Is Touchscreen Technology Good For Toddlers?

If you've a child under the age of three, this research project is looking for folks to help find out more.

I am currently potty training my little boy and we are both finding it a rather challenging time. But wait a minute, there’s an App for that! Within minutes he is being congratulated by a total stranger on his ability to perform a bodily function and being awarded virtual stickers that he can drag over to his high definition reward chart. My feelings are mixed. Am I being a ‘good’ mum finding up to the minute ways to help my child reach early milestones as well as en-culturing him into the digital world in which he will grow up? Or am I a being a ‘bad’ mum, jettisoning my parental responsibilities onto a pixelated piece of programming, a high resolution load of nonsense that adds nothing to my son’s experience of life and potentially confuses his emerging ability to socialise and build relationships?

Singapore, City Of The New

I've not been to Singapore in over a decade, and I imagine it's changed significantly in that time. Even back at the beginning of the twenty-first century it felt like an old colony stretching out to meet the future. I adored the place, and long to return.

To be a resident of Singapore is to be a resident of the new. Cars can only run on the roads for 10 years. There are more mobile phones than people. An apartment built 30 years ago is considered old. It’s a city of technology. What tech the government implements generally just works (although breakdowns in the newest train line forced commuters to walk the tracks twice in a week). My passage through Changi Airport, short as it is, is shaved further by electronic turnstiles that have replaced actual immigration officers. Scan my passport, recognize my right thumbprint, see you in a week.

Preserving Voices For The Future

Fantastic work from friend Andy Mabbett on setting up this project. If anyone has any notable guest speakers at events coming up, perhaps you'd like to ask them to contribute.

Generations to come will be able to hear what celebrities and notable individuals actually sounded like, starting with Stephen Fry, thanks to Wikipedia’s new voice recording project. The Wikipedia Voice Intro Project (WikiVIP) aims to add the voice of celebrities, scientists, artists and other people of note from around the world to their Wikipedia biographies, providing 10 seconds or so of audio to enable current and future readers to know what they sounded like.

This Is The Mac That Started Things For Me

The Macintosh Plus computer was the 3rd model in the Macintosh line. Launched in 1986 with a retail price of US$2,600, the ‘Mac Plus’ shipped with 1MB RAM, an external SCSI peripheral bus and could run System 7.

When the original Macintosh launched in 1984 I was a college student studying for A-Levels (Design, English Language & Literature, Theatre Studies, since you ask) and a $2,500 computer was way off my radar. By the time the Macintosh Plus was launched in 1986 I was entering university, and Apple's vision of a computer for the rest of us made much more sense to me. I first encountered the Mac Plus when a much more computer-savvy friend invested in one to boost his programming skills and help with his maths degree. To say that I was bowled over is an understatement. The computers that I'd encountered before were intriguing but opaque beasts that talked in arcane command-line languages and output primitive graphics (if at all). Here was an entirely different kind of device, one that could be switched on and whose operations could be divined from looking, touching, and observing—an appliance for computing, or in Steve Jobs' words "a bicycle for the mind".

 I adored that computer even though it wasn't mine, and indeed I took ever opportunity to use it, borrow it, and look after it when my friend went away for vacations. I practically lived in HyperCard (which, truth be told, I still miss), designing covers for my audiocassettes, cataloging my music collection, setting up contact databases and printing them out for my paper organiser, and even programming rudimentary games and multimedia. A few years later I even bought the same Mac Plus second-hand and designed my first actual seven-inch single sleeve using MacDraw II.

I've owned plenty of Macs since then—in fact I've never owned any other kind of PC—and they've all been important in one way or another, but the Mac Plus is what started it for me. The spirit of empowered, humane, personal computing that little machine embodied is what drew me to work in design, education and technology, and what makes me continue to believe in their potential for transforming human lives.

Which Sites Have The Best Password Policies?

Apple did well here, but it's worth reading the article for important caveats.

Apple.com was the only site to receive a perfect score of 100, which was based on 24 criteria, such as whether the site accepts "123456" and other extremely weak passwords and whether it sends passwords in plaintext by e-mail. Microsoft and academic supplier Chegg tied for second place with 65, while Newegg and Target came in third with 60. By contrast, MLB received a score of -75, Karmaloop a -70, Dick's Sporting Goods a -65, and Aeropostale and Toys R US each got a -60. Each site was awarded or deducted points based on each criterion, leading to a possible score from -100 and 100. The study was conducted by researchers from password manager Dashlane based on the password policies in effect on the top 100 e-commerce sites from January 17 through January 22.

Guilty Pleasures In Film

Speaking of podcasts, I've been Stuart's co-presenter on his film chat podcast It's Alive! for the last two weeks. If two grown men talking about movies is your thing, check it out via Futurilla Radio.

