Posts tagged internet

Internet penetration rate stats released.

[Insert dirty joke here]

The chart shows the percentage of population with internet access. Iceland and Norway both have incredible rates of over 97% - almost the entire country is online.

The UK ranks number 14 at 84.1%, with the US number 27 at 78.3%.

Check out the full chart here at Internet World Stats.

T-rays used to transmit data at 3GB/s.

Japanese researchers have created a proof-of-principle device able to transmit data in the terahertz spectrum at record speeds of 3Gb/s. That’s around 20 times faster than 802.11n Wi-Fi used in the latest home electronics.

While the technology is likely to only work within ranges of about 10m, it could theoretically support speeds of up to 100Gb/s. 

At the heart of the team’s 1mm-square device is what is known as a resonant tunnelling diode, or RTD.

Tunnelling diodes have the unusual characteristic that the voltage across them can sometimes go down as current is increased.

RTDs are designed such that this process makes the diode “resonate”, which in the current work’s design means it sprays out waves in the terahertz band.

Internet World Stats Q1 results.

Internet World Stats has released it’s data for the first three months of 2012, showing China with a huge lead in the number of individual users.

The United Kingdom has the highest percentage of population of internet users, at 84.1%. That’s followed closely by Korea and Germany (both 82.7%), Japan (80%), with the US next at 78.3%.

The top 20 countries make up 75% of the world’s internet users.

Interesting to see Nigeria at 11th place overall, maybe because of all their internet scammers?!

First Gigabit Wi-Fi router goes in sale in May.

The Netgear R6300 runs on a Broadcom chip which allows gigabit speeds over the still unratified 802.11ac standard, using a 5GHz spectrum. That standard is theoretically three times faster than the existing 801.11n.

While the $200 router is capable of blazing speeds (and for a reasonable price), don’t expect to see a big boost using it to run your home network just yet as there’s currently no 802.11ac compatible devices or computer chips to receive the signal. Those will be available in early 2013, but until then the router will work with older (and slower) standards.

Facebook statistics updated for 2012.

Internet World Stats have released their breakdown of Facebook statistics for the year ending 31 March 2012.

It puts the world total of Facebook users at 835,525,280 - that’s 11.9% of the world population.

Check it out for yourself here.

Instagram for Android released.

Slightly OT, but I’ve been waiting for this for ages! It’s a free download, here at Google Play.

RoboBonobo project hits Kickstarter.

The project at the Bonobo Hope Great Ape Trust Sanctuary wants to see the apes given personal, internet connected keyboards they can carry around with them to better communicate with people and other apes.

As well as letting the apes communicate with humans, it is hoped the software can be developed to work the other way:

It is also useful for humans if they can just speak the sentences and have the app translate them automatically to visual lexigram sequences.

And the creepy robot pictured above? That’s the next step in the project, which would allow the apes to control a robotic ape:

Finally, we would like the bonobos to use the Bonobo Chat app to control their environment using simple lexigram commands -  to operate vending machines, open doors, watch movies and, hopefully,  to control robots.  We believe that controlling robots might be a good way for the bonobos to interact with guests and visitors outside their caged areas. They could play chase games or squirt guests with an an on board watergun.  They could operate the robot out of site by navigating using an on board camera.  

Free 4G internet service to begin in the US.

‘FreedomPop” will give users around a gigabyte of free 4G internet access per month when it launches in the US later this year. 

While it’s not quite the first to do so, it is offering five times more data than NetZero’s free offering, and will offer an interesting way to connect your iPhone:

FreedomPop will offer three mobile broadband devices at first. There will be a USB dongle for laptops, a Wi-Fi hotspot device that can connect up to 20 devices to the Web, and an iPhone case that will allow the smart phone to circumvent the user’s wireless carrier and can also charge the phone and act as a hotspot for up to eight additional devices.

Users won’t pay for the devices, but they will have to fork over a refundable deposit fee.

While it’s not clear exactly how the company will generate revenue, it is likely to come partly from advertising (pop-ups interrupting your web access for example), and by charging users who want more data or extra services.

Infographic: A day in the internet.

Some interesting stats:

• 172 million different people visit Facebook, compared to 20 million for Google+ and 17 million for Pinterest. That’s a pretty good result for Pinterest compared to G+, I had no idea it was so big. And I still don’t get it.
• 4.7 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every day.
• 98 years worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every day. (Unbelievable!)

Check out the full infographic here at MBA online.

Why QR codes won’t last.

Mashable has an interesting post up about why QR codes supposedly won’t last.

Consider a recent study by comScore, which states that only 14 million American mobile device users have have interacted with a QR code. In essence, less than 5% of the American public has scanned a QR code. So where’s the disconnect?

Inadequate technology, lack of education and a perceived dearth of value from QR codes are just three of the reasons mobile barcodes are not clicking with Americans. But it goes deeper than that.

Humans are visual animals. We have visceral reactions to images that a QR code can never evoke; what we see is directly linked to our moods, our purchasing habits and our behaviors. It makes sense, then, that a more visual alternative to QR codes would not only be preferable to consumers, but would most likely stimulate more positive responses to their presence.

The article suggests that Mobile Visual Search (MVS) will be the next big thing, where you simply point your smartphone’s camera at a logo or graphic, which then links to further information or a sales screen on your phone. It’s a much more user-friendly way to interact with with the technology, and the security procedures used by MVS mean there’s less risk of a QR code sending you to a malicious link.