KiT, UK IPTV Pioneer To Close

KiT, UK IPTV To CloseIt is with great sadness that we hear that UK IPTV innovator KiT (Kingston interactive TV) is to close its doors on 3rd April. We’ve always been huge fans of their work.

KiT was delivering IPTV, before most people who are now getting excited about the potential of delivering content over a network cable, even understood what IP stood for. How long back? 1999.

Kingston Telecom (KT), who own KiT has always been a unique proposition in the UK which has always been dominated (some would say crushed), by BT. KT was the only independent telecoms company in the UK, originally owned by the local council, Kingston Upon Hull, until it was floated in 1999.

KiT, UK IPTV To CloseIt’s always struggled to get sufficient subscribers to support the service. Hull is an area with much financial deprivation with the average family income around £14,000/year. It’s understood that the high point of subscriptions, 10,000 at the start of the service, has lead to the current low point of 4,000. The level of financial loses and the need for KiT to refresh its now 7 year old IPTV kit is understood to have lead to the decision. The parent company, Kingston Communications (KC), feel that they can no longer justify supporting the service

Much important work has been done at KiT with many benefits from the results.

One exceptionally inspirational example was the work they did helping to turn around a failing school, Kingswood School, by getting parents and therefore their children more involved with the education provided, through technology. We covered the story back in June 2004.

KiT, UK IPTV To CloseUnknown to many, Blockbuster Video have been running a VoD trial on KiT for a couple of years. Their first in the world.

The BBC also benefited, after putting what we understand to be millions of pounds, into understanding how ultra local content works on IPTV over the KiT service.

About six months ago a very senior KiT person got in touch with us to say that they were up for sale.

One of the hopes had been that they would take their extensive IPTV experience, and roll it out over the UK.

KiT, UK IPTV To CloseThere has been some wondering around the Digital-Lifestyles office if the delay in closing KiT has been a considered position by the KC. By waiting until now to close KiT, the rest of the world now realise that they all need to be in IPTV, and the number of potential purchasers will have increased.

Always one to identify a good buy, some are saying that Sky is interested in buying the remains of KiT. We understand from source inside KiT that this is unlikely, but in our view if they were to take on key members of staff, the purchaser would be getting their hands on very valuable experience. Skills like this would steer purchasers around many of the pot holes that IPTV can provide, potentially saving them millions of pounds.

We all hope that KiT, or at least its employees, have every success in the future.

Buzz-o-Phone – A New Form Of Web Content

Buzz-o-Phone - A New Form On The WebThe idea behind buzz-o-phone is simple enough. You call a US freephone (800) number where you’re able to leave a voice message. Your elicitation, wise or otherwise, is the posted to the player section of the buzz-o-phone Web site, where the world can listen.

Initially Buzz-o-phone looks like ideas that have been around before, like the innovative AudBlog – a link between the POTS world (Plain Old Telephone Service) and the online. We know that ideas build on each other, and Buzz-o-phone may well have picked these up from projects in the past.

Look a big deeper and you may agree with us – we think buzz-o-phone signals a whole new form of content. A simple, barrier-less way of everyone to leave public comment.

Blogging and Podcasting have their own barriers. OK, there’s free online tools to do both of these, but even when these are setup, there’s the barrier to actually getting your thoughts – which are free flowing, to be published and it takes effort. Sometimes the effort is too large and the ideas don’t get sharedexplored a few ideas on his blog as to how Buzz-o-phone might be expanded in the future.

Legal issues?
There has been, in our view, a getting-close-to-hysterical reaction from some panicking about slander and libel.

While the legal issues can’t be ignored, it’s interesting reading the Q&A session on Buzz-o-Phone between Robert French and Matt Galloway. It’s clear that Mr Galloway hasn’t just fallen into this idea – he’s wisely done a lot of background research on the legal side.

Issues with content filtering
To minimise legal problems, or indeed the removal of postings containing swearing (that some might find offensive), the audio comments have to be listened to, in order to know that they fall into the acceptable category. The issue with this, as with all audio files, is that this has to happen in real-time, unlike the text of a blog, it cannot be either read by a computer and checked against a dictionary of acceptability or speed read.

