Digital-Lifestyles

October 2004

  • BBC Creative Archive: Fuel For A Creative Nation

    18:45 for a 19:00 start

    Since Greg Dyke first announced the BBC’s intention, in 2001, to give access to some of the BBC’s huge archive there has been fevered speculation about the implementation and boundaries of this exciting, world-leading idea.

    Using a computer, the British public will be able to download programming and programming excerpts at no cost. The hope is that this material will then be used to fuel their own creative endeavours, which will in turn be shared – creating new content from old. It is a bold project, with many obstacles to conquer.

    Cut through the hype – come and hear the facts from Paula LeDieu, joint director of the BBC Creative Archive project. Paula’s presentation will be followed by Q&A.

    Speaker: Paula LeDieu, joint-director, BBC Creative Archive
    Host: Simon Perry, publisher, Digital Lifestyles Free tickets are limited. Please apply to [email protected]
    This event is organised by the RTS London Centre events committee. Venue – LWT South Bank, Upper Ground, SE1, London. [Map]
    Nearest stations are Waterloo and Southwark.

  • Sony PSP Arrives on 12.Dec in Japan

    After months of speculation that the Sony PlayStation Portable would not appear until 2005, Sony have just announced its release in Japan on 12 December, just ten days after Nintendo DS, and at a price that is much lower than expected.

    The PSP, Sony’s entry into handheld games machine market will be available in two flavours. The normal edition PSP at $186, (~ £101, €145) will include the handheld itself, an AC adapter, and a battery pack. A value pack $232, (~£126, €181) will be the normal pack plus a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, a set of headphones with a remote control, and a carrying case.
     
    The PSP is more than a mere games machine, it can also be used for watching movies and listening to music files – but not just yet. The standard for films is still under discussion with several movie studios, and a movie line-up and download service won’t be announced for several months. It’s a pity this last task was not completed before announcing the launch, as doubtless much of PSP’s success will depend on it, but we suspect it will be down to rights and DRM protection.

    Sony denies that competition from Nintendo DS influenced the PSP price, offering several other plausible reasons. One being that the price was possible because about half of PSP’s parts, including the main computer chip, are produced internally by Sony.  Another being that it was apparently set, based on an informal survey of Sony officials who were asked what they would pay for the PSP if they were going to buy it. Whatever the reason, Sony doesn’t expect to make a profit on PSP until well into next year, obviously being prepared to sacrifice it for strong PSP branding.

    There will be 21 games available for the PSP launch, including high-profile third-party titles such as Electronic Arts’ “Need for Speed Underground” racing gaming and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Konami’s “Metal Gear Acid”, and Sega Corporation’s Puyo Pop Fever – Puzzle

    In Japan, Sony plans to sell 500,000 PSP machines by the end of this year, and 1 million by 31st March. Dates and prices for the United States and Europe have not yet been set, although overseas sales are being planned for the first quarter of 2005.

    Sony

  • Keyhole bought by Google for 3D mapping

    Moving ever closer to its dream of being able to catalogue almost everything in the world, Google Inc. has just bought digital map-maker, Keyhole Corp.

    Google had already recently acquired Picasa, a service that helps manage digital photos, but Keyhole is the first it has acquired since its August initial public offering. All of Keyhole’s 29 employees have joined Google, and its current customer base of about 10,000 come mainly from a coterie of government agencies.
     
    Claiming to be the largest 3D, commercial imagery depository online, Keyhole, founded in 2001, maintains a multi-terabyte database of digital images of geographic locations captured from satellites and aeroplanes.  Its 3-D technology provides far-away or close-up views of a region, neighbourhood or specific address. Images can be tilted into different positions, and its image resolution in some areas is as fine as half a foot. We previously saw Keyhole’s 3-D maps being used to zero in on the battlefront on CNN news during the early days of the Iraq war.

    Keyhole received its initial financing from Sony Broadband but then raised additional money last year from In-Q-Tel, a venture capital company backed, interestingly, by the CIA.

    The Keyhole database includes thousands of cities, and images varying in age from two months to three years. It gets these images from a variety of sources, including the private Colorado satellite companies DigitalGlobe and Space Imaging, while some lower-resolution images come from the U.S. government.

    One of the first things Google did after the buyout, was slash the price of Keyhole 2 LT, the basic consumer downloadable software by a whooping 57%, reducing it from $70 (~£38) to $30 (~£16). The more sophisticated Keyhole 2 Pro is priced at $599 (~£327).

