2005

Free Mobiles; Technology Terror?; RIAA Boycott – Teenage Tech News Review
Handy… Literally!
Engadget has a story on how Montclair State University in New Jersey is handing out free phones to it’s students to enable them to easier communicate with each other. The handsets feature software which allows them to receive “channels” of information, which users sign up for. These channels include things like the dinner menu and the location of the university’s shuttle buses, as well as channels students have set up of their own.
I can admit I am actually kind of jealous of this: I would love the ability to be able to do this at school, checking up on when holidays are, what’s on the menu, and what my time-table’s like. Sadly, I think my school would have some difficulty in preventing the chavs from selling them on eBay, which of course is an entirely different issue.
This is the problem with technology like this: Those most likely to adopt it are, by default, young people, who therefore can’t afford it. Give it to them instead then, and a select few will take advantage of that. Technology like this, for now, is only for older people I think. This isn’t to say it isn’t exciting though: I still find socio-technological implementations, usually referred to as MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software), fascinating, as although there isn’t yet much of a market for these sorts of services, there will inevitably be, and when there is, it could well change the way we communicate with each other forever.
Sounds nasty!
Everyone over here in Europe likes to text, or “txt” for short. I’m not entirely sure how popular the practice is over in the US, but in the UK it’s used mainly by teenagers, although others use it too, because of it’s extremely low cost in comparison to making voice calls.
The New York Times is reporting that apparently, using SPAMming techniques, it should be possible to flood a cities GSM infrastructure by sending as little as 165 text messages a second into the network. This is made possible because text messages use the same communications infrastructure and network that voice calls are made to as well. Imagine what could happen if someone flooded a network, so that no calls could be made, and then at the same time a co-ordinated terrorist attack occurred. People would be unable to call the emergency services, and wide-spread carnage and destruction would occur.
This is particularly scary for me, as I would be at a loss in an emergency without my phone: It’s central to how I find people and communicate with them, and when I really need to get in touch with them, I wouldn’t be able to. This reliance and taking for granted of technology is something that most of my generation are likely guilty of, and when everything does kick off and there’s no electricity, phones or water, I would have severe doubts that a lot of them would be able to cope with it.
It was only really recent events (London bombings) that brought this to my attention, but it has made me realise that reliance on technology could be very turned around and be used against us.
That lot again
Yes, that’s right, the RIAA are at it again: A short time ago, a case against a mother on her daughter’s behalf of file sharing was dismissed in court. Now, the RIAA are back, but this time, they’re not suing the mother but her 14-year old daughter.
People like the RIAA make me so, so angry: At 14, no-one really knows what they’re doing. So a little girl downloaded some of her favourite songs from the Internet. That little girl was probably a paying customer as well, but her pocket money just wasn’t enough, and she just wanted to hear one more song by her favourite artist, but couldn’t afford it. Her friend said “you can get it for free from here”, and so that’s what the girl did. Next thing she knew, the very company she was a customer of, was sending threatening letters to her, demanding thousands of dollars in compensation.
Is this the right way of treating your customers? I know for sure it is one great way of driving them away. If you are in my position at the moment, of having a good few thousand songs you enjoy, then stop buying music unless it is from your local bands or from an independent label. It might sound an unrealistic expectation, but I have found so many great bands on the Internet and locally at pubs and other music venues, that I am quite confident I will never be giving another penny to those greedy folks over at the RIAA.
You can do something about it though, by going to www.boycott-riaa.com. Every little helps!
That would be my rant for the day, have a nice weekend :-)
7 October, 2005
PerfectDraft – It Does What It Says
The 2006 world championships draw closer and if you‘ve not yet considered your Christmas gift list, this might be just the thing you were looking for.
The consumer electronics brands Philips and InBev have been considering how to enhance the daily lives of the greater population. Keeping our daily ration of beer at the temperature we love it, is a serious issue. So they’ve come up the PerfectDraft home-draught beer system.
