We're presented with an interesting conundrum this fine afternoon. Exhibit A: A new study says unhappy people watch more TV. Exhibit B: People dealing with the switch from analogue to digital TV are probably the most unhappy TV watchers on the planet right now, next to anyone who's been hoodwinked by the HDTV department at Best Buy. There was even a NASCAR wreck this week because of digital TV. So, if we use the powerful forces of logic on this little puzzle, we can deduce that the digital switch is making analogue TV owners unhappy, which makes them want to watch more TV, which they soon will be unable to do because the signal is about to get cut off. There have been wars started for less, so we anticipate come February 2009, the world is going to end, three years earlier that predicted. Take THAT, Mayans!

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Why is it that there are people out there who spend their days trying to prove a correlation between violence in movies/games/online/tv and violent behaviour? You'd think that after almost half a century of TV and still no final conclusion, these researchers would realise that they will never be able to prove anything.

The latest, courtesy of News.com.au, comes from Pediatrics, and was conducted by a group called "Internet Solutions for Kids". Yeah, like they don't have an agenda. They surveyed 1,588 young people aged 10 to 15 years old about their online media habits and predilection towards violent behaviour. The researcher then went on to claim that the interactive nature of the internet could mean that its influence is more powerful than other media... wait, isn't that what critics say about games?

So, even though I'm not a scientist or a professional researcher, I do have a small amount of common sense, (which the people who conduct these studies always seem to lack) and I'm going to use it to explain why every single one of these studies is a waste of time, money and effort and only diverts attention away from the real problems of the world. You ready? Here goes:

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I really have no idea what the hell "Joe Six-Pack" means, but for the purpose of this post it will mean "people who make low or modest incomes." With that out of the way, the headline makes sense, and we can report that low-income consumers are buying up the iPhone at a much faster pace than rich liberal media elites, like myself, who live in piles of money in places like Massachusetts.

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Tell us something we don't know: Bond University has just announced the results of its most recent study into gaming in Australia, and it turns out that South Australian Attorney General is an uneducated dingbat in his war against an R18+ rating for games: The average age of gamers in Australia is 30 years old, and 68 per cent of Australians play video games.

The survey was conducted across 1600 households and involved more than 75 questions in a 20 minute survey. Among the other findings are that 66 per cent of adults aren't aware that there isn't an R18+ rating for video games, and 91 per cent of both gamers and non-gamers believe that the rating should be introduced.

It also found that gaming is a social, family pastime, with 70 per cent of parents in a gaming household playing games and 80 per cent of those playing with their kids.

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This should come as no surprise to anyone using a phone these days, but text messaging someone gets a far quicker response than voice mail. In a study by Sprint, those under the age of 30 are four times more likely to respond within minutes to an SMS than a voicemail, with roughly 91 percent responding within the hour. Adults 30 and older were twice as likely to text a reply within minutes rather than call.

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Further evidence that media's placating massage fingers mine even the deepest jelly regions of our brains, a new study has claimed to prove the long-thought notion that the type of TV and film exposure during youth drastically affects the colour of dreams, even much later into life. In the study, only 4.4 percent of those who grew up with colour TV reported dreaming in B&W, but those who were raised on Howdy Doody and other monochrome entertainments had colourless dreams nearly 25 percent of the time.

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The results of Canon's Digital Lifestyle Index were released today, and despite all the recent economic doom and gloom, the situation doesn't look too bad for consumer tech companies in Australia. In the first half of this year, we Aussies spent a total of $2.424 billion on gadgets, which is a 12.1% increase on the same period in 2007.

More and more games consoles, digital music players, digital cameras and multifunction devices are being sold than ever before, but at the same time, DVD players and single-function inkjet printers seem to be dying a painful death, mostly due to market saturation.

Flat-panel TVs are the biggest earners, thanks to dropping prices and big events like the Olympics. LCD accounts for more revenue than plasma (not really a big surprise there) and digital cameras are actually worth a crapload of money each year, considering their low cost relative to TVs.

The full press release is below the fold. It's fascinating reading if you've got a few minutes to spare:

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So why is it that the stereotype for gamers is a lonely nerd? Apparently over a third of Australian gamers are members of the fairer sex, at least according to a study by Roy Morgan commissioned by Microsoft.

Unfortunately, the study didn't go into detail on where the best games to meet women were, but it did say that 44 percent of respondents were aged between 14 and 24. It also said that the majority of these female gamers play less than once a month, so don't expect to form an ongoing, meaningful relationship too easily.

The other important thing to note is that the average income for women gamers is $76,300. Which means, should you be lucky enough to find and woo one of these wonderful creatures, you'll be set for life.

[News.com.au]

This is not your father's college class. Hell, it isn't even mine, and I've only been out of the system for five years. What I'm talking about is this new survey from Amherst College. Long story short is they're armed to the teeth with tech, Apple products and web apps, and their classrooms are too. As a Mac user who led an isolated PC-free existence during his college career, I take some solace in the survey's key takeaways:

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This just in! Malfunctioning technology causes anger! That's according to a new British survey, which finds that 73% of people have hurled a gadget in a fit or gage, while 75% admit to swearing or losing their temper. A really desperate 10% admits to turning to booze when their gadget isn't working. Only 10%?

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