Buzz-o-Phone - A New Form On The WebWe’d imagine that two versions of the ‘conversation’ will have to be created; the raw, which would be an unfiltered version; and the clear-feed, dropping off comments that are judged as offensive. This is riddled with difficulties of its own – as with all censorship, you have to make you’re own decision as to if your parameters of acceptability align with the self-appointed censor.

All in all, we’re very excited about Buzz-o-phone, so get yourself over there, dial toll-free US 1-800-591-5375 (you can use Skype), contribute a comment and watch it grow.

Buzz-o-phone
Buzz-o-phone player

(via the ever-enjoyable RocketBoom (congrats to them on their initial advertising deal).

Xara Xtreme Review (93%)

Xara Xtreme Review (93%)Xara has been around for over a decade now, and although it may not be as well known as expensive rival programs like Illustrator and Freehand, it continues to offer astonishing value for money, providing ample power under the hood and enough tools to satisfy anything from graphic smudgers to arty pros.

Now known as Xara Xtreme, the vector-based program claims to be “the world’s fastest drawing program”, and we’ve certainly never seen anything as fast on our machines.

Compared to its big name rivals, this fella is a Billy Whizz in a world of Billy Bunters.

Screen redraws are instantaneous, and changes you make to blends, bevels, shadow effects, feathering, graduated transparency and other effects appear on-screen in real time.

Complex objects can be moved around and transformed in real-time, so you won’t be entertained by egg-timer pointers or have to view pesky wireframe or boundary boxes when shunting graphics around the screen.

Xara Xtreme Review (93%)Although it isn’t the most modern-looking of programs, Xara’s sheer simplicity and power makes it a far less daunting program to master compared to many high-end vector programs, with new users guided by a set of excellent help files and 80+ short movie tutorials.

With an intuitive, customisable and familiar interface, there’s a refreshing lack of dialogue boxes floating about, with most changes being made via an option bar that instantly updates to show the relevant options for the active tool.

Bitmap editor
As well as the usual Bezier, freehand, shape, blend and text vector tools, there’s a handy ‘Picture Editor’ photo enhancement module available for bitmap editing.

This launches when you double-click any imported bitmap image and offers basic photo adjustments like brightness, contrast and saturation, along with useful tools like cropping and red-eye removal.

Xara Xtreme Review (93%)Imported images can be resized, have text added and then exported as JPEGs with control over compression settings.

Interestingly, Xara also offers Photoshop plug-in support, opening the door to more advanced digital editing and effects.

Xtreme comes with tools for outputting optimised graphics for the Web, a NavBar tool, image slicing and image map support, but if you’re feeling low on inspiration, there are Gallery palettes packed with thousands of ready-made items which can be downloaded off Xara’s site.

Xara should easily fit into most user’s workflows too, with support for all the common vector and bitmap graphic formats, including Flash, AI (Illustrator), Corel DRAW, TIFF, GIF, PNG and PDF, and offers integration with Adobe/Macromedia’s Dreamweaver and Flash software.

Xara Xtreme Review (93%)The verdict
Once again, we were knocked out by the performance, superlative speed and graphics capability of Xara, but we’ve kept the best bit until last: the price.

At just $79 (~£46, ~e66), Xara Xtreme retails for a fraction of the price of its rivals and with its sophisticated and powerful set of tools can only be considered an absolute bargain!

Highly recommended.

Ease Of Use: 85%
Features: 85%
Value For Money: 95%
Overall: 93%

Xara Xtreme

Islington’s Free WiFi ‘Technology Mile’ Expands to 4Km

Islington's Free WiFi 'Technology Mile' Expands to 4KmIslington’s free WiFi cloud to extended well beyond the initial Technology Mile.

Back in June 2005 we covered the story that Islington Council, London, were to carry out a trial to bathe their streets with WiFi, giving free access to the Council online services and the Internet generally.

