The Weekly Round-Up: 16.06.06

Mobility is becoming a bigger issue for all of us and at the heart of the concept is the tried and tested, trusty old mobile phone which still sits pride of place on anybody's utility belt.

But have you ever stopped in your tracks, perhaps half way down the street, and suddenly found yourself wondering what the mobile phone will look like in 10 years.

No of course you haven't but that hasn't stopped a bunch of students from Central St Martins taking this as their design brief and coming up with an array of 'challenging' designs which give us a glimpse of exactly why so many people have issues with arts students.

We sent one of the team along to check out the exhibition at the Air Gallery in London and report back on these futuristic mobile phones... she could only work with the material she was given.

Take this one for example (photo).

"This design, called Scentsory, by Kimberly Hu, brings aromatherapy to a mobile... "

You see, this has actually lost the Round-Up's attention already but moving on, "... allowing users to share scents with each other, as well as other ambient experiences such as lighting. With its origami-like folding mechanism, the phone can take the form of an envelope or a traditional, thin candy bar phone".

Why? The Round-Up struggles not to lose a mobile phone which looks like a mobile phone but one which looks like an envelope stands no chance.

It will get posted.

Furthermore the Round-Up can only imagine the teenage horrors that will want to take advantage of being able to share scents with one another.

It's worth noting: there also comes a point where robustness may have been edged out of the equation to a degree which doesn't really suit the rather knock-about treatment that mobile phones - origami ones or not - are subject to.

The same goes for an eco-friendly mobile phone made from wood which was also on display (photo).

"This device, by Nicola Reed, is a 3G phone with the dimensions of a credit card and is intended to be worn around the neck." (Like a leash, for those of us who don't feel like a slave to our mobile phones enough as it is? Ed note.)

Now we're talking. While it might not co-ordinate with every outfit in the Round-Up's wardrobe circa 2015, this sounds like it could be a lot less easy to lose.

"It's green-themed and environmentally friendly..." OK, so even Sting will need a mobile phone in 2015 but at the rate legislation is going - thankfully - all consumer electronics will be 'green' by 2015, so this isn't really much of an innovation.

"... after analysing its user's day-to-day impact on the planet, the climate conscious are rewarded with free calls and texts... "

So the phone will somehow monitor the carbon neutrality of the individual's lifestyle and reward them with bonus top-ups. Interesting. (Still they've got nine years to figure out how exactly that's going to work... but perhaps not making mobile phones out of wood could be a start.)

You can read more here.

Moving on. It's Friday, of course, the sun is shining (for most of us anyway) and you may well be tempted to let your thoughts turn to the pub, especially if you could get away with finishing off your work with a nice cold drink in your hand.

Well this week, in the spirit (or should that be the guise) of investigative journalism, one brave soul from the silicon.com team was taking a bullet for every reader by traipsing around dozens of London's pubs - so you don't have to.

The reason for our man enduring this chore was to launch silicon.com's guide to many of the capital's best wireless internet-enabled pubs, for any readers who find themselves out an about on business in the big smoke and fancy a pint, a glass of wine, perhaps a soft drink, hot beverage, bite to eat or a packet of crisps while they send some emails in surrounds which they may find more conducive than other options such as a coffee shop.

We know what you're thinking: what a trooper. (Or you're already slating us for our London-centric view on life... more on which later.)

However, something which should have been fairly straightforward turned out to be far more taxing (on the feet, wallet and liver perhaps?) than it should have been in this customer service age. Because, before hitting the streets our man rang around pubs listed as having wireless internet access by providers such as BT Openzone, The Cloud and T-Mobile and asked whether this was the case.

"NO, NO, NO... You must get off phone. Is very busy time for us..." came the first response from a rather manic sounding woman at the White Swan pub near Vauxhall Bridge.

"Oh no, no, no. We don't have anything like that," chuckled the barman in the Lord Moon of the Mall, as though the idea of having 'the internet' in a pub (which they do) was the most ridiculous thing he'd heard in all his long years of pulling pints.

(How did these people ever buy into the idea of expanding their menus beyond a cheese ploughman's or a ham ploughman's?)

"No", followed "No", followed "No", all from pubs which it later transpired do offer wireless internet access and are clearly turning away any potential customer who rings up with a similar enquiry. (Read more, here)

But the job description of the average glass collector, pump jockey or even landlord never said anything about knowing about that-there-internet-thingy, after all. Which is fine. If they don't want it, fair enough - after all, lone souls on laptops may not be everybody's idea of a great atmosphere - but if they can offer something to customers then they really should know about it.

Our man on the street battled on and our photo guide to London's wi-fi pubs is starting to take shape, though with your help we're hoping to grow that list. If you know a good wireless enabled pub in or around the capital please drop us an email at editorial@silicon.com.

The best suggestion wins the pride of knowing they were useful.

And we have already had suggestions of pubs further afield as well, which we're very grateful for. We know there's a whole world outside the M25 (we've heard tales that made the hairs on the backs of our white-collar-clad necks stand up) so, who knows, if we get enough suggestions we may even broaden the boozy horizons of this resource.

