Google expands with first UK company

Google has officially made its first ever successful UK venture.

The multimillion dollar company purchased the  mobile visual search startup "Plink" for an undisclosed monetary amount.

According to Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, the company is aiming to acquire at least one new company each month as it expands in this post-recession market.

Plink was founded by PhD students Mark Cummins and James Philbin at the University of Oxford. The first product was PlinkArt, a visual recognition app for mobile that analyses pictures of well-known artworks and paintings and identifies them. Users can then use the app to share the photo with friends and even click through to buy a poster version.

The app was downloaded more than 50,000 times in the six weeks following launch. The two founders will work on Google Goggles, the search giant's visual search project. The acquisition took a total of three months and means that both engineers will have to move to the Google Gears project base in Santa Monica, California.

The app was brought to Google's attention during the Android Develop Challenge, a Google hosted function, in December of last year. The product won $100,000 for their invention-which has been their only funding for production.

UK cracking down on illegal file sharing

The new UK digital bill has stirred up quite the controversy. The bill began its journey through parliament on November 19, 2010 and has faced protests and roadblocks ever since. 

Critics fear that this could ultimately damage the UK's growing digital economy. This bill is the result of extensive consultation and research that went into the Digital Britain report published in June of 2009.

The bill suggests the use of specific measures to tackle illegal file-sharing programs that could involve getting rid of several persistent pirates.

One of the first responses to this bill was the creation of a petition on the Number10.gov.uk website. this site was set up by TalkTalk's head of strategy and development, Andrew Heaney, and calls for the abolition of the proposal to disconnect illegal filesharers. After only five days after the bill was announced the site had gathered more than 16,000 signatures.

In addition, the legislation also tackles elements of the current radio industry and a new classification system for video games.

This big bundle of legislation was officially approve last Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The UK government is wasting no time enacting the recently passed Digital Economy Act. The country’s Office of Communications (Ofcom), regulatory body for the telecommunications industry, has announced that it’s already begun laying out a framework for how to proceed with establishing a code of practice for Internet service providers to comply with in order to tackle illegal file-sharing on their networks.

Altogether, the process is expected to take 8 months, the maximum amount of time the Act allows from the time of Royal Assent, which is the Queen’s formal approval of the legislation. This means the earliest ISPs could begin sending out warning letters to accused illegal file-sharers is this December.

BBC tied with NY Times for Webby Award Nominations

Between the two major online news outlets, the New York Times and the BBC have landed 24 nominations  for the 2010 Webby awards.

Among the many nominations, the BBC has been nominated for best politics site for BBC Democracy Live. This site features extensive coverage of every region in the UK, including live video feeds from parliaments and assemblies throughout the country.

BBC World Service is also nominated for best podcast for its range of 34 programs delivered in dozens of languages. Other nominations for the corporation include best science website for the online version of BBC1's Bang Goes the Theory.

The 14th Webby Awards will be presented in a ceremony in New York on June 14th, 2010.

Read the full list of Webby nominations

England's New Digital Bill Stirs Up Controversy

One of the UK's three biggest internet service providers has vowed not to cooperate with measures to combat file-sharing set out in the government's controversial digital economy bill.

TalkTalk, with more than 4 million UK internet users, said that "many draconian proposals remain" in the bill, including some that would allow content companies to force internet service providers to block the connections of customers suspected of online copyright infringement.

The Open Rights Group, which campaigns for individual rights online, criticised moves to rush the bill through parliament before the election, saying "measures to allow disconnection of individuals from the internet, for undefined periods of time" and web blocking laws were pushed through "with no real scrutiny and limited debate".

Many complain that sites like Wikileaks or even Google are at risk of being blocked under an order by the secretary of state, because a new clause inserted by the government on Wednesday night provides powers to block sites that "have been, are being or are likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright".

The bill is certain to pass into law after being rushed through two key stages in two hours on Wednesday night in the House of Commons. It will require ISPs to send letters to anyone accused of infringing copyright by the owner of the copyrighted material; repeated accusations would lead to "temporary suspension" of their internet connection, which could involve either blocking it or slowing it down.

