Cyberia

Global mobile data traffic through Internet browser firm Opera’s mobile portal rose in January by 18 percent in the previous month, the fastest pace of growth since May 2008, Opera said on Wednesday. Wireless operators are keen on raising revenue from Internet browsing and the social networking boom as revenue from traditional voice calls is declining.

Data traffic on mobile operators’ networks rose on average 4.7 times last year, with some operators seeing traffic surge more than 10 times, boosted by the uptake of wireless data cards in laptops, according to telecoms equipment firm Nokia Siemens.

Nokia Siemens and rivals Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, who have suffered over the last few years from aggressive pricing from Asian rivals like Huawei, are also looking for rising data traffic as a lead into new orders. Opera has 20 million users of its Opera Mini browser who all access the Internet through Opera’s servers and who generated more than 122 million megabytes of data traffic for operators world-wide in January.

Opera said Facebook and other social networking services were one of the key traffic generators. The majority of visits to such online communities are still made by people sitting at a computer telling their friends where they are and how they are feeling, exchanging opinions on their favourite movies and music or uploading videos.

But the spontaneous and personal nature of much of that communication is proving to lend itself perfectly to the mobile phone. Last week at the Mobile World Congress trade show INQ, a spin-off of Hutchison Whampoa’s 3, won the handset of the year award as the firm’s first phone promises easier social network access at a low price.

Frank Meehan, INQ’s chief executive, said consumers are prepared to go without the latest bells and whistles on mobile phones in the current economy but they want to keep using Facebook. “We can see this as an operator – Facebook is massive,” Meehan said.

Facebook users spend almost 30 minutes a day on the site poking and messaging their friends on average, with access patterns similar on mobile phones and computers, a British study showed on Monday. Users accessing Facebook on their mobile phones spent on average 24 minutes on the site compared with 27.5 minutes daily by computer users, the study found.

Mobile phone users accessed the site on average 3.3 times per day, compared with 2.3 times for computer users, with the most avid mobile fans 18-24 year old males who spent on average 27 minutes on the site.

Tech-savvy South Korea will install a nation-wide super-broadband infrastructure by 2013 which would enable the downloading of a feature film in one or two seconds, officials said Tuesday.

“South Korea will be the first in the world to build such a network nation-wide for commercial use,” Rha Sung-Uk of the state-run National Information Society Agency told AFP. The agency teamed up with the commission to work out a blueprint for the project, which officials said will change the lifestyle of Koreans.

“You can download a movie in one or two seconds through an upgraded optical fibre cable extended to every household,” Rha said. “It will allow users to engage in e-commerce or use Internet protocol phones while watching ultra high-definition TV programmes.”

The existing wireless network will also be rebuilt for faster data transmission and multiple services, he said. Commission officials said the plan would enable users to transmit data at an average speed of 1 Gbps (gigabits per second) through a fixed line, more than 10 times faster than now.

The global number of Internet users has surpassed one billion with China accounting for the largest population of Web surfers, digital research firm comScore Inc reported on Friday. “Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet,” comScore chief executive Magid Abraham said in a statement.

“It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat,” Abraham said. ComScore said the total number of Internet users had surpassed one billion in December. The actual number of Web surfers is probably higher than that as comScore said its figures were based only on the number of Internet users aged 15 and above working from home or work computers.

They did not take into account traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or personal digital assistants. ComScore said the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 41 percent of the one billion global Internet users, followed by Europe (28 percent), North America (18 percent), Latin America (seven percent) and the Middle East and Africa (five percent).

China had the largest population of Internet users with nearly 180 million people going online in December, followed by the United States with 163 million, Japan with 60 million, Germany and Britain with nearly 37 million each and France with 34 million.

India was next with 32 million Internet users followed by Russia (29 million), Brazil (28 million), South Korea (27 million), Canada (22 million) and Italy (21 million). Google was the most frequently visited Web property in December with 777.9 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft sites (647.9 million visitors), Yahoo! (562.6 million visitors), AOL (273 million) and Wikimedia (273 million). ComScore said Facebook.com had grown by 127 percent in the past year and welcomed 222 million visitors in December, making it the top social networking site world-wide.

Adult Americans who use the Internet are joining social networks at a rapid rate and the number with an online profile has quadrupled in the past three years, according to a new survey.

Thirty-five percent of US Web users aged 18 or older have a profile on a social network such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn, the Pew Internet and American Life Project survey found, up from just eight percent in 2005.

While the number of online adult Americans logging onto social networks is rising, they lag behind the number of online American teens who do so, the Washington-based Pew Research Centre said in a report released on Wednesday.

