During the second and third quarters of 2008, around 7.3 million Britons accessed the web via mobile phones. Generally this represents an increase of around 25% compared to just 3% for the PC metric. When you compare the two figures, mobile internet is growing around eight times as fast as traditional internet usage.

Non-surprisingly Google is the most popular site, but having only been visited by 23% of users during the period it seems that users are using an alternative form of search or possible not even searching at all. BBC is the most popular website with hits from 21% of users and Facebook follows close behind having been visited by 20% of users.

The majority of the sites visited were information sites such as news, sports, weather and e-mail, showing the medium has mainly been used for information on the move and may not yet be the e-commerce fantasy everyone is hoping for. The majority of sites are also large brand names that have direct visits as opposed to using a search tool, which cuts out a lot of smaller businesses who may have been able to compete through search rankings.

Even though the focus of mobile internet is on news and may not yet provide significant market-growth for many businesses, the figures do show that mobile internet is becoming more popular and businesses should incorporate mobile search into future marketing plans.

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The first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1, is designed for use on the internet and comes with a touch screen, a QWERTY keyboard and a trackball giving the user multiple ways to interact with the phone. This handset is due to be available within the next few days.

Comparisons to the iPhone are rife, especially with the touch screen, but the G1 offers extras such as being able to press on links or run multiple tasks at once. However, it’s the Android software – which includes Google Mail, Google Maps, GPS as well as the operating system – that is getting most people excited.

Google’s Larry Page said: “This is as good a computer as you had a few years ago in this phone. When you think about that in terms of access to the internet, being able to really use the web… that’s a tremendous opportunity.”

Like any fan video, it wouldn’t be complete without criticisms of the main rivals whilst also praising many of its advantages. Whilst it’s always entertaining to see fans come up with songs like this, I’m a bit worried about the next time a company thinks they can sneak a song – or an advertisement – out in this way. Still, history shows they don’t always get too far before being detected.

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Wednesday 10 September was touted as the day when mankind’s dabblings in science went one step too far and the whole planet was destroyed. Luckily, this hasn’t happened but a website has been made to help keep you up to date with the state of the planet.

The experiment involved firing two beams of protons along a 27km long tunnel – which has been 13 years in the making – with the aim of smashing them together really quickly to see what happened. It’s hoped that the collider will recreate similar conditions to those found just after the big bang which will help answer many of science’s unanswered questions.

Today’s run didn’t involve any actual collisions – which is the exciting/risky part – but was simply a test of the equipment.

It is hoped that the collision will create new particles in its debris which will help define the nature of physics more than ever before.

There are other possibilities – that we can discover other universes (or we could be in a parallel universe right now) or even that our universe is the only one.

There is the fear that this experiment will go horribly wrong and instead of helping understand the properties of protons and neutrons more fully, it could create a black hole that sucks up the earth and devours us all.

Stephen Hawking has, however, bet against the machine completing one of its major goals.

And, of course, there was that amazing rap video sent out by CERN. I know it’s already on this blog, but you can never get enough of it, can you?

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This is backed up by recent research that discovered that 40% of the time people spend on line is used to keep up with 20 domains.

It’ll come as no surprise that Facebook, Digg, MySpace and YouTube are a few of the most highly visited sites but the men who were being the research were shocked by how little of the internet was explored by the average user. Comparisons were made to village life – although we may have hundreds of ‘friends’ on social networking sites, we actually only keep in touch regularly with a few of those.

One of the senior fellows, Bernardo Huberman, said: “Things are starting to become intimate again. We went through this explosion, this illusion that the world is at my fingertips and I can reach anyone and everybody. But at the end of the day we notice that we actually interact with very few.”

Attention is scarce online – when once you could charge for certain information (for example, when someone was trying to organise a holiday) now that is easily accessible on the internet.

The main findings were that novelty was a key factor in the popularity of a site and another was popularity – meaning that everyone joined Facebook simply because everyone was joining Facebook.

Huberman hailed the work of Paris Hilton for being able to keep in the headlines, saying: “If I were to do something idiotic like stand on my head now on this table perhaps some of you might write about it. If I keep doing that every hour of every day of the week, most likely you won’t do it. So I have to invent new things to be on the news the way Paris Hilton is. That’s a huge talent in a sense.”

Things Paris has been in the headlines for: defending the Jonas brothers, announcing that she wants to duet with Britney Spears, getting a film about her cut down to one showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, the latest in her prison saga and for wearing a tree hugger T-shirt. Not bad for one day!

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It’s a biological fact that when a person comes in contact with their mouse, it’s only a matter of time before the palm of the hand begins to warm up and perspire. This is hardly rocket science; PC mice are just solid plastic shells, and plastic as we know isn’t really all that porous. Coupled with the fact that when we handle a PC mouse, contact between skin and shell leaves no opportunity for air to circulate and so causes the perspiration and sticky feeling that most, if not all, mouse users experience.

However, sweaty-palms may now be a thing of the past with the introduction of a USB powered palm-cooling mouse. Japanese maker Thanko has developed a mouse which draws air from the base of the mouse and blows it into the users’ palm by virtue of a built-in fan on the top of the mouse, helping to keep the palm of the hand cool. 

The optical, 5-button mouse is available for $19 but currently only in the Japanese maket, although Thanko has plans to release the mouse globally in August through their revamped online shop. Shoppers will also be able to buy other quirky Thanko products via the new online shop, such as the USB ‘ass warmer’ and USB heated slippers.

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Facial characteristics are compared with images in a database of over 100,000 people, and if the machine deems the customer to be well over 20 years old (Japan’s legal age for smoking), it will complete the sale. Fujitaka, the vending machines’ creator, has claimed that the technology is 90% accurate.

