Reuters points out that, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World, “[g]lobal mobile phone use will pass the 3 billion mark — equivalent to half the world’s population — for the first time in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa. From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile operators will have notched up more than 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of the year.”
According to Internetnews.com, “[t]he Internet has already surpassed television and other media as the ‘most essential’ medium, depending on what age group you fall under. The new Internet and Multimedia 2007 report by Edison Media Research surveyed consumers 12 and older earlier this year and found the Internet (33 percent) is gaining rapidly on television (36 percent) as ‘most essential.’”
Inc.com writes that, according to Discover, “[d]oubting market conditions are improving, small-business owners were far less confident about the economy in June. In survey of 1,000 small-business owners nationwide, only 34 percent said they felt conditions for their business were getting better, compared to 43 percent in May, while just 38 percent described the economy as ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ down from 45 percent. As a result, more owners said they expected to cut back on spending in the months ahead, the survey found.”
BBC News reports that “[t]he BBC’s on demand TV service, the BBC iPlayer, will launch to the public on 27 July. UK users will be able to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC. Later this year, the service will also be available via links from YouTube and could also appear on other websites such as MSN, Bebo, and Facebook.”
Yahoo!News points out that “[a] controversial update to the GNU GPL (General Public License) is set to be released Friday by the Free Software Foundation.” However, “[r]ight now, it appears there will only be a small number of projects that will adopt the license,” which has been criticized for building walls between open source and proprietary technology and disregarding the practical concerns of users.