A controversial new study done in England suggests that 1 in 3 Britons are “addicted to technology”.

Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University in the U.K. published results stating that up to a third of of the individuals they researched feel deprived if they are separated from internet access or the devices that provide it.

“You would be surprised how many people keep their PDA or BlackBerry next to their beds,” she told the BBC.

“Technology has become much more interesting over the past 10 years with the internet and everything. It is much simpler and much more portable which makes it more accessible.”

The study drew from a pool of 360 people, which is not statistically a broad enough reach to satisfy many critics. Otehrs, like the folks at Gartner (a mega-research corporation) say that the study doesn’t dig deep enough into what the Internet represents - is it the technology? Or the conduit it provides to the world?

However, most experts agree that the growing need of individuals to be ‘plugged in’ has become a widespread psychological phenomena.

So the next time your significant other insists you’re addicted to your new iPhone, you can point out you’re in good company!

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Following on Tyler’s post from yesterday - there’s a lot of noise about that iPhone update.

According to the BBC, the Scobleizer, and a host of others, Apple’s v. 1.1.1, which was coded to render altered iPhones inoperable, may be causing a lot of problems for the unaltered ones as well.

The alterations they were targeting make the iPhones compatible with any mobile carrier.

Originally, the gadgets came hard-wired to work only on the AT&T mobile network as part of an exclusive deal.

But not everyone who wanted an iPhone wanted to get in bed with AT&T. Some, including a lot of techies (who, despite the bureaucratization of the field, still hang onto a cowboy mentality) were just plain outraged at being told what mobile carrier they had to use.

So the moment the iPhone went into distribution, software wizards around the world began ripping them apart to find a way to make iPhones compatible with any mobile carrier.

This, by the way, was perfectly legal. Farhad Manjoo at Salon wrote clearly on the particulars, which boil down to this: Apple does not have the right, once you legally purchase their gadget, to force you to use it with AT&T.

Soon, dozens of ‘SIM unlocks’ were available - for free and purchase. And thousands took advantage of them.

Apple reacted by voiding the warranties of anyone who used one of the unlocks. This move opened them up to lawsuits, because the laws around a company’s right to void their warranties pretty much says Apple can’t do that.

But then Apple went a step farther and announced that a planned update (”v 1.1.1″) would leave unlocked iPhones “permanently inoperable” in other words, ‘Bricked‘. Or, forever turned into pretty-looking paperweights.

The update was pushed last week, and true enough - thousands of iPhones immediately died.

This included many that were never altered - both Scoble and the New York Times are carrying accounts of customers whose pristine iPhones were also bricked in the recent update. Which is what many are pointing to as the big deal.

But the heart of the matter is really how these actions have revealed Apple to be both retaliatory and uncompromising against their own customers.From a brand that made its reputation as being counter-culture and ‘Not Microsoft’, the trail of decisions has been a blow to their loyal fans and their image.

Incubated in the days when they cheekily named one of their error noises ‘So-Su-Mi’ because it sounded something like a competitor’s ding, Apple has worked hard to be round in a world of square and organic in a world of finite choices.

This was shattered with the launch of the iPhone. The gadget itself is everything Apple - sleek, bright, and intuitive. The marketing and management, however, has been practically Orwellian.

The long-term will tell us if this is just a cultural mis-step in the corporation’s growth or a more enduring change in attitude.

Back in the immediate future, Apple is working to put out the fires of bricked unaltered phones. The legality of update v 1.1.1 and subsequent bricking is still being debated, leaving many mainstream techno-sites sitting uncomfortably on the fence. And hackers are hard at work at polishing a counter agent software, some versions of which are already available.

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We’ve had a flurry of interest on Tyler’s piece, prompting the MoGo Think Tank to extend the topic into a second day.

So, wondering if wireless electricty is for real?

It is. In fact, it was over 6 months ago that the news first began to go public with the advances being made in transmitting electricity safely without cords.

Last November, the BBC did a piece based on some findings by a group of physicists at a school near and dear to my heart - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

They interviewed MIT’sAssistant Professor Marin Soljacic , who talked about what spurred the research:

“There are so many autonomous devices such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few years. We started thinking, ‘it would be really convenient if you didn’t have to recharge these things’. And because we’re physicists we asked, ‘what kind of physical phenomenon can we use to do this wireless energy transfer?’.”

Thus, the race to invent Wireless Electricity (or “WiTricity” as the MIT folks call it.)

The first innovation is Low-energy transmission. It’s a way of sending a limited amount of power, via RF (radio frequency). Just like tuning into that station that always plays those soulful Robert Johnson licks in the car, this technology is broken down into two pieces: broadcast and reception - an A to B exchange of information (in this case, power).

Two months after the BBC piece, a company called Powercast introduced their system of Low Energy transmission at a January conference. The company plans to apply it to a number of products that will come to market this year. The “Powercast System” is only available for gadgets with low power needs (maximum: 6 volts) - but these are many. Including: LEDs, computer peripherals, wireless sensors, and medical implants.

6 volts, though? Wasn’t enough to float the Soljacic Team’s boat.

They’ve innovated something called Evanescent Wave Coupling. By February, Dr. Soljacic and his partners were ready to publish their findings; “Efficient wireless non-radiative mid-range energy transfer“.

Simply put…

Uh, there’s no ’simply put’ in this breakthrough.

Basically, electromagnetic waves are transmitted (tunnelled) from point A to B, where they are translated back into the form of electricity that is commonly consumed. Again, with limitations. First in the amount that can currently be effectively transmitted (about enough for 100 watt light-bulb) and distance (about 7 meters).

These limitations are not expected to stand, however.

Want the actual math? See Quantum Tunneling, which has the formulas.

Want the applications in your technology? A non-dying cell phone? A perma-charged iPod??

Hang on, there’re coming….

PS… curious about Tyler’s Tesla Reference? Read here for the quick lowdown.

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