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Our lives are so mediated by the web today that it’s hard to recall life in the pre-digital era. I faintly recall hearing URLs read out on the radio in the mid-nineties, and puzzling over whether I ought to spell out the word ‘dot’– but just try explaining that to the kids! This year the Web celebrates its 21st birthday. In honor of it finally growing up, we’ve taken a look at the story of its conception and the man who made it all happen, Tim Berners-Lee.

A computer genius family 

A Londoner by birth, and the son of a pair of computer geeks – Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods, who themselves worked on the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1 – Berners-Lee studied physics at Queen’s College, Oxford, in the late 1970s. While he was there, he built his own first computer using little other than a soldering iron, an M6800 processor, and an old television.

Enquiring mind

It all must have paid off, because in 1980, within four years of graduation, he was taken on as a contractor at CERN – the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva that’s more recently hit the news because of its Large Hadron Collider and investigations into the Higgs Boson particle. Well, CERN’s always been cutting-edge; while Berners-Lee was there, he kept himself busy writing a hypertext program called Enquire – a method for storing information using random associations – which was just for personal use, and never published, but which formed the conceptual basis for the behemoth we now call the World Wide Web.

“An act of desperation”

After a few years away – developing his networking skills by working on a real-time remote procedure calls project in Bournemouth, England – Berners-Lee came back to CERN on a fellowship, and this time, it went stellar. He took his earlier hypertext work and the existing nuts and bolts of the internet and jammed them together in what he called ‘an act of desperation’ to create a ‘larger documentation system’. Although the internet, in its most basic form, had been knocking around since the late 1960s Berners-Lee’s innovations now allowed any document to be linked to any other document.

It’s alive!

He wrote the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP ring any bells?) that made that possible, and he came up with HTML, the language in which hypertext pages were (and are) written. Voila: the Web! The first website went live in 1991. Sadly, there are no available screenshots of the original content, but here’s a scree shot taken from a NeXT computer running Tim Berners-Lee’s original World Wide Web browser.

Free and democratic

Berners-Lee – who’s now Sir Tim Berners-Lee – went on, in 1994, to form the Worldwide Web Consortium, or W3C, at MIT, in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or CSAIL. This was set up to create standards and recommendations to improve everybody’s web experience. Berners-Lee made his idea, the web, freely available, with no royalties due, so that we can all easily use it, and today he’s co-director of the Open Data Institute. Smart and democratic – that’s what we like in an inventor!

The next 21 years?

In twenty one years, Berners- Lee’s creation has transformed our lives beyond belief, but what about the next couple of decades? While predicting the future is always a risky business, one thing we can say for certain is the web will be ever more mobile. In fact, according to Gartner, already in 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access devices worldwide. Pretty impressive for something that started off as a hobby.

Image credits: Silvio Tanaka

Uwaga posiadacze smartfona Huawei G300! Możecie już aktualizować telefon do Androida 4 Napiszcie jak wrażenia po aktualizacji?   Zobaczcie koniecznie nasz test tego telefonu  

Uwaga posiadacze smartfona Huawei G300! Możecie już aktualizować telefon do Androida 4 Napiszcie jak wrażenia po aktualizacji?   Zobaczcie koniecznie nasz test tego telefonu  

Wiem, wiem, wszyscy powiedzieli już wszystko o przenoszeniu numerów w Q3. Czyżby? Zobaczcie infografikę, jest tu kilka smaczków!

Wiem, wiem, wszyscy powiedzieli już wszystko o przenoszeniu numerów w Q3. Czyżby? Zobaczcie infografikę, jest tu kilka smaczków!

Happy Friday guys -

Here’s something that could be useful this weekend – five cool things you might not have known about the camera on your Sony Xperia smartphone.

Bear in mind, these are my personal choices in no particular order – so feel free to let us know your own favourites in the comments below

Sony Xperia Smartphones are packed with the best of Sony Camera technology; all of Sony’s heritage and expertise locked and loaded in your hand – so, without further ado…

- Fast capture – a neat feature; even when in standby, by pressing the camera key, you can go from sleep to snap in a little over a second. Not one for artistic shots, but great for capturing action or even mishaps and misfortune

- Customisable menu – simply hit settings on your camera interface screen and then drag and drop your preferred setting into the viewfinder window. One for the budding professionals or perfectionists amongst us giving you easy access to all your favourite functions!

