April fools

This year saw some great April fools

Google Maps for the NES - 8bit quest edition
YouTube offline edition, brought to you by truck... Weekly
Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad
Google Chrome Multitasking Extension
Shreddie, the USB shredder and unshredder

And internally - Prompt has run out of pixels.

Thanks to all those who donated

Sadly, not all news today was happy. The BBC reported that a bill to allow all government bodies to effectively tap all emails, social messages and communications online is trying to be passed through. After all the awareness the Stop SOPA campaign raised, people are beginning to realise that the government is trying to get more of a grip on the Internet. Unfortunately in the UK, we already have our version of SOPA which is called the Digital Economy bill and it was rushed through parliament in 2010 after some dubious consultation. It is very one sided but I suggest instead of me talking about it, you can have a skim read if you are interested,

I'm all for governments protecting citizens but I feel that the Internet itself should not be censored.

Three UK MiFi service

One of the main problems I find with working on the go is connections. I have an account with the three major WiFi providers yet when I need internet - there is never a hotspot around. I have used HSDPA modems and phone tethering but none really deal with the issue and never seem to work that reliably. In my experience, USB Modems are great but usually no good as the sensitivity of the units genrally sucks. I have been looking in to getting a new unit to connect my upcoming iPad and laptop together and to save some cash - the Three MiFi modem seemed to fit the bill. The MiFi is a branded Huawei E5830 and is very compact. It features an internal battery that allows around 4-5 hours of use solid and a small LED based display to show you when there is signal, battery level, WiFi and connection status.

This is also partly a review of the Three network itself. In the past I have stayed away from Three as when they first started, the based a whole company based on a technology that hadn't even rolled out over 95% of the country and where it was, you were charged a huge premium just to make a video call to someone who wasn't in a 3G area. That said, since 2002 they have made some real headway and Ofcom's network map [PDF] shows that Three is actually now the network with the most national 3G coverage. This is reflected with the speeds you receive just in the middle of no-where. I am currently sitting in the car going down the M6 at 70mph yet I have enough bandwidth to stream podcast on my iPhone, syncronise my files to Dropbox and write this blog post.



If you are in a static location then you can get ridiculous speeds both down and up with personal experience of download speeds up to 5.2Mbps down and 2.5Mbps up. Three says the maximum throughput on the network is 3.6Mbps but if Hardware permits, some places can get up to 7.2Mbps. On the road however you do get some issues. If you are on the train or in the car and switching between base stations (mobile transmitters) the network seems to be a bit patchy and the MiFi unit does not alert you if it disconnects, it just ignores requests sent to it.

When you receive the device, it comes pre-configured with a unique SSID (network name) and Security Key (my unit was WPA2 by default). However it suffers from being locked down by Three and the only configuration utility is available through Three's proprietary Windows only application so if you're on an alternative operating system like Mac OS X or linux, you can't customise the settings like SSID or Security Key. This lack of windows also means you cannot receive SMS messages and therefore register for the online account 'My3' service that allows you to view you usage. The great thing is - no drivers or programs are necessary to just get online - just grab a WiFi enabled device and turn on the MiFi and press the connect button on the side .

The MiFi device is great for people who love gadgets and want to connect multiple devices to the internet meaning you can write blog posts from a bench in the middle of the local park!

A new year, a new blog...

Facebook Quizzes

For the past 4 months, my usage of social network like Twitter has gone up as appose to Facebook which I now rarely visit. The main attraction being you dont get hounded by pointless quizzes about what type of superhero your friends cat is.

The problem now with twitter is I only have 144 characters to get across messages to followers which, in most cases, really isn't enough! This quite nicely brings me to my next point, as you are currently reading this, the first post of my brand new shiny blog.

This blog will effectively allow me to post all my tutorials, reviews and general comments on the world around. If you would like a tutorial/review on a certain area of technology, drop me a line and I will endeavor to get an article written.

Hope you enjoy the upcoming articles!