However, as Techdirt notes, there’s a reason that face-scanning technology was given up by scientists attempting to create new security measures following the September 11th attacks – it just doesn’t work! This has been demonstrated by a reporter for Sankei Sports who discovered how easily the high-tech machines could be fooled just by holding up magazines before the sensors. Judging from this, the software cannot even detect whether input is two- or three-dimensional. Understandably, this has somewhat diminished its capabilities in fulfilling the task for which it was created.

The reporter tested several types of image, including a six-inch headshot of Bruce Willis and a three-inch picture of a female celebrity in her thirties. Both trials were successful. He also attempted to purchase cigarettes using an inch-wide photograph, but this was rejected.

The system was created in response to the dubious success of the RFID readers that require the insertion of the consumer’s Taspo age-verification card. This hasn’t proven to work very well: last month, a man attached his own Taspo card to his vending machine to try to encourage consumers unwilling to use their own cards back into his custom. He also attached a note to the machine that read ‘This is a Taspo ID card exclusively for this vending machine. Minors are not supposed to use the card.’

A spokesperson for the Tobacco Institute of Japan said: “It is an act that erodes the age-verifying system and the public’s confidence in the tobacco industry.” In any case, it looks like it’s back to the drawing boards for Fujitaka. Perhaps the next models will actually be able to perceive depth and they’ll learn from these humiliating mistakes.

Maybe the next time Bruce Willis tries to purchase vending machines cigarettes in Japan, he’ll be disappointed.

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The project has been met with much amusement, with many people heading to the official website to sign up and attempt to send a message. Brain Green posted on his blog that it’s a “nerdorific idea”, a notion probably shared by quite a few people!

The tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on the shells of the snails enable the snails to receive messages when they slide past an electronic reader. The snails then physically carry the message around on their backs until they pass a second reader. When the reader and RFID pick each other up, the messages is forwarded from the snail to the reader and is sent back over the web to its destination.

This is all part of a “slow art” project which will be showcased in August at the computer graphics conference, Siggraph, in Los Angeles. The idea behind it is to encourage email users to consider the technology behind services they take for granted. Since the snails move at a rate of about 0.03mph in pretty much any direction they want to, whether there’s a sensor there or not, there’ll certainly be time in between messages to do so!

So far, only 14 messages have been successfully transmitted by the snails, with 10 being by the hard-working Austin, or Agent 002 as is painted on its shell.

The three snails have their work profiles posted on the site, which shows their status (available or carrying message), number of deliveries made and average delivery time. So far, one snail is lagging far being – Agent 003, or Muriel, hasn’t made one delivery yet.

If there isn’t already a dole system for snails, someone better get on it because Muriel will probably be signing on pretty soon.

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The revolutionary bunny has been created by the University of British Columbia inventor in order to enable people to build emotional bonds with robots, a move which will bring us a step closer to ‘accepting our robotic overlords’ according to For the Love of Geeks.

Spurred on by the loss of his pet cat, Steve recalls that “what I miss most about interacting with her is touch” and, from this, the idea of the Haptic Rabbit, or ‘bunbot’, was born. With pressure sensitivity, the robot rabbit responds through making breathing movements, soundless purring vibrations, and twitching its ears. Tests have shown that the positive emotional responses in humans from interacting with the machine are promising.

Various opinions on the roborabbit have come out, ranging from the above blogger’s ‘bunbot’ “Want” to Futurismic’s speculation that Ai Robotics may be including haptic technology in their upcoming Perfect Woman robots.

Cripes.

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With every moment that passes it seems that the lines between fashion and technology are blurring further. None more so than in the crowded Digital Audio Player market, with wearable iPod Shuffles now matching outfits and some of the most memorable brands in clothing and accessories producing tie-ins to suit the fashion conscious, music loving masses.

With this in mind (although taking it away from mainstream fashion), American company ZVUE Products has put into production a themed player, preloaded with appropriate tracks to celebrate the specific style. The so-called ZVUE Spirit is a safe bet not to break sales records out with the US however, with the chosen theme more likely to deter overseas consumers. Adorned in the ‘Stars and Stripes’ and featuring a star shaped navigation button, the players (and its makers) are not lacking in patriotism, but any doubt as to the origins of this soon to be released gem are dispelled when perusing the preloaded track list. 15 tracks of pure, unadulterated American music featuring, amongst others Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chuck Berry, Joe Walsh and Billy Ray Cyrus, are gifted within the $35.99 special offer price for this player, scheduled for release in time for July 4th.

If you find the Violent Femmes lyrics “Do you like American music? / I like American music” stuck in your head, then maybe this is the player for you. It may not be a bad idea to put this on the player in place of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Takin’ Care of Business, BTO hailing from Winnipeg, Canada after all.

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On the back of the success of Guitar Hero and similar, toy company Jada is targeting a whole new niche in the ‘wannabe rockstar’ arena – the air guitarist. The rocker will be released sometime in March at $29.99 according to rabid72 at The Rabies Blog.

The gadget lets players attach a mini-amplifier to their waist, while the included belt buckle and guitar pics allow the player to jam like real rock-gods such as Eddie Van Halen and Richie Blackmore. Simply by strumming the pic in front of the belt buckle, air guitar heroes can change the tempo of the song being played, as demonstrated at iDunzo.

New buckles and additional cartridges will follow the initial release, so that air guitarists can enjoy further axe-wielding mayhem. The game is scheduled to be launched in the United States in March, and will be licensed through Activision. But will it be a success or just another throw-away gimmick, bdwilcox on bits bytes pixels & sprites is not loving it, saying “more like Guitar Zero” whereas Seroth at Engadget commenting:

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