Digital-Lifestyles

June 2007

  • YouTube On iPhone: H.284 Encoded

    YouTube On iPhone: H.284 EncodedWith just over a week until the whole of humanity is saved and we shall never have to worry about disease again launch of the iPhone in the US, Apple have let it be known that they have been getting even closer to YouTube.

    YouTube have been busily re-encoding lots of their videos to H.264 and the Apple iPhone (aka Mankind’s Saviour) will be the first phone to make use of them. The advantages to Apple is PR (You’re reading this) and the playback of H.264 should be more battery efficient, as it doesn’t need the whole of a Flash player to render the videos on the handset.

    Over 10,000 video will be available on the 29 June (iPhone day) with all of the other videos following suit, it’s expected, by Autumn (Fall) this year.

    By way of a lovely tie-up, it’s also the day that sees the YouTube on Apple TV go live – after they do the download update to their little boxes.

  • BeeBird: FM Transmitter

    BeeBird: FM TransmitterBeeBird, another FM transmitter reaches us, this time with a pretty decent look about it.

    The Chinese manufacturer, netSharp, got in touch with us give us the heads up.

    There’s a not-insubstantial 199 channels available for transmitting your fave sounds. The frequency range that can be chosen between, is 88.1 – 107.9MHz.

    The chosen frequency is displayed on the LCD display, while the simple up/down shuffle changes the frequency.

    It’s got FCC approval, and as long as its output is under 50 nanoWatts, it will be legal in the UK under OfCom rules too.

    It looks at light as it is at 30g excluding the one AAA battery it runs on (there’s also a car power adaptor available). As you’d expect, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, so will play from any sensible music source.

    Price? Not clear yet. We hadn’t heard back before going to press.

    NetSharp BeeBird

  • Plazes Launches Out Of Beta

    Plazes Launches Out Of BetaPlazes, a service that enables its users to create geo-indexed information, has finally come out of beta to a release version.

    We’ve been using Plazes for over two years now, so its beta phase has been pretty extensive. In that time it has grown not only in number of users, or locations ‘discovered’ – it’s topped 20,000 places in over 120 countries now – but in terms of functions.

    Since we last looked at it, about six months ago, it’s gained a Twitter-like function – the ability to add short messages telling people what you are up to at any time of the day. This can also be done by mobile phones these days.

    Further new additions bring the ability to add comments to any of the Plazes – anywhere with a WiFi connection – providing a review function as well.

    If you haven’t see it before it’s well worth having a look at – Plazes

  • DS2 Powerline Communications Thrash Wi-Fi On Apple TV

    DS2 Powerline Communications Thrash WiFi For Apple TVPowerline chipset supplier, DS2, has been conducting some speed tests with their 200Mbps product in an attempt to prove how much quicker distributions within households can be using their Powerline Communications (PLC) than rival technologies and products.

    As we all know, there’s a (sometimes major) difference between the claimed performance of network products and what it delivers in the real world. Some of this is down to legitimate things like error correction overheads, but lots of it is down to other factors.
    (more…)

  • Manhunt 2: BFFC Bans UK Release

    Manhunt 2: BFFC Bans UK ReleaseThe British Board of Film Classification (BCCF) have ruled that Manhunt 2, the second version of the game from Rockstar Games, has been banned in its current form from sale or rental in the UK.

    Originally scheduled for release during July 2007, the BCCF today made it pretty clear that they really didn’t like it – at all. David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said, “Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board’s published Guidelines. In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.”
    (more…)

  • Samsung Slip Out A Salvo Of Sleek Phones

    Spurred on by the relentless cracking of the new product whip, Samsung’s factory drones have unveiled three brand spanking new phones with “luxurious, stylish designs and innovative features” backed by a full suite of multimedia features.
    (more…)

  • Microsoft Revamps MSN Mobile

    Microsoft Revamps MSN MobileWith a swish of the ceremonial curtain, Microsoft has launched its updated MSN Mobile service offering, boasting a “redesigned, reinvented” portal.

    Designed for ‘net connected mobile users, the MSN Mobile service offers “one stop” access to news, email, local movie listings, maps, directions, yadda yadda, as well as Windows Live services like Hotmail, Live Messenger, Live Spaces and Live Search.

    (more…)

  • Global Mobile Gaming Revenue To Soar 50% In 2007

    Global Mobile Gaming Revenue To Soar 50% In 2007Global mobile gaming end-user revenue is set to skyrocket from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011, with popularity growing as consumer awareness increases and more games are released.

    The figures were released in a new report from research analysts Gartner who calculated that worldwide mobile gaming revenue looks set to hit $4.3 billion in 2007, up nearly 50 percent from 2006.
    (more…)

  • YouTube To Launch European Service?

    YouTube To Launch European Service?Speculation is growing that YouTube will be launching local versions of their video sharing service for European countries.

    The rumours come in the wake of YouTube owners Google announcing a mass herding of top executives in Paris for an international press conference next week.

    Elementary
    France 24, a French public TV channel, confirmed on Friday that it’s been sitting on the chatty sofa and getting chummy with Google, leading pundits to predict that the search engine giant could be lining up local content for its video-sharing service.
    (more…)

  • Search Engines Disagree On Top Matches

    Search Engines Disagree On Top MatchesThe most popular search engines rarely agree with each other when it comes to the top results for identical queries – and the differences are growing yearly.

    In a study involving 19,332 queries typed (presumably not by hand) into Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and Ask, the same top result only popped up on all four search engines 3.6 percent of the time.
    (more…)