The Sorkin movie will be based on Walter Isaacson’s biography that Sony bought the rights to for over $1 million (about £626,000) just after Jobs’ death in October last year.

The book proved to be quite the hit, being Amazon’s best-selling book of 2011 and no doubt big numbers are expected of the film too.

Jobs done

Aaron Sorkin is fast becoming Hollywood’s go-to tech-movie scribbler, prompting Sony Pictures’ co-chairman Amy Pascal to gush that “no writer working in Hollywood today… is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin.”

It’s no massive surprise that Sorkin has signed on after he conceded that he was “strongly considering” agreeing to the Jobs film, inspired by his 11-year-old daughter who’s apparently quite the Apple fan-girl.

Sorkin’s new project is not to be confused with indie-Jobs biopic starring everyone’s favourite Charlie Sheen replacement Ashton Kutcher. That’s an “indie” flick with “serious acting” and “hippies”. Place your bets now on which one the Academy will favour.

Still, at least the costume designers will have an easy time of it.

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Still in its infancy, T-rays use the terahertz frequency band that is tipped to be the future of data transfer because of the amount of space available for moving around large packets of data.

Due to the sheer volume of devices latching on to lower-frequency bands, scientists have been looking to higher frequencies – the T-ray band runs from 3000GHz all the way up to 3THz – to accommodate future wireless data transmission.

Uncharted territory

At the moment, though, this area of bandwidth is completely unregulated and the technology needed to prod around at these frequencies is cumbersome and expensive.

This hasn’t stopped scientists from the Tokyo Institute of Technology testing the bandwidth and managing to demo a 3Gbps transmission at 542GHz.

Compared this to the last demo, which squeezed out 1.5Gbps back in November, big steps are being made in this area.

Interestingly, the bandwidth has the potential to support data rates of 100Gbps – considering average broadband speeds in the UK are 4.9Mbps, these speeds are almost beyond comprehension.

All of this was made possible due to a 1mm square device called a resonant tunnelling diode.

While we can only dream about these speeds in the home – the technology only works within a 10 metre range – the future of Wi-Fi is getting closer with the new standard (802.11ac) expected in 2013 and will be the first Wi-Fi standard to break the GB barrier.

Netgear has just announced a bevy of new routers for the US market that will take advantage of these speeds – namely the R6200 router, and the A6200 adapter.

No word on whether or not the devices will pipe out the 56k dial-up tone for nostalgia’s sake.

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HTC said it was going to cut down the number of handsets it produced in 2012 as it looked to save money, but after a recent ‘leak’, we’re not so sure.

The HTC Ville C is the latest phone rumoured to be appearing from the maker of the One range of handsets, and this is after we saw the Desire C officially break cover earlier this week.

The details of the handset were uncovered by a Brief Mobile source, who claimed that the Ville C will be a cheaper version of the HTC One S.

Why bother?

However a brief look through the reported specs and we’re struggling to see why HTC would even bother with the Ville C.

It’s set to pack a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch qHD display, 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, Android Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.5, 8MP camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording and a 1650mAh battery.

All sounding awfully familiar? Well it should, as the only spec which differs from the One S is the processor, which has been downgraded from the 1.5GHz dual-core chip. Oh, and we guess the name counts as a change too.

To be fair there’s no mention of Beats Audio technology, but seeing as this is including in the lower-end One V and Desire C, we can only assume it will make its way on the Ville C as well.

In short, we really hope this leak fails to follow through to an actual product, otherwise HTC has just filled a hole between the One V and One S which wasn’t even there.

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“Understanding the mobile consumer is absolutely critical for marketers, and ‘Our Mobile Planet’ puts an invaluable resource in their hands,” said Greg Stuart, Global CEO of the MMA. “Users can create custom charts that will help them to analyze smartphone consumer behaviour and support data-driven decision making.”

Originally launched at the MMA Forum in London in October of 2011, ‘Our Mobile Planet’ provides users with free access to the data from the unique smartphone research conducted across 40 markets worldwide by Google in collaboration with Ipsos MediaCT and the MMA.

So which six countries have the highest smartphone adoption? “Our Mobile Planet” reports that Australia, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all have more than 50 percent of their population on smartphones. An additional seven countries – the US, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland – now have more than 40 percent smartphone penetration.

“That the majority of these countries are in the EMEA region is exciting and confirms that mobile is making immense gains in Europe and the Middle East,” says Paul Berney, MMA CMO and Managing Director for EMEA. “These figures also point to a burgeoning global mobile movement as smartphone adoption grows exponentially worldwide, and send a strong message to marketers that they need to make mobile an indispensable part of their marketing mix.”

To find out more, visit thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplane (US) or thinkwithgoogle.co.uk/mobileplanet (UK and Global) to learn more about mobile consumer behaviour and access the latest “Our Mobile Planet” research.