Tiny Samson Meteorite Condensor Mic

I'm a huge fan of the Samson Meteor, which I've used for more podcast recording than any other mic I own. This looks great, and is even more portable, so I can't wait to try it.

Meteorite is a USB condenser microphone that produces rich audio recordings for any application. Featuring a 14mm diaphragm, Meteorite's smooth, flat frequency response and CD quality 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz resolution gives you professional sound reproduction features in an ultra-portable design.

Meteorite mounts to a removable magnetic base that gives the mic a full range of motion and optimal positioning for any recording application. In addition, its stylish chrome-plated body and modest size make it the perfect mic accessory for any desktop.

History in (Stolen & Uncredited) Pics

How to get rich on the back of a scuzzy business model.

The audiences that Di Petta and Cameron have built are created with the work of photographers who they don't pay or even credit. They don't provide sources for the photographs or the captions that accompany them. Sometimes they get stuff wrong and/or post copyrighted photographs.

They are playing by rules that "old media" and most new media do not. To one way of thinking, they are cheating at the media game, and that's why they're winning. (Which they are.)

Apple Is The "Sleeping Giant" In Payments

Still rumours, though the WSJ has been the source of controlled leaks before. I don't think that's the case here, but it's certainly a fact that Apple has been putting all of the parts into place for a killer play in mobile payments. 

Apple Inc. AAPL -1.82% is laying the groundwork for an expanded mobile-payments service, leveraging its growing base of iPhone and iPad users and the hundreds of millions of credit cards on file through its iTunes stores.

Eddy Cue, Apple's iTunes and App Store chief and a key lieutenant of Chief Executive Tim Cook, has met with industry executives to discuss Apple's interest in handling payments for physical goods and services on its devices, according to people familiar with the situation.

In another sign of the company's interest, Apple moved Jennifer Bailey, a longtime executive who was running its online stores, into a new role to build a payment business within the technology giant, three people with knowledge of the move said.

No Birthday Card From The BBC

Is this really the only BBC piece on the thirtieth anniversary of Macintosh? Seriously? Even on their Technology News site it's the only link I can find.

Stephen Fry on Macintosh At 30

Always eloquent, always entertaining, usually right.

What cannot be denied is that the first Macintosh changed my life completely. It made me want to write, I couldn’t wait to get to it every morning. If you compare computers to offices, the Mac was the equivalent of the most beautifully designed colourful space, with jazzy carpets on shiny oak floors, a pool table, wooden beams, a cappuccino machine, posters and great music playing. The rest of the world trudged into Microsoft’s operating system: a grey, soulless partitioned office, with nylon carpets, flickering fluorescent lamps and a faintly damp smell. I made that architectural design analogy time after time and no one seemed to notice, thought I was just pretentious. But now of course, MS are as aware of sick building/OS syndrome as anyone else, and have, since the launch of iPad and new range of OS X operating systems gone out of their way to tread the true path to deliciousness, colour, feel, joy, pleasure and taste without which function cannot … well … function. - See more at: http://www.stephenfry.com/2014/01/24/mac-at-30/single-page/#sthash.Ruda45ck.dpuf

The Novella Finds A New Life In Digital Books

There are a lot of fixed costs in print publishing and distribution that don't depend on the length of a book. Digital-only distribution changes some of that. Personally I'm reading a lot more short pieces than tradional full-length books these days, and I'm much more likely to spring for a $2-$4 short read than a longer book that's likely to sit around unfinished for months.

This is one reason why the novella – the short novel of between 20,000 and 40,000 words – has never been hugely popular here. Publishers have tended to look on it with suspicion as being neither one thing nor the other, and magazine editors were likewise unenthusiastic, unlikely to welcome something that might take up a whole issue, unless its author was very famous and popular. The word “novella” was itself off-putting – not quite English, you know. Yet it’s a beautiful and satisfying form, a story that can be read in a sitting, and may be more substantial and satisfying than the short story.

"The Wind Rises" Blows Up A Storm

You have to hand it to Miyazaki, he knows how to go out with a bang. I'm almost breathless with anticipation for this film.

Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises is a lot of things. It's the final feature-length film from one of the all-time greats of Japanese animation. It's a gorgeous, Oscar-nominated work that brings prewar Japan to life in ways that have never been seen before. It's Miyazaki's most pointedly adult movie, with a slow-burning tragedy replacing the magical realism and cute characters that have made Studio Ghibli's films appeal across generations. And it's the most controversial animated movie in recent memory.

"We're The Only One Left"

An amazing journey. 

“Every company that made computers when we started the Mac, they’re all gone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in an interview on Apple’s Cupertino campus Thursday. “We’re the only one left. We’re still doing it, and growing faster than the rest of the PC industry because of that willingness to reinvent ourselves over and over.”

Time Slicing

The history of photography might well be described by the slicing up of time in finer and finer increments. These are some amazing examples.

