2005

Digital Hotspotter Wi-Fi Signal Finder From Canary Wireless
Canary Wireless have released their Digital Hotspotter device, which, as the name suggests, is a WiFi detection and analysis tool.
Unlike rival products that only detect signal availability and strength, this pocket sized marvel features a handy LCD display offering network ID, encryption status and channel data for multiple networks.
Using the Hotspotter is simple enough: whip it out of your pocket, hit the little grey button and watch as the scanner starts sniffing about for local wireless networks.
If it locates one, the screen will display a sequence starting with the network name, followed by the signal-strength readout (one to four bars), an indication of whether the signal is “Secure” or “Open” and the channel number of the detected signal. The whole process takes about ten seconds.
To scan for more networks, bash the button again.
The manufacturers claim that Hotspotter should work up to about 200 feet outside (with a clear line of site) and user reports have confirmed this range.
Benjamin Kern, founder of Canary Wireless, put on his ‘enthusiastic’ hat and explained what’s great about his product: “Canary Wireless’ Digital Hotspotter device offers the only convenient solution that lets a user know exactly what networks are available and allows the user to determine whether it’s a good time to boot-up.
With its ability to detect encryption status, signal strength and channel information, the device also provides the easiest way for tech professionals to detect rogue access points, perform site surveys and troubleshoot interference.”
And while we can’t disagree with Ben’s summary, we wonder how long it will be before laptop makers start fitting WiFi sniffers into machine cases to let users seek out accessible networks without going through all the palaver of booting up.
And if the next generation of VoIP phones doesn’t include built in sniffers, heck, we’ll eat Ben’s enthusiastic hat.
The Digital Hotspotter device is available at www.canarywireless.com and costs US$49.95 (£27/€39)
Canarywireless.com/
8 April, 2005
Google Launches Q&A Service
Google has started dishing out factual answers for some queries at the top of its results page, thus sparing click-weary users the hassle of navigating to other sites to look up the information.
For example, if a user keen to discover more about the greatest country in the world enters the query, “what is the capital of Wales”, Google will serve up the first paragraph from a wikipedia feature on Cardiff, along with a link to the originating page.
Typing in separate requests for the populations of England, Scotland and Ireland produced the correct results at the top of the page although – disgracefully – there was nothing for Wales. Outrageous!
The Q&A also works for celebrities, countries of the world, the planets, the elements, electronics and movies. Peter Norvig, Google’s director of search quality, states that the company will continually work to broaden the scope of topics and to improve its capability to deliver more complex answers.
Only a small percentage of queries currently produce these factual answers, but the service is still its early stages, added Norvig.
Google are a bit late to the party with this one – other search engine providers such as Ask Jeeves, Yahoo and AOL are already offering similar services.
Norvig went on to explain that Google feeds the service with information from Web sites they considers to be reliable, but it’s yet to establish formal relationships with any of the sites providing the content.
You might think that some of the sites might be a tad miffed to see Google stealing their thunder, but Norvig thinks that they’ll be so chuffed to find themselves at the top of Google’s results list that they’ll want to run naked through the streets, clenching roses between their bum cheeks.
Well, he might have said that. To himself. When he was asleep. Possibly.
Google
Google Blog
8 April, 2005
Police Hard Drive Sold On eBay Stuffed With Secrets
A hard drive, containing confidential data belonging to the Brandenburg police in Germany, was auctioned over eBay and bought by a student from the city of Potsdam for €20 (us$25/£14) according to a report by Spiegel, a leading weekly German newspaper.
The 20GB hard drive contained sensitive information detailing internal alarm plans on how the Police should handle “specific incidences” like hostage and kidnapping situations.
The drive also contained tactical orders and analysis of political security situations, along with contact names in the ‘crisis management group.’
This strictly confidential material should only be available to top level intelligence staff, the head of police, and the executive group around the Minister of Interior Schönbohm.
Schönbohm immediately banged tables loudly and initiated an investigation to discover how the hard drive ended up being sold over eBay and whether the information was leaked as a criminal act or some sort of inside blunder/employee theft (our money’s on the latter).
This cock up by the Brandenburg Police is not the first time a hard drive sold over eBay has set security bells ringing.
Last year, mobile security specialists Pointsec bought a load of hard drives off Internet auctions like eBay to find out how much sensitive company information they could unearth (and publicise their expertise in the bargain, natch).
Not surprisingly, they discovered that they were able to read 7 out of 10 of the hard drives, with their first purchase revealing the access and login codes to a major financial services group.
Peter Larsson, CEO of Pointsec Mobile Technologies, adopted an earnest face and commented, “Even when companies or individuals believe they have wiped the hard drive clean, it is blatantly clear how easy it is to retrieve sensitive information from them both during their current lifetime and beyond it.”