    Yahoo and MSN already provide online mapping services, enabling users to zoom down to street-level scale, while Mapquest is a popular and established site for directions. Now Google users will no longer have to leave the Google site to avail of this type of service. 

    We wait with bated breath to see the uses Google put it to.

    Keyhole
    Google

  • U2 iPod and Photo iPod Become Real

    iPod PhotoApple’s much anticipated and predicted new iPod – iPod Photo, launched late yesterday, has moved into the multimedia realm, allowing users to view and share photos as well as the normal music play back. The new iPod Photo can hold up to 25,000 pictures and can be connected to a television to play video slide shows. The 40-gigabyte version is priced at $499 (~£272) and the 60-gigabyte model is priced at $599 (~£326).

    The new iPod features two Apple patent pending features – Click Wheel and Auto-Sync technology that automatically downloads an entire digital music library onto iPod and keeps it up-to-date whenever it is plugged into a Mac or Windows computer using FireWire or USB.

    Separately there is the special edition 20GB U2 iPod as predicted by Digital Lifestyles earlier this month, which is … shock, horror … black with a red wheel!  Its is part of a larger agreement between U2 and Apple, whereby Apple will have exclusive rights to sell all the songs from the band’s new album online through its iTunes Music Store for at least the first few weeks following the release.  U2 iPodThe U2 iPod is expected to be available mid-November for a suggested retail price of £249 (~$456) through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers. IPod TV adverts showing U2 were shown on UK television this evening.

    The timing of the U2 iPod release coincides with the immanent release of U2’s new album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”, and “Vertigo,” a single from the album is available exclusively in the US through the iTunes Music Store. 

    A “Digital Box Set” offering from Apple called surprisingly, “The Complete U2”, apparently the first of its kind, will contain over 400 tracks including all of the band’s albums and over 25 rare and unreleased tracks.  These can be downloaded from iTunes in the United States and Europe from late November for $140 (~£76).

    There are challengers to iPod’s throne though.  Would be kings include Dell Inc.’s new Pocket DJ, Virgin Electronics’ Player, Creative Labs Inc.’s Zen Micro, iRiver America Inc.’s H300, and Archos Inc.’s Gemini XS200.

    Notwithstanding, analysts estimate the company could sell close to 3 million iPods this Christmas, so Apple can sing for this year anyway, “It’s good to be the king!”

  • Preminet: Nokia’s Mobile Content Move

    Courtesy of Nokia, mobile content distribution and transaction will reside in a one-stop-shop, making life easier for mobile networks and perhaps more interesting for the owners of some 350 million Java-enabled handsets (at last count.)

    Preminet is a hosted open service model that streamlines all the steps involved in delivering content for smart phones through a single channel.

    As a result of an agreement announced yesterday between Nokia and Starcut, a Finland-based mobile media publisher, content from Universal Studios and Warner Music Group Content will be made available to operators and consumers through the one-stop content shop.  Preminet and Starcut will provide operators with pre-certified content such as life-style and sports, ringtones, graphics, games and video that they can brand and offer over the Web, or via Java or Symbian OS enabled mobile phones.

    Here’s how it works.  Preminet sources premium Java and Symbian OS software from leading developers and content aggregators worldwide to give operators a master catalogue of certified applications, games and other mobile content. A chain supply experts dream system – the sequence includes the Preminet Master Catalogue, Preminet Service Delivery Platform and Preminet Purchasing Client, an innovative software application that make it easy for end-users to trial run mobile applications, content and services before buying. Operators can integrate Preminet content into their own download delivery systems or have Nokia provide a complete hosted solution.

    Until now, each operator was responsible for maintaining hundreds of relationships with individual Java and Symbian OS developers as well as sourcing and testing each application before bringing them to the end-user. Now they have a single channel – the Preminet Master Catalogue containing a whole range of Java and Symbian OS software as well as a framework for delivering billing and distributing revenues.

    In February, Nokia took one of its first steps towards Preminet when it joined with Sun Microsystems, Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications to create the Java Verified Process for testing and certifying Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) applications for wireless handheld devices.

    Preminet is not a new concept though, coming after the Brew development platform for mobile devices from Qualcomm.  Preminet has been launched worldwide and Nokia expects a complete commercial deployment by the end of November.

    Time will tell as to how the mobile and content industries will react to Nokia taking this role on, and taking a percentage for each transaction in the process.

    Preminet
    Starcut

  • WiFi Pricing in Europe is Over Complex

    At the IBM sponsored Wi-Fi Business Development Summit in Paris, consultancy BroadGroup has warned providers to pull back from complex pricing systems for Wi-Fi services, while it also warned major industry players to increase marketing emphasis on monthly subscriptions.

