The Future of Paper

The Observer has an interesting piece on the future of the book. For some the future of the book is electronic: [Bloomsbury chairman Nigel] Newton is certain that ‘within seven to 10 years, 50 per cent of all book sales will be downloads. When the e-reader emerges as a mass-market item, the shift will be very … Read more

8 GB Is the New 8 MB

At what point do USB flash drives replace iPods, external hard drives or laptops? M-Systems has announced the 8GB DiskOnKey USB drive and promises a 128 GB version by the end of the decade. AS EverythingUSB comments: their announcement reminds us how far they’ve the NAND industry has come. In 2000, the Israeli-company brought us a … Read more

Podcast: BitTorrent

Sorry they aren’t as regular as they could be, but here’s another podcast of a piece I did for the BBC’s World Service ‘World Business Report. This one’s on BitTorrent:  Download Bittorrent1.mp3 http://www.loosewireblog.com/files/wagstaff_bittorrent1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Xdrive Responds: Patience, Please

Further to several comments from readers about problems with Xdrive, the online storage service recently bought by AOL, I sought comment from their PR. Here, somewhat belatedly, is what they have to say: Recently, Xdrive began a system upgrade designed to improve the quality and overall performance of the Xdrive experience. When complete, these upgrades … Read more

Xdrive: Not Out Of The Woods

Further to my post a couple of months back on problems at Xdrive , seems the company recently acquired by AOL isn’t out of the woods yet. Two readers posted comments in the past 24 hours: One wrote Xdrive – one of the worst services I have had of any web-based provider. I couldn’t sign … Read more