February 2007

BitTorrent Launches Legal Download Service
Once the biggest, baddest, mean mo’fo name in the world of web piracy, BitTorrent is going legit today with the launch of a digital store backed by a string of big name content partners.
The deal sees BitTorrent able to offer films, TV shows and videogames from heavyweights such as Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM, and MTV Networks, as well as content from indie distributors like First Look, Palm Pictures and Kadokawa and several video game distributors
After announcing its intention to give up a life of crime and go straight over a year ago, BitTorrent has been in prolonged negotiations with a string of studio big boys but failed to secure enough partners for their proposed autumn 2006 launch.
Although the company were keen to get all the big studios ticked off the list, they took a look around an increasingly crowded marketplace and realised that they’d better get their arses in gear before they became associated with the words, “ship” and “sailed”.
“We have been ready to go for a while,” insisted company CEO Ashwin Navin.
“There comes a point in time where you say we’ve got 10,000 titles ready to go and we shouldn’t wait anymore. We’re confident that we’ll be adding more studios soon,” he added.
BitTorrent technology
The peer-to-peer protocol developed by BitTorrent has proved massively popular on the internet, although mainly with people sporting an eye patch, a parrot on their shoulder and a propensity for saying, “oooo arrrr!”

Despite its dodgy background, BitTorrent enjoys a high ‘brand’ profile which it’s going to need when going head to head with rivals like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Wal-Mart.
With its Premium TV and movie content looking much the same as everyone else’s and pricing pegged in a similar ballpark, we’re looking hard to find an exciting USP here for BitTorrent.
All of the movies offered will only be available for digital rental, with the content going kaput 30 days after being downloaded (or a day after you start watching it), with DRM being taken care of by Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.
We can’t see punters getting too excited by having to fork out for a time-limited, use-limited movie that offers a far worse deal than owning a DVD. Can you?
source
26 February, 2007
European PS3: No Emotion Engine: PS2 Compatibility ‘Limited’
Sony has just let it be know that it will be redesigning the internals for the EuropeanPS3, removing the Emotion Engine, which gives compatibility with PS2 games.
The Emotion Engine will instead be handled in what they call, “a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation2 (PS2) titles.”
Much fuss was made by Sony of the Emotion Engine when they were building up to the initial release of the first PlayStation. CNN even went as far as asking if the PS2 will replace the PC, with claims like, it was “two times faster than a 733-MHz Pentium III and 15 times faster than a 400-MHz Celeron at handling tasks like full-motion video.”
Now we know that Sony are keen to ~~make the maximum amount of money~~ reduce the amount of money that they are losing from selling PS3s. According to iSupply’s estimate on the Bill Of Material of the PS3, they’ll save $27 on this.
Many UK gamers were angered when they felt that they were paying over the odds for the UK PS3 when the price of £425 was made official. This news will do nothing to make them feel better.
The real danger is that if people think they’re going to get less of a machine that their-cousins in the US and Japan have, that may well be the last straw in deciding which ‘Next-Gen’ console they’ll buy – even if they never end up playing any of their old PS2 games.
Sony is on a knife-edge with this one. We’ve already postulated that the PS3 might not be bought in the way that was once thought, before the Wii caught peoples imaginations.
What is strange is that in an interview at the start of February, SCE UK managing director, Ray Maguire, said that the machines were being built at that point, but omitted to mention that they would be fundamentally different.
Full release follows …
23/02/2007 10:00
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces Hardware Specification of PLAYSTATION®3 for Europe
London, 23 February 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) to be launched in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia on 23rd March 2007 would utilise a new hardware specification.
The European PS3 will feature the Cell Broadband Engine™, 60 GB hard disc drive, Blu-ray Disc player, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, SIXAXIS™ wireless controller. It also embodies a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation® (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation®2 (PS2) titles.
“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system,” said David Reeves, President of SCEE. “Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”
Some additional PS2 titles will become compatible on the PS3 system through regular downloadable firmware updates, which will be made available through the PLAYSTATION®Network, from http://www.playstation.com or via PS3 game discs, with the first update planned for the launch date of the 23rd March 2007.
