Yes. Yes, it will. So what?

Look around you the next time you’re at a gig, or in an airport, or anywhere else large numbers of people are gathered. You’ll see loads of iPhones, many of them in the hands of idiots.

Smartphone apps are great – unless they’re putting you out of business. Today’s Techradar op/ed:

If you can scan the barcode on a flat-screen TV, a fridge, a Fimbles DVD or anything else you’re thinking of buying, you can instantly discover where there’s a better deal. It could be the shop next door, or a website. That’s seriously bad news for high street shops, because the internet will undercut them almost every time.

As you might have heard, Modern Warfare 2 – which comes out today – includes a bit where you’re doing terrorist things. It’s causing a bit of controversy, and of course I have an opinion on that.

What we’re seeing here is something much more interesting than mere headline chasing: it’s a dramatic example of how videogames are trying to grow up.

If we want our games to grow up with us, we need to be grown up in the way we react to them – and that includes dumping the “we must protect the children” crap when games come with an 18 certificate specifically saying they’re not suitable for kids.

Yes it is.

If it weren’t for Firefox, you’d be reading this in IE6 – the software equivalent of the horrible Trabants the East Germans tooled around in before the Berlin Wall came down. It’s a browser, certainly, in much the same way that a Trabant is a car. But the Trabant isn’t a great car, and IE6 certainly isn’t a great browser.

Me at Techradar:

In many ways Android is a bit like Windows. The first version of Windows wasn’t up to much, but Microsoft refined it, refined it, refined it a bit more and then used it to take over the Earth.

Google’s doing the same.

A new post on Techradar, based on one blogger’s unhappy experiences of accessibility – both online and in the real world:

“What will it take take for Deaf and Disabled people to be a real part of so called Digital Britain?” Smith says. “Why do we have to fight for our access needs so much? Where are there no live subtitles streaming online at conferences? Where’s the audio description? Why aren’t websites compatible with screen readers? Why can’t conferences get the access right?”

They’re good questions. Does anybody have the answers?

It’s the best Windows yet, we’re told, but the reviewers said the same thing about Vista. Can we trust them? What’s different about Windows 7?

…unfair or not, people did criticise Microsoft – again and again and again and again, until the man on the street believed that Vista was as desirable as a six-month submarine trip with Fred “Farty” Finnegan and a kitchen stocked only with Guinness and sprouts.

So are the experts right this time? Will Windows 7 fare better? We think it will.

The “it’s just Vista done right” slur isn’t a slur to these eyes, because it’s largely true

Probably…

Income tax was introduced in 1798 to fund the war against Napoleon, and as you might have noticed he’s been dead for quite a while now.

Technically, income tax is still a temporary tax – the government has to renew it every year in a Finance Act – and we’ve got rid of it on numerous occasions, only to bring it back again when the government of the day runs out of money to pay for wars or wallpaper…

We’re already hearing the sound of goalposts moving: depending on what you read the tax is either to pay for 2012 (broadband for everyone), 2017 (“next generation” broadband for 90% of the population) or 2032 (another war against France, just for a laugh).