2005

Easynet Offers Services To Onetel
Like Popeye with a mouthful of spinach, broadband providers Easynet have barged BT out of the way to claim a lucrative three-year deal to supply wholesale broadband services to Onetel, Centrica’s telecommunications division.
Reflecting the highly competitive LLU market, Easynet’s deal is claimed to have undercut BT Wholesale’s offering and persuaded Onetel to use Easynet’s local loop to supply broadband services to its customer base.
Easynet’s LLUStream will enable Onetel to immediately provide 8Mb broadband to customers within LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) areas, with the company perfectly placed to roll out super-fast speeds of up to 24mbps after Easynet’s ADSL2+ trials are completed later this year.
Resisting the urge to ring up BT’s head honchos and scream, “loooosers!”, David Rowe, CEO of Easynet, said: “This is an important milestone for the company. Onetel is a key player in the UK telecommunications market and the selection of Easynet is an endorsement of our Local Loop strategy.”
Ian El-Mokadem, Managing Director, Onetel sounded chuffed with the deal: “The partnership with Easynet will allow us to deploy next generation broadband services and benefit from Local Loop Unbundling economics. The market is set to evolve rapidly and we wanted a partner that could demonstrate experience in the local loop, and a willingness to work in a true partnership.
Easynet’s network is one of the largest fibre networks in the UK and has been built around British Waterways’ canal system.
The company boasts 240 “unbundled” exchanges, giving them coverage of around 4.4m homes and 700,000 businesses.
Last month, Easynet announced plans to further extend this program with another 100 exchanges across the UK, providing coverage for 6m homes.
Easynet
Onetel
2 August, 2005
Technorati Mobile Launches
Technorati has launched Technorati Mobile, a stripped-down version of the popular blog search facility designed to be viewed on mobile phones and handheld computers/smartphones.
In case you’re not familiar with the site, Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in what they describe as “the blogosphere”.
Sadly, that’s not some cool, far-distant planet where everyone wears hover-boots, but simply their word for online blogs.
Technorati works by tracking zillions of blogs and building a constantly updated database of blog entries, creating what they like to describe as a “live view of the global conversation of the Web.”
Making it easier for mobile users to access this service seems a smart enough idea, so Technorati Mobile serves up similar options to the main Technorati site, but in a frill-free interface.
The text-only home page offers a search box, a list of the top ten search terms from the past hour and a short listing of Web links under the title, “What’s happening on the Web right now in News, Books and Movies.
Three stories are displayed from each category, with links underneath leading to pages containing aggregated blog comment on the stories.
There’s also the option to get a further ten stories – with associated blog links – by clicking the ‘more’ link in each category.
Although the Technorati Mobile site is designed for mobile users, we mightily warmed to its simple, no-nonsense interface and found it preferable to their Web version.
So much so, in fact, that it’s now replaced their Web version in our PC desktop bookmarks!
Technorati
1 August, 2005
DSC-T5: Sony Cyber-Shot Ultra-Slim Camera Announced
Sony has today announced the latest update to its range of ultra-slim DSC-T digital cameras, the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T5.
Thinner than Kate Moss on a diet, the DSC-T5 features an internal folded-optics 3x optical zoom lens, a five megapixel CCD sensor, a 2.5″ anti-reflective Hybrid LCD monitor and 32 MB of internal memory, with extra storage provided by a Memory Stick Duo slot.
Available from September, the DSC-T5 sports the familiar sliding cover/power switch inherited from the DSC-T1 and comes in a black and silver finish with red, black and champagne gold options becoming available in October.
Sony claims that the camera’s new InfoLithium T series battery will offer an increased battery life of up to 240 shots per charge, with the camera being ready to shoot images in less than a second.
“This is the perfect ‘next’ camera for anyone who doesn’t want to miss a moment, whether out on the town or at family gatherings,” enthused James Neal, director of digital imaging products at Sony Electronics “It’s the most affordable model in our T series and a great value given its enhanced performance.”
There are a slew of pre-set picture-taking modes onboard to help point’n’shooters get the best from the camera, with a “Magnifying Glass” feature allowing macro shooting up to 1cm from an object and a “High Speed Shutter” to catch fast-moving action.
