Month: September 2004

Alienware’s 4GHz Pentium

I love overclockers – I don’t know if it’s the nerves of steel needed to run components so far beyond their factory specifications that they need to be refrigerated, or the glowing water cooling pipes they use, or it might even be the UV lamps and dodgy stickers. And this is coming from someone who underclocks his graphics card – OpenOffice doesn’t really need much acceleration.

Overclocking basically involves running a processor at speeds beyond factory specification, and is generally performed by home enthusiasts who then have to solve the puzzle of extracting all that extra heat out of their PC case in colourful and complex ways. Some manufacturers have noticed this fashion and have taken to selling systems that have already been overclocked, and the professional build and cooling systems make them more reliable and less messy.

So, for those of you who want power at any expense, Alienware have released a pre-overclocked gaming system, featuring a Pentium 4 that runs at a (probably literally) red hot 4Ghz.

The Area-51 ALX is based around a Extreme Edition Pentium 4, with 1 gig of Corsair RAM, and a 6800 Ultra for a graphics card. Keeping this lot cool requires gold plated, pure copper coolers, and a specially formulated liquid solution to conduct heat away from components. Oh, and two pumps and a few fans. A custom power control board monitors liquid temperature and features an emergency alarm and automatic shut-down features, just in case things get too frantic during those FPS death matches.

At a wallet-alarming US$5,458 (€4,525) for a typical set up, it’s for devoted, power hungry gamers only – but I certainly can’t think of a better way to Half-Life 2’s launch.

Alienware ALX Series

Atzio’s Peer-to-Peer Television

Atzio, a content delivery software company, have developed a form of peer-to-peer distribution for television networks. They predict that P2P will revolutionise the legitimate delivery of TV and video content via the web, whilst broadcasters like the BBC are looking at using the peer to peer technologies to make content distribution cheaper.

Atzio have combined time-shifted media with a “data swarming” mechanism to lower distribution costs – as in the P2P model, a piece of media is divided into small blocks and downloaded from multiple hosts using bandwidth from each machine’s internet connection. Using this technology, a broadcaster does not have to buy huge amounts of bandwidth as its audience effectively becomes the distribution method. A welcome side effect of this model is that, the higher the demand is for a piece of content, the easier it is to get as it will be stored in more places.

The BBC have looked at P2P, amongst other options, for the distribution of their Creative Archive and other content. P2P systems like this are ideal for distributing large files to many users, such as entire films, TV programmes or games – and can be extremely cheap as customers do the distribution for the content publisher.

Atzio’s Peer to Peer Television uses a custom client to secure content against unauthorised copying and distribution, with an integrated playback interface. The network is closed and controlled by the content provider, so unauthorised or infringing materials cannot be distributed and quality of product is assured. Users can browse a content provider’s catalogue for titles and then download them immediately (like video on demand), to a schedule (like a PVR), or add them to their wishlist for viewing much later. A system of this type could replace a DVD-by-post business model quite easily.

The network is compatible with the major DRM systems out there, including Windows, DivX and Real Networks.

How Peer to Peer Television works

Ofcom Confirms 056 Numbers for VoIP Services, Begins New Consultation

Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator has confirmed that voice over IP services will use the 056 prefix, first reported here in February.

The new prefix will give all VoIP users a fixed number, so will be able to place calls with subscribers who have signed up for different VoIP services. It will also allow non-VoIP subscribers to make calls to VoIP numbers.

Ofcom are leaving the assignment of numbers down to VoIP providers. 056 numbers will not be geographic, as was originally feared, meaning that subscribers can be contacted wherever they are. Having a geographic VoIP number makes about as much sense as a geographic mobile number, and we’re glad someone saw sense.

Stephen Carter, Ofcom Chief Executive said “Broadband voice services are a new and emerging market. Our first task as regulator is to keep out of the way.” In this spirit, Ofcom has begun a new consultation to receive input on what needs to be done to protect the users of this nascent industry. Traditional telephone companies have number of regulations to comply with before they can offer a service to the public, such as ensuring access to the emergency services, and Ofcom wishes to explore what subset of these obligations should be applied to VoIP providers.

New Voice Services – A Plain English Summary

Orange Launches Europe’s First Advanced Push to Talk Service

Orange have just launched their Talk Now advanced push to talk service, after nine months of trials in the UK and France. The trials were conducted in association with NHS Lothian, as well as more than 400 French businesses.

