Google Makes Telecoms Debut With Nexus One Phone

January 7th, 2010

Google has now got a finger in the telecoms industry pie with the recent debut of their Nexus One smartphone.

Manufactured by Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer HTC, it runs on the Android open source operating system and is sold unlocked (meaning it is not restricted to any particular network).

It sports a 5 megapixel camera, weighs 130 grams, and has a 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen with a 800 x 480 pixel resolution.

It has a pretty impressive feature list, all of which can read on the Nexus One specifications page over on Google’s website.

It’s currently only available on T-Mobile and Verizon in the USA, but Vodafone are due to release it over in Europe in spring 2010, or you can buy the phone SIM free for $529.00 USD (about £330.00 GBP).

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Apple iPhone Available On Vodafone UK In January 2010

December 22nd, 2009

Vodafone announced that it will launch the iPhone in the UK on January 14, with a range of contract price plans tailored for iPhone users.

Available from as little as £30 a month (on a 24 month contract) customers will be able to pre-order their iPhone from today, in-store, through their account manager or online at vodafone.co.uk/iphone. Customers who have already registered interest will be contacted by email with details of how to pre-order their iPhone.

As a thank you to consumer customers who have already registered interest in iPhone and choose to pre-order, Vodafone will give them free Vodafone to Vodafone phone calls, for the life of their initial contract. Consumer and business customers can choose whether they wish to buy directly from Vodafone’s 400 stores or online, through Apple retail outlets, or through their indirect partners Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and 20 of the leading business dealers.

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Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Now Available

December 22nd, 2009

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6 Beta 5, and is now available for download.

This update contains over 100 fixes from the last Firefox 3.6 beta, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users. Over 70% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons have now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If your favourite Add-on isn’t yet compatible, you can also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favourite Add-on author will appreciate it!

The Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features for users to evaluate:

• Support for the HTML5 File API
• A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support forPersonas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

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reCAPTCHA Form 1.2 WordPress Plugin Now Available

December 22nd, 2009

reCAPTCHA Form is a simple plugin for your WordPress blog that enables you to have a contact form with the reCAPTCHA challenge system.

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin, enter your reCAPTCHA keys in the Admin section, and place the shortcode [recaptcha_form] on any page or post within your blog, that’s it!

Version 1.2 has just been released and includes the following new features/bug fixes:

• Bug fix for reCAPTCHA HTML form label W3C XHTML standards compliancy.
• Added option to change recipient email address (field is filled in with blog administrator’s email address by default).
• Form field input (sender’s name, email address and message) are retained in the form if message sending fails.

You can download the plugin for your WordPress blog directly from the WordPress plugin website or inside your WordPress blog admin section.

Technical support for the plugin can be found on the Gatt Design Plugins forums.

Posted in Gatt Design, Technology | 1 Comment »

Square 1 Events – New Website

December 22nd, 2009

Gatt Design have recently finished working on the redesign for the Square 1 Events website.

Square 1 Events provide schools with the expertise to create memorable events that cost less.

From proms & leavers balls to Christmas & Valentine’s Balls, PTA fundraisers and bespoke events, their team really are passionate about delivering the best possible service at the best prices.

The Square 1 Events website is located at http://www.square1events.co.uk.

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TweetMeme And WordPress 2.9 Temporary Fix

December 19th, 2009

If you are using version 1.7.2 of the TweetMeme retweet button with WordPress, and have just upgraded to WordPress 2.9 you will no doubt have discovered that the button has mysteriously disappeared from your posts.

To make it work with WordPress 2.9 you will need to manually add the button code to your theme’s index.php and single.php files (and any other custom post page files you use).

Here’s how to manually add the button code:

• In the TweetMeme settings page, make sure that Position is set to manual.
• In your theme’s index.php and single.php files (and any other custom post page files you use) you will need to add the PHP function tweetmeme() within ‘the loop’, i.e. <?php echo tweetmeme(); ?>

Now, you will be able to see your button code again!

Links for further reading:

• TweetMeme WordPress plugin info (help.tweetmeme.com)
• TweetMeme WordPress plugin download page (wordpress.org)

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Is Broadband In The UK Really THAT Bad?

December 17th, 2009

According to figures for 2009 published by the Office for National Statistics, 63% of all British households have broadband Internet access – that’s an increase of 7% from 2008’s figures. We use the Internet for a wide variety of purposes – 64% of us buy goods and services online from ecommerce websites for example, some of us stream digital audio and video, while the rest of us enjoy online gaming through our games consoles and of course not forgetting casual browsing and emailing.

