Welcome

Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Newsletter.

This week we look at how computer viruses are mimicking their real-life counterparts, how Pakistan killed YouTube, the BBC’s revamped website, and why Flash may be the future of gaming. Plus a look at a new expensive, and exclusive, social networking service from the Financial Times.

If you enjoy reading this newsletter (not counting that terrible line in the introduction), then why not visit our blog?

Hazel Butters, CEO - Prompt Communications

Technology News

Pakistan causes global YouTube outage
By Duncan Heaney

It's been a difficult week for YouTube, with Pakistan becoming the latest nation to ban the video-sharing site. The Register reports that last Friday the PTA (that’s the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, not a parent and teacher association) ordered all ISPs to block access due to an increase of ‘non-Islamic objectionable videos’ on the site.

It was not only Pakistani geeks who were unable to access YouTube, however. Nerdy types the world over were affected due to a global outage that lasted over an hour. According to the BBC, it is believed that the PTA ‘hijacked’ YouTube’s web server address in order to prevent access to the site. Those details were given to Pakistan’s ISPs so that anyone attempting to access the site was instead re-directed to another. Details of the ‘hijack’ were leaked by provider PCCW in Hong Kong, and consequently YouTube was mistakenly blocked by ISPs across the world.

The outage only lasted around two hours, and the ban in Pakistan not much longer. It was only a few days before the PTA told ISPs they could restore access to YouTube.

Crackberry revamp spurred by Apple cool
By Dave Wilby

Research In Motion (RIM) is rebranding its BlackBerry handheld messaging devices in an attempt to shed their tired image as city worker boys-toys, according to TimesOnline.

A deal has been struck with Vodafone to garner 'broader adoption in the consumer segment' and protect a 14 million-strong global customer base against more consumer-friendly smartphone devices, notably the Apple iPhone. Coloured versions of the device and new designs, such as the Curve and Pearl, will be loaded with funkier apps such as Facebook and Vodafone Live!

BBC revamps home page
By Lance Concannon

Exciting news for fans of the UK’s most loved national institution, the BBC. This week the broadcasting giant unveiled a shiny new Web 2.0 style interface for its home page. The new look features customisable panels which can be edited to display the content you’re interested in and rearranged into whichever pattern suits you, plus everything has nice rounded corners. In a knowing stylistic nod to some classic BBC design, the homepage also features a digital reproduction of the old ident clock, which would have been familiar to viewers in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

The thinking behind this new design is discussed in a blog post from Bronwyn van der Merwe, Acting Creative Director, User Experience and Design, BBC Future Media and Technology. The new look is currently only applied to the main page, but Bronwyn tells us that work has begun on rolling it out across the rest of the site.

US Media News

By Tarryn Morley

US

Preston Gralla has been appointed editor of GreenerComputing.com, an online magazine covering the latest environmental news, features and resources for the IT industry. Gralla will continue to be a regular contributor and blogger for Computerworld.com. Previously, he has worked for PC/Computing, ZDNet and CNET, and was the founding managing editor of PC Week, now called eWeek.

Jason Miller will leave Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News in mid-March to join WFED-AM as executive editor on March 24. Miller was the news editor for the technology magazines and had worked for the publications for seven years.

Dan Miller has left the Chicago Sun-Times. Miller served as the business editor at the newspaper and covered investment and regional banking, healthcare and pharmaceuticals and financial services. He also oversaw technology coverage. Miller has also previously worked for Crain's Chicago Business and Crain's City and State Newspaper.

There have been several recent editorial changes at The Washington Times. Tara Wall has been hired as the new deputy editorial page editor at the newspaper. Carrie Johnson has been appointed national writer at the Washington Post. She was previously a financial writer for the newspaper.

UK Media News

By Tarryn Morley

UK

Sarah Arnott has been appointed business correspondent at The Independent. Arnott was previously acting news editor for Incisive Media's business technology publication Computing while deputy editor Emma Nash is on maternity leave until July this year.

There have been several further editorial changes at Computing. Martin Courtney, former IT Week editor at large, has joined the publication as technology editor. Angelica Mari has joined as senior reporter, while reporter Lara Williams has left Computing.

The Financial Times has launched an online social networking service, making it the latest main-stream media organisation to jump on the social networking bandwagon. The new FT membership forum, which costs £2,000 a year to join, is aimed at executives working in digital, new media, mobile and telecoms. Members of the media and technology forum will be able to search for and contact fellow members. They will also receive free passes to FT conferences and events, be able to get access to exclusive networking events, and get a premium subscription to ft.com. The FT plans to launch similar forums for those in the luxury and property sectors later this year.