Using an optional Memory Stick PRO Duo card, users can shoot MPEG-VX video with 640×480 pixel resolution at 30 frames per second, with a 1-gigabyte Sony Memory Stick card capable of holding up to 12 minutes of VGA-quality 640 x 480 MPEG video and over 380, 5-megapixel JPEG Fine images.
The Cyber-shot T5 will be available in September for about $350 (~£198~€286).
The announcement comes after Sony has been forced to slash its earnings forecast following a disastrous first quarter, with The Times reporting first quarter net losses of around ¥7.3 billion (~$69.4m ~£39.3m ~€56.8m).
This has resulted in the company dramatically cutting its forecast earnings from ¥80 billion (~$712m ~£403m ~€582m) to ¥10 billion (~$89m ~£50.3m ~€72.8m).
It’s widely reported that the problems were down to a poor performance in Sony’s TV division and falling retail prices of digital cameras.
Sony T5
1 August, 2005
Mobile Gambling: $7.6Bn by 2010 – Informa
Forget mobile gaming – the big money’s in mobile gambling, according a report by Informa Telecoms & Media
The ‘Mobile Gambling’ report predicts that the market for mobile gambling content is going to soar from US$1.2bn (~£0.67bn. ~€0.98bn) of annual revenues in 2005 to US$7.6bn (~£4.30bn, ~€6.21bn) by 2010, with more than 200 million consumers gambling the odds using mobile devices.
There is a joker in the pack however, with the report warning that the growth of the mobile gambling market is dependent upon mobile gambling operators being able to sidefoot legislative, technological and cultural hurdles.
“Mobile gambling is already generating significant revenues, but there is room for sharp growth in the years ahead,” says Stuart Dredge, the report’s author.
“Operators recognise that there is a strong demand for mobile gambling services, and there is no shortage of companies looking to provide them. However, the industry must keep in mind its responsibilities to tackle underage and problem gambling.”
The report looked at the three key types of mobile gambling – sports betting, lotteries and casino-gaming – and predicted that lotteries are going to be the number one form of mobile gambling in the next five years, spurred on by widespread handset support.
With casinos continuing to migrate their games to mobile, the report predicts growing popularity, although sports betting is expected to be a niche sector by comparison, despite bookmakers being keen to launch mobile applications for their customers to bet on the move.
The report sees Europe remaining the largest market for mobile gambling, generating a hefty US$3.2bn of annual revenues by 2010.
Hot on its heels will be the Asia-Pacific market, forecasted to generate US$2.7bn (~£1.52bn, ~€2.20bn) by 2010.
North America emerges as the dark horse, as the size of the market there will be dependant on mobile gambling being legalised in the US and the impact of any restrictions placed upon it.
Even with these caveats, the report still predicts US$979 million (~£553m, ~€800m) of annual revenues for the region by 2010.
Mobile Gambling
1 August, 2005
Team iFiber Redwire Sets New WiFi Distance Record
Those of you struggling to maintain a Wi-Fi connection from next door’s access point may be exclaiming a Victor Meldrew-style, “I don’t belieeeeve it!” at the news of a mighty new world record being set for an unamplified Wi-Fi link.
The new world record in the “unamplified” category was set last week by Team iFiber Redwire, with the Wi-Fi signal reaching an astonishing 125 miles, stretching from Las Vegas, Nevada, all the way to a spot adjacent to St. George, Utah.
The team of college students managed to crush the previous world record for the longest distance for an unamplified Wi-Fi link (55.1 miles @ 30mW) at the 3rd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest.
The shootout challenges teams to wirelessly connect two computers at extreme distances, with the winners’ collection of Z-Com 325hp+ PCMCIA cards, homemade antennas, 12 foot satellite dishes, home-welded support structures, scaffolds, ropes and computers earning them the prized record.
The team managed a full 11 Mbps data transfer rate over a distance of 125 miles, a new world record that may end up being recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
There is now talk of attempts to smash the current Bluetooth record of 1.08 miles.
I think we may have to borrow one of their 12 foot satellite dishes because we can barely maintain our office connection through one set of walls…
Defcon Wifi Shootout
Credit for first picture : thanks to wifi-shootout.com
1 August, 2005
Flash 8 Video Set to Take On Microsoft
Back in June, Macromedia started talking publicly about their ambitious plans for Flash. It’s clear that they’re planning to take it up a few gears on all fronts; the creation; the server; and the player side.
