2005

Airline Wi-Fi Struggling For Business Customers
Only 25% of US business travellers are using Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and on planes, despite the growing availability of high-speed, wireless connections.
A report by Gartner reveals that only a quarter of US business travellers want to log on when they’re flying off, and in the UK the percentage is even smaller, with only 17 percent of travelling Brit execs willing to whip out their Wi-Fi wotsits.
The low level of adoption is rather surprising considering the growing number of hotspots and Wi-Fi enabled devices springing up over last two years.
The study suggests that users have been shunning Wi-Fi in airports and in-flight because some are baffled by the process of using the technology.
“While Wi-Fi has come a long way, our survey shows that many business travellers remain uncertain as to why they should use Wi-Fi, what equipment they need, how they can connect and what they will be charged,” said Gartner analyst Delia MacMillan.
“If Wi-Fi providers really want to attract new customers they must convince both end users and organizations of its benefits.”
Although some airlines like Lufthansa and SAS in Europe are installing wireless Internet access in their planes, the majority of travellers (78 percent in the US, 75 in the U.K.) said they would rather stay out of contact while in the air.
Those surveyed also said that they were more interested in increased onboard personal space, bigger baggage allowances and better entertainment than blasting out emails mid-flight.
It wasn’t all bad news though, with the respondents who actually used Wi-Fi expressing satisfaction with the speed of connection, ease of use and overall value.
The report revealed that wandering Wi-Fi folks were less chuffed with the price of the services and the limited availability of hot spots in useful locations.
“Many organisations will not reimburse their personnel for Wi-Fi access charges, as these fees are often not covered by their telecom contracts,” commented MacMillan.
“If airlines can commit to lower prices then the provision of Wi-Fi access could prove a key attraction to business travellers.”
Gartner’s report predicts that broadband-speed 3G cellphone networks could put pressure on Wi-Fi providers to cut prices.
Gartner
7 September, 2005
Samsung To Produce Dual HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Player
With Sony and Toshiba still enjoying a schoolyard scrap over which of their rival formats should become the standard format for next-generation DVDs, Samsung have announced a nifty compromise that plays both formats.
With the ghost of Betamax still casting long shadows over weary consumers, Samsung have decided to soothe buyer indecision by offering a player that supports both Sony’s Blu-Ray Disc and Toshiba’s HD DVD standards.
In an interview in the Financial Times Deutschland, Samsung’s consumer electronics big cheese, Choi Gee-Sung, announced that the machine will launch sometime next year.
“We would welcome a unified standard but if this doesn’t come, which looks likely, we’ll bring a unified solution to market,” he said.
“It won’t be simple but you’ll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise,” he added.
The bun fight between the two next-gen DVD camps has been dragging on for what feels like an eternity, with initial hopes of an agreement in April 2005 falling apart by August.
See: Unified DVD Format Trouble Confirmed
All this faffing about with different formats is sure to hold back punters who don’t fancy being lumbered with this year’s Sinclair C5, but pundits are hopeful that dual-play machines could prove the key to breaking the deadlock.
Although both Blu-Ray and HD DVD use groovy blue laser light to dramatically increase the storage capacity of a DVD-sized optical disc, they work in completely different ways.
The two formats employ different capacities, optical specifications and file structures, so Samsung’s new dual-format player will have to supplement its red laser (for current CDs/DVDs) with at least two other read heads for the blue-laser discs.
All that extra electronic wizardry suggests that their combo player is not going to be cheap, potentially putting off consumers wooed by the prospect of future-proof compatibility.
All of which adds to the industry pressure for stubborn Sony and tenacious Toshiba to sort out their differences in double quick time.
HD-DVD
Blu-Ray
7 September, 2005
VP-MS15 Miniket Digital Camera Unveiled by Samsung
Samsung have unveiled their sleek, credit-card sized Miniket VP-MS15 digital camera at the Berlin IFA show.
It may be smaller than a cold ant’s nether regions, but Samsung have managed to pack in a 5.25 mega-pixel CCD sensor, 3x optical zoom and a large 115K 2.5″ LCD display.
With the factory humming to the tune of convergence, Samsung have wedged in an MP3 player, voice recorder and a high quality video recorder capable of capturing high quality VGA clips (640 x 480 @ 30 fps) assisted by the built-in DIS (digital image stabiliser).
The camera comes with 512 MB of memory on board with a miniSD slot offering up offering up to 1GB of additional storage space – enough to store 250 songs or 17 hours of recording via the microphone.
Unlike many other digital cameras, users can zoom in and out to their heart’s desire while shooting video and Samsung’s little box of tricks is also capable of outputting video at a resolution of 720 x 576 pixels at 25fps via the AV out port.
