2005

Sky Gnome Wireless Listening Gadget Unveiled
BSkyB has announced The Gnome, a wireless digital receiver gadget that lets Sky subscribers listen to radio (or TV) anywhere around the house.
Sadly, it doesn’t come in the shape of a brightly coloured plaster figurine with an oversized head, but the curvy triangular form looks a jaunty enough number.
Using the Gnome, punters can listen to Sky TV and radio channels anywhere in the house, garage or garden, just so long as the receiver is within 30 metres of the Sky box.
The natty wireless receiver works with all Sky boxes and lets subscribers get an earful of over 80 digital radio channels – as well as the television channels in their Sky package – at no extra charge.
Sky+ customers can also use the cheeky little Gnome to listen to pre-recorded programmes in their Sky+ planner.
The toblerone-esque gadget offers stereo sound, a backlit LCD display providing full channel and programme information, volume and channel controls and the option to pre-set 10 fave channels.
Introducing the device, BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch built himself into an enthusiastic froth of product love and exclaimed, “This is fantastic. We think it’s just dynamite!”
A somewhat mellower Brian Sullivan, BSkyB’s director of customer products and services, observed that the Gnome was a “fun product that adds value and flexibility for Sky’s growing customer base.”
“It forms part of BSkyB’s strategy to deliver great entertainment and choice through constant innovation,” he added.
The diminutive receiver comes in a choice of Cool Blue or Funky Orange but only offers a rather disappointing battery life of up to 8 hours before the batteries need recharging
The Gnome will be available from October. Prices are still to be confirmed
Sky
4 August, 2005
Sony Ericsson’s All Sensing Smartypants Phone
Sony Ericsson’s boffins have come up with the cunning idea of creating phones which automatically change the way they behave, depending on the time, date and place.
The cunning plan was revealed after the New Scientist magazine spotted a patent application by Sony Ericsson for a ‘System method and computer program product for managing themes in a mobile phone’.
Here’s the application abstract:
“Themes provide the mobile phone with changeable characteristics pertaining to the appearance and sound presented by the mobile phone. A theme profile associated with the mobile phone contains data pertaining to which theme to apply to the mobile phone and when to transition to another theme as well as where theme content data is located.
The mobile phone then waits for a triggering event to occur. When such a triggering event occurs, it causes a transition from the currently active theme to another theme. A new theme based on an associated triggering event is applied to the mobile phone changing its look and feel.”
What this means (in slightly less wordy language) is that the phone’s wallpaper display could automatically change to reflect dates logged in the calendar application of a user’s phone.
For example, the wallpaper display on the phone might automatically display a picture of a lovely big cake on the user’s birthday or a sparkling Christmas tree on December 25th.
Travellers touching down in Glasgow airport may be ‘treated’ to a bagpipes ringtone courtesy of a GPS country location signal, or perhaps the phone might blast out some demonic black metal on arrival in the Norwegian hinterland.
A more productive use of the technology could be in restaurants where a list of the day’s menu specials could be delivered direct to the phone’s screen via Bluetooth.
Another use may be in cinemas and theatres where Bluetooth could be used to automatically silence bleeping, ringing and ‘amusing’ ringtones.
The New Scientist article suggests that the feature could be used to keep stockbrokers updated with the latest share prices every 10 minutes or give walkers continually updated weather forecasts with the information being displayed as the phone’s wallpaper.
Happily, priority coding will let users override some automated controls, thus eliminating the prospect of a tinny rendition of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It)” blasting out during granddad’s funeral.
New Statesman
4 August, 2005
Zen Vision From Creative Squares Up To Apple’s iPod
With the slap of a leather gauntlet against iPod’s shiny white face, Creative has unveiled its new Zen Vision a portable media player.
Yep, it’s yet another contender for the title of ‘iPod Killer’, but this one’s got a killer punch: video playback, a feature that isn’t expected to be seen on iPods until 2006.
As well as supporting music playback, users can view movies and digital pictures on the unit’s impressively girthed 3.7″ (diagonal) 262k colour TFT LCD screen at a resolution of 640×480.
The Zen Vision supports a slew of video codecs, including AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP and Microsoft’s WMV9.
Audio support is similarly comprehensive, with the unit playing MP3 (Up to 320 kbps), WMA (Up to 320 kbps), WMA with Digital Rights Management (DRM) 9 or later and Linear PCM WAV.
Although the Zen Vision can’t play tunes downloaded from Apple’s iPod music store, it does support other popular music stores including Napster, MSN Music and Yahoo! Music Unlimited, so there’ll be shortage of tunes available for the device.
