July 2006

Trendnet Wi-Fi and 512MB Flash Memory Combo with HotSpot Detector
Travellers needing to keep connected might like the cut of the jib of Trendnet’s handy new USB wotsit. Regaling under the lengthy name of the ‘Trendnet HotFlash 802.11g Wireless & 512MB Flash Memory Combo USB Adapter with HotSpot Detector,’ this cheeky little puppy wedges in a ton of functionality into a memory stick sized unit.
Ranked by Laptop Magazine as one of the best road-ready accessories for mobile business folks, the HotFlash packs in 512MB of flash memory with a built in, plug-and-play 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter.
Best of all, there’s no need to fire up the laptop to look for Wi-Fi zones when you’re on the move thanks to the onboard Wi-Fi network scanner, with the information being presented on a small LCD screen.
The Hotflash can detect and connect to IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g HotSpots, with the display showing SSID, channel, encryption types and signal strength information.
Powered by a built-in rechargeable Li-on battery (which charges up when connected to a USB port), the specs claim a wireless working range of 35-100 meters indoors and 100-300 meters outdoors.
All in all, not bad for $100.
Trendnet
17 July, 2006
MovieLink To Burn to DVD?
Movielink, a service which delivers films over the Internet, will soon be offering the ability to burn the downloaded films to DVD, complete with DRM protection, reports ZDNet.
It is understood that Sonic Solutions has been working with Movielink to provide the last link in the chain that has held many consumers back from using the service.
People like the idea of being able to take the films down, but as very few people have the PC in their lounge, don’t cherish sitting in front of the PC for 2+ hours to watch the film. As the films are delivered now, it’s not possible to transfer the films DVD, for fear that those naught consumers might copy the disc.
Being able to burn films to DVD is second nature for anyone using file sharing services, you know, the ones where the film companies don’t make any money from the films being downloaded, so it would seem quite reasonable to offer the same service to the people who are willing to pay for the films, wouldn’t it.
Sonic Solutions signed a similar deal with video CoDec company DivX back on 20 June to use Sonic’s AuthorScript disc-burning engine, although it was unclear if DRM would be transfered to the burnt disc.
The Movielink service, is limited to only US user, who own Windows-based machine and is a joint venture between Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers.
MovieLink If you’re outside the US, don’t bother clicking, you won’t see anything of interest.
17 July, 2006
YouTube Delivers A 100 million Videos A Day
The online video sharing Web site YouTube, has, in the space of just a year, become the leading online video resource with up to 100 million videos being watched every day.
The figures, released by Web measurement site Hitwise, reveal that YouTube has now grabbed the numero uno position in online video, pwning a mighty 29 percent of the US multimedia entertainment market.
The site has become a huge hit with media-hungry surfers wanting to upload, share, and watch homemade videos from YouTube’s global audience, with the company saying that YouTube videos now account for 60 percent of all videos watched online.
In June, around 2.5 billion videos were watched on YouTube, with more than 65,000 videos being uploaded daily, up from around 50,000 in May.
With the vids being so short (typically 2 mins), YouTube has become the perfect place for bored office workers and attention-drifting types looking to grab a quick fix of free entertainment.
When we checked out the homepage (only in the interests of research, of course), there was a “Chipotle Burrito Parody,” a short clip of a “Giant Humbolt Squid,” “Cat Robot” and the always popular, “Zidane Headbutt Attack” for our viewing pleasure.
The Hitwise report also lists other companies competing in the US multimedia entertainment market, with News Corp.’s MySpace having around 19 percent share of the market, way down on YouTube’s 29 per cent share.
There’s then a big drop downwards to find Yahoo, MSN, Google and AOL who only have 3-5 percent of the video search market.
Curiously, the company says that it is “still working” on developing advertising and other revenue generating services to support the business.
With their eye-watering bandwidth charges, we reckon they’d best sort it out pronto.
YouTube
17 July, 2006
Fizz Traveller 2.3 For Pocket PC/MS Smartphone Review (69%)
Wedging its foot firmly into the territory currently ruled by rival application World Mate, Fizz Traveller for Pocket PC is a mobile travel companion, compatible with Windows Mobile 2003/2005 and Smartphone editions.
As befits its travel aspirations, the program comes stuffed with information useful to globe trotting types, offering world time, international weather information with forecasts, alarms, to-do lists, Internet-updated currency conversions and more.
