Sunday, 24 February 2008
The Pakistani government, under President Pervez Musharraf, has issued a directive to all Internet providers in the country to block access to Youtube due to blasphemous content on the popular video sharing site. Users all over Pakistan are receiving messages stating that the "Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk) has directed all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com web site for containing blasphemous web content/movies."
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
CBeebies to launch pre-school quiz show
Leigh Holmwood
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday February 12 2008
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This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday February 12 2008. It was last updated at 07:13 on February 12 2008.
Kerwhizz: 'A breakthrough multi-platform entertainment format'. Photograph: BBC
The first ever quiz show aimed at pre-school children is to be launched by the BBC's CBeebies digital channel.
Kerwhizz, which is billed as a "breakthrough multi-platform entertainment format", will be aimed at four- to six-year-olds and will also include an online version and podcast.
The programme will feature three teams of computer-generated characters who compete to answer questions that will give them add-ons, or "pod mods", for their high-tech racing machines, which can help them win a race against their opponents.
Both the show and online game are set to debut later this year on CBeebies.
Kerwhizz races can take place in any of 26 different CGI worlds, which reflect a range of environments from the astrological to the historical.
The BBC said viewers at home would be "drawn into the action at every step of the game, answering questions, making predictions about the race and advising contestants when to use their 'pod mods'".
CBeebies controller Michael Carrington said young children would be able to enjoy the quiz alongside their parents.
"Children love quizzes but there hasn't ever been a television quiz for viewers of this age," he added.
"Kerwhizz is tremendous fun, looks absolutely amazing and children and grown-ups will be able to enjoy the game and the podcasts any time they like."
The BBC said Kerwhizz would be "visually stunning and packed with gags" and had been designed with the assistance of teachers and a specialist adviser.
An online game will also reflect the show, with specially created races for users to play with and a brand new set of questions, while a related podcast will be available to download from the CBeebies website.
A run of 26 episodes, each lasting 22 minutes, has been ordered from the in-house CBeebies Productions, with British animation company Blue Zoo working on the combination of live action and CGI elements.
Kerwhizz will be executive produced by Alison Stewart with Stephen Cannon as producer.
Leigh Holmwood
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday February 12 2008
Article history ·
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Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
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About this articleClose
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday February 12 2008. It was last updated at 07:13 on February 12 2008.
Kerwhizz: 'A breakthrough multi-platform entertainment format'. Photograph: BBC
The first ever quiz show aimed at pre-school children is to be launched by the BBC's CBeebies digital channel.
Kerwhizz, which is billed as a "breakthrough multi-platform entertainment format", will be aimed at four- to six-year-olds and will also include an online version and podcast.
The programme will feature three teams of computer-generated characters who compete to answer questions that will give them add-ons, or "pod mods", for their high-tech racing machines, which can help them win a race against their opponents.
Both the show and online game are set to debut later this year on CBeebies.
Kerwhizz races can take place in any of 26 different CGI worlds, which reflect a range of environments from the astrological to the historical.
The BBC said viewers at home would be "drawn into the action at every step of the game, answering questions, making predictions about the race and advising contestants when to use their 'pod mods'".
CBeebies controller Michael Carrington said young children would be able to enjoy the quiz alongside their parents.
"Children love quizzes but there hasn't ever been a television quiz for viewers of this age," he added.
"Kerwhizz is tremendous fun, looks absolutely amazing and children and grown-ups will be able to enjoy the game and the podcasts any time they like."
The BBC said Kerwhizz would be "visually stunning and packed with gags" and had been designed with the assistance of teachers and a specialist adviser.
An online game will also reflect the show, with specially created races for users to play with and a brand new set of questions, while a related podcast will be available to download from the CBeebies website.
A run of 26 episodes, each lasting 22 minutes, has been ordered from the in-house CBeebies Productions, with British animation company Blue Zoo working on the combination of live action and CGI elements.
Kerwhizz will be executive produced by Alison Stewart with Stephen Cannon as producer.
Dips, 13y
Sub continental drift
¨ British Asian Music getting recognised in the society
¨ ‘10 years have been amazing’ only been recognised recently, so this then informs us that the movement in the change has only just recently happened.