Push-to-talk technology allows customers to make calls to a group of handsets for the cost of a standard voice call, with instant communication – much like a walkie talkie.

Orange’s implementation of the service is one of the many variations of push-to-talk that are currently in existence, and is based on technology from Kodiak.

Although not standard, the company is keen to stress the advantages Talk Now has over carrier’s offerings. These include knowing when a contact is free or busy, and being able to record a conference call for sending to a colleague later.

The Treo 600 is the first model supported in the UK, though other models are expected to join it shortly.

Orange on Push to Talk

Wotbox – Local Search Engines, Globally

Wotbox, a search engine vendor specialising location-targetted searches, in has launched eight new localised sites covering Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.S.

The London-based company wants to reach web users around the world by providing tightly-targeted search facilities in surfers’ native language.

Director Mike Nott said:”We’re trying to give international users more choice by providing another local search option for them. We also wanted the interface for non-English sites to be in the native language, making it easier for local users.”

Wotbox

Patrick Parodi, Mobile Entertainment Forum – The IBC Digital Lifestyles Interviews

This is the seventh in a series of eight articles with some of the people involved with the Digital Lifestyles conference day at IBC2004.

We talked to Patrick Parodi, Chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum about what the MEF has set out to achieve and the future rolls our mobile phones might take on.

Patrick has a dozen years of experience in designing, planning, and launching wireless network services in more 20 markets world wide. In addition to his current role at Packet Video Networks, he has worked for Diveo, Skytel, Teleworx and TVAnswer in various business development and marketing positions.

Some of our readers may not have encountered you, or the Mobile Entertainment Forum.  Could you give us some background on the MEF and your involvement?

The Mobile Entertainment Forum is a global trade association representing all participants in the mobile entertainment value chain.

It started out 4 years ago with a few technology providers for mobile games and messaging coming together, along with Booz Allen Hamilton, to consider the cross industry issues facing mobile entertainment. I’ve personally been involved with the Forum for 2 years, first as Board MemberVice Chair and recently as its Chairman.

The organization has grown to over 65 members from all segments of entertainment and communications. What united our members under the MEF banner is their committed to growing mobile media as a major component of their revenue, whether they are a technology company, a broadcaster, a record label or a mobile games company. The diversity of our membership reflects the diversity of the industry and points to the need for a Forum where views and opinions can be shared on how the industry can grow faster. Our objective is to bridge the gap between entertainment and communication through advocacy, education and the launch of specific MEF initiatives.

The emphasis is on growing mobile revenues responsibly. Companies join MEF in order to play a leading role in setting the right commercial parameters in this evolving new industry. The coming together of the traditional entertainment and mobile industries certainly creates a need to develop a common understanding of how this business is emerging such that sensible business models are adopted allowing all players to participate in creating end user value. MEF members are addressing vital issues such as the adoption of mobile digital rights management and the creation of mobile communities.

Both of these initiatives are led by members who have come together to share information and learning in order for others to understand how they can participate in the creation of this new business. We also believe it is very important to communicate this learning and the opportunities created by mobile entertainment to those new to the industry, in particular those in the traditional entertainment and media industries.

An example of how MEF has helped move the mobile entertainment business forward is the recent launch of the MEF’s UK ringtones chart, which measures, publicizes and legitimizes the development of this growing market. The Mobile Entertainment Forum is also looking to ensure that the right regulation gets adopted –one that provides sensible guidelines for protecting consumers whilst ensuring healthy revenues for all players. Hence, our Regulatory Committee has recently submitted comments to the EU’s e-Money Directive and how it applies to mobile.

“All boats float with the incoming tide.” We are at the early stage of a new industry called mobile entertainment. It is vital that all parts of the mobile entertainment business have a common voice and recommend ways to resolve core issues and help the market grow. This is what I believe the Forum is providing to its members. A common voice.

Tell me about PacketVideo Network Solutions?

To keep with the boat and tide analogy, PacketVideo Network Solutions (pvNS) provides software for the “boats” who want to enrich the mobile media experience with video and music. The company is owned by Alcatel, and was formerly a division of PacketVideo. With over 20 commercial launches worldwide, pvNS is recognized as the leading provider of software solutions centered around the pvServer to mange and distribute mobile video and audio services.