It’s great to hear that they’ve judged the trial as a success at around 1,000 users a week, and are expanding it well beyond its original one mile Upper Street coverage.

Islington is a very strange mixture of ultra-rich city workers with bucket-loads of cash and many people from the opposite end of the wedge-world who families have lived there since it was a pretty rough area, which was only 20 years ago.

It’s hugely encouraging that the extension of the free WiFi is up the Holloway Road, which generally isn’t the posh end of town. Equal access to all has been a concern for some time.

They calling it a ‘canyons of coverage,’ which if you have to pick a name, I guess isn’t too bad. The council have been working with Wi-Fi whizz’s, Cityscape Cityspace, and are spreading the signal using wireless transmitters located on lampposts below the height of the buildings on either side of the street – a good idea, as electrical current is drawn from the lamp posts too.

The strange contrast to this story is the one we covered two days ago, where the City of London is going to get blanket WiFi coverage. Apart from the location (about 1 mile away), the big difference is the price of Wifi access – free vs a shocking £5/hour.

Islington Technology Mile

Globalsat GH-601/602 Wrist GPS For Sporty Types

Globalsat GH-601/602 Wrist GPS For Sporty TypesJogging geeksters! Set your wallets to ‘buy’ as GlobalSat are set to release a wrist-type GPS Receiver aimed at sporty types who get their kicks from running around all over the place on foot, bike, board or ski.

The Globalsat GH-601 is a fully-sealed, waterproof box of gizmos that comes with a GPS training system capable of locating and tracking points on the map.

Calling it wristwatch-sized would be pushing a bit, but the chunky device certainly straps on the wrists of sweaty outdoor types and comes with a variety of modes to keep them moving.

The Globalsat has a large 80 x 120 pixel monochrome LCD readout and employs a SiRF Star III high performance GPS chipset and omni-directional GPS antenna.

The GPS functions let users map a location, mark a trace point, find a marked point and comes with backtrack mode and Ahead / North Direction.

A ‘coach mode’ nags users to keep up to predefined performance targets while ‘workout projects’ offer a variety of ways to keep the perspiration flowing.

Flagging, flailing users failing to meet targets can expect to be alerted by the device to get a move on, and knackered users can be reminded of their crap performance thanks to the unit’s built in history.

Session information can be downloadable to PCs via a Mini-USB port, letting others laugh at your failure.

Globalsat GH-601/602 Wrist GPS For Sporty TypesTraining projects and analysis come with the bundled Windows-compatible “professional self-training” package, but Apple users can stay at home because we couldn’t find any mention of Mac support.

The 602 Series also offers an electronic compass (resolution 0.6uT/count) and a barometric altimeter (15~115 kPa), and both devices can be used as GPS receiver on PCs through the USB interface.

Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion cell, battery life is claimed at 16 hours with GPS on, and the thing comes in a variety of ‘outdoor’ colours for cutting a dash on the slopes.

Specifications:

Item: GH-601, GH-602
Number of Waypoints: 100
Display Size: 24.9 x 39.88 (H x W in mm.)
Display type: Black & White LCD
Pixels (H x W): 80 x 120
Unit Weight: 72.87g
Waterproof Standard: IPX7
Unit Size: 46 x 82.5 x 18.5 (H x W x D in mm.)
Backlit Display:Single level
Operating temperature: -20 °C to 60 °C
Humidity: 5% to 95% Non-condensing
Voltage: 3.7V for a rechargeable battery, 5V for charging input
Charging connector: DC 5V
Battery: Rechargeable 1600mAh Li-ion battery
Battery life: 16 hours (GPS turn-on; Compass and Altimeter turn-off)70 hours (GPS, Compass and Altimeter turn-off)
Connect to PC Interface: Mini-USB port
Electrical compass: GH-601, no; GH-602, yes
Barometric Altimeter: GH-601, no; GH-602, yes

