July 2005

FeedStation, FeedDemon Review: RSS Newsreader (Rated 5/5)
Developed by Nick Bradbury, the smart fella responsible for creating the fabulous Homesite (still our fave HTML editor) and the superb Top Style CSS Editor, FeedDemon 1.5 is a powerful RSS aggregation tool.
As we’re sure you know RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. It’s an XML standard that easily enables the distribution of new article, as summaries or full text – further details are on Wikipedia. The key thing to know is that in this world of fast moving, ever-increasing news, RSS and its readers making it easier to stay on top of it all.
The slick, standalone newsreader is ideal for people dipping their toes into the world of RSS, with FeedDemon’s setup wizard making it easy for folks to find and subscribe to popular RSS feeds by simply choosing from a pre-configured list of popular feeds.
If you can’t find anything of interest, users can boldly seek out new search channels via the Search Channels functions.
This lets users select a feed search engine, enter a keyword, and sit back while FeedDemon subscribes to a dynamic channel containing the search results for that keyword.
An unlimited amount of feeds can be filed into channel groups (like ‘news’, technology’, ‘sports’ etc), with all the RSS feeds being displayed in the left hand panel.
Clicking on a feed brings up a list of headlines in the middle panel, listed by date, and clicking on a headline opens up the entire article within a tabbed browser in the third pane.
We found this approach intuitive and fast, although users with small monitors may have to indulge in an orgy of scrolling to view all the content in its default layout.
The interface is configurable though, so users can make more room by shunting the browser to the bottom of the interface.
The program contains a nifty “Watch Channels” feature which searches for news items containing user-specified keywords and then organises them into a separate group so they’re easier to find.
The “News Bins” function was also a hit with us: this feature lets you archive a story simply by dragging a headline and lobbing it in the storage bin at the bottom of the left-side column.
FeedDemon’s new podcasting tools let news-hungry junkies download audio files and automatically copy them to their iPod (and, notably, other media players) with the bundled FeedStation utility allowing the scheduling of downloads – letting users charge up their iPod with new content while they’re snoozing.
With an enthusiastic developer regularly contributing to the online help forums and a slew of updates and tweaks being made to the program, we can thoroughly recommend FeedDemon for both newbies and RSS old hands.
Star Rating: 5/5
FeedDemon
Price: US$29.95 (~£17 ~€24) Windows only.
15 July, 2005
Palm Gets New Name, Ticker, Logo and HQ
palmOne transmogrifies into Palm, Inc today, following an announcement on May 24 that the company had acquired unencumbered rights to the Palm brand after buying out the share of the brand formerly controlled by PalmSource, Inc.
“I’m confident we’ll build our momentum even faster now that we can use the same term consumers and business people have always used for our products – PALM,” frothed Ed Colligan, Palm president and CEO.
“And while a lot has changed – our name, ticker, logo and headquarters – our vision remains the same. We believe the future of personal computing is ‘mobile computing,’ and we aim to deliver superior hardware and software solutions so that we can continue to set the bar in the industry.”
Clearly dizzy after overdoing the double Caramel Macchiatos, Palm talks lovingly about its new logo, claiming that it “builds upon the strong brand equity already established in the former blue Palm circular medallion, but the updated typeface suggests the trend toward digital content and an orange gradated background evokes energy.”
Page Murray, Palm vice president of marketing, was also in a state of ecstasy over the new design: “Our new logo takes advantage of the high brand awareness we’ve built over time through award-winning and commercially successful handheld computers and smartphones,”
Getting carried away on a wave of hyperbole, Murray waxed lyrical about the new logo: “It balances the past with the future, and signals to customers that they can expect to see a lot more of the name ‘Palm’ going forward in exciting mobile-computing products.”
Palm have a bit of a history with faffing about with their name. palmOne was created in October 2003 when the earlier Palm, Inc. spun off PalmSource and acquired Handspring, Inc.