There’s also an integrated FM radio on board, offering 32 station presets with the ability to record shows or your own voice.
Resplendent in its white or black finishes, the Zen is quite a looker, and is only slightly larger than the rival iPod.
There’s 30GB of storage on board, which Creative claims will support up to 120 hours of movies (based on 500Kbps MPEG4-SP), or 15,000 songs encoded at 64k WMA – this is something of a meaningless figure because it’s doubtful people will want to listen to their tunes at such a low quality setting..
We very much like the provision of a CompactFlash card slot, with a range of adaptors for popular memory card formats (SD, MMC, Memory Stick etc making it easy for photographers to transfer photos to the device for storage and viewing.
There’s also a personal organiser provided, capable of syncing daily tasks, contact lists and calendar data.
The pocket sized powerhouse comes with a rechargeable Li-ion battery offering up to 4.5 hours of video playback and 13 hours of audio, depending on the file’s format and energy settings.
Consumers in the US can pre-order the Zen Vision on Creative’s website for US$399 (~€323, £225~). Europeans will have to twiddle their thumbs and wait for now.
Creative Zen Vision
4 August, 2005
Apple Mighty Mouse Announced
Apple has announced its latest product, the button-bedecked Mighty Mouse, revealing their first departure from the company’s traditional preference for single button input devices.
The new mouse carries four independently programmable buttons and a Scroll Ball that lets users scroll all over the place – up, down across and even diagonally.
Apple’s stubborn refusal to include more than one button on its standard mouse has long brought scorn from the Windows community who were at a loss to understand why Mac users were being deprived of the clear productivity benefits of multi-buttoned mouses (Mice? Micii?)
Up to now, professional Macheads have long complained at being forced to shell out for third party products to enjoy the same button-tastic functionality as their Windows counterparts.
Extra buttons are particularly useful in video and graphic design applications, so Apple is hoping that their four-buttoned and programmable Mighty Mouse will prove a hit.
Naturally, Apple have added a little bit of pizzazz to the design, hiding the touch-sensitive technology under a plain shell. This detects which part of the mouse is being clicked, letting users left- and right-click.
Notably, the mouse is a cross platform product, and PC users will be able to tweak and customise the mouse settings using the Mouse control panel on Windows systems.
Sadly, the mouse is a corded device, so we’ll be sticking with our dockable, rechargeable wireless Logitech device for now. And that’s got seven buttons and doesn’t come with a silly name – take that Jobsy!
Apple’s new feast of buttons will work on Mac OS X (programmability requires Mac OS X v10.4.2 Tiger or later) and Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Pricing is £35 (~€50, US$62~) in the UK or a considerably cheaper US$49 (~€40, £28~) in the US.
Kodak
3 August, 2005
PDA Sales Set For Record Year
In spite of pundits’ predictions of a swift demise, the PDA refuses to die with 2005 looking set to be a record year for handheld sales.
A combination of falling prices and extra features like wireless connectivity have invigorated the PDA market, with Gartner reporting 3.6 million units shipped worldwide in the last three months, a 32 percent leap from the same period last year.
This puts the market on track to hit 15 million units shipped by the end of year – a figure that would surpass the previous record of 13.2 million PDAs shipped in 2001.
The study ignored smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but included wireless PDAs like the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300.
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was, not surprisingly, the most popular device, with shipments reaching 840,000 in the second quarter – a hefty growth of 64.7 percent, achieving a sector-leading market share of 23.2 percent.
Palm came in at second place with 17.8 percent, while Dell slipped out of the top five ranking, elbowed out by T-Mobile’s Sidekick II and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.
HP also suffered falling sales, although both Dell and HP are scheduled to upgrade their product lines in the second half of this year.
The study by analysts Gartner revealed that Windows CE is the favoured operating system for business-minded PDA users, with the underlying software making up 46 percent of worldwide shipments in the second quarter of 2005.
In second place was RIM with 23.2 percent of PDA software shipped, followed by PalmSource’s at 18.8 percent.
“Wireless PDAs are increasingly seen as an adjunct or alternative to notebook computers, while favourable exchange rates have enabled more Europeans to purchase PDAs at an attractive price,” said Gartner analyst Todd Kort.
Like Billy Bunter at a speed eating competition, the Western European PDA market inflated by a massive 94 percent to reach 1.3 million units in the second quarter of 2005.
