Wi-Fi set up ‘too hard', warns survey

A recent consumer survey conducted by ABI Research has found that while most owners of home networks find their equipment works reasonably well, they would be willing to upgrade if that resulted in easier troubleshooting.

The conclusion: there is an opportunity for home network equipment vendors if they can automate some of the commonest diagnostic and configuration tasks.

According to industry analyst Michael Inouye, "Although nearly 30 percent of the 1,007 respondents to the survey (which was conducted April 15-16, 2009 in the US) reported some initial difficulties in setting up their equipment, only 11 percent actually returned products as being "too hard" - a figure at the low end of the typical range of consumer electronics returns reported recently by the Wall Street Journal.

Most of the problems occurred with wireless setup, suggesting that vendors have an opportunity to make wireless network setup and security a much easier process through software and hardware solutions.

More than half of the respondents indicated that troubleshooting software would be "extremely" or "very" valuable to them. Automating simple tasks such as hardware resets would be even better.

At present the overwhelming majority of those surveyed use their home networks to provide Internet access to more than one computer; printer sharing and (in those under 35) online gaming ran distant second and third.

However that usage pattern - and the associated setup and maintenance - will soon become much more complex, as networks increasingly assume the role of distributing multimedia content around the home, says the report entitled "Feedback on Home Networking Setup and Connection Issues".

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Apple Summer Camp offers free Mac workshops across UK

Apple plans a series of summer camps aimed at children aged 8-12 running at Apple Retail Store locations across the UK.

"This summer, your child could make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song, put on a show for everyone, and have a blast doing it all," says Apple.

The four summer camp offerings are:

Movie Workshop: Lights. Camera. Action. Music Workshop: Ready to rock? Photo Workshop: Point. Shoot. Share. Presentation Workshop: Take the stage.

Each Apple Store will supply computers, digital cameras and digital camcorders, but children are encouraged to bring along MacBooks if they have access to them.

Campers need to turn up with a signed Summer Camp Permission Statement (PDF) and copy of their registration confirmation to attend.

Each child is limited to no more than two Apple Summer Camp sessions. Space is limited. Each free workshop lasts three hours.

Full details and how to sign up can be found at apple.com/uk/retail/summercamp.

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Lights, Camera, Action photography event comes to Apple Store, Regent Street

Monday 15 June sees the 'Lights, Camera, Action,' event come to the flagship Apple Store, Regent Street when award-winning photographer Uzair Kharawala promises tips and tricks, showing you how to use minimal equipment for lighting subjects on location.

Uzair will cover different setup and shooting scenarios and demonstrate how to use a two-light setup in a live shoot instore.

The event is free and runs between 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm.

Uzair runs SF Digital along with his wife Farzana, a successful photography business covering portraiture and weddings, while offering training courses, seminars and workshops. Uzair is also behind Foto SF, a productivity tool for photographers, built on Apple’s FileMaker.

The Apple Store is located at 235 Regent Street, London, W1B 2EL, 020 7153 9000. The nearest tube station is Oxford Circus.

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Sweden's Pirate Party wants to reform copyright law, ensure citizens' rights to privacy

The Pirate Party, a party campaigning for online civil rights, has won at least one seat in the European Parliament, after obtaining 7.1 per cent of the votes in elections in Sweden.

The younger vote was key to the success: the party won the support of 24 percent of voters below the age 21, according to exit polls conducted for Swedish Television.

The result sends a clear signal to political leaders and party strategists, and today starts the race to really understand these questions in Europe, according to party leader Rick Falkvinge. The older generation has dismantled the younger generation's way of life, Falkvinge said in an interview with Swedish daily paper Aftonbladet.

The Pirate Party wants to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens' rights to privacy are respected, according to its web site.

"Not only do we think these are worthwhile goals, we also believe they are realistically achievable on a European basis. The sentiments that led to the formation of the Pirate Party in Sweden are present throughout Europe," it goes on to say.

Some key issues for the Pirate Party in the parliament will be European Union telecom laws and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is a new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated between the EU, Japan, the US and others.

The Pirate Party could end up getting a second seat in the European Parliament if a project to reform the EU institutions goes ahead. The Treaty of Lisbon, already ratified by 23 of the EU's 27 members, will increase the number of Swedish seats in the parliament from 18 to 20, and the Pirate Party stands to gain one of them.

Also, The Pirate Party now hopes to take advantage of this victory and also get into the Swedish Parliament, for which elections will be held next year.

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Google releases buggy Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux

The Google team yesterday announced the release of Mac OS X and Linux versions of its Chrome browser. But the news suggests a relatively stable beta release is still some months away.

Under the heading "Danger: Mac and Linux builds available" the Google Chromium blog warns the versions available are not for the faint-hearted.

"In order to get more feedback from developers, we have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux, but whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software."

"How incomplete? So incomplete that, among other things, you won't yet be able to view YouTube videos, change your privacy settings, set your default search provider, or even print."

"Meanwhile, we'll get back to trying to get Google Chrome on these platforms stable enough for a beta release as soon as possible!"

The Mac version is a 11.3MB download, while the Linux version weighs in at 12.1MB. Google maintains three distinct channels for Chrome: developer, beta, and stable.

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WSJ: Steve Jobs returning to work this month

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on track to return from medical leave this month, and there is even speculation that he may be present at the company's annual software developers' conference next week at San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Jobs's recovery is "coming along" and he is set to return to work, as planned, sometime this month. Some Apple directors have received weekly updates from Jobs's doctors, the report states.

Jobs, who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer, took leave in January citing health problems. In an earlier letter to the Apple community, Jobs said he had been diagnosed with a hormone imbalance which caused him to lose weight.

Apple was not immediately available for comment on the report.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference starts in San Francisco on Monday. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, is set to deliver the keynote.

Jobs unveiled Apple's 3G iPhone at this annual event in June last year.

Jobs has played a pivotal role at Apple, leading its foray into digital players like the iPod and the iPhone. This has made his health an issue of concern for investors as well as the company's customers.

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Apple hits top spot in UK/European education sectors

Apple leads the way in education, emerging as the foremost supplier for schools and colleges in the UK and Europe according to the latest report from Gartner Research, a leading information technology research and advisory company.

Distorted-Loop.com reports Gartner's findings that Apple is the number one computer manufacturer in the Western Europe education market for Q1 2009 with a 26.4 per cent of market share.

In the UK, that figure rises to 27.3 per cent of the market share.

In August 2008, Gartner determined Apple’s European market share was 19.2 per cent, and 17.3 per cent in the UK, so the latest market share increases appear significant especially considering the current economic downturn.

In related news, last week, Apple launched the annual Back to School promo with a chance to save up to 145 on the cost of an iPod when buying a qualifying Mac and a qualifying iPod at the same time up until 8 September 2009.

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