Right from day one the sole focus of pvNS has been the creation of products and services for mobilemedia.

PacketVideo Network Solutions has chosen to employ AAC as their mobile music format.  Can you tell me what drew you to AAC?

Like any other technology company when it comes to formats we have to be agnostic. We can run bench tests and believe that one format is better than another, but if that format doesn’t make it onto devices then we shouldn’t be backing it. For mobile music it’s fair to say that AAC (and AAC+) is our preferred format simply because it provides the consumer with the best experience.

It also happens to be the format that has been adopted as part of the 3GPP standard and will find its way in more devices than any other format on the market. That being said, we’ll work with other formats too – whether proprietary or open.

Can you tell us a little about your IBC session this year?  What are you hoping to cover?

I’m very honored since this year I’m actually participating in two panels at IBC.

The first is on mobile devices and networks (The business of handhelds – who will survive – Saturday 11 September at 14.00 – 15.30 hrs. Location: Room L) and the second is on the new business models surrounding the broadcast business (Future Business Models – Sunday 12 September. at 16.00 – 17.45 hrs Location: Forum). Both have extremely provocative titles and are chaired by great people (Bernard Pauchon of TDF, and Kate Bulkley who writes about this space).

My views on both topics will be very mobile user centric. Although there are many different networks (GPRS, 3G, DMB, WiFi, DVB-H etc…) and many different creators and owners of digital content, there is only one end user.

This end user wants personalized, real time, and localized content. If you look at the value of the ring tone business (roughly 2.5 Billion dollars in 2003) you realize that it is almost 10% of the value of the music industry! Now the question: Are people paying to listen to the music or to personalize their phones?

Clearly content is going mobile and content on a mobile is only “king” if it provides that added value which is created through personalization. Some are calling it conversational content…others communitainment.

The mobile phone is the most personal content receiver we have in our possession and there are now over a billion of them worldwide. This is just the beginning.

Broadcasters are catching on to mobile phones as a revenue stream and way to extend brands – will customers pay for content they might get free through the internet or television?
  The simple answer is no. The way broadcasters are generating money on mobile is by using mobile networks as reply paths. The advent of reality TV and the ability for audience participation via SMS has blown away the level of interactivity expected by the iTV industry. Ask any mobile operator what the impact of Endemol has been on the mobile data business.

The question to ask now is, will the operator networks or even broadcast networks be able to deliver valuable content to mobile devices? The answer is yes, but not without a serious effort in understanding the new time and space dimensions created with the mobile. The value to the user is directly proportional to the contents ability to relate to the new dimensions of time and space being created.

Content will be valuable once it is wrapped into a service or application combining in real time, communication, personalization, and localization.

Think about how you feel when you grab your mouse to surf the web. Your attitude is “what can I get for free?”

When you connect with your mobile, you are conscious of the fact that each connection and each transaction results in money being spent. Therefore you are more disposed to pay for the right content. I am particularly curious to what happens with the overlay of location based services on mobile networks. This will result in “localized” content which also have a profound impact on end user value creation.

Do you see the mobile phone eventually replacing all of the devices we carry around with us from day to day – like our music players and wallets?
  It’s tempting to say yes, but my answer is just a little more subtle. I think the phone will morph into a device that can carry out all these functions and more, but I don’t think that means it’ll replace all these other devices. I think it will certainly be our main portable electronic device and I think for those times that we want to carry one device we’ll choose the phone.

However there will be times that we’ll want to carry a specialist device that’s designed to do just one task insanely well.

A 5 Megapixel digital camera for instance. For a long flight I may still want a bespoke machine for watching films on a 15 cm portable screen, and there’ll probably be a bespoke music player that offers more functionality than a phone for a long time to come.

So it’ll be horses for courses – but the phone will be the no.1 portable electronic device. It is unique, addressable, and affordable.

Patrick is a panellist in the ‘Future Business Models‘ session between 16:00 and 17:45 at the IBC conference on Sunday, 12th September in Amsterdam. Register for IBC here

Packet Video Network Solutions

Philadelphia Plans World’s Largest WiFi Hotspot

Whilst one or two small cities are now claiming 100% WiFi coverage, Philadelphia has ambitions to cover its entire 135 square miles with the world’s largest wireless internet hotspot.

