iPhone in the news today ...

I saw this post regarding the new iPhone on "Life Gives You Lemons"
... made me smile ...

Mobile subscriber base to pass 3bn in weeks

Following article by Tim Green of Mobile Entertainment

Mobile subscriber base to pass 3bn in weeks

There will be 3 billion mobile subscribers by July 2007, says The Mobile World.

A new survey by the researcher reveals there were 2.84 billion global mobile subscribers at the end of March 2007, and that the current rate of growth will take the total past 3 billion next month.

This represents an increase of more than 135 million on December 2006, and is equivalent to more than 1,000 new customers every minute. Over 250 million new handsets were sold in the quarter.

It’s the third strongest quarter in the industry’s history. The Mobile World now predicts global penetration will hit 50 per cent by the end of the year. Penetration in Europe now exceeds 100 per cent, with 666 million connections.

John Tysoe, principal analyst at The Mobile World, said: “It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion. The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on. By the end of the year, the global mobile base will exceed 3.25bn connections, or over half the world’s population. With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real.”

An Introduction to Screen Magnification Software

Continuing the series, Karo Caran has produced a video entitled "An Introduction to Screen Magnification Software"

Karo Caran takes you on a tour of screen magnification software -- tools used by partially sighted users to enhance their experience of screen-based user interfaces. Karo shows you the basic toolkit and then applies those tools to some typical web sites to give you some perspective on how she uses magnification software while she browses the web.

Video duration is 16:29

Introduction to Screen Readers

Victor Tsaran has produced a video entitled "An Introduction to Screen Readers"

Victor Tsaran is an accessibility engineer at Yahoo! who focuses on developing best practices for the creation of websites that work well with screen readers. In this video, he provides an introduction to some of the things that work well in the world of screen readers and others that fare more poorly.

Video duration is 27:23

RSS Feed Icons Resource

http://feedicons.com/

Feed Icons is a great resource where you can download various alternatives of the well known feed icon. Formats that are available are: AI, EPS, SVG, PSD, PDF, PNG, JPG and GIF. You can even colour-code them to your own branding.

Feed the web!

Broadband Speed Test

How fast is your internet connection?

You can calculate your speed with this test at ZD Net:
http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

RSS Introduction Article

If you are looking to RSS and wish to add some RSS Feed to your web pages, here are some interesting articles to get you started with the topic:

http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/
http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/02/eisenzopf/

Stokefest 2007

I really love living in London N5, it is a short walk to Upper Street one way and a short walk to Stoke Newington the other. We wandered out for a coffee this afternoon and walked up to Stoke Newington Church Street via Clissold Park which was hosting the annual Stokefest.

Stokefest is a free, independent festival that takes place in Clissold Park every year. The sun was shining and all the locals, young and old were really getting into the spirit of the festival with various arts & crafts, music and stalls. There was something for everyone!

You can keep up to date with latest events in Stoke Newington's online magazine

Say no to 0870 Numbers

http://www.saynoto0870.com/

There is a growing increase of companies in the UK opting to use 0870 numbers (and similar). Usually to hide their geographical location and appear more national and in doing so get a commission on the phone call, so there is no incentive to advertise their geographical numbers.

However, if like me you are out and about and using your mobile, you probably have a price plan that includes a bundle of talk time which don't include 0870 numbers in the pricing plan.

This site is great as it lists many well known companies, and their equivalent geographical numbers so you can dial the geographical number, save on the cost of the call and also use them as part of your price plan on your mobile if you have that kind of price plan.

TIP: don't forget to Dial 141 first as some companies won't answer if they see the incoming call is UK based.