China Internet Use Soars

by Taylor Flatt on January 14th, 2009 at 8:54 pm EDT - 312 views

While China imposes strict regulations on their internet and in some cases jailing writers and web developers, they continue moving up the ladder. Ever since 2001 when it began catching the attention of the internet world, they have been under the Global Watch.

China has now reached almost 300 million internet users in 2008 and has doubled since 2006. Unlike the US, 90% of Chinese users are using broadband to access the internet.

With over 560 million mobile subscribers, BDA (Chinese Marketing and Researching Firm) still stated the e-commerce and content is the better quality in the US. This isn’t surprising since a lot of businesses and entrepreneurs begin in the US and China is still relatively new to the “market”.

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Netflix Moving to TVs by Streaming from Internet

by Taylor Flatt on January 5th, 2009 at 9:42 pm EDT - 240 views

Netflix and LG have teamed together to allow people to begin streaming Netflix from the Internet to a specific HDTV model produced by LG. This comes with no strings or extra hardware attached.

Netflix has slowly risen to become one of the biggest movie rental services out there. With a modest price, you can get dozens of movies for the price of a 2 night rental at a chain store. Netflix first started supporting instant views by downloading them to your PC and viewing them for a period of time. However, with this new investment, you will be able to view videos by downloading them directly from your tv (after connected to the internet of course).

LG has yet to announce a price for their new HDTV. Although, it will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We can only think of magnificant things when a partnership like LG and Netflix group together. I can’t wait to see the sales on these new TVs. If they are within a decent price range, I am sure they will sell quite quickly.

Source: Arstechnica
Image courtesy of Arstechnica.

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China Restricts Internet Further

by Taylor Flatt on January 5th, 2009 at 8:27 pm EDT - 346 views

China, since last month, has gone another step further and has begun accusing sites like Google for displaying morally controversial items such as pornography and vulgar content. China departments claim they alert Google of their overabundant links to said sites, but have reported Google has implemented no countermeasures. China now threatens, “For those Web sites that repeatedly ignore warnings, we will publicize a few, punish a few and even close down a few”.

China is justifying their action by eluding that the populous is calling for action, “The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of the young generation. Many parents are calling out: ‘Save our children’. They want the government to take drastic action.”

This looks like this trend will only continue on a downward spiral. With BBC being blocked along with NYTimes website, this will only get worse as the censorship issue is clouded by the cry of “help” by the people. Although there are bad things on the internet, it is like life; you cannot censor everything out and expect to live in a clean just world. Censorship is a long debated argument that has been and always will be a central issue. If China persists on their course of cutting the internet down, where will it stop?

Source: FT, UPI
Image courtesy of gallery.hd

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Internet News Surpasses Newspaper

by Taylor Flatt on December 27th, 2008 at 4:36 pm EDT - 436 views

A new Pew study has been released describing a more electronically centered world. Now, roughly 20% more people get their news from the internet.  With both TV and Newspaper viewership declining there seems to be a slow but steady switch from TV and Newspapers to a more readibly accessable source, the Internet.

Not only is this logical, but it is obvious why this is happening. The Internet is a convient tool used by all for a [pretty] cheap price where you can find just about anything you want.  For the price of connectivity, it is only logical to get your fair share of news (from thousands of sources, rather than a couple).

With the common joe now able to write their opinion and view on things, you are not only getting white and black from the newspaper or tv, but you are getting all different shades of media from main and secondary news sources. The Internet is beginning to look like it will be the end all be all of the media world.

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Severed Subsea Cables Disrupt Internet Access Around Europe/Middle East

by Bradley Wint on December 21st, 2008 at 4:38 pm EDT - 220 views

For many Internet users in the European, Asian and Middle Eastern regions, browsing the web has become a nightmare after several connection failures. Apparently, 3 of 4 subsea fibre optic backbone communication cables have been severed, causing major cellular and Internet blackouts in these regions.

France Telecom reported that the  FLAG FEA, SMW4, and SMW3 cables in Egypt were severed, but the reason is still yet to be determined. Normally one of these cables are destroyed on a yearly basis by ships or seismic activity, but having 3 destroyed at around the same time is a cause for concern. The 4 cables in this region serve communication links between Europe and Middle East countries, as well as Asia. The telecoms firm will be sending ships to repair the fibre optic lines, but they don’t expect full service to be restored until December 31st.

The blackouts have severely disrupted business activity, especially on the Stock Exchange. Statistics also show that 65% of India’s networks are down, with other Middle Eastern countries feeling a lot of the brunt. For many of you out there, if you have been having problems accessing certain eastern based websites, don’t expect to see any recovery until the end of the year.

Source: BBC News

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