The Palm brand was then shared between palmOne and PalmSource, but Palm claim that customers have come to identify the name Palm more with physical products than with the operating system that powers it.
We wish that they’d spend less time messing about with pretty logo redesigns, and got around to doing something useful – like creating the Wi-Fi drivers for the Treo phone promised months ago.
We wrote to them two months ago asking for a Palm Treo 650 to review and for information about the Wi-Fi drivers.
We’re still waiting for a reply.
Palm
14 July, 2005
‘Naked DSL’ Demanded By Vonage In UK
Research has revealed that two thirds of UK Internet users are deeply unchuffed about having to pay a BT line rental on top of their broadband subscription.
The stating-the-bleeding-obvious revelation was the conclusion of an online survey of more than 1,000 broadband subscribers in the UK who were questioned in June 2005 by online research company, TickBox.
The research, carried out on behalf of the broadband telephony outfit Vonage, also revealed that only 37% of Internet users believe there is a real choice of telephony provider, against 72% for mobile phones.
Vonage has demanded ‘Naked DSL’ in the UK, which would enable consumers to independently subscribe to telephone and broadband services and allow users to subscribe to a VoIP service instead of a traditional fixed-line service,
In a statement, Vonage commented: “In the UK, by the end of this year, broadband subscribers will be paying a surcharge of £672m annually to BT in line rental on top of their broadband bill, no matter who their ISP is.”
“Broadband subscribers deserve the right to choose their broadband and telephone providers independently without being forced to pay for a telephone line they may never use,” clarion-called Vonage UK MD Kerry Ritz.
“The broadband infrastructure will support a variety of services, one of which is telephony. Customers should be able to decide what services they want to ‘plug’ into their broadband network in the same way that they choose their electricity provider,” he added.
BT was quick to scoff at Vonage’s appeal, putting on its best supercilious tone while patting the upstarts on the head, saying that the company had little grasp of the costs involved in supporting its nationwide broadband network.
“We are aware that applications providers that don’t contribute to the cost of building and supporting that ever improving broadband network have little appreciation of the economics involved,” said a BT spokesman. “Our customers, however, do”.
Vonage
14 July, 2005
BT Resort To Soft Porn To Sell BT Communicator?
We had a report from a reader today that he’d been … ehm, carrying out tests on his content filtering service. This entailed going to sites with photos of naked bodies – purely to test that the content filter blocked his access to them you understand. One of first sites he went to was the well known UK tabloid, The Sun.
Clicking through a few pages he was somewhat taken aback to find a scantily clothed woman leaning over a computer, promoting BT Communicator, which is BT’s software-based VoIP (Voice over IP) offering. When it launched, one of our writers, Fraser Lovatt, looked at BT communicator and wondered quite why the product existed at all,
“It certainly won’t make it cheaper as BT will bill you at exactly the same rate they bill for calls from your home phone, despite giving a clear warning on their site that PC calls aren’t as good. So, I have to ask – what’s the point?”
It would appear to us that BT’s confidence in their BT Communicator product seems to have hit an all-time low today with its appearance in The Sun.
The piece in the Gizmo section of the site and paper features BT’s new model to promote BT Communicator, Michelle Marsh.
In her excitement to use the product, Michelle has fortunately remembered to don her headset, but sadly has put on her school shirt (it’s a little tight) and then forgotten to wear a skirt.
This is the wording they used in the article ..
“Marvellous Michelle Marsh has been signed up by BT to front (and let’s face it, she’s got plenty of it) a campaign for its Communicator service.
The luscious lovely is plugging the virtues of BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger, technology that allows you to phone, text, email and instant message from your PC.
And the stunner is doing it as only she knows how – dressed up in stockings and suspenders as a saucy secretary.”
Classy isn’t it. Lots of mentions of commercial products in there, not the sort of copy that falls out of the finger tips of a tabloid journalist. Surely BT aren’t using advertorials in The Sun to promote Communicator to the masses?