The word “photography” might bring to mind the stark granite of an Ansel Adams photograph, or perhaps the memory of a childhood vacation. But the camera is also a scientific tool, whose progress can, in one sense, be measured by its ability to freeze ever-smaller fragments of time for our observation. In 1826, Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce needed at least eight hours to create an imprint of the view from the upstairs window of his Burgundy chateau onto a pewter plate coated with bitumen. Today, we can capture photos with an exposure time of a trillionth of a second, and are at the brink of attosecond photography—that is, snapshots taken 10 billion trillion times faster than those first grainy images in the east of France.

iPhone 5S Owners Use More Data

Anecdotally, I can confirm this. My data usage is up from when I had the iPhone 5. My personal take? The device isn't consuming more data per se, but the real increase in speed and responsiveness means that I'm simply using it more. Heaven knows what would happen if I switched to a 4G network.

Apple users have been the ‘hungriest’ consumers of mobile data in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 data measured by the study (iPhone 4, iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 respectively). Last year, the report indicated a possible end to this dominance as Galaxy S III users closed the gap. But iPhone 5s usage is the most intense witnessed to date, keeping Apple users at the top of the chart.

The study found that iPhone 5s users demand seven times as much data as the benchmark iPhone 3G users in developed markets (20 percent increase on iPhone 5) and 20 times as much data in developing markets (50 percent increase on iPhone 5). Beyond the 5s, Apple products account for six of the top ten ‘hungriest handsets’, along with two Samsung products, one HTC and one Sony.

In Prison, Radio Still Trumps MP3

Fascinating article on Sony's SRF-39FP, the tiny, transparent prison radio that runs on a single AA battery and can pick up weak signals through thick prison walls. There's a program to introduce MP3 players and a secure (literally) download service, but the venerable AM/FM radio is hanging in there. 

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said that the MP3 program wasn’t expected to make money in its early years. Price is one reason: the MP3 player sold in federal prisons costs roughly three times as much as an SRF-39FP, and downloads can cost up to a dollar and fifty-five cents per song. Limited song selection is another reason; the Bureau of Prisons prohibits songs deemed explicit or likely to incite the inmate population. (JPay, a company that provides services to inmates, boasts that, with its catalogue of ten million songs, “no other music service in corrections offers as many tracks for download.”) However, despite modest expectations for the technology upgrade, the Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Ed Ross said that more than fifty per cent of federal inmates have already bought MP3 players. It seems inevitable that the MP3 player will soon completely eclipse radios like the SRF-39FP in American prisons, just as they did outside, but for now both devices are woven into prison life.

Thanks to myapplemenu.com for the link.

Nintendo Doesn't Need To Take Its Games To Mobile

I don't agree with every part of this, but it's definitely smarter than the "Nintendo should abandon  hardware" articles.

Nintendo doesn’t need to go where its customers went; it needs to get them back or find new ones. Not having games on iPhone is not Nintendo’s problem. This is Nintendo’s problem: For the last few years, it has been attempting to use ~$250 game platforms on which you must pay $40-60 to play a game to compete with ~$250 game platforms that give you infinite games for free. Nintendo cannot win this fight. When consumers look at a 3DS and a Kindle and decide they want to play games on the Kindle, it’s not because of the hardware, but because that hardware is a magic portal to a world full of free entertainment. For Nintendo to stay relevant, it must develop a strategy that can legitimately compete with that reality.

Why Are Teens Deserting Facebook?

There's been a lot of talk about Facebook not being cool with kids anymore, and skewing towards an older demographic (anecdotally it's the older people I know who are the biggest users), but the privacy aspects seem to be having an impact too:

Beyond disruptive technology, Facebook’s creeping irrelevance among youth may have something to do with sheer perception. Francesca Johnson, a Grade 7 student at Branksome Hall—an independent school for girls in Toronto—isn’t currently allowed by her parents to sign up for Facebook, but she’s not entirely sure she ever will (she uses Instagram instead). Francesca says the site’s dubious privacy settings make her uncomfortable. She recalls one Facebook-heavy social media lecture she heard at school: “They told us a story about how one person said something bad about someone and he didn’t get accepted into college. I don’t want that to happen to me.” Francesca’s older sister, 15-year-old Anna (who prefers Instagram to Facebook, as well), thinks that some youth have moved away from the site, or stopped checking it as frequently, because parent-teacher scare tactics are more effective than we often think. After listening to the kind of social media lecture described by her sister above, Anna says she’s seen classmates “actually go on [Facebook] and change their privacy settings. One or two people even deactivated.”

It's Alive! Returns To Futurilla Radio

Those of you paying attention will notice that, last Friday, we quietly slipped out a new episode of the movie podcast It's Alive! Happy to have it back. The format is slightly different to the original show, and this week I'm happy to be guesting as regular host Stuart and I talk about remakes and reboots. Hope you enjoy it.

More Futurilla Radio news soon.