PDAs are proving a big hit with Europeans, with regional sales accounting for 37 percent of worldwide shipments, up from 25 percent a year ago.
In the States, growth is slower, with shipments totalling 1.4 million units, a mere 1.3 percent increase.
Garner reports that the disappointing US figures are a result of a stagnant market and the continuing decline in Palm PDA sales and aging product lines among Microsoft licensees.
Elsewhere, PDA shipments in Asia/Pacific looked sprightly with a growth of 24.7 percent, totalling around 402,000 units.
These figures chime with a similar handheld report from research firm IDC, although their findings painted a little less rosy future.
Gartner
IDC report
3 August, 2005
Three Quarters of US Homes Have A Computer
New US research claims that Americans are becoming increasingly “digital,” with over three quarters owning computers and many households verily humming with multiple digital electronics products, including cell phones to entertainment devices to cameras.
A recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation’s CARAVAN poll involving 2,000 respondents discovered that three-in-four American adults (76%) own a computer, two-thirds (67%) own a mobile phone and nearly half (47%) are snapping away on digital cameras.
Other digital lifestyle products contributing to the Greenhouse Effect in US homes included digital cameras (47 per cent); video game consoles like XBox, PSP etc (38 per cent); TiVo/digital video recorders (27 per cent); home security systems (19 per cent), and iPods or other MP3 digital players (17 per cent).
The research was commissioned by hard drive manufacturer, Seagate, who were keen to remind users of their role in the digital revolution:
“Technology advances that enable smaller, higher capacity, more stable storage solutions are allowing consumer electronics manufacturers to develop products with greater functionality,” said Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology.
“The convenience, reliability and huge capacity of hard drive storage is enhancing applications as diverse as digital audio players, gaming devices, DVRs, HDTVs, automobiles, cell phones, PDAs, and a host of other products. Ground-breaking storage solutions are helping to drive the adoption of a digital lifestyle.”
3 August, 2005
EasyShare P880, P850: Kodak Announcement
Kodak has announced a new class of ‘advanced digital cameras’ aimed at grabbing a slice of the burgeoning dSLR market.
They won’t be winning any hearts on looks though, with their flagship EasyShare P880 model looking like this “a cross between Bender from Futurama and an ugly tank”.
Despite looking like it’s fallen off the Ugly Tree, the EasyShare P880 serves up an attractive feature set, offering an 8 megapixel sensor, a slew of enthusiast features and an unusually wide angle 24-140mm (35mm equiv) wide-angle f/2.8 – f/4.1 zoom lens made by Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon (try saying that after a few beers).
Multiple shooting modes are provided, including auto, program, aperture and shutter priorities with fully manual and custom modes available and a handy feature letting users dial-in multiple pre-set scene modes.
Reflecting its enthusiast ambitions, the camera offers RAW file support, 16 – 1/4000 second shutter speeds, a live histogram, a 237,000 pixel electronic viewfinder, custom white balance and digital red-eye reduction.
“While serious photographers demand advanced photographic controls, they’re also craving easier-to-use cameras and systems – an area in which Kodak excels,” enthused Greg Westbrook, general manager of digital capture products at Kodak.
“The P-Series breaks new ground by deftly combining high performance and simplicity. Its flagship, the EASYSHARE P880 camera, introduces a new, highly compelling alternative to pricier, bulkier dSLRs.”
The one big advantage that compact digital cameras have over their dSLR counterparts is the ability to capture video footage, and Kodak have been keen to trumpet the camera’s movie making functions.
The P880 can capture VGA video at 30 frames per second (Motion JPEG compression) with zooming and lets users trim, cut, splice and merge clips on the camera and extract individual video frames as 640 x 480 JPEGs at 640 x 480 resolution.
Powered by a high-capacity lithium ion battery, the camera weighs in at 19.6 oz. (556 g) and comes in a reasonably compact package (4.6W x 3.8H x 3.6D in.)
The EasyShare P880 will be available beginning this September priced US$599 (~€486, ~£336).
Looking down the range, Kodak have also announced their 5.3 megapixel EasyShare P850 camera, featuring a 12X, 36 – 432mm (35mm equiv.), f2.8 – f/3.7, Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens with optical image stabilisation.
Sharing the same video capabilities as its upmarket brother, the 850 offers an advanced, hybrid AF system with 25 selectable points and shutter speeds from 1/2 – 1/1000.
There’s also a hotshoe for extended lighting control, the usual selection of preset scene modes with a live histogram, RAW/TIFF/JPEG support and a lithium ion battery.
