Let’s face it; technology isn’t a sexy industry. To remedy that, technology companies have been throwing pink at all of their products. Legally Blonde’s Ellie has been blamed for starting a pink tech renaissance after sporting a pink Gateway 450 Notebook in the film. But whether or not Hollywood is to blame, pink tech is still hitting the shops. Earlier this month, Sony launched another pink product: the Sony VAIO notebook (as reviewed by Pocket Link) is more pink than pink.
But there’s only so much splashing pink around can do. And some lady geeks are getting their tech-knickers in a twist. LadyGeek founder, Belinda Parmar recently asked, “why do technology companies think that pinking up and dumbing down their marketing is the way to get professional, well educated women to part with their cash?

“PC World is telling me my world is pink (it has not been pink since I was seven)”, she continues, “And I need a new laptop to match my outfit (it would never even occur to me to match my outfit with my technology). Samsung is asking me, “What Colour is my Life?” (hello?) and Dell is telling me that technology is like candy (do me a favour).”

But not all women are offended; blogger, Theodora, says, “I have to say I don’t completely agree with women who get all annoyed with girlie looking computers and gadgets and see it as degrading. If I’m buying a laptop, I expect it to boot up fairly quickly, have a wireless card, decent screen size, good sound, good picture quality, enough memory for my photos and the occasional cheeky Glee or Big Bang Theory episode and powerful enough processor and RAM so I don’t want to shoot my brains out whilst waiting for Photoshop to load. Now if I can get all this and a nice looking albeit NOT PINK laptop with a stylish bag that can double up as a hand bag, well let’s just say the feminist in me won’t be particularly offended.”

But no longer to women have to battle over feminist ideals and pink technology. Pink isn’t women’s only fashionable alternative to grey hunks of metal and Atom chips. Fortunately, there’s been an underground surge of fashion designers and designer technology hitting the scene.

The ‘CREATE’ collection by Jason Wu has been hailed as the “UK’s first fashion camera”. Launched at Graduate Fashion Week this year, the 27-year-old fashion designer, Jason Wu, recently came under the spotlight for designing Michelle Obama’s inauguration ball gown. Now, he’s joined General Imaging to launch a range of ‘fashion cameras’. With a leather body and case, this camera is designed to look as good as it performs.

Nokia’s novero has also launched Bluetooth sets to look more like jewellery. More than £100,000 each, these luxe headsets aim to make technology more beautiful and fashionable. (see picture, left, ‘Stripes’ is molded from contemporary, black silicone and hatched with bright shafts of traditional, brushed gold. It’s like a technology choker).

According to Financial Express, statistics show that there is a surge in the percentage of women using trendy technology like internet, computer, mobile phones, PDAs and other consumer devices. A large demographic, nearly 70% women in the west, use the internet as the primary source of information for family activities, recipes, health, news, and entertainment listings. For a majority of women, internet highly influences their purchasing decisions. A good half of women use it for social networking and to keep in touch with family and friends when away. (Source: The Centre for Women’s Business Research).

Can fashion designers make technology more, um, fashionable? Will gadgets become the new must-have fashion accessory? Tell Witch Tech what you think.

A recent survey claims 94 per cent of summer holidaymakers will be logging onto the web while abroad this year – double the number of people doing so two years ago. Websites like WiFi holidays even offer the opportunity to search holiday accommodation by internet access. But as much as I’m a tech-lover, being online and on holiday doesn’t fit my concept of ‘getting away from it all’.

Rob Webber, Broadband Expert’s commercial director, says:  “The growth in popularity of smartphones has made it much easier and more convenient for more consumers to get online while abroad.  Couple this with the pull of social media networking, and it seems us Brits are keen to stay connected to the Internet even while taking a well-deserved break.”

Webber concludes, “The fact that just six per cent of people say they wouldn’t get online shows that Brits can’t bear to be away from sites like Facebook, Twitter, news sites and email; which have become part of the daily routine for so many of us.”

