2005

Legal UK Music Downloads Grow 75% In Twelve Months
According to a survey by Entertainment Media Research, UK legal digital music downloads have grown by a thumping great 75% in a year.
The 2005 Digital Music Survey also predicts that UK consumers will spend 60% more on buying music downloads in the next six months
Although 40% of UK music lovers are still grooving to music files illegally downloaded to their MP3 players and PCs, the survey found that 35% had bought legal downloads with a further 23% intending to start purchasing downloads soon.
Legal downloads are continuing to find favour with consumers, with over two thirds of illegal downloaders claiming they will download less in the future.
The survey revealed that the dwindling enthusiasm for dodgy downloading was due to user concerns about prosecution (44%), fear of viruses (29%) and inferior audio quality vs legal downloads (21%).
These findings are supported by the news that legal digital downloads have accounted for 8% of Coldplay’s recent album sales in the US – the biggest share for any new release to date.
Dutifully dissecting the digital demographic, we can reveal that the fear of getting into trouble with The Man worried 13-17 year olds (50%) and women (47%) the most, while 35-44 year olds (35%) and women (34%) were most concerned about the prospect of downloading infected and unauthorised files.
Spoddy, EQ-adjusting audio aficionados of the male variety were the most put off by the audio quality of the unauthorised tracks, with the difficulty in finding the exact right track particularly troubling music-obsessed blokes between 25-44.
The survey discovered that legal download demand is being fuelled by immediacy over price, with nearly two-thirds (63%) claiming immediate availability as being the key reason.
The ‘must-have-that-record-now’ ethos was most reflected by men in the 18-24 age group, with the price of downloads relative to CDs seen as a less important factor (43%).
Two fifths of those surveyed preferred digital downloads because they were only interested in one or two tracks, while 29% downloaded music to sample an album before purchase.
The survey revealed that 45% of legal downloaders buy current singles, unlike older consumers (45 years plus) who tended to know what tracks they want and were more likely to purchase 1-2 tracks from an album.
Russell Hart, Chief Executive, Entertainment Media Research, rummaged through the figures, mulled for a moment and then declared, “The findings indicate that the music industry is approaching a strategic milestone with the population of legal downloaders close to exceeding that of pirates.”
The survey was undertaken in association with law firm, Olswang, with their senior partner and Digital Lifestyles chum John Enser, commenting, “Clear deterrents to illegal downloading are emerging with fear of prosecution running high and close behind is the sense that unauthorised downloading is “not fair on the artists,” suggesting that the industry’s messages, led by the BPI, are being communicated effectively.”
Entertainment Media Research
20 June, 2005
Sony BMG Rolls Out Copy-Restricted CDs
Sony BMG Music Entertainment has announced that it intends to add copy-restricting software to its latest CDs.
The software is designed to limit consumers to making no more than three copies of a CD, and marks Sony’s determination to bolt on restrictions to a twenty year-old music format that currently makes copying and digital distribution a breeze.
This year has already seen more than two dozen copy-restricted titles released – including albums from the Backstreet Boys, the Foo Fighters and George Jones – and Sony has flagged its intention to beef up their anti-copying campaign.
Rival US companies haven’t been too impressed with the restrictive software thus far, saying that the software was too easily defeated and that working versions did not allow consumers to transfer music to portable devices and music players as freely as the industry would like.
Instead, they’ve been badgering Apple Computer to amend its software and “make its technologies compatible with copy-prevention tools”.
A major sticking point is that the restrictive software used by Sony BMG is currently incompatible with Apple’s popular iPod.
This doesn’t affect Apple computer users – they can freely copy and transfer music from the restricted CDs to their iPods – but consumers using Microsoft’s Windows software won’t hear a note, although they will be able to transfer music to Windows Media-supporting devices.
Thomas Hesse, president for global digital business at Sony BMG, said Apple could “flick a switch” to amend its programming to work with the restrictive software.
“It’s just a proprietary decision by Apple to decide whether to play along or not,” Hesse said. “I don’t know what more waiting we have to do. We think we need to move this forward. Time is ticking, infringement of intellectual property is happening all over, and we’ve got to put a stop to it I think.”