The EasyShare P850 will knock out for around US$499 (~€405, ~£280).
Kodak
3 August, 2005
BBC’s Live 8 and Glastonbury Websites Attract Record Traffic
The BBC’s online coverage of Live 8 in July notched up a record volume of Web traffic on their radio and music Websites.
Their online coverage of the global Live 8 event generated a massive 14.6m page impressions during its three-day run, with the Live 8 Wap site for mobile phones also proving a big hit, generating 112,000 page impressions over the same three days.
Music fans unable to join the glorious mud-fest at Glastonbury Festival headed to the BBC’s interactive Website for coverage of the famous festival, with 13.4m page impressions being generated during the fortnight surrounding the festival.
The latest figures for the BBC’s online traffic also show a healthy boost in figures for their sports coverage on the Radio Five Live Website, with 910,841 unique users being recorded during June, compared with 840,019 the same period in 2004.
Curiously, although Five Live Sports Extra managed to increase its page impressions from 1,442,915 in June last year to 1,794,421 for the same period this year, unique users fell from 203,953 to 161,036.
It was mainly good news elsewhere, with Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 1Xtra, Asian Network and BBC 7 all increasing their unique users compared to the same period last year, with only 6 Music – one of our favourites – letting the side down with a disappointing slump from 418,729 to 356,564.
Revolution Magazine
2 August, 2005
Hello! WAP Service Launches
Hellomagazine.com, the online version of the ghastly celebrity magazine Hello!, is expanding its existing SMS and JAVA mobile offer with a new WAP portal.
The HELLO! WAP celebrity news service will allow ~~deeply unfulfilled souls~~ fans of the fascinating world of celebrity to trawl through eight of the very latest celebrity tittle-tattle and photos – updated daily – on their mobile phone, Monday to Friday.
Fans of this depressing vacuous nonsense are invited to check out the HELLO! WAP celebrity news site by texting GO HELLOMAG to 85080.
A bookmark directly linking to the portal will be sent by return, with users able to browse the latest headlines for free.
Punters desperate to discover more about the colour of Jennifer Aniston’s new handbag and the name of Brad Pitt’s pet gerbil will then have to subscribe to read the full fascinating story, for £3 (~US$5.31 ~€4.35) per month.
Tree Elven (what the…?!), hellomagazine.com’s Website editor, squeaked: “We’re pumping out great pix and authoritative news every day on hellomagazine.com – people don’t want to miss the latest titbits just because they’re on the go, so a WAP site is the perfect solution.
Celeb-thirsty fans can check the headlines then go in deeper if they want the full story with photos. We’re really happy to be adding HELLO! WAP to our mobile offer and we’ll soon be beefing it up even more with wallpapers, ringtones and other entertaining stuff.”
We’d rather have our privates gnawed by a gang of rampaging ferrets than have this inane drivel downloading on our phone, but no doubt there’ll be a huge market for it….
Hello! WAP
2 August, 2005
95% of Mobile Users Won’t Download Games
Mobile gaming big boys I-Play have released the results of a study which revealed that only 5% of mobile users have ever downloaded a game
The independent survey examined the (cough) “behaviour barriers” and motives of 2,500 mobile users across the US, UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.
The study discovered that mobile phone newbies were pretty clueless about what their phones could do, with 33% of respondents unsure whether their handset could even play games.
A further 17.5% were uncertain how to download a game while the rest said that the downloading process itself was tedious.
Of all those polled, only a mere 5% of mobile users had ever downloaded and used a mobile game.
David Gosen, COO of I-play was ready with the positive spin, “The mobile games market is essentially only five percent penetrated. The good news is that we now know what’s limiting market growth – the industry must improve accessibility to mobile games and more importantly, educate consumers on how and where to obtain mobile games”.
Curiously, the survey revealed national differences, with 80% of smart Spaniards aware of the capabilities of their handsets compared with to just 60% of Germans.
Pricing was seen as a discouraging factor by 51% of the respondents, with 48 percent in favour of free trail versions and 30% saying that that they would go for a game if a friend recommended it.
Despite the aggressive advertising campaigns run to promote mobile gaming, the industry is still clearly in its infancy, although the potential for growth is seen as enormous, especially with the interest shown in emerging markets like India and China.
Gosen went on to explain that, “virgin downloaders” need more education about the process and more information about the game before they feel comfortable making that first purchase and this is critical. We know we have to de-risk that first download for the end user.
De-risk. Now there’s a good word for buzzword bingo.
iPlay
2 August, 2005