Berni Dwan – Page 6 – Digital-Lifestyles

Sega Superstars 1st non-Sony use of EyeToy

Sega Superstar with EyeToy Sega are launching a wide reaching, active and colourful campaign to trumpet in the arrival of Sega SuperStars, the first non-Sony game developed for the EyeToy. Available from October 22nd, the campaign will highlight the excitement and interactive nature of the game.

For those of you who may not know – and they’re might be some – the hugely innovative EyeToy is a camera that plugs into the PlayStation 2 and sits on top of the TV. An exercise in body mnemonics, it projects an image of the gamer onto the TV screen and tracks player’s movements, as they use different body parts to control characters, allowing the player to become an intrinsic part of the game.

“Eye Toy is not as well known as we would like it to be”, says Sega’s Tina Hicks as she elaborated on the military precision of the campaign. “We are targeting the games press and putting sig sheets in phone booths. A number of roadshows will be taking place at shopping centres across the UK, as well as in-store promotions from the 28th to the 30th of October.” Point-of-sale material will also be displayed throughout specialist gaming outlets and mainstream entertainment chains including Blockbuster and Gamestation.

Features have also been written in those pillars of modern teenage culture – Bliss, Sugar, Smash Hits, Top of the Pops, and TV Hits, so if you are too young to be frequenting the hairdressers, perhaps your Granny might do the necessary reading. This may be the case since the core target audience for the campaign is children aged between six and 14.

Sega SuperStars features 12 unique mini-games, each with one of the characters, offering 12 unique interactive experiences. It uses the in-game motion capture abilities of the EyeToy camera to allow gamers to transpose themselves into some of the most popular Sega characters — including Samba De Amigo, Sonic the Hedgehog, House of the Dead, and Virtua Fighter.

Sega SuperStars

Collapse-to-Zoom Could Aid Mobile Browsing

It’s the same old problem – a Web page is simply shrunk to fit a handheld screen and you waste time playing ‘blind man’s buff’ with the screen contents because you can’t tell the relevant from the irrelevant tiles.

Browsing large pictures, or simply navigating the Web on a mobile device is as unsatisfactory as trying to watch “The Return of the King” on a portable TV.

Opera have what they call Small-Screen Rendering technology to counter this but Patrick Baudisch and Xing Xie from Microsoft Research, Wei-Ying Ma from Microsoft Research Asia, and Chong Wang of Tsinghua University have provided a workaround to this limitation that will automate the scrolling and navigation of a large picture with a single pen stroke.

It’s called Collapse-to-zoom and offers an alternative exploration strategy. In addition to enabling users to zoom into relevant areas, Collapse-to-zoom allows users to collapse areas deemed irrelevant, such as archive material, or advertising. When you collapse the irrelevant content all remaining material expands to display more detail, thus increasing your chance of finding what you want. Collapse-to-zoom navigation, explain the researchers, is based on a hybrid between a marquee selection tool and a marking menu, that they’re naming “marquee menu”. There are four commands for collapsing content areas at different granularities and switching to a full-size view of what’s left on screen.

The system is controlled with pen gestures and are fully detailed in the Technology Review (linked below). Dragging the pen diagonally downwards from right to left collapses all page content in the rectangular area covered by the pen, and replaces it with a thin placeholder that can be restored by clicking if required. Dragging the pen diagonally upwards from left to right zooms that area into a 100-percent-scale reading mode and collapses everything around the area.

Baudisch, Xie, Ma and Wang will present their work at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2004) next week.

Microsoft Collapse To Zoom paper (PDF)

Technology Review article

Opera for Mobiles

TV-B-Gone – Rid your world of unwanted TV

Think of all the waiting rooms where you have had to endure mindless soaps, the bars where you have been silenced into submission by a cocktail of football or MTV – depending on which end you sit. If you have ever wished for a gizmo that would quell the cacophony then your wish has been granted.

A gadget cunningly disguised as a car alarm remote clandestinely switches off television sets by the simple press of a button now exists. Get your hands on one of these and going for a pint could yet again become the social event that it was fifty years ago – before the art of conversation was subsumed by wide-eyed silence punctuated by disjointed roars.