The system carries a real tap handle and a display that indicates volume and beer temperature. It is designed to keep six litres of a variety of beers fresh for up to 4 weeks at an optimal temperature of 3 degrees C.
OK, six litres sounds low for the daily ration, but at least it’s cold.
And whilst those soccer guys show their muscles on television, I don’t have to leave the room to get more beers from the fridge. Once again, Philips helps us women to stay out of kitchen.
Philips PerfectDraft
6 October, 2005
Bible Converted Into Text For SMS Generation
Aussie God squadders looking to get down with Da Yoot have translated all 31,173 verses of the Bible into SMS text-speak.
Although other services have offered daily SMS Bible scriptures in the past, the Bible Society in Australia is claiming to be the first to translate all 31,173 verses of the Bible into text.
Looking, we suspect, like an old uncle in a backwards baseball cap, Bible Society spokesman Michael Chant enthused, “The old days when the Bible was only available within a sombre black cover with a cross on it are long gone.”.
“We want to open it up for people of all ages, backgrounds and interests, and the SMS version is a logical extension of that,” he added.
Salvation-seeking, Bible-bashing SMS fans can access the translated text over the Internet for free and send individual verses to family or friends via text messaging.
The entire new and old testaments were converted to text in just four weeks by one, clearly obsessively dedicated, individual.
The translations were based on the Contemporary English Version and remained faithful to the grammar, with just the spellings being altered.
Here’s some examples:
U, Lord, r my shepherd. I will neva be in need. U let me rest in fields of green grass. U lead me 2 streams of peaceful water. (Psalm 23, verses 1-2).
Wrk hard at wateva u do. U will soon go 2 da wrld of da dead, where no 1 wrks or thinks or reasons or knws NEting. (Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verse 10).
Respect ur father & ur mother, & u will live a long time in da l& I am givin u. (Exodus, chapter 20, verse 12).
Mr Chant felt confident that the text version would appeal to young people, suggesting that it could also be used to encourage, motivate and reassure people in all sorts of situations, with verses sent out daily ‘read like a horoscope.’
“People might want to send a verse to a friend in need, instructors might want to add verses to SMS bulletins to youth club members, or other people might just want to send a daily Bible recording to themselves to meditate on while they’re on the bus or having lunch,” he said.
An article in The Sydney Morning Herald calculated that sending the entire Bible by SMS would take more than 30,000 messages and cost almost £3,440 ($6.080, €5,050) at 10p for each message. You could buy around 1,500 pints of beer for that. We know what we’d prefer.
Trabsl8it text translation
Sydney Morning Herald
other Bible SMS services
6 October, 2005
Businesses Are Blasting Out One Billion IMs Daily
According to a study by IDC, instant messaging in the business world is going bonkers and looks set to continue its huge growth, but experts are warning of security risks.
Their research found that the worldwide enterprise instant messaging market (which includes instant messaging server products as well as enterprise instant messaging security, compliance, and management products) leapt 37% in terms of year-over-year revenue in 2004, and is expected to skyrocket from $315 million in 2005 to $736 million in 2009.
“With more than 28 million business users worldwide using enterprise instant messaging products to send nearly 1 billion messages each day in 2005, and many more crossover corporate consumers who use consumer instant messaging networks in the workplace, these products are clearly reaching more mainstream users,” said Robert P. Mahowald, program director for IDC’s Collaborative Computing research.
“Especially in compliance-driven sectors like Wall Street, financial services, and government, instant messaging is a critical differentiator. In the next few years, IDC expects instant messaging – once the plaything of teenagers – to continue to grow into its role as a substantial business collaboration application,” he added
The growth in the enterprise segment is being fuelled by domestic users of IM tools like MSN Messenger bringing their online chatting habits into the work place and using the service as a business collaboration tool.
The report identified financial services and the public sector as the keenest to take up enterprise IM, with business IM monitoring and archiving tools able to keep a watchful eye on yapping employees.
