News Topic - iPhone
Articles 81 - 90 of most recent articles
RIM prepares for iPhone competition
If you think you can hear “Thunder” in the distance on the Texas prairie, you’re not alone.
bizjournals.com – Jul 21, 2008 04:00 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Wireless
If you think you can hear “Thunder” in the distance on the Texas prairie, you’re not alone.
bizjournals.com – Jul 21, 2008 04:00 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Wireless
Google knocks Microsoft off top of Britain's biggest brands
The internet search engine Google has been named as Britain's top "superbrand", after it beat Microsoft for the premier spot, according to a YouGov survey published today. The search engine, which came third in the same consumer poll last year, took pole position in a list of 500 brands available in the UK, beating Mercedes-Benz, the BBC, British Airways and Royal Doulton. Since Google was founded in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then students at Stanford University, it has become one of Britain's most familiar names, launching Google Earth and acquiring YouTube, the popular video sharing site, in 2006. According to Hitwise, which compiles a list of the top four leading UK search engines by volume of searches, Google.co.uk had a 73% share of users in May, significantly ahead of its rival Yahoo! which made it to number 75 in the YouGov poll. Microsoft, despite its fall to second place, still looms over rival Apple, which despite its high-profile launch of the iPod and iPhone, narrowly missed a place in the top 10. In the poll Sony took 10th place, beaten by BMW at seven, Bosch at eight, and Nike at nine. Surprising omissions from the top 100 include Tesco, which only managed 300th position, showing a fall of 230 places from last year, and Sainsbury's, which fell 194 places to 232nd position. Fastfood retailers such as McDonald's and Burger King also showed significant falls on last year.Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the Superbrands Council, a brand valuation consultancy that commissioned the poll, said: "Lifestyle brands, particularly those in the technology sector, have considerably more sway with the public than everyday staples such as the supermarkets, which now seem further than ever from the affections of the British people. "As the spectre of rising food costs continues, they are likely to come under further scrutiny. "The results are a further sign that Google is continuing its dominance. It is clear Google is the brand that people value at work and in their personal lives." Marks & Spencer, which has experienced a rollercoaster ride, recently issuing a serious profits warning that sent shares plummeting to their lowest level in seven years, still holds sway with the public and makes the top 20, at number 17. The Royal Albert Hall, at number 26, tops the list of cultural destinations, followed by the Tate galleries at number 46. The Eden Project in Cornwall is at number 50. The Guardian and Observer appear on the list of superbrands at number 229, 184 places ahead of the Independent and 60 ahead of the Daily Telegraph, but behind the Times/Sunday Times titles which are placed at 122nd. An alternative list of "coolest brands", to be published in Dazed & Confused magazine in September, lists five fashion brands in the top eight, including Levi's.
The Guardian – Jul 20, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
The internet search engine Google has been named as Britain's top "superbrand", after it beat Microsoft for the premier spot, according to a YouGov survey published today. The search engine, which came third in the same consumer poll last year, took pole position in a list of 500 brands available in the UK, beating Mercedes-Benz, the BBC, British Airways and Royal Doulton. Since Google was founded in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then students at Stanford University, it has become one of Britain's most familiar names, launching Google Earth and acquiring YouTube, the popular video sharing site, in 2006. According to Hitwise, which compiles a list of the top four leading UK search engines by volume of searches, Google.co.uk had a 73% share of users in May, significantly ahead of its rival Yahoo! which made it to number 75 in the YouGov poll. Microsoft, despite its fall to second place, still looms over rival Apple, which despite its high-profile launch of the iPod and iPhone, narrowly missed a place in the top 10. In the poll Sony took 10th place, beaten by BMW at seven, Bosch at eight, and Nike at nine. Surprising omissions from the top 100 include Tesco, which only managed 300th position, showing a fall of 230 places from last year, and Sainsbury's, which fell 194 places to 232nd position. Fastfood retailers such as McDonald's and Burger King also showed significant falls on last year.Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the Superbrands Council, a brand valuation consultancy that commissioned the poll, said: "Lifestyle brands, particularly those in the technology sector, have considerably more sway with the public than everyday staples such as the supermarkets, which now seem further than ever from the affections of the British people. "As the spectre of rising food costs continues, they are likely to come under further scrutiny. "The results are a further sign that Google is continuing its dominance. It is clear Google is the brand that people value at work and in their personal lives." Marks & Spencer, which has experienced a rollercoaster ride, recently issuing a serious profits warning that sent shares plummeting to their lowest level in seven years, still holds sway with the public and makes the top 20, at number 17. The Royal Albert Hall, at number 26, tops the list of cultural destinations, followed by the Tate galleries at number 46. The Eden Project in Cornwall is at number 50. The Guardian and Observer appear on the list of superbrands at number 229, 184 places ahead of the Independent and 60 ahead of the Daily Telegraph, but behind the Times/Sunday Times titles which are placed at 122nd. An alternative list of "coolest brands", to be published in Dazed & Confused magazine in September, lists five fashion brands in the top eight, including Levi's.