The gadget with the moral dimension has a name with a biblical ring – TV-B-Gone, and like the parting of the Red Sea it will silence the attention sapping scourge in any public area. When activated, the universal remote control with a mission will spend about a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, attacking the most popular brands first. There is an American-Asian model and a European one, using different codes.

TV-B-Gone’s inventor Mitch Altman, who was recently interviewed by Steven Bodzin for Wired, already has a pretty impressive track record. He wrote an Apple video game in 1977, which became a military training module, worked on virtual reality systems in VPL in the 1980’s, and more recently patented hard-drive controllers developed in his Silicon Valley data-storage maker company, 3Ware.

TV-B-Gone has just gone on sale so perhaps unwanted ambient TV may become a thing of the past, a social pariah we will tell our grandchildren about. Question is are the TV manufacturers going to fight back? Or, will it be the start of a whole new battle of wits like that between the computer security industry and the hackers, spammers and virus writers?

TV-B-Gone

MegaSIM could give phone SIM’s a boost

Not so much a case of minor to major but more a case of meagre to mega, M-Systems, an Israeli company have given the humble SIM card (the 128Kb card that comes with all GSM phones, holding numbers and contacts) a serious memory boost. Exchanging the SIM for the M-Systems MegaSIM, which can be used by all 2G and 3G GSM service providers for user identification and authentication, and storing phone settings and numbers, is somewhat akin to giving Popeye a can of spinach.

MegaSIM is a fully compatible (U)SIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) that will give you up to 256MB extra storage space (with higher capacities to follow) by simply changing SIM cards, making things easier for users switching devices since all data can be transferred onto a new phone in a now standard way.

It’s only in development stage right now and will not be commercially available until the second half of 2005. It’s a first in the cellular market – a SIM card that combines high-capacity flash-based storage, with densities up to 256 Megabytes, and advanced security storage capacity to enable a variety of mobile applications.

MegaSIM will enable mobile operators to bundle software, applications, and games on one simple secure single-chip solution. Furthermore, it will free mobile network operators and handset vendors from the need to bundle the memory cards that are used in ‘many feature’ and smart phones.

The mobile landscape is changing as mobile handsets increase their multimedia capabilities and network speeds towards broadband. Service providers will respond to the trend by providing secure, scalable and configurable high-capacity storage. The MegaSIM card module will enable SIM card vendors to provide their mobile operator customers with a (U)SIM card enabling a variety of advanced mobile services such as MMS, MP3 and video clips downloading, full PIM functionality, and high-resolution picture storage.

M-Systems

Schwarzenegger signs P2P Bill for California

In what some view as payback time to the industry, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Californian legislation on Tuesday forewarning those engaged in online piracy. The bill, which is the latest attempt by film and music trade associations to combat the use of elusive file-sharing software, requires anyone disseminating movies or music on the Internet to disclose their e-mail address.

The opposing camps could not be more different. The bill’s sponsor – surprise, surprise – the Motion Picture Association of America, applauded the signing, its president Dan Glickman saying that Schwarzenegger had “a unique understanding of the powerful impact of piracy. ” Does this mean he appreciates that if lots of people with very questionable taste in cinema had not pirated copies of Schwarzenegger movies, he would be even richer than he already is? He also remains a member of the (not exactly indigent) Screen Actors Guild, which supported the bill.

On the opposing side you have the San Francisco based Electronic Frontier Foundation who say that ‘suing fans doesn’t pay artists’, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Both the EFF and the ACLU say the measure infringes on the privacy rights of computer users and could turn casual file-sharers into criminals.

This Internet piracy bill will work like a sniffer dog tracking down people who download copyrighted material. Henceforth in California, file sharers who trade songs or films on the Internet without providing a valid e- mail address will be guilty of a misdemeanour.

Schwarzenegger already signed an executive order last week prohibiting state employees from using software designed for file sharing. He did not comment on the signing, but if he did it might go something like, Play da movia ya, but give me you’re email address first.

Legislation

Electronic Frontier Foundation

OPA Generational Media Study Yields Interesting Results

This week the Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced the results of its latest Generational Media Study, designed to provide a detailed view of the 18 to 34 year-old media consumer. The study examines how the Internet, television, radio, newspapers and magazines compare across the generations on a range of attitudinal measures.