Analysts suspect that Sony is playing to the gallery a tad here, seeing as a Web site set up by the company will happily despatch emails to users explaining how they can unlock the CD’s software and make music files available for unlimited copying and transferring.
Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner G2, summed up the move by Sony BMG by describing it as a “very interesting public negotiation”.
New software may sink music pirates (via NY Times)
20 June, 2005
Nokia And Wayfinder Introduces 6630 GPS Package
Nokia and Wayfinder Systems have proudly proclaimed the availability of the Nokia 6630 Navigation Pack, a compact smartphone-based navigation package for folks on the move.
The navigation package comes in three parts; the Nokia 6630 smartphone, a Nokia Wireless GPS Module and the Wayfinder Navigator application.
WayFinder isn’t unique in offering this application to the Nokia 6630, with other available including NaviCore, launched in the UK a few weeks ago. Having Nokia put their name to the Wayfinder Navigator will provide a sense of authority that competing products will find it hard to compete with.
Getting a little carried away, the announcement insists that the Nokia Navigation Pack “puts the world into people’s pockets”.
Although the idea of people flapping around with planet-threatening trousers amuses, all the package actually does is let users connected to the Nokia Wireless GPS Module access position and route information on their Nokia 6630 smartphone screens.
It’s a clever wee thing though, offering turn-by-turn voice instructions, searching for street addresses, restaurants and other points of interest with locations or points of interest shared by forwarding maps via MMS or email.
The Nokia 6630 Navigation Pack does not require fixed installations with the automatic settings configuration tool serving up maps from Wayfinder’s extensive catalogue, currently covering Western Europe, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Greece.
“Location based services are among the top consumer choices for new mobile applications,” asserted the wonderfully named Kirsi Kokko, Director, Smartphone and Business Solutions, Multimedia, Nokia.
“With the Nokia 6630 Navigation Pack, we wanted to address this demand with a highly advanced, portable package combining the benefits of a smartphone and navigation. When not using navigation based services, people can enjoy the same device for productivity purposes, taking pictures or video, surfing the Internet or listening to music.”
Never one to knowingly undersell his product, Jonas Sellergren, VP Product Management, Wayfinder Systems proclaimed “the Wayfinder Navigator application on the Nokia 6630 brings the ultimate navigation solution to the consumer.”
“The Wayfinder Navigator(TM) in a Nokia smartphone delivers a complete navigation experience that previously has been found primarily built into cars. Wayfinder Navigator is the perfect travel companion, the ideal tool for people on the move,” he continued, selling furiously.
The Wayfinder Navigator app comes on the Nokia 6630’s Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (MMC) with a 6-month freebie period of navigation including automatic map updates. After that date, users will have to dip in their pockets to extend the service.
The navigation pack will also be available with the Nokia 6670 smartphone in some areas.
MyWayfinder
Nokia
NaviCore
20 June, 2005
AOL Is King Of The Zombies
A recent study by security vendor Prolexic Technologies has declared AOL to be king of the zombies, with their customer’s machines accounting for more infections than any other ISP.
A well as being a scary 1960s monster, zombies are also computers that have been infected with a daemon that puts it under the control of a malicious hacker – with the computer owner remaining blissfully unaware.
Zombie machines are often used by malicious hackers to launch Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and Prolexic spent six months studying the data from real-world DoS attack attempts from hijacked machines.
Their findings put AOL right at the top of the Zombie league with 5.3 percent of all infections, followed by Deutsche Telekom in second place with 4.67 percent, and Wannadoo third with 3.27 percent.
Country by country, the good ol’ USA led the way, totting up a global market share of 18 percent of the total detected.
China lagged behind at 11.2 percent, with Germany on 9.6 percent,and the UK and France both with 5.1 percent.
If the figures are calculated on zombie numbers on a per capita basis, the most infected countries were – in descending order – Hong Kong, Germany, Malaysia, Hungary, and the U.K.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise to find that some of the most high profile Internet Service Providers are most susceptible to providing a safe haven for large numbers of Zombie PCs,” says Prolexic CTO Barrett Lyon. “It is these networks which are continually being exploited to support large scale DoS attacks.”
“Just because a home user subscribes to a reputable brand doesn’t mean they’re safe from the online criminal fraternity,” he says.
AOL was having none of it, saying that the suggestion that it is the most infected network on the Internet was “silly.”