Loading up the application on our i-mate JAM, we were taken to a large clock with some daft confetti stuff stuck all over it that promptly sent us looking for the ‘how we did get rid of this’ option.
A rummage through the menus revealed that the developers were pretty keen on the eye candy, with customisation options letting users fiddle about with various themes, background images, clock styles and colours.
Great if you like that kind of thing, of course, but we’d be happier with just one clean, crisp and professional interface than a load of bubbly, baubly spinning things.
We found the overall interface a bit of a pain too, with an animated menu system needlessly complicating matters, although we were impressed with the information that could be (eventually) displayed.
On a more positive note, the Today plug-in that ships with Fizz Traveller was a well designed addition that could be configured to show the current date/time and weather information, and cycle through other modes.
Talk about the weather
The program comes with 58,000 pre-programmed world wide cities, with the option to display more detailed time and weather for six user-selected ‘Favourite Cities,’ along with a pretty little map.
Sadly, you couldn’t zoom into the map so it wasn’t the greatest of travel aids.
The weather information was, however, impressively comprehensive, offering min/max temperatures, precipitation, forecast maps, satellite maps and 2/7 day forecasts, as well as an “Airport Delays” option which didn’t seem to be particularly useful.
More useful was the currency conversion section which, like the weather forecasts, could be configured to update wirelessly at preset intervals.
Wrapping up the feature set was a mixed bag of conversion tools for temperature, length, weight, area, volume, speed, power and torque.
We can’t recall the last time we found ourselves needing a program to convert horsepower into Kilowatts when we were on out travels, but we’ve certainly got one now.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about Fizz Traveller, with the program offering lots of useful, travel-related functionality and a well executed Today plug in.
We liked the weather maps and there’s no denying that the interface has been buffed and polished up to a very high standard with lots of options for folks who like to customise their app.
The only problem was that in their quest to produce the prettiest travel application around, usability occasionally flew out of the window.
Compared to its chief competitor, WorldMate 2006, the program often felt clunky and slow, and at times we found the pop up navigation system downright annoying.
It’s not all bad news for the Fizz crew though, as the program offers similar levels of functionality to their rival but retails for substantially less ($20 against WorldMate’s $35), so we’re sure some will be prepared to put up with the quirks of the interface to save themselves a few bob.
Features: 80%
Ease of use: 60%
Value For Money: 75%
Overall: 69%
Fizz Traveller 2.3 for Pocket PC
14 July, 2006
Barclays Drop BT Media And Broadcast Deal
The planned buy out of the satellite interests of BT Media and Broadcast, the division within UK giant, British Telecom, that operates ‘business to business’ broadcasting industry interests, has fallen at the final fence.
After long and protracted negotiations that we here at Digital Lifestyles have been covering for the last six months, we can reveal here that the deal will not go through. Rumours have been rife for the last week or so after Barclays Private Equity (BPE) failed to get the necessary agreements to cut suppliers costs.
BT like other large telco’s is finding itself with more Satellite capacity than it can usefully manage, remains committed to a sale and is now considering the long term future of some of its’ other major earth stations.
The failure of the negotiations that valued the sale at around £80m, is expected to enable key players from both sides to ‘spend more time with their families’ and staff who had elected to join the new company that Barclays were putting together, face a prolonged period of uncertainty while “reserve bidders” are consulted, including a further interested private equity outfit.
14 July, 2006
Why I Still Love The Palm: A Short Guide To Best Treo Apps
Here’s the third in Mike’s three part review of why the Palm Treo rocks his boat.
Iambic Agendus application on the Palm OS.
When partnered with the optional Agendus Windows Desktop application, the program is a masterclass in interface and usability design and is – in our opinion – a good enough reason to move to the Palm OS alone if you’re after a world class PIM.
Despite the enhanced feature set, more powerful processor and more modern software, I constantly found Windows Mobile to be a frustrating experience, with many functions unnecessarily complicated.
Word!
Even with Microsoft’s own products, the Palm did a better job, with the bundled Documents to Go application on the Treo proving far more effective at handling Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents than its Microsoft Mobile counterpart.
When it comes to email the Treo ended up streets ahead again, with the hugely powerful third party email application Chatter Email beating everything I’ve seen on the Pocket PC platform (the less said about Palm’s built in Versamail client the better, however.)