Connecting the Miniket via USB 2.0 also lets it be used as a Webcam or a ‘portable hard drive’.
Conveniently, the VP- MS15 can also be charged via a USB connection, saving the hassle of carting along a power cable or optional charger when on the move.
“Samsung is always looking to combine stunning design with high functionality,” said Byoungyoul Yu, Senior Vice President of the Digital Video Division at Samsung Electronics.
“We are bringing to market multi-functional products that change consumers’ perceptions over the limitations of a digital device. The VP- MS15 allows consumers to carry one business card-sized device whether they wish to record high quality digital video, digital photos or MP3s.”
Samsung have also released two identical-looking smaller brothers to the MS15; the VP-MS11, with 128MB of onboard memory. and the VP-MS10 with 64MB.
The Samsung VP-MS15 digital camera will be launched in Korea on October, followed by a European debut the following month with a recommended retail price of €399 (~$500 ~£271).
Much as we love these do-it-all gadgets – especially when they’re smaller than a shy dot and kitted out in a smooth black finish – we wonder why someone looking for this kind of convergence wouldn’t just shell out for a smartphone instead….
Samsung
Photos courtesy of Let’s Go Digital
6 September, 2005
Showline MCP 9350i Media PC Announced by Philips
Philips has announced the Showline MCP 9350i, a media PC powered by Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 platform.
The result of collaboration with Intel, the Philips media centre is based around an Intel Pentium 4 processor running at 3 GHz atop an Intel 945 chipset, with support for the soon-come high definition TV (HDTV).
Philip’s media PC is aimed at the living room/lounge, allowing punters to store and share photos, music and video in a single system.
There are two integrated tuners onboard letting sofa-reclining types watch one channel while recording another on the 250 GB hard drive or to CD or DVD.
Housed in a stereo component form factor, the unit offers high-quality audio and video playback and a ton of connectivity options including a front-mounted flash memory card reader supporting SD/MMC cards, Memory Stick and CompactFlash cards, two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire connector and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g wireless connectivity.
The Philips MCP9350i (snappy name fellas!) will also come pre-installed with Windows Media Manger, which serves up an electronic program guide (EPG) providing access to one-touch recording, access to music, video, photos and games as well as Internet browsing and online services.
Philips’ Digital Natural Motion technology is employed to improve video quality and reduce stutter, with built in support for the UPnP protocol to allowing the unit to act as a media server for products in Philips’ Streamium range of media viewers.
The Philips Showline Media Center MCP9350i will be rolling out in Europe in October. Pricing is yet to be announced.
Philips
6 September, 2005
Atom Chip Corporation Reveal Ultra Fast 6.8GHz Laptop – Vapourware?
UPDATE – Thanks for the number of people who have written to us about this one, lead by Matt Lacey.
When originally checking the background for the story, we looked at the CES site finding AtomChip had a stand at CES _but_ that they were listed as a CES Innovations 2005 Awards Honorees.
The AtomChip.com domain is registered to Shimon Gendlin, who filed a patent on November 29, 1996 for ‘Non-volatile record carrier with magnetic quantum-optical reading effect and method for its manufacture‘, which was granted on November 24, 1998.
It looks like we, like many other publications, could well have been had on this one. If we have, hats off to ‘Shimon Gendlin’ who’s done everything he could have done to make it look real.
So be it as you choose … here’s the original story.
Research and development company, Atom Chip Corporation, have unveiled a beast of a laptop – the competition-frying 6.8GHz AtomChip SG220-2 sporting a TeraByte of RAM and 2 TeraBytes of storage.
With enough firepower to make the latest high-end laptops look like backfiring peashooters, this monster achieves its breakneck speeds by dispensing with hard disk drives and thus increasing system stability by generating less heat and vibration from rattling disk operations.
The laptop uses new Quantum and Quantum-Optical devices for storing and processing information, with the machine being completely based on solid state AtomChip optoelectronics (whatever they are).
These non-volatile Quantum-Optical RAM wotsits increase the speed of the system, removing the need to refresh information after every cycle of reading of information, as with regular RAM.
The 6.8GHz behemoth is powered by AtomChip’s Quantum II processor (or four 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M processors) with a terabyte of Quantum-Optical non-volatile RAM (NvIOpSRAM-SODIMM 200-pin) onboard.
The new non-volatile Quantum-Optical RAM increases the speed of the system as the need to refresh information after every cycle of reading of information (like regular RAM) doesn’t exist any more.
Even the most obsessive MP3 file collector will have serious problems filling the colossal 2TB of non-volatile Quantum RAM storage space onboard (NvIOpRAM-ATA IDE).
