch-owned medium), it is hard to argue against any regulation of the internet. Just as parliament and the English courts are sometimes made to look irrelevant by the power of Murdoch’s media and the twitterati masses, Mark Zuckberg also presented the case for an entirely unregulated global space.

Zuckerberg said: “I’m happy to play any role they [the people] ask me to play… the internet is really a powerful force for giving people a voice.” In fact Zuckerberg openly undermined Sarkozy’s opinion througout the eG8, adding: “People tell me: ‘It’s great you played such a big role in the Arab spring, but it’s also kind of scary because you enable all this sharing and collect information on people…But it’s hard to have one without the other. You can’t isolate some things you like about the internet, and control other things you don’t.”

eG8, facebook, Internet, politics, privacy, regulation, Twitter

Courtesy of thenextweb.com

It is widely agreed that increasing demand for Android mobiles is largely behind the huge growth being experienced by the smartphone market this year. ABI research has forecast that 45% of the smartphone market will belong to the little green robot by 2016, while Gartner put the figure at 49.2% by the end of 2012. According to their prediction, Apple’s iOS will languish in second place with a comparitively paltry 18.9%.

The press have recently been quick to seize on Android ownership outpacing iOS, with 28 per cent of smartphone users using phones based on Google’s OS versus 26 per cent for Apple’s.

Android’s predicted gains come as a loss to the majority of other brands, with Apple’s iOS, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS, Nokia’s seemingly doomed Symbian, and other mobile platforms all losing market share to Google. The only other company predicted to gain share next year is Microsoft – likely helped by its recent partnership with Nokia. Gartner expect Nokia’s decision in February to move from Symbian to Microsoft’s Windows Phone to boost Windows Phone market share to 11% next year and 20%  in 2015.

However this does not mean that Apple’s bottom line will suffer. The analysts predict that even with 20% of the market, the iPhone will net Apple more money than Google gets from Android. Piper Jaffray estimates that Google will make $1.35 billion in revenue from Android in 2012, whereas Apple made $1.5 billion in revenue from iPhone in just the first quarter of this year.

Courtesy of techworld.com

But all is not well with Android. News emerged this week that the popular music streaming website Grooveshark’s app was removed  over the weekend from Google’s Android Market amid cries of copyright infringement from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Grooveshark are shocked by the snub as the company claims it does abide by DMCA regulation. “Google notified us on Saturday that it had removed our app from the Market,” Grooveshark’s Ben Westermann-Clark told Wired in an interview, “but frankly, we’re baffled by this. We’re always compliant with DMCA regulations to make sure that we operate within the law and respect the wishes of content owners.” Grooveshark also reminded Google that Android is an app ecosystem, and the company issued this statement:

“Unlike Apple’s iPhone ecosystem, Android is an open platform, and Google is traditionally a supporter of DMCA-compliant services — indeed, Google itself relies on the DMCA for the very same protection that Grooveshark does.”

Unlike Apple, Android has no vetting process for the apps that are submitted to the market. However, Google has removed apps from the market and even  remotely deleted them from customers’ phones when it has adjuged apps to have been malicious or misrepresented themselves.

Google is hitting back at accusations that Android is not so open after all. Google’s Andy Rubin blogs that Android is as open as ever, despite accusations. Writing on the Android Developers blog, Rubin says “recently, there’s been a lot of misinformation in the press about Android and Google’s role in supporting the ecosystem. I’m writing in the spirit of transparency and in an attempt to set the record straight”.

He insists that since the launch of the first Android device, in 2008, Google has been “committed to fostering the development of an open platform for the mobile industry and beyond”. The implication, of course, is that this openness is in contrast to the approach of rivals such as Apple. The competition is heating up, and this can only be good for the consumer. May the best operating system win.

Android, apple, digital, google, Microsoft, Mobile, nokia, operating systems

Who can forget Apple’s notorious ‘Get a Mac’ ad campaign? ‘PC’, dressed conservatively in a suit and tie, portrayed as uptight and boring next to a causally dressed ‘Mac’ with a laidback attitude. Having successfully convinced consumers that their products are ‘cool’, Apple have made a fortune by appealing to a demographic of young, style-conscious individuals willing to pay a premium for good design.

Courtesy of openspoken.com

But could a backlash against the popular brand be imminent? Recently, three events have occurred that threaten to cause waves throughout the cult of Apple enthusiasts:

1. The indefinite medical leave of CEO Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is often credited with Apple’s surge in popularity after his return to the company in 1996. His supporters consider him a charismatic visionary, and the dramatic dip in the value of Apple shares after he announced his leave reveals the extent to which people believe he is key to the success of Apple.

