A LONDON singer has taken the internet by storm with a punk protest song about online rights.
Thousands of people have viewed ‘Only idiots assume’, written by Londoner Liam Mullone and sung by his friend Hils Barker.
It has even been backed by Stephen Fry, who used twitter to publicise the song.
The lyrics include the line ‘The message of this tune, is only idiots assume. Evidence exists that they are watching you, watching this - welcome to Digital Britain, a drowned economic kitten.”
It is a direct attack on Lord Mandelson, the minister behind the Digital Economy Bill which contains controversial copyright protection clauses which could be used to disconnect people suspected of copyright infringement. Opponents have argued that such a penalty should only be imposed if guilt has been proved in a court. The Bill is currently making its way through Parliament and may become law before the election
Stephen Fry selected the song to win a competition organised by broadband provider TalkTalk.
“I am insanely in love with Only Idiots Assume,” said Stephen Fry. “It’s got the anger, the wit, the musical skill - all in a wonderful package that reminds me of the high days of my youth when punk roamed the land and the young were angry and funny and spunky and spiky.”
Comedian Liam Mullone, who wrote the song, said: “I’m used to having my material taken because you can’t protect a joke,” said Liam. “I sympathise with any artist who gets discouraged at the thought of not making a living. But just because a problem is bigger than the government’s imagination, it isn’t bigger than the Magna Carta or the principle of due process. Assuming that people with high download volumes are stealing stuff is like calling someone a witch because they have a black cat. It’s a medieval premise.”
Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk, which ran the contest, said: “We wanted to tap into the outstanding creativity of the Great British public to send a clear message to the Government – these laws won’t work and people don’t want them.”

www.dontdisconnect.us

The first store disloyalty card has been launched in a bid to get consumers to try small shops in London.

It offers shoppers a free coffee if they visit eight independent coffee shops in the Shoreditch area.

Conceived by World Barista Champion Gwilym Davies, it is hoped the card will allow people to try ‘real’ coffee.

“People who have only drunk coffee in high street chains really don’t know how it should taste,” Gwilym said.

“London has a rapidly expanding coffee culture, and people should try their local coffee shop. There is a huge new coffee boom. Customers are demanding a better coffee."

The for the card idea came about because of large queues at Mr Davies stall at Whitecross Market.

“We began to put up the names of other shops we liked in the area on a whiteboard,” said Jeremy Challender, who works with Mr Davies and helped set up the scheme. “There’s nothing commercial behind it, these are simply coffee shops we think are good.”

5,000 of the cards have been printed, and are available from participating cafes. Mr Challender said the explosion in the capital’s coffee shops in recent months meant that a cafe culture was now beginning to take hold.

“There are a lot more places opening, and as prices are the same, it seems a shame a lot of people haven’t experienced high quality coffee. It’s totally different to what you get in a high street chain,” said Mr Challender.

One of the mopst popular coffees in the new cafe culture is the flat white. A small, strong white coffee, made with two to three shots of espresso topped with very creamy, well-frothed milk, it has becomes hugely popular in independent coffee shops.

“The flat white really lets you taste the coffee, although we have chosen stores that offer other speciality drinks as well," said Mr Challender. "We really just want poeple to go and try some really good coffee."

The number of coffee shops is also expected to increase this year, when the World Barista championship comes to London for the first time.

“The eyes of the coffee world will really be on London, and we are confident we can show them some great independent coffee shops,” said Mr Challender.

In a small building behind the main theatre at Apple's iPad launch in San Francisco earlier this week, a 'hands on' area was tucked away for journalists to play with the new gadget.

Unsurprisingly, it quickly turned into chaos as we all jostled to get time with the iPad, especially when Apple bigwigs including Steve Jobs started wandering around answering questions. Also unsurprisingly, Steve's minders were rather careful about who he spoke to (Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal was the only journalist granted time).

However, I was lucky enough to catch up with Stephen Fry, who attended the launch with his close friend Jonathan Ive - who also happens to be Apple's vice-president of industrial design. Chingford born Ive, while unwilling to talk on the record, proved to be one of the nicest men in technology, and incredibly approachable and down to earth.

