In fact the preceding lines are just as prescient:

Picture this, my telephone number

One and one is what I’m telling you

Get a pocket computer

Try to do what you used to do, yeah

This was 1978. The year Epson introduced the TX-80, the first successful dot matrix printer. The year the 5.25-inch floppy disk became an industry standard. Apple (I do believe I have heard of them) introduced Apple DOS 3.1, their first operating system.

It preceded the Intel 8088 CPU (released on June 1, 1979), the first commercial version of SQL (thank you Oracle), the Motorola 6800 8-bit processor (which powered the Mac and my beloved Atari 1040ST) and VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet program). It was just over a year after the release of the Commodore PET (which I had to program in raw machine code to run heat capacity equations as fast as I needed), the Apple II and  Tandy’s TRS-80 (1.9 kB of programmable memory). DOS and the PC are 3 years in the future.

1977 Commodore announces that the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor)

Yet as I sit here, talking tech with the enthusiasts in Hull Digital, I am struck that in my pocket sits a computer with my telephone number (but regrettably not Debbie Harry’s).  Picture this; it holds a local gallery of my personal photographs, a camera to take more and access to Flickr etc. to browse further millions. All the power and flexibility to do what I used to do and so much more besides… including listening to Parallel Lines whenever I feel the urge.

I seamlessly switch between my pocket computer, my slate computer and my laptop. My content, my knowledge, my entertainment, my friends are accessible from all of them. The tools each contains are unimaginably capable; the capabilities are limited only by our imaginations. And there’s more to come.

Thank you Blondie for your glimpse of the future, so many years ago. Where to from here?

Get a pocket computer, try to do what you used to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxVEH1eSOA

http://www.computerhope.com/history/196080.htm

This could be a massive year for the availability of video content online. We have the London 2012 Olympic games, Euro 2012 and the Diamond Jubilee here in the UK, all expected to rely heavily on the Internet for global distribution of highlights and detailed coverage alike. We are starting to enjoy recently launched online services from Netflix, LoveFilm and Sky that deliver video on demand to a hungry audience that has been weaned on the BBC iPlayer and is now heavily armed with iPads, Internet-connected televisions and a wealth of other devices from telephones to gaming consoles that are capable of tapping into this rich new seam of media content.

Yes, 2012 has the potential to be a vintage year for us, the viewing public and the consumers of entertainment content. Never before will we have had access to so much content, so easily and at such speed with so much convenience (especially if you’re in a position to take advantage of connectivity services such as BT Infinity or KC Lightstream). But is it all really so different? Watching Top Gear on my iPad using the BBC iPlayer app is fab, but it’s not really a world removed from the old days of settling down to watch the latest Top Gear on my DVR, or my VCR for that matter!

No, for me the experience that has coloured my year so far, and that has set my personal benchmark for entertainment enjoyment, combines the cinematic scope of the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings trilogy with an epic soundtrack and a level of immersion that even the most gargantuan 3D TV couldn’t rival (well, not without also offering me the thrill of travel-sickness and low-light eye-strain). I am of course referring to a video game, Skyrim specifically. Gaming is where it’s at, and with the 2011 release of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 representing the biggest entertainment release ever (a mind-boggling 75 copies a second) we are increasingly looking beyond Hollywood or the TV networks for our free-time kicks.

When we do watch a movie these days, as a family, on the big-screen TV in the lounge then inevitably at least one of us has IMDB primed and ready for those “what was she in?”, and, “where do I know his face from?” questions that have been a part of the viewing experience since the year dot, and with our experiences learned in the worlds of Skyrim, Portal or even Super Mario we now crave interactivity in all of its forms.

And this is why, as we participate more, as we share a collective experience more and as we submit more of our personal information into the giant black hole that is The Internet in order to do so, this is why we need to know that the gatekeepers and custodians are acting honourably. This is why, friends and fellow geeks, we need to remain engaged, alert and informed. SOPA, PIPA and Megaupload might seem like a world away from you and me, but as we transfer our “copies” of Top Gear from one device to another, as we find that innocent-looking little loophole that gets the video on the phone (just like me, with my Monday night Clarkson-fix in my VCR days) we may be inadvertent pirates, and leave ourselves exposed and vulnerable! Scary, eh?

This is the latent value of a tech-community like Hull Digital, this is the User Group (for those of us old enough to remember those) that can be our support infrastructure and our geek buddy. Use it, participate and engage! We will get out what we feed in, and in this age where the bureaucrats are now nipping at our heels our very digital liberty itself may be at stake!

It’s a little similar to this…

Question: What’s the best camera in the world?

Answer: The one you have with you at the time.