Users will be able to check whether their titles are compatible with PS3 at http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc. This site will be available on 23rd March to meet launch day.
1. A device compatible with Linear PCM 7.1 Ch is required to output 7.1 ch audio, supported by Dolby TrueHD or a similar format, from the HDMI OUT connector.
2. This system does not support output from the DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. DTS-HD 7.1 Ch audio is output from a 5.1 or lower channel.
3. Usability of all storage media types is not guaranteed.
4. Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system. Visit faq.eu.playstation.com/bc for the latest information regarding compatible titles

23 February, 2007
Sky To Pull Channels From Virgin Media: Offering Discounts
The spat between Virgin Media and Mr Murdoch’s Sky TV is getting uglier as Sky threatens to pull its Sky One, Two, Three, News and Sports News channels from Virgin Media at the end of the month.
The frost started back in November last year when Virgin’s Richard Branson complained about Sky buying a £940m holding in the UK broadcaster, ITV. Branson jumped up and down and generally said how unfair it was.
A week ago Sky said it was considering a formal complaint against Virgin Media’s latest advertising campaign, which stated, “The cheapest place to get Sky Sports isn’t Sky.” Sky refuted Virgin’s claims, saying they were misleading.
Today sees the latest round. Virgin put out a statement this morning saying that they anticipated “a withdrawal of these channels by Sky at the end of February.”
Clearly angry, the statement continued,
“The nature of these negotiations leads us to believe that this outcome has been deliberately engineered by Sky in order to suppress competition and coerce Virgin Media’s customers into switching to its service by denying them access to the basic channels. (These negotiations do not impact Sky’s premium sports and movies channels which will continue to be available to Virgin Media customers.)
This view is reinforced by Sky’s decision to broadcast, at the height of negotiations on 12th February, a series of promotions claiming that the channels were about to disappear from Virgin Media’s network. This was nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to exert undue influence on the negotiating process.”
Virgin Media claim that Sky has been asking for “a carriage fee more than double the existing arrangement.”
Julian Closer is reporting that Virgin will be offering up to £9.75 in compensation for the loss of Sky-branded channels.
23 February, 2007
PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System With MP3 Playback Launched
Those lovely people at Pure have launched another means of listening to DAB radio and other audio, this time in a compact micro Hi-Fi form.
The new PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System with MP3 playback comes with the ability to playback MP3/ WMA files from portable USB flash memory drives, SD memory cards and CDs. Beyond those terribly modern means, there’s also two auxiliary inputs, letting you connect iPod, MiniDisc or MP3 player.
This micro system is Micro with the main unit being 140mm wide and 150mm tall – not much wider than a CD case.
All the DAB goodies are available including autotuning to all available stations and scrolling text showing news, sports results, artist names and track titles (as long as it’s supported by the broadcaster). Pure tells us that some areas of the UK have up to 55 DAB stations these days.
The CD player isn’t just for the run of the mill audio CDs. It will playback CD-R and CD-RW disks with support for CD Text and audio CD playlists. The DMX-25 also plays back MP3-CDs, including support for ID3 tags, giving significantly increased capacity.
For those of you who love to know about the guts of what you’re buying – The DMX-25 is powered by the Frontier Chorus FS1010, which incorporates the revolutionary META multi-threaded processor and Universal Communications Core technologies developed by Imagination Technologies. So there!
DMX-25 is on sale from April 2007 from major retailers and independent hi-fi dealers nationwide for just £129.99 (SSP inc. VAT).
Tech Specs
Tuner: Stereo digital radio with full Band III and FM reception. ETS 300 410 compliant and capable of decoding all DAB transmission modes 1-4 up to and including 192 kbps. Supports FM RDS and RadioText.
Frequency ranges: Band III 174-240 MHz, FM 87.5-108 MHz.
CD Player: CD-R and CD-RW playback compatible. Support for 20 track audio CD playlist. Multiple playback modes (repeat, shuffle, etc.). MP3 & WMA playback, including support for ID3 tags.