    In simpler language – more transparency is needed. The more schemes and user choice on offer, the more complex pricing structures become it would seem, and BroadGroup define the current schemes as being ‘too finely segmented’. Using source material based on two recent European surveys of 122 Wi-Fi service providers and 83 GPRS operators, BroadGroup said that the findings suggested Wi-Fi is trending towards tariff structures that would leave users unable to comprehend what they were being charged. Whether this is the intent of the WiFi operators isn’t clear.

    But what alternative is there for WiFi service providers if differentiating offerings is the only way to drive marketing strategies, the current mix leaving users with 365 tariff schemes across 28 countries – one for each day of the year.

    It’s true, when you are bamboozled with too many price-saving schemes and special offers you end up being so confused that you just opt for the one you understand the best, and not the one that necessarily cuts your bill. And this is borne out by the fact that BroadGroup provided examples showing that if users did not know how many MB they consumed each month, they could be penalised by selecting an inappropriate tariff.

    Furthermore, most Web sites did not provide an interpretation of MB usage anyway. Even if they all did, you’d wonder how many customers would actually have enough time to study them in detail. BroadGroup is currently conducting a study of business travellers in Europe to provide insight into data usage and what users understand as mobile data.

    BroadGroup research also found that average pricing in the most popular timebands – 1 hour, 24-hours and 1 month had remained largely unchanged over the last 18 months. 24 hour pricing is now offered by 58% of all service providers in Europe with an average price of €15.08. However in a market where prepaid methodologies now dominated, the consultancy believed there was a need to concentrate on the promotion of monthly subscriptions to sustain business growth.

    The consultancy also noted that European Wi-Fi prices continued to be more expensive than the US and Asia.

    BroadGroup

  • Lexmark lose DMCA-case

    Lexmark can no longer use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), enacted by Congress in 1998, to stop its competitors from creating and selling cartridges that interoperate with its printers.

    A federal court has ruled that a small North Carolina company, Static Control Components (SCC) can continue selling their Smartek chip that allows any printer cartridge to work with Lexmark printers.  Or to put it another way, Lexmark, the No. 2 maker of printers in the United States, have learned the hard way that you can’t commandeer the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in conjunction with copyright law to create monopolies of manufactured goods for your company.

    The decision lifts an injunction imposed by a lower court on the sale of Static Control Components (SCC) chips that allow any printer cartridge to work with Lexmark printers. Now, any company that wishes to compete with Lexmark in after-market cartridge sales can do so by using SCC chips in its products.

    Congress originally intended the DMCA to prevent mass copyright infringement on the Internet.  But some companies have been scrutinising the small print and using legal loopholes to gain control over after-market competition. Lexmark, for example, programmed its printers to require a digital “handshake” with cartridges, so that only Lexmark cartridges could be used.  But when SCC started selling chips that allowed other companies to refill used cartridges and make them interoperable with Lexmark printers, Lexmark claimed they were engaging in unlawful reverse engineering and sued under the DMCA.

    Under section 1201 of the DMCA, it is generally unlawful to circumvent technology that restricts access to a copyrighted work or sell a device that can do so. But Congress also included exemptions in the DMCA explicitly permitting activities such as interoperability, which permits reverse engineering, “for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs”. 

    Unfortunatley for Lexmark, they were unable to convince the judge that SCC was in breach of section 1202, while SCC were able to convince him that they were not in breach.

    The now-normal model of very cheap printers and costly ink cartridges may be coming to an end.

    SCC Smartek
    Lexmark

  • EU iTunes Expands to 9 Further Countries

    Now customers in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have their own EU iTunes with the same features and price of €0.99 per song.  A better deal than their UK neighbours who pay £0.79 (€1.16) per track since iTunes opened its store there in June.  This 17% extra loading prompted the Consumer’s Association to ask the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate the pricing difference, claiming it is a potential breach of the competition law.

    With the launch of EU iTunes Apple now reaches customers in almost 70 percent of the global music market, and it also announced that it will launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada this November. 

    The EU iTunes Music Store features over 700,000 songs from all four major music companies and more than 100 independent record labels.  It also features exclusive tracks from leading worldwide artists, including Anastacia, Marc Anthony, Andrea Bocelli, Black Eyed Peas, Destiny’s Child, Bob Marley, George Michael, The Prodigy, Gwen Stefani, Travis and Zucchero.

