The average laptop is stuffed full of data worth more than half a millon quid.
Well, that’s the headline grabbing claim made Symantec, who asked laptop users across Europe, Middle-East and Africa the value of the contents of their machines.
We’re not sure if anyone’s actually checking the accuracy of their estimates, but 78 per cent stated that the data on their device is of “substantial value” in terms of “intellectual property or commercially sensitive information”, with users slapping an average estimate of its worth around the £550,000 mark ($974,000, €804,000).
Some respondents, perhaps getting carried away with their self worth, declared that the data on their mobile device was worth as much as £5 million.
Despite the self-proclaimed monster value of their laptop’s content, it seems that only 42 per cent of companies automatically back-up employees email on laptops. The majority (45 per cent) leave the back-up duties in the hands of their employees, the crazy, reckless fools.
According to the study – taken from 1,700 quantitative interviews with general employees and IT managers – over three quarters of respondents (80 per cent) laboured under the misconception that their employer had a safe copy of all the emails on their PC.
“It’s alarming that executives have mobile devices containing data of such financial value and that very little is being done to protect the information on them. The research shows that only a few organisations have measures in place to retrieve this information if their laptop is lost or stolen, which is very worrying,” said Lindsey Armstrong, senior vice president EMEA at Symantec.
Of course, one should always look closely at who’s asking the questions when sensational studies are published, and in this case it’s web security firm, Symantec – who just happen to offer, “solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security, availability, and integrity of their information.”
But even without Symantec’s hyperbolic headline, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that you should back up the contents of your laptop and your email regularly – and archive them separately.
After all, we reckon the pictures from the Christmas office party must be worth £10 million at least. Possibly.
We raved about the auto-everything Fujifilm F10, so when we heard that they were producing an updated version of the camera offering more manual controls, we were happy to dust off the chequebook and place an order.
We remain impressed with the results, with the high ISO rating letting us capture natural-looking images where other cameras would be reaching for the flash or crumbling into a noisy mess.
With no new dedicated controls to control aperture and shutter settings, exposures had to be adjusted through a rather clunky interface that involved doubling up the main four-way controller and central MENU/OK buttons – not always without confusion.
For folks seeking a simple, all round point and shoot camera, the F10 remains our first choice, but for photographers keen to take advantage of Fuji’s outstanding low light abilities with the ability to control exposure manually, the F11 is well worth the extra £30 or so.
Shutter speed 3 – 1/2000 th sec
In a significant new development, Channel 4 will be allowing their viewers to watch their new comedy program, ‘The IT Crowd’ online and on-demand in advance of their TV broadcast.
The online debut is a first for a terrestrial broadcaster in the UK and apes a similar strategy employed by US network NBC, which launched the US version of The Office online last year.
Channel 4 are saying that this is the first time that they’ve premiered a full episode of a new series, adding that they find it “particularly exciting ” to be airing such a “high profile and apposite programme.”
The program has already received substantial online coverage already with sites like MSN, Yahoo! and Wanadoo running features, and Channel 4 are hoping that the coverage will help in pull in viewers.
News has broken that two men in the UK have been found liable for file sharing their music. The first ruling of its kind in the UK.
Having been found liable, the two are now exposed to the BPI’s legal fees. Given the City law firms the BPI use, where it’s not unusual to pay £200/hours for their services, it’s going to be an expensive business. BPI have stated that “Total costs are estimated at £13,500 and damages are expected to take the bill even higher.”
Despite being billed as the “Killer-Sound Phone” by makers Pantech & Curitel, we’re happy to report that the PT-L1900 doesn’t emit a murderous noise beam, but is in fact a top notch music phone.
Back to the phone, the mid-size device (102X48X25.7mm) is dominated by a large, two inch, 240X320 pixels (QVGA), 262k colour TFT LCD display screen, with a slide out keyboard for phone functions.
The makers claim up to 190 hours of standby time and up to 3½ hours of talk time.
It was with great disappointment and a heavy heart that we heard that Google had compromised their search results in China, excluding results the Chinese government didn’t find acceptable. In effect becoming the government’s censor.
It’s not that we think that people will stop searching on Google, it’s just that they won’t trust Google implicitly any more
For emotionally insecure types needing the reassuring sparkle of ostentatious bling around their neck, the new gold-plated deluxe MP3 player from Jens of Sweden should be a Godsend.
The player can also display pictures and text documents transferred over its USB port.
Perhaps mindful of the torrent of complaints that met Apple’s super scratchy Nano player, Nylander added, “The display is sharp and the player is both smaller and more resistant to scratches or blows than hard disk-based players.”
MobiBlu’s soon-to-be-released DAH-1900 MP3 Player (256mb/512mb/1gb) claims to have the longest battery life of any MP3 player in the entire known universe.
The display can be used to stream song lyrics for pub-like solo singalongs, courtesy of an editable Auto Lyric system.
For nippy transfer of files from a PC, the DAH-1900 offers a High-Speed USB 2.0 interface at up to 40 Mbps transmission speed.
Available colours
Panasonic has unveiled its new ultra-zoom prosumer digital camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7.
Inherited from Panasonic’s high end Lumix LX1 compact is a new ‘joystick’ control affording fast, easy access to settings such as ISO, image size & quality and white balance.
Like the LX1, the camera also offers a vast array of exposure options, including Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and fully manual, backed up by an exhaustive set of ‘scene’ options covering the useful (‘sports’) to the bizarre (‘soft skin’).
Specifications:
Opera Software have announced the worldwide release of 
As a result of the compression technology, users can surf the Web faster – and those paying for their data traffic can dramatically reduce their bandwidth costs.
“With Opera Mini most people can start surfing the Web with the mobile phone they have today,” purred Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.
Opera Mini can be freely downloaded by pointing your phone’s WAP browser in the direction of