According to a recent Gartner poll, instant messaging is now used in 70% of all companies, but figures from the Yankee Group reveal that only 15-20% of those companies operate IM administration, leaving 50% of office IM use unmonitored.
This wouldn’t appear to be the brightest idea as a new IMLogic study reveals that an increasing number of virus authors are starting to focus on IM clients as virus spreading agents.
IMLogic says that the attacks on the IM clients have reached record values – up 14 times on last year – with the complexity of the attacks also increasing.
The company’s IM monitoring service showed that MSN Messenger suffered the highest attack rate at 62% of the reported cases, with AOL’s AIM client coming at second with 31% of the attacks and Yahoo third with 7% of the attacks targeting their client.
IMLogic’s research found that the majority of the attacks were worm-based (87%) with 12% of the attacks aimed at spreading a virus.
IDC
IMLogic
6 October, 2005
Dell Serves Up OS-free Desktop For Open Source Fans
Dell have started shipping a Windows-less desktop PC for customers looking to install other operating systems on their PCs.
The company, who already sell high-end PCs and servers equipped with Red Hat Linux, claimed that they were reacting to “growing consumer demand for open source ready” computers.
Although many users have elected to strip out pre-installed copies of Windows in the past, Dell is hoping that open source punters will appreciate the cheaper cost and lack of hassle.
Dell’s new Dimension E510n PC comes with a blank hard drive untouched by all things Microsoft, with the company bunging in a copy of the obscure FreeDOS operating system for users to install, if they so desire.
FreeDOS is an open-source version of MS-DOS, although the E510n PC is advertised as “a desktop on which you can run Linux or other open-source operating systems.”
But don’t go looking for support if your Linux-based machine throws a wobbly as the product’s Web page clearly states, “Dell does not support non-Dell installed operating systems.”
The base machine’s reasonably specified (a Pentium 4 processor, 512Mbytes memory, 128MB ATI Radeon X300SE HyperMemory video card, Sound Blaster®Live! 24-bit Audio and 80GB hard drive), and knocks out for $774 (~e647~£439).
As ever, there’s also a host of customisable configurations available on Dell’s US site, although we couldn’t find any mention of it on the UK site.
Dell US
6 October, 2005
“Web’n’Walk” Mobile Internet Service Launched By T-Mobile
T-Mobile have launched ‘Web’n’walk’, their mass-market mobile Internet service, and are confidently predicting that it expects to lure hundreds of thousands of customers onto the service over the next couple of years.
Cocking a snoot at the punter-displeasing “walled garden” restrictions of rival operators like Vodafone and 3, T-Mobile’s new service allows users to browse the full Internet on their phones.
UK Managing Director Brian McBride was clearly enthusiastic about the idea: “We’re all about the full Internet, not quasi Internet…not a walled garden. We kick off with (search engine) Google on your front page, click one button and you’re away,” he told a conference call with journalists.
Conceding that Internet services on mobile devices to date had so far been, well, rubbish, McBride bigged up T-Mobile’s approach for fast, simple and affordable services and products, saying that mobile networks will eventually carry more Internet traffic than fixed-line computers or phones.
Unlike most network providers who target mobile Internet devices at the swivel-action executive mob, T-Mobile are one of the few focusing on regular punters who are keen to take advantage of all the fancy gizmos on their Internet-enabled handsets. The three tariffs offer 100, 200 or 400 inclusive call minutes with an Internet bundle covering 40 megabits of data usage (this works out to something like 2,500 ‘average’ emails or 500 ‘average’ Web pages, whatever they are.)
“Web’n’walk redefines internet on mobile,” insisted T-Mobile chief executive Rene Obermann in a statement. “The comparison is no longer with other mobile internet services. It is with fixed line Internet.”
T-Mobile’s Web service will be available in the UK on products including the MDA range, the new Nokia N70 and N6630 handsets and Sidekick II.