He added that this week’s exposure of leaked and highly critical information from the Brandenburg police in Germany “reinforces how important it is to never let mobile devices or hard drives leave the office without being adequately protected with encryption and strong password protection – even after they have been discarded.”
Pointsec sagely recommends that unencrypted drives should be re-formatted to within an inch of their lives before disposal (well, at least eight times) or professional “wipe-clean” software used.
Of course, if your drive contains nuclear secrets or damning photos of your late night encounter with an armadillo in stockings, the only way to absolutely guarantee the destruction of the data would be to torch it. And then take a hammer to it. And then stamp on it. And then…..
Out-law.com (via The Register)
8 April, 2005
Yahoo To Support Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
Yahoo’s search engine division has announced that it will be dishing out hardware galore, resources and “critical material aid” to support the non-profit Wikipedia online encyclopedia.
Yahoo Search’s contribution is the most significant received by Wikimedia from a corporate sponsor to date, costed at “several hundred thousand dollars,” by David Mandelbrot, Yahoo’s vice president of search content.
Wikipedia is a global charitable effort, to create and give away a freely licensed encyclopedia in every language of the world.
In just four years, the non profit Wikimedia Foundation has created the largest English language encyclopedia in history, supported by substantial encyclopedias in French, German, and Japanese with “strong efforts underway” in over 100 other languages.
Much like Google’s new Q&A service, Yahoo Search will also feature abstracts of Wikipedia content at the top of relevant search results in the form of “shortcuts,” containing factual information or links to factual information.
Yahoo’s shortcuts are intended to give users the answer they’re looking for on the search results page, saving them the bother of clicking onto other Web sites for the desired information.
Yahoo’s support comes completely free of charge and they will in no way benefit from the positive world-wide publicity or continuing access to Wikipedia content. No sir.
To the strains of “We Are The World” serenading in the background, Mandelbrot explained Yahoo’s generosity, “To operate a site that reaches as many people as Wikipedia can be costly for a non profit, and we’re contributing with resources to help with that effort.”
“Their popularity is growing very fast and, accordingly, their bandwidth and hardware needs have increased substantially.”
Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia’s president, was naturally well chuffed with the announcement; “Our growth in Web traffic continues to be staggering, doubling every few months. Yahoo’s generous donation to our cause in the form of servers, hosting and bandwidth will have a huge impact on our ability to get our message of sharing knowledge out to the world.”
In a separate statement from Wikimedia, the charity revealed that Yahoo will also be dedicating “a significant number of servers” in a Yahoo facility in Asia.
Yahoo’s profits tripled from $65.3 million (£34.9m/€50.9m) to $253.3 million (£135.4m/€198m) last year.
Wikipedia
Yahoo
8 April, 2005
Cyberphone K USB Skype Handset Review
Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) service that allows you to make phone calls via a broadband connection to other users for free. And we like it.
Being able to ring chums up all over the world for jack diddly squat, frees up more money for beer, and its productivity-boosting features (like instant messaging and conference calling) rewards us with more pub time. Great!
But not everyone likes having to bellow into a computer microphone to make phone calls, or – even worse – sharing their intimate conversations with chuckling workmates eavesdropping on the conversation blasting out of PC speakers.
The only way you can hope to get a bit of privacy with VoIP calls is to don a headset that makes you look like a cross between a call centre dork and a fitness instructor. Not cool.
Despite all the benefits of VoIP telephony, the perceived ‘fiddlyness’ of the technology makes it look like an uber-geeky toy for weird, gadget-loving, parameter tweaking folks (cough!).
And here’s where the VoIP Cyberphone Skype phone comes in.
Although it looks like the kind of phone you could pick up at Brick Lane market for the price of a cup of tea, it’s actually a smarty-pants USB-powered device that makes using VoIP a breeze.
Installing the device is simple: slap in the CD, install the software and then go to Skype.com and set up an account. Job done!
Once installed, picking up the Cyberphone causes the Skype interface to immediately pop up on your PC’s desktop (sadly, this amused us for some time) and you can then scroll through your contacts via the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons on the phone’s keypad.
Once you’ve selected the Skype user you want to talk to, simply hit the ‘call’ icon on the handset and you’ll hear a familiar ring tone, until the end user picks up. And then you can chat for as long as you like. For free.
Phone clarity was as good as any landline (although we did have to delve into the computer’s control panel to ‘up’ the volume) and the whole experience was as easy as, well, using a phone.
Naturally, fellow Skype users can ring you for free too, and you can elect to use your PC’s ring tones or use the one built into the phone.