Looking at Ms Marsh’s previous work, it’s clear that she’s a busy little bunny. Her extensive career features the expected large variety of lads mag, car and bike mag shoots, but also extends to a photo shoot in Blackpool for the Tory party conference. Interestingly earlier this year she did the press launch for Bulldog Broadband – a big competitor to BT.
So is this a desperate ploy to try and promote a product that has no reason to exist? or have we go the wrong end of the stick?
The Sun – BT Communicator
14 July, 2005
SPV C550 Launched By Orange UK
It’s been a long time coming, but Orange have finally announced that their Windows Mobile-powered SPV C550 smartphone will go on sale later this month
The “Orange SPV C550 Great for Music handset” – to give its full name – is a compact mobile offering full smartphone functionality and a digital music player, sporting dedicated play, rewind and fast-forward keys.
Sporting a natty brushed aluminum finish, the phone can store up to 170 (presumably very short) music tracks on a removable 128MB mini SD memory card and comes pre-loaded with Orange Music Player, compatible with AAC+, WAV, MP3 and MPEG-4 formats.
The player integrates with the Orange World portal where Orange are hoping punters will be tempted into shelling out for some of the 300,000 music tracks available for download.
Songs downloaded through the phone’s Music Player software are DRM-protected, although the built in Fireplayer application will let punters remix their fave tunes into ringtones.
Media playback times for the C550 weren’t announced, but Orange’s own figures put it at 4 hours of talk time and up to 6 days of standby time.
The device, codenamed Amadeus, is a tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz affair that’s big on connectivity, offering GPRS Class 10, USB, Bluetooth and Infrared.
There’s an integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera wedged into its diminutive 108 x 46 x 16 mm case, and the whole caboodle weighs in at a pocket-unruffling 107g.
With the smartphone being built around Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003 platform, it’s easy to blast off emails on the move and synchronise contacts, diary and calendar information with your desktop PC.
Matthew Kirk, Director of Devices at Orange was ready and willing to spin out the PR schmooze: “Since the launch of the first SPV handset three years ago, Orange has led the development of smartphones and provided its customers with a choice of the latest and most powerful devices. The Orange SPV C500 was the world’s smallest smartphone and today its successor provides the first realistic alternative to carrying around a separate MP3 player, phone and PDA.”
The SPV C550 joins Orange’s growing SPV range of Windows Mobile-based devices, which includes the SPV C500 phone, SPV M2000 PDA and the recently-launched SPV M500 mini PDA.
Pricing details are yet to be announced, but will, as ever, be dependant on contract.
Orange
Orange SPV C550
14 July, 2005
90% Of DVR Users Skip Ads
TV advertisers and execs could be heard blubbing into their double tall skinny lattes all over Soho as a new survey revealed that around 90 percent of current users fast-forward through ads.
The fine detail of the survey offered little comfort for the industry, with 97 percent of the coveted 18 to 34-year-old demographic saying that they skip ads all or almost all of the time.
With more and more consumers buying digital video recorders (DVRs), this could spell disaster for the advertising industry.
“This has always been advertisers’ biggest fear,” said Sarah Wade, a London-based account manager for the French market research firm Ipsos, whose survey asked about the viewing habits of 4,000 British TV households.
An earlier study by the media buying agency PHD had come up with the slightly less bleak – but still TV exec-depressing figure – of 77 percent of viewers who were armed with hair-trigger remotes, ready to fast forward any advert on sight.
Several companies like BSkyB already offer hard-drive based digital video recorders, with users warming to their ability to pause live TV and fast-forward through advertisements.
Although the technology is still bubbling under the mainstream, BSkyB says about half of new subscribers opt for its Sky+ DVR, and with cable companies selling DVRs that are built into set-top boxes, advertisers are set for a bumpy ride ahead.
According to the Ipsos study, only 6 percent of Britons currently own a DVR, although 35 percent of those without are interested in buying one.
Ipsos.com
13 July, 2005
London Bomb Survivor Reunited Online
Two users of the same online bulletin board were in the same carriage of a London Tube train that was involved with the blast last week.