It’s no longer a case of ‘Book Good, Screen Bad’. It’s now increasingly accepted and understood that the screen is a ‘moveable feast’. So, all of you who are involved in online content will be happy and relieved to learn that 97% of 18 to 34 year olds believe that online is the same or better than magazines for finding information about products and music.

Since it has now become apparent that TV advertising is outmoded and ineffective, advertisers must turn their attentions to the online community especially since 67% of respondents say that watching a short video clip online is the same or better than watching highlights on television. Notwithstanding, television moguls can breath a sigh of relief, temporarily any way, since more youngsters still favour television over online media for watching longer video programming.

For the Internet, the only way is up, with 47% of respondents indicating that they spend more time using the Internet now compared to one year ago, while interestingly, a healthy minority reported spending less time playing video/PC games and watching television.

The print media should be worried though since the Internet and television are by far the most frequently used media by all respondents, 83% saying that reading a story on the Internet is the same or better than reading one in a newspaper. Furthermore, the importance of newspapers differs significantly, with more daily readers coming from the 35 to 54 age group.

But attitudes take a quirky turn when it comes to trust; with more 18 to 24 year-olds saying that they trust the news they get in newspapers, compared to older readers. Could the technobabes be too naive, or is it really true that we become more cynical as we grow older?

Online Publishers Association

BT Drops the Cost of Local Loop Unbundling

For a very long time UK broadband providers have claimed that BT have had an obvious lack of enthusiasm for letting them in to telephone exchanges to install their own equipment, to offer services to rival BT’s. Known in the trade as local loop unbundling (LLU), BT’s rivals see it as the only profitable way to provide broadband and high-speed services, so they don’t have to pay BT for each customer, as they do if BT equipment is used.

Following on from continuous pressure from Ofcom, the UK super-regulator, and LLU price reductions announced in May, BT has now cut the cost further.. . They put this down to their investment in new automated processes. From now the cost of a shared LLU line is 62% less than it was in June of this year, the connection charge is now standing at £37 (~$64, ~€52) while the annual rental is £27.12 (~$48, ~€36). It looks like BT might be on a roll and if it continues, prices may be reduced by up to 70% by the end of the year.

Ofcom already indicated its enthusiasm for LLU to play a greater role in stimulating competition in the wholesale broadband sector. Last April its chief executive, Stephen Carter, hinted that Ofcom would be proactive in making LLU more attractive to rival operators.

In real terms, cutting the cost of LLU will encourage the deployment of more 3rd party equipment in BT’s exchanges, giving more choice to UK customers. As if to prove how serious they are about it, BT is appointing an LLU director of ceremonies. NTL and Cable & Wireless (Bulldog) have already announced multi-million-pound plans to invest in LLU in the UK, and they must be chomping at the bit to install their kit in BT exchanges and get on with the business of offering a service to their customers.

The UK is now a respectable 8th in the list of DSL countries, according to the DSL Forum. And as a member of the European Union, it is in the number one DSL region with more than 23 million subscribers. With lower prices bringing the UK more in line with its European counterparts, and higher speeds, customers should notice improvements as the LLU market in the UK is finally ignited.

DSL Forum

Ofcom

Nintendo DS debuts in US on 21 November

Announced last January, the Nintendo DS goes on sale in the US on 21 November and in Japan on December 2nd, with a price tag of $149.99 (~£84, ~€122), while Europe must wait until early 2005.

The Nintendo DS has heralded a season of innovations. It will be a two active screen portable gaming device (building on their game & watch dual-screen history), and the first time such a launch is happening outside of Japan. A new level of sophistication incorporating voice recognition and multi-player wireless features has been brought to the handheld game console market. As well as the touch screen allowing for touch input using a stylus, and embedded microphone for voice recognition control, it has chat software that caters for up to 16 simultaneous users. A flip-top cover protects both screens, while two speakers on the unit’s face let you hear virtual surround sound.

At 148.7mm (5.85 inches) wide, 84.7mm (3.33 inches) long, and 28.9mm (1.13 inches) tall, the Nintendo DS has a wireless range of 30 to 100ft (nine to 30m), so that multiple users can play multi-player games using one DS game card.