In full-on PR schmooze mode, AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein declared the numbers to be “great news” for the company, pointing out that the number of Zombies on its network is actually low in relation to the total number of its members.
“We’re the largest ISP, so we’re going to have the largest of everything,” he whooped.
“Even though we’re several times larger than the next largest ISP, the rates of infection for those next-largest ISPs are basically the same.”
Although Weinstein acknowledged that over 10 percent of the Zombie attacks came from AOL, he was quick to point out that the company accounts for roughly 40 percent – or 21.7 million – of US Internet subscribers, thus making AOL customers three to four times safer than the average user of another ISP.
“I think this report is kind of silly; it’s like saying the US is the most dangerous country to drive in because we have the most cars,” he added.
Although Prolexic are yet to comment on AOL’s response, the company has emphasised that its Zombie data was culled from attempted real-world attacks, and not sneaky “honeypots” designed to lure in Zombie hackers.
The company also noted that Zombie attackers now favour the brute force “full connection based flood” approach, using real IP addresses in such numbers that they might overload blacklisting systems.
Prolexic
17 June, 2005
Broadband Wales Gets Mobile, Gets Smart
In a novel move to publicise the benefits of broadband for regional dwellers, the Welsh Assembly Government’s Broadband Wales Unit sent mobile Internet gateways scurrying around the valleys and mountains of lovely, lovely Wales.
As part of the multi-million-pound Broadband Wales Programme, three Smart Cars have been wired up so that so they can provide broadband access into Welsh communities on a six month road trip, snappily labelled Get Smart – Get Broadband.
Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport and e-minister donned his Steve McQueen racing gloves and opined: “We believe the very best way to spread the good news about broadband is not by sitting behind our desks but by hitting the streets of Wales.”
“That’s why we’re taking broadband on the road so that many people will be able to chat to our team of experts face-to-face, and get hands-on with broadband.”
The Get Smart – Get Broadband campaign revs up at Swansea Party in the Park this Sunday, where fans will be able to send messages (known in the vernacular as “shout outs”) from the Smart Cars to a giant onstage screen.
Launched in July 2002, the Broadband Wales Programme is tasked with achieving a competitive and sustainable broadband infrastructure across Wales by March 2007.
The Programme aims to increase access – and take up – of affordable broadband by individuals, communities, businesses and public sector organisations.
It’s hoped that increased availability and usage of broadband will play a part in “generating “a step-change that will help to underpin the successful transition from an industrial to a modern, knowledge economy.
Broadband Wales
17 June, 2005
UK Pets Ousted By iPods And Consoles
A report by compilers Mintel International has revealed that pets are being ousted by consumer electronics in British homes.
The percentage of British homes with a pet has fallen from almost 55 per cent in 1999 to 48 per cent, with consumers so obsessed with fragging space aliens and listening to iPods that there’s no time for looking after cute little Tiddles and frisky Fido.
The study observed that, “In those families with children, the demand for pets may not be as strong as it once was, since many children now prefer to immerse themselves in the world of computer games and TV programmes”.
The report suggests that the decline in pet ownership has also been exacerbated by modern living, exemplified by “longer working hours, the increase of overseas holidays and the trend to live in flats and smaller homes”.
But it’s not all bad news for our precious pampered pooches and treasured tabbies, with the report revealing that sales of pet food, accessories and pet insurance have rocketed by 24 percent in the past five years, reaching a total of US$6.5 billion.
“Amongst the gloom of reduced pet ownership shines the very bright light that is the continued willingness of owners to indulge themselves and their pets,” purred Katy Child, senior retail analyst at Mintel.
“Despite a decline in the popularity of some pets, the remaining pet owners have shown themselves willing to spend more than ever before,” she added, stroking furiously.
With the rise of home entertainment robots like the Sony Aibo and the forthcoming Nintendo virtual pet game, Nintendogs (where virtual dogs will respond to voice commands and bark at passing Nintendog consoles), we wonder how long it will be before children think that pets live on batteries.
And with no pets in the house, hen-pecked husbands looking to slip out to the pub for a sneaky feast of lager are going to have to find a new excuse as, “Honey, I’m taking the iPod for a walk,” isn’t likely to convince.