The Guardian – Jul 20, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it
Miley Cyrus, Angelina, Israel vs Palestine, iPhone, 9/11 conspiracy, Facebook, MySpace, and Britney Spears nude. And not forgetting Second Life, Paris Hilton, YouTube, Lindsay Lohan, World of Warcraft, The Dark Knight, Radiohead and Barack Obama. Oh, and great big naked tits. In 3D. Let me explain. Last week, I wrote a piece on 9/11 conspiracy theories which virtually broke the Guardian website as thousands of "truthers" (painfully earnest online types who sincerely believe 9/11 was an inside job) poured through the walls to unfurl their two pence worth. Some outlined alternative "theories". Some mistakenly equated dismissing the conspiracy theories with endorsing the Bush administration. Some simply wailed, occasionally in CAPITALS. Others, correctly, identified me as a paid-off establishment shill acting under instructions from the CIA. Now to sit here and painstakingly rebut everything the truthers said would take three months and several hundred pages, and would be a massive waste of the world's time, because ultimately I'm right and they're wrong - well-meaning, but wrong. What's more, I've woken up with an alarming fever and am sweating like a miner as I type these words. On the cusp of hallucinating. Consequently my brain isn't working properly; it feels like it's been marinaded in petrol, then wrapped in a warm towel. So I'm hardly at my sharpest. Actually, sod it: you win, truthers. I give up. You're 100% correct. Inside job, clearly. Whatever. Now pass the paracetamol. Anyway, because it contained the words "9/11 conspiracy", the article generated loads of traffic for the Guardian site, which in turn means loads of advertising revenue. And in this day and age, what with the credit crunch and the death of print journalism and everything, the use of attention-grabbing keywords is becoming standard practice. "Search engine optimisation", it's known as, and it's the journalistic equivalent of a classified ad that starts with the word "SEX!" in large lettering, and "Now that we've got your attention . . ." printed below it in smaller type. For instance, according to the latest Private Eye, journalists writing articles for the Telegraph website are being actively encouraged to include oft-searched-for phrases in their copy. So an article about shoe sales among young women would open: "Young women - such as Britney Spears - are buying more shoes than ever." On the one hand, you could argue this is nothing new; after all, for years newspapers have routinely jazzed up dull print articles with photographs of attractive female stars (you know the sort of thing: a giant snap of Keira Knightley doing her Atonement wet-T-shirt routine to illustrate a report about the state of Britain's fountain manufacturers). But at least in those instances the actual text of the article itself survived unscathed. There's something uniquely demented about slotting specific words and phrases into a piece simply to con people into reading it. Why bother writing a news article at all? Why not just scan in a few naked photos and have done with it? And if you do persevere with search-engine-optimised news reports, where do you draw the line? Next time a bomb goes off, are we going to read "Terror outrage: BRITNEY, ANGELINA and OBAMA all unaffected as hundreds die in SEXY agony"? And wait, it gets worse. These phrases don't just get lobbed in willy-nilly. No. A lot of care and attention goes into their placement. Apparently the average reader quickly scans each page in an "F-pattern": reading along the top first, then glancing halfway along the line below, before skimming their eye downward along the left-hand side. If there's nothing of interest within that golden "F" zone, he or she will quickly clear off elsewhere. Which means your modern journalist is expected not only to shoehorn all manner of hot phraseology into their copy, but to try and position it all in precisely the right place. That's an alarming quantity of unnecessary shit to hold in your head while trying to write a piece about the unions. Sorry, SEXUAL unions. Mainly, though, it's just plain undignified: turning the journalist into the equivalent of a reality TV wannabe who turns up to the auditions in a gaudy fluorescent thong in a desperate bid to be noticed. And for the consumer, it's just one more layer of distracting crud - the bane of the 21st century. Distracting crud comes in countless forms - from the onscreen clutter of 24-hour news stations to the winking, blinking ads on every other web page. These days, each separate square inch of everything is simultaneously vying for your attention, and the overall effect is to leave you feeling bewildered, distanced, feverish and slightly insane. Or maybe that's just me, today. Actually, it's definitely just me. Like I say, I'm ill, my brain's not working. Which is why opening this piece with a slew of hot search terms probably wasn't a brilliant wheeze. Perhaps if I close with a selection of the LEAST searched-for terms ever, I can redress the balance. Worth a shot. Um . . . JOHN SELWYN GUMMER . . . PATRICK KIELTY NUDE . . . UNDERWHELMING KNITTING PATTERNS . . . FULLY CLOTHED BABES. Yup. That should do it. · This week Charlie somehow managed to get this column finished: "Despite mistyping every other word and having to break off every five minutes to lie on his bed clutching his brow, whimpering. He will almost certainly have died by the time you read it."Related StoriesExplainer: Keeping an eye on city livesBluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big BrotherEditorial: High waterEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?
