The Weekly Round-Up: 09.10.09

How often have you had the following conversations with your significant other?

"I've just been speaking to Tim, he's madly in love."
"Really? I didn't hear the phone ring."
"No, it was through instant messenger."

Or,

"Barbara just said she and Dave have split up."
"Oh dear, did she sound upset?"
"No idea, I just read it on her Facebook status."

We are increasingly turning to the web to communicate our deepest feelings, according to the latest piece of research to arrive on the Round-Up's rather cluttered desk. When the Round-Up says "we" what it means is "Britons" - the stiff-upper-lipped, emotionally repressed dwellers of this sceptred isle. It's just like an episode of Brideshead Revisited here, honest.

Apparently, in the real world the average Brit is buttoned up about his or her emotions.

But not so online, where we are released and we pour out our ire, despair, joy and mirth in equal mirth, freed from the shackles of social embarrassment.

Which makes going online sound like a great night down the pub - except without the hangover, emptied wallet and poorly chosen take-away meal afterwards.

Fortunately, someone has come up with a neologism to provide a label for our cathartic online outpouring of emotion and opinion and that neologism is 'netspression'.

Which sounds more like an upmarket coffee machine to the Round-Up, who is admittedly hardly an expert in these things.

Nearly half of Brits spend more time chatting to friends online than on the phone or face-to-face, according to the Yahoo! survey. Meanwhile, more than 20 per cent of us have found out something we never knew about our partner from social networking websites. The mind boggles.

On the downside almost 20 per cent of Britons have said something negative about a colleague online that they'd never say to their face - the cowards.

Still, netspression (sorry) has its benefits. Almost a third of young people said they'd made a positive comment about someone online that they'd have been too shy to grunt to them face-to-face.

Psychologist Jo Hemmings, who worked on the study, said: "The stereotype is that Britons are typically unexpressive people, but the rise of online communication has highlighted that this isn't true - we just need the right outlet."

Apparently, 62 per cent of Britons want to scream out loud in public on average between one and three times per day.

The Round-Up knows exactly how they feel...

Mac users are on the up, thanks to price cuts, great hardware and the enduring legacy of Vista. But it seems the homes they live in are harbouring some pretty dark secrets.

According to a study by analyst house NPD Group, the percentage of Mac households in the US is inching upwards - reaching 12 per cent this year compared to nine per cent in 2008.

Good news for Mac fans - and on top of that Steve Jobs has also been voted the most influential individual in the global technology industry. Congratulations Steve!

But then came the revelation that truly shocked the Round-Up. Nearly nine out of 10 homes with a Mac also own… a PC.

If you need to lie down for a moment, the Round-Up is happy to wait.

Dum-de-dee... Ah, you're back, we'll continue.

The research has opened thousands of metaphorical cupboards with the result that thousands of plastic, beige, badly designed skeletons are tumbling out.

According to NPD, the average 'House of Mac' is overflowing with hardware, with twice as many gadgets as the average home.

Indeed, the colour-co-ordinated, minimalist home of your average Mac-head is likely to be cluttered with many computers: 66 per cent have at least three computers, compared to a measly 29 per cent of PC homes.

An earlier survey conducted by the researchers found consumers who were willing to buy an expensive computer were most likely to go for an Apple Mac over any other brand, with 91 per cent of all computers sold for more than $1,000 being Macs.

That's either because people who have that sort of money want the best and are happy to pay for it, or because people with that sort of cash have more money than sense. You decide.

Wealth aside, it's the number of PCs in Mac users' homes that tickled the Round-Up.

Yes, you can bet they're just being used as mail or print servers. Or as test machines for non-standard-compliant browsers. Or as games machines. Or ironically. Or whatever.

Mac users - no matter whether you hide those PCs under a desk in the study or cover them in those white Apple logo stickers that seem to be shipped with every bit of Apple hardware, it's still not right. Be ashamed of yourselves. What if Steve came to visit?

And finally: Windows 7 is out in just a few weeks now, so chances are you're exhausted and numbed by the constant bombardment of news stories, features and marketing hype. So silicon.com thought what you'd really want is a sneak preview of the next big thing, probably due in 2012 (give or take a few years). Yes - here comes the start of the Windows 8 speculation which will run and run for the next few years.

By the way - the Round-Up thinks it may have coined the first (and possibly weakest) Windows 8 gag ever.

"I say, I say, I say: What did the schoolboy with the new PC say when asked where his missing essay was?"

"Windows 8 my homework…"

Ahem. Sorry about that. There's just enough time to tell you about the rest of the news…

What would it take for a grown CIO to turn his back on the Windows hegemony and hike to the mountainous heights of operating system bliss with a Snow Leopard? Quite a lot more than Apple has to offer according to our jury of CIOs. Many of our readers beg to differ - just check out the reader comments...

Shocking news: Windows 7 is slower to boot than Vista.

The Agenda Setters. Who are the most influential people in tech today?