Compared to these eye-watering specs, it’s a surprise to see that the screen’s a bit of a squinter, offering just a 12.1″ WXGA (1280 x 800) display.
The actual laptop looks a bit rubbish too, bedecked out in a ‘High Street’ bog standard silver finish with a design that won’t be troubling Sony and Apple execs.
Despite the nation-threatening amount of power on hand, Atom Chip are claiming an impressive battery life of approximately 8 hours for the AtomChip II processor and 3 hours for the 4 x Intel Pentium M processor version.
The company will be showcasing their Billy Whizz laptop at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) held in Las Vegas in January 2006.
Pricing has yet to be announced, but I suspect we’re talking ‘re-mortgaging the house’ here.
Atom Chip
6 September, 2005
Skype Secures Deal With 3G Mobile Partner, E-Plus
Skype has slapped hands and manfully patted backs with German network operator E-Plus as the VoIP giant secures their first 3G partnership.
The exclusive offering will see Skype bundling in their Internet telephony software with E-Plus’s flat-rate data subscription.
This will let subscribers to the Skype/E-Plus deal benefit from a fixed-rate mobile Internet access, freebie Skype calling and the ability to control call costs using the E-Plus flat-rate data subscription.
Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and Co-founder was ready with a quote: “We look forward to working with other innovative mobile operators around the world to bring the value and convenience of the Skype global Internet communications experience to their millions of mobile phone subscribers.”
The busy-bee Skypesters are said to be already hatching up schemes with a number of major handset and headset manufacturers – including Motorola – to develop a broader range of offer Skype-ready devices
“The use of Skype is growing strongly. Through our co-operation we are combining the advantages of mobile and stationary Internet access,” said Uwe Bergheim, Chief Executive Officer of E-Plus.
The flat-rate data subscription from E-Plus will be offered to its 9.8 million subscribers for €39.95 (~£27~$50) per month in October.
The company hopes to attract revenue from the fixed network and lure people off their landlines by persuading customers to make mobiles their de facto choice for making calls.
Skype currently claims more than 2.8 million Skype users in Germany.
Elsewhere, Skype has added a call forwarding function to the latest release of its VoIP software.
This lets users forward incoming Skype-to-Skype and SkypeIn calls to another Skype Name or to any landline or mobile phone.
The call forwarding is free so long as users have sufficient Skype balance available to forward the call to landline or mobile numbers.
Skype
E-Plus
6 September, 2005
Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology
In a damning blow to the UK government’s love affair with identity cards, a British criminologist has warned that the new technology could actually increase, rather than solve, the problem of identity theft and fraud.
Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia in England said that identity cards and chip and pin technology for credit cards were unlikely to alleviate the problem, as fraudsters react with more creative responses.
Finch said that a growing dependence on technology was leading to a breakdown in individual vigilance, which remains the best protection against fraud and identity theft.
“There is a worrying assumption that advances in technology will provide the solution to identity theft whereas it is possible that they may actually aggravate the problem,” she told the British Association science conference.
As part of her research, Finch interviewed thieves, vagabonds, fraudsters and ne’er do wells and asked about the impact new technology may have on their nefarious activities.
Not surprisingly, she learned that fraudsters were tenacious blighters, who were ready and willing to change their methods to elude new security measures.
“Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent misuse of personal information after it has been obtained,” she added.
As we reported last month, a survey by Gallup revealed that almost a fifth of US consumers admitted falling victim to identity theft, although Finch said that there were sometimes less dodgy reasons for fraud and identify theft – sometimes people just wanted to start again with a new identity.
Focusing on the UK government’s proposed ID card scheme for its citizens, Finch said that the cards could potentially increase fraudulent behaviour,
“What fraudsters know about is human nature,” said Finch. “And they adapt to things like the Internet which provides an absolutely fantastic base to access personal information.”
Despite ministers insisting that national identity cards would counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, critics like the civil rights group liberty say that the scheme won’t tackle identity fraud, crime or any of the high-profile problems the Government has claimed they will address.
Finch also expressed doubts about chip and pin technology (which enables consumers to purchase goods by punching in a personal number rather than using a signature), saying that criminals may switch from watching an individual punch in the code and stealing the card, and just nabbing credit card application forms and getting new cards and numbers instead.
5 September, 2005
4G Prototypes Phones Record Scorchio Speeds
Prototype cellphones capable of transmitting data faster than a startled squirrel on speed have been demonstrated by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, according to the New Scientist.
To test the speed and reliability of the new phones, the prototype handsets were used to view 32 high definition video streams from a car rolling along at 20 kilometres per hour.
NTT DoCoMo officials claimed that the 4G phones manage to receive data at the incredible rate of 100 megabits per second while on the move, and an astonishing gigabit per second while static.