For us, the big news is the updating of the video CoDec, taking it from the old H.283 CoDec of the previous release to On2 Technologies, VP6. Both are claiming better performance than Windows Media, with a 10-20% size reduction over it too.
High-quality video running in Flash could be a serious contender to Apple, Real and Microsoft. The Flash player is thought to be installed on 98% of all computers, totalling about 600 million machines.
While some of those involved in producing video for the Web might see this and groan – encoding video in each of the three dominant formats was often seen as a major headache – it could be that Flash could cut across that problem.
For a long time many have thought that Flash could become a dominant development platform, delivering what Java promised and failed to achieve – write once, play anywhere.
As Flash is vector-based, not bit-mapped – its graphics are described in terms of shapes, not absolute positions on a screen – it has the strength that the displays scale. This is of particular benefit when writing applications for mobile phones which have hundreds of variation of screen size and resolution across the market.
Developers of mobile phone content find themselves having to write hundreds of different versions of a programme, if they want to support the whole market.
The rumours a flying as to when Flash 8 might be released. The official word is ‘Summer’, but some are speculating that it might be 8/8, 8th August.
Making the most of the interest that is bound to be heading in their direction, this week On2 have released a new version of their encoding tool, VP7.
On2 Technologies
MacroMedia
Flashmagazine – Interview with Doug McIntyre from On2 Technologies
29 July, 2005
MTV Starzine: Driven By User-Generated Content
MTV is in the mood to get all interactive with its audience with the launch of MTV: starzine, a new online magazine designed to give “music wannabies the opportunity to realise their dreams of becoming an MTV star.”
In a cunning work-avoidance exercise, the editors of the site are letting contributors create and design their own pages.
Wannabe webmeisters are invited to knock out their own layout, shovel in some draft copy and slap on some photographs to create their own page in the mag.
In another cunning ploy to keep users coming back for more, users will earn points for interacting with the magazine and the more material they shunt online and the bigger the audience, the more points they amass.
Sadly, points don’t mean prizes here – instead, users with bagfuls of points will be rewarded by having their page pushed closer to the front of the magazine.
“We’re inviting our viewers to let their creative juices flow and the chance to stand out from the crowd and become a true MTV star,” gushed Tony Robinson, VP, MTV International Marketing Partnerships.
“MTV: starzine is the first online magazine in Europe to be created by its readers for its readers and it will undoubtedly open doors for kids who want to get into photography, journalism or who just want a new way to communicate with other people,” he added.
The all-blinking, Flash-tastic, David Carson ‘tribute’ site lets users upload unlimited images as well as text on to the magazine, with the facility to directly submit photographs taken on a cameraphone.
“MTV: starzine provides an ideal platform for young people who want to get into photography or journalism as it gives people the ability to publish their work and get under the noses of thousands of other people,” continued Robinson.
“Anyone can become an MTV star using this service; all you have to do is get online and get publishing,” he added, looking forward to a new site stuffed full of lucrative product tie-ins and user generated free content.
Naturally, MTV have got a big airbrush on hand to remove anything that might “cause offence” and all content is moderated by The Man.
MTV:starzine
29 July, 2005
Mobile Firefox; Microsoft Hacking; 2.6bn UK SMSs – News Round-up
Mozilla Works On Mobile Version Of Firefox Browser
The Mozilla Foundation has released a technology preview of a mobile-phone browser, based on the same code that powers the popular Firefox browser.
With a release name of Minimo 0.007 there’s no doubting that we’re in deep into early beta stages here, but Mozilla promises to be first handheld browser to feature tabbed browsing and Web services support.
With an interface built in XUL (Extensible User Interface Language), the browser will support cascading style sheets (CSS), JavaScript and resource description language (RDF) for storing dynamic content.
Mozilla hinted that it’s been chatting to phone manufacturers about using Minimo, but there doesn’t seem to be any official announcements on the horizon yet.
Mozilla
Hackers Crack Windows Genuine Advantage Anti-Piracy Controls
Hackers have made chumps out of Microsoft, successfully bypassing their Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Programme only days after the anti-piracy scheme was activated.
The service was supposed to force users to join the WGA authentication program if they wished to receive software updates from the Microsoft Download Centre or from Windows Update.
Users were asked to download an ActiveX control which checked the authenticity of their Windows software and, if validated, would store a download key on the PC for future verification.
