Author: Toby Leftly

We are not amused. The royal family now has a Flickr account to add to their Twitter account and YouTube channel. While you may think the shared photos might be boring, portrait shots of the Queen and her kin, but actually the gallery contains some fascinating glimpses into the history of the royals. With around 30 sets ranging from collections of shots of each of the royals, there are a few gems hidden in there too. A set titled ‘Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Early British Photography’ contains shots of Victoria and Albert from 1878. Unfortunately, comments are disabled (boo!) but this is probably…

Research In Motion is having a pretty good week. Apple tried to drag them into Antennagate but they fought back, and now some more details of Blackberry 6, the upcoming operating system update for RIM’s flagship product. Blackberry 6 features a new user interface, new social networking features and finally a WebKit browser. RIM might be confident in their antenna technologies, but they know Apple has the mobile multimedia market cornered. Apple sets the standard for audio and video on smartphones, and this is an area where Blackberry has traditionally been weak. Users will be able to browse…

Twitter has always had problems keeping its service up. Although twitter only deals with tiny amounts of information, the number of constant reoccurring requests, particularly by third party clients via Twitter’s API. The Fail Whale sees way more action than he should these days, but Twitter has a plan to fix the problem once and for all. A new data center in Salt Lake City will power Twitter’s unique needs, and with more data centers planned for the next 24 months, it’s possible the whale will disappear to the depths, never to be seen again. Apparently, there are over 300,000 people signing up for…

Yes, we’ve all read the iPhone theft/loss stories where the owner happily retrieves their lost phone, but I couldn’t resist posting this story about a thief who is not only ignorant about technology but also extremely unlucky. Horatio Toure is a thief who doesn’t know about technology. If he did, he wouldn’t have tried to steal an iPhone, because he would know that the chances of the user being able to locate their phone using Find My iPhone are pretty high. Still, throwing caution and intelligence to the wind, Toure jumped on his bicycle, rode up to a woman in the South of Market neighborhood in San…

I’ve written about Windows Phone 7 a few times, usually with some level of surprise at how much I’m looking forward to seeing the device in action and how good it looks. But the KIN has thrown that into doubt for a lot of people. How can we trust Microsoft after a disaster as massive and obvious as KIN? Well, Microsoft has a cunning plan, a devious plan to ensure that more people get a Windows Phone 7 .. um.. phone. They’re giving every single employee a phone at launch. With 88,000 employees this is no small task. Like Apple with the iPhone launch, Microsoft knows that putting phones in their employees’…

In a striking move of almost unparalleled generosity, Apple has donated the source code for its MacPaint application to the Computer History Museum. The MacPaint application that debuted in 1984 and shipped for free with the first Mac computer is now open for all to see. MacPaint, stunningly advanced and powerful in its time is now entirely defunct, most likely not having been used for at least 20 years by anyone other than true lifelong nerds. The code, spanning just over 17,000 lines of code in 36 files was written in assembler language for the 68000 processor, which is currently only used in the…

From the same guys who brought you the banned iPad promo video, you knew it was coming – the banned iPhone 4 antenna promo video. I’ll admit, there’s a bit of an Apple fanboy in me, but these guys are hilarious, plain and simple. This clip features all the goodies you’d expect, including an Apple guy trying to kill the signal on a competing smartphone by holding it using huge gloves, Apple execs ducking the blame and even a word from Apple’s only black employee, Darnell Johnson. Love the videos, keep up the good work guys!…

Video and the web go together like oil and water. Users want simple, accessible video on all their devices. Providers want.. well, money, lots of it, and historically they’ve been unwilling to budge. Well, the working group determined to create a consumer-friendly media network finally has a name and a logo. The name is UltraViolet, and the group, comprised of big names such as Microsoft, TimeWarner, Sony and Intel are hoping that by 2011 their product will be on computers and in living rooms around the world. The group, also known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE) is missing…

Apple’s in a bit of a spot with its antenna problem. They denied it. They released a software fix. They held a press conference where they pulled out all the stops, dragged a load of other companies into the mess and opened up their facilities to the media. All this, when all they had to do was stick an Antenn-aid on their boo boo. For $4.99, you can buy a pack of 6 colorful band-aids designed to fit perfectly across the antenna gap responsible for Apple’s bruised reputation. The website is appropriately simplistic. There is a claim that when applied to the iPhone 4 it will improve signal performance,…

Nokia, the tech world’s most successful failure, is buying its way out of the huge hole it’s in, purchasing Motorola’s wireless network unit for $1.2 billion. Nokia dominated the mobile industry in Europe in the years of dumb phones, but has never been able to break into the smartphone market, particularly in North America, where Apple, RIM and HTC dominate. Nokia hopes the move will give them greater access to the North American market, while Motorola regroups to focus more on handsets and hardware under the name Motorola Mobility. The network will be purchased by Nokia Siemens, a joint venture…