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Fujitsu is planning a joint venture with Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco to roll out 1Gbit/s fibre technology to five million homes in the UK, but the project hinges on BT's Openreach division providing access to its underground ducts and telegraph poles.

www.theregister.co.uk—fujitsu_fibre_plan_bt_poles_ducts_prices

Fujitsu said it was effectively targeting rural areas in the UK where BT engineers won’t be laying fibre.

“The proposals will provide future-proofed connectivity to five million households and beyond that would otherwise be unlikely to benefit from commercial investment in next generation digital networks,” it said.

Fujitsu added that it planned to offer the “vast majority of areas” fibre optic cabling that runs directly to the home, rather than to the local cabinet. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t break down the numbers of how many people would benefit from fibre-to-the-premises on its network.

Fujitsu said it was "willing" to invest between £1.5bn to £2bn in the project, but at the same time is relying on government funds of around £500m.

BT, which has divvied up £2.5bn to deliver its own fibre broadband network to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2015, will finalise its ducts and telegraph poles pricing structure for other ISPs in the summer. But Ofcom could yet be asked to step in and regulate the process if the company’s rivals aren’t satisfied with the figures.

The telecoms giant today questioned Fujitsu's plans. BT told The Register that it was unclear from Fujitsu's announcement how much private investment the joint venture would pump into the project.

"BT's network is open to others on an equal and non-discriminatory basis and whilst it is encouraging that Fujitsu and the other companies are making welcome pledges, they do need to be clear that this will be on an open, equal access basis as BT has committed.

"We do look forward to Virgin confirming that they will open their infrastructure to enable all companies to have the opportunity to invest in a new fibre future."

This isn’t a joke

The first official biography of Steve Jobs will be making its debut in early 2012.

The book, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, is being penned by famed biographer Walter Isaacson, the former CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time. While very little is known about the contents of the book, Isaacson did manage to obtain unprecedented access to Apple, Jobs and even his family. Simon & Schuster will publish and distribute the book.

This will be Isaacson’s fourth biography, following Kissinger: A Biography, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and Einstein: His Life and Universe.

Photoshop Touch SDK

www.adobe.com—041111AdobeCreativeSuite5.5.html

Three app’s for ipad

Creative Suite 5.5

Moving to 24 month lifecycle for major point releases

.5 releases 12 months after major point release

.5 release isn’t free - $299 or £318

Lots of new features in this release

Also introduce software leasing

YouTube plans to live stream the wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, the online video service announced Tuesday.

www.mashable.com—royal-wedding-youtube

The live stream, hosted on the official Royal Channel, will run for four hours beginning at 10 a.m. BST (9:00 a.m. GMT, 2:00 a.m. PT, 5:00 a.m. ET).

A multimedia live blog will accompany the stream — a YouTube first — with commentary, historical information, additional footage and an integrated Twitter feed from the staff at Clarence House and St. James’s Palace.

2 billion across world are expected to watch the event - TV, web and mobile

Cisco has just issued a release stating that in a strategic plan to “align its operations,” the company will exit parts of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities: core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. One of the casualties of this realignment: Cisco’s video camera Flip business, which was part of its $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital.

techcrunch.com—cisco-to-shut-down-flip-video-business-will-give-pink-slips-to-550-employees

As part of the plan, Cisco will close down its Flip business and “support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.” Cisco will also refocus its Home Networking business and will integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line. As part of the transition, Cisco plans to eliminate 550 jobs.

So Cisco is focusing on its enterprise customers, and is basically shutting down its consumer facing products. The writing was on the wall for the Flip video business. In a world where consumers can now record and stream video directly from their iPhone, Android or BlackBerry phone, Flip’s video camera business is no longer novel or useful.

Social browser Flock is no more

techcrunch.com—social-browser-flock-shuts-down

Recommends moving to Chrome or Firefox

[I]t's vital that we continue offering an on-demand free service to you and millions more like you," the company said in its announcement, "but to make that possible we have to put some limits in place going forward."

www.readwriteweb.com—spotify_puts_new_caps_on_free_music_and_knows_youl.php

Free account holders today are able to listen to up to 20 hours of music on-demand, song by song and album by album, each month. The new limits will allow 20 hours for the first 6 months of any user's new account. After 6 months, free listening will be cut down to 10 hours.

