The Weekly Round-Up: 22.05.09

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

Oh, what's that? You're not sitting comfortably at all, but sprawled on your super-king sized divan and you want the pillows plumped up and the duvet straightened?

Firstly, does the Round-Up look like your mum? (Don't answer that). And second, perhaps you could explain why you're reading the Round-Up in bed, instead of in the office on a Friday afternoon like everybody else?

It may come as some surprise, but if you are reading the Round-Up in your jimjams, tucked up underneath your favourite superhero duvet, then you are not alone (well, actually you probably are alone if you still have a superhero duvet).

One in four city workers are taking their laptops to bed for up to six hours every week, such is their obsession with work, a survey claims. And eight per cent of the 300 city slickers surveyed admit to spending more time fiddling with their mobile devices during the evening than talking to their partners.

Which is either a recipe for a long and happy marriage or a guaranteed one-way ticket to the divorce courts, depending on your perspective. And your partner.

Still, there is perhaps little surprise that the survey by Credent Technologies found that most partners considered this obsession with hardware to be "a very annoying habit".

Even worse, those workers indulging in a little horizontal overtime aren't even practising safe surfing – they have important work documents unencrypted and don't bother using a secure wireless network as they tap away under the duvet.

"This will sound alarm bells for the many in-house IT departments who are tasked with trying to secure an ever increasing mobile workforce," warns the company. The idea of the tech department having to fix the IT problems of workers in bed also sounds like the opening scene of an updated version of one of those 'Confessions of a…' movies from the 1970s.

Keeping with the bedtime theme (only for a little longer) a separate survey turns all this on its head by claiming that those that work in the tech sector are less selfish in bed. And let's just say when the survey talks about 'selfish' they aren’t talking about hogging the duvet.

Closing the bedroom door softly but firmly, and promising never to look back, the Round-Up will now move onto more wholesome stories of this week. Such as bicycling.

Ah yes, the freedom of the open road, the wind in your hair, the cheeky sound of your bell, the fun to be had pulling wheelies to impress your mates.

But enough of the Round-Up's plans for the bank holiday – it's the Google Trike that's in the news this week. Yes, to add even more images to every nosy neighbour's favourite application, Google is turning to some high tech pedal power. This summer, Google will deploy bikes mounted with its 360-degree Street View cameras to map the bits of the UK that its fleet of Street View cars haven't reached yet.

The company describes the Google Trike as "a mechanical masterpiece comprising three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel", and this will arrive in the UK to make some "special image collections".

It's up to the public, however, to tell Google - via a vote - which locations should be photographed. There are five categories to choose from, picked by VisitBritain: castles, coastal paths, natural wonders, historic buildings and monuments and stadiums.

No doubt this will go down well with the silicon.com reader who waxed lyrical about Street View this recently, pointing out it can be used for "wonderful things" like finding a friend's house, checking out the local parking and "planning a defensible position for when the dead rise from their graves".

Still, the Round-Up thinks all this Google Triking is all jolly fun but wonders where it will all end. Mice with mini-web cams strapped to their backs to record those hard to reach gutters? Trained ants exploring every crack on the pavement to be recorded for our later viewing pleasure? It can't come soon enough, says the Round-Up!

silicon.com columnist Seb Janacek is many things to many people. But one thing he definitely is, is finely tuned into is all things Apple. So in tune with the ways of Apple that way back in February he was complaining about getting shocks from his iPhone headphones - something that the rest of the world woke up to in the last week or so. iPhone and iPod users may experience a "small and quick" shock via their earbuds due to a build-up of static electricity, Apple warned this week.

People listening to one of the devices in extremely dry air are most at risk of receiving a static electricity shock through the earbuds, according to a warning posted on Apple's website. The post likened the condition to the discharge that occurs when a person drags their feet across a carpet then gets a shock by touching a door handle. Apple pointed out the condition is not limited to Apple hardware and static can potentially build up on almost any hardware and could be discharged using any brand of earbuds.

Apple's suggestions as to how to remedy the condition when indoors include the use of a humidifier to raise the moisture level of the air, hand lotions to moisturise dry skin, or an anti-static spray. It also recommends users wear clothes made of natural fibres instead of synthetic fibres. We'll get Seb moisturised and dressed in natural organic fibres and report back…

Finally this week, a few other stories that caught our fancy.

Fancy a bead in your ear and a Bluetooth node in your pocket? No, the Round-Up doesn't either but it's the future, apparently.

And just because everyone has got bored of writing and reading doom and gloom stories that doesn't mean that the good times are just around the corner again, says the silicon.com CIO Jury.

And, as always, have a go at the caption competition.