Internet

The Canadian Recording Industry Assocation has commissioned two studies from the Canadian research firms Pollara and Environics. Results (from the Environics study): Canadians aged 18 to 29 were three times more likely than the rest of the population to shoplift; 2.7 times more likely to cheat on an exam than those in other groups and 60 per cent of such Canadians are willing to download music from the Internet without paying for it, compared with 29 per cent of the general population.

Unfortunately, 51% of the Environics sample came from online surveys, which more than likely skewed the results. Also, correlation does not prove causation. Correlation is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to make causal inferences with reasonable confidence. Also necessary is an appropriate method of data collection. In this case, it is not possible to gather the sort of experimental data required to assert a causal link (this would require test subjects to shoplift and/or download music while under observation), and therefore the suggestion that the "effect of the piracy, however, does not stop at just music or movies, suggests a study from another polling firm" is completely erroneous.

Eric Bangeman of Arstechnica also notes that despite what the CRIA would have us believe, teenagers and young adults are more likely to shoplift than those outside of those age groups, period. How much more likely? Strangely enough, about three times more likely—the same figure reported in the CRIA-commissioned study. That's regardless of whether they download 300 songs per month or have never gone on the Internet.

[via Arstechnica]

Google is making a bid to build a San Francisco-wide free wifi network, according to company officials. The company today filed documents in response to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s request for information for the city wide network.

Google officials say San Francisco residents (and visitors) will enjoy a free 300 kilobits per second, always on connection anywhere in the city. As part of its proposal, the company says it will be offering wholesale access to other service providers, who will offer higher throughput connections to their customers.

Free WiFi plans are restricted only to San Francisco.

[via Om Malik]

BT has launched a combined Wi-Fi, 3G and GPRS tariff: BT Datazone. Access will be provided via 7,800 BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK and Ireland or "on the move" through a 3G or GPRS connection. The service costs £49 for 4,000 minutes Wi-Fi access via BT Openzone and the chance to download up to 75 meg of information via 3G or GPRS.

Perhaps this is the future, given the number of WiFi enabled phones about to be released. Pity it's not a flat rate.

[via The Register]

Toyota unveiled its dual-purpose navigation/entertainment unit on the Alphard — a minivan sold in Asian markets. The system allows the driver to look at the navigation while the passenger watches a DVD at the same time.

This is excellent technology. If it becomes pervasive (read: cheap enough), perhaps it could be deployed elsewhere. For example, if mobiles had this sort of technology, you could have a sort of dual-screen device, in one! This would allow you, for example, to have a variety of gadgets running at all times. Of course there's the possibility of customer confusion...

[via Autoblog]

We're pretty sure about what the Nokia 7360 and 7370 are going to be; and it was always strange that no Nokia 7380 was similarly 'released' as the last set of Nokia 7000-series phones did come as a triumvirate.

Now we have an answer! Looks pretty, and hopefully it's smaller than the Nokia 7280 was. I always liked the look of it, but was put off by it's XBOXHUGGEE!!! size.

This looks to be a non-sliding phone, but with a larger scroll wheel. Engadget seems to think that the rear of the phone is a speaker, but we're betting upon it being some fashion fabric.

[from iDNES via Engadget]

If you're looking for something to while away your time until Q1 2006, Opera, a serious alternative to both Firefox and IE Explorer has become free!

Quick review - I'm loving the mouse gestures. The look also seems - fresher, amongst other things, there are pretty animations for things like clicking checkboxes and selecting radio buttons, the default interface clears up more screen space for browsing, and the rendering is fast fast fast. (It's faster than both Firefox and IE on my system.) There have also been no rendering issues with almost all of the sites I tried.

There are also small usability improvements. The "open all tabs" button is near the top of bookmarks, the browser always remembers the last pages you were on, and the autofill wizard is friendlier.

All in all, it's worth checking out. We love opera on symbian too - but that's not becoming free. It is, however, one of the best - and we hope it stays that way. (Netfront is also a serious contender.)

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras from capturing that secret shot.

That means that someone trying for a surreptitious snapshot of, say, a product prototype or an amorous couple gets something altogether less useful--a blurry picture (or a video) of what looks like a flashlight beam, seen head on. - C|Net News

Look at how the technology works here. According to the accompanying paper, it works against both CCD and CMOS sensors, relying upon an effect known as retroreflection to detect the camera or videocamera. The effect is not visible to human eyes, except for a slight glow from the projector. Paparazzi are still safe, because there is a maximum range for this protection - currently 5 meters in this proof-of-concept prototype. So as long as you have a long enough zoom lens...

[via Gizmodo]