Richard O'Callaghan : Blogged

Steorn unveils energy demo

In an update to my previous post on the news that Steorn, an Irish company, has developed a method of 'creating' energy, Steorn are today unveiling a public demo of the method, which illustrates the energy creation.

I like the way they have adjusted the demo, so as not to use wires, to keep the skeptics at bay. I don't know whether this can work or not, but its interesting to keep an eye on the project anyway!

Web Freelance resources

 FreelanceSwitch have published a nice list of tools and resources for anyone involved in Freelance work.

From project management, to business tools, to stock photography, there is a good list there to get anyone going. A nice selection of invoicing systems too.

Webware

Phil Wainewright points to a good post by Paul McNamara about the fact that the term "Software as a Service" or Saas as it is commonly referred to, is simply a bad term for a new wave of technologies since it dwells on the past by referring to the term software.

Paul recommends the term Webware as a replacement.

I fully agree that a new description is needed, as most non-technical people simply don't get the whole Saas thing - there is too much of a blurred line between what was there a few years ago, and what is available now.

I like the term webware, but I have reservations about it - the first thing that sprung to my mind when I read it was similar sounding terms - Spyware, malware, etc. I get the feeling that end-users would think of the same terms and view the term webware in a negative light.

Hopefully I'm wrong though as its a nice term

USL - Providers of webware for web-designers!

The real iPhone is here

Apple has formally announced the real iPhone at Macworld during Steve Jobs' keynote.

At last, an end to the rumours of the past few months which have plagued the blogosphere and triggered false starts so many times.

At an initial glance, it looks like everything it was hyped to be.

I want one.

USL Technologies blog launched

I've decided to start a new blog specifically for USL over at:

http://blog.usltechnologies.com

...So stick it in your bookmarks ;)

This will allow me to blog more often here, in relation to more general tech/business things, whilst maintaining a more focussed business blog at the same time.

Google acquires YouTube for $1.6 billion

Well the rumours were true and Google have announced that they are to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion.

This makes the News Corp acquisition of MySpace for $580 million earlier this year look small. At the time, everyone was slating the price, saying it was too much, and now whats it worth?

As Scoble pointed out, create something really unique, with a passionate user base, that increases the user-value as it grows, and thats worth something.

One of the crucial things that YouTube has over MySpace and Bebo, is its global coverage - from my perspective anyway, it seems to have a hold on its market, on both sides of the Atlantic, whereas MySpace is big USA and Bebo big in Western Europe.

And as Scoble also points out, Google have now ensured that both Microsoft and Yahoo don't have YouTube, and that too is worth something big in trying to stay ahead of the game.

With YouTubes current negotiaions with several Movie labels, this is sure to a) increase its value even more in a short space, and b)make it difficult for the likes of MS to compete with it.

Also very interesting that Google plan to maintain the YouTube brand to ensure user loyalty - are Google suggesting that they are having issues with user loyalty / trust? ;)

Anyway, its all interesting stuff...!

Apples Fairplay DRM cracked (again)

A guy called Igor Skochinsky has released a program for stripping music files bought through iTunes of their Fairplay DRM.

This was done previously by Norwegian Jon Johansen back in 2004 but Apple quickly released a new revision of Fairplay.

This latest attempt is the first in 2 years to successfully remove Fairplay DRM from even the latest revision of iTunes - 6.0.5.

I'm sure Apple will be quick to release an iTunes update with a new revision of Fairplay.

I wonder how many iterations they have pre-developed, based on the assumption that a revision will eventually be compromised.

Nokia Phone firmware updater

I see via MobileCrunch, that Nokia has finally released a method of flashing phone firmware, without going through a Nokia service centre.

This is of significance in my opinion, for users of the latest phones, such as the 'N' and 'E' series which have had so many bugs since their release.

I think alot of users (including myself) were anxious about purchasing the latest and greatest from Nokia due to the issues involved with updating the firmware when/if updates are released.

In recent times Nokia have been great for the phones that 'just work' but not so great for the smartphones, riddled with bugs. Will this new firmware updater help solve things, or give them another excuse to release phones with even more unstable software? Time will tell I guess.

Physics defeated - energy created

I listened to the RTE news at lunchtime today with interest as they interviewed the owner of Irish Tech firm Steorn who claimed to have stumbled upon a method of creating energy using magnetics.

Even as the news reporter said, it defeats one of the basic laws of physics - and the owner of Steorn agrees. They came across the idea when they were working on an entirely different project a while back.

Anyway, the meaning and result of all this? The potential to run a mobile phone, laptop etc without the need to charge it - it would have its own source of power. And don't ask me how it works.

Steorn have put a challenge on their website, to all willing scientists, to prove that it actually works, and they have stated that although numerous scientists have tested the technology, no-one so far will put their name to it, for the record.

This is interesting stuff, when we have all the talk about Connexion being dropped by Boeing only a day ago, and Robert Scobles opinion that part of the reason for slow adoption of Connexion may be the fact that an average laptop battery won't last too long, especially when using wifi.

Needless to say, the introduction of renewable power sources such as this would make the possibilities for electronic devices truly endless.

I've lost my Connexion

Very dissapointing to hear via CrunchGear that Connexion (Broadband in the skies) by Boeing has been dropped. Whilst Om is correct on the issues Boeing faced on getting traction with the service in the main markets such as the US, I would suspect that this may have a greater impact for general connectivity during flights - do travellers really need to be connected...

Surely now that such a large player in the airline industry has dropped the idea; so many others will question it, and possibly other inflight connectivity proposals.

Has wifi during air travel just received a major setback?.... I think so...