- Different capture modes (Normal, Scene recognition, Sweep Panorama, Sweep Multi Angle and 3D Sweep Panorama). This is sweet and something that’s a hallmark of Sony Digital Cybershot cameras. In normal – you pick the scene settings manually and with scene recognition – let your Xperia smartphone take a guess, it’s no slouch! Then there’s also…

- Sweep Panorama, Sweep Multi-angle and 3D Sweep panorama  - sweep panorama has featured in Xperia smartphones for longer than I dare to remember! We’re always looking to evolve this functionality – 3D Sweep Panorama lets you create panoramic photos that can be viewed in either 2D or 3D on a compatible TV. Then, my favourite is Sweep Multi-angle; it lets you create an almost lenticular image that gives the impression of depth – sweet huh?

- Sensory perception – your Xperia smartphone camera features an Exmor R BSI CMOS sensor. To geek out for a minute, the sensor uses a back illuminated sensor which means the light receptor isn’t blocked by the wire circuit – which then means light falls directly onto the receptive areas of the sensor – which means more light – which means less noise, even in low light – which means happier snapping in all light conditions!

Have a great weekend,

Ant.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In freezing temperatures we all like to wrap ourselves in multiple layers, wear a hat, gloves and perhaps a scarf too. But how many of us do the same for our phones?

If you are into winter sports, such as skiing and snowboarding, then you are probably familiar with the annoying problem where your phone’s battery performance drops alarmingly in cold conditions.

Well, help is now at hand.

The Nokia X Burton Insulator case has been specially designed to protect your phone from the cold and snow.

In tests, it was found that the Nokia X Burton Insulator case helps to extend your phone’s battery life by up to 50 per cent* in cold and sub-zero temperatures.

It might seem bizarre but keeping your phone wrapped up warm really does seem to make a big difference.

Working with Burton

Nokia’s partnership with Burton, leading makers of snowboards and cool winter gear, goes back several years and has now developed into working together on innovative products.

The Nokia X Burton Insulator cases feature a cosy soft-fur lining and 3M™Thinsulate™ for maximum cold weather protection. They also have a leash allowing you to attach the case, and your phone, securely to your jacket.

As well as having a serious functionality, the cases look the part too. They have been designed to match and complement Burton’s stylish 2012/13 collection.

* Test conditions: Offline streaming of Nokia Music in temperatures of minus 10 centigrade (-10°C), using the Nokia Lumia 800. Insulator Case CP-614 used.

Photography as we know it today wasn’t an invention that appeared, fully formed, overnight. Rather its arrival was a gradual process over nearly a century with each step refining or moving on from the innovation that came before it. It is hard to talk of the ‘inventor’ of photography since there are so many types of process that could qualify as a ‘photograph’ and so many different starting points for each type of technology.

So here’s a list of five major innovations that have shaped our idea of photography and some of the people we should be thankful to for helping to give us the astonishing little devices we all own today.

The first colour photo

James Clerk Maxwell was born in Scotland in 1831. Throughout the scientific community he is known as the mathematician and physicist who unified the theory of electromagnetism. But Maxwell was also responsible for the first colour photograph.

The image in question is a tartan ribbon photographed by Thomas Sutton at a lecture given by Maxwell in 1861. (Sutton himself went on to invent the Single Lens Reflex camera). It was made up of three exposures through red, green and blue filters. This colour plate – and two others – are now housed in a small Museum in Edinburgh in the house where Maxwell was born.

Photography for all: The Box Brownie

When the Eastman Kodak Box Brownie was first introduced in 1900 it was marketed as low-cost and simple photography (the first cameras sold for just $1). Due to its accessibility and cheap processing the Brownie is widely regarded as having instigated the notion of a ‘snap-shot’. Bizarrely, Kodak named their egalitarian cardboard box camera after Canadian Palmer Cox’s cartoon character stories.

