Author: Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?

Half-Life 2 Preloading Via Steam

Valve have released Half-Life 2 to their distribution technology, Steam. Gamers can download the title now, but it will remain encrypted on their hard drives until the release date. No date has been given yet, but it can’t be too long. Poor, Half-Life starved gamers have had to endure a delay of a year due to a hacking incident last year when source code was stolen.

Steam’s distribution method is simple – games can be downloaded to PCs for pre-installation without charge. Gamers only pay for the game when it is unlocked via a variety of payment options – then the title is available immediately.

Distribution in this way means that publishers have complete control over the way that the game is installed, ensuring version control, simplifying updates, and reducing piracy and cheating. Steam customers can also enjoy their Steam applications on any PC.

Steam

Channel 4 Planning a Digital Radio Station with UBC Media

Channel 4, the government-owned UK broadcaster, has signed a deal with UBC Media to explore the development of a digital talk radio station. UBC is the largest independent radio production company in the UK.

The companies will begin a six week consultation process to discuss their plans with Ofcom and independent producers. Channel 4 expect to outsource much of the programming to production houses.

If it goes ahead, the station would launch next spring, and half would be owned by UBC. The station, currently imaginatively called Channel 4 Radio, would be broadcast on the Oneword Radio license, held by UBC.

UBC recently acquired radio production company Smooth Operations, for UK£1.8 million (€2.68 million).

UBC Media

Hollyoaks on the Pull

Hollyoaks, an soap opera inexplicably set in Chester and much loved by students, is branching out into mobile applications and content.

First up, Mersey TV are inviting would-be television actors to send in their photographs via mobile media messaging. This new “On The Pull” initiative is an update to a 2000 initiative that resulted in four members of the public landing major roles in the show.

Hopefuls can register via SMS or on the On the Pull Website – and there is already a gallery of submitted photographs to be laughed at, so get over there.

Secondly, Mersey TV and Opera Telecom are expanding the Hollyoaks story line into new media, hoping to capitalise on the tendency for the show’s 16 – 24 year old audience to have the latest mobile phones. Hollyoaks will see a MMS spin-off later this year, followed by a full mobile video version.

On the Pull is a revenue stream for Mersey TV, as sending a photo from a mobile phone costs an additional UK£0.50 (€0.75) on top of network charges. The MMS Hollyoaks spin-off will undoubtedly be premium content too – showing that production houses have grasped the financial incentives for taking content to new platforms.

The Official Hollyoaks on the Pull Website

French Consumer Group Takes Action Against Copy-protected CDs

Consumers in France have taken legal action against EMI and retailer Fnac, accusing them of deception, because of copy-protection techniques used on CDs. They are unhappy because the copy protection scheme employed by EMI prevents the discs being played on some car stereos, home CD players and PCs – and also stops owners from making personal copies. This contravenes legislation passed in France 1985, stating that consumers can make copies of CDs for personal use.

UFC-Que Choisir is seeking damages for consumers through the legal action, and consequently Fnac and EMI face a fine of up to €188,000 (UK£126,350), if the group is successful. They may also have to remove all copy-protected CDs from sale.

Fnac say that they are confident that they will not be fined, as they claim to have taken adequate steps to inform customers of the potential problems with copy-protected CDs.

UFC-Que Choisir have another copy-protection case going through the courts at the moment, this time concerned with consumers prevented from transferring tracks from CD to portable players.

Que Choisir

Bluewin to Trial Microsoft Broadband TV

Bluewin, a subsidiary of Swisscom, will be the first operator in Europe to trial a pay-TV service with Microsoft over broadband internet connections. Using set-top boxes, the 600 home trial will feature up to 25 television channels, a pay-per-view service and PVR functions. Beginning in September, he trial will run for four months, before the the true launch of the service in Switzerland.

Tim Fritzley of Microsoft TV said: “As the first operator in Europe to trial pay-TV services powered by the Microsoft TV IPTV platform, Bluewin is now able to offer its DSL customers competitive, next-generation TV services, both broadcast and on-demand, combined with innovative communications and information services. The huge advantage of this technology is that it is interactive and has made delivery of television programmes possible on-demand”.

Testers will have to pay for the service: €15.50 (UK£10.41) for the 25 channels, with pay-per-view films costing between €1.95 and €6.50 (UK£1.31 to UK£4.37).

The bandwidth required for the service will be around 1.2 and 1.4 megabits. Switzerland has around 700,000 broadband customers, Bluewin serving the majority of them with 390,000 subscribers.

Bluewin

Microsoft Launch “Plays For Sure” Campaign

Microsoft are keen to emphasise the range of support for Windows Media is in the market, from music stores to hardware players, though the freedom of choