04 Oct 10
The Edit - the latest from our Futures and Implementation Team
September 2010
Skype kneels down to Facebook
The king of voice and video calling over the internet, Skype, is getting their crown shaken off for the first time since their launch in 2003, and yes, Facebook is the culprit. Again. Rumours are that Facebook and Skype are currently talking about integrating their services, whereby Facebook users can sign into Skype through their Facebook Connect accounts and be able to send SMS messages and video/voice chat to each other, using Skype. Seems like Facebook is ambitiously eyeing the aggregation of all social networks as they continue to spread across the globe.
Facebook and Twitter WARNING!
Facebook and Twitter have taken on much more heavy duty roles than just connecting friends and family. Fake earthquake drill tests were run on both social networking sites by natural disaster experts at San Diego State University to test how social media would respond to a crisis. The objective is to get news and responses to the community faster through a network that people stay connected to. So next time the bird tweets, you may have to run for your lives!
Where is that plane going to?
Just point your smartphone up in the air and your curiosity will be killed! Unbelievably there is now a new smartphone app called Plane Finder AR (this is not advertising), which can tell you how fast a plane is moving, where they're going, where they started, their elevation, the flight number and how far the aircraft is from you, all in the instant you hold up your phone!
IP addresses in the U.S. running dry
The upward spike of mobile technologies, such as smartphones and iPads have drained the IP address world dry and depleted. With 94.5% of address space already allocated by September this year, it is forecasted that the U.S. will run out of addresses by the end of 2011. Some even think that this may happen as soon as December this year! But don’t panic, at a very costly price (not to consumers thankfully), developers are able to expand the IP address world, so that we are able to enjoy more digital content for decades to come.
Facebook is making a phone!
After tiptoeing around and carefully denying the rumours of a highly secretive project of building a Facebook phone, it now seems the rumours are more or less true. It appears that Facebook are seeking a hardware manufacturer to build the hardware, as they concentrate on deepening the social integrations through software. So technically, they are not ‘building’ a phone, but just branding one, just like Google did a year ago.