Quick-off-the-mark hackers quickly developed a simple one line hack which turned off the trigger for the key check – thus negating the need for users to verify their serial number before using Windows Update.
Doh!
Boingboing
SMS-Mad Brits Send 2.6 Billion Text Messages In June
Figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA) reveal that U.K. mobile phone users sent an astonishing 2.6 billion text messages in June.
This works out at an average of 86.7 million text messages sent each day throughout June – 24% higher than in the same period last year.
There’s already been 15 billion text messages sent in the first half of this year in the UK, with the MDA expecting the year’s total to reach 30 billion, compared with 26.2 billion in 2004.
Text.it
29 July, 2005
FinePix S9000; S5200; E900 – Three 9mpx Cameras From Fujifilm
FinePix S9000 Zoom
Fujifilm has rolled out three shiny new cameras, all offering an impressive 9 million megapixel resolution.
Sitting at the top of the pile is the FinePix S9000 Zoom, a fully featured enthusiast camera offering a 10.7x optical zoom (28-300mm equivalent), 80 to 1600 ISO, twist-barrel zoom control, a tilting 1.8-inch LCD but no image stabilisation.
Fujifilm are hoping that the camera’s blend of SLR-like features coupled with the compact-style ease of use may grab the company a slice of the fast-growing entry level DSLR market.
The compact-based design means that – unlike dSLRs – the camera can offer 30-frames-per-second movie mode (with a manual zoom capability) – something that may prove tempting to punters after a high quality ‘do it all’ camera.
The camera boasts some pretty impressive specs, with an 0.8 second start-up time, and just 0.01 second shutter lag.
Storage is taken care of with xD-Picture Card, CompactFlash and Microdrive support with the facility to save images in the higher quality RAW format.
With dSLR prices plummeting, keen pricing will play a crucial part in the success of this camera, but as yet no prices have been announced.
The camera will be available in the UK from August.
Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom
Second up is the Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom, the third incarnation of Fujifilm’s S series cameras.
The mini-SLR style camera offers 5.1 megapixel resolution, a 10x optical zoom (38 – 380 mm) and an Anti Blur mode which Fujifilm reckons is better than image stabilization.
There’s the usual slew of point and shoot/preset/enthusiast modes available, an ISO range going up to 1600, VGA movie mode and RAW image capture.
The FinePix S5200 will be available in the UK in September.
Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom
Finally, we come to the Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom, a new E series “pocket friendly” compact managing to pack 9 million effective pixels into its lithe proportions.
The camera offers a 4x optical zoom (32 – 128mm), ISO 80 – 800, auto/manual control, RAW capture and a 2-inch LCD.
Start up is a little less impressive at 1.3 seconds although Fujifilm claims a “near instantaneous shutter response”.
Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.
FujiFilm
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix S9000 Zoom
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom
28 July, 2005
CinemaNow Take High Def Content From HDNet
Online broadband film distributer, and latterly video content provider CinemaNow, has announced that they will be carrying some high-definition from HDNet on their Internet to PC delivery platform. It’s the first time that HDNet’s content has been made available on-demand through an online broadband service.
CinemaNow are long-standing pioneers in the area of delivering licensed films to PC over a broadband connection, starting as they did in 1999, a long time before the home user broadband audience existed. They weathered the storms and could be well placed to take advantage of growing broadband usage.
Mark Cuban, the CEO of HDNet, has been slowly gathering HD content to the point where HDNet now lay claim to having more original high-definition content than any other network. We at Digital-Lifestyles.info have had our eye on him for years, as we think he’s a smart cookie. He not only spots upcoming trends, but turns them into businesses. He made a fortune when he sold broadcast.com to Yahoo for billions of dollars at the peak of the market.
Cuban has publicly stated that HDNet content will not be DRM-protected, infact he thinks his refusal to use DRM will give HDNet a competitive advantage.
This agreement between HDNet and CinemaNow gives their customers the chance download and own the HD content.
Further deals along these lines are inevitable in time, with the only question mark over HD content being delivered over broadband connections being the current speeds of what is defined as broadband. HD content, because of its extra resolution produces larger files, these take extra time to come down to the computer being used for playing it back. As regular readers will know, we think calling a 512k DSL connection “broadband” is insulting to the customers.
CinemaNow
HDNet
Marc Cuban’s blog
28 July, 2005