¨ Proms are associated with the upper class of British people and for a young Asian male to make a classical Indian piece for the night says something to us as a society.
¨ Nitin Sawney an Asian Music artist has become the British society’s ‘world music’ as he provides music from different levels.
How entertainment changed
¨ Multicultural entertainment has been entrenched in the UK’s mainstream media.
¨ Poll suggests that 78% people believe that the minorities are better represented than before.
¨ 67% of Asians believe that things have improved, which is an improvement as the improvement has only been recent.
¨ 1950’s things were very difficult.
¨ The contemporary media portrayed the Britain that Caribbean and south Asian immigrants were making their homes in as radically and culturally very homogenous.
The colour of money
¨ The brown culture or the coloured culture is economically developing.
¨ Make up a lot of the population
¨ Positive stereotypes
¨ Identify with the Asians the white middle class, as they believe that the Asian community are approaching their level.
¨ Asians getting recognised more as they are developing and gaining control in society.
¨ 50% increase in ethnic minorities in 2001
Ethnic minority push by BBC
¨ BBC trying to connect with all audiences
¨ BBC Asian network broadcasting.
¨ Asians expanding widespread.
¨ Afro Caribbean- being neglected
¨ Muslim communities being targeted for the following sept 11 attacks.
Black actors win more TV roles
¨ Afro Caribbean population making a stand in the TV society.
¨ TV soaps have seen a dramatic increase in the society as the recognition of ethic minorities has increased.
Sub continental drift
¨ British Asian Music getting recognised in the society
¨ ‘10 years have been amazing’ only been recognised recently, so this then informs us that the movement in the change has only just recently happened.
¨ Proms are associated with the upper class of British people and for a young Asian male to make a classical Indian piece for the night says something to us as a society.
¨ Nitin Sawney an Asian Music artist has become the British society’s ‘world music’ as he provides music from different levels.
How entertainment changed
¨ Multicultural entertainment has been entrenched in the UK’s mainstream media.
¨ Poll suggests that 78% people believe that the minorities are better represented than before.
¨ 67% of Asians believe that things have improved, which is an improvement as the improvement has only been recent.
¨ 1950’s things were very difficult.
¨ The contemporary media portrayed the Britain that Caribbean and south Asian immigrants were making their homes in as radically and culturally very homogenous.
The colour of money
¨ The brown culture or the coloured culture is economically developing.
¨ Make up a lot of the population
¨ Positive stereotypes
¨ Identify with the Asians the white middle class, as they believe that the Asian community are approaching their level.
¨ Asians getting recognised more as they are developing and gaining control in society.
¨ 50% increase in ethnic minorities in 2001
Ethnic minority push by BBC
¨ BBC trying to connect with all audiences
¨ BBC Asian network broadcasting.
¨ Asians expanding widespread.
¨ Afro Caribbean- being neglected
¨ Muslim communities being targeted for the following sept 11 attacks.
Black actors win more TV roles
¨ Afro Caribbean population making a stand in the TV society.
¨ TV soaps have seen a dramatic increase in the society as the recognition of ethic minorities has increased.
T-Mobile drops Google from internet deal
Richard Wray
The Guardian,
Wednesday February 13 2008
Article history ·
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This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 13 2008 on p26 of the Financial section. It was last updated at 07:15 on February 13 2008.
Google suffered a serious blow to its ambitions to move its commanding position in online search on to the mobile internet yesterday, when its first major European partner, T-Mobile, dumped the company in favour of technology from rival Yahoo.
Google will lose more than 90 million mobile users of its search engine as Yahoo replaces the company as T-Mobile's partner in the UK and across the continent. The switch will be particularly galling for Google's European boss, Nikesh Arora, as he used to work for T-Mobile before he joined the Californian company in 2004.
Hamid Akhavan, T-Mobile's chief executive, said the company decided to go with Yahoo because its mobile search technology was better than anything offered by Google. The mobile phone company's customers will still be able to access Google on their phones but on the first page that users hit when they go on to the web through its Web 'n' Walk' service, Google's search bar will be replaced by Yahoo's from April.