Mintel International
Nintendogs (in Japanese)
17 June, 2005
One Fifth Of News Junkies Score Online
According to a new study from Internet audience statisticians Nielsen//NetRatings, nearly one-fifth of Web users who read newspapers prefer online to offline editions.
The study revealed that 21 percent of those Web users now primarily use online versions of newspapers, while 72 percent still prefer to get their fingers inky with print editions.
The remaining 7 percent went for the best of both worlds and dipped into both online and offline editions evenly.
“It’s great news for the online entities,” boomed Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst with Nielsen/Net Ratings. “It shows people are going to those sites and they are responding.”
The statistics are in line with the underlining trend in the newspaper publishing industry where print circulation has slumped as consumers look to the Internet for news, scouring both newspaper-run sites and news gathering sites like Yahoo and Google.
“A significant percentage of newspaper readers have transferred their preference from print to online editions,” said Davidson.
“Accordingly, many online editions now feature original content and have developed an online strategy that includes online message boards and editorial blogs, which leverage the medium’s strengths of interactivity and immediacy,” he added.
Yahoo and Google are both enjoying booming revenues, with cash rolling in from fast-growing Web search ads and a revival in traditional online advertising.
Although newspaper publishing revenue is growing slowly, it still remains stuck in an extended slump.
As traffic has increased traffic to news sites, newspaper editors have been allocating more content to their online editions, adding frequent news updates, weather news, original content, message boards and editorial blogs.
The New York Times Website, www.NYTimes.com, is ranked as the most visited site in the US, boasting an audience of 11.3 million in May – up 25 percent from last year, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Second in line is USATODAY.com, with an audience up 15 per cent to 9.2 million in May, followed by the washingtonpost.com, attracting an audience of 7.4 million, up 10 percent, year on year.
By comparison, Yahoo News registered a modem-busting online audience of 23.8 million, with Google lagging behind at 7.1 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
The report observes that a greater proportion of blokes accessed newspapers primarily online, making up 53 percent of online readers, with the lay-dees preferring to read newspapers primarily in print.
Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen//NetRatings report [PDF]
17 June, 2005
Holographic TV Created By Scientists
US scientists have created imaging technology that lets viewers enjoy what they claim to be the first truly three-dimensional holographic movies.
Sadly, the chief boffin of the “holographic television” project, Dr Harold ‘Skip’ Garner, has admitted that the technology will “not be coming soon to a theatre near you”.
Looking into his holographic crystal ball, Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said that he could see the technology being used for entertainment applications like 3D multiplayer games, theme parks, holographic cinema and holographic TV.
Another of the developers, Dr Michael Huebschman, a postdoctoral researcher in Garner’s lab predicted that we’ll all be floating about on hover-boots watching holographic TV in our homes by 2020 (OK, I made the bit up about the boots).
Naturally, the inner gubbins of this device are unfathomably complex, but we can tell you that it’s based on complex optics principles, outrageously clever computer programs, and a small chip covered in more mirrors than Fatty Arbuckle had hot dinners. We’re talking thousands of the things.
Lurking in the heart of the system is a digital light processing micro-mirror chip.
Made by Texas Instruments, these clever puppies are currently used in television, video and movie projectors and incorporate a computer that processes an incoming digital signal several thousand times a second.
This changes the angle of each micro-mirror to reflect light from a regular light bulb and projects the resulting two-dimensional video onto a screen.
By replacing this light with a laser light and opening up his Big Box Of Clever Ideas, Garner set about creating different wavelengths that were out of phase with each other to create the holographic effect.
The signal created is a sequence of two-dimensional interference patterns, called interferograms, which can be cooked up from scratch or from data gathered from 3-D imaging applications, such as sonograms, CAT scans, magnetic resonance imaging, radar, sonar or computer-aided drafting.
“This technology is potentially powerful for medical applications,” commented Garner. “We could easily take data from existing 3-D imaging technologies and feed that into our computer algorithms to generate two-dimensional interferograms.”
If you look at interferograms on a PC screen, all you get is a series of random black dots creating an effect that looks a bit like a telly on the blink.
But feed them into the digital light processing micro-mirror chip, blast them at the tiny mirrors and reflect laser light off them and you’re presented with a Star Wars-esque 3-D moving image suspended in air, captured in a special material called agarose gel, or on a stack of liquid crystal plates like computer screens.