Doesn’t sound that remarkable until you discover how they found each other.
Badger Kitten (BK), the pseudonym used by a young female on the urban75 discussion board, posted a long, emotional rendition of the days event. Among the 600 readers that saw the story was Markm, who had also been on an exploding train. Whilst reading the story markm realised that he must have been on the same carriage as BK.
Markm posted a comment on the story.
BK came to realise that the not only had Markm been in the same carriage as her, but that he had passed valuable, possibly life saving, information to her about escaping from the train, relayed from the driver.
Mark and I have talked and worked out that we were in the same front carriage and feet away from each other and he was the man who got the message to me from the driver that we could escape out of the front and walk to Russell Square and to keep off the tracks.
This was the message I passed down and several people behind me were thus able to follow Mark’s instructions from the driver and get out.
So, well done Mark and hooray that you were there and able to stay calm. We all helped each other. We are going to meet up later. The Internet is great, isn’t it? And urban 75 has proved invaluable.
Urban75, founded in 1995, has been providing valuable information on a vast range of subjects since then – all commercial free. We chatted to its editor about this most recent of uses, he told us, “it makes me humbled and honoured to run the site. It’s a good example of how the Internet can reach out and connect people.”
Without the discussion boards on urban75 or the Internet, the likelihood of two people caught up in the explosions meeting again, is highly unlikely.
In a further example of Digital-Lifestyles, BBC News found BK’s original posting and approached her for its inclusion on the BBC News Website – after they cleaned it up a little for public consumption.
Another example of an esteemed news source getting content from online bulletin boards/blogs.
Urban75
London Attacks
BK postings
markm postings
BK diary on BBC News
13 July, 2005
UK MobileATM Banking Service Launches
Cashpoint network The Link and IT bods Morse and have got together to launch a mobile banking service across the UK.
After an extended brainstorming session with much flip chart flapping, the creatives have christened the joint venture MobileATM, and the service will provide services to the 37 banks connected to the Link network.
Customers signed up to the service will initially be able to check their balance, authenticate Internet payments, and transfer funds from their mobile phones.
Plans are afoot to extend the service to facilitate mobile payments direct from mobiles with customers being able to pay for items such as tube tickets and parking meters.
Unlike most existing mobile banking services where customers are automatically sent banking text alerts to their mobiles, the new service will allow customers to request information only when needed.
Andrew Bud, chairman of mobile firm Mblox, said: “This marks an important step in the delivery of financial services via the mobile phone. Monitoring and controlling cash using mobiles is rapidly becoming part of the economy.”
First Direct’s text messaging banking alert service has already proved a hit with their customers with 400,000 of its 1.2 million customers receiving balance statements by SMS.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, the Co-operative Bank, Nationwide and Bank of Ireland are expected to be the first in line to use the service.
Users of the MobileATM service will need to have phones capable of downloading and running a small Java application, so those on older phones will have to upgrade or stick to bits of paper.
MobileATM
13 July, 2005
EU Seeks To Regulate Internet TV
‘The Man’ in the form of the EC wants to introduce regulation to the Internet by bringing in controversial rules to cover television online, according to a report in the Times.
Well, actually it’s ‘The Woman’, as Viviane Reding, the European Information Commissioner is hatching plans in Brussels to regulate areas such as taste and decency, accuracy and impartiality for Internet broadcasters.
Or good old ‘censorship’, as some may like to put it.
The consultation documents also looks set to relax regulations covering the amount of advertising that a TV channel can show, with the current limit of 12 minutes an hour likely to be scrapped. More adverts. Whoppee.
One of five “issue papers” to be released by Reding discusses the impact of technological change and concludes that “non-linear audio-visual content” (‘TV downloads’ in human-speak) need to be subjected to regulation.
Although some of the suggested changes – like the extension of rules governing the protection of children – are unlikely to ruffle any feathers, demands that Internet broadcasters provide a statutory right of reply look set to get the fur flying.