T-Mobile UK
5 October, 2005
SP-700 Digital Camera Announced by Olympus
Olympus have unveiled the SP-700, a new addition to their new SP series of cameras with a special guide function for beginners explaining what button does what.
The 6.0 million pixel camera comes with a 3x zoom lens (equivalent to 38-114mm in 35mm format) with the company enthusiastically claiming that it’s “the latest gadget to be seen with.”
Churning out of the factories in time for Christmas, the SP-700 is aimed at the mainstream market, offering a barrow load of pre-set scene modes to make it easy for fumbling amateurs to take half decent photos.
Amongst the 24 scene modes on offer, punters can chose from presets like Portrait, Landscape, Landscape and Portrait, Night Scene, Sunset, Fireworks and curiously ‘Museum’.
We couldn’t find a preset for ‘pub’ or ‘all night rave in a dingy warehouse’, but there’s an underwater mode included too (just so long as punters remember that they’ve got to slap on the PT-013 underwater case before dunking their expensive camera into the sea).
The big selling point is the huge 3 inch, 230,000 pixel screen which all but fills up the back of the camera, echoing the trend for bigger camera screens for composing and viewing pictures.
The camera also boasts a movie mode capable of recording VGA clips at 30fps with sound, a movie digital image stabilisation system, 11 MB internal memory and a Super Macro mode able to focus down to a mere 1cm (not recommended if you’re zooming in on a Sydney Funnel-Web Spider.)
Olympus is making a big hoo-hah about its ‘Compare and Shoot’ function which lets users check and compare results before re-shooting or adjusting settings if needed.
There’s also some basic image editing functions onboard, including red-eye fix, brightness, saturation, trimming, B&W and sepia, letting users fiddle about with photos without the need to hook up to a PC.
The metal-housed camera measures up at a compact a 3.8 x 2.2 x 1-inches and weighs 4.9 ounces
The camera is pitched directly in competition with the Sony DSC-N1 which also offers a whopping great 3″ screen, but the Sony comes with photo ‘pocket viewer’ functionality which may just prove more attractive to its target audience.
Pricing may prove to be the decisive factor here, so we’ll have to wait to see what price tag Olympus slaps on the SP-700.
Olympus
5 October, 2005
Microsoft In The Sights As Google And Sun Announce Deal
Google and Sun Microsystems have come up with a broad, but fuzzy, deal which will see the two companies developing and distributing each other’s technology in a move to challenge Microsoft’s Office suite dominance.
“We’re going to put our assets together so we can leverage one another’s distribution,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer (and former Sun executive).
Under the deal, Sun will bundle the Google toolbar as an option when consumers download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from Java.com, while Google will distribute the java technology.
With Sun’s JRE already registering 20 million downloads per month, the move looks set to dramatically increase the number of Google toolbar deployments.
It’s also expected that the deal will make it easier for freeloading punters to obtain OpenOffice, Sun’s well-regarded, freely distributed office productivity suite which directly competes with Microsoft Office.
“Working with Google will make our technologies more available more broadly, increase options for users, lower barriers and expand participation worldwide,” said Scott McNealy, Sun’s chief executive officer.
“We want to leverage the network economics. There are 80 million unique Google site users per month,” he added.
Both companies have suggested that the toolbar bundling is merely the start of a beautiful friendship, although neither would offer any specific details.
Schmidt dropped a few hints, “Google and java are two of the most widely recognised technology brands because they provide users with online tools that enhance their lives on a day to day basis,” he said. “We look forward to exploring other areas of collaboration.
Bundling the two products together seems a wise move, increasing the appeal of the Google Toolbar and making Java a more attractive proposition for software developers.
Although Schmidt wasn’t in the mood to chat about it at the launch event, many pundits are expecting Google to offer a hosted version of the OpenOffice productivity suite.
“We will work to make the distribution of [OpenOffice] become broader. We are not announcing specifics,” he said.
Execs were equally tight-lipped when asked about the financial terms of the deal, although they expected it to generate substantial revenue.