It was left to Fry, a lifelong Apple supporter who claims to have the second Mac computer ever sold in the UK (the first belonged to his friend Douglas Adams), to take up the mantle of evangelist for Apple's new baby.

He told me the key to Apple’s success was its ability to deliver complete products.

“No other firm can do what Apple does,” said Fry, who admits to owning seven iPhones. “There is a real 360 degree view of the market, so they can give you not only the device, but also the software and content to go with it.”

He predicted the iPad would be as important as the iPhone.

“In 2007 when the iPhone came out nobody had ever seen it, and nobody predicted it would become such a game changer. I can guarantee the same will be true of the iPad. I’m drooling with anticipation, I want to lick its screen and walk out with it right now.”

Apple's iPhone has been a huge success, with over 100,000 iPhone apps available to download.

However, despite the firms best efforts to market the iPhone as a sophisticated tool for the modern urbanite, it seems the truth is quite different.

The most popular application downloaded to Brtiain's iPhones is, it turns out, Carling's Virtual pint. Created by Beattie McGuinness Bungay, it's a simple idea - an on screen glass of beer which moves as you move the phone, and can be 'drunk' by tipping the phone.

"It's good to see that Brits like their iBoozing as much as their real-world boozing," said Stuart Dredge, online editor for Mobile Entertainment.

"The success of iPint is a testament to our sense of fun. It's been around for a while though - perhaps this news will spur Carling to release a sequel."

Games were the next most popular downloads. "16% of people who have a new iPhone purchase a game, though," said monitoring firm comScore's Alistair Hill.

"What's more, this doesn't drop off - 13% of people who've owned an iPhone for more than 18 months still buy games.

 AT the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, a plucky firm of British boffins unveiled a radical new plastic electronic book they hope can take on Amazon and Apple.

Called the Que, the gadget is made from a flexible plastic screen that can be dropped or bent without breaking. The A4 sized gadget, which is far lighter that its competitors and has a touchscreen, costs £400.

Henning Sirringhaus, one of the Cambridge dons who founded the firm behind the Que, Plastic Logic, which was spun out of the university's Cavendish Laboratory in 2000, said the 10in screen on the Que reader is "unbreakable".

"It's light, you can treat it like paper, you can stuff it in your briefcase," he said.

As well as being used to read books, the Que can also download newspapers, emails and other information. It can also display a user’s diary on screen.

Plastic Logic, which unveiled the Que at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is also developing a more advanced version which can be rolled up.

The firm is targeting existing electronic books from firms such as Amazon and Sony, and plans to deliver the Que in April, although is already taking orders via its website.

“We are very different to things like the Amazon Kindle,” said Anusha Nirmalananthan of Plastic Logic.

“This is a lot more than just an ebook - we believe that this will effectively let business users become paperless. It’s your entire briefcase, but all in a single device.”

Experts say the Plastic Logic device is far more advanced than Amazon’s.

"The Kindle set the bar pretty high. It's the entire end-to-end experience, with instant delivery of new books" said James McQuivey, analyst at Forrester Research. "But Plastic Logic is clearly pointing to the next generation of these devices."

Plastic Logic is also likely to face competition from Apple, which is believed to be announcing a tablet computer which also works as an ebook later this month.

 Plastic Logic Que - first review

The Que is incredibly light, almost worryingly so, but feels solid. It’s simple to use, and you can easily turn pages by flicking a finger across the screen. Text is easy to read on the black and white screen, although there is a slight delay when turning pages. Using the wifi connection, its simple to download newspapers and books, and web surfing is also straightforward. You can also link the device to a Blackberry to read emails, which is simple to set up. There's also a really useful home screen where you can see headlines, emails and your diary for the day. Overall, the Que is a huge step forward for electronic books, and while the price is too high for most users at the moment, this is a real indication of how we might all be reading in the future.

www.que.com

Driving down Kensington high street in a car emitting the sound of a retro scifi spaceship is a rather odd experience.

The remote control in my hand lets me adjust the volume and even the sound of my car, a modified Toyota Prius.

With a button press I can change from an around town family car to an American Muscle car, or even a howling F1 machine.

