Some of the biggest news to hit the technology world in a while just seemed to appear out of nowhere the other day, when Google announced the inevitable: they’re making an operating system. It’d been rumoured for a while, but Google are quite good at keeping secrets, so there was no real evidence that it was going to happen, until they made the announcement on their blog the other day. The name? (Google) Chrome OS.

Google announce their Chrome OS

In the days of the rumours, some even went so far as to make a Linux flavour that worked with a Mac Style Dock and only performed internet based tasks. The name of it was gOS. The website never made it very clear what the “g” in gOS was meant to stand for until just a tiny bit of disclaimer at the bottom of the website popped up, claiming that the “g” stood for “good”, crushing the rumours.

Back to the real Google OS. They’re are a web based company, so basing the operating system on the internet seems like a very smart move, which does beg the question: what if I’m not connected to the internet? Does the entire system buckle?

A few days after the press release, Google also announced a list of hardware partners who were prepared to make devices that would work with Chrome OS. Among those, was the chip maker ARM, British company who are just about the Intel of mobile computing. A lot of chips that go into mobile devices such as the iPhone are ARM chips. So announcing them as a hardware partner could mean one major thing that tackles the problem of always being connected to the web: an always on internet connection using mobile networks. (more…)

Ok I’ll admit it, I have illegally download music in the past. Although that isn’t really surprising for a 16 year old lad, or just about any teenager these days. To say that anyone who downloads music illegally is a thief then we have a generation of thieves on our hands, myself included.

Since around Christmas time I don’t actually think I’ve illegaly downloaded music unless I couldn’t actually buy it elsewhere. This is mainly because I discovered just how easy it is to buy songs from iTunes, literally just a click and buy. What’s even better though is the fact that I can also buy music from my iPod. Perfect. It’s not that I didn’t know how iTunes worked but more the fact I never realised how appealing the click buy system is.

I don’t agree that music sharing should stop completely becuase if it weren’t for music sharing then a lot of artists probaby wouldn’t get noticed to the level that they do. For example if you go to a gig where there’s an artist that formed in the 21st century, you’ll find that most of the people there first discovered the artist, not through buying their CD, but by searching Limewire or some other file sharing program. Seriously.

Digital Britain is clamping down on Internet piracy.

Internet Service Providers have been battling with sharers for the past 3 or 4 years but have hardly managed to dint sharing habits, of users. They’ve tried spying, cutting off and even sending threatening letters to innocent customers, none which have really worked. Digital Britain has proposed a new tactic though, slow down the speeds of repeat offenders so that downloading large amounts of music is difficult and lengthly. To be fair it’s a good idea in theory, but the choice between waiting a bit longer to download a song or spending a quid won’t really sway many users.

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So here’s the deal. The blog is gonna work for definite this time. I have loads of content planned that covers technology, politics, current affairs, reviews, music and much more, so if you liked any of those topics you’re going to love my site. I also have a lot of backing, too.

If you haven’t already, enter the competition (<– that’s a link) as I’m dead close to getting the 30 entries I need. Honestly, you won’t regret it as there’s a cool new iPod shuffle with Voice Over up for grabs. These little devices are the first iPods that can speak to you, and tell you which track you’re listening to etc. To find out more about the Shuffle, visit the Apple website: http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle.

There’s a lot more for me to say, so if anyone wants to they can read on, if not, thank you for reading, I hope to see you again and have a nice day! (more…)