Following on from that…

Question:What’s the best backup in the world?

Answer: The one you use day in and day out.

This is why Apple’s Time Machine works so well. Plug in a hard drive to your Mac and forget about it which is what I’ve been looking into for some websites, both personal and for clients.

VaultPress is something which has been on my radar for while, and I’ve now installed it on here. Verdict? Just what I wanted. The sign up was painless and yes it does cost a small amount per month, but worth it in my opinion. Once you have signed up you get a special key which you use in the plugin to activate the service. The plugin is downloaded in the normal way from the backend of WordPress.

That’s it. It immediately starts backing up the site, tells you what’s happening in real time in the form of a small unobtrusive toolbar, and you can log into your own dashboard to get even more information. It offers one-click database install, and even has a “Concierge Service”:

When you install the VaultPress plugin, it opens a channel for our security and backup specialists to directly protect your critical WordPress sites. Our WordPress experts will help you with initial setup, restoring your files, and any needs in between.

Now I realise that there are plugins which download the WP database and there are plenty of other solutions (free as well). What I wanted was truly hassle free plus have the support of the VaultPress team if something went south. The fact that VaultPress is owned and run by AUTOMATTIC who happen to run a few blogs over at WordPress.com is real peace of mind.

It’s only been running for a few days, but I am really impressed, and judging by the testimonials from people, I am not alone. (Full disclosure, I am not paid to write this post, just a happy customer!).

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.

For those of you who don’t know, it all blew up just over a week ago when people began to discover there was a location tracking database on their iPhone.

(If you want to know the ins and outs of how the iPhone knows where you are, then this is a must-read article by Glenn Fleishmann over at Macworld).

Now normally (most) people would a) not know about this b) not be able to access it and do much with it. In this instance, it was not the case. A simple application can be downloaded and used to visualise your movements and this is where things started to get messy.

An example of what this application shows is below:

Washington DC to New York from Alasdair Allan on Vimeo.

Pretty clever eh? So people were starting to become worried about if this database fell into the wrong hands, mischief could be made. However, it seems that this location data is not that accurate, so is there anything to be worried about?

The worry stems from the fact that people didn’t know it did this.

I’m not sure at this point. Apple have released a statement which you can read here. The first two items are below:

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?
Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.

And what is very interesting, is the last point >> Software Update:

Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

- reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
- ceases backing up this cache, and
- deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

This is exactly what Gruber thought – it was something in the iOS software which was just missed. Rather than deleting this cache of location data every now and then, your iPhone stored it. Hence the ability to go and see “where you’ve been”.

It looks like Apple have realised this was a mistake and have made the above moves to put people’s minds at rest. That saved database of location certainly made the tech and mobile headlines last week and it goes to show that location is still very important to people like Apple, but also consumers.

It’s not only in the background where smartphones are recording your location. A huge number of apps use it, especially for photography. Instagram, Twitter, flickr… they all use “location services” on the iPhone.

I’ll be very interested to know what you think about “broadcasting” your location.

Are you becoming more aware of it?
Are you choosing not to?
Do you think it is putting yourself at risk from nefarious other parties?
Do hardware and software companies need to make us more aware of location and what is, and what is not tracked?

Over to you.

JM

UPDATE

Apple have just released the new iOS 4.3.3 and as you can see below, it is addressing the database:

So, it’s critical to have a good solution, and John Connolly has kindly written about his recommendation to change to Google Apps. If you are considering going this route, then this is essential reading. ( I’ve now gone down this route – Jon).

I was a MobileMe user up until about eighteen months ago.  I used it for syncing calendar entries, addresses and email between my iPhone, Desktop and Laptop.  Largely, it all worked pretty well, though there were a few things that I thought felt dated.  The major issue however, was that every few months something ‘weird’ would happen… Appointments I thought I’d entered disappeared, contact data seemed not to correspond between machines, and other spurious errors occurred.  After the initial panic surrounding whether I’d missed meetings came the tortious process of working out which device had the most recent data.  This was followed by a process of resetting sync data on devices that were outdated…  Something had to change.

On top of this I also had a few niggles that I hoped could be addressed.  I needed reliable calendar sharing with my wife where we could each enter social data, vet appointments, family birthdays, fuel deliveries, holidays etc.  The same was true for work colleagues, where we needed to share busy periods or meeting schedules.  Something also needed to be done about my ever growing email account (going back to the mid 90s), which has become unfeasible to migrate every few years to a new hosting server.