Sixty-five percent of online Americans aged 12 to 17 years old use social networks, it said. Adults, however, still make up the bulk of American users of social network websites because they make up a larger portion of the US population than teens. The survey found, not surprisingly, that the number of adults who use social networks declines with age.

Seventy-five percent of online Americans aged 18 to 24 years old belong to a social network; 57 percent of those aged 25 to 34; 30 percent of those aged 35 to 44; 19 percent of those aged 45 to 54; 10 percent of those aged 55 to 64 and just seven percent of those aged 65 and older.

Fifty percent of adult social network users have a profile on MySpace, the survey found, while 22 percent have a profile on Facebook, six percent have a profile on LinkedIn, two percent have an account on Yahoo! and one percent each have accounts on YouTube. Fifty-one percent of adult social network users have two or more online profiles while 43 have only one online profile. Eighty-nine percent of the adult Web users surveyed said they use their online profiles to keep up with friends, 57 percent said they use them to make plans with friends and 49 percent said they use them to make new friends.

Sixty percent of adult social network users said they restrict access to their profile so that only their friends can see it while 36 percent allow anyone to see their online profile.

The survey found that men and women are equally likely to be social network users but men are more likely than women to have two or more online profiles (54 percent vs. 47 percent). Pew said whites are less likely than African-Americans or Hispanics to have a social network profile.

Thirty-one percent of online white adults have a social network profile, compared with 43 percent of African-Americans and 48 percent of Hispanics. The median age of a MySpace user is 27 years old, the survey found, while the median age of a Facebook user is 26.

The median age of a user of LinkedIn, the professional networking service, is 40 and they are likely to be men, to be white and to have a college degree. Thirty-seven percent of the adults surveyed said they visit their profile daily while 23 percent said they visit every few days, 15 percent once a week and 23 percent less often than once a week. Forty-eight percent of teens visit a social network profile at least once a day, 32 percent visit weekly and 20 percent visit less often. The data in the report was from separate surveys conducted between November 2007 and December 2008 with margins of error ranging from plus or minus three percentage points to plus or minus six percentage points.

The number of Internet users in China jumped nearly 42 percent to 298 million by the end of 2008 from the previous year, cementing the country’s position as the world’s largest Internet population, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) said.

The number of mobile Web surfers surged 113 percent to 117.6 million in 2008 and mobile Internet is expected to grow explosively in the next few years after the recent issuance of third-generation (3G) licenses, the state-run agency said.

The Internet penetration rate in China has risen to 22.6 percent, slightly higher than the world’s average of 21.9 percent, CNNIC said in a report on Tuesday.

In addition, the number of Internet news readers has risen to 2.34 million and websites have become a crucial area for publicity, the report said.

Internet-age gadgets crafted to stimulate children’s minds and help seniors remain independent were on display last week at the international Consumer Electronics Show.

“Older consumers are becoming increasingly interested in technology, and corporations are working to meet this demand,” said Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies. Children instinctively latch on to new gizmos, creating a need for devices that engage and perhaps improve their minds instead of merely occupying them.

Innovations on display at CES included sensors that alert care-givers when elderly people fall; don’t stir for hours, or forget to turn off a burner on a stove.

There are devices that enable those whose ears aren’t what they once were to hear television programmes and telephone conversations. People’s vital statistics can be monitored in real time and the information automatically sent to doctors. Medicine dispensers have been adapted to remind people when it is time to take pills.

“Seniors prefer to stay in their homes,” Alwan said during a CES session spotlighting new creations tailored for people whose bodies are yielding to the inexorable onslaught of time.

“That is where they have a more dignified aging experience.” A pharmasurveyor.com website provides a free way for people to figure out whether medicines they are taking might combine to cause dangerous side effects.

Plantronics-owned Clarity has a mobile telephone that is “very loud and only has four buttons so you don’t get fouled up,” a company spokesman explained.

Myine Electronics has crafted FM and Internet radios for those that think that there is too much prattling in broadcasts and that new-fangled radios are too complicated. An Abbee FM radio records broadcasts and automatically deletes talk, leaving listeners with only the music, according to Myine founder Jake Sigal.

An Internet Radio Adapter launched this week fetches tunes online and then lets people listen later away from computers. “This is taking old school FM radio and bringing it to life with new technology,” Sigal said.

Dakim introduced Brain Fitness computer software that promises to keep seniors’ minds in shape with as little as three 20-minute workouts weekly.

“It is really for everyone over 60 years old who really wants to protect their brain,” said Dakim chief executive Dan Michel. Quality of Life Technology Center research ready to be turned into consumer products includes “NavPrescience” that enables cars to “learn how you drive” and plot routes accordingly, said director Curt Stone. For example, a car could come to “know” that its elderly owner shuns bridges or right-merge lanes.