As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, you would expect the UK to have a superior telecommunications infrastructure, but alas this is not so.  Although more and more people are starting to benefit from fast broadband Internet speeds, advertised maximum speeds are seldom what we actually get when we go online – this means it takes us longer to do things online, which is bad news if for example your business relies heavily on Internet transactions (i.e. you mostly sell your products from your website).

By the end of 2008, OFCOM states in their 2009 International Communications Market Report that only a meagre 10% of broadband connections in the UK can actually get speeds higher than 8 Mbit/s.  By comparison, the highest of the sampled countries in that report is The Netherlands with 37% of all Dutch users able to receive higher speeds.

Advertised Vs Actual Speeds

The problem with broadband is that it can be a bit of a lottery when it comes to finding out what sort of speeds you are realistically going to get.  If you are based fairly near to your local exchange and your internal telephone wiring in your house/building is up to date and not old/damaged in any, you should be able to get a speed pretty close to your advertised maximum speed.

Here is an example of an advertised maximum 8 Mbit/s broadband connection on O2, about 790 metres away from the exchange (as the crow flies), tested at 10:36am today on the speedtest.net website:

The local router shows that the connection is synchronised to 8191 Kbit downstream and 1193 Kbit upstream (i.e. download and upload speeds, respectively). The BT Broadband Availability Checker also states a potential ADSL Max speed of 5Mb or greater so we are attaining the best broadband speed that we can possibly get.

Unfortunately, a lot of people only get a small fraction of the speeds shown above despite having good internal wiring and modern PCs and broadband routers, and being even closer to their local exchanges.

DIY Broadband Speed Improvements

Here are some steps you can take to improve your broadband speeds. Disclaimer: by attempting any of these steps, you are doing so at your own risk – if you aren’t sure what you’re doing, get someone to do these steps who does! Please note that some of these steps only apply to ADSL based broadband (i.e. not cable broadband through Virgin Media for example).

• Check your router settings are correct – you can get this information from your ISP, and your router’s manual will tell you how to check and change your settings. If your router has synched at a high speed make sure you do a speed test using a wired Ethernet connection to your router. If your router settings are correct, if possible use another known working router to rule out the possibility of a faulty router.

• If applicable, check that your wireless router is secure. You may find that the problem lies with your wireless Internet access being unsecure and thus your neighbours are enjoying fast broadband speeds at your expense. If your router supports it, use WPA2-AES security as this is currently the best wireless security protocol in use at the moment – if not use WPA-TKIP or WEP.

• Check your internal wiring – sometimes old or low quality wiring in your home or building may be affecting your ability to receive high broadband speeds.

• Additionally, the DSL ZoneUK website provides information on extra checks you can make on your phone socket.

• Check for line noise – the easiest way to do this is to plug a normal known working telephone (not wireless) into your master socket, pick up the handset and press a number on your keypad, and then listen carefully for any crackling noises – if you hear some noises and you are sure your phone is not faulty, you will need to call BT who will send an engineer out to fix this problem for you. Line noise can have a big impact on reliable fast broadband speeds, so to provide you with a reliable connection on a noisy line your router will sync at a much slower speed than you should be getting.

Bear in mind that during peak periods where Internet usage is high, some ISPs will “throttle” download speeds in order to provide the highest possible download speeds for all their users – check what your ISP’s policy is on this, as this varies between providers.

Alternative Broadband Services

If the above checks have failed to produce any significant improvements, you could possibly try switching to a better ISP – the ThinkBroadband website are an independent broadband news and information site that can help you to choose which ISP would suit your requirements.

There are also some other alternatives to standard ADSL broadband (in other words, broadband on your BT line) if you cannot get ADSL or the line quality is severely restrictive to receive a decent connection speed:

• Fibre Optic Broadband – traditional ADSL broadband is sent down a mix of copper and fibre optic lines, whereas with true fibre optic broadband you are able to receive broadband speeds higher than most maximum advertised ADSL connections. Fibre optic broadband is currently only supplied in the UK by Virgin Media, the highest speed they offer at the time of writing is 50 Mbit/s.

• Mobile Broadband – aimed at people on the go, this can also be useful if you live in a rural area that has a good mobile reception. Speeds won’t be anything to write home about, but in some cases may be better than what you get down your phone line. Mobile broadband is offered by all the major networks, with the highest speed currently offered at the time of writing by Vodafone at 7.2 Mbit/s.