But going on holiday is not part of our daily routine. It’s not every day I get to lie on a beach so why should I transfer my daily routine to the beach? For a start, mobile phones and laptops are not beach-proof. All that sand and salt water and sure to clog up your qwerty keyboard and damage your iPhone touch screen before you’ve even managed to accept a call or write a text.

Aside from the impracticalities of using gadgets on the beach, it’s easy to see why some reach for their Crackberry alongside a poolside cocktail. A survey by AlphaRooms.com in the UK showed that 80 per cent of Britons worried about their work while on holiday, while three-quarters made or received a work telephone call while away. AlphaRooms.com is now calling for Blackberries to be banned from the beach and for a return to holidays being an escape from work pressures.

While logging in on holiday keeps work-stressed employees connected with work (and some of the worries at bay), for some, accessing the internet abroad is not a bad thing at all. In fact, it’s a practical resource. “On my holiday last year, I used the internet to look up sun-stroke remedies after my wife’s “little wanders” in the midday heat,” says musician and software developer, @tvcruelty. “It’s important to check to make sure it’s raining in the UK too”, he adds.

“In my line of work, if I did not have a internet connection; my day would stop. And with free internet around the world, in pubs and restaurants, it makes my life much easier,” says games journalist, Ricky Stone (@garyth3duck).

“Having internet access abroad is important because of the ability to share pictures with loved ones and family members still at home. And with Skype, and other similar services, it’s even easier for loved ones to stay in touch,” he says.

Even if you want to go gadget-free on holiday, it might be harder to remain offline in the future. A hotel is trialing using iPhones and Blackberrys as hotel keys. Yet, while I sometimes imagine I’m on a beach while sat at my desk, I don’t want to take my desk with me. Sorry little laptop, there’s no room in my suitcase or my beach bag for you this year. Too many shoes.

Is being able to access the web while on holiday important to you? Let Witch Tech know. Drop us an email.

Main image used via Flickr Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of RubyBlossom

Is the frock a 3D-step too far?

 You need 3D glasses to participate in any form of media these days. Next week, tabloid newspaper, The Sun, will publish a 3D issue (as reported in The Guardian), every new film release is in 3D, there’s 3D TVs, 3D adverts, heck, you can even get 3D scratchcards. By 2012, it is predicted that half of all games will by in 3D. Will all this in mind, it’s useful to know where to buy 3D glasses and even how to make them in case an impromptu 3D media moment happens upon you.

How to make 3D glasses:

 

Test them out:

Film your own 3D:

Where to buy:

If you’d rather buy some stylish 3D glasses thanmake them (and avoid the freebie cardboard pairs), Look 3D is a new website dedicated to bringing style to 3D. While these are intended for ‘home 3D’ they are polarised unlike, for example, Samsung’s active shutter technology 3D glasses. Check the tech before buying these for your new 3D tellybox.

According to recent research, it’s not just my family that has upturned traditional roles. Research conducted by Tesco claims women are better at DIY than men with the main reason for women taking up tools is that they are fed up of waiting for their other halves to fix things. Tesco found nearly two-in-three women are now shopping for DIY items – three times as many as a decade ago. To read full article published, visit Running in Heels. Or, scroll down for some DIY inspiration from online fix-it manual, iFixit; women’s how-to expert, Barbara K on how to put up a shelf and Instructables’ How to Make a String Pendant Lamp.

According to Production Weekly, Zooey Deschanel is in talks to play the world’s first female computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, in “Enchantress Of Numbers”, to be directed by Bruce Beresford and released next year.

Born in 1815, Augusta Ada Byron – now known as Ada Lovelace – wrote the world’s first computer programme. She has become a figurehead, representing the need to recognise inspiring women’s achievements in tech and science.

Do you think Zooey is the obvious choice to play history’s first girl-geek? Let Witch Tech know who you would cast?

Meanwhile, the Mix Me In iPhone app by Fried Green Apps has reached the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section of Apple’s App Store. Musical technology has reached every corner of the gaming market.

