The blogoshpere turned green this week with the first international Blog Action Day. LagrangePoint commented on the dangers of climate change and provided a link to the International Blog Action website which notes that a recorded 20 603 bloggers united for the cause.  Bloggers were able to contribute by posting on an issue facing the environment or donating their day’s advertising earnings to various environmental charities. Tech Blorge discusses green computing and suggests simple steps to help save the environment.  The Google Blog team also did their part with fifteen corporate blogs commenting on various environmental issues such as International Clean-Up Day. 

One of the major blog stories this week was that MySpace and Skype have formed a dial-up partnership.  TechBlorge commented that the new venture will give MySpace’s estimated 110 million members the ability to make free Internet phone calls from MySpace’s instant messaging program using Skype’s network.  Tech Blorge also indicates that both companies are set to increase membership and revenue growth through this partnership. The Beerfiles believes this deal is set to thrust Skype into a largely untouched US market.

With the Federal Election looming, politics was an inevitable topic this week.   Gusworld provided a cynical comment as to whether IT issues are of major concern to voters.  Gusworld discusses Labor’s primary IT concerns for the election including the debate over the improvement of broadband performance and availability in Australia.  You can read the full article here. Gadgets on the Go also comments on ABC’s Australian Votes 2007 service, an application that can be downloaded to any mobile phone offering its user up to the minute results for each electorate and state on the night of the election.

Top five journalist bloggers of the week: TechBlorge, ScreenPlay, Gusworld, LagrangePoint, Connect

Top five IT Professional bloggers of the week: The Tower Blog, Dipping into the blogpond, Laurel Papworth – Online Communities, ChiefTech, Frankarr.

For more information on the week in review, or to make a comment, please contact Helen Smith at helen@espressocomms.com.au.

Microsoft announced this week that they would soon be launching new Zune players which include the Zune 80 hard drive player, the Zune 8 and 4. The new Zunes are said to ship in November and include some new features and larger screens. Tech Blorge questions whether the new players will match up to the iPod Touch. You can read the full article here.

Apple has released a 152MB software upgrade that fixes a number of iPhone bugs, one of which is the ability to unlock the device. As explored in our previous Perspective updates, a large percentage of iPhone owners unlocked their handset so it could work with any sim card rather than that of the exclusive, US operator AT&T. The latest software upgrade has not only re-locked unlocked phones it has also wiped clean all of the third-party applications. Stephen Fenech asks whether the new upgrade is fair. iPhone Mojo also provides some insight into the upgrade with a list of ‘stuff’ the update fixes.

There was some discussion in the blogosphere this week on Sony’s 40GB Playstation 3. The new model has been confirmed at a price of $699 and will be available on Thursday, explains ScreenPlay.  The down-size from the 60GB model features a smaller hard drive, two USB ports rather than the standard four and no memory card reader. Mike Bantick asks however “will it sell?”, commenting that “the big catch now is this PS3 model is no longer backwards compatible with PS2 titles, not even at a software level”.   This means that gamers purchasing a 40GB PS3 will be reduced to a choice of only 65 PS3 games.

Top five journalist bloggers of the week: TechBlorge, Screen Play, Hydrapinion, Alex Kidman, Gusworld.

Top five IT Professional bloggers of the week: The Tower Blog, Dipping into the blogpond, Talking Technology, Hey Jude, Innovate.

For more information on the week in review, or to make a comment, please contact Helen Smith at helen@espressocomms.com.au.