The Guardian – Jul 20, 2008 11:03 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Miley Cyrus, Angelina, Israel vs Palestine, iPhone, 9/11 conspiracy, Facebook, MySpace, and Britney Spears nude. And not forgetting Second Life, Paris Hilton, YouTube, Lindsay Lohan, World of Warcraft, The Dark Knight, Radiohead and Barack Obama. Oh, and great big naked tits. In 3D. Let me explain. Last week, I wrote a piece on 9/11 conspiracy theories which virtually broke the Guardian website as thousands of "truthers" (painfully earnest online types who sincerely believe 9/11 was an inside job) poured through the walls to unfurl their two pence worth. Some outlined alternative "theories". Some mistakenly equated dismissing the conspiracy theories with endorsing the Bush administration. Some simply wailed, occasionally in CAPITALS. Others, correctly, identified me as a paid-off establishment shill acting under instructions from the CIA. Now to sit here and painstakingly rebut everything the truthers said would take three months and several hundred pages, and would be a massive waste of the world's time, because ultimately I'm right and they're wrong - well-meaning, but wrong. What's more, I've woken up with an alarming fever and am sweating like a miner as I type these words. On the cusp of hallucinating. Consequently my brain isn't working properly; it feels like it's been marinaded in petrol, then wrapped in a warm towel. So I'm hardly at my sharpest. Actually, sod it: you win, truthers. I give up. You're 100% correct. Inside job, clearly. Whatever. Now pass the paracetamol. Anyway, because it contained the words "9/11 conspiracy", the article generated loads of traffic for the Guardian site, which in turn means loads of advertising revenue. And in this day and age, what with the credit crunch and the death of print journalism and everything, the use of attention-grabbing keywords is becoming standard practice. "Search engine optimisation", it's known as, and it's the journalistic equivalent of a classified ad that starts with the word "SEX!" in large lettering, and "Now that we've got your attention . . ." printed below it in smaller type. For instance, according to the latest Private Eye, journalists writing articles for the Telegraph website are being actively encouraged to include oft-searched-for phrases in their copy. So an article about shoe sales among young women would open: "Young women - such as Britney Spears - are buying more shoes than ever." On the one hand, you could argue this is nothing new; after all, for years newspapers have routinely jazzed up dull print articles with photographs of attractive female stars (you know the sort of thing: a giant snap of Keira Knightley doing her Atonement wet-T-shirt routine to illustrate a report about the state of Britain's fountain manufacturers). But at least in those instances the actual text of the article itself survived unscathed. There's something uniquely demented about slotting specific words and phrases into a piece simply to con people into reading it. Why bother writing a news article at all? Why not just scan in a few naked photos and have done with it? And if you do persevere with search-engine-optimised news reports, where do you draw the line? Next time a bomb goes off, are we going to read "Terror outrage: BRITNEY, ANGELINA and OBAMA all unaffected as hundreds die in SEXY agony"? And wait, it gets worse. These phrases don't just get lobbed in willy-nilly. No. A lot of care and attention goes into their placement. Apparently the average reader quickly scans each page in an "F-pattern": reading along the top first, then glancing halfway along the line below, before skimming their eye downward along the left-hand side. If there's nothing of interest within that golden "F" zone, he or she will quickly clear off elsewhere. Which means your modern journalist is expected not only to shoehorn all manner of hot phraseology into their copy, but to try and position it all in precisely the right place. That's an alarming quantity of unnecessary shit to hold in your head while trying to write a piece about the unions. Sorry, SEXUAL unions. Mainly, though, it's just plain undignified: turning the journalist into the equivalent of a reality TV wannabe who turns up to the auditions in a gaudy fluorescent thong in a desperate bid to be noticed. And for the consumer, it's just one more layer of distracting crud - the bane of the 21st century. Distracting crud comes in countless forms - from the onscreen clutter of 24-hour news stations to the winking, blinking ads on every other web page. These days, each separate square inch of everything is simultaneously vying for your attention, and the overall effect is to leave you feeling bewildered, distanced, feverish and slightly insane. Or maybe that's just me, today. Actually, it's definitely just me. Like I say, I'm ill, my brain's not working. Which is why opening this piece with a slew of hot search