While it is not meant to be successor to the GameBoy Advance, it can play games from the current
GameBoy Advance series. New games will come from 100 different companies, while Nintendo itself is developing 20 titles.

If you have no more spare cash after splashing out on the Nintendo DS you can still get stuck in immediately because it comes with a free software feature, PictoChat, embedded in the system hardware. PictoChat allows you to write messages using the on-screen keyboard or the stylus, and send them wirelessly to other DS users nearby, as well as getting started on text chat. The Nintendo DS doesn’t snooze on the job either. When in sleep mode it will wake up if it senses another DS in transmitting range.

Nintendo will have a battle on their hands as Sony will be releasing the equally heralded portable entertainment device, the PSP.

Nintendo

Warner Bros license films to Netflix VOD partnership

Netflix are doing a trial run of their movie-download service, and Warner Bros. have joined in the fun by agreed to license some of its films to Netflix for that very purpose, reports CNet. This move adds strength to the rumour that Netflix and TiVo are poised to team up for a movie download service.

What this means for the ordinary punter is a video-on-demand service (VOD), which would allow consumers to rent and download films from Netflix. This is where TiVo comes in. The downloaded film would then be accessible on TiVo’s personal video recorders for viewing on a regular television set.

While this may be a new venture for Netflix, it is not a new one for Warner Bros, who along with four other studios is currently a partner in Internet movie-download service Movielink. It has also licensed films to competing Web service CinemaNow.

Apparently the agreement does not yet constitute a deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. and anyway, the video-on-demand service from Netflix is still only in the rurmour/planning phases. Furthermore, TiVo has not actually announced a video-on-demand service.

For the moment though, everything is unconfirmed, but quite often there is no smoke fire. Enough clues have been given out to make the average reader pretty confident that something is going to happen soon.

Netflix, for example has already said that it plans to launch an Internet download service next year, while TiVo has announced features that would support the download service, although it has not specified a time frame. But then on the other hand, representatives from both Netflix and TiVo have said in the past that they didn’t expect an Internet service to form part of their revenue earning strategies.

Netflix

McCain’s US Bill seeks $1Bn for Digital TV

The world over there is a general move towards replacing analogue television with digital. US Senate Commerce Committee chairman, John McCain has now raised the stakes.. His proposed bill calls for analogue switch off by 2009 but offers financial aid. Current law requires broadcasters either to give up their current airwaves by 2007, or when 85 percent of the nation can receive the new digital signals – whichever comes later. Many US TV stations already broadcast both digital and analogue signals, but few Americans own digital television sets, which are currently a lot more expensive than their more traditional counterparts.

McCain proposes a bill that that would require broadcasters to switch off analogue signals by 2009 and would subsidise the cost of consumers upgrading their equipment to digital. Currently there are about 70 million analogue sets in the US. Even though the Federal Communications Commission has mandated that by July 2007 all new television sets with screens 13 inches or larger must be able to receive digital signals, the fear is that digital TV will not be universal by then. This is because, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, Americans replace their sets only every eight to 10 years – messing up the math for the lawmakers.

McCain argues that it will take $1 billion to make the shift and this magic sum will be garnered through a rather circuitous route. When the government) gets their hands on the airwaves that broadcasters are now using, they will probably auction it for commercial wireless services, and this could potentially earn billions of dollars, and Senator McCain’s $1 billion would come from the auction proceeds.

Some of this $1 billion could also be used as a benevolent fund to enable people who do not have a digital television set to install a pay television service that would either offer them the new signals or a converted signal they could see. This will allow millions of consumers to continue watching television once broadcasters begin airing only in digital. Understandably though, those same broadcasters are concerned about their signals being switched back into analogue after they have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities to offer digital.

McCain’s draft legislation gives priority to those households that rely solely on over-the-air television, and in particular lower-income homes. The legislation is scheduled to be considered by the committee on Wednesday, but it is hard to anticipate any meaningful progress since Congress is trying to adjourn by early October and the U.S. House of Representatives has not acted as yet.

If the Bill is passed analogue -only television sets made after September 2005 will be obliged to include a warning label stating that without additional equipment, it would not work after 2008.

So far the UK government has rejected any call for it to contribute to the public’s cost of making the change to digital TV. McCain’s bill will give further weight to those who feel they should.