David Cameron has launched his own interactive web page, with online video posts, written blogs and podcasts from him as a attempt to win the votes of the younger generation who are “disaffected from mainstream politics”.

The website www.webcameron.org.uk is part of initiative designed to make the Tories, one of the most technologically progressive parties in Europe.

Taking inspiration from online networking site MySpace and online shared content sites YouTube and flickr, “Dave” as Cameron likes to be known, wants to use the power of the Internet to reach out to the blogging generation.

Tying in with the annual party conference in Bournemouth, the launch of the website has a series of video blogs by the Conservative leader. Cameron will provide regular clips to the site, with him speaking directly to the camera.

The site will also feature guest bloggers, starting with US Presidential-hopeful John McCain as well as video blogs and written posts from members of the public that will be stored and shared online.

Cameron in one of his first posts states: “I want to tell you what the Conservative party is doing, what we’re up to, give you behind-the-scenes access, so you can actually see what policies we’re developing, the things that we are doing and have that direct link…this is one of the ways we want to communicate with people properly about what the Conservative party stands for.”

A Tory official told the Guardian: “The Cameron team saw the need to reorient the way we conduct politics, not just by doing things for the traditional media.

“This is a real challenge to us to show that we understand the web: it’s open, it’s not spin, and we have got to take risks”.

Ironically, one of the posts shows Cameron in his homely kitchen with his family around him washing up whilst using environmentally friendly Ecover detergent, and talking about the importance of “clean politics”. Subtle stuff.

Psychiatry Professor Peter Yellowlees has helped his students better understand the experience of hallucinations of schizophrenics by creating his own practice in a virtual world.

Residents in this “metaverse” or metaphysical universe-a three dimensional world created by a Californian firm called Second Life can meet, discuss, mediate and experience other things that other residents have created.

Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, leases his own island from the online virtual world creators.

There, he has built a clinic, where his students can visit and attend his lectures inside Second Life and then experience hallucinations that he created, to help them understand the effects of schizophrenia.

It was by using Second Life software, that Yellowlees could create hallucinations of what schizophrenics go through, helping others and his students better understand what their patients experienced.

“It’s so powerful that some get quite upset,” Yellowlees told the Economist.

The Economist reported that when Mr Yellowlees invited, as part of a trial, Second Life’s public into the ward, 73% of the visitors said afterwards that it “improved [their] understanding of schizophrenia.”

Admittedly, many of the 747, 263 users participate in Second Life “just for fun”, jumping from cloud to cloud or wandering through castles being some of the features residents can experience.

However this virtual world is not a just a pretty façade of exotic imagery as support groups for cancer survivors meet and converse online, politicians meet and discuss issues with reporters, making Second Life an “enhanced communications medium”.

Nokia is the latest company to attempt to compete in the online music store wars by launching two multimedia phones and a media service to increase profits and win back popularity from other companies.

The Finnish company hopes to regain some of the market lost to sleeker devices, with built in music players and powerful cameras such as the Motorola Razr.

Nokia released the N95, a high powered camera phone, and a slimmer model called the N75, which has music player buttons and is aimed at U.S consumers.

It also plans to launch an online service for sampling new music, with David Bowie on board, in order to boost demand for the phone.

The N95 has features such as location mapping and a 5 megapixel camera, and it is aimed to be priced at 555 euros ($700).

Reuters reported that Nokia hope by offering music and video downlands, the demand for advanced mobile phones will be boosted.

Other features offered to customers include free maps from Tele Atlas NV, and GPS location data in more than 100 countries.

More importantly, Nokia are aiming to bite back at Apple and other leading online music retailers, by launching an online music service that offers tips and new music downloads, recommended by 40 independent music stories around the world called Music Recommenders.

The Guardian reported that Nokia is aiming to “build crediblity as a music brand and develop a community” around the Music Recommenders website, with features and podcasts by David Bowie.

Registers users can receive a playlist every month of 30-second samples to listen to and purchase, if they like. The system also allows users to download tracks unto their PCs and transfer them unto their mobile phones.

The online service will be available in the UK in October, and in Australia in November with plans for a global service.

Sony Corp. has announced plans to launch the Sony Reader, a portable e-book reader and an electronic book store online. Reuters reported that the Sony Reader is planned to be released on October 1, after missing an earlier unveiling this Spring, due to technical reasons.

The Sony Connect book store will carry about 10,000 books from the top six publishers such as News Corp.’s Harper Collins and CBS Corp.’s Simon and Schuster. The device will sell for around $350, and for a limited period, new Connect customers will receive $50 credit to buy books from the service.

The device is said to support RSS feeds, but only from approved feeds from popular blogs and sites, and does not allow open feed reading. At present, newspapers and other periodicals are not being offered but there may be plans to incorporate various publications.

According to the official website, the system can also the device can also display PDF’s, personal documents, blogs, newsfeeds and JPEGS as well as unsecured MP3s and AAC audio files.