Globalsat GH-601/602 Wrist GPS For Sporty TypesGPS Parameters
GPS Chipset: SiRF Star III
Frequency: L1, 1575.42 MHz
C/A code: 1.023 MHz chip rate
Channels: 20 channel all-in-view tracking
Antenna Type: Built-in patch antenna
Position: 10 meters, 2D RMS 5 meters, 2D RMS, WAAS enabled
Velocity: 0.1 m/s
Time:1 us synchronized to GPS time
Default datum: WGS-84
Reacquisition: 0.1 sec., average
Hot start: 1 sec., average
Warm start: 38 sec., average
Cold start: 42 sec., average
Altitude: 18,000 meters (60,000 feet) max.
Velocity: 515 meters/ second (1000 knots) max.
Acceleration: Less than 4g
Jerk: 20 m/sec3

Physical properties
Top Cover: PC with TPR
Bottom Cover: PC
Wrist Strap: Weaved cloth
Waterproof Stopper: TPEE
LCD Faceplate: Acrylic

GlobalSat

BT Media And Broadcast Division Set For Part Sale

BT set to announce part sale of its Media and Broadcast division We understand from good sources that BT is set to announce the name of the buyer for a major slice of its Media and Broadcast operations.

As we revealed in January, BT’s Media and Broadcast (BT M & B) is looking to jettison its unprofitable OU operations. It has let interested parties know that a cash buyer would be welcome for its fleet of Transportable Satellite link vehicles.

We now hear that the sale is going to cover more than just the Occasional Use business.

BT, which since Post Office days has been working with the broadcasting industry, has been persuaded to include its profitable multiplexing business in the sale. This uplinks (ground to satellite) many of the Sky digital TV services and, we understand, it’s possible that part of the ITV network, that it is also responsible for, would also be included.

BT set to announce part sale of its Media and Broadcast divisionIn the frame for the buyout, which is likely to involve the transfer of over 100 employees, is the Australian-backed Arqiva and a major UK bank.

The sale will ensure that existing contracts are honoured. Shedding it is symptomatic of the burden a heavily-unionised BT carries in making units perform profitably and it strikes at M & B’s ambitions to be a powerhouse in the evolving IPTV world.

Insiders have doubts that media and broadcast will continue an operating unit for more than 12 months.

As soon as we have the details on the decision it’ll be here on Digital Lifestyles.

CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Forum

23-25 Feb CEDIA has announced an inaugural event bringing together professionals from the architectural, design, and residential technology industries. Electronic Lifestyles ® Forum 2006 is the preeminent event focusing on how technology affects ergonomics and anthropology. With the support of the American Society of Interior Designers, this forum will open doors for discussion, and the sharing of ideas of how technology is changing the way we live, and how it affects the design professional’s thought process. Keynote Speakers: Nicholas Negroponte – one of the foremost futurists on the international scene today!
William McDonough – world-renowned architect, designer, and winner of three U.S. presidential awards! Palace Hotel, San Francisco http://www.cedia.net/el_forum/

Samsung Helix XM2go Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 Player

Samsung Helix XM2go Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 PlayerAnnounced at the CES 2006 show earlier this month, the Samsung Helix XM2Go has now appeared for pre-orders on Amazon.com (US).

There’s been quite a lot of excitement about the Helix, which comes with an alluring feature set, offering a portable satellite receiver and mp3 player/recorder in a highly pocketable package.

The big news about this unit is its ability to receive XM satellite radio transmissions, letting users combine live XM radio with their personal digital music collections (MP3s and WMA).

XM Satellite Radio may not mean a lot over here in Europe-land, but in America it’s the country’s most popular satellite radio service, offering 160 digital channels, including news, sports, talk and entertainment, traffic & weather with “the deepest playlist in the industry” covering over 2 million titles.

Samsung Helix XM2go Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 PlayerThe good news is that the service is commercial free – the bad news is that it’s a subscription service, with plans starting at $12.95 a week.

The Samsung Helix XM2Go lets users record up to 50 hours of broadcast on its built-in flash memory, with users able to build their own playlists on the device, mixing XM radio content with their own digital music.