Solution

The Apple apps weren’t at fault; Mail, Address Book and iCal all provide simple and elegant interfaces and I was keen to stick with them.  The reliability of the service that synced all my devices was the issue and so I set about looking at alternatives.  One of the main things I was keen to avoid was a manual or ‘docking & syncing’ process offered by various 3rd parties. What I was after was a seamless ‘push’ of data in a way that those in corporate/Exchange environments are accustomed to.  I also wanted to avoid a web based service such as Gmail or Google Calendar as I just don’t enjoy their interfaces.

The solution I arrived at was to use Google as the infrastructure behind the Apple applications.

I now have:
• A Google Apps Account for my personal information (with various other accounts for family members)
• A Google Apps Account for my work information
• iCal, AddressBook, and Mail now sync seamlessly between my desktop and iOS devices.  Information entered on any device is then instantly pushed to all other devices.
• A scalable email solution
• The ability to share calendars, invites, and meeting information with family and colleagues from any device.
• My domain names tied to the relevant Google accounts.
• Very little (if any) spam – the Google spam tools seem much better than my previous hosting package.

I’d highly recommended it.  I’ve been using the set-up for over a year now and I have no complaints.

The SetUp

A year ago, there was very little documentation on this, however, Google have updated their documentation and it’s very comprehensive, so I’ve just collated links and added my comments.

Infrastructure

I’m going to assume you have a Google or GoogleApps account set up and you’ve managed to link your domain names with those accounts.  The Google documentation is great.  I just updated my MX records for my domain, which means Google handles all my mail.  Web hosting is still covered by my original hosting provider.

Setting Up The iOS Devices

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740

If you have multiple calendars in Google Calendar, you need to choose which of your calendars appear on your phone.  This is done through Safari on your iOS device.

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=139206

Setting Up Mail

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=81379

In addition, Google recommend the following settings:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892

I use Mail in a very simple way.  I have an Inbox, Sentbox,and Trash – that’s all I need.  Email for me is a communication tool, not a management tool, so I don’t use tags or contexts or any of the other features that Gmail supports.  If it’s in my inbox it’s not dealt with.  Dealing with it either means creating an Omnifocus task for it or replying.

Therefore, I turn off all the other folders for viewing in Mail – this is achieved using the IMAP folder subscriptions setting in Google Labs. Therefore, the only imap folders that appear in Mail are Inbox, Sent, All Mail and Bin.

Rather than then having a separate list of subscribed imap folders within Mail (sent, deleted etc), you really want these mapped to Mail’s main folders.  This guy has a good explanation of this:

http://blog.monkeysthumb.org/tuning-mail-app-gmail-imap-integration

However, in my setup, I map the Mail Trash to my Google Archive.  This is because I get so little spam these days that I rarely delete mail.  When I need to, I just drag the message to the ‘Bin’ imap folder.

Setting Up Address Book

This is simple, just go into preferences in AddressBook and check ‘Synchronize with Google’ and enter your Account details.

Setting Up iCal

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99358#ical

Firstly, how clever are our homes right now?

Alan Dalgairns wrote a guest post last year looking at green technology in the home, and it seems like this is becoming much more common place. British Gas have something called their Smart Energy Tariff which means:

• No estimated bills
• They think you could save up to £150
• A free electricity monitor

Having started using the monitor it is quite staggering to see just how much energy is being consumed, and most importantly by what. The main culprits being, the toaster, microwave and of course the tumble dryer. Lights, a big Mac rig, and the dishwasher use very small amounts.

What is missing from the British Gas monitor is a good design (it looks pretty mundane), and critically, a software interface. This is where we have high hopes for the Onzo, and have been promised a review device. Watch this space.

Green Goose is a company which is just about to launch a bicycle commute kit:

“It’s just for your bicycle to get started. The Kit includes a Green Gateway and a Bike sensor. You’ll need to have a broadband connection and a spare Ethernet port on your router or hub, at home or your office. The Green Gateway just plugs in with the included Ethernet cable and power supply. No configuration required. The Bike sensor clips on to the hub of your bicycle. Just be sure that you can park your bike within 300 feet of the Green Gateway.”

We think this is a clever way of getting people to track their savings, and there is the ability to compete against friends too. It’s in the US only right now, and they are actively encouraging employers to get involved, but… it just seems to be a nice to have rather than an out and out necessity.

Utility monitoring is only touching the surface when we talk about clever devices and an intelligent home. Here are a few more things that have caught our eye in the past week or so:

Touchatag looks like you will be able to add tags to items to make them interactive with your phone, and do specified actions.

Pachube looks very clever too:

“Store, share & discover realtime sensor, energy and environment data from objects, devices & buildings around the world. Pachube is a convenient, secure & scalable platform that helps you connect to & build the ‘internet of things’.”

They even have an iPhone app which allows you to connect to the sensor you have setup. We can see this kind of thing exploding in the near future as more  and more items contain this kind of technology.