The Reader uses electronic ink technology by E Ink allowing digital text and graphics to be displayed without back-lit screens that can consume a lot of power. Sony states that if the device’s lithium battery is fully charged, 7,500 pages can be shown.

The internal memory of the Reader can hold up to 100 books but memory can be expanded with San Disk cards or memory sticks.

Sony stated that E-books cost on average about 25 percent less than the cover price of physical books.

Students could be made to sit their exams in a giant cage to stop them from cheating through mobile communications.

This was the suggestion of a Government education expert called in to investigate the growing problem of “malpractice” in exams, the Daily Mail reported.

Professor Jean Underwood, from Nottingham Trent University advised installing a giant Faraday cage, which insulates the area inside the cage from outside electromagnetism.

Research has shown that one in four students has been caught smuggling mobile phones into exam rooms.

The phones were used to call or text friends for answers, or to access the Internet, and other appliances with similar features were used to store information such as MP3 players and small digital handheld devices.

Cheating has risen 27% since last year with 4,500 students penalised last summer.

Professor Underwood said: “There is a rising fear that technology is fuelling this problem. There are enough people doing it to be worried”.

Lulu is a independent publishing company that allows their users to post digital material such as books, music and video on their website.

A “marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers,” Lulu intercepts the process of middle man bartering in publishing and speeds up the process.

Making themselves available to everyone, Lulu can be used to publish and sell any type of digital content, with no set up fee nor minimum order to publish or sell.

The company was founded four years ago in North Carolina by Bob Young, the co-founder of Red Hat, an open source company.

Using similar concepts of open source, Lulu “believes in putting authors and independent publishers in control of their digital content, from content creation to pricing to royalties”.

The Guardian reported that the website is used by a variety of different aspiring publishers, ranging from small presses, families, literary agents and academics.

Al Gore’s Current TV is collaborating with Yahoo. Inc to create four new broadband channels which launched on Wednesday, with a video of U2’s last concert tour.

The online service which is called the Yahoo Current Network, will be available within the portal’s main video category, working as a combination of user submitted videos as well as studio-produced content, most of which will accessible only online.

The broadband channels will focus on disseminating videos by young viewers but will also focus on a range of different topics such as action sport news, automotives and adventure travelling as well as one of the channels showcasing “the best of what’s buzzing around the world and web”.

The joint enterprise promises to increase Current TV’s visibility. At present, it is available in 30 million of the 110 million US homes with televisions.

“The distribution reach and community of online viewers that Yahoo serves gives an unparalleled opportunity to connect the online video experience, including video-related content, with a mass audience,” Gore told the Associated Press.

There are four more Yahoo! Current channels expected to be added by the end of next year.

German newspaper Netzeitung.de is part of a successful media empire, with stakes in radio, television, through to a number of internet sites. What marks out this player from others is that Netzeitung is only six years-old, and a web-only paper.

It has survived being an “online experiment”, having been tossed around by various media owners such as Lycos and Bertelsmann. Howevever, the paper has proved to be worth the investment with an expected profit of $10 million this year.

The Media Guardian reports Netzeitung “remains impressive in the breadth, depth and the timeliness of its reporting. It is among the internet’s most cleanly designed news sites”.

Netzeitung has a team of sixty reporters as well as a plethora of citizen journalists. The online paper has 1.2 million readers per month and recently took over a Berlin radio statio, producing both radio shows and podcasts online. Netzeitung also produces videotext and online news for German TV, transforming itself from “online experiment” to successful media empire.

What is most important however, is the Netzeitung’s latest protege; Readers-Edition.de, an online paper that truly encompasses citizen journalism. Readers submit news and photos on a variety of different topics such as politics, business and sports and get paid for their efforts, if they are published by Netzeitung.

Contributors are subject to being edited, by their fellow readers and writers who act as “volunteer moderators” with the supervision of one Netzeitung journalist. Meetings are held across Germany with journalists and contributors where contributors can learn how to write by looking at rejected stories as well as sharing industry knowledge.

Social networking site Bebo has added new safety measures to deal with online bullying.

These features include pre-screening-which allows users to view comments and images that others may be trying to post on their Bebo webpages as well as being able to blocking other users from contacting them.

These measures have been created to help children to be aware and steer clear of “cyber-bullies”.

Bebo’s added security comes after an investigation by Which? found a number of examples of bullying on popular social networking sites.

Online bullying involves individuals posting negative or derogatory comments on other’s people’s web pages.

The Guardian reported that Bebo are also to meet with education advisers to discuss the benefits of social networking and how cyber-bullying can be avoided.

Apple’s iTunes and iPod are to be challenged by Bill Gates with the announcment of a new digital media player announced by his Microsoft corporation.

Zune, as it is called, will be manufactured by Toshiba and is expected to be on sale by the end of this year, with an estimated price of $300.

It is expected it will have 30GB hard drives, a screen twice the size of the iPod’s and a selection of preloaded music.

The Zune will also have wireless streaming to allow users to share their content with each other, as well as an FM radio tuner.