Brits spend one in 12 waking minutes online

The average Briton spends one in every 12 waking minute online, racking up around 43 hours of web activity each month. This is almost double the time spent online in 2010, where the monthly average was 22 hours.

This increase has been matched by efforts from the advertising industry to keep us well supplied with ads when browsing the web: companies spent £3.04 billion in the first half of 2013 delivering adverts to mobile devices and PCs.
Averaged across the 46.1 million internet users in the UK, this meant that over the first 6 months of 2013 companies spend £66 per head supplying us with adverts.
Spending on mobile ads experienced a noticeable boom, up 127% from the first half of 2012 to the first half of 2013 to hit a grand total of £429.2 million.
Analysts suggest that this is due to high numbers of smartphone ownership (over two-thirds of the population or 68 per cent of us has one) and the rise of faster mobile data.
The introduction of 4G networks in the UK has seen the spend on video advertising for mobiles shoot up 1,260%, from £1.7 million in the first half of 2012 to £23.0 million in the first half of 2013.
The research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC also looked at exactly what online activities attracted consumers most, with entertainment being the largest single draw, accounting for 22 per cent of online activity. This was followed by time spent on social networks and blogs.
Commenting on the findings, Tim Elkington, Director of Research & Strategy at the Internet Advertising Bureau , said: “Nothing illustrates the internet as an entertainment platform better than the fact that over one in five minutes online is accounted for by entertainment, and that advertisers spent almost 1,300% more on mobile video than a year ago.”
“With smartphone penetration crossing the two-thirds landmark and the successful roll out of 4G, 2013 could be the year when advertising spend on mobile crosses the £1 billion threshold,” said Elkington.

Ruff Sqwad White Label Classics

On December the 10th 2012, my teenage years were rolled back with the release of Ruff Sqwad's White Label Classics cd. A compilation of some of the most sort after beats made by Rapid and Dirty, from way back when being on "endz" entailed one wearing fresh Champion NBA gear from footlocker, or an Akademiks tracksuit along with a pair of loose chunky laced air max 90s or 95s (which we christened in the hood as 110's, for their £110 price tag). I don't even think at the time the name "grime" had been given to this genre of music just yet.  

Music which I religiously locked into daily via Heat, Flava, Deja Vu or Rinse on my Nokia 8310. Back then Ruff Sqwad was one of my favorite crews, they were relatively younger in comparison to folks such as Wiley, God's Gift and a slew of other contributors to a genre of music we now know as grime but despite this, Ruff Sqwad were able to go toe to toe with the best of them as mcs and as producers. Rapid and Dirty's production, I feel was different to other producers in their field they seemed to make music which sounded like they were produced with real instruments (as silly as that sounds), unlike a lot of other folks whose stuff blantanly sounded like they had simply used the basic samples which come with Fruity Loops. I have to commend Rapid's inspirations and sampling choices, which at the time easily put him in his own lane. Not many back then could flip records as diverse and off the radar as he did, then make them flow well enough for mcs to spit over on pirate radio, looking back in hindsight that sh*t was insane. Another thing I really liked about the boys, is there was never any drama/ beef from them towards any other crews. They seemed to stay neutral all the way through, and for those who followed the music from way back will know ego's, road life and bad attitudes fueled by various "sendings" on dvd's and radio shows meant there was madness on a regular basis. With all the above said I would like to give a big shoutout to everyone who was involved in putting this cd out. It definitely has a special place in the heart of UK music which will live forever. If you want a copy make sure you're quick as numbers are low, buy it from here. Check out Rapid and Dirty Danger's interview with Benji B check it out below.