It’s the same story with SMS, with the built in text messaging interface on the Palm remaining streets ahead of its Pocket PC rivals, with the superb auto-threading conversations making it easy to keep track of text conversations. It really is a delight to use.
Being a mature platform, the Palm OS has grown has a ton of capable, office-related, third party programs for taking care of finances and budgeting, databases, project management and travel etc., so you’re sure to find something for your needs.
In our next installment, I’ll be looking at Palm’s connectivity and having a moan about the lack of Wi-Fi.
14 July, 2006
Music Industry Grouping Proposes Digital Age Copyright
“A wide music industry grouping representing the independent record industry, composers and songwriters, musicians and performers, music managers, music publishers and their collecting societies hosted a crucial round table meeting yesterday, chaired by the Smith Institute, to debate the creation of a progressive and innovative copyright framework that is fit for purpose in the digital age.”
Which is the official line anyway, whether it has any relevance to the real world is a mute point and potentially completely misunderstood.
After the “industry” round table, a press conference was held, with the following representatives: –
Adam Singer (Chief Executive MCPS PRS Alliance) (below right), Alison Wenham (Chairman, Chief Executive, AIM) Dave Rowntree (Drummer with Blur + Ailerons) Andy Heath (Managing Director 4AD Music, British Music Rights Board) David Ferguson (Chairman, British Academy of Composers & Songwriters) Doug D’Arcy (AIM Board, Managing Director Songlines) Horace Trubridge (Assistant General Secretary Musicians Union) Jazz Summers (Chairman Music Managers Forum, CoFounder Big Life Management)
A value recognition right
This is the whole premise of their argument. Anyone involved in the distribution of content (whether they are aware of it or not) should be considered part of the value chain and therefore subject to licensing constraints.
The Copyright Levy laws were designed for analogue, but digital changes everything, control has passed to other players (ISPs, mobile operators, iPods etc) rather than traditional channels with physical controls. So the intent is to license these distributors. This will of course require working with them, understanding their business models etc.
It’s all about a mechanism for creating a better working relationship with distribution channels.
The groups are already lobbying government to change the law so that these new distribution channels will now be considered actual distributors as the content is adding value to the distributor, therefore the industry should get a cut of the added value.
It’s estimated that £0.5 billion has been lost in license revenues due to illegal sharing. Current copyright law actually forbids copying a CD to iPod (or any other kind of digital copy).
They agree there is more work to do and they’ll publish the report in September including transcripts of discussions held yesterday morning.
These issues don’t just apply to the music industry and they’re gaining traction from other content industries and internationally.
Statistics are everything
One of the major stats used to justify their argument is that 60% of Internet traffic is file sharing, initially it was stated that this was “music sharing”, but this was changed to general sharing. There is a lot of P2P traffic and though a lot of it is probably music sharing, services such as Skype and other legal P2P services will also make up a good percentage.
They then utilise these figures that as so much traffic is P2P, users are signing up for broadband because of file sharing i.e. P2P is adding value and therefore attracting users and they want a cut of the added value.
It’s actually probably the other way around, people sign up for broadband for many reasons. Nowadays, because it’s given away free as a bundle with other services, but also because it’s cheaper than (or near enough the same price as) dial-up. Customers then find P2P is easy and therefore use it.
The margins on broadband are extremely low, Carphone Warehouse (CW) is actually losing money on every customer they sign-up, EVERY month (this will eventually change when they install their own kit in BT’s exchanges). They are buying market share. P2P doesn’t help their situation at all, they’d much rather not have users eating up all CW’s bandwidth which costs them lots of money.
Bulldog have just pulled out of the retail market and have decided to concentrate on the wholesale side and compete with BT Wholesale. Though part of this is that their parent Cable and Wireless (C&W) are trying to consolidate to fewer larger customers (i.e. broadband suppliers who then have lots of customers), part of the problem with having retail customers is you have to constantly upgrade your network to meet their growing bandwidth needs, and this gets very expensive very quickly.
With a wholesale customer base, they only need to provide a certain amount of bandwidth per customer to the retailer, who then has to provide connectivity elsewhere and meet the growing bandwidth requirement pains.
Retailers using BT Wholesale have very small margins, equating to maybe a few pounds per month to provide all the back-end services that customers demand.
Broadband to all
Broadband is becoming a commodity and it’s the value added services that will generate revenue, and what are the value add services? Licensed content, initially likely to be TV (as in IPTV), but other services will follow.