The UK TV licensing authority has joined in the fun of the World Cup this week with news that it's going to be hunting down people watching streams of live games on their PCs and prosecuting them, dishing out £1,000 fines, if they don't have a licence.

That's the spirit.

This has left many consumers confused about what this actually means. The TV licence is already bogged down in an almighty mess of rules, regulations and exemptions and this has led many to wonder whether any broadband connected PC should be licensed. Others have pointed out these paper pushers are making threats which are going to be almost impossible to support.

A TV Licensing spokeswoman told silicon.com: "Businesses still need a TV licence for watching matches on a PC. Whether you work in an office, a building site, a hotel or anywhere else, there's really no excuse for breaking the law."

Hang on. Nobody working in any of those areas has argued in favour of having the right to break the law as far as the Round-Up is aware. This is a question of them not knowing - and frankly who can blame somebody for not knowing, especially given this sounds like a trumped up piece of very timely nonsense for squeezing more money out of the British public.

This spokeswoman is needlessly playing the classic 'so you think you're better than everybody else?' card, which is hardly going to get anybody hammering on their boss' door demanding the company buys a television licence now.

Moving on, from people who probably spend too much time in front of the television to, well, people who probably spend too much time in front of the television - the Round-Up heard of a novel use of biometrics this week (and by novel the Round-Up means controversial).

To combat the problem of childhood obesity, The Times reported that a number of schools are starting to fingerprint children and requiring them to pay for meals using their unique biometric which stores a record of what they're eating as well as charging the food against a pre-paid account meaning the children aren't required to carry dinner money for the bigger boys to bully out of them (not that the Round-Up is still bitter).

Originally, still on the subject of bullying, the Round-Up read the headline as 'Schools fight fat with fingerpointing' which didn't sound like a very sympathetic way to address the issue but in reality the headline said 'fingerprinting' which made a bit more sense - though it has got civil liberties groups in a tizzy about how that information will be used and what safeguards are in place.

One deputy head at a school in Leicestershire (home of Walkers crisps... oh, cruel Gods of irony) told The Times: "The scheme has been a resounding success... their eating habits have improved with more children picking fresh fruit and salads."

Who would have thought the instilled fear that Big Brother was watching them would make kids put down the cake and opt for a banana instead?

Another deputy head (are head teachers too busy to talk to The Times?) told the newspaper: "We decided to go for fingerprint identification, or biometrics, instead of swipe cards because there is nothing to lose."

Clearly this man wasn't the Round-Up's woodwork teacher, else he wouldn't be so glib.

Poor Timmy Thompson.

And finally, it's not just biometrics which can help shrink the world's expanding waistlines - many companies in the food and beverage industries have also invested huge amounts of money in low fat, low calorie and diet versions of their products.

But why drink a bottle of Diet Coke when you can make it go off like Old Faithful? And the latest craze to hit the internet is seeing hundreds of people doing just that. By dropping a packet of Mentos (bit like Softmints) into a bottle of diet Coke (or similar), enterprising souls and would-be bomb makers in the US have discovered that it's possible to make the bottle erupt with a stream of fizzy fun several feet into the air.

Now hundreds of videos are appearing online, on services such as YouTube.com, and the phenomenon has led some experts to predict that Coke and Mentos have benefited from around $10m each of free online marketing thanks to around 800 videos currently posted online and being watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers.

US news channel ABC even reported and demonstrated the phenomenon earlier this week, enlisting the help of a nuclear physicist to handle the tricky operation of dropping the Mentos into the bottle.

"How was your day honey, did you perfect your method of atomic fission?"

"No but ABC News got me in to drop some candy into a bottle of soda... so I think the Nobel Prize could still be mine."

The ABC reporter added, after seeing the ensuing stream of Diet Coke shoot about 10 feet into the air: "They get a big mess out of it and a lot of parents and kids are having a lot of fun with it."

Of course they are. The Round-Up isn't so old that it doesn't remember its own parents' reaction when similar 'science experiments' resulted in an almighty mess all over the kitchen or similar.

"A lot of fun" probably doesn't quite cover it.

"Oh look honey you've trashed our kitchen and completely ruined the walls and the ceiling... what tremendous fun."

The nuclear physicist, clearly enjoying his day out, explained: "Believe it or not it's a surface effect... "

The Round-Up isn't sure whether 'believe it or not' is not in fact interchangeable with 'you probably don't care but... '

Surface effect or not, it makes a big explosion.

The nuclear physicist added: "Diet soda has more carbon dioxides than other sodas... " ensuring sales of Diet Coke will continue to go through the roof... or at least all over the ceiling.

For the record, the more politically correct broadcasters used both Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke. (Though as far as the Round-Up could see, Diet Coke did seem to create by far the bigger geyser... not to be confused with big geezers, who probably aren't a result of 'diet' anything.)

Until next week, just make sure you do it out of doors... so to speak.

• The home phone as we know it is dead

• Kevin Mitnick has little sympathy for Nasa hacker

• Creative opens new front in iPod patent war

• Tech boosts England's bid for World Cup glory

• Is your bank turning into Ferrari?