DanBaileyUK.com Launched

Just a quick note to say that I've finally registered by own domain name (DanBaileyUK.com) and moving my blog to this address, if you have signed up with a feed don't worry you don't need to change anything. You can view the new blog here.

One last quick note about the name, DanBaileyUK.com, as a couple of peeps think that I'm British or something, don't worry I am 100% South African - the name just comes from a couple of years I spent in England and that was the only username going on GMAIL.

Kutcher's millionth follower will star in a future EA Game!

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) currently has 912,624 followers, 3 days ago he only had 850,000 and he challenged Twitter users that if he reached 1million users before CNN or (@cnnbrk) who has 945,903 followers now, that he'll "ding dong ditch" the billionaire Ted Turner who is the founder of CNN. Video clip here:



The very next day Larry King gets involved threw down the challenge with these words: "Do you know how big we are? Do you know what CNN is?!"

King promises to take on any challenge from Kutcher and will even try get him and Turner in on his show, video below:



@EA or Electronic Arts then tweeted out that for the millionth user they will put into The Sims 3 and that the follower will receive every game that EA makes this year. Nice publicity stint by EA to join in on this coverage...

The final interesting bit about all of this is that the CNN account (@cnnbrk) isn't even owned or run by CNN but rather by a James Cox - CNN how ever has now acquired this account from James for an undisclosed amount, read here for more.

Think I may unfollow @aplusk and watch it closely to drive be the millionth!

Great new Microsoft Ad - The Homeless guy

So Microsoft have released a number of ads recently getting various people the opportunity to look for a laptop with certain specs under a price limit. The actors give off the appearance of giving Macs a chance but then see the prices and go running to Windows laptops... I am still using Windows as my OS and don't think I'll change, for me arrogance is something I despise and the arrogance that Apple's oozes puts me right off (though I may be getting an iPhone, maybe...)

Here is the latest ad with the homeless guy:



The one thing about this is that the homeless guy is like 'What the f$#k do I need a laptop for...' make sure you check out the end and what its used for in the end!

Coke Fest 2009

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to spend the day out on a beautiful wine farm near Somerset West for the Coke Zero Fest which was headlined by Snow Patrol and Oasis.

And it was a rocking day!

Snow Patrol are absolutely amazing and its the third time I've seen them live (once at the O2 dome in London and the other at the V Festival at Chelmsford) how ever Oasis were disappointing and I don't think I'll pay money to see them again live. They rated themselves too much and didn't really give anything into their songs, they are surely at the end of their run and its only their name thats carrying them now.

The South African bands also rocked with my favourites been The Dirty Skirts, Zebra and Giraffe, Cassette and Aking weren't too bad.

Next year I'll have to make sure I get into VIP as I heard Matt Damon was at the concert, anyway I hope if you were in the area that you managed to go!

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Wow, I came across this video earlier of author John Perkins who wrote 'Confessions of a Economic Hitman' and I think I'm definitely going to be buying this book.

It is amazing to see how corrupt our world is, be it here in South Africa or in the United States. The temptation that people fall for is unreal. Take a look at the first part below:

Twitter on your TV

A while back there were some stories of Samsung teaming up with Yahoo to develop a widget platform that would work on Samsung's LCDs/Plasmas.

Here is a photo release of what it will/could actually look like:



Currently there are a dozen or so working apps but this app could save a bit of time say if you watching the news etc. But not too sure if I would like little pop-ups every 5min while I'm watching a movie. The one thing that it will work well with is allowing us to comment to our friends while'st watching live breaking news events/sports events etc. Similar to what Facebook did with CNN this year.

Future apps coming later this year are 2 'premium' video apps from either Netflix, Amazon and/or Blockbuster.

Samsung says that this platform will only be placed on mid to high-end TVs.

Now this kind of thing will scare big corporates like SkyTV(UK based) and DSTV(SA based) as this will offer definite options to having satellite TV. For me instead of developing this we all should just be getting a computer/TV in one or have one computer for your household but have 3/4 different LCDs/Plasmas running off it.

Either way its got to merge sometime soon.

The cellular monopoly

As more and more cellular phones are released/manufactured these days they are generally 3G enabled, this allows the phones to access the internet at pretty decent speeds and has allowed for many innovative application to be made for these phones.

Network operators are loving it because finally people are using the expensive 3G networks they put up a few years ago and their profits are rising BUT there is a thorn in their side and that is to do with VoIP (Voice over internet protocol).

This has been led by Skype which have over 400million users, I use and love it. The problem is coming into factor now whereby cellular manufacturer's are including Skype services on their latest phones which is great for us users but not so great for the network providers.

What VoIP has been doing to the fixed line networks it now can do to the cellular networks and that is allow people to basically phone each other for free at the only cost of the data transfer. Nokia is leading this with the release of the Nokia N97 but network providers in the UK are threatening not to carry the device... now this isn't very nice of them!

Skype today released an App for the iPhone, as seen here in the image. Now this app is great and all as it allows you to chat (IM) amongst your friends and even make calls between users, it how ever limits the calls to when the phone is connected to a wireless network.

This pretty much makes it null in void unless you living in a well connected city.

In the UK 3 has released a handset with Skype capabilities and T-Mobile is also coming to the party the networks that are throwing their toys are O2 and Orange.

At the moment these services seem to all be offered only when on the Wi-Fi network, lets hope the day comes quickly when its all done via the cellular network!

You can read more about it here. Or if you are too impatient to wait head along to Fring a website that has made an application that should allow you to make free calls etc by making use of Skype.