Speakers: 4 Ohms (nominal) impedance. 10W RMS power handling. Two-way design. Treated paper mid-bass driver. Custom-tuned crossover. Rosewood finish. Removable grilles.
Input connectors: Two 3.5mm line-inputs for auxiliary devices. USB host port for flash-based memory sticks (key drives) and powered media devices. SD memory card support.
Output connectors: 3.5mm stereo output for headphones.
Controls: Power on/standby, clock/sleep, source, tune/select, menu, timer, info, presets, volume, play/pause, stop, fast forward, rewind and MP3 directory navigation.
Remote: Fully featured infrared remote control. Uses 2 AAA batteries (supplied).
Presets: 30 presets (10 DAB and 20 FM).
LCD Display: LCD display with 16 x 2 characters, plus additional function icons.
Mains power supply: 240V. Euro/UK power socket adapter.
Approvals: CE marked. Compliant with the EMC and Low Voltage Directives (89/336/EEC and 73/23/EEC).
Dimensions (mm): Unit – 140 wide x 150 high (280 with CD compartment open) x 230 deep (including controls). Speakers – 130 wide x 205 high x 160 deep.
Aerial: Wire dipole DAB/FM aerial.
Warranty: Comprehensive two year warranty.
Pure DMX-25
23 February, 2007
USB Rules Mobile Phone Interfacing
USB rules the roost for people loading and unloading content on and off their mobiles phones. It was employed in more handsets than all other interface standards combined in 2006, according to iSuppli Corp.
While the wireless alternatives of WiFi and Bluetooth might grab the news headlines, good old-fashioned USB keeps doing the doo, primarily because some sort of USB is on pretty much any computer since it’s introduction ten years ago.
iSupply think this dominance will continue to the point where, by the end of 2010, USB will still be the leading local interface, being included 764 million of all handsets shipped that year. They also think that Bluetooth will be fitted to all handsets, while NFC and WiFi will become stronger that their currently weak position.
Alongside getting content on and off the phone using the varied interfaces, there will be a corresponding increase in flash memory add-in cards. iSupply are predicting significant increases, with the 186m units shipped in 2005 increasing to 640m units in 2010.
It was interesting to note that the whole range of new Sony Ericsson phones were fitted with Memory Stick Micro (M2), and not the now-standard Memory Sticks. When we queried it with company people, they said that was the trend, allowing the size of the handsets to shrink.
iSupply
23 February, 2007
XBox 360 IPTV Coming To London
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 running as an IPTV box will be demonstrated in London for the first time in Europe on 5 March.
It’s had an outing at CES in January this year and was well received.
There’s little doubt that the X360 has the grunt to be able to act as an IPTV STB – if anything it’s total over kill, given the considerable graphics ability it has.
Here’s what Robbie Bach, Sr. VP and Chief Xbox Officer, said about IPTV Edition, the middleware that the network operator will run to power the IPTV-ness of the Xbox 360, “IPTV Edition enables you to do, regardless of whether you’re a cable provider or a telco or any net operator, you can take live media, on-demand media, across an IP network and put it into the home on a high-definition television, and you can do multiple streams of that content without having to have multiple tuners in the set-top box. You really can produce an amazing TV experience.”
He went on to explain it’s not just about selling the IPTV software to the head-end, “this product sells SQL Server, it sells Commerce Server, it sells the rest of our backbone into these operators, and really helps broaden our business.” Hmmm, Nice.
It’s also been on what they call “scale commercial deployments” with the BT Group in the UK, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, T-Online in France and Swisscom in Switzerland. AT&T is working with Microsoft in the US.
There’s a history here
When the original Xbox was launched, Microsoft spent an awful amount of effort in denying that it was a going to be used to bring them closer to the TV in the lounge.
Despite this, they did quietly release some add-on software package that allowed you to pull picture and music from a PC. We bought it to give it a go, and found it to be disastrous. Hugely bloated software that needed to loaded on the PC that was to share and disastrous software that loaded on the Xbox. It was rare that it worked at all.