terms probably wasn't a brilliant wheeze. Perhaps if I close with a selection of the LEAST searched-for terms ever, I can redress the balance. Worth a shot. Um . . . JOHN SELWYN GUMMER . . . PATRICK KIELTY NUDE . . . UNDERWHELMING KNITTING PATTERNS . . . FULLY CLOTHED BABES. Yup. That should do it. · This week Charlie somehow managed to get this column finished: "Despite mistyping every other word and having to break off every five minutes to lie on his bed clutching his brow, whimpering. He will almost certainly have died by the time you read it."Related StoriesExplainer: Keeping an eye on city livesBluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big BrotherEditorial: High waterEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?
The Guardian – Jul 20, 2008 11:03 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
E3 2008: Wolfenstein RPG to iPhone
Wolfenstein RPG (Cell)EA and Carmack confirm new mobile game is also enlisting for iPhone.
IGN.com – Jul 20, 2008 02:13 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Video Games
Wolfenstein RPG (Cell)EA and Carmack confirm new mobile game is also enlisting for iPhone.
IGN.com – Jul 20, 2008 02:13 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Video Games
The 20-year-old at heart of web's most anarchic and influential site
It seemed an ordinary day at Google's offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Until an alarming discrepancy glued eyes to computer screens. Google Hot Trends is a feature intended to give 'a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind', according to the internet giant, by displaying the fastest-rising search terms on the web. Top of the list was not Batman, iPhone or sex. It was not a word at all. It was a swastika. Somehow, the icon appropriated by Nazi Germany, not readily found on computer keyboards, had caught all-powerful Google napping. The company was forced to issue an apology over the failure of its automated system to 'identify and remove inappropriate or offensive material', leaving its engineers to manually take down the symbol after two hours. How did the swastika get there? Why did so many people search for it at the same time? It was a demonstration of how peculiar fads, jokes or videos can come out of nowhere and run riot across the web. Such phenomena are known as 'memes' - cultural fragments that catch someone's eye, get forwarded to friends and spread like a virus. The invisible hand behind many memes, apparently including the googled swastika, is a website called 4chan. From semi-literate cats to the 'ironic' comeback of singer Rick Astley, this online community is building a reputation as a nursery of all that is weird and wacky and likely to be landing in your inbox tomorrow. Suddenly, 4chan's elusive creator found himself the subject of articles in two of America's heavyweight publications: Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, which named him as Christopher Poole, a New Yorker who was only 15 when, with the help of his mother's credit card, he launched 4chan from his bedroom five years ago. Time hailed him as the 'Master Of Memes' and described 4chan as 'the wellspring from which a lot of internet culture, and hence popular culture, bubbles'. But how does it work? 4chan began as a simple message board with pictures and text. Anyone could contribute on any subject, posting a photograph of their pet, sounding off about a politician, debating the merits of a player. Sometimes other users will reply and begin a strand of conversation. The images and comments now appear under 44 topic headings ranging from fashion, sports and video games to weapons, the paranormal and 'sexy beautiful women' - the most popular by a long way is 'Random'. Inspired by a forum in Japan, the site has an unpolished retro look, as rough and ready as a scrapbook. It is an online community at its purest and rawest, the antithesis of polished networks such as Facebook: 4chan is like a brick wall where people can daub graffiti without fear of a comeback. Child pornography is banned, but otherwise there are few rules. Some posts are gloriously childish and nonsensical. Others can be racist, homophobic and misogynistic and peppered with four-letter words. Unlike most social networks, no one has to register a name or sign in. Consequently, the community has been described as a lawless Wild West of the web, a place of uninhibited bawdiness and verbal violence. A teenager in Texas posted a photograph of hoax pipe bombs and a threat to blow up his school on the anniversary of 9/11, but another user contacted police and the teenager was arrested. However, the free-for-all has also been liberating, turning 4chan into an ideas laboratory and unleashing a ferocious creative force. Though most of what appears soon vanishes and is forgotten, the stuff that survives can easily jump to the wider web community and 'go viral', passing from person to person across the world. It is an ability envied by advertising agencies, which have long sought to drum up publicity by word of mouth or now through viral videos of their own, relying on users to do the work for them. But 4chan just does it for fun with the help of a big army of users: 8.5 million page views a day and 3.3 million visitors a month. The swastika was one such stunt. It appears that a post on 4chan instructed people to Google '...