I have no idea if tweeting is a good or easy thing to do. I think birds do it quite well, but that’s their job. But now I’m hearing that it’s something that I could do to. But what is it? Is it a form of whistling or something that’s done up a tree with a pair of binoculars or behind the bushes?  Will I be any good at it or does it take practice?

After further investigation it turns out that tweeting now means, posting message on Twitter. Ok, so now I’m either a twit or a tweeter, or at least I would be if I posted things on the Twitter website.

So what is Twitter? Well at first glance it’s another web 2.0 site designed to sap your time and make you a slave to your computer. Second glances reveal slightly more, like the ability to read news headlines, see what products a company is launching and see what banality you were missing out on before you logged in.

It is perhaps not surprising that it’s the second of these that Mio is concerned with. Mio are using their Twitter account to inform other Twits about their new product launches and other important consumer information.

I can, despite my cynicism, see its benefits. If a new product is launched or an author writes a new book people give almost instant feedback on it, and because it’s restricted to 140 characters it’s often a lot more meaningful and well thought out than a magazine review. Of course this is a little like panning for gold; you’ll sift an awful lot of sand before you find that nugget.

If you want to read sound bites and not swathes of text,follow miobuzz at Twitter.

Over the last few years it seems as though the whole world has gone green. It’s green house gas this, recycle that. It’s enough to drive you mad. Since pretty much every scientist and former politician has an opinion on what causes global warming, whether it’s by the cyclical nature of the earth or by humans being their usual self destructive selves, it makes you wonder why you bother in the first place.

Mio, along with a lot of other companies and governments, accepted that it may well be the fault of humans, so erring on the side of caution, have decided to do their part to make the planet a bit healthier. Whether this will have any real effect remains to be seen, but as they say, every little counts.

So what are Mio doing? Well it falls under a two categories: voluntary and compulsory. The voluntary stuff includes things like producing smaller packaging and making our offices more environmentally friendly, by using energy efficient light bulbs and recycling rain water. The compulsory requirements are: RoHS for the EU and China and restricts the use of hazardous materials; WEEE is another EU directive that aims to reduce the amount of material going into landfill sites and EuP which looks at how energy efficient products are during their life cycle ( from raw materials to disposal).

I guess whatever we do can’t be bad. Will it have any real effect? Only our children’s children will be able to answer that one.

For more information on Mio’s green policies, check out http://www.mio.com/greenerMio.htm and feel free to share your environmental ideas with the rest of the community.

Instead of losing the last of his nine lives in late 1977, due to an overdose of catnip and Mr Tiddles, it would appear that the Hillbilly Cat may well have been a CIA operative. News of this apparent career change, from bluegrass banjo player to James Bond wannabe, came to light when some adventurous tourists stumbled across him whilst using their Mio to find a Karaoke bar. Deep behind the former Iron Curtain, in the forests of Poland and speaking fluent Latvian he told them in no uncertain terms to go away. Apparently it was singles night! 

Although somewhat annoyed at the interruption, the former operative has agreed to make several personal appearances including the story of his discovery, which has since been turned into a short movie.   He is also allowing his image to be used on websites such as this.

Where he plans to go from here is uncertain. Since his image is being used all over the world, you may never know if who you see is the real person or just a poor imitation. He is keen to stress that, whilst his appearance bears an uncanny resemblance to another deceased person, who died in similar circumstances at around the same time, this is pure coincidence.