A sign of upcoming US launch ?

Amazon launching Ad supported Kindle in US

techcrunch.com—amazon-announces-ad-supported-kindle-for-114-thats-25-off

$25 less than wifi model - from $139 to $114 - why not $99???

Amazon says that the ads will only show up on the Kindle’s home screen and screensavers — they won’t appear when you’re actually reading.

8 DVDs, 13 albums and nine video games in top 40

www.mcvuk.com—COD-is-UKs-biggest-entertainment-product-of-2010

Top 40 is as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops [Activision Blizzard] – 3,266,298

2. Avatar [20th Century Fox] – 3,001,769

3. FIFA 11 [Electronic Arts] – 2,390,231

4. Toy Story 3 [Walt Disney Studios] – 2,082,461

5. Progress (Take That) [Universal Music] – 1,933,205

6. The Twilight Saga: New Moon [Entertainment One] – 1,889,187

7. The Twlight Saga: Eclipse [Entertainment One] – 1,334,490

8. Inception [Warner Home Video] – 1,328,290

9. Just Dance [Ubisoft] – 1,305,338

10. 2012 [Sony Pictures] – 1,298,705

11. Crazy Love (Michael Buble) [Warner Music] – 1,289,304

12. Now That’s What I Call Music 77 [EMI Music/UniversalMusic] – 1,255,006

13. The Hurt Locker [Elevation Sales] – 1,247,604

14. Up [Walt Disney Studios] – 1,236,066

15. Sherlock Holmes [Warner Home Video] – 1,217,637

16. Red Dead Redemption [Take-Two] – 1,135,559

17. The Fame (Lady Gaga) [Universal Music] – 1,104,504

18. The Hangover [Warner Home Video] – 1,024,546

19. Alice In Wonderland [Walt Disney Studios] – 943,220

20. Shrek Forever After - The Final Chapter [Paramount] – 928,726

21. Wii Fit Plus [Nintendo] – 920,811

22. Just Dance 2 [Ubisoft ] – 903,866

23. Loud (Rihanna) [Universal Music] – 881,588

24. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood [Ubisoft] – 880,755

25. The Defamation of Strickland Banks (Plan B) [Warner Music] – 867,698

26. Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang

[Universal Pictures] – 831,572

27. Iron Man 2 [Paramount] – 826,595

28. Wii Sports Resort [Nintendo] – 818,554

29. Now That’s What I Call Music 76 [EMI Music/UniversalMusic] – 807,764

30. Sunny Side Up (Paolo Nutini) [Warner Music] – 807,751

31. The Element of Freedom (Alicia Keys) [Sony Music] – 806,340

32. Lungs (Florence & The Machine) [Universal Music] – 789,847

33. District 9 [Sony Pictures] – 781,336

34. Halo: Reach [Microsoft] – 781,331

35. Alvin & The Chipmunks – The Squeakquel [20th Century Fox] – 781,327

36. Clash Of The Titans [Warner Home Video] – 766,681

37. Sex And The City 2 [Warner Home Video] – 765,961

38. Recovery (Eminem) [Universal Music] – 764,875

39. Sign No More (Mumford & Sons) [Universal Music] – 746,461

40. Come Around Sundown (Kings of Leon) [Sony Music] – 729,001

Portal 2 WOoooooooo hhhooooooooooo

Wii HD - June at E3?

75 year old woman, digging for metal, cuts off Internet for entire country

www.guardian.co.uk—georgian-woman-cuts-web-access

Georgia provides 90% of internet access for neighbouring Armenia

She accidentally sliced through a cable - cutting off net access for up to 3.2 million peoplefifi

Took 5 hours to get issue fixed

Oops

Day One

dayoneapp.com

Blue Yeti Pro

http://www.bluemic.com/yetipro/

Ian

Shakeel

Chris

Henry