While at first it seems little more of a gimmick (and a great way to confuse pedestrians and cyclists), its makers say the Halosonic system could actually help save lives in the capital.

Developed by car firm Lotus and speaker firm Harman Kardon, it is designed to protect pedestrians and cyclists by letting them know an electric car is nearby.

“Safety is a real problem with electric cars,” said Tony Harberman of Harman International, the speaker firm's parent company. “Pedestrians and other road users simply can’t hear them coming, especially at slow speeds.”

The solution is to put hidden speakers at the front and rear of the car. A remote control then allows the driver to adjust the sound, and even the volume the car is making. It also unleashes the potential for downloading new sounds to your car.

“We can effectively let manufacturers and customers customise the vehicles as much as they want,” said Mr Harberman.

It is hoped the kit will be made available to electric car owners early next year for around £500, and will begin appearing in production vehicles late next year.

The noises are created using a computer, and exactly mimic the sound of a real car. “The sounds change depending on the pressure you apply, and even appear to be changing gear - effectively just like a real car would sound. However, this is synthesis rather that simply playing a file, so you couldn’t just have an an MP3 file, for instance.”

Despite this, the firm expects manufacturers to allow unusual sounds. Our demonstration car has two spaceship sounds, and they get a real reaction from people as you drive by.

The system also has speakers inside the car, which give drivers feedback on the car. “It can be quite off putting when you are driving not to hear anything, or to hear the engine cutting out at lights to save power. "With speakers in the cabin, we can easily mask that,” said Mr Harberman.

TWO Londoners who rose to fame with a youtube video are set to headline the O2 next week.
Jonathan Stevens and Roger Evans, who star in the brilliant Youtube music show Svengali, will present the UK Festival Awards at the Greenwich venue.
The pair, who are currently working on a TV show based on the series, will present the awards as their characters Dixie and Horsey.
The show, shot at the capital’s trendiest music venues and bars, features Welshman and band manager Dixie as he tries to get his band signed.
It has included cameos from Carl Barat of the Libertines, Bonehead from Oasis and music mogul Alan McGee.
The awards take place next thursday at Indigo, which is part of the O2 complex, and categories include best green festival, and best festival toilet.

Thanks to Google, we are all now used to be being able to zoom around the capital, and even virtually drive its streets.

However, a fascinating new site gives Londoner's a whole new view of the capital - a birds eye view, in fact.

The London Ariel tour contains most of the capitals landmarks, including Trafalgar Square, The O2, Regents Park and even Kings Cross. You can fly through it, zoom in on areas and even listen to audio tours.It's also well worth looking at the picture gallery for some fascinating images created by the 3D imaging system used in the project.

you can see the site here

Gadget site Firebox has responded quickly to the postal crisis, setting up a network of couriers to deliver parcels.

However, they've also been busy developing a game showing the problems they face, and the highly addictive Royal Fail game has been going down a storm online.

It asks players to throw mail over the picket lines and into courier vans, and thanks to facebook and twitter has been hugely popular within hours of its launch.

You can play the game at: http://www.theroyalfail.com/

As Windows 7 goes on sale today, Microsoft is claims it ushers in a new era of reliability and productivity for computer. I've been using it for a couple of months in various forms (Microsoft ran a unique open test programme, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to trial early versions), and the news is good - very good in fact.

The first emotion virtually everyone who regularly uses a PC will feel when loading Windows 7 is, without doubt, one of relief. Finally, it seems Microsoft has managed to make a good looking, easy to use operating system that is, unlike its predecessor, fast and responsive.

Microsoft’s Windows, despite being the most widely used piece of computer software ever made, has become a byword for crashing and slowing to a halt at every opportunity. While Windows 7 isn’t perfect, it’s a massive step in the right direction. It’s very fast and responsive, even on the cheapest laptop, and the on screen effects are incredibly well thought out.

As a user of both Mac and PCs, there are obvious comparisons to be drawn - Microsoft really does seem to have done its best to take the best bits from the brilliant Mac OS. And it works - Windows 7 is such a massive improvement over its predecessor it’s hard to find fault.

The biggest question is why on earth it has taken Microsoft so long to produce what is a good looking, easy to use and most of all reliable operating system.