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The folks behind the following 30 door hanger designs clearly did. If you’ve got the spirit there’s hardly any limit to what you can do with it. Take a look at our creative door hanger collection and hopefully you’ll walk away a bit more inspired.

Westwood Hotel

© Julien De Repentigny

Spring Campaign Doorhanger

© WonderBra

Alphabet Door Hangers

© Elaine Li

Zombie Apocalypse Door Hangers

© Timo Meyer

door hanger02

© loganmacoy

Honest Hangers

© Olly Moss

Animal Hangers

© Olly Moss

Domo 25 door hangers guerrilla

© canDsign Creative Agency

Tribal

© xmin chia

Colgadores “No molestar”

© portafolioblog.com

IBM Storage DM

© IBM

Your door is your face

© Rav-Bariach

Door Hanger Style Flier

© Suite Sole

Hotel Streym Tórshavn

© Petur Ellefsen

Door Hanger

© Srba Jovanovic Cibin

Panera Bread Door Hanger

© Kristen Palladino

Penguin Door Hanger

© Keita Kazo

Door Hanger Calendar

© Yuchen Zhang

door hanger / logo design at Best Western Plus hotel

© dj venus

Maybank – Youngstarz Account

© Karen Lim

Lincoln Cavsa Door Hanger

© El Angel Exterminador / GDL, Mexico

Door hanger 4 Unique Programs

© kenji2030

Door Hangers

© Mareena De Guzman Khawar

Door Hanger Series

© brainblasting

Save water! SWITCH Project

© Susana Blasco

Bloomingdale’s – Dubai

© reham ibrahim

Hi Neighbor Project

© Rachel Brinkman

Virtual Mentor

© Kiran Hiremath

Hotel Oceana, Santa Monica

© Dijana Marsic

Biokleen logo & branding

© Khloud Hassan

It may well be. Will anyone bar a few Google fans care?

My guess is no.

Macquarie makes several arguments for Chrome on iOS, and I reckon one of them is right and the rest are wrong. I’ll start with the right one first: a Chrome browser on iOS could reduce the amount of cash Google has to give Apple for all those Mobile Safari search queries. That’s true, but the other arguments – that Chrome did well on PC so it can do well on iOS, and that Chrome ads really shifted copies on PC so they’ll do the same on iOS, that reviews of Chrome on Android are quite positive – don’t spell Safari Killer to me.

Macquarie rightly says that Chrome on the desktop has done very well and reduced the money Google pays out to other browser makers for searches, which is significant: Firefox only lives because of Google search money. However, iOS isn’t the same as 1990s-era Windows, and when Macquarie says that “there are many parallels to the browser wars of the late 1990s” I think they’re wrong.

That was then, this is now

People jumped from Netscape to Internet Explorer (and back again) for all kinds of reasons, but the main reason Internet Explorer triumphed in the first browser war was because Microsoft stuck it into every copy of Windows. If history’s repeating, then Google is on the losing side here: it’s trying to get a foothold on somebody else’s OS, an OS that already ships with a perfectly good browser.

Even if you can get iOS users to download the app, it won’t work properly. As Kevin Tofel rightly says on GigaOM, with rival browsers “none of them can be set as the default browser, meaning all links in emails, texts or other apps will always open in Safari, regardless of what other browsers are installed.”

Unlike the late 1990s, we’re also dealing with relatively mature web technologies nowadays. Firms aren’t sticking new features into their browsers and letting a million “best viewed with” icons bloom; today’s battlegrounds are standards support and JavaScript performance.

I’m not convinced Google can beat Apple in the speed stakes, and the features Chrome on Android has that Safari doesn’t – bookmark and tab syncing, a combined address and search bar and easy private browsing – are hardly earth-shattering or hard to duplicate.

Browsers become popular because other browsers fall out of favour. Internet Explorer was overtaken by Firefox because Microsoft effectively stopped developing it, leaving plenty of room for a better browser; Firefox was overtaken by Chrome because it was getting slow and old while Chrome was blisteringly fast. For Chrome to do well on iOS it really needs Apple to really mess up Safari. How likely is that?

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The Windows 8 Family Safety toolset will send weekly usage reports about the sites that have been visited, and will allow parents to block specific websites and apps, set time limits for usage, lock search engines into strict SafeSearch, and track Windows Store purchases.

All of this can be done through a parent’s administrator account, so the kids don’t have access to the information and tools.

The administrator is meant to set up separate accounts for each child so they can keep track of exactly who is doing what.

The reports aren’t limited to a single device, either, instead collecting information on websites visited, time spent on each website, search histories, and apps and games usage from every device a child uses his or her Windows account on.

