Digital-Lifestyles

March 2004

  • Streaming Patent Claims Thicken as Playboy Licenses Technology

    Acacia Media Technologies Group, part of Acacia Research Corporation, has found a new licensee for it patent claim on transmitting media over the web: Playboy.com.

    Acacia acquires patents based on broad definitions – and then pursues companies using technologies in similar areas. The company claims to own the patents relating to transmitting compressed video and audio online – a fairly basic component of the internet these days. Acacia don’t actually provide a product for streaming media, or a service – they just claim the patent and will license the right to you.

    Playboy.com have been granted the 118th license to use streaming technology – analysts estimate that Acacia are looking to take about 1 or 2% of the income that licensees make from streaming.

    The company had recently started action on 39 “adult entertainment” sites, and it seems these businesses seem to be their preferred targets rather than, say, Micorsoft, RealNetworks or Apple. Their reasoning is that content providers have billing systems in place with consumers and so it’s an easier revenue stream to tap into.

    Acacia Research

    Yahoo Finance

  • iTunes Sells 50 Million Songs; Hewlett Packard-branded iTunes Launches

    Apple announced on Monday that they’d sold 50 million tracks through its iTunes music service. They’re not including free songs redeemed through the Pepsi promotion running at the moment, just tracks which users have paid for and downloaded.

    The service is now selling 2.5 million songs per week – that’s an annual rate of 130 million tracks per year, and it’s increasing. Steve Jobs said “It’s increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes.” He may have a point: there’s no denying that the service has completely changed the face of the music industry, with many other companies are trying to get a slice of the market – though many other offerings (such as myCokeMusic) are considerably inferior. We’re looking forward to iTunes belated launch in Europe in the Summer – and hope that this will prompt Apple to do a bit more work on their slightly shoddy Windows client for the store.

    Apple also partnered with Hewlett Packard to offer a special HP-branded copy of iTunes.

    Oh – and what was the milestone song sold this time? “The Path of Thorns” by Sarah McLachlan.

    Apple on the milestone

    HP iTunes

  • BenQ Launch World’s First 12” High Definition Widescreen Laptop

    BenQ are pitching their new Joybook 6000 as part of their “digital hub” – and is the World’s first high definition 12.1” laptop.

    The high definition screen runs at a 1280 x 600 resolution (WXGA) – we haven’t seen it yet, but it is by all accounts beautiful. We’ve been looking around and it seems to retail at about US$2640.

    The Centrino notebook has the usual WiFi/Bluetooth/IrDA capabilities, so will be able to connect users to data services easily and under a variety of conditions.

    Joybook Home – Middle East

  • The Line between TVs and Displays Blurs Even Further

    Is it a display with a TV tuner or is it a TV that you can use as a flat panel monitor? The viewing angle is possibly a bit narrow for living room use, but Iiyama’s new E430T-S display could easily be used as a television when you’re not using it to read DigitalLifestyles. Suspiciously similar to their existing E430T-S but with a PAL/SECAM/NTSC tuner in it, Iiyama are making the leap to multifunction displays as the market grows: flat panels have become enormously popular over the past 18 months, make ideal mid-size television displays, use less power and save space. Home users no longer see the point in having two near-identical pieces of equipment that do the same thing, and the benefits of integrating an tuner into an existing production model are enormous compared to the tiny cost.

    The new display even has built-in speakers, but at 1.5w, you’ll definitely need to use something a bit more powerful for watching TV in living room.

    Iiyama

  • Let Your Mood Dictate the Music

    Biometric feedback as an input device is an idea that’s been floating around for a while, but researchers at MIT’s Media Lab Europe have developed a musical “game” that allows your mood to influence the music, rather than the other way round.

    When your mood changes, so does your skin resistance (just ask the CIA), and MIT’s project, called Peace Composed, uses a pair of biometric sensors to measure it. This is then used to compose a piece of music based on seven different layers of instruments, including bass, piano, strings and wind instruments.

    The application has obvious stress management uses, provided you’re not to stressed or overworked to actually get round to using it, and makes a fitting companion piece to “Relax to Win”, a program developed to help children with anxiety and stress problems. We don’t know why, but the title really appeals to us.

    BBC News

  • EU/Microsoft Mediaplayer Decision Due Today

    The EU’s National Antitrust Exports Advisory meets to day to give their decision on one of their longest running cases – Microsoft’s bundling of multimedia applications in their Windows operating system.