"We have established a partnership with Yahoo that is strategic, this one is more than just working together. We believe we can have a longer and deeper relationship," Akhavan said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
T-Mobile was the first major mobile phone operator to make it easy for consumers to go wherever they want on the mobile internet, signing a landmark deal that placed Google as the front page of Web 'n' Walk in June 2005.
But T-Mobile now wants to make the search results much more relevant to the fact that consumers are using a mobile phone. So while a search for coffee on an internet-connected computer brings up links to Wikipedia and sites about the history of coffee, a search on the new Yahoo oneSearch portal on Web 'n' Walk will produce coffee shops in the local area, using location data supplied by T-Mobile's network. Clicking on a search result will produce a map showing the shop's location. Yahoo will share the revenues it makes from paid-for search advertising with T-Mobile.
Akhavan, however, stressed that T-Mobile will continue to work with Google in other areas including the company's fledgling mobile phone operating system, called Android. He said yesterday that T-Mobile will be offering customers the first so-called Gphone, with the software installed, towards the end of the year.
But Arun Sarin, Vodafone chief executive, yesterday warned that he will not be signing up to Android until he is certain that the technology is not a way for Google to control the mobile internet.
"Frankly we have not participated with Android at this stage because we do not know what this operating system does, how it is connected, how it is wired especially at the back end," he said.
One of the main talking points at the Congress, the industry's largest trade show, has been the threat to the traditional mobile phone companies by online companies and technology firms that want a slice of the mobile internet, such as Microsoft, Google and Nokia.
Richard Wray
The Guardian,
Wednesday February 13 2008
Article history ·
Contact us
Contact usClose
Contact the Technology editortech@guardian.co.uk
Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
Advertising guide
License/buy our content
About this articleClose
This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 13 2008 on p26 of the Financial section. It was last updated at 07:15 on February 13 2008.
Google suffered a serious blow to its ambitions to move its commanding position in online search on to the mobile internet yesterday, when its first major European partner, T-Mobile, dumped the company in favour of technology from rival Yahoo.
Google will lose more than 90 million mobile users of its search engine as Yahoo replaces the company as T-Mobile's partner in the UK and across the continent. The switch will be particularly galling for Google's European boss, Nikesh Arora, as he used to work for T-Mobile before he joined the Californian company in 2004.
Hamid Akhavan, T-Mobile's chief executive, said the company decided to go with Yahoo because its mobile search technology was better than anything offered by Google. The mobile phone company's customers will still be able to access Google on their phones but on the first page that users hit when they go on to the web through its Web 'n' Walk' service, Google's search bar will be replaced by Yahoo's from April.
"We have established a partnership with Yahoo that is strategic, this one is more than just working together. We believe we can have a longer and deeper relationship," Akhavan said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
T-Mobile was the first major mobile phone operator to make it easy for consumers to go wherever they want on the mobile internet, signing a landmark deal that placed Google as the front page of Web 'n' Walk in June 2005.
But T-Mobile now wants to make the search results much more relevant to the fact that consumers are using a mobile phone. So while a search for coffee on an internet-connected computer brings up links to Wikipedia and sites about the history of coffee, a search on the new Yahoo oneSearch portal on Web 'n' Walk will produce coffee shops in the local area, using location data supplied by T-Mobile's network. Clicking on a search result will produce a map showing the shop's location. Yahoo will share the revenues it makes from paid-for search advertising with T-Mobile.
Akhavan, however, stressed that T-Mobile will continue to work with Google in other areas including the company's fledgling mobile phone operating system, called Android. He said yesterday that T-Mobile will be offering customers the first so-called Gphone, with the software installed, towards the end of the year.
But Arun Sarin, Vodafone chief executive, yesterday warned that he will not be signing up to Android until he is certain that the technology is not a way for Google to control the mobile internet.
"Frankly we have not participated with Android at this stage because we do not know what this operating system does, how it is connected, how it is wired especially at the back end," he said.
One of the main talking points at the Congress, the industry's largest trade show, has been the threat to the traditional mobile phone companies by online companies and technology firms that want a slice of the mobile internet, such as Microsoft, Google and Nokia.
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