In France broadband is available for 18 Euros per month for 24Mb/s ADSL2+, this includes Internet access, basic TV channels and all you can eat national French dialing. Yes, the companies support P2P, not because they want to, but because customers demand it. The basic service will just about pay for itself, or even make a loss, but then once customers have the broadband in place, they buy premium content and that’s where revenue comes in.
This model is coming to the UK, BT’s broadband hub service is their first foray into an IP connected world, BT Vision (IPTV) is coming.
Stealth Tax
The music industry has gotten very bad press for suing consumers, so now they are trying to make the problem go away by taxing (licensing) the distribution channels and hiding the effect from users themselves.
The distribution channels would rather the traffic wasn’t on their networks in the first place, but are being put in a position (which could be driven through by law) where they have to pay for their users’ (mis)use of the network where margins are incredibly low to start with.
This means the channels will have to put up pricing (which means users notice) or absorb the costs themselves and they make even lower margins.
The music industry needs to rapidly have sensible discussions with the ISPs and other distribution channels to sort out the real economics of distribution or it’s likely a stealth tax will come into force which could kill the distribution industry in doing so, which wouldn’t benefit anybody.
13 July, 2006
MicroQuad By Viex Games Review (90%)
Anyone who enjoyed Mario Kart on the Nintendo SNES back in the 90s will love MicroQuad by Viex Games.
Available on the Palm, Symbian Series 60 and Windows Mobile platforms, this is an old fashioned racing game that packs in an astonishing level of detail and playability.
We tested the game on the Palm Treo 650 and the graphics were fun, fast, slick and ran as smooth as a slippery thing in banana boots sliding over an oil slick.
The game
You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck, with a total of twenty different tracks/levels (that’s four unique tracks, each with five difficulty levels) and – apparently – some hidden unlockable tracks lurking within the game.
Gamers start off by taking part in the Baby Cup, and once enough games are won, they can progress through the Junior Cup, Pro Cup, Master Cup and eventually the Expert Cup.
At the beginning of each game you can select any one of six different bikes, each offering different strengths and weaknesses (road, off road and grip).
As well as navigating the ever-curving terrain at high speed, racers have to avoid oil slicks, sticky patches and missiles launched by competing karts.
Playing the game proved to be a whole load of fun, with the bright, colourful tracks, lively animation and attractive scenery making it something of an immersive, compelling experience.
Controlling the game
Playing the game via the Treo’s five-way controller was effortless, with the option to customise the placement and function of handset buttons via the game’s options menu – and there’s even a left-handed mode on offer!
We had no problems running the game off our 2 GB Sandisk SD card and the game proved to be rock-solid in use with no crashes (and we’ve been playing it a lot!).
The game also offers an internet high score competition, a Bluetooth multiplayer option and a ‘Quick Race’ option if you fancy a quick blast around the tracks.
Conclusion
We liked this game. A lot.
It offers great value, exceptionally high quality graphics and a level of gameplay so addictive it can only be described as perilous.
The game’s tough enough to keep you coming back for more too, so you can expect a dramatic slump in productivity as soon as you install the game on your handset!
MicroQuad can be downloaded from Viex.org for just $14.95 (€12, £8).
Scores on the door: Features: 85%
Gameplay: 90%
Graphics: 90%
Value For Money: 95%
Overall: 90%
Compatibility:
Palm OS:
Tungsten E, T, T2, T3 and C
Zire 31 (low resolution), 71 and 72
Treo 600 (low resolution) and Treo 650
Sony Clie Series NX, NZ, TG, TH, TH and UX
Tapwave Zodiac 1 and 2
Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0
(tested on a Qtek 2020, a Qtek S100, a HP iPAQ 5550, a HP iPAQ 3950, a HP iPAQ 4700, a HP hx 2750, a Toshiba e800 and a Garmin iQue M5.)
Series60 Symbian
(tested on Nokia NGage, Nokia 6600, Nokia 7610 and Nokia 3650)
13 July, 2006
ISPs Give Mixed Response On BPI Attempt to Clamp Down
The BPI continued its policy of clamping down on illegal file sharing this week, when it contacted UK ISPs Cable and Wireless and Tiscali with requests to suspend 59 accounts.
BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said, “We have demonstrated in the courts that unauthorised filesharing is against the law. We have said for months that it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement. We are providing Tiscali and Cable & Wireless with unequivocal evidence of copyright infringement via their services. It is now up to them to put their house in order and pull the plug on these people.”
