Happy Birthday 'Apps' Let's crack open this month's edition of Switched On and peek into Apples 'apps' store birthday celebrations. The apps store was launched one year ago to much fanfare, and has quickly grown to staggering heights, with over 1 billion applications downloaded for the iPhone and iPod touch.  Whilst this does of course highlight the power and hunger for open platform engagement, we should of course take a look at its impact on the digital communication sector. What have we learnt and what has been achieved? Read the full story»

Broadband frustration and 'not-spots' A flurry of news hit the web with 'World Broadband day' this month. Research commissioned by the BBC found that there were still three million homes in the UK suffering from sub two megabits per second broadband speeds. Given that the Government's final Digital Britain report (due for launch later this summer) is likely to subscribe to a minimum universal service commitment offering of 2Mbps, there's clearly a long road ahead in achieving this figure. Broadband frustration... Chances are if you're beyond 4km of an exchange then you'll be suffering from broadband frustration. Importantly broadband 'notspots' discovered in the research were not simply confined to rural locations in the UK, but many geographically defined suburban and urban regions too. So, whilst rural broadband proponents have been shouting the loudest, there's likely to be wider support out there still from city dwellers. Read the full story»

10 billion pounds and counting, the cost of illegal downloads A new report into illegal downloads in the UK has placed the cost to the UK economy in the tens of billions of pounds. Recent research from the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP) suggests that up to seven million people in the UK are involved in the illegal downloading of copyrighted material. Perhaps rather more worrying is the difficulty envisaged in changing people's attitudes to illegal downloading. It's clear from the report that copyright confusion and the freedom of the internet only add to the difficulty in resolving these issues. As and when the average speeds offered to UK broadband consumers increase so will the speeds of downloading both legal and illegal. To put it into context, broadband access achieving speeds of 50Mbps could deliver 200 MP3  files in five minutes, or the complete digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than 10 minutes. If we thought the UK economy faced a tough challenge now, then the report clearly sets out the size of the problem faced in the near future. Read the full story»

Land of the rising. . .  sales Rather encouraging news from the east this month. Both Japanese ministry and industry data has suggested that strong sales of energy efficient gadgets are lifting all electronics sales. Eco-Points... However much we might like to think so, strong sales of ecological gadgets in Japan have not simply stemmed from environmentally conscious punters. Back in May the Japanese Government initiated a stimulus package offering 'eco-points' for those consumers purchasing energy-efficient refrigerators and flat screen TVs.  Mysteriously consumers will be able to reclaim their government eco-points against as yet unannounced products. Read the full story»

Olympic airwaves warm-up It's time to draw this month's catch-up on all things digital to a close. But not before we take a sweeping look at the London 2012 Olympics. As ever spectrum remains a hot issue on our radar, and the pressure on UK airwaves at the 2012 games certainly demands our attention. With 14,500 athletes, 20,000 broadcasters in 200 countries, and the transmittion of coverage to an estimated five billion viewers globally, the use of wireless digital devices at the games will dramatically increase, and with it the pressure on UK spectrum. Read the full story»