But, as we’re busy being Guitar Heroes, Elton John on the DS piano, in the Beatles’ rock band and a DJ for Jay-Z, has play-along music gaming reached a dead end?

For the full article, please visit Dork Adore.

]]> http://www.jennyleewilliams.com/witchtech/index.php/2010/03/musings-is-guitar-hero-ruining-creativity/feed/ 0 http://www.jennyleewilliams.com/witchtech/index.php/2009/12/campaign-launches-to-protect-right-to-link/ http://www.jennyleewilliams.com/witchtech/index.php/2009/12/campaign-launches-to-protect-right-to-link/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:26:34 +0000 Jenny Williams http://www.jennyleewilliams.com/witchtech/?p=975 The Right2Link campaign launches today in response to questions from the government and media organisations about the freedom to link, share and reference content on the World Wide Web.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, as well as other online news portals act as link aggregators, identifying links that are of interest to be read and passed on. Linking to this content – and referencing it with a headline, short quote or summary with attribution – is standard practice for users of the Internet. Email and social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn are often used to share links.

This has recently come into question as heads of large media corporations, among them Rupert Murdoch of News Corp and Gavin O’Reilly of Independent News & Media, have accused search engines and link aggregators of stealing content. They have ventured to suggest that publishing headlines and short excerpts, widely accepted as permissible under the law, should be made illegal. The Government’s new Digital Economy Bill is also cited by the campaign as a potential threat to information sharing freedoms.

One solution to media owners’ concerns is to establish a method of obtaining permission to use links. While this would protect media content being given away for free via the internet, it would stifle the current freedom to link to and share information freely.

Currently, getting the latest scoop is as easy as linking out to a national broadsheet’s website from your blog. We must not forget that newspapers are vital to providing the influx of information that we are so desperate to protect. Journalists need paying, after all.

Clearly the problem of supporting journalists financially to report the news and protecting the free flow of information from pay-walls still remains unsolved. But while online copyright needs to be maintained, the solution to financial issues shouldn’t come at the cost of the freedom to create, circulate and follow links to online content.

Meningitis, a brain tumour, the early signs of cardiac arrest and an over-active thyroid - are just a selection of the illnesses I have self-diagnosed myself with via the internet. It turned out I had a headache, caffeine withdrawal, lack of fitness and too many late nights to blame; not deadly diseases. Playing match-the-symptoms online is a dangerous game. But with the increase of health-related searches on Google – and even the introduction of web-based diagnosis websites – we may all be doomed to contract a new condition: cyberchondria.

Technological advances and an increased availability of information have resulted in us taking our fate into our own hands. There’s even an iPhone appfor it. STAR Analytical Services are developing software that allows patients to cough into their iPhones to tell them if they have a cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases by the sound of their cough.

With so many health forums and websites online – as well as technology gimmicks – the more you search the internet for your aches and pains, the more you think you have Lyme disease rather than a dose of flu. Searching for health conditions online has now created a recognised online health condition: ‘cyberchondria’. As anxiety over health-related searches reaches pandemic heights, is self-diagnosis ever useful?

Last year, Microsoft researchers Eric Horvitz and Ryen White proved the increase of health-related search anxiety in a report, titled, Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search. 515 Microsoft employees as well as web-tracking thousands of web-users (with their permission) were surveyed. The results found that around 2 percent of all Windows Live searches were health-related. Out of 250,000 users, one third ‘escalated’ their original Web query in a subsequent search to a more serious condition.

The issue is something doctors are increasingly aware of; even more so forfuture doctors as children of the internet-revolution. “The internet is full of medical information, from lay-person’s opinion to NHS guidance for medical professionals. It has the potential to be both extremely useful and extremely dangerous,” says 22-year-old Oxford University student doctor, Rebecca Williams, “It depends on the type of information patients use to obtain information and how they use it.