The center has also developed a computer monitor that senses when a user is leaning closer and automatically enlarges on-screen images “so you don’t have to keep squinting,” Stone said. “Scratch Input” lets people use walls, clothing or other surfaces as touch-panels to control devices, according to Stone.

“You could scratch a wall to turn lights on or off or just scratch your pants to turn off a phone ringing in your pocket,” Stone said.

CES innovations include an Intel Classmate laptop modified so the screen flips and folds, converting to a tablet-style computer ideal for drawing or school projects. The laptop has “accelerometer” software that lets it to sense which way it is being held and adjust on-screen images accordingly.

Jeffrey Galenovsky of Intel dropped a Classmate computer from shoulder height to prove they are tough enough to handle careless handling for which youths are infamous.

Computer game giant Electronic Arts touted new versions of titles such as Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit to get people using their brains. Princeton Review worked with French game titan Ubisoft to create a “My SAT Coach” game that lets people use Nintendo DC handheld devices to prepare for standardised school tests.

The Review also rolled out online classrooms and podcasts that include a “Pedagogic Troubadour” that playfully sings vocabulary lessons.

In the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Indian government is going to court to basically stop Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) from displaying Google Earth information. To many people, this seems ridiculous. After all, everything Google shows is publicly available information. Why then should it be wrong to consolidate the information for everyone in the world? Well, Google actually goes out of its way to collect data that is not otherwise available, primarily to be cool. That is not cool.

For those people not familiar with Google Earth, it is basically an enhancement to map applications. When you go to Google Maps, you will find a variety of different ways to view the map, such as satellite image, road map, etc. So far, we have nothing wrong there. However what gets intrusive is an extra feature where Google apparently sent people out to take ground level pictures of streets. The end result is actually pretty cool, where you can take a 360 degree look up and down the whole street, at ground level.

Of course, early attempts to do this met with complaints. The Google staff was apparently fascinated with taking pictures of adult bookshops and the people coming out of them (scan down to entry No. 4). Yes, the pictures are that detailed. Google then implemented some privacy policies allowing people to request to have information removed.

The primary issue is not whether Google can take street view pictures and post them, but should they?

With regard to the Mumbai attacks, the terrorists supposedly used Google Earth to get a feel for their targets, which allowed for better planning. I have to admit that I can see that Google Earth provides many more useful applications, which generally outweigh the extremely rare terrorist risk. For example, it is very comforting to know where entrances are to train stations and what they look like when travelling overseas. This comfort factor improves security and leaves people less vulnerable.

However, I do not see the benefit of the same functionality for residential areas. If you want to visit a friend, you don’t need to see their front door, bushes that provide good hiding places, toys to indicate the age of children that live in the house, etc. Many thousands of people are likely to need details of public locations. How many people legitimately need a 360 degree view of your house? Yes, your house is likely on Google Street View.

Again, I stress the term “legitimate need.” I honestly cannot understand why someone would legitimately need to have such detail of my house. If anybody really needs such detail, I would be happy to give it to them. There is the potential for fire or police departments to need the detail. However the fact is that Google doesn’t even accurately point to my house, so if the police or fire departments use it for my supposed safety, I’m in trouble. Either way, I assume that they have their own GPS devices, so they don’t need Google.

For those people who want to say that Google Street View is available through other services, that is very wrong. While the satellite imagery is available from other services that you have to pay for, Google actually took all of the Street View pictures. If you zoom in enough, you can actually see the watermark.

Good luck trying to find out the address or get a good look at Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s home on Google Street View. Google filters out that information, and allegedly blacklisted CNET for publishing it a few years ago. However, he is more than happy to fight for his right to put your house on his system.

If you can tell me why someone legitimately needs that level of detail for a private residence, I would love to hear it. I can tell you that my neighbour isn’t happy to see her child on Google Street View.

Frankly, I support Schimdt’s fight to maintain his privacy. Unfortunately, he and his company have a gross disregard for the privacy and security of the rest of us.

Microsoft Corp. is taking the unusual step of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers.

The “zero-day” vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows criminals to take over victims’ machines simply by steering them to infected Web sites; users don’t have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer’s programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world’s most widely used Web browser.

Microsoft said it plans to ship a security update, rated “critical,” for the browser on Wednesday. People with the Windows Update feature activated on their computers will get the patch automatically.

Thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw. The bad guys have loaded malicious code onto those sites that automatically infect visitors’ machines if they’re using Internet Explorer and haven’t employed a complicated series of workarounds that Microsoft has suggested.

Microsoft said it has seen attacks targeting the flaw only in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but has cautioned that all other current editions of the browser are vulnerable.

Microsoft rarely issues security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly updates. The company last did it in October, and a year and half before that.