Microsoft has some parenting advice

“Computers give children access to many positive experiences; however, parents face challenges in monitoring what their children see online, the people they meet, and the information they share,” said Phil Sohn, Microsoft’s senior program manager for family safety, in a blog post.

“Parenting techniques like this are important, but they may be difficult to employ if your household has multiple PCs or if your kids use laptops and tablets. And glancing over a teenager’s shoulder can be awkward for both parents and kids,” he continued.

Sohn said the purpose of using individual Windows accounts for each family member isn’t solely to monitor what they’re doing online.

“It is also a great way for each family member to maintain their own unique online identity while still sharing a single PC,” he said.

He believes that the simplicity of the new Windows 8 Family Safety tools will cause more parents to readily use them.

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The video introducing Project Glass to the world showed notifications and other contextual information hovering directly in wearers’ sight lines, but it seems the reality will be slightly less exciting.

Instead of taking up a wearer’s entire field of view, Project Glass will display information “about where the edge of an umbrella might be,” a Google spokesperson said.

You likely won’t want to wear Project Glass in the rain, though.

Augmented reality

The color graphics shown in the original video may eventually be replaced by a far simpler display, although “it’s still too early to know what the functions and UI will be,” the spokesperson continued.

The spokesperson added that it’s the “simple interactions that are making people the most excited” among those who have tried Project Glasses for themselves.

A more simple design could make Project Glass safer for pedestrians and drivers and easier to use.

Project Glass’s initial design may be less futuristic than was initially expected, but if the facewear catches on then anything is possible for the future.

But what do they look like?

Oakley CEO Colin Baden previously said that his company has been working on augmented reality glasses since 1997, and he believes that style is one of the most important factors of any wearable technology.

To that end, Google filed potential designs for Project Glass with the US Patent Office, providing a glimpse of what future versions could look like.

The patents show the first example of Project Glass for users who wear prescription lenses (the previous designs have all been lens-free).

Whether the proposed design appears stylish is a matter of personal taste, though it’s likely to change significantly before Project Glass becomes available.

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The converter attaches directly to the camera and increases the field of view from a 23mm (35mm in 35mm equivalent terms) to a 19mm (28mm in 35mm terms) optic.

It has been specially designed to preserve the X100 lens’ optical quality, with Fujifilm promising that it is capable of delivering comparable image quality even at f/2, the widest aperture setting available.

Manufactured in Japan, the WCL-X100 comprises of four premium glass elements in three groups, designed to keep aberration to a minimum and also including Fujinon’s unique Super EBC coating.

Upgrade

To use the lens converter, owners of X100 cameras need to update the Firmware to version 1.3.0 or later, which allows the option to be selected by the Fn or RAW button. The X100 includes options to apply image processing to shots taken with the converter to reduce image distortion, ensure balanced illumination and reduce chromatic aberration.

When using the WCL-X100, full functionality of the X100 remains, including the autofocusing speed and 10cm macro distance. Also compatible with the hybrid optical and electronic viewfinder, the converter is manufactured from the same materials, textures and colours as the X100.

The converter will be available in black and silver, while a WCL-X100 price is looking likely to be around £249 (around $400) with an August on-sale date.

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The tablets will come in at least a dozen varieties, claims the source, with more than half of those being hybrids or convertibles that combine elements of laptops and tablets, often including physical keyboards.

But all the Windows 8 tablets will have two things in common: they’ll run on a version of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, and they’ll be powered by Intel’s upcoming Clover Trail dual-core processor.

If this Windows 8 tablet rumor proves accurate then Windows 8 will be released either before or alongside the new devices in November.

That time frame is in line with current rumors regarding Windows 8′s release, which state that Microsoft’s new OS will be released commercially in the second half of this year.

“The schedule is tight,” said CNET’s source.

We got a peek at Windows 8 released in March, and TechRadar deemed it an improvement over the previous Developer Preview but there’s still work to be done on the OS.

Intel-powered Windows 8 tablets packed with features

Previous reports point to the many features Intel’s new line of Windows 8 tablets will pack, including 4G, NFC technology, lightweight designs and great battery life.

Other rumors claim that Microsoft will release as many as 30 Windows 8 tablets by the end of the year in an attempt to whittle down the iPad’s lion’s share of the tablet market.

The Windows 8 tablets will be powered by Intel’s upcoming Clover Trail Atom chip, their first dual-core Atom processor based on 32-nanometer technology.

Additionally, Intel’s follow-up to the Clover Trail will be called “Bay Trail” and will be built on superior 22-nanometer tech, according to the published report.

Intel confirmed to TechRadar in an email that Bay Trail is indeed the successor to Clover Trail and is slated to arrive in 2013.

TechRadar is currently awaiting comment from Microsoft, so check back for updates.

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