Ofcom’s already in a strop about the proposals, with Tim Suter, Ofcom’s partner for content and standards, snarling: “Whatever happens, it is not appropriate to take the set of rules that apply to television and apply them to other media. Where possible, we should be looking at self-regulation or co-regulation, because that is something that can deliver the goods.”
Internet-delivered TV is currently unregulated in the UK, so there is no compulsion for Web broadcasters to respect rules governing accuracy and impartiality or taste and decency that apply to all other analogue and digital channels.
The current big boys of UK Internet TV broadcasting, Home Choice, have formed their own self-regulatory body which mirror most of the existing rules, and Ofcom believes that this approach is sufficient for responsible broadcasters.
Ofcom argues that dodgy operators would be likely to operate offshore and thus be completely unhindered by any jurisdictions that the European Union dreams up.
The new rules will be based on the 1989 European directive, Television Without Frontiers, which set the benchmark for television regulation.
The proposals in the issues papers are not firm conclusions and broadcasters will have until 5 September to respond in writing, with a draft directive following by the end of this year.
The Times
Europe’s Information Society
13 July, 2005
Accenture ‘Digital Home’ Study Finds Big Barriers To Convergence
Hefty prices and consumer-baffling technology continues to hold back the development and adoption of space age converged digital home solutions, according to a survey by Accenture.
The survey – which involved 2,600 consumers in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan – asked people their opinions on a converged digital home; i.e. a home system covering entertainment (home theatre, TV and hi-fis), healthcare (remote measure blood pressure sensing, pulse and temperature), home management (controlled security sensors, locks, fire detection and cameras) and the virtual office (voice, email and fax).
In no uncertain terms, cost was flagged up as the biggest barrier to purchasing a digital home solution, with more than three-quarters (80 percent) unhappy with the wallet-draining prices of home systems.
Consumers also wanted things simplified, with more than two-thirds (70 percent) saying that they would prefer to have a single provider for the content, services and digital devices.
“Despite strong consumer desire for a single aggregator for converged or complete digital home packages, many companies in this space provide only a portion of the content or services that comprise the complete digital home,” said Al Delattre, a partner in Accenture’s Communications & High Tech practice.
“In order to truly meet consumer needs, stronger collaboration and partnerships among hardware, content and service companies is imperative,” he added.
The survey respondents were served up four different types of digital home formats – home entertainment, home heathcare, home management and virtual office offerings – and asked for their feedback.
When asked what benefit would most encourage them to wedge out for a converged digital home solution, the greatest number of respondents, 56 percent, said, “save money,” followed by, “make life easier” (46 percent), “improve home energy efficiency” (41 percent), “save time” (40 percent) and “make my life at home more fun” (34 percent).
Although consumers show strong interest in the digital home concept, it’s not just the cost that is making them a tad wary: the survey revealed concerns about data privacy and security (40 percent), complexity of installation (35 percent), equipment becoming outdated quickly (33 percent), and the need to replace current home equipment (32 percent).
The bad news for box-shifting hi tech companies is that a mere 4 percent of all respondents said they could afford a converged digital home service now, although 48 percent believed such a service would be affordable in one to five years.
Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) reckoned they’d never be able to afford such a service.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, with consumers expressing a willingness to pay additional fees each month for services designed to enhance ease of use and convenience.
In the survey, 65 percent of respondents said they’d be happy to shell out for digital home services and content in a subscription or leasing model, and that they’d be willing to pay an additional US$20 (~€16~£11) to US$50 (~€41~£28) per month for automated, value-added services like secured data backup, system support, and specialised content such as medical data collection.
“Consumers will increasingly become more of a development driver for digital home solutions,” said Delattre. “But it is clear that the technology itself is just one piece – business models and customer support are almost as important as the product itself. Without demonstrated and specific consumer preferences to drive adoption of the digital home concept, it will continue to be just that – a concept.”
Accenture
12 July, 2005