    This is the first of an expected two meetings – Microsoft will probably be given a deadline today, and will be expected to provide a “lightweight” version of Windows without its bundled applications, making it easier for other software manufacturers to include their own multimedia players and browsers when conusmers purchase a new PC. We would be very surprised if MS Europe didn’t already have a “core OS and applications only” version of Windows ready to go. Since this case have been going on since Windows 95, they’ve had plenty of time as there have been at least five major versions released since then.

    The current solution for MS, the “Set Program Access and Defaults” tool, included in the last service packs, was introduced as a result of legal action, but does not tackle the controversial issue of software bundling.

    The second meeting will be on the 22nd of March, where we predict that Microsoft will get hit up for a couple of hundred million euros.

    Of course, Microsoft will appeal against both measures, prolonging the case even further – but perhaps next year you’ll be able to buy a PC with RealPlayer instead of Windows Media as the default multimedia application.

    The EU’s Antitrust Site

    Watching Microsoft Like A Hawk

  • SXSW Interactive

    In its eleventh year, this offshoot of the South-by-Southwest independent film festival draws cutting-edge new media developers and content creators. Austin, TX. http://sxsw.com/interactive

  • Motorola’s Linux Music Phone

    Motorola haven’t released a Linux-based phone outside the Far East before – but their new E680 looks like it will be distributed in the West.

    The phone is intended to be a wireless entertainment portal, with plenty of features to support that claim: GPRS downloads of up to 115kbps; MP3, RealPlayer and MPEG4 playback; stereo speakers; FM radio. And, yes, it has a camera – VGA with an 8x digital zoom and MPEG4 video capture.

    The phone incorporates a WAP browser and will run J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Edition) applications. Further expansion is available through an SD slot, up to 1gb.

    LinuxDevices on the new phone

    Slashdot

  • BBCi Launches One-Minute Movies – “It’s not a competition.”

    One Minute Movies is a new site from BBCi, and it’s designed to give everyone the chance to show their short film to the world.

    The site gives the reason they’re doing it: “There are many websites about making films but we thought they were all a bit too serious, a bit too technical. The spirit behind One-Minute Movies is to just pick up a camera and shoot.”

    With strong advice and tips on story, directing, sound and editing the site even has a small collection of classical music you can download and use for your own project. Tips come from professional film makers like David Lynch and Ann Coates and there’s also a facility for sending on your own tips and discussing them on the message board.

    The rules are simple – basically it has to be all your own work and not break any laws. It doesn’t even need to be only a minute long.

    We like this idea. Although the idea is not unique to the BBC, they are getting high profile exposure for what we feel will become a popular form of content, particularly on mobile devices.

    They have made the smart move trying to ensure a certain degree of quality by providing lots of information about the process. The site concentrates on making films with the equipment lots of people would already have, without requiring any additional expense from software or hardware.

    Although just about anyone could shoot a short film and host it themselves, having a movie on the BBC site will give it a much larger audience. Be aware though, as with all these things, submitting your film to BBCi gives them the right to do whatever they like with it, forever.

    Making something only a minute long might seem simple, but it can be extremely challenging – and rewarding. Perhaps we’ll get round to finishing that stop-motion Lego film that nearly drove us insane at Christmas.

    BBCi One Minute Movies

    Brand Republic

    The Magic Portal – sheer genius (requires DivX)

  • Nintendo Uses Patent to Crack Down on ROM Copying

    There’s been some confusion in how this story is being reported, so we thought we’d go over the key points.

    Nintendo’s patent applies to emulating ROM-based games consoles, such as the N64 and GBA in other systems. You’ll no doubt have seen this before when you’ve played Mario Kart on the way over to New York from London: obviously there aren’t a hundred SNES consoles behind the cargo hold (if there were, it might explain why they’re so pricey on eBay).

    From the patent document: “A software emulator for emulating a handheld video game platform such as GAME BOY.RTM., GAME BOY COLOR.RTM. and/or GAME BOY ADVANCE.RTM. on a low-capability target platform (e.g., a seat-back display for airline or train use, a personal digital assistant, a cell phone).”

    The patent can be used to prevent other people making commercial use of a similar system – such as Firestorm gbaZ, and that’s exactly what’s just happened. Nintendo contacted Kyle Poole, responsible for the emulator and demanded that he no longer promote, market, use or distribute the Firestorm gbaZ or pursuse any further emulation of any Nintendo system. Nintendo’s key is that “All of the software for Nintendo’s proprietary video game systems is distributed in a tangible medium, sold through retail outlets. None of the games are distributed in digital versions on the Internet. Any such distribution, or promotion of any such distribution, is illegal.”

    Crimson Fire – home of the Tapwave Emulator

    Slashdot on the affair