#21328;'. When thousands did, they discovered that it was a piece of code which, when processed by a web browser, translates into a swastika. Their collective curiosity unwittingly sent the symbol soaring to the top of Google's Hot Trends. One of 4chan's biggest hits is a prank known as 'bait-and-switch'. You receive a link to an 'amazing website'. But when you click, it is in fact a link to a music video for Rick Astley's 1987 hit single 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. It is estimated that more than 10 million people have been 'rickrolled'. The first such joke on 4chan was 'duckrolling', in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photomontage of a duck with wheels. In another parade of silliness, 4chan users began a Saturday ritual of posting pictures of cats, for no particular reason except that they could. This soon became known as 'Caturday', with humorous phrases posted beside the so-called 'LOLcats' - now the subject of LOLcat T-shirts, buttons and fridge magnets. When a plump grey cat appeared with the caption 'I can has cheezburger?', it caught the imagination of a man in Hawaii and became the subject of his blog, icanhascheezburger.com. The blog was sold for about $2m (£1m). Last week 4chan was at it again. The site rallied users to search for 'Scientology is a cult' and, written upside down, the words 'fuck you Google'. Again, both leapt to the top of Google Hot Trends before being removed. 4chan users were also accused of attacking Habbo, a virtual world for children, by flooding it with avatars made to look like black men wearing Armani suits. In a previous raid, they lined up avatars to form the shape of a swastika. Poole had never revealed his identity until Time and the Wall Street Journal came calling. When contacted by The Observer through email, he replied: 'I am extremely busy this week and will not have time to conduct a phone interview.' He suggested questions by email but did not respond to them. His message was signed 'moot', a code name he uses on 4chan for reasons no one has yet fathomed. 'My personal private life is very separate from my internet life,' he told Time. 'There's a firewall in between.' Poole set up 4chan because he wanted to share his passion for Japanese comics and TV rather than as a moneyspinner, which is just as well. Although the site is popular, its scurrilous reputation makes it difficult to sell advertising space. Poole said: 'That's been an uphill battle for me personally. My biggest time spent has been convincing companies in marketing potential in 4chan but no one sees eye to eye.' For now he will have to be content with shaping western culture as the most influential web entrepreneur you've never heard of. 'Coarse as it is, 4chan has no rival as a hothouse for memes; they're bred and refined, and then they can escape and run amuck through the culture at large,' Time enthused. 'For better or for worse, this is what the counterculture looks like today: raw, sarcastic, bare of any social or political agenda but frequently funny as hell.'Related StoriesUK fails to bar internet access to child pornHi-tech is turning us all into time-wastersFamily videotape treasures at riskCheck your connections to avoid a shocking holidayMartin Love discusses the Volvo S80
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 11:00 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
It seemed an ordinary day at Google's offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Until an alarming discrepancy glued eyes to computer screens. Google Hot Trends is a feature intended to give 'a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind', according to the internet giant, by displaying the fastest-rising search terms on the web. Top of the list was not Batman, iPhone or sex. It was not a word at all. It was a swastika. Somehow, the icon appropriated by Nazi Germany, not readily found on computer keyboards, had caught all-powerful Google napping. The company was forced to issue an apology over the failure of its automated system to 'identify and remove inappropriate or offensive material', leaving its engineers to manually take down the symbol after two hours. How did the swastika get there? Why did so many people search for it at the same time? It was a demonstration of how peculiar fads, jokes or videos can come out of nowhere and run riot across the web. Such phenomena are known as 'memes' - cultural fragments that catch someone's eye, get forwarded to friends and spread like a virus. The invisible hand behind many