You can also use the phone to ring up lesser mortals not connected to the web courtesy of Skypeout. Shell out for a €10 (US$13/£7) voucher and you can then enjoy greatly reduced calls to regular phones all over the world, saving up to 85% off standard BT rates.
Ringing up non-Skype users is simple enough, although you’ll have to include full international codes every time, which is a bit of pain if you’re only calling someone in the same area.
Mac users will be more irritated to learn that the phone won’t work fully with their OS, even though the Skype software does.
VERDICT
These minor quibbles aside, Cyberphone is a trailblazing product that will soon repay the modest investment.
The handset may not be challenging Apple for design awards, but it’s a solid, basic, no fuss device that opens up the world of free VoIP telephony to everyone.
It’s simple, straightforward and saves you a bomb.
Highly recommended
FIVE STARS. Cost: €54.99 (US$71/£37), Skype Cyberphone
Available from Firebox (UK) for £29.95 (US$56/€43).
7 April, 2005
TiVo And Comcast Plan System To Place Fresh Ads Into Recorded Programs
Comcast Corp. is working with TiVo on an advertising system that will slap new, updated commercials into already-recorded programs.
Philadelphia-based Comcast, the US’s numero uno cable company, announced last month it would start offering TiVo’s DVRs by 2006.
Viewers looking to sit back and watch their favourite shows recorded months ago would have their old commercials replaced with brand spanking new ones.
Like a Big Brother stalker in your very own home, the system could rummage through your viewing patterns to serve up specific adverts targeted at lucky old you.
The new technology could help make DVRs more palatable to advertisers and the television networks because it should increase the chances of someone watching an ad rather than fast-forwarding through it.
Comcast Chief Executive, Brian Roberts, was clearly stoked by the idea; “In the long term, advertising is going to be a big winner. They’re going to get more bang for the buck.”
We think it makes sense to offer advertising that is directly targeted to the viewer; it could even be of use if the selection is comprehensive enough.
As to if TiVo owners would find this acceptable is quite a different issue. Many of the early purchasers of TiVo’s bought them because they wanted to avoid adverts and the only way DVR manufacturers will stop those people fast forwarding through ads, is to physically remove the button off the remote.
Separately, TiVo and satellite broadcaster, The DirecTV Group, announced a deal to let both companies sell advertising for TiVo recorders. The DVRs recently began showing static images, such as company logos, when fast-forwarding some shows.
Under the pact, both companies are free to sell ads on the service, and each retains its respective revenue from any sales.
TiVo
Comcast
Renting TiVo
Threat from ad-skip tech hyped: Nielsen
7 April, 2005
Vision Of The Future: NGN@Home Workshop
The workshop is intended to stimulate debate and build consensus on how industry should work together today, in order that we can move towards the ‘Vision of the Future’ for delivery of personalised services both within the home and associated domains. The workshop will explore three main themes:
· “User Centric – NOT Location Centric” · “Service creation and delivery to and within the Home domain” · “Adding value in a multi-access network and multi-service provider environment”
ETSI Secretariat
650, route des Lucioles
06921 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex
FRANCE
http://www.etsi.org/plugtests/NGN.htm
7 April, 2005
NW-HD5: Sony Launches 20GB Network WALKMAN Against iPod
iPod killers, eh? You can barely get out of bed without some hyperbolic company boldly giving their new MP3 player the big one, only to discover that it’s proved as popular as a lager lout on a teatotallers daytrip.
This time, however, it looks like the boffins at Sony could have pulled something special out of the bag.
The highly pocketable Sony NW-HD5 is a 20 Gigabyte hard disk player that is both smaller and lighter than its equivalent iPod, weighing in at a lithe 125g.
The machine supports Sony’s ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus compression formats, Windows Media Audio, WAV files and the vital MP3 format.
When it comes to battery life, the Sony has taken the iPod around the back of the bike sheds and given it a good thumping.
The Sony’s far superior battery life serves up a mighty thirty hours of MP3 playback, (40 hours using Sony’s proprietary ATRAC3Plus format at 48kbps), kicking sand dunes in the face of the equivalent iPod’s weedy 12 hours.
Even better, Sony’s battery is replaceable too, with Sony promising that spares will be available from High street stores – a far cry from iPod owners having to shell out big bucks to get Apple to exchange their worn out power packs.
“We’re raising the stakes again in the digital music player market,” purred a delighted Gregory Kukolj, General Manager for Personal Audio Europe. “The stunning new ‘follow turn’ feature, 40 hours battery life, incredibly compact design, and to top it off, very affordable pricing, make the new Network WALKMAN an irresistible proposition for users who seek a quality digital music player.”
We’re yet to rub up and get intimate with the Sony NW-HD5 but it appears to be an attractive looking affair, available in silver, red and (none more) black.
