Doubts have been cast over the longevity of social networking site Twitter after a report from Nielsen Online revealed that as many as 60 per cent of new twitter users stopped using the site a month after signing up. Now, in many other industries a retention rate of four out of ten might well be seen as pretty good, however in the cut throat world of social networking the fact that so many people are quitting after such a short period is very troubling. (more…)

According to USA today, Verizon wireless could be about to break AT&T’s current monopoly over the iPhone. According to the paper, the two companies are in ‘high level talks’ about a deal to provide the SmartPhone market leader to its customers. Any such deal would be a serious boon for Verizon, as it would enable them to stem the flow of subscribers rushing over to AT&T to get an iPhone as soon as their contracts expire. It also makes sense from an Apple point of view, as it would allow them access to an untapped vein of customers. (more…)

It appears, unofficially at least, that Microsoft has accepted the total lack of love for Vista exhibited by the world’s computer users. In all official communications the company is remaining fiercely loyal to its troubled Vista operating system, even halting free customer support for XP in an effort to move people on quicker. Unofficially however, the company appears to have accepted that XP is not going to die easily and could even be around into the next decade. In response to this, they have allowed computer manufacturers to continue offering XP as the OS on new systems.

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Melissa Hathaway, a strong candidate for the job of net security Czar to president Obama, has told a San Francisco technology conference that the White House should take charge of online security itself. Hathaway, who has just completed a review of cyber security for the president, has stated that the internet was not built with security in mind and has recommended the development of a comprehensive strategy to combat breaches of privacy. (more…)

Most of the time it’s hard to tell which technology stories are going to cross over into the mainstream media and become higher profile news pieces. Sometimes however, it isn’t. The current outrage surrounding the Apple baby shaker app is certainly one that would fall into the latter category. (more…)

Since you can’t use spaces in URL text, words tend to be separated by either dashes (-) or underscores (_). But does it matter which you use?

The simple answer is, yes it does, and here’s why… (more…)

Yesterday Yahoo confirmed that it will be trimming 5 percent of its workforce (675 jobs) in their third round of significant job cuts in 14 months. The company got rid of 1,000 jobs in January of 2008 and then a further 1,500 in October of the same year. The cuts however, will not be companywide. Yahoo will focus its streamlining policy on the hapless Yahoo product managers and engineers.

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Due to her fairly low profile on this side of the Atlantic British people often don’t quite realise the huge impact that talk show host, publisher and entrepreneur, Oprah Winfrey has in the USA. To put it in perspective for Brits, she fronts the highest-rated talk show in American TV history and has done for almost 25 years, she can basically decide the top ten bestsellers list through her show’s literary segment and for a long time, she was the world’s only black billionaire.

She is, to put it mildly, very popular in the US.

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Exciting news guys! Last week we finally launched our company Twitter page. From now on, me and the rest of the TCM blog team will be using the micro blogging site to keep the public updated with our first thoughts on all the breaking stories of the day before we expand on those thoughts in our official blog.

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It seems even the undisputed ruler of the Internet is not immune from a little credit-crunch related turmoil, first quarter results, published yesterday have led to the company’s first ever decline on the previous quarter, overall revenue from advertising has slipped an unprecedented three percent from the last quarter of 2008.
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It won’t come a surprise to anyone to learn that Twitter usage is rising fast, though the sheer rate of the expansion of the site’s membership is still absolutely astounding. The micro blogging site’s membership rose to 9.3 million which represents a 131% rise on February, itself a growth month.
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France is continuing with its hard line stance against Internet piracy, seeking to pass a ‘three strikes’ rule that could see illegal downloaders banned from the Internet if they persist. The proposed new law would seek to revoke the broadband service of anyone caught downloading copyrighted material three times.
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The release of the Palm Pre in the US may be as little as a month away, that’s according to sources and leaked documents that indicate that not only are Sprint employees being trained in the sale of the phone, but that the company is planning a May 17th release date. There are also indications that the company has put a ban of holidays for its employees in May which, if true, mirrors exactly what AT&T did before the release of the iPhone.
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If you’ve used Google recently you may have noticed a new feature in the search bar. As you type in a query, the Google search bar will now attempt to guess what you are looking for, not based on your previous searches as was the arrangement before but on what Google calls complex popularity algorithms.

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