memes, apparently including the googled swastika, is a website called 4chan. From semi-literate cats to the 'ironic' comeback of singer Rick Astley, this online community is building a reputation as a nursery of all that is weird and wacky and likely to be landing in your inbox tomorrow. Suddenly, 4chan's elusive creator found himself the subject of articles in two of America's heavyweight publications: Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, which named him as Christopher Poole, a New Yorker who was only 15 when, with the help of his mother's credit card, he launched 4chan from his bedroom five years ago. Time hailed him as the 'Master Of Memes' and described 4chan as 'the wellspring from which a lot of internet culture, and hence popular culture, bubbles'. But how does it work? 4chan began as a simple message board with pictures and text. Anyone could contribute on any subject, posting a photograph of their pet, sounding off about a politician, debating the merits of a player. Sometimes other users will reply and begin a strand of conversation. The images and comments now appear under 44 topic headings ranging from fashion, sports and video games to weapons, the paranormal and 'sexy beautiful women' - the most popular by a long way is 'Random'. Inspired by a forum in Japan, the site has an unpolished retro look, as rough and ready as a scrapbook. It is an online community at its purest and rawest, the antithesis of polished networks such as Facebook: 4chan is like a brick wall where people can daub graffiti without fear of a comeback. Child pornography is banned, but otherwise there are few rules. Some posts are gloriously childish and nonsensical. Others can be racist, homophobic and misogynistic and peppered with four-letter words. Unlike most social networks, no one has to register a name or sign in. Consequently, the community has been described as a lawless Wild West of the web, a place of uninhibited bawdiness and verbal violence. A teenager in Texas posted a photograph of hoax pipe bombs and a threat to blow up his school on the anniversary of 9/11, but another user contacted police and the teenager was arrested. However, the free-for-all has also been liberating, turning 4chan into an ideas laboratory and unleashing a ferocious creative force. Though most of what appears soon vanishes and is forgotten, the stuff that survives can easily jump to the wider web community and 'go viral', passing from person to person across the world. It is an ability envied by advertising agencies, which have long sought to drum up publicity by word of mouth or now through viral videos of their own, relying on users to do the work for them. But 4chan just does it for fun with the help of a big army of users: 8.5 million page views a day and 3.3 million visitors a month. The swastika was one such stunt. It appears that a post on 4chan instructed people to Google '...#21328;'. When thousands did, they discovered that it was a piece of code which, when processed by a web browser, translates into a swastika. Their collective curiosity unwittingly sent the symbol soaring to the top of Google's Hot Trends. One of 4chan's biggest hits is a prank known as 'bait-and-switch'. You receive a link to an 'amazing website'. But when you click, it is in fact a link to a music video for Rick Astley's 1987 hit single 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. It is estimated that more than 10 million people have been 'rickrolled'. The first such joke on 4chan was 'duckrolling', in which a link to a popular celebrity or news item would instead lead to a photomontage of a duck with wheels. In another parade of silliness, 4chan users began a Saturday ritual of posting pictures of cats, for no particular reason except that they could. This soon became known as 'Caturday', with humorous phrases posted beside the so-called 'LOLcats' - now the subject of LOLcat T-shirts, buttons and fridge magnets. When a plump grey cat appeared with the caption 'I can has cheezburger?', it caught the imagination of a man in Hawaii and became the subject of his blog, icanhascheezburger.com. The blog was sold for about $2m (£1m). Last week 4chan was at it again. The site rallied users to search for 'Scientology is a cult' and, written upside down, the words 'fuck you Google'. Again, both leapt to the top of Google Hot Trends before being removed. 4chan users were also accused of attacking Habbo, a virtual world for children, by flooding it with avatars made to look like black men wearing Armani suits. In a previous raid, they lined up avatars to form the shape of a swastika. Poole had never revealed his identity until Time and the Wall Street Journal came calling. When contacted by The Observer through email, he replied: 'I am extremely busy this week and will not have time to conduct a phone interview.' He suggested questions by email but did not respond to them. His message was signed 'moot', a code name he uses on 4chan for reasons no one has yet fathomed. 