• Satellite Broadband – this last-resort option is only really aimed at people who live out in the sticks that can’t get fixed line broadband or have little to no phone reception.  This works in a similar way to satellite television, in that you have a dish installed outside your home or building with a special modem connected to your computer (you will need to connect a wireless router to their modem if you want more than one computer to access the Internet either wirelessly or through Ethernet). There are a few providers in the UK for satellite broadband, one of which is Tariam who at the time of writing offer speeds of up to 3.6 MBit/s. Monthly subscription prices are fairly reasonable; however you are looking at a very high set up cost.

Next Generation Broadband – Plans And Criticisms

The government’s Digital Britain Report, announced in November 2009, sets out their plans to ensure the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.  These plans include a £6 yearly “broadband tax” to part-fund the upgrade of the UK’s current telecommunications infrastructure so that everyone can benefit from a ‘universal’ minimum of 2 Mbit/s broadband.

The upgrade, known as the BT 21CN project, was set up to convert the UK’s current PSTN system to an IP system, and also includes other additional services such as on-demand interactive TV services.

According to BT’s 21CN website, they reached ‘key milestones’ in terms of broadband by stating that in March 2009 over 10 million homes and businesses in the UK are now enabled for ADSL2+ “next generation broadband” – thus increasing the footprint for their ADSL2+ service from 5% to 40% of the UK, with the rollout still continuing.

There have been some criticisms however with regards to the rollout of next generation broadband:

• The broadband tax has been met with criticism from within the telecommunications industry as it’s been calculated the money raised by the public for this scheme falls short of the total needed to roll out super-fast fibre broadband in the UK.

• ADSL2+ is limited to a maximum speed of 24 Mbit/s and will be outdated technology when the 21CN project is due to be completed in 2011. Critics argue that instead fibre optic cable should replace the existing copper cables between homes/buildings and their local exchanges to future proof the infrastructure and overcome the ADSL2+ speed limitations.

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Tutorial: How To Stop Bandwidth Thieves On Your Website

December 13th, 2009

If when you examine your website stats you notice a lot of hits for certain images, chances are some people are displaying your images on their own websites – be it deliberately, or perhaps on a forum. This practice is known as hotlinking and the people that do it are what we would simply call bandwidth thieves.

In either case this increases the bandwidth usage of your website so if your host does not provide you with unlimited monthly bandwidth then you may have to pay extra bandwidth fees to them.

So, to stop this unauthorised use of your website’s images you can create a file called .htaccess using your favourite text editor. In this file, copy and paste the following text:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?mydomain\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ – [F]

Note: make sure you replace the “mydomain\.com” with your own domain name – for example on the Gatt Design website that line would be:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?gattdesign\.co.uk/ [NC]

Once you have done this, save your .htaccess file and upload it to your website’s document root directory – normally something like /public_html or /wwwroot – you will need to contact your web host if you are unsure!

Now you can test that this works by trying to display one of your website’s images on another website external to your domain name or in a forum post on another domain name for example.  You will know that this is successful because your web server will return a ‘503 forbidden’ error to the site that is trying to display the image and you will see no image displayed.

If you want, you can instead display a “hotlinking forbidden” (or whatever you wish to tell bandwidth thieves) image in place of the one they tried to display. What you need to do is change the last line of the above block of code to:

RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/bandwidth_thief.gif [L]

Note: make sure you change the bold text to the correct path and file name to your image!

Bear in mind that displaying an image in place of what the other website tried to show will still result in your bandwidth being used up by these other sites whereas the original method will not.

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UK Postcode Data To Be Free In 2010

December 11th, 2009

According to a recent article from the BBC News website, the government is planning to give people free access to postcode data.

The move will be made as part of its commitment to make more use of technology and the web to transform official services. Currently organisations that want access to datasets that tie postcodes to physical locations cannot do so without incurring a charge.

Following a brief consultation, the postcode information is set to be freed in April 2010. The announcement about releasing postcode data came as part of a much wider plan to use technology as part of the Smarter Government strategy. As part of this push, the government said it would start “consulting on making Ordnance Survey mapping and postcode datasets available for free reuse from April 2010.”

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Google Chrome Beta Now Available For Mac, Linux

December 11th, 2009

The big G has recently given Apple Mac and Linux users an early Christmas present – the beta version of Google Chrome!

In the following video, Mike Pinkerton talks to us about Google Chrome on the Mac:

Meanwhile on Linux platforms, Google’s software engineers have brought to the platform the same features as on the Mac and Windows platforms, and also includes tight integration with native GTK themes, updates that are managed by the standard system package manager, and many other features that fit in natively with the operating system where possible.

Download Google Chrome Beta for Mac (requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Intel only)

Download Google Chrome Beta for Linux (requires Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/openSUSE)

You can read more about these new beta versions on Google’s blog post.

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