Dubai have voiced certain concerns that they are being ‘spied on’ by the U.S and so have started plans to strictly limit Blackberry services in the United Arab Emirates. They are suggesting a tough line with the smart phone company.

The UAE says it will block BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services in mid October unless authorities can warrant access to encrypted data. This demand has also been made by other countiries warning of similar possible bans.

The proposed action threats could severly damage the country’s reputation  as the business and tourism capital of the Gulf. The ban is estimated to affect 500,000 subscribers in the area but the fears of foul play and divulging confidential information with long time enemy Israel, as well as the US and Britain, makes the possible ban feel neccesssary to UAE authorities.

Traffic via Blackberrys are encrypted and routed through servers operated by RIM. Despite this, India recently gave RIM a 60-day window to offer ways to monitor BlackBerry traffic. Other countries such as Indonesia and Lebanon have also noted security worries about BlackBerry services. Saudi Arabia has allowed BlackBerry services to continue due to positive developments from talks with the company.

We hope you all had a fantastic bank holiday weekend - unfortunately our director spent it in hospital after he tried to ‘kick a nail’ - and let’s just say he, especially his foot, came off worse!

So it’s time for another RUOTW and we’ve been busy again this week with meetings and clients etc.

Did You Know? Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying. SOURCE

If you haven’t got a lot of time of your hands this site tells people’s stories in just one sentence.

Did You Know? The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing. SOURCE

I found this site that allows you to create your own game in a matter of minutes and all you need is a photo and some time to kill.

Did You Know? The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee. SOURCE

The ‘Stripgenerator’ enables you to make your own comic strip style story.

Did You Know? Whips make a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound SOURCE

This is a very addictive version of the game Tetris - just watch how much time can be wasted!

That’s all for now - I’m glad we’ve had 2 more followers this week and we thank you all for taking the time to read our blog. Have a good weekend from all at Decode Studios!

This week Google has announced the release of the ‘Priority Inbox’ Beta version.

One of the toughest things to accomplish as a successful company is the ability to remain at the top of your game. To do this you need to constantly update and release new products with as much enthusiasm and vigor as you did with your first release. This continuous innovation and development appears to have been neglected by some companies, who allow past products to be overtaken by rivals, but not Google.

Google seems to be committed to updating its online software which includes Gmail and other applications including Google Calendar.

The new software enables users to not only filter spam but prioritise what emails they feel are less important than others.

It does this by dividing your inbox into three parts; “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else”:



As you receive email, Gmail flags some as important automatically. It does this by looking at a variety of criteria to predict what email is most important to you. This includes email address, if you email a person a lot, their mail is probably important to you as well as which messages you open and reply to which are likely to be more important than ones you delete or left unread. The more you use it, the more accurate it becomes at filtering your messages for you. It also allows you to modify how important an email is to you with simple + and - buttons.

Google seems to have learned the lesson - if you do not innovate continuously, someone else will do so instead.

Don’t forget to check out Decode Grid @ http://www.decodegrid.com/ for our limited time only offers on hosting.

Britvic has developed a new series of vending machines that awards those who can prove their intelligence, through a series of tests, with free drinks.

The “smart” vending machine promotes a brand of flavoured spring water called Juicy drench, with touch-screen programmed games that test mental agility, the idea is to reinforce the message that our brains perform best when they are hydrated.

Although this implies that you must have already paid for a Juicy Drench drinks before you can qualify to see if this increases your brain power and therefore have the chance to win your free drink.

Most of the tests are available online and consist of sbasic maths, spot the difference and spatial awareness.

This is the latest in a series of vending machine innovations. It was only last month that a German publishing company Hamburger Automatenverlag adapted old cigarette vending machines to sell books instead of cigarettes in Hamburg.

In Japan Unilever launched vending mahcines that rewarded customers for smiling using face-recognition technology.

The ‘smart’ vending machines will be installed in cities across the UK including London, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

The Bank Holiday weekend is almost here and to get you in the mood Decode Studios has done a special RUOTW - bank holiday edition!

Stuck for something to do? We’ve scouted the internet to find the 5 top places to go. 

1. The National Space Centre is the largest space centre in the UK and is a great day out for adults and children.

2. Chatsworth House is in the heart of Derbyshire. It offers an exhibition, garden, farmyard, adventure playground, grift shops and restaurants open every day.