Unlike previous Sony models, the NW-HD5 is based around a portrait design where the seven line, 1.5-inch backlit LCD sits above the controls. In a neat twist, the new ‘Follow Turn Display’ feature automatically orients the interface screen horizontally or vertically depending on which way the player is held.
The player comes bundled with SonicStage 3.1 music management software for converting and managing music from CDs in both ATRAC3plus and MP3 formats. The software also offers access to Sony’s iTunes-challenging “CONNECT” online catalogue of more than 600,000 tracks and albums.
The player goes on sale in May for £200 (US$375/€292) (£10 [US$19/€14] less than its equivalent iPod), with a 30 Gigabyte version in silver following the month after.
Sony UK
7 April, 2005
3 UK Launch Two Tempting 3G Pricing Plans
We’ve never quite been persuaded to move to 3, but these two price plans they’ve just announced sure look tempting.
The first of its tariffs, Off-peak 3000, is 3’s first off-peak price plan and is aimed at hardcore evening and weekend chatters.
For £25 (US$46/€36)a month, Off-peak 3000 gives fat-chewing customers an enormous 3,000 off-peak, any network, voice minutes (that works out at 50 hours – over two days!). This looks like the perfect plan for mumbling teenagers keen to talk about ghastly boy bands and repeat “whatever” constantly to their friends.
These 3,000 minutes can be used between 7pm and 7am weekdays and anytime on a Saturday and Sunday.
The second plan, “Talk, Text & Video 600”, is an enhancement to 3’s best selling plan, “Talk & Text 600”.As you’ve probably worked out, clever reader, this new plan bundles in 3’s video mobile services to the £35 (US$65/€50) a month package.
And you’re sure get a lot for your money. The monthly fee gives you 500 any network, anytime voice minutes, 100 any network, anytime text messages, 20 video calling minutes from one 3 video mobile to another, 20 video messages to other 3 mobiles and a range of 3’s video mobile services, including highlights of the Barclays Premiership, full-length music videos, comedy and games.
While potentially good for the consumer, this type of deal won’t do anything to dampen the voice of unrest from some quarters. Their beef? 3 isn’t doing anyone in the 3G/UMTS field any favors by selling services at reduced prices. They think 3G should be all about premium prices for a premium offering.
Bob Fuller, 3 UK CEO swivelled on his heels and span out the corporate spin: “3 is the fastest growing network in the UK, we now have over 3 million 3G customers and we continue to lead the market for both value and video mobile services. With these new price plans 3 continues to set the pace for value in the UK mobile market. 3 was the first network to launch live, over-the-air, multi-player gaming, the first to stream concerts live over video mobile and first to launch quickplay video streaming of 3’s content.”
3 has also announced that all its pay monthly price plans are available on 18 month contracts from the start of April. These will offer the same price plans as 12 month plans, but will be include different customer-tempting promotions, like April’s 6 month half-price line rental offer.
7 April, 2005
Google Video To Expand Search To “Video Blogging”
Google plans to invite users to submit personal video clips for archiving as part of its recently launched video search service.
In a speech at the annual cable industry convention in San Francisco, company co-founder Larry Page announced that the company will start taking home video submissions from people, adding that, “we’re not quite sure what we’re going to get, but we decided we’d try this experiment.”
Not surprisingly, Page admitted to having concerns about the nature of content that people may want to upload (but we think that that may only add to the appeal of the service!)
Google first rolled out the test version of its video search service in January, allowing users to find content in television programs from such providers as PBS, Fox News, CSPAN and local ABC and NBC affiliates in San Francisco.
The service, called Google Video, offers up still images from the video clips and associated closed-captioning, but users cannot view video or read a transcript of the program due to unsettled licensing terms.
In the meantime, an “About this show” option provides information on the program’s next air time.
Google has already established search relationships with numerous content and broadband providers, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin commenting, “We’re always looking for ways to expand partnerships.”
The company also announced that it would provide data about popular Web searches to Current, a new television network for the 18- to 34-year-old audience, backed by former US Vice President Al Gore and other investors.
Arch-rivals Yahoo have already begun promoting their own TV and video search site, launched as a beta in December of 2004.
Yahoo has also partnered up with TVEyes to index closed captioning content from BBC, Bloomberg and Sky programming, while Blinxx launched their own movie and TV service, blinkx.tv, at the end of last year.
Google barged its way into the world of blogging after buying the popular blogging tool, Blogger.com in 2003.
The growth of affordable digital camcorders (and movie enabled digital cameras) coupled with cheaper (or free) Web space suggests that vblogging could be big news for 2005, creating a need for suitable search tools.
Google
6 April, 2005