The public sector may not be cool, sexy or even well-funded for much longer, but it still serves countless essential functions, and has just been given a technology boost via an iPhone interface (that’s right – an interface, not a full app; that’s coming later in the year) which provides access to a wealth of information from local authorities, Transport Direct, NHS Choices and Jobcentre Plus.
Developed by Looking Local – an organisation set up to provide local government services through DiTV (digital interactive TV) and mobile devices – the interface, or ‘iPhone solution’, as Looking Local call it, is plugged as a money-saving solution for councils, in that it saves them from having to develop their own iPhone ‘solution’. They can simply continue uploading information and allow Looking Local to be the middleman in providing the info to local residents.
Seems sensible enough, and as 120 UK councils are already partnered with Looking Local, there’s no financial motive at work here.
Demand for IT staff rose in the last quarter, according to the latest Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) Technology Demand and Supply report. The data shows that permanent vacancies were up by 8%, and 11% for contractors, compared to the previous quarter. This isn’t in itself particularly noteworthy. After all, the report notes that advertised demand for ICT staff has been on the rise for four consecutive quarters, and any IT recruiter will back this up with reports that hiring is up once again.
But before we get too excited, recruiters and jobseekers alike should take note of the more interesting statistic from the report: the ratio between the demand and supply of ICT labour is currently standing at 1.2 potential applicants for every job. Given that it would be unusual (or impossible!) to hire a fifth of a person, that leaves us looking at a ratio whereby almost every jobseeker should have a job out there for them.
Of course, it also stands to logic that it isn’t as straightforward as this, and not all ICT workers are looking at equally as rosy prospects. Certain locations and industries are experiencing very low demand for labour, whereas others are struggling to find the right skills.
Taking the next step in world web domination, Google has launched a new image file format that the company hopes will spell the end for industry standards such as TIF, PNG, and particularly for JPEG.
Initially released in a preview version aimed at developers, Google’s WebP (pronounced “weppy”, obviously) uses ‘lossy compression’ (a common method of compressing data that discards small but unnoticeable amounts of the original information, resulting in smaller files) to reduce image file sizes by almost 40% compared to JPEG, while retaining the same level of quality (although the degree of compression is adjustable, allowing for higher quality and file size if desired).
What does this mean in the real world? Essentially, that the mind-numbing time spent waiting for massive JPEG files to download or attach to emails – as well as mucking about with zip folders full of images and file delivery clients – could be considerably reduced.
This is a tale of Eric Schmidt waking up to smell the coffee beans.
Google’s claim that the mobile platform is where the next generation of search is would be true, if they weren’t so keen to kill off the mobile data market themselves.
After their recent dealing with Verizon and an agreement on non-net neutral mobile networks, prices are bound to soar. Those fat cat telcos will make even more money while avoiding the fate of the music industry (and the Dodo, for that matter).
Take a brief look at today’s mobile data market and see how users really have to curb their enthusiasm for the mobile web in order to avoid the crippling data charges. With 4G networks just around the corner, our headline could well read ‘£4,000 per day’ in a year’s time.
Chances are that as you’re reading a technology blog, you’re at least reasonably internet savvy, as is pretty much anyone and everyone these days. Except the 9.2 million adults UK adults who have never used the internet, of course.
It pays to occasionally remember that there are still a lot of people who don’t or can’t utilise the internet to take advantage of the invaluable information, services and skills it provides (as well as some of the not-so-useful but unfortunately still life-changing elements. Damn you, Zuckerberg). This is why 18-24 October has been designated national ‘Get online’ week.
Organised by UK Online Centres – a government-backed organisation to increase internet skills – a week of around 3,000 events across the country are planned to take place at libraries and community centres to promote wider digital inclusion, essentially giving people a chance to experience the wonders of the net, possibly for the first time.
Utilise keywords within your own site to create, categorise and organise a content framework.
It is true that Google no longer holds any weighting on a website’s keywords – a direct result of abuse by webmasters in a bid to superficially increase page rank. Since this time, webmasters have shunned the meta keyword from their sites, often removing them entirely or rehashing the same basic keywords. The latter practice does you no favours; it simply bloats your site unnecessarily.
Is the fate of the meta keyword really set on a grave 'til hell freezes over? I would suggest that it doesn’t have to be that way. Websites often incorporate tags and tag clouds on their site; initially they were a vain attempt to replace the meta keyword, and Google once again slammed the door shut on their SEOness. So why did the tags (and to a lesser extent, the tag cloud) hang around?
It was never going to last. Earlier this week, Apple pulled an iPhone app from its app store after approving it only a week before. But why all the fuss over the harmless-sounding IS Drive app? Probably because it could be used to manage BitTorrent downloads, which some ruthless individuals apparently use to engage in illegal file-sharing.
Despite past refusals from Apple to approve similar apps, IS Drive (note the lack of the word ‘torrent’ in the title) appeared in the app store last week, labelled as a tool for managing downloads from image-hosting website ImageShack – a perfectly legal process. However, if so inclined, a user could adapt the app’s functions to manage illegal downloads via peer-to-peer file-sharing enabled by the BitTorrent protocol, entering the murky yet massive world of internet piracy.
Unsurprisingly, Apple weren’t impressed. Not only is this, well, illegal, but it could be argued that giving iPhone users the key to a universe of free music and film wouldn’t do iTunes any favours either.
Tabs have been around for a long time. They are nothing new. But with so many sites (blogs, ecommerce sites, web apps…) needing to show as much content and navigation as possible, they have never been so relevant.
Tabs are the perfect web page tidying up solution for organising cluttered content in a space-limited web page. Separating content into tabs keeps everything nice and compact, clutter-free and the content is always at the ready should a user need it.
In this round-up from Speckyboy Design Magazine, we have a variety of easy to use modern tabs solutions, techniques, tutorials and plugins, most of them make use of a variety of Javscript libraries (MooTools, jQuery…), but you will also find some innovative pure CSS solutions as well.
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