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Most people who know me know that I’m an Apple geek.  I have the latest iPhone, the iPad, a Macbook, etc.  I love Apple’s products and I like to keep mine protected.  Recently, a friend showed me her CandyShell cover from Speck and I immediately knew that I needed one.

They’re great.  They’re slim, easily snap on, and have two layers of protection to keep your phone from the bumps, bruises, and other things life drops them into.

The cases are one piece and easily cover the phone without a lot of fuss or wrestling.  I’ve had previous cases that required stretching, pressing (that made you feel you were sure to break your phone just pushing the protective case into place), or the application of sticky films.  Others went on easily, but then fell off in your pocket or as soon as you dropped the phone.

The Speck case stays in place and goes on easy.  They come in a variety of colors and look cool while leaving access to the camera, ports, and buttons open and accessible.

Very awesome and well worth getting.  One of the few products that I will openly endorse without reservation.  We’re now getting Speck cases for our other gadgets too.  They have one to fit everything.

You can find out more at Speckproducts.com

Note: this is an unpaid, uncompensated endorsement.

The Queen’s speech that took place this week has confirmed that the government intends to push ahead with its controversial Communications Data Bill, which would afford the government powers to read people’s emails among other moves that privacy campaigners have called dangerous.

The bill, if passed, would allow law enforcement agencies the right to access communications data including emails and texts in a bid to detect criminal activity.  Unsurprisingly, it has come in for widespread criticism within the industry.

The Queen said in her speech “My Government intends to bring forward measures to maintain the ability of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access vital communications data under strict safeguards to protect the public, subject to scrutiny of draft clauses” while the government, in an announcement that was timed to coincide with the Queen’s speech, said “[The] data includes the time and duration of the communication, the telephone number or email address which has been contacted and sometimes the location of the originator of the communication.”

The draft of the bill was released on May 9^th. Before the bill can become a reality, the government must establish a number of frameworks that will enable the collection and retention of the data from service providers.  It has been advised that communications providers should be required to hold on to the data for no longer than 12 months.

The bill will continue to draw criticism from many quarters as people see it as going a step too far and putting civil liberties at risk.

It has been announced that the number of people using the internet in South Africa has risen considerably due to the rise in the availability of smartphones.

The surge, which represents a 25 per cent growth over the past year, was revealed by research conducted by World Wide Worx, a research company who monitors internet traffic amongst other things.  This jump represents an increase from 6.5 million people in the country using the internet at the end of 2010 to 8.5 million by the end of 2011.

Managing director for World Wide Worx, Arthur Goldstruck, said of the news, “Penetration is now approaching 20%, and for the first time we can see the mass market embracing digital tools on their phones.”

The study revealed that 7.9 million people in South Africa accessed the internet via their mobile phone and almost 2.5 million people are without computers. This represents a significant coup for the smartphone market that is now showing that there is no need for people to own a computer in order to access the best of what the web has to offer.

In response to the results, executive producer of howzit MSN, Justin Zehmke, said, “This has huge implications for media and social networks. It means that, in the coming years, all services offered online will also have to be offered on cellphones.”

With smartphones being behind the internet drive in South Africa, a knock on effect is the lowering of data charges.

Facebook will be going public with its initial public offering on May 18.  It’s executives and initial investors have until then to convince the stock trading and investment world that the company has a valuation of $96 billion.

If they pull it off, then this will become a record IPO for an American company, outstripping Google at $23B in 2004.  The current record holder for an American IPO release is the United Parcel Service, which went public in 1999 at $60.2B. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to put $1B of his own stock into the IPO at that valuation, though that would still leave him with a controlling share of the company.

To put the $96B into perspective, that would make Facebook more valuable than Amazon.com, McDonald’s Corp, and Hewlett-Packard as they stand today.

Many in Silicon Valley believe that the public offering of Facebook will fundamentally change the tech sector, no matter how the offering goes.  If it goes well, it will justify the current valuation of many startups in tech while if it goes badly, it will justify the cries of “tech bubble” often heard in the media.

Analysts point to several things about Facebook that will drive its success or failure in gaining a $96B valuation.  First, while the site has 900 million active users, it does not necessarily advertise to or make revenue from those users and its growth curve (new users signing up) is slowing.  Current revenues at FB are good, but not that good, with a 45% year-on-year growth last quarter, but with consistent falling before then.

Further, Facebook has little presence in China, the world’s largest and fastest-growing tech and consumer market.  Finally, advertisers often don’t know what they’re getting with Facebook ads and often can’t draw many conclusions from ad response rates either.

Although Facebook was selling at private exchange for as much as $44 a share, during this IPO, the company is targeting $28 to $35 per share at launch.

It has been announced that practical steps are now underway to stop people from accessing the world’s largest illegal file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay.

The news comes after the High Court ordered five of the biggest ISP’s (internet service providers) to block access to the site after legal action was started by BPI, the music industry body.  The five subject ISP’s are Everything Everywhere, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and O2

Virgin Media have already stated that they have begun to implement the order, which comes after a ruling issued by Mr. Justice Arnold in February of this year who stated that both users and operators of the file-sharing website were infringing on the copyright of music companies.

Executive director of the Open Rights Group, Jim Killock, said of the order, “Blocking The Pirate Bay is pointless and dangerous. It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism.  Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes.”

A statement released by the people who run and own The Pirate Bay said that they will ‘stand united’ against any efforts to block people from gaining access to their site while other groups have expressed their concerns over the threat this move poses to online freedom and questioned the chances of success any efforts might have.

Torrent site The Pirate Bay is the world’s largest of its kind.o

Cabinet minister Francis Maude, most well known for inciting panic regarding a possible fuel shortage, has stated that the government must resist any urge to try and control the internet.

Mr. Maude, who has the role of being responsible for cyber security within the Government, admitted that there is a dark side to the internet. He believes this is where criminals, hackers, and terrorist do operate however, he insists that the online world has ‘flourished’ due the fact that it has been moulded by users rather than by those people who have been elected in to government.

In a statement given to the International Centre for Defence Studies earlier this week, Mr. Maude said, “There is no denying the power of the internet and the power it gives individuals. But of course the web does not discriminate between the people it empowers – and we know it can be a powerful tool for those who wish to do harm.  …it reflects the best ideas, the most imaginative thinking, our entrepreneurial spirit. But it also shows up many of our worst characteristics. So do we throw our hands up in despair? Switch it off – return to a paper world? Of course not.”

He added that the cyber revolution offers society immense possibilities while conceding that issues of maintaining online security offered an ongoing challenge.  Mr. Maude added that we need to address ways of protecting the internet without spoiling the very thing we wished to protect.