Back in 1908, Austrian architecture critic Joseph August Lux argued that the accessibility of the camera meant everyday people could document their environments and gain some sense of permanence in the hectic rise and fall of the modern world. One wonders just what Herr Lux would have made of 2012?

The 35mm revolution

The arrival of 35mm film liberated photographers, changed what could be photographed and consequently re-wrote the history of photography. Leica initially led the way with the UR and followed it with the legendary Leica I in 1925. Contax got into the game next in 1932 and were rapidly followed by Kodak in 1934 and Canon in 1936.

 Earlier this year, a 1923 35mm Leica sold at auction for £1.7 million – thus making it the most expensive camera ever sold! Digital may be the future, but the 35mm legacy still pulls at our heart (and purse) strings!

The man who made time stand still 

Although a form of artificial flashing light was developed in the late 19^th century, it was in the early 1930s that Nebraskan engineer Harold E. Edgerton came up with a repeatable short-duration electronic flash (stroboscopic light). His strobe lights were capable of firing 120 per second and could capture balloons bursting, drops hitting the surface of water and, famously, a bullet passing through a playing card.

These happenings were genuinely too fast for the human eye to see and so his flash technology not only changed photography, but also how we all view the world.  

A billion camera phones

Whatever your opinion on everyone documenting their daily activities there is no denying the way in which the camera-phone has affected our world – and the onward development of our notion of photography. Everything in our day, from personal experiences to the news content we consume, is delivered through our camera-phones.

Cameras are no longer only whipped out at special occasions, by the few who remember to bring them; they are now an omnipresent aspect of our lives, wielded by everyone from 6 year olds to octogenarians. It’s sometimes hard to believe that these little devices have only been around for 12 years… And frankly its mind boggling to wonder about what is still to come.

These have all had a profound effect upon our lives, but have we missed any you think deserve a mention? If so, let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: Leiris202

The Marketplace is naturally my ‘Go to’ place for finding new and popular apps and games when I know what I’m looking for, but today I’m going to look at some of the recommendations that are featured in the Spotlight section. When you’re looking for a game, but aren’t sure what to try, or need that killer app, but can’t quite figure out what it is, the Spotlight can often help. Here’s a few that I found:

Baconit

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Read it, Reddit, done

If you’re an avid Reddit user, why should you be away from your news feed while you’re on the move? Baconit allows you to continue sharing, learning and giving Karma seamlessly on your Lumia.

Who better to talk us through how Baconit works than Quinn Damerell, the guy who developed the app:

Been using Baconit to get your Reddit fix? Would you vote it up or down?

Extraction

Cost: £0.79/0,99 €/$0.99 (with a free demo) in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Zombies, guns, what more do you need?

I often find the best way to get a feel for the games and apps I’m thinking about trying is to see how others have reviewed them. After all, if they have taken time to leave a review, they’ll probably feel strongly one way or the other.

Chris – ‘very fun and simple shooter’

Thomas (not me) – ‘best game on WP7′

Others, however, said it took ‘ages to load’ and was ‘buggy’.

On balance, I’ll probably give this one a try. Have you tried it? What do you think? Is it really the best game?

Clearer

Cost: £0.79/0,99 €/$0.99 (with a free demo) in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Clear that To Do list

At first I didn’t understand what this app was all about, or how it worked, until I read some of the reviews. It’s an extremely simple app that keeps track of your ‘To Do’ lists (yes, you can have several different lists – I have work, chores, shopping lists), allowing you to simply swipe tasks away once they are completed (or in your shopping basket in my case). So while the concept of the app wasn’t immediately obvious from the name, things became ‘Clearer’ very quickly.

For a look at the app in action, Jay demoed it for the Lumiappaday series on My Nokia Blog:

Next time we’ll be looking at Health and Fitness Apps, so if you have any suggestions for us, feel free to leave them in the comments, or ping us on Twitter.

It will be a magical moment the very first time you take your Nokia Lumia 920 out of its box. Behold, for in your hands is the most innovative smartphone.