“Any single symptom may be caused by hundreds of underlying conditions,” continues Rebecca, “A patient searching for such a symptom online may be faced with a long list of possible causes. A doctor is able to use their clinical knowledge and experience, from years of medical training and practice, to deduce what is more or less likely in a particular patient. However, a patient faced with such a list cannot sieve through and rule out unlikely or irrelevant diagnoses. They may be left anxious and unsure as to what is causing their symptom.”

And this anxiety is known has been coined ‘cyberchondria’. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines ‘cyberchondria’ as “a hypochondriac who imagines that he or she has a particular disease based on medical information gleaned from the Internet”. Apparently, former American Gladiator Jonathan Byrnesays he struggles with serious cyberchondria and has even considered professional psychiatric treatment for it. But, anxiety aside, is the internet enabling patients to be more informed about potential illnesses – and even recognise an incorrect diagnosis?

Lindsey Middlemiss was wrongly diagnosed by her local GP, “I found a list of fibromyalgia symptoms on a US site and had almost every one,” says Lindsey to the Telegraph, “The more I looked into it, the more it fitted. I moved house and got a new GP, marched in and said, ‘I think this is what I have’, and they agreed.”

So even if you do visit your GP, it’s likely with your new found knowledge via the internet that you might disagree or even influence their diagnosis. After all, it’s only one person’s opinion and the internet’s second opinion is surely much worthier, covering a greater collective experience. Right?

“Having the resources available to research symptoms may give the patient a greater feeling of autonomy and control,” adds Rebecca, “People with no medical knowledge can research symptoms and conditions, whereas before they would be at the ‘mercy’ of a doctor’s medical opinion.”

And for some people, in some situations, this is vital. As Planet Cancer blogger Heidi Adams says of cancer suffers, “No one believed you, but then it was cancer. So, in a way, cyberchondria is a protective mechanism to keep us from getting hit by that truck again.”

Health organisations are now using the internet to diagnose and manage a potential pandemic. Aside from NHS Direct, the online resource for simple diagnosis, the rise of swine flu has resulted in the launching of a website to diagnose symptoms. It has actively encouraged us not to go to our GP and spread flu about the waiting room but stay at home, call a number or check online – and Tamiflu is then prescribed remotely. Indeed, as quoted on DirectGov’s website, ‘the National Pandemic Flu Service is a new online service that will assess your symptoms. If required, it will provide an authorisation number that can be used to collect antiviral medication from a local collection point’.

But it’s clear that self-diagnosis is not to be solely relied upon. Rebecca concludes, adding, “Diagnosis is not simply a case of matching symptoms to a disease. It is complex and involves an understanding of symptoms as well as the general health of the patient.

“It is important to remember that a doctor’s job is not only to diagnose and treat diseases; it is to educate patients about their health and any conditions they may have, to address worries and concerns – which may not always be medical – and to build a relationship with their patients to gain a better understanding of them.”

A quick search online for a cure for ‘cyberchondria’ and the internet collective suggests: stop consulting the Web and visit a doctor. Perhaps next time I’m tempted to consult Dr. Google, I’ll just make a trip to the humble docs and let them play spot-the-symptoms like they’re trained to do. Ignorance is bliss, after-all. That’s it; I’m turning the computer off. Now where’s that book? Ah yes, ‘The Complete Manual of Things That Might Kill You’.

The question, ‘Does my bum look big in this’, is no longer saved for your best mate or boyfriend in the shop fitting room. Shopping for the perfect derriere-enhancing outfit can now be a collaborative effort between millions of strangers with the rise of social shopping networks.

Online shopping isn’t a new venture; sites like Net-A-Porter and ASOS are institutions of the online shopping scene. What is relatively new, however, is shopping via social networks. Moving beyond individual retailer sites, social networking drives word-of-mouth sales, relying upon network peers rather than sales types to influence purchases and offering the opportunity to share best buys, wish lists and style choices.

