http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/ en-gb Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:01:11 GMT http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Nokia-told-to-speed-up-its-move-to-Windows-mobile-7.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Nokia-told-to-speed-up-its-move-to-Windows-mobile-7.aspx Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:52:34 GMT Nokia became a house hold name in the early days of mobile telecoms, handsets where not only the must have gadgets but also packed with the latest features. In today’s crowded marketplace however Nokia have had to fight for attention with its Smartphone’s. Nokia where slow to move from standard feature phones to the new Smartphone market , as more people moved to powerful and flexible handsets Nokia continued to promote its Symbian OS. With so much competition from the likes of Android and Apple, sales of Symbian handsets have plummeted. In February 2011 Nokia announced it would discontinue support for Symbian and begin moving to Windows phone 7. Now analysts have told Nokia it needs to speed up its move to the windows phone7 OS. Nokia’s only current windows handset the Lumias has reportedly sold one million units to date, this may sound impressive however overall sales are down 21% from last year. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Apple-branded-TV-sets-coming-soon.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Apple-branded-TV-sets-coming-soon.aspx Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:51:00 GMT Rumours about Apple moving into the TV market have been around for many years, in 2007 Apple released the digital media receiver “Apple TV” proving to many that they would not be selling a TV of their own. Now it seems the rumour mill is back in action, many reports online say that Apple will indeed be teaming up with an existing manufacturer to create the Apple branded TV. The Apple brand has never been stronger with its iPhone and iPad products leading the market, it’s easy to see how a product with a larger screen could sit nicely into the family. Google has been slowly moving into the market with its own product Google TV, first released in 2010 take up has been slow. Logitech announced in November 2011 they have stopped making Google TV devices after losing more than $100 million. Google say they will continue to develop the product and work with new partners. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Antipiracy-bills-SOPA-and-PIPA-delayed.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/January-2012/Antipiracy-bills-SOPA-and-PIPA-delayed.aspx Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:58:36 GMT In America two controversial anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA have officially been delayed by the house of representatives. The bills are the latest attempts to stamp out online piracy and hold sites that break the law accountable. Many sites and organizations on the web have expressed concerns over the powers the bills are proposing. The new laws would give the US government abilities to change DNS settings, this essentially redirects visitors who enter an address to a different webpage. Many believe this a step too far because it messes with an essential technology used by the internet. Senator Harry Reid said “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the Protect IP Act”. Congress was supposed to consider the bill in February but is postpone until there is wider agreement on a solution. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/December-2011/Chrome-Overtakes-Firefox-In-Browser-Rankings.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/December-2011/Chrome-Overtakes-Firefox-In-Browser-Rankings.aspx Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:24:29 GMT The race for the top spot in the browser wars heats up, with Google Chrome overtaking Mozilla’s firefox in the US for the first time since Chrome’s release in September 2008. Chrome are now ranked 2nd place in the list of top web browsers dominating the market at the moment, with Firefox lying just behind them at 3rd place. Currently, Chrome’s market share is 25.7% against Firefox’s 25.4%, although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still lies comfortabbly in first place with a 40.6% market share, but for how much longer will IE hold superiority over the internet? Many people are looking forward to a “battle of the browsers” over the coming months and years to see if Google Chrome’s growth predictions are correct and they can indeed challenge Microsoft’s IE for the top spot. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/November-2011/100-million-broadband-boost.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/November-2011/100-million-broadband-boost.aspx Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:56:18 GMT It has been revealed by the government that £100 million is to be invested with the aim of boosting the speed of broadband in 10 different UK cities. It was announced in George Osborne’s autumn statement that this funding is set to be used to drive up speeds of broadband in some of the UK’s biggest cities to 100Mbits/sec. At the moment details aren’t very clear about what this will involve. There will be a particular focus on small and medium sized enterprises, with the aim being to support economic growth. So far the only cities confirmed for the upgrade are Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London however there is space for 6 more cities to make the list and a nationwide competition will be used to decide who fills the other places. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Cloud-computing-causes-stress-for-users.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Cloud-computing-causes-stress-for-users.aspx Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:23:25 GMT Research undertaken by analysts recently show that firms who have now switched to cloud computing are often worrying about secure the cloud is and how long they’re going to be tied into contracts with vendors. Market intelligence firm, IDC, did a survey of 700 IT managers. The results confirm that 43% of users who are currently using cloud computing say that security is a major concern and out of the people who haven’t yet converted 39% of them agree that it’s a worry for them. Another issue that is on IT decision maker’s minds is the location where their data is stored. 39% of people who haven’t yet moved to the cloud say this is a worry for them, although for people who are already using the web-based hosted services, it’s much less of a concern with only 30% of them expressing that they feel this is an issue. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Cisco-Shut-Down-Flip-Video-Camcorders.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Cisco-Shut-Down-Flip-Video-Camcorders.aspx Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:19:35 GMT Cisco are the largest supplier of computer networking equipment worldwide and over recent years they’ve made efforts to add diversity and move into the consumer market, with Flip video cameras. Pure Digital Technologies made the Flip camera and in 2009, Cisco spent $590 million dollars buying the company, it wasn’t long before the camera became a top seller, however Cisco Systems has announced they’re shutting down the business, leaving 550 people without jobs. This announcement comes after a statement from Cisco chief John Chambers last week, who said the firm needed to take bold steps in order to refocus. Analysts were quick to criticise the group for trying to do too much. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/64-fixes-to-be-issued-on-Patch-Tuesday.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/64-fixes-to-be-issued-on-Patch-Tuesday.aspx Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:19:36 GMT Microsoft are issuing 17 patches that are intended to fix 64 issues on both Server 2008 & Windows 7 operating systems, included in this is a flaw that is months old. The flaws that are being patched are in Office, Internet Explorer, Visual Studio and other programmes. 9 of the 17 patches are rated as critical, with another 8 rated as important. According to Google, a MHTML flaw is being used in politically motivated attacks on different users. Microsoft communications manager, Paul Voss said that they’re also planning to shut down several security alerts, one of these is a critical alert in Server Message Block Browser. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Google-will-release-code-for-Android-soon.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/April-2011/Google-will-release-code-for-Android-soon.aspx Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:56:38 GMT According to Google it will release the source-code for its Android 3.0 operating system as soon as the phone features are perfected. This announcement comes after the Android developers came under fire after they didn’t release the code for Honeycomb. “We continue to be an open-source platform and will continue releasing source code when it’s ready” said Andy Rubin, who is the head of Android made a statement on the developer’s blog “As I write this the Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones.” Rubin stressed that the delay doesn’t indicate a change in strategy from Google, who insist that they’re firmly committed to providing Android as an open-source platform, not online on mobile phone device, but tablets as well. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/March-2011/Apples-iPad-2.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/March-2011/Apples-iPad-2.aspx Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:54:39 GMT Yesterday evening, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs stood on stage and delivered his presentation announcing the latest product from Apple, the iPad 2. Although the CEO is currently on medical leave, he spoke with confidence as he explained a number of new features that are introduced to the popular tablet device from Apple. Firstly, the newest Apple tablet is both thinner & lighter than its predecessor and comes with a dual-core A5 processor that offers 9x the graphics performance, without sacrificing battery life. Along with this, the iPad 2 arrives with two cameras, rear & front facing and will support the video conferencing software, FaceTime. This software will allow users of MacBooks, iPhones & iPads to communicate via webcam. The latest MacBooks were announced late last month and will be arriving with Intel’s latest technology, Thunderbolt. Many people speculated that the Thunderbolt interconnect would also be included within the iPad however instead, the tablet computing device comes with the ability to connect to a HD TV. The iPads will be shipped in black and white colours for the same price as their predecessor becoming available on March 11th for customers within the USA, and then 2 weeks later on the 26th March 26 other countries (the UK included) will be able to buy the new product.