Chinese province bans adults looking at youngsters’ mobiles
Adults banned from searching children's computers or phones under a new law passed in Chongqing, southwest China It is a ruling that teenagers around the world will regard with a certain amount of envy. Parents in one Chinese city are to be prevented from snooping on their children's online activity and text messages. Adults, including family members, are banned from searching through children's computers or phones under a new regional law passed in Chongqing, southwest China, state media reported today. The regulation outlaws snooping into their emails, text messages, web chats, and browser history. The regulation is designed to protect the rights of children, but is surprising given widespread concern in China about excessive internet use among young people and their access to unsuitable material. Psychologists have sought to have internet addiction listed as a clinical disorder and treatment camps have sprung up across the country. The Chongqing Evening Post described the new regulation, adopted on Friday by officials in Chongqing, as the first of its kind in the country. Other Chinese media said it expanded an existing national rule. But both experts and children doubted whether it would have an impact in practice. Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, told China Daily that children were unlikely to take their parents to court
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Chinese province bans adults looking at youngsters' mobiles
Video: India unveils world’s cheapest ‘laptop’
The $35 device is aimed at university students – and the price could yet fall further
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Video: India unveils world's cheapest 'laptop'
India unveils ‘laptop’ costing $35
Touchscreen computing device aimed at students is expected to be rolled out to higher education institutions from 2011 India has come up with the world's cheapest "laptop", a touchscreen computing device that costs $35 (£23). India's human resource development minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass production. "We have reached a (developmental) stage that today; the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything," he told a news conference in New Delhi. He said the touchscreen gadget was packed with web browers, PDF reader and video conferencing facilities, but its hardware was created with sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user requirement. Sibal said the Linux-based device was expected to be introduced to higher education institutions from 2011 but the aim was to drop the price further to $20 and ultimately to $10. The device was developed by research teams at India's premier technological institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. India spends about 3% of its annual budget on school education and has improved its literacy rates to over 64% of its population of 1.2 billion. However, studies have shown many students can barely read or write and most state-run schools have inadequate facilities. India Computing guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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India unveils 'laptop' costing $35
Kano: ‘I’m definitely not a nerd’ | Celebrity squares
British rapper Kano thinks that we all rely on technology too much What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? Probably the Akai MPC4000 beat machine , because it's the machine that got me doing my own beats and producing new and different styles of music. When was the last time you used it, and what for? A few months ago, for a song called Mad. The Akai machine is very exposed on that track. What additional features would you add if you could? There is an MPC5000 that has a bigger screen, and you can see the wave as you hit the beat, so I'd like that.
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Kano: 'I'm definitely not a nerd' | Celebrity squares
Trying to fix a PC that sometimes refuses to start
Pete Morton has a Mesh PC that does not always start correctly but, if left on, can boot after two or three hours I've got a PC which intermittently refuses to boot, sometimes for several hours. When it's misbehaving, it doesn't show a splashscreen, there's no hard disk activity, and it won't boot from a CD, either. If I leave it powered on, it does seem to boot eventually, after anything up to two or three hours. Memory tests and hard disc tests run clean. The PC is a fairly high spec two-year-old Mesh PC. It has been a dog from 13 months, but Mesh wash their hands of it, because I didn't buy extended warranty. Any idea where I should begin or should I just cut my losses? Pete Morton Intermittent faults are very difficult to diagnose, and I can't think of anything that would cause a PC to hang for a couple of hours before booting. (Anyone?) In this case, I'd guess that the likeliest culprit is either the memory or the hard drive, though you say these check out OK. It might be dust or a stray wire or bit of metal fouling a chip on the motherboard (that last one isn't common turned out to be the cause of my son's PC rebooting at random). It might be the power supply, but again, this seems to work normally once the PC has booted. Although you say Mesh has not been helpful, you could try asking on its support forum, in the section called Mesh Computers Owners Club - Customer Care and Technical Support .
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Trying to fix a PC that sometimes refuses to start
Kimberley Nixon: ‘I can’t be doing with reading manuals’
Actor Kimberley Nixon on her boyfriend's efforts to stop her iPod killing her, her dad's tech support, and why she prefers PCs What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? It's very boring, and everyone's said it, but it has to be my iPod. I travel a lot, and being on my own for hours for hours and hours on a train or a plane, it's something to keep me company. When was the last time you used it, and what for? This morning on my way to work. I'm doing some rehearsals for the RSC, so it was good to get some kind of music into my system. What additional features would you add if you could? It's already been invented – the iPod pillow speaker, which I got as a Christmas present. I like to listen to my iPod when I go to sleep, but I always get tangled up in the wires. My boyfriend got it for me so that I didn't kill myself
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Kimberley Nixon: 'I can't be doing with reading manuals'
Steve Jobs to launch Apple’s new iPhone – but will it be an anticlimax?
Apple is preparing to reveal its latest iPhone, but many details were leaked after a prototype was left in a bar Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, is due to unveil the fourth version of the company's hugely popular iPhone tomorrow – including a screen with up to four times more detail, a camera flash, noise cancellation and longer battery life. The announcement is expected at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, which has drawn thousands of programmers keen to write programs – apps – for the device. More than 51m iPhones have been sold since its launch in June 2007, and a number of developers have made thousands of pounds from selling apps through Apple's App Store. But for Jobs the unveiling will be something of an anticlimax – many details about the phone leaked out in mid-April after one of his staff lost a prototype in a bar near the company's headquarters. It was sold to gadget blog Gizmodo, where blogger Jason Chen took it apart and posted a video declaring: "You are looking at Apple's next iPhone." Jobs prefers to keep details of upcoming products under wraps to heighten expectations. But with more details known about the new iPhone than any previous model, some of that effect is likely to be diminished. Yet Apple can revel in having passed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company, based on market capitalisation, and having sold 2m of its iPad tablet computers worldwide since they went on sale in the US on 3 April – including a highly successful UK launch that saw a queue of over a thousand people outside Apple's flagship store in Regent Street, London. Gizmodo's posting about the new iPhone has turned into a criminal investigation after the roommate of Brian Hogan – who walked out of a bar with the iPhone – contacted police, worried that the phone was stolen
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Steve Jobs to launch Apple's new iPhone – but will it be an anticlimax?
‘Had it crashed? Or was it being sarcastic?’ Charlie Brooker on the iPad
Websites look great on it. As does video. But books? Here, I'm less convinced The iPad: the world's most expensive rectangle. The Guardian wanted me to write a first-impressions review on launch day – but how? I could borrow one from an early adopter, but that wouldn't be the same. I don't like poking round other people's computers. It's like snooping through their medicine cabinets: quite quickly you can stumble across something you wish you hadn't seen.
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'Had it crashed? Or was it being sarcastic?' Charlie Brooker on the iPad
Apple iPad worldwide launch
The internatonal Apple iPad launch was marked by long queues and excited early adopters
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Apple iPad worldwide launch
Suzi Perry: ‘I would really like a teleporter’ | Celebrity squares
Gadget Show presenter Suzi Perry unveils her favourite gizmos What's your favourite piece of technology and how has it improved your life? I'm going to generalise and say the smartphone. Starting from Nokia's N95, I've had a bunch of smartphones since they came along – they're feature-rich and bring everything from the office to your pocket. They've made life so much easier. When was the last time you used it, and what for? I've got a BlackBerry Bold and an iPhone. I'm on the BlackBerry right now, talking to you, and I've been using my iPhone this morning to arrange a virtual sporting event. What additional features would you add if you could?
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Suzi Perry: 'I would really like a teleporter' | Celebrity squares