It would be understandable if you are bursting at the seams to get started; to capture the best pictures and videos with the latest PureView camera innovation, to navigate the world more intuitively, and to experience a more personal smartphone on the Windows Phone 8 user interface. No doubt, you will do all this and much, much more.

Before you do, read the rest of this article… It will help you to appreciate, get started and let you see the potential of this super smartphone.

Booting up

When you first turn on your device, you can set your location and time zone and sign into your Windows Live account as usual. Terrific new features and content on the Lumia 920 such as Nokia Maps, Nokia Music, and the great new apps on the home screen take some time to install for the first time.

Therefore, the first time you turn on your device, it will take a few moments to get it up and running.  Be patient for this one-off installation before you continue. Once the Lumia 920 has completed the initial installation phase, your patience will be amply rewarded with a personal and wonderful smartphone experience.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

Using your Lumia 920 at home and abroad

We are hearing more and more about 4G/LTE networks and the fast data speeds that they will provide. The Lumia 920 with its multiband 4G/LTE capability is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this.

Faster data speeds will make streaming videos, downloading files and playing online games an even better experience when you are out and about with your Lumia.  When travelling, it is recommended that you change the setting from 4G to 3G as international roaming may not yet be supported on these new generation networks. To change the network setting on the Lumia 920 from 4G to 3G, go to Settings, tap ‘Cellular’ or ‘mobile network’and ‘highest connection speed’ and choose ‘3G’.

If you are with an operator that has yet to roll out its 4G network, you will be able to enjoy the fastest available connection speeds, like 3G. With the Snapdragon S4 processor and Windows Phone 8 operating system, your Lumia 920 will be able to give you a great fast ride even when using 3G.

Navigation

We talk a lot on Conversations about Nokia’s location-based apps and why we think they’re miles ahead of the competition. With Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive+, Nokia Transport and Nokia City Lens, the Nokia location services represent an amazingly comprehensive, integrated mapping experience.

The latest addition to the family, Nokia City Lens is our exclusive augmented reality that lets you see and navigate the world around you, using the camera viewfinder. Restaurants, cinemas and other places of interest will magically appear on your screen as you look around on your camera.

Another magnificent location app is Nokia Drive+, which gives you free, turn-by-turn voice guided navigation. While we are putting the final touches on Nokia Drive+, you can hit the road with the beta version. Just be sure to download the latest maps for free before you travel. Then you never have to think twice about coverage or data connectivity: Nokia Drive+ will be there for you, even if reception isn’t. Full offline support will help you save costs when travelling abroad too.

Not only can you use Nokia Drive+ when your Lumia 920 is offline, but you can also get the speed limit warnings even after the active navigation has finished. Alternatively, if you don’t want to receive the warnings anymore, just press the back key to exit the application.

Imaging

One of the standout features on the Lumia 920 is the PureView camera technology with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and Carl Zeiss optics.

This will allow you to take pictures and videos that are detailed, bright and less blurry, even in low light conditions and even with shaky hands.

Another key benefit of optical image stabilisation is that it will help you to shoot steady videos even when your hand is shaking or you are moving fast.

As video recordings can result in very large files, it is recommended that you upload the videos to your SkyDrive account so that they can be easily accessed on different devices, such as your laptop or PC. Keeping your videos short also makes it quicker to transfer them out of your phone!

Using different Lenses will also provide you with new ways of exploring your photographic creativity. For example, Nokia Smart Shoot enables you to take multiple photos with a single click so that you can edit effortlessly to make the perfect picture. Meanwhile, Cinemagraph lets you create pictures with movement. This makes taking pictures even more fun!

Wireless and other experiences

The Nokia Lumia 920 is at the forefront of a wireless charging movement that will soon make it much more convenient to keep your phone powered up even when you are on the move.

With wireless charging integrated into the gorgeous handset, you can just lay your Lumia on a colourful charging plate or Fatboy Pillow to keep it charged up.

There are also other accessories such as the JBL PowerUp speaker that will charge your Lumia 920 wirelessly while playing your music.

With this short introduction to the world of the most innovative smartphone, we invite you to enjoy your Lumia 920! Savour the whole experience!

For more tips and tricks, take a look at the product support pages.