However, the share value has somewhat recovered and recent surveys suggest most Apple customers would remain loyal in spite of the departure of Jobs. Perhaps the fact that he has left twice before and returned both times suggests he will be back. (Indeed, his personal appearance at the unveiling of the iPad 2 in San Francisco last week was a ’surprise’.) Regardless, his health has certainly caused concern among Apple’s investors.

Courtesy of techlivez.com

2. The announcement of Apple’s in-app subscription service.

The service caused controversy among publishers due to the 30% commission taken from subscriptions purchased in Apple’s App Store. Coupled with the restriction that media companies may not offer cheaper deals elsewhere, the publishing industry, who until recently hoped Apple could be their saviour, now seem to perceive them as an avaricious threat.

This is not the first time the company’s high prices and inflexible attitude have come under scrutiny. While their products are undeniably high-end and elegant, some critics are sceptical that Apple products warrant such an expensive price tag and believe consumers are simply paying for the brand. Also, many software developers have been irritated by the strict regulations that cause some apps to be blocked from the App Store.

For a long time Apple was seen as the fashionable underdog, but in the same way that bands that become ‘too popular’ are sometimes abandoned by their original advocates, there have been signs for a while now that Apple’s mainstream success could be alienating the very people it targets.

3. The revelations of poor working conditions in the factories of Apple’s Chinese suppliers.

Suicides at Foxconn, underage factory workers, and n-hexane poisoning at Wintek. Media coverage of working conditions at Apple’s Chinese manufacturers has not been favourable. This could be particularly damaging if the left-leaning, socially-aware stereotype of Apple users is to be believed (which, in all fairness, many people believe it shouldn’t). It must not be overlooked that these manufacturers also supply a range of other high-profile tech firms, but perhaps because of these preconceptions, it is Apple that has been the focus of media attention – and it may be that their reputation suffers the most.

With Microsoft embracing the modification of its Xbox Kinect by amateur software developers and Google’s ‘One Pass’ system offering publishers a cheaper and more flexible alternative to Apple’s subscription service, Apple’s rivals are welcoming the opportunity to associate themselves with openness and creativity. By continuing to use their dominant market position to exercise such a high level of control, Apple risks damaging its liberal reputation. The question is: will their transformation into corporate superpower create a backlash from their core customers, making them a victim of their own success?

apple, Debate, google, ipad, Microsoft, opinion, Publishing, Steve Jobs

As the court trial over his extradition to Sweden kicked off last week, and with Panorama exploring his leadership and motivations, again WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has found himself amongst the headlines. His controversial actions have provoked a strong public response; his supporters proclaim the innate value of liberating information while his opponents believe that information that could have a negative (or even catastrophic) effect should remain private.

Courtesy of Wired.com

So do we judge the morality of an action on the action itself, or on the consequences it could bring? If we take the view that WikiLeaks should not be publishing anything that could consequently damage national security or interfere with international diplomacy, they are suddenly burdened with the huge responsibility of deciding what information is and is not in the public interest, which is the very role of the organisations they are trying to decentralise. On the other hand, if we believe that WikiLeaks should be truly indiscriminate, then it should have no political agenda and expose all types of documents in all types of organisations, including human rights campaigns and democratic movements, as well as personal information on individuals. Can we really accept this as a moral obligation?

Let’s leave the philosophy debate aside for now. WikiLeaks’ leaking of information is just one example of vigilante-style use of the internet. One of the most intriguing aspects of this trend is that a code of ethics seems to have arisen among groups who use the internet in this way. A loose-knit group of hackers who operate under the name ‘Anonymous’ have been responsible for a number of controversial internet campaigns, but they tend to adhere to a shared philosophy, known as the hacker ethic. Central to this are the principles of information sharing and decentralisation of authority, so the fact that they support Julian Assange should come as no surprise.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Many of Anonymous’ attack targets are organisations that they perceive to threaten civil liberties in some way – yet another demonstration of their subjective ethical code. Not only did they declare war on the Church of Scientology for alleged censorship and exploitation, they mobilised in support of the Tunisian and Egyptian protesters calling for democracy. However, not all of their causes could be considered so noble. Attacks against YouTube (for the removal of music videos) and security firm HBGary Federal (for claiming to have infiltrated Anonymous) received widespread criticism, as have the group’s methods of attack, which tend to involve obtaining control of a website and then posting offensive material.