3. Located in the outskirts of Marton in North Yorkshire, Eden Camp is an award winning Modern History Museum placed in an original World War Two prisoner of war camp. 

4. The Langham Glass company is in Norfolk. They sell beautiful glass from the contempory to the quite unusual.

5. If aviation is more your thing then don’t miss Norwich Aviation Museum. It’s the best chance you have to get up close to planes that used to carry nuclear bombs.

The full title of the country is ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’:

• Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales
• the United Kingdom (UK) is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK. The term ’British Isles’ covers the UK, all of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

In mid-2003 the UK population was 59.6 million.

The average age was 38.4 years.

There are more people in the UK aged over 60 (12.4 million), than there are children under 16 (11.7 million).

The UK population is growing. It grew by 232,100 people in the year to mid-2003, and the growth was 0.4 per cent in each of the years since mid-2001. The UK population has increased by 6.5 per cent in the last 30 years or so, from 55.9 million in mid-1971. It is one of the largest populations in the European Union (EU), accounting for 13 per cent of the total.

Every ten years, a population census takes place. Statistics for the last census (2001) are available online. Full details, including individual census returns, are available for the censuses held in 1901 and earlier. SOURCE

With that, all of us at Decode Studios hope you have a happy and fun filled bank holiday and make the most of your extra long weekend.

‘The year’s most significant collaboration’ was announced, according to Intel who have now decided to make a joint research lab, with new partners Nokia, in the Finnish University of Oulu.

The University that has specialised in 3D interfaces will be the home of the partnership announced last June. Although the partnership has been around since mid last year there has been no evidence of any revolutionary hardware. Despite Nokia proclaiming that it would ‘explore new ideas’ that would ‘go far beyond devices and services on the market today’.

All this and both companies are struggling to keep up in the Smartphone league, with Intel trying to break in and Nokia trying to keep up, time is not on either companies’ side.

They decided to create an open source platform called MeeGo - a combination of their Linux work - Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin. This is supposed to be under development as we speak and the first conference is due to take place in October in Dublin.

3D mobile interfaces and virtual worlds from mobile environments  will be the focus for Intel but they warned that this is a long-term project and integration of this into modern handsets was unlikely.

It’s Friday again and that means it’s time for our weekly Round Up. In the Office things have been busy with sorting our clients and also the plumbing but things should be back in order by this afternoon - or so we hope!

Did You Know? The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings). SOURCE

If you’re stuck for things to do this weekend have a look at this site - it’s full of ideas for what to do here.

Did You Know? The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones. SOURCE

Here I found what some people can do with the most mundane things like chicken wire.

i found this truly amazing story of Jim Wilson whose father died in Natal in April 1967, both Jim, living in England, and his sister Muriel, living in Holland, were informed. Muriel contacted her husband who was in Portugal, and he flew to South Africa right away. Changing planes at Las Palmas airport in the Canary Islands, he bought a postcard showing holidaymakers on Margate Beach, Natal, and sent it to Muriel. It was she who noticed that the photograph showed her father walking up the beach. SOURCE

Did You Know? Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die. SOURCE

If you like to dive into a good book at the weekend, take a look at this list of the most notoriously banned reads.

Did You Know? Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair SOURCE

This is something interesting - Top Ten Shakespere misquotes

With that I will leave you with this beautiful ice sculpture of London - have a good weekend!

Facebook Places allows users to share their location and will launch first in the US.

This has sprouted concerns about how seriously Facebook takes the privacy of their users. The feature automatically shares information on the location of users with their online friends.

The feature allows users to “check in” at locations which will then be shared with Facebook network of friends but has raised concerns about safety. Users will also be able to browse shops, clubs and nearby venues to see which friends are nearby, leading to concerns it could put individual’s security at risk.

The service will launch in the US only at first. Some have said that this should heighten users’ vigilance with who they do and do not accept as friends and allow to see their personal information.

After the latest string of controversies around the safety of the site, Facebook simplified its privacy settings in May and then more recently decided users should have much more control over what people can and cannot see.

Note that the primary location setting is switched on by default, which means any “places” tagged will automatically be shared with immediate friends.

Location-based features have been at the top of many web and mobile developers for years but the introduction of the smartphone is allowing it to galvanise.

Initially it will be made available as an update for the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. Other handsets are expected to follow in the next few months or so. The UK will then follow suit with its own version launching later. This will reach nearly one-third of users who, according to research by Ofcom, access the social networking site by mobile.