Yahoo! overtakes Google in satisfaction poll
Yahoo! has surpassed Google for the first time as the highest-rated search and portal site, in an annual US-based customer satisfaction survey. The University of Michigan has been tracking Google and Yahoo! in its American Customer Satisfaction Index, since 2002. Each year, Google has led the pack for e-business sites, which the ACSE defines as portals, search engines, and news and information sites. However, the latest poll put Yahoo's satisfaction score of 79, edging out Google's performance at 78. Larry Freed, president of Foresee Results, sponsor of the ACSI e-business, pointed out that Yahoo’s new lead falls within the survey's 2-point margin of error. However, he said the new results show that Yahoo! has been gaining ground on its rival, which has a five-point lead over Yahoo last year. This year's results represent an increase of 3 points, or 3.9%, for Yahoo over last year, while Google dropped 3 points, or 3.7%. Reed added that the survey's shift reflects Yahoo's success with new portal services such as its revamped webmail, rather than any sea change with search. He said that while Google still dominates searches, it has failed to successfully promote its additional features, such as a personalised iGoogle page or Google Maps enhancements. Meanwhile, Ask.com also enjoyed a 4-point increase to 75 in its satisfaction score. Though its market share for search engine traffic in the US remains small at just 3.2% compared with Google's 64.4%, (Hitwise, July 2007), its 5.6% improvement was the largest for major e-business sites this year. MSN held steady at 75, a one-point increase over last year. Its score has been either 74 or 75 for the last five years.

Ipod and MP3s are killing music
Music producers are upset that the fad for MP3s and Ipods is killing off well-made music. They say that most of the files which are being distributed represent less than 10% of the original music. Most of the data is junked during computer analysis and squeezed down until it fits through the Interweb tubes. According to Seattle Pi, a CD contains less than half the information stored to studio hard drives during recording. And when compressed by MP3 and similar formats only a minuscule fraction of the actual live event survives. Record producer Phil Ramone, who has recorded everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Rolling Stones, said it is impossible to really appreciate music in MP3 format. He said that his music played on an Ipod was painful. Speaker designer John Meyer, of Meyer Sound Labs, agrees, telling the paper that it is impossible to appreciate the music on an iPod because it forces the brain to work harder to fill in the gaps in the sound. Top acoustic boffin, Robert Sweetow, head of the University of California audiology department said that the low-fi music stimulates the brain in different ways. Different neurons are stimulated and fewer cortical neurons connected back to the limbic system, where the emotions are stored, apparently

Smart bikini takes to the catwalk
A range of 'smart' clothing has been shown off on the catwalks at the Siggraph 2007 computer graphics and interaction show. Items included a bikini made of solar panels that can charge electronic devices, collaborative underwear that lets people play interactive erotic games, and jackets with scrolling messages on the reverse. The solar-powered bikini was invented by New York University student Andrew Schneider and can charge an iPod in bright sunlight in two hours. The garment can even be worn in the sea, although it must be completely dry before the iPod is plugged in. Schneider is now working on a version for men that uses the electricity generated to run a small drinks cooler in bright sunlight. Designer Jenny Chowdhury showed off interactive underwear at the show that has game controllers built into various points. Each controller intercommunicates allowing a couple to perform various " intimate acts", something Chowdhury claims she developed to deal with "computer game widow" syndrome. "I found out about a phenomenon called gamer widowhood where men essentially abandoned their wives to play video games night and day," she said. "I wanted to create a type of video gameplay that would centre around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game." Other technologies on display included images that can be printed onto T-shirts but can only be viewed through a digital camera, and a sensor-studded leotard that can be used to choreograph dance routines.

Video networking drives 802.11n adoption
The growth of 802.11n in connected consumer entertainment devices will rapidly outpace that of other networking technologies, new research predicts. A study by ABI Research found that demand from consumers to deploy video entertainment around the home via high-speed networks will lead to 216 million 802.11n chipsets being manufactured by 2011. As consumers increasingly source video content on the internet and look towards multi-room distribution, older Wi-Fi technologies do not have the bandwidth to deliver this content, particularly over longer ranges. 802.11n, in particular 5GHz solutions using 40MHz-wide channels, will help alleviate these constraints. Competition will be fierce in the consumer electronics space, which is one of the largest growth segments for Wi-Fi chipsets. Well-established Wi-Fi semiconductor vendors, such as Broadcom and Marvell, will be competing against up and coming Wi-Fi chipset vendors concentrating on market niches, such as Metalink and Nanoradio. As laptop OEMs make 802.11n standard on high-end laptops, ABI Research believes this will have a "natural pull-through effect" on 802.11n-enabled home routers. The wider installed base of 802.11n routers and gateways, combined with increased demand for IP-delivered content on consumer electronics, will push large consumer electronics brands to integrate Wi-Fi in their devices, the study found.