'My personal private life is very separate from my internet life,' he told Time. 'There's a firewall in between.' Poole set up 4chan because he wanted to share his passion for Japanese comics and TV rather than as a moneyspinner, which is just as well. Although the site is popular, its scurrilous reputation makes it difficult to sell advertising space. Poole said: 'That's been an uphill battle for me personally. My biggest time spent has been convincing companies in marketing potential in 4chan but no one sees eye to eye.' For now he will have to be content with shaping western culture as the most influential web entrepreneur you've never heard of. 'Coarse as it is, 4chan has no rival as a hothouse for memes; they're bred and refined, and then they can escape and run amuck through the culture at large,' Time enthused. 'For better or for worse, this is what the counterculture looks like today: raw, sarcastic, bare of any social or political agenda but frequently funny as hell.'Related StoriesUK fails to bar internet access to child pornHi-tech is turning us all into time-wastersFamily videotape treasures at riskCheck your connections to avoid a shocking holidayMartin Love discusses the Volvo S80
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 11:00 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Motorola Sues When Exec Goes to Apple
The former executive is accused of revealing trade secrets when he went to work on the iPhone.
PC World – Jul 19, 2008 6:57 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
The former executive is accused of revealing trade secrets when he went to work on the iPhone.
PC World – Jul 19, 2008 6:57 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
This Week on TheStreet.com TV
Software issues with the new iPhone 3G, teen-retail smackdown, traveling by Segway, and more.
TheStreet.com – Jul 19, 2008 2:20 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Business: Investing
Software issues with the new iPhone 3G, teen-retail smackdown, traveling by Segway, and more.
TheStreet.com – Jul 19, 2008 2:20 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Business: Investing
Games preview: iPhone Games
Related StoriesInternet shopping: Cheap DVDs coming soon to your HMV - via a nifty legal loophole and an offshore tax havenDork talk: Hunter Davies expresses his love for the AmstradGadget clinic: Bobbie Johnson on the hunt for a solar-powered pond pumpOn the road with Sam Wollaston: Skoda Fabia GreenLineGames preview: Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli PS2, PS3 (reviewed), Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 10:45 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Related StoriesInternet shopping: Cheap DVDs coming soon to your HMV - via a nifty legal loophole and an offshore tax havenDork talk: Hunter Davies expresses his love for the AmstradGadget clinic: Bobbie Johnson on the hunt for a solar-powered pond pumpOn the road with Sam Wollaston: Skoda Fabia GreenLineGames preview: Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli PS2, PS3 (reviewed), Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 10:45 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Games preview: Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli PS2, PS3 (reviewed), Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii
Related StoriesInternet shopping: Cheap DVDs coming soon to your HMV - via a nifty legal loophole and an offshore tax havenDork talk: Hunter Davies expresses his love for the AmstradGadget clinic: Bobbie Johnson on the hunt for a solar-powered pond pumpOn the road with Sam Wollaston: Skoda Fabia GreenLineGames preview: iPhone Games
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 10:43 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Related StoriesInternet shopping: Cheap DVDs coming soon to your HMV - via a nifty legal loophole and an offshore tax havenDork talk: Hunter Davies expresses his love for the AmstradGadget clinic: Bobbie Johnson on the hunt for a solar-powered pond pumpOn the road with Sam Wollaston: Skoda Fabia GreenLineGames preview: iPhone Games
The Guardian – Jul 19, 2008 10:43 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Russian Rush For Iphones
MOSCOW - In the Soviet days, Russians would ask visiting American pals to bring jeans, rock records and other Western goods. Today they ask for one thing - the Apple iPhone. The new iPhone went on sale in 21 nations on July 11 and is to be...
New York Post – Jul 19, 2008 08:38 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: New York: New York
MOSCOW - In the Soviet days, Russians would ask visiting American pals to bring jeans, rock records and other Western goods. Today they ask for one thing - the Apple iPhone. The new iPhone went on sale in 21 nations on July 11 and is to be...
New York Post – Jul 19, 2008 08:38 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: New York: New York