You can’t blame marketing types for harnessing the social networking potential. As retail store hits have gone down, retail site referrals from Facebook and Twitter hits have gone up. Rumour even had it earlier this year that Twitter might start offering discounts and retail opportunities in the near future.  And recent research has shown that brands can increase popularity by doing so. According to Webtrends, 19% of social media users said they would regard brands more highly if they interacted with them on a social media site and, of those who have already interacted with a brand in this way, 74% said their approval of the brand increased.

Forgetting the positives for brands, whether online platforms can compete with the real experience of shopping that we know and love has been a question on a lot of lips since social shopping networks popped up.

“Some people can argue that nothing can compare to a Saturday afternoon shopping spree with your girlfriends and in some aspects I agree,” says social shopping network, OSOYOU.com, editor, Jess Markwood, “But what we’re saying here is that an actual shopping trip and shopping online can sit hand-in-hand.”

As Jess explains, social shopping networks are making the conventional shopping experience a little easier and even more fun. “At OSOYOU we offer not only an opportunity to shop most of the High Street online all in one place, but also a pre-shopping destination, where you can research your purchases before your you leave, creating a shopping list that you can print out and take with you,” Jess adds.

Described as “part social-networking club, part pop-culture lab”, Style Hive – another social shopping network – is a way of connecting stylish types who can swap fashion hints and tips and connect with retailers. Its format is similar to Twitter, allowing you to ‘follow’ members and the result is an encapsulation of the culture of shopping.

Shoppers no longer have to rely upon glossy magazines for the latest fashion trends, they’re using their internet peers to make style and price-savvy choices – and even dictate trends. Described as a Digg for shoppers, Iliketotallyloveit is a social network that allows members to add and vote on products, directly influencing trends and sales.

But more than creating profiles and sharing information, hints and tips, other sites, like MyItThings ensures members are part of their own shopping experience in the creation of a user-generated magazine. This is made up of reviews of favourite products, books, films or music, all by the members of the network.

Other online shopping sites have also realised the benefits of building online communities for both individual members and brands. ASOS has developed ASOS Life, an online community, which aims to capture some of the feeling of real-life in-store shopping. Very cleverly, they’ve found new ways to create hype around new products; last week they offered shoppers the chance to get a free limited edition Giles Deacon scarf by visiting the virtual Nibbles Boutique on ASOS. The experience even offers a virtual queue – unmistakably better than the real-life experience.

ASOS Life community manager, Ilana Fox, believes that social shopping networks offer more than bargains. “A lot of our customers are of the age where they don’t deal via email anymore, they’re a lot more open and transparent about the way they communicate, so we also have to be as a company,” she told nma.com this month.

“I think shopping online should be a social experience,” she continued, “Although you can see the clothes in catwalk videos, you can’t touch them. The next best thing is talking to other people and asking what they think. You can send someone an email with a link, but if you don’t get a reply for a couple of hours you might not buy it. So it’s good to have other people there to give you feedback.”

With ASOS Life enjoying an increase of active users by 40% a month, you can’t argue that shoppers aren’t finding the experience of social shopping networks at the very least useful.

A new website that launched last week has also gone a step further in trying to create a virtual shopping experience. Gemsta chief executive, Richard Laing, said the site aims to, “bring the power of the brand to internet,” in a space that is, “unlimited by real world constraints.” The site offers a ‘shopping portal’ and aims to simulate the shopping experience online using photo-realistic images of malls, plazas and shop brands that can be explored virtually (unusually diverting from photo-realism through the additional use of cartoon characters, G-Bees). Gemsta has given shopping a whole new dimension.

While it’s easy to be skeptical about the careful arrangement of social shopping networks and virtual shopping experiences (and imagine corporate middle men cashing in on increased sales from an online communities), it’s also easy to realise the appeal of social shopping networks in their ability to discover bargains, new trends and experience shopping in a whole new way. Building upon online shopping sites’ success, social shopping networks are making online shopping more sociable, fun and a lot more like the real experience. Hand-in-hand, the good old fashioned High Street and online social shopping networks offer the best of both shopping experiences.

Published on Running in Heels.co.uk, November 2009.