Major John F Street has formed a 14 member committee to plan the network and decide on access charges – some sources are speculating that the service may be free to residents, or at least very cheap.The project would help encourage tourism in the city and would complement the existing services in coffee shops and other businesses.

The project is expected to cost around US$10 million (€8.23 million), with annual maintenance amounting to about US$1.5 million (€1.23 million). The city intends to pay for the initial creation of the network, and then recoup the running costs from businesses and tourists. For example, tourists could pay for a day’s WiFi access with cross promotions to events and attractions, or businesses could pay a fee for a secure section of the network.

The current plan has a launch date of late 2005/early 2006.

The Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Technology

Windows Media 10

Windows Media 10 is always going to invite comparisons with iTunes, but there are many features built into WM10 that Apple’s music client won’t have for a while, if ever. This latest release of is part of Microsoft’s latest strategy to get into the living rooms (and pockets) of media-savvy households by providing useful tools and an easy to use interface for accessing music, video and more.

The first thing I noticed after Windows Media 10 installed, was that it’s much faster and responsive than the iTunes client. iTunes has a habit of pausing and sitting there unresponsively after some tasks. WM10 will then scan your hard drive for all compatible media types, from MP3s to recorded TV shows. High Definition video is supported, with tools and advice for optimising the experience.

The Media Library view is, for me, the most useful and shows off WM10’s Media Centre capabilities best. Recorded programmes can be sorted by series or actor, for example, and even includes a separate category for programmes that have not been watched yet.

One of the most interesting features of the player is the way that it integrates with online stores, including MSN Music. The execution is simple – the player just acts as a web browser – but works beautifully and demonstrates that Microsoft really only needs a web-based store and not a software client like iTunes. Support is included for a broad range of stores and media types – users can even buy and view content direct from CinemaNow without leaving the player.

As promised, synchronisation with more than 70 hardware players has been extended and simplified and will automatically update your portable media centre with new music or video when attached.

Definitely the best media player out there – and it’s difficult to see Real or iTunes catching up on functionality or ease of use any time soon.

Windows Media 10

Microsoft’s Music Store Beta

Microsoft have made a beta version of their new music store available to the public. The store is entirely browser-based and does not require a separate client like iTunes. The iTunes store has many more features, but then it’s an application – taken together with Windows Media 10, the MSN Store becomes much more useful than on its own.

Artist pages have a couple of features not seen on previous music stores – like “Buy Tickets” and “Find Lyrics”, but these just trigger web searches, showing that the store is integrated with MSN’s search facilities. Microsoft are hoping to make more use of this integration with the new version of MSN Search in the future – searching for bands on their search site will return direct links to buy music.

Songs have ratings on the page, on the same line as “Buy track” – and providing you trust strangers’ opinions, might be a useful feature for the easily swayed. Previews are available, but there’s no progress bar to tell you how far through the track or preview you are.

The selection of music is pretty much as expected, though there are a few bands that you won’t get on iTunes – Kraftwerk, for example. The much-hyped internet début of the Beatles is yet to happen.

Naturally, all tracks are sold in WMA format, version 10 of which is out tomorrow, though the full version of the store itself is not expected to launch now until October.

MSN Music Beta

Apple Pulls an Amazon with iTunes Affiliates

Apple have announced a rather smart new extension to their iTunes offering – an affiliate programme. Now websites can earn commission on tracks that recommend to potential customers.

It’s already possible to link to specific content on iTunes, but adding a 5% commission sweetener will encourage sites to promote the music store and favourite tunes. Will providing a financial incentive to promote tracks affect iTunes’ contribution to the new downloaded music charts? It’s too early to tell.

Amazon’s own affiliate service has been a great success, and some of the more prominent affiliates have done reasonably well out of it. Whilst individual tunes are certainly cheaper than books, music has a higher consumption and churn rate – bloggers will leap on this opportunity straight away, as they can now profit it out of telling everyone how cool their music tastes are.

Apple will be supporting their new affiliates with Apple-designed marketing materials and a regular newsletter.

“By working with affiliate websites we’re not only expanding access to iTunes, but are giving site owners the ability to connect to one of the hottest brands online, creating a quick and easy way for them to generate additional revenue,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of applications. Apple said it has to date sold over 125 million songs from its iTunes Music Stores in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France.

As an extra incentive, affiliates have the chance of winning an iPod Mini if they sign up before 15th September.

iTunes Affiliates