In a statement, Cable and Wireless said “Cable & Wireless and its ISP, Bulldog, have an acceptable use policy that covers illegal file-sharing. This would normally mean that any accounts used for illegal file-sharing are closed. We will take whatever steps are necessary to put the matter right.”
Tiscali questioned the BPI’s approach – which saw the announcement being delivered to the press at the same time as the ISPs – and its evidence. In a letter to the BPI, Tiscali pointed out that “You have sent us a spreadsheet setting out a list of 17 IP addresses you allege belong to Tiscali customers, whom you allege have infringed the copyright of your members, together with the dates and times and with which sound recording you allege that they have done so. You have also sent us extracts of screenshots of the shared drive of one of those customers. You state that such evidence is “overwhelming”. However, you have provided no actual evidence in respect of 16 of the accounts. Further, you have provided no evidence of downloading taking place nor have you provided evidence that the shared drive was connected by the relevant IP address at the relevant time.”
In a statement on 12th July, the BPI stated “Early responses from both companies suggest that they will suspend accounts which have clearly been used for illegal filesharing” and indicated that it could supply detailed evidence on the other 16 Tiscali addresses. In an interview on More Four News Tiscali spokesman Richard Ayres said Tiscali’s message to the record industry is “Come to us, give us the details and we’ll absolutely work with you.” Which would seem to be in contradiction of Tiscali’s own letter, which also stated that “Tiscali does not intend to require its customers to enter into the undertakings proposed by you and, in any event, our initial view is that they are more restrictive than is reasonable or necessary.”
Whatever the outcome, the action represents a new approach to the copyright battle that is focused on service providers instead of individuals. Some feel that copyright infringement is being used as a way to stifle innovation and free speech.
Copyright activist Cory Doctorow, claimed that “The BPI is basically asking to replace the “notice-and-takedown” regime that allows anyone to censor any Web-page by claiming it infringes copyright with an even harsher regime: notice-and-termination, where the ability to communicate over the Internet can be taken away on the say-so of anyone who claims you’re doing something naughty with copyright…If this regime had been in place when VoIP was invented, there would be no VoIP”.
Coincidentally, the BPI action comes at the same time that the (US based) EFF launched its Frequently Awkward Questions for the Entertainment Industry. The FAQ features a number of pointed questions designed to counter the aggressive behavior of US copyright protection agencies such as the RIAA and MPAA. Among them are points such as “The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing, who have on average paid a $3,750 settlement. That’s over $75,000,000. Has any money collected from your lawsuits gone to pay actual artists? Where’s all that money going?” and “The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 music fans for file sharing, yet file sharing continues to rapidly increase both online and offline. When will you stop suing music fans?” In the UK, the BPI has issued proceedings against 139 uploaders in the last three years. Of those, 111 settled out of court, paying up to £6,500 in settlement.
The BPI was noticeably absent from the group of industry organizations which gathered in London on the 12th of July to discuss new ways of charging for electronic distribution of copyright material. Their proposal, that “unlicensed intermediaries – rather than consumers” should be “the target of copyright enforcement actions”, was described as “ill-conceived and grasping” by Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group.
This fragmented and seemingly ad-hoc approach to the copyright issue is doing little to help the overall debate and a groundswell of resistance to both copyright and the way it is enforced has given birth to organizations such as the Pirate Party who demand wide-scale reform of the whole concept.
13 July, 2006
Microsoft Gets Huge €uro Fine
Microsoft have been fined by the European Commission for failing to comply with an anti-competitive ruling.
Their fine is unprecedented at €280.5 million ($375m, £193.8m) and covers a period from 16 December to 20 June at 1.5m Euro/day.
The EC threatens that it will raise the fine to 3m Euro/day if they continue to not comply beyond 31 July.
This tiff between Europe and Microsoft is related to the Media Player and “work group servers,” which Europe want to become more open, enabling other companies to compete against them.
The EC made a previous ruling against Microsoft in March 2004 when they threatened fines up to €497 million ($632m, £330m).
Europe have acted far more harshly that the US Justice Department which has been waiting for papers from Microsoft on a similar issue since 2002.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes was quoted by Reuters as saying, “Microsoft has still not put an end to its illegal conduct. I have no alternative but to levy penalty payments for this continued non-compliance. No company is above the law.”
12 July, 2006