Nokia issues battery warning
Batteries used in a range of Nokia handsets, from the 1100 to the latest E60, are at risk of overheating during charging. Of 300 million BL-5C batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial. for Nokia last year, 46 million belong to the dodgy batch. One hundred incidents have already been reported, but none have resulted in explosions, fire, or even a burnt finger. However, Nokia has said if your phone has a BL-5C battery you should probably keep an eye on it when charging. Or, visit Nokia's website and check your battery's serial number against a list of the dodgy ones. If it appears on the list, Nokia will provide a replacement free of charge. Which is nice. Though the risk seems minimal, and Nokia is certainly playing down any danger, it's probably worth checking.

Space hotel to welcome guests by 2012
A Barcelona-based space tourism company, formed by various professionals in the aerospace industry, gave away the first details of its planned Galactic Suite space hotel, late last week. The whole journey is likely to last 18 weeks, and the first tickets should go on sale in 2008 for around €3m, the company said. The price includes almost 18 weeks preparation and training on a Caribbean island, the journey into space and three nights' accommodation in the orbital hotel. During their stay, the space tourists will also "participate in international space experiments". The Galactic Suite Project has already contacted various scientific organisations interested in making use of the space tourists in zero gravity to obtain samples. Visitors to the hotel will orbit the earth 15 times every day and see 15 sunrises, with the hotel located at a certain angle from the equator. The company aims to develop an orbital hotel chain with modular space accommodation based on the model of a grapevine. The hotels will orbit the earth at an altitude of 450km and will welcome its first guests in 2012. Naturally, in addition to the space hotel, Galactic Suite Project is also planning a hotel complex on a Caribbean island to accommodate the tourists, as well as on the space shuttles that will transport the space hotels. According to the futuristically named, Xavier Claramunt and Marsal Gifra, directors of Galactic Suite Project, "This is the first package deal, as it includes transport from the tourist's home to the Caribbean island, the training required for journeys into orbit, the flight to the hotel and three nights' accommodation in the Galactic Suite." The project was set up in Barcelona in January 2007 by various architects, aerospace engineers and industrial engineers from Spain and the US. The founders have already made initial contact with Japanese and UAE private investors interested in investing in the project.

Rail passengers to get free on-board wi-fi
Rail passengers on the London to Scotland east coast mainline will get free wi-fi as part of National Express' £1.4bn winning bid to run the franchise. National Express will take over the rail route from GNER in mid-December this year after beating off competition for the franchise from Arriva, FirstGroup, Stagecoach and Virgin. GNER completed the £3.2m installation of wi-fi broadband connectivity on all 41 of its east coast trains last year and although the service is free for first-class passengers those in standard have to pay either £2.95 per half hour or £9.95 for a full day's use. But in addition to faster journey times National Express has also promised to extend free wi-fi to passengers in standard class as part of its seven-year contract. The on-board wi-fi uses a combination of a satellite link and mobile 3G/GPRS networks to maintain 100 per cent connectivity even when going through tunnels. A server from Swedish company Icomera on the train provides a 2MB satellite downlink, which is combined with the mobile connectivity. Wireless access points are then fitted at the end of each carriage on a train, which connect to the main on-board satellite server and can support around 40 simultaneous users in each carriage at one time. National Express said it will also build a simpler "one-stop shop" website to highlight the cheapest tickets available, introduce smartcards by 2010, provide real-time travel updates to mobile phones and allow passengers to print tickets at home or use "m-tickets" through their mobile phones.

Egypt arrests two over web 'insults to Islam'
Egyptian police have detained two Egyptian Christians for their work on the website of a Christian Arab group based in Canada, according to police sources. Named as Peter Ezzat and Adel Fawzi, the two worked for the Middle East Christian Association, which has its headquarters in Ontario. Unnamed lawyers had complained to the prosecutor general that the organisation and its website "insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammad on behalf of diaspora Copts [Egyptian Christians]", said one police source, who asked not to be named. It was not immediately clear what kind of work Ezzat and Fawzi did for the organisation which has a mission statement calling for secularism, and equality and full citizenship for Christians living in the Middle East. Headlines on the website include "Islam began alien and will revert to being alien", "Is Mohammad a messenger from God?" and "This Web site reveals the true face of Islam". Egyptian Christians, or Copts, who live abroad, especially those in North America, have tended to be more hostile toward Muslims and toward the Egyptian government than Copts living inside Egypt. An Interior Ministry representative said he had no information on the detentions. Last autumn, civil liberties group Reporters Without Borders added Egypt to its annual list of "Enemies of the Internet" - regimes the group claims restrict freedom of expression online.

New Generation Adult Sites Roundup
Online porn is usually a cutting edge industry and it is always all about the money. The industry is often first to the Internet with new features that eventually trickle down to mainstream consumer sites. The latest wave of web innovation, though, was centered squarely on consumer sites. And the porn guys have adapted many of those features to create massively successful second generation adult content sites. PornoTube was the first we came across, in mid 2006. Others, like EroShare, have followed. We also mentioned Red Light District, a virtual world, in a recent roundup post. Go2Web2 has just posted a roundup of some additional ones. Some of these have fantastic names - MegaRotic, Fantasti.cc, NippleByte, and StumblePorn, for example. Many of these sites are little more than lead generation tools for more traditional porn sites (and if you are going to visit them, put on some protection first). But it is fascinating to see the industry try anything new to get new money in. Lots of competition and lots of money drive all of this.

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