We all know that the Internet is progressing in huge leaps and bounds, since its initial stuttering steps in the 90′s.  But not everyone in the world is lucky enough to have Internet access. Huge swathes of Africa, for example, are still offline.  But progress to bring the Net to as many people as possible [...]

If you’re living in certain parts of the United States, then you will be very familiar with the weather phenomenon known as “hurricanes” and indeed recently, you had Hurricane Isaac ripping across your shores. Obviously, violent weather of this kind causes a tremendous amount of damage, both to infrastructure and to peoples lives in general. But have you ever taken into consideration that a hurricane could potentially bring down the Internet?

This is the time of year when students are receiving their school grades and trying to get their places in university. But for many, those attempts will end in failure with a rejection letter coming in the mail. You may get a reason for the rejection or you may not. But there are certainly some things you can do to reduce the possibility of it happening next time you apply. In short, get your online search results in order.

When I was a boy, my mother always liked to tell me that money didn’t grow on trees, but if I was a boy today, I would tell her she’s wrong and point to Steve Jobs as the proof. That man knew how to literally grow money simply by sticking a logo of an apple onto a computer and then onto retail storefronts. Apple is today the most valuable public company in the world, worth over $400 billion. That’s a lot of iPhones and iPads.

It seems to be the new trend in schools and companies all across the world – BYOD. No, it’s not a new type of online computer game but rather Bring Your Own Device. This is a scheme where money-conscious schools and companies allow students and employees to bring their own computers and devices instead of having to work with a device issued by the company. But as with everything else in life, there are clear pros and cons to the scheme.

The desire to own more and more tech gadgets means that the demand for bandwidth is as strong as ever. And one of the places where people are demanding it the most is on college / university campuses. How many of you, when deciding where to study, factored in wireless Internet access? I know some people who did. They turned down excellent university places, simply because the wireless Internet speed on campus wasn’t fast enough.

They call it “ego surfing” – when you sit down in front of the computer, go to Google (or whatever search engine you prefer), and find out what information there is about you online. I do it quite often – not out of a sense of egotism – but out of a desire to control my online presence and to make sure that I am presented in the best possible light if anyone searches for me. Along the way, I’ve discovered some interesting things.

With the advent of the Internet and technology, business travel is not the arduous slog that it may once have been. To set up your “office”, all you need is a laptop or tablet, a mouse and keyboard, a pair of headphones, and an eBook reader and Netflix membership for those downtime moments. Now you [...]

4 years is the equivalent of an entire generation when it comes to electronics and mobile phones and the Internet. What exists today in our popular culture may either have not existed or may have just been getting started up 4 years earlier. Which is why, as we celebrate and enjoy the beginning of the 2012 London Olympic Games, it’s worth taking a look back at where technology and the Internet was in previous Olympics.

If Dante was writing his Divine Comedy today, he would have added another layer of Hell to his masterpiece and it would have been called “The YouTube Comments”. Yes, if you want to see how low human nature can sink to, you only have to participate in, or just read, the comments section on a YouTube video. Some of the language there is enough to make a sailor on shore leave blush.

If you own an Android phone (2.2+) or an iPhone, and you are addicted to push notifications, then you’re in luck. The automation service, IFTTT, which we have featured quite a few times here on MakeUseOf, has partnered up with Pushover to give you your push notification fix. And to promote their partnership, Pushover is selling their app at the discounted price of 99 cents which is an absolute bargain, and a good investment.

If you ever decide to play a little game of word association, and someone says “search on the Internet”, the chances are you will immediately reply “Google”. “To Google” has become the everyday verb for searching online, due to the site’s near-total dominance in the search industry. But I say “near-total” because one search engine, despite operating at a loss, is making themselves a continual irritant, and an obstacle to Google’s aim of total Internet domination.

In the world of gaming, the two most recognisable icons in the world are Mario, and Sonic the Hedgehog. But they both come from separate companies, one of which has been around for 123 years, the other for 72 years. Who am I talking about? Nintendo and Sega of course. But in the days before the Italian Plumber and the Blue Hedgehog stormed onto the scene, what were Nintendo and Sega up to?

Remember back in the dark days before the Internet arrived, when you wanted to make an international phone call? First, you had to take out a bank loan to pay the extortionate charges that your phone company wanted to charge you. Then you dialed your number, and after getting cut off a few times, you finally manage to get through to the other caller. But they sounded so far away, as if they were underground.

I’ll let you into a little secret. When I was at school, I was bullied very badly. Mainly because I was one of the few people in class serious about doing any work, plus wearing geeky looking prescription glasses didn’t help. But I always took solace in the fact while they were bashing the hell out of me and taking my lunch money, that when I went home at 3.15pm, they couldn’t touch me anymore. At least not until the next morning anyway.