Tech Totals

By Zachariah N. Hofer-Shall

50 million
Number of registered customers downloading music through Apple’s iTunes

20 million
Number of songs downloaded from iTunes on Christmas day 2007

1
The number of retailers that sells more music than iTunes (Wal-Mart)

A console-free and Flash-filled future for gamers?
By Duncan Heaney

A panel of industry leaders recently got together to discuss the future of the video game industry, the BBC reports. Participating in the roundtable discussion were a number of very high profile figures in gaming, including designer Peter Molyneux, Phil Harrison (Sony’s head of worldwide studios), Neil Young (general manager of EA Los Angeles) and online trailblazer Raph Koster. The group made some fascinating predictions about what gamers may be experiencing in a few years’ time.

One prediction was that in the future gamers will not have a dedicated games machine in the home. Instead, the data will be hosted on a server somewhere and the data sent directly to the gamers’ televisions. This prediction was disputed by Mr Harrison, who pointed out that gamers’ experiences would be significantly limited due to the limited speed at which it is possible to transfer data.

Raph Koster suggested that Flash would become an increasingly important platform. 'It's pointing the way to the future more so than the current generations of hardware precisely because it is well on its way to becoming completely ubiquitous' he said. Mr Koster also claimed that, in terms of creativity, the console industry was already being beaten by the internet and that the graphics capability of Flash in the coming years would allow it to threaten the console market even further.

There’s a lot of it about
By Dave Wilby

Tech viruses are replicating their real-life counterparts, with computer worms spreading like flu, according to a new mathematical model highlighted in this week’s New Scientist. Proof-of-concept worms including Cabir and Commwarrior have already successfully, if inefficiently, spread through outbreaks in the ‘wild’, prompting Christopher Rhodes, an expert in infectious diseases at Imperial College London and Maziar Nekovee, a researcher at BT's Martlesham research lab, to model wireless computer worms ability to commute between portable devices.

The new models factor in the person-to-person (or device-to-device) contact of people carrying infected or vulnerable devices, consider crowds carrying Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, and use a common tool for representing virus outbreaks, called a 'standard mass-action mixing model'. Rhodes confirmed: 'The transmission model is actually very similar to something like influenza.'

Walkman alive! Gadget fest at the Sony playhouse
By Dave Wilby

Sony laid on an open house in Las Vegas this week to show of all of its latest consumer electronic eye-candy. Fortunately news.com popped along for us and took some great snaps of all the gear on show.

Among the pile of new kit was the BDP series of home theatre Blu-ray Profile 2.0 systems, new ‘Graphic Splash Expression Collection’ Vaio laptops, MDR-NC40 lightweight noise-cancellation headphones and PFR-V1 über-cans, a selection of exciting looking NWZ-series Walkman MP3 players, and a new range of S-AIR Bravia tellys including new wireless speaker arrays. Expect to see all these goodies filtering into a Sony Store near you over the next three months.

Exclusive clubs live on, online!
By Reshma Raghavani

Inspired by my colleague Zach’s blog about FT’s exclusive social networking site this week, I took it upon myself to find out more about this new service. Working as a technology marketer, I thought it might be of interest to my clients.

I rang the FT on a fact-finding mission and this is what I found out: the site known as Telecoms, Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum has the following features: online networking with search and contact facility, blogging and face-to-face contact through member-only round tables. The member also gets access to the ft.com website and discounted access to FT conferences. All that at the £1700 (excl. VAT) introductory rate.

The site already has 32 members signed up. I was warned that the site only wants very senior people at the SVP, CTO and CIO levels and should expect applicants to be vetted. It’ll be interesting to see if this can take off. Will the FT be able to prise away senior management who traditionally network on golf courses or the French Riveria onto an online facility? And do the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Sir Stuart Rose really even need to use a social networking site? Do they even have the time?

Website of the week

By Sean McManus

Found cameras and orphan pictures

This blog for lost photographs has only been going about a month, but it’s already managed to reunite several people with their lost cameras or memory cards. People who find lost photos are invited to send them in so that they can be posted, and hopefully someone reading the blog will recognise who’s in the snapshots. Take a look to see if you know anyone there, and next time you find a lost USB stick or media card, why not submit the photos?

We hope you find the Prompt Communications newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media/blogging initiatives, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you.