We assume that the X360 is considerably better than this.
The US version of XBox Live already gives subscribers the ability to download films and TV programmes to their X360s.
22 February, 2007
DigiTV: The Progress So Far
Guy Giles gives us an update on how the DigiTV project is coming along. DigiTV assists Local Authorities to understand, launch and run citizen-focused services on digital TV and mobile phones.
2007 has started at quite a pace for DigiTV. We have seen unprecedented growth in usage traffic following the introduction of a new job search plugin from Job Centre Plus.
This can be used by any organisation signing up to using the Starter Kit and is proving to be a service which really does drive repeat traffic. Given the audience for an interactive television service (primarily C2, D & E) this is providing a service driven by genuine need from people who often do not have routine access to a PC at home.
In a recent piece of research, one of the users of the system sent in a request for a council form. When followed up she explained that she was awake in the middle of the night supporting her autistic son. She needed to contact the council but without a PC or PC skills to call on – she turned to the television for service.
Digital television is really proving to be a platform that is reaching an audience that has been left out of the digital loop for too long.
Another new development sees Wychavon’s choice-based lettings service go live via the DigiTV Starter Kit. Wychavon undertook some research to see where and when the traffic arrived on their Web-based service each week. It turned out that parents were having to ask their children to login at school to enable them to bid for the property of their choice. Parents did not have the benefit of having a PC at home so had to rely on their children. By making this service available on TV – it really does open up the service to all and start to address the very real social and economic disadvantages that come with digital exclusion.
This month we are pleased to bring two new London local authorities on board. Both Islington and Kensington & Chelsea have signed up for the service and will see their sites go live before the end of March.
They have both opted for the ‘bureau’ service which sees the DigiTV team build their sites for them based on a set of templated services/interactions that are available. Its great to see more of London engaging with this service given the high takeup of digital television in the capital.
Finally, its worth keeping in mind the pace of change in the UK television market. All platforms are going to being using broadband to deliver a wide range of additional interactive and on-demand services and people from all walks of life will increasingly expect to use any ‘screen’ in their home to access these. We encourage all Local Authorities that now is the time to engage with this to ensure that they meet expectations in the future whilst ensuring that they provide a service now to the digitally excluded and socially disadvantaged.
DigiTV
22 February, 2007
Viacom Joost Deal Struck
US media giant, Viacom, have struck a deal with Joost, the VOD TV to computer previously known as The Venice Project.
Joost is currently in beta, and it’s understood that the Viacom material will be available for the yet-undefined launch date of Joost. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Joost users will have financially-free access to the content. Joost users will ‘pay’ by being shown brief adverts, that we call blip-verts. They only last a couple of seconds and aren’t _that_ offensive, if the video pieces that are being watched aren’t too short.
The Viacom channels covered by the deal are MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike TV, Logo and BET.
Clearly Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer, is showing his excitement at being involved, “We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology.” He’s not looking at the Joost deal as an exclusive though, “we’re determined to keep pushing and growing our digital presence and bring our programming to audiences on every platform and device that they want. In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers.”
All of this comes only a couple of week after Viacom threw their legal department at YouTube, insisting that they remove their content from the video sharing site and accused Google-owned YouTube of knowingly profiting from material stolen from them.
Joost recently introduced a version of Joost to run on Apple’s Mac. Version 0.8.0.1 for Mac came out on Monday, following a brief period in Alpha test. They describe it as looking “very much like Joost for Windows, while behaving very much like a Mac application.” A growing number of Mac Beta testers are complaining that the software only works on Intel-based Macs.
Joost
21 February, 2007
Twelve Steps To Beat Email Addiction
Apparently the problem of ’email addiction’ has got so bad amongst some permanently-connected workers and Blackberry toting bosses that some “executive coach” dudess in Pennsylvania has come up with her “12 steps to cure e-mail addiction” plan.
The 12 step plan was devised by executive coach Marsha Egan after several of her clients revealed how their email addiction was taking them right off the rails.
