The end of the PC era

For nearly 30 years, personal computers as we have known them have been the drivers of the technology engine. From Intel to Microsoft to Dell to HP to Micron Technology — many fortunes were made on the back of the PC. But the rise of mobile computing is upending the technology business and is simultaneously redefining what is a personal computer and how we use it. On Thursday Hewlett-Packard, one of the oldest companies in Silicon Valley with deep connections to the PC ecosystem (they paid $25 billion for Compaq in 2002) and the world’s largest seller of PCs, confirmed it is looking to sell off its personal computing business. It’s also getting out of the hardware game altogether, ditching its tablet and smartphone operations too. But if HP does eventually find a buyer for its PC division, it will only be catching up with IBM, which in 2004 decided that the low-margin PC business wasn’t worth pursuing.

Port of Rotterdam Container Traffic Up 9.7 Percent

Overall cargo tonnage increased 1 percent year-over-year in first half Cargo through Port of Rotterdam in the first half of the year increased 1 percent year-over-year to 215 million metric tons, as a 9.7 increase in container handling helped offset a decline in oil products shipments. Throughput of 20-foot container equivalent units at Europe’s largest port rose to 6 million within the same period, while bulk cargo shipment fell 4 percent to 140 million metric tons, the Port of Rotterdam Authority said.

Platform for citizen photojournalism offers map of local content

Mobile platform Tackable enables reporters and editors to create photo assignments for readers to complete using their smartphones. 11th August 2011 in Media & Publishing. From the New York Times’ The Local to CNN’s Open Stories, recent years have seen citizen journalism become more and more integrated with professional news reporting. Now, new mobile photojournalism platform Tackable enables reporters and editors to create photo assignments for readers to complete using their smartphones, with the aim of helping them write better articles, faster.

58% Unfamiliar With QR Codes

Online consumer market research company Lab42 wanted to find out if people were scanning QR Codes and if so what it takes to make them scan them. 500 Americans over the age of 18 were surveyed to discover where people saw QR Codes, how they were using them and why they were scanning them (infographic below). Lab42 say that the online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Web tracking has become a privacy time bomb

For more than a decade, tracking systems have been taking note of where you go and what you search for on the Web — without your permission. And today many of the personal details you voluntarily divulge on popular websites and social networks are being similarly tracked and analyzed. The purpose for all of this online snooping is singular: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook and others are intent on delivering more relevant online ads to each and every one of us — and bagging that advertising money.