Kevin Ashton coined the phrase "The Internet of Things" back in 1999, but a decade later most of the on-line gadgets in my house are still recognisable as being technology. My fridge is still a fridge, my front door still needs a key and my house doesn't talk to me. That was the situation until a couple of weeks when
Incredibly, it's been 21 years since the first commercial SMS text message was sent, and appropriately the message was, "Merry Christmas". It was sent from Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis on 3 December 1992 but it was a little one sided as Richard's phone didn't have a keyboard to reply on. I know how Neil must have felt as I never
The team at Net Market Share have released their statistics for November and shockingly, over 30% of desktop Internet users are still using Windows XP. The 12-year old OS will lose all support from Microsoft in four month's time, after which XP machines will not receive any further security updates and will become vulnerable to newly discovered exploits. XP's market
Last week's "Microsoft Fantasy" here on GNC suggested that Microsoft was in danger of fading into irrelevance; that it should retreat to servers and gaming; that it should re-orient its mobile strategy around Android. I suggest that Microsoft is now very well positioned to offer far more than its competitors. And to negate any ad hominem attacks, I'm no Microsoft
With the plethora of USB charging power sources and charging rates, it was probably inevitable that someone would develop a meter to measure the power going to a device. The bragging rights go to Utah-based Power Practical and the Practical Meter, a USB in-line power meter. Looking much like a USB dongle, 5 LEDs show the power transfer from 1 W
Today's Android apps from AVG are aimed at social media users rather than performance junkies whose needs were covered yesterday. AVG has two apps in this space, Image Shrink & Share, and Privacy Fix. Very different apps themselves but both are worth a look.. AVG Image Shrink & Share works on the premise that the average smartphone camera takes photographs which
Anti-virus outfit AVG have released a suite of small Android apps which aim to improve the performance of your smartphone or tablet. The free apps Cleaner, TuneUp and Uninstaller all help to keep your device ticking over smoothly. Here's what each app offers. AVG Memory & Cache Cleaner - The Cleaner apps cleans out all the cruft and detritus that