There are fears that the ‘collaborative people power’ of the internet will soon come to an end. Studies show that more and more activity online is spent on fewer and fewer websites, so that a small number of huge websites dominate most traffic. Even though some of these sites, such as Facebook, focus on user-created content, the information is controlled and restricted by the owners of the site. This means that the very characteristics of the web which made it so popular (openness, access to unlimited and uncensored information, freedom of interaction) could potentially be limited by large corporations and governments. With proposals for a US ‘kill-switch’ which could be used to shut off parts of the internet, censorship is becoming more and more of an issue as governments recognise the power of the web as a vehicle for political mobilisation.

Young people are often labelled apathetic, and older generations reminisce about the days of student political activism. Whilst you may not agree with their causes or methods, there is no denying that ‘hacktivists’ such as Anonymous represent a form of cyber-rebellion that is the digital manifestation of the spirit of revolution about which people are nostalgic. In fact, because so many organisations are heavily dependent on computerised systems, even individual hacktivists who gain control of these systems could cause a devastating amount of damage and have a much more direct impact than their street-protesting counterparts. Moreover, the ability of the internet to connect like-minded people means that hacktivists with a common goal can group together and acquire an unprecedented amount of power. Perhaps this is why authority figures appear to feel so threatened.

activism, data, ethics, hacktivism, information, Julian Assange, transparency, WikiLeaks

First things first: ‘What is ad retargeting?’. Simply put, it’s advertising targeted specifically at you, based on things you have already shown an interest in, but not bought. Say, for example, you were mulling over a lovely pair of socks on your favourite sock retailer’s website but navigated away without purchasing said pair of socks. The chances are, you  will suddenly notice adverts appearing on websites you visit later on that day as if you were being hounded by some kind of relentless electronic sock salesman (an RESS, as it’s known in the industry). Coincidence? No. You’ve been retargeted.

Courtesy of gourmetads.com

This sort of advertising is set to start happening a lot more in the coming year. Some of the major retailers are investing heavily in ad retargeting, making it one of their key online marketing strategies for 2011. The reason they’re switching investment to this area: it works. All Saints (the clothing retailer, not the girl band), say they generated a return of £21 for every £1 spent on retargeting ads in the last two months of 2010. Struq, a specialist retargeting company, claim they are generating conversions of up to 640% for their top ten clients. So, you can clearly see why it’s appealing to online retailers. But how is sitting with the consumers?

Joseph Turow, a professor from the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in online advertising, thinks that people really don’t like it once they learn how it’s happening. Whereas to others, perhaps, it’s not quite as bad as full-on behavioural advertising because you know why these adverts keep following you around. But what if you don’t want your shopping interests to follow you around the internet? You left the site because you decided not to buy the product, now it’s appearing on every other site just to torment you. Worse yet, you might find products being targeted at people who you share your computer with, products that you really don’t want to be brought to their attention. There are some companies, such as Criteo, that provide an opt-out option at the bottom of their retargeted ads but unfortunately this is not a universal principle followed by all advertisers. A better solution may be appearing as browser firms are working on integrated ‘do not track’ systems, like the recently released Keep My Opt Out extension for Google Chrome which keeps opt-out settings even if your cookies get cleared.

The rise in retargeted advertising is not going unnoticed. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has called for immediate research and the formulation of best practice around its use. Although this is borne of a fear that there will eventually be a backlash from unhappy consumers, it is a positive nevertheless. This is an issue our friends at the Internet Advertising Bureau are tackling by including it in their EU self-regulatory good practice framework. As highlighted in our preview of the 2011, online privacy is a hot topic at the moment. If the issue of retargeted advertising is not developed with consumer control and transparency in mind, there could well be an eventual uproar from consumers. What’s more, if left to develop freely, along with personalised behavioural advertising, what’s next? Personalised biometric advertising, Minority Report-style?

Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

Consumers may not be totally adverse to retargeted advertising: there are circumstances where it could be truly useful – where it’s used not just to readvertise something to you but if it’s remarketed in a different way. That pair of socks you decided not to purchase may have been because you thought the price was too high so you went to look somewhere else. If, later on, an advert for those socks reappeared on a different site telling you they had been reduced by 50%, you might be extremely happy and praise the ingenuity of those clever retargeting advertisers. On the other hand, you may have already bought another pair of socks and therefore the retargeted advert serves as more of a kick in the teeth than anything else. The key really lies in the proper implementation of sensible guidelines. Hopefully in 2011 that is exactly what we will see.

advertising, privacy, regulation, retargeting