The future?

Having been thinking about this, what we would like to see is;

1. A generic system that is taken onboard by the majority of manufacturers so that there is a unified standard – much easier to use and means better integration
2. Simple setup and understanding – key outputs displayed in a useful and elegant manner
3. Fridge systems to alert you to buy more milk etc (we’ve seen these somewhere before but is there anyone actually doing this now?)
4. Better security systems – whatever people say, it is still a major hassle to setup any sort of cameras involving wifi
5. A really nice light control system with a web-app and iPhone app to control everything

Over to you

The sky really is the limit and the ideas above don’t cover a fraction of what clever devices or intelligent homes MIGHT have soon.

What would you like to see and have you seen anything you like!?

Last year was packed with every broadcaster and celebrity talking about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and how this was changing the way we connected, communicated and discovered.

Gathering a mass of followers on Twitter is a nice ego-trip but it is not very valuable if you are just following people to get them to follow you back. There is value in connecting with people who are interested in the same things as you.

In 2009, I learned to be a better ‘fisherman’ when it comes to social media. I started the year throwing out a virtual net which ‘caught’ just about every fish that I could get hold of. But now, I am more efficient with my fishing activities and I have made connections which have been very valuable as a result.

PR to Digital PR

Digital PR and brand reputation have been hot topics in the new media world as businesses start to shift from broadcasting and conveying messages to listening to their customers. But, what does digital PR mean?

To me, it’s about creating remarkable content which people seek out and share, with success measured in the growth of inbound links to my web site. If your PR person is not number one or two on Google for their own name, then ask them why not.

Digital gadget to digital presence

The great thing about mobile devices and mobile internet is that you can work and communicate from anywhere (as long as there is a signal!). But, an underused feature on my mobile phone is the ‘presence’ tool. How many more connections would have I made had I been making use of this capability and I had known that someone I was communicating with on Twitter was nearby?

Digital presence tools are an underused tool which I will be encouraging my contacts to make use of in 2010.

Symbiotic networking

Networking should feel natural. Some networking groups can feel forced and little value is gained for the attendees. The best networking groups I attend encourage people to network naturally. The agenda allows plenty of time to do what people do best which is get to know each other naturally. Asking someone what they do is simple way to start a conversation and to find out if you can help them or not.

Networking at events where you can help people solve the problems they are discussing work even more effectively, especially when the industry we are in can feel daunting to people new to the possibilities of digital technology. Symbiotic networking is an activity I will be seeking out in 2010.

Digital speed to digital thinking

Digital distraction is one of the biggest challenge to productivity. It’s all too easy to follow an online thread of activity and find an hour gone with nothing to show for it. And, as Jon Moss says on his ‘TheAppleOfMyI’ newsletter, “Do the essential things. Eliminate the non-essentials, and focus”.

Use digital tools to give yourself time to think by cutting out repetitive tasks. Use the thinking time to plan, consider and act. It is one of the cornerstones of highly effective people.

Will Hawkins

Digital Business

http://digi-business.net

Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, and luscious photography that draws the eye. And they’re so easy and enjoyable to read. Can we marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-readers sure to arrive in 2010?

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This was the question which Berg London and Bonnier R&D posed and they’ve been working together to deliver the Mag+ concept.

The concept of a digital magazine of some description has started to really gain traction this year, possibly driven by the strong, (and substantiated?) rumours around Apple’s Tablet device.

There is also the understanding that journalism is changing, and the way we consume media and news will be changing. (Adam Westbrook writes an excellent blog on the Future of Journalism and covers his top trends for 2010 in the latest post).

The Mag+ project looks stunning, and is certainly the most well though through and polished concept. Wired has their version too, and notably Sports Illustrated, which is also impressive.

Are digital magazines going to take off the same way “music in your pocket” took off with the iPod?

There are certainly a few questions / stumbling blocks that will need looking into:

1. The device we use to read them – will Apple corner the market like they did with music?
2. The cost of said device
3. Will it feel like a magazine, have that collectability and will people like this?
4. Delivery of content? Will it need a wifi network or will it work ok over 3g (we can but hope for 4g!)
5. How will the subscription models work? We all know about the rumpus of paid subscriptions for news site, driven by Mr Murdock

We would be interested to hear your thoughts about this? What do you think? What are the questions you have? And ultimately, would you buy a device and subscribe to content?

If anyone knows someone who is actively exploring this area of the digital market, please do get in touch, we would love to speak to them.

We discuss what he is doing online, the future posts within the project and why doing what you love, makes ALL the difference when it comes to producing great work and launching something. Click the play button below and enjoy!