A handy built-in memory buffer lets listeners save an entire XM radio song even after the song has already played halfway through, and a built-in FM transmitter means that music can be beamed to any FM radio frequency, making it easy to listen to XM content on any home or car stereos.

The Helix offers a neat TuneSelect feature, which alerts users when one of their favourite artists or songs is being played on an XM channel and there’s also built-in support for the XM + Napster music service.

Samsung Helix XM2go Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 PlayerThis lets users ‘tag’ a song they hear on the XM radio, and then buy and download the tune song via Napster.

The attractive looking device measures a cutesy 3.7 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches, weighs in at a lightweight 4.5 ounces, with a large 2.2 inch 180 x 180 TFT colour screen dominating the front of the unit.

It’s not cheap at $399.99, (~e335, ~£229) but that’s the sort of price early adopters can expect to pay for such a cutting edge gizmo.

Shipping is expected in early April, with the optional YA-CP100 car kit retailing for $69.99 (~e58, ~£40).

Amazon
XM Radio

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI (Click To Translate)

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI According to a new survey from Virgin Mobile, mobile telephone text messaging has become so popular in the UK that millions are complaining of injuries to their thumbs and fingers.

With more than 93.5 million text messages sent every day, there’s a whole load of keyboard action going on all over Blighty, and all that button pushing has led to a massive growth in the number of people suffering RSI (repetitive strain injury).

The survey found that thirty-eight per cent more people suffer from sore wrists and thumbs than half a decade ago, with 3.8 million people complaining of text-related injuries a year.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSIDespite the agony, it seems that Brits are prepared to go through the pain barrier to keep bashing out their texts, with more than twelve per cent admitting to sending 20 text messages a day – with a seriously obsessed ten per cent blasting out as many as 100 texts a day!

You probably missed it – we certainly did – but yesterday (Feb 21) was apparently National Text Message Injury day in the UK.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSIDesigned to highlight the very real problems of RSI, Virgin have sponsored a very useful site, practisesafetext.com which comes with useful tips and advice on how to keep your textin’ digits in full button-pushin’ order.

British Chiropractic Association (BCA) spokesperson Dr Matthew Bennett offered a few tips of his own, advising texters to change hands if it starts to hurt, vary the hands and digits used and don’t text for more than a few minutes without a break.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSIAs a recent sufferer of RSI (brought on by long hours sweating over a hot Logitech as I try to bring you, dear reader, the latest stories), I strongly recommend you try out some of the exercises.

You might look a bit of a berk while you’re doing them, but anything that keeps your pint-holding hand in good shape can surely only be a good thing.

Headline Translation – too much texting gives you RSI.

Ofcom VoIP Consultation Announced For UK

Ofcom VoIP Consultation Announced For UKOfcom has just announced another consultation on Voice over IP (VoIP) use in the UK as a follow up to their last, which they called New Voice Services: A consultation and interim guidance, and released on 6 September 2004.

We feel this is sufficiently important to instantly flag up, so now only cover the key points. More details will follow.

Ofcom estimate is that there’s around 500,000 VoIP users in the UK, we can only assume that this is both software (Skype, gTalk, etc) and hardware (Vonage, etc). Sounds low to us and at the time of writing, Ofcom hasn’t responded to our request for clarification.

Subjects for discussion/debate –

The obvious of 999 emergency service comes up, but the use of language is pretty interesting. Ofcom say they want to ‘increase the incentive for VoIP services to offer 999 access,’ so potentially no insistence. VoIP providers will love this, as they’ve tripped up in other countries with this.

The scope _does_ appear to cover number portability which is good for the consumer.

As yet unclear, but in our view important. Will there be a move to enforce interoperability between different providers of the service? It would be very pro-consumer, but would put the noses-out-of-joint for quite a few VoIP providers, especially Skype.

Any comments in response have to be with Ofcom by 3.May.06. They’re not going to rush themselves in making their views on the process know in a big rush, they plan to make a statement in August 2006.

Ofcom – Consultation Documents on Regulation of VoIP Services