    EU iTunes has the same personal use rights as in the US, UK, France and Germany.  Users are allowed to play songs on up to five personal computers, burn a single song onto CDs an unlimited number of times, burn the same playlist up to seven times and listen to their music on an unlimited number of iPods.

    The EU iTunes Music Store offers PC and Mac users the same features.  iMix playlist sharing, the dynamic ‘Party Shuffle’ playlist, over 8,000 audiobooks, which can be listened to on any PC, Mac or iPod, and ‘Artist Alert’ email service.  And last but not least, automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically create iTunes versions of songs encoded in unprotected WMA.

    iTunes for Mac and Windows includes the EU iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from their Website. The EU iTunes Music Store works, of course, with the Euro, and purchase and download of songs requires a valid credit card – that is until Apple finds a company like PayPal to partner up with, as Naptser did this week.

    Apple iTunes Music Store

  • Akimbo IP-VOD to Sell Through Amazon

    Akimbo IP-VODWe’ve been keeping our eye on Akimbo, an IP-delivered VOD (Video-On-Demand) service and have learnt that they are launching and have signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo has just launched its video-on-demand service and signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo is to video what Apple’s iTunes is to the iPod. The Akimbo Player, utilising an easy “Queue and View” format is a set-top box that delivers hundreds of mainly niche program videos to television through a broadband-Internet connection allowing consumers to choose content and view it on-demand – or maybe even later.

    Amazon.com will be the exclusive retailer for the 2004 holiday season, and the Akimbo Player which can hold about 200 hours of video, is now available in the Amazon.com Electronics store for US$229.99 (~£125, €180) [Buy]. Consumers can sign up for the Akimbo Service by visiting their site at a cost of US$9.99 (~ £5, €8.10) a month. Sadly, for content licensing reasons we assume, it’s only available in the US currently.

    The service offers consumers 50 categories of content, including mainstream, classic and independent films, foreign language, news, health and fitness, sports, children’s programs, and education. At no additional charge you can download old series such as “The Jewel In the Crown” from Granada International, consult comprehensive independent film catalogues from Undergroundfilm, GreenCine, Amaze Films, and IFILM.  Or you can receive news specials and features from CNN, more conventional classic movies from Turner Classic Movies and cartoon episodes from the Cartoon Network. Premium services are also available for access to foreign language programming.

    The Akimbo Player utilizes widely adopted technology for playback including Windows Media 9 technologies for audio and video compression, and digital rights management. The Akimbo Service automatically delivers an onscreen program guide and subscribers choose which programming they would like to download to the Akimbo Player. Then, each time Akimbo Service subscribers turn on their TVs, they have new videos, previews and editorial information waiting for them.

    Akimbo has competition from other VOD suppliers waiting in the wings, including Disney’s Moviebeam, TiVo and Netflix, all who have plans for 2005.

    Akimbo

    Buy Akimbo Player from Amazon

  • In-Game Ads in the Ascendance

    With the effectiveness of TV advertising on the wane other avenues are being pursued. Chrysler Group are doing it, McDonalds are doing it – advertising on game consoles instead of the screen.

    The fantasy world of video games is rapidly becoming prime advertising space.  According to Nielsen Media Research, TV viewership among men aged 18 to 34 declined by about 12 percent last year, while they spent 20 percent more time playing video games.  So, if you want to successfully target a niche market pick the console rather than the screen.

    Chrysler Group has already cottoned on to this trend and they are availing of some simple measurement science to see how they can do it better. Nielsen Entertainment and Activision Games have launched a test to measure how consumers react to ads in video games. The test uses audio encoders to identify when and for how long players are exposed to product placements within the game, and to do this they will use the exposure of Chrysler Group’s Jeep in the newly released ‘Tony Hawk’s Underground 2’.

    Nielsen also conducted pre- and post-test surveys with 500 male gamers aged 13-to-34 in their research.  Two-thirds of respondents actually believed real-world products and advertising in the games made them more realistic. The more highly integrated the brand was in the game the more it was remembered, with 40% even admitting that they would be more inclined to buy the advertised product.

    Four years ago the Chrysler Group did not even have a budget for video game advertising but now it represents 10% of that budget, with Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles featuring in more than a dozen games.  Conversely, their spending on TV and print ads has dropped.  Chrysler first experimented with this medium a few years ago in the  “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2” game where players had to do rail stunts over a Jeep to get points, or go through game levels festooned with Jeep billboards. In  “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2” they have gone a step further – players who want game upgrades will have to go to Jeep’s Web site to download them.

    Activision and The Chrysler Group have also just announced the Chrysler brand will feature in the upcoming simulation game, The Movies.

    Nielson