At these kind of white-knuckle speeds, the contents of an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute.
Compare those breakneck speeds with the stately download speed of 384 kilobits per second (129 kilobits per second upload) offered by DoCoMo’s current 3G (third generation) phone network.
Naturally, the boffins behind NTT DoCoMo’s experiment high-speed phone network have come up with a suitably techie description of the technology, describing it as Variable-Spreading-Factor Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM).
This _apparently_ increases downlink speeds by using multiple radio frequencies to send the same data stream.
During the tests, another smartypants wireless networking trick was employed to send data via various routes across a network to further increase data capacity.
Going under the snappy acronym of MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) multiplexing, the technology could, for example, enable a cellphone to receive data from more than one base station in range.
Lajos Hanzo, a communications expert at Southampton University in the UK found the prototypes “technically impressive,” but warned that NTT DoCoMo will need assistance from other phone companies for 4G take-up.
“In today’s world nobody can go it alone,” he told the New Scientist.
“And hence any standard proposal must be internationally ratified, which has not as yet take place,” he added.
There’s already been some international activity to cooperate on standards, with Japan and China signing a memorandum on 24 August to work together on 4G.
But don’t start throwing out your 3G phones quite yet though: NTT DoCoMo doesn’t expect to launch a commercial 4G network until 2010.
NTT DoCoMo
5 September, 2005
iTunes Promotion Sign Up Iggy Pop, Madonna and Little Richard
Pop stars are falling over themselves to fill their pockets with corporate cash as the Apple/Motorola iTunes phone promotion machine switches into overdrive.
Motorola has already waved their weighty wad in the direction of Madonna, Iggy Pop and a host of other music stars who have all been sufficiently tempted to associate their faces with the iTunes phone.
An article on the Marketing news Website Brand Republic reports that: “Motorola has signed an artist from every generation to appear in the ads, including Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, Lil’ John, The White Stripes, Sleater-Kinney, Sum 41, Mya, Pussycat Dolls and Billie Joe from Green Day.”
The company are still negotiating with Alanis Morissette and The Bravery.
Serious underground tremors are expected around Jimi Hendrix’s burial site as the rock legend will no doubt reach maximum graveyard revolutions on the news that a look-a-like has been booked to perform in the ads.
Apparently, all the pop stars will be seen singing in a phone box in the adverts.
The Brand Republic article goes on to say that, “The ads may debut from next week, at the same time the Motorola phone with iPod personal music system is launched.”
The iTunes-supporting phone is rumoured to be called the Motorola Rokr and will be made available in two models offering 512MB or 1GB of storage.
The ‘iPhone’ is expected to be announced by Apple at a press conference on 7th September.
Motorola
iTunes
5 September, 2005
Napster Releases Subscription Figures
For the first time since its UK launch May 2004, the online music store Napster has dished the dirt on its usage and membership figures for the UK.
According to their figures, Napster has now scooped up 750,000 registered UK members, notching up 55 million downloads and streams in 15 months.
The LA-based company also released demographic information about their subscribers, which revealed that 80 per cent of its subscribers are over 25 years old, 75 per cent are blokes and over 50 per cent have kids.
The company claims to be currently attracting 50,000 new members a month.
Reflecting the changing trends of the music buying public, Napster claims that one in five or their subscribers no longer buy CDs, preferring to buy from their online catalogue of 1.6 million tracks – the largest in the world.
This represents an amazing turnaround for Napster who famously started life as the brainchild of an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning in 1999.
Creating an online peer-to-peer file-sharing system that allowed computer users to share and swap files – specifically music – through a centralised file server, Napster immediately attracted the wrath of the Recording Industry Association of America who charged them with tributary copyright infringement.
In February 2001, a judge ruled that Napster had to stop the distribution of copyrighted material through its network and was forced to block over 250,000 songs using over 1.6 million filenames.
Things got worse in July 2001 when a judge told Napster it must block all files infringing copyright, effectively shutting the network down.
Napster folded in September 2002, but the brand was revived as a legal P2P service by the owners of the Napster name Roxio in 2003, quickly growing to become a major competitor for market leader iTunes.
Despite rival, cheaper services being launched by HMV and Virgin, Napster has said that it will not be reducing prices, preferring to concentrate on its subscription-based service.
This lets users ‘rent’ unlimited songs for a £9.95 ($18.5, €14.7) monthly fee with the penalty of losing access to the songs if the user’s subscription lapses.
‘We believe that the market is all about subscription,’ says Leanne Sharman, vice-president of Napster UK. ‘We’re seeing significant growth in that area.’
Napster UK
5 September, 2005