One exec found he failed to impress a client on the golf course after he simply had to check email on his BlackBerry after every single shot, while another was unable to walk past a computer – any computer – without reaching for the ‘check email’ button.
One seriously twitchy email addict was so desperate to receive email, that he regularly sent himself messages just to check that the email system was working.
Thankfully ol’Marsha’s on hand to help cure these poor souls, and with an eye to opening up future business opportunities, she wasn’t one to underplay the ‘problem’ for big businesses.
Ratcheting her hyperbole control up to eleven, she warned that, “There is a crisis in corporate America, but a lot of CEOs don’t know it.”.
“They haven’t figured out how expensive it is,” she added.
That’s as maybe, but we suspect clients who need someone to tell them how to sort out their own email might soon learn how expensive her “executive coaching” courses might be.
The Twelve Steps (our comments in italics):
1. Admit that e-mail is managing you. Let go of your need to check e-mail every ten minutes.
What?! And miss out the prospect of being the first to tell the office a freshly emailed joke?!
2. Commit to keeping your inbox empty.
Oh right. That’s a bit like saying, ‘commit to only taking one phone call a day’ or ‘only have the one beer in the pub.’
3. Create files where you can put inbox material that needs to be acted on.
We’ve already done that. And now it’s full of hundreds of unanswered mails.
4. Make broad headings for your filing system so that you have to spend less time looking for filed material.
Surely it’s easier just to use the email program’s search function?
5. Deal immediately with any e-mail that can be handled in two minutes or less but create a file for mails that will take longer.
Oh great! Let’s make another big directory for unanswered mails!
6. Set a target date to empty your in box. Don’t spend more than an hour at a time doing it.
An hour? A week more like!
7. Turn off automatic send/receive.
Are you mad? Without a regular stream of office jokes and links to pointless website distractions the office would grind to a halt.
8. Establish regular times to review your e-mail.
We already do that and it’s set to ‘whenever we can’
9. Involve others in conquering your addiction.
People! Quick! Stop us opening this email!
10. Reduce the amount of e-mail you receive.
Er, hello? How do we do that? Go around unplugging our co-workers computers?
11. Save time by using only one subject per e-mail; delete extra comments from forwarded e-mail, and make the subject line detailed.
We’re lucky if we even manage to include anything in the email subject line. Most usually say something like, “FW:FW:FW:”
12. Celebrate taking a new approach to e-mail.
That’s the best idea you’ve come up with so far. Let’s get down the pub!
CNN
21 February, 2007
Mac Users Need To De-Smugify About Security: Researcher
We’ve been bombarded by the smug, highly slapable face of the Mac bloke in Apple’s omnipresent advertising campaign telling us how incredibly secure Macs are, but an independent researcher begs to differ.
Researcher Kevin Finisterre feels that far from walking around with an air of superiority over their Windows counterparts, Mac users should also start taking security threats seriously.
After highlighting security holes in Mac applications on his Month of Apple Bugs (MOAB) website, Finisterre said he was initially shunned by some of the Mac community, but his concerns were vindicated when Apple recently issued a patch to plug holes outlined on his website.
The update fixed holes in iChat and Finder as well as a flaw in the user notification process that could potentially let malicious users gain system privileges.
Finisterre says he started the project in response to Apple owners’ blasé attitude to security, commenting, “Try calling any Apple store and ask any sales rep what you would do with regard to security, ask if there is anything you should have to worry about?
“They will happily reinforce the feeling of ‘Security on a Mac? What? Me worry?’.”
Finisterre said he hoped that his campaign has made people realise that there are, “most definitely some things under the OSX hood that need a closer look,” although Mac experts are quick to point out that none of the exploits on his site have been used to successfully hijack an Apple computer.
Things can only get better
Claiming that Apple hadn’t been too interested in opening a dialogue about security matters, Finisterre said that things were now changing for the better.
“They have certainly given some extra efforts on the backend to open up lines of communication, at least with me.”
“That sort of progress is what I am after rather than a particular set of bugs,” he commented.
Via
20 February, 2007