“We’ll use their advertising and they’ll use our technology,” said Sun’s McNealy.
“There is going to be a lot of money flowing both ways if we do this thing right,” he added.
Java
5 October, 2005
Sony Gets Colourful With Vaios
Fashion aficionados concerned that the hue of their laptop may clash awfully with their high fashion clobber will be delighted to learn that Sony is releasing their Sony F-type laptops in four stylish colours.
With Sony offering the laptops in white, pink, green and blue, fears of a haute couture faux-pas should be banished forever, although uptight Daddy-o’s can still purchase the laptop in sensible, corporate silver.
The slimline F series Vaios come in F20, F30, F50, and F70 flavours, with the top of the range F70 offering a 15.4inch widescreen with 1680×1050 pixels, fast Pentium M780 2.26Ghz processor, 1 gig of RAM, Geforce GO 6200 and 128MB of video RAM in a 2.8kg package.
Measuring 14.3-inches wide, 10.4-deep, and just 1 inch-thick, Sony’s engineers have managed to wedge in a 100GB drive, dual-layer DVD±R/RW/RAM and a Webcam for showing your friends your latest Pierre Cardin outfit.
Carbon Fibre Laptops
It seems that Sony can’t get enough of the funky finishes right now, with Sony Korea announcing two new carbon fibre laptops last week, the VGN-TX17LP/B and VGN-TX16LP/W 2.
Using space age technology usually being used for, err, planes and racing cars, Sony claims that these new VAIOs are twice as strong compared to existing T series notebooks, and weigh 30% less.
The display panel is a mere slip of a thing at 4.5mm thick with the designers waxing lyrical about the “sapphire black and platinum white” finish.
The Vaio TX series offer a handy AV mode button which makes the machine available for watching movies or listening to music in just 12 seconds with no need to boot up Windows.
The claimed battery life is impressive – up to 9 hours and 14-15 hours with an extended battery.
We’ve no idea of the price yet and – yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s only being released in Korea for the time being.
5 October, 2005
Blinkx Builds Free Online Video Library
Search company Blinkx have launched a free service that lets amateurs and pro filmmakers upload and store their video files to a searchable online library.
The service, called My Blinkx.tv, will make filmmakers’ work available for viewing to Web searchers via a clever conversion process.
Videos submitted to the library are automatically converted into Flash format, with speech soundtracks transcribed and indexed.
Metadata, such as creation date, length, title, owner’s name along with any other relevant information, will also embedded into the content.
Once indexed, uploaded videos can be retrieved and viewed by visitors to My Blinkx.tv via keyword searches.
Users of the Blinkx.tv service will also be able to create custom channels, based on a specific search term.
Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake explained that users could, for example, create a channel for all video results from a My Blinkx.tv search for the term, “Hurricane Katrina.”
My Blinkx.tv service would then continue to add new videos matching the search terms in the background, so that returning users would be presented with up-to-date listings.
The system relies on cookies but Chandratillake said that the company would consider using a more reliable logging in system if there’s enough demand for it.
Users will also be able to access their channels without visiting My Blinkx.tv by setting up a “smart folder” on their PCs.
This will be automatically populated in the background with videos that match a chosen search term, encouraging users to have the occasional rummage around in their smart folder to see what new videos have been added.
Chandratillake said that Blinkx will initially only feature non-commercial videos – mainly from grassroots groups, individuals and amateur video bloggers – but the company plans to cut deals with commercial video producers keen to include their videos in the service.
The service is free for visitors viewing videos, but Blinkx may introduce the option of charging for video views, with revenue split between Blinkx and the content owners.
The company may also consider raising revenue though video advertising.
According to Chandratillake, My Blinkx.tv already features user-generated video from 3,500 to 4,000 sources, with the service competing with video search services from Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. Notably, none of these services currently offer My Blinkx.tv’s automatic, continuous streaming video.
Blinkx
4 October, 2005