Naturally, there’s a ton of really useful applications for this technology that could really benefit mankind: holographic visualisations of human organs, dental and bone development, surgeon training and all that kind of stuff.
But all we want to know is when can we play a holographic shoot-em-up or watch the mighty Cardiff City in glorious surround-o-vision?
Garner and his colleagues whizzed up the technology with students at the Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. The objective was to develop a tentative business plan exploring the possible commercialisation of the technology, with a sensible focus on medical applications and not a desire to see Dot Cotton in 3D.
“An important next step is to take our proof of principle technology that we have now and move it into a commercial entity,” teased Garner before going off to admire a holographic heart.
Harold “Skip” Garner, Jr., Ph.D.
Garnering Innovation
16 June, 2005
Samsung SGH-E620 Offers Bluetooth Voice Recognition
Emerging blinking from their underground laboratories, the overworked boffins at Samsung have announced the creation of the SGH-E620 Bluetooth voice recognition phone which is a Bluetooth mobile with – you guessed it! – voice recognition technology.
With the phone lurking in a bag or pocket and a Bluetooth headset slapped on their noggin, users can make and receive calls by simply barking names into the microphone.
This clever feat of jiggerypokery is achieved via the wonders of Samsung’s voice recognition system which claims to be easier to use than existing gadgets which require close proximity to the user.
Earlier voice recognition phones forced users to fiddle about with the handset to switch it over to stand-by mode before a call was placed, but Samsung’s system means that the phone can stay out of sight.
Their system allows the phone to be activated by voice and then set to automatically rummage through the mobile’s phone book to recognise the name and place a call.
This gives argumentative types the perfect opportunity to reproduce that ‘mad person shouting to themselves’ look in the street (although the Bluetooth headset might just give the game away).
The phone uses a “speaker-independent voice recognition” technology which does not limit voice recognition to voice type and supports English, French, Spanish, German and Italian.
A Samsung official added that the company intends to expand the range of languages supported by the Bluetooth voice recognition technology, incorporating languages such as Chinese, Russian and Korean. But not Welsh.
As well as the Bluetooth gadgetry, the phone comes with a “refined antenna design” (whassat?!), a 1-megapixel camera, video wallpaper, speaker phone and 64 polyphonic ringtones.
The phone also boasts Star Trek-sounding “silver nano anti-bacterial coating”. We’ve no idea what that is, but it sounds like the sort of thing that might have lined Spock’s underpants.
Samsung
16 June, 2005
Vodafone Cuts 3G Data Roaming Charges
Vodafone has made their service more alluring to international business travellers by cutting roaming charges on their 3G data networks.
Designed to suit the needs of business travellers, the new roaming tariff gives customers predictable data costs by introducing a flat rate of €75 (US$ 91) per month (£50 pounds for Vodafone UK customers) to send or receive up to 100 MB of data when using the Vodafone Mobile Connect service on participating Vodafone networks.
The deal allows European subscribers to send or receive up to 100Mb of data while roaming on Vodafone 3G networks in Europe, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
Heavy users soaring past the 100Mb limit will then be charged at a standard roaming rate.
According to analysts Gartner, the new prices demonstrate that operators are currently charging too much; “This is a sign that mobile operators are starting to recognise they charge too much for roaming data services,” they added, as your writer’s head nodded vigorously in agreement (while making snarling noises in the direction of T-Mobile).
“Current charges for data calls, especially while roaming, are much too high. Operators are starting to realise that high charges, coupled with unpredictable bills, are limiting use of data services,” Gartner added, commenting that the new roaming tariff, and greater availability of the flat-rate domestic tariff, should allow companies to predict data charges for travelling employees.
Gartner noted that with Vodafone only selling sold 300,000 3G data cards since launching the 3G data network in January 2004, the company is hoping that the reduced roaming charges will boost this figure.
In conclusion, Gartner advised that Vodafone customers regularly sending or receiving more than 10Mb of data per month while roaming should change to the Monthly Travel Tariff in double quick time.
They also recommended that European travellers on other networks should check out Vodafone’s new 3G data tariff if their current mobile service provider cannot match it, or use the figures as a benchmark to renegotiate for lower prices.
Vodfone
16 June, 2005