To read the entire article by Charles Authur, click here.
Click here to learn more about the Digital Bill and what it means for technology in England

iPad a phone?

Apple's newest iPad has stirred up quite a bit of buzz in the technology news realm. Many have reported that there are voucher codes available to purchase one of these at a discount price. Anyone who knows anything about Apple could determine that getting the hottest technology for a cheaper price is practically impossible. 

The big stream of hype for the iPad media-consumption console doesn't seem to have educated many of the visitors to MyVoucherCodes.co.uk. The company reported that of the 1,374 people who filled in its survey, "almost half, 49%, thought the iPad was a mobile phone. Only 41% correctly identified the iPad as a tablet computer, and 6% believed it to be an MP3 player."

Of the remaining audience, 2% thought it was a handheld games console and 1% thought it was a camera (which is not a current iPad application).

Still, hype has benefits. My Voucher Codes reports: "Although three fifths of people wrongly identified the function of the Apple iPad, 81% said they were interested in buying one."

So people are interested in buying a product they don't even fully understand?  I guess that's what happens when the newest craze is an advanced piece of technology.

Courtesy of Jack Schofield's Technology Blog

England's East Midlands-New Technologies

In the East Midlands, they are constantly working hard to support visionary thinking. Through the encouragement of collaborative work and innovative networks that result in a surge of creativity.

With a history steeped in advanced engineering and manufacturing technologies, pioneering developments are the quite regular in this region and this sector enjoys considerable investment and support.

Advanced materials capability in England's East Midlands has evolved from the motorsports industry to become a unique and increasingly important cluster of companies involved along the whole composite product lifecycle.

Fast growing and supported by the UK government, nanotechnology in the region is supported through innovation networks designed to encourage close collaboration between business and universities. England’s East Midlands is a big player in this with over 40 companies that are involved in micro and nanotechnology. It is a multimillion pound industry and employees around 105,000 people. They have established a series of sector-focused innovation support networks, called iNets, which are designed to support relationships between businesses and universities.

The East Midlands also leads the way in space applications, with a number of exciting initiatives set up to support the sector as well as being the home of England's National Space Centre. Specific opportunities focus on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and, to a lesser extent, Earth Observation (EO), with the market for these in the UK currently around £350 million per year - a figure that is predicted to grow to £16 billion by 2015.

Information courtesy of England's East Midland.com 

The Digital Divide

The digital divide is one of the most pressing and delicate problems in today’s society. Technology is evolving as such a fast pace that we have quite literally left the world behind creating a huge gap in the global community.

Dan Worth reported in a recent article that the European Commission has been urged to create policies and set up public initiatives to develop networks in rural and hard-to-reach European regions. The digital divide is a global problem. We must begin working toward a resolution soon or the divide will be too large to correct.

There are three main categories of the digital divide including: economic, usability, and empowerment.

Obviously, this division exists because not everyone can afford a computer and more importantly the ability to connect to the Internet. Economically this is a problem. More and more companies are beginning to do business online. The people without proper Internet access will not be able to participate and will have a great disadvantage over the majority of those who are technologically savvy.

Eventually this will change. As computer prices drop, more people will be able to purchase them. As long as the Internet stays neutral the economic divide will slowly begin to close over the next several decades.

Usability is also very problematic. Once people actually have the technology they must learn how to use it. The knowledge is greatly lacking when it comes to using a computer. In order to solve this issue, the public must be taught how to use the technology efficiently. This would be a much harder feat to accomplish simply because of funding and participation.

Thirdly, there is an empowerment divide. Those who are technologically savvy not only know how to use a computer but when they do not understand something they have the ability to look it up and learn for themselves. Those on the other side of the divide do not or possibly don’t know how to take the initiative and learn something on their own.

The older generation for example, almost always asks for repeated “lessons” on how to use the computer instead of simply playing with the technology until they find a solution to their problem.

Ultimately the digital divide must be closed in order to have an equal and prosperous global community. The power of the Internet is astronomical. If we take the time to teach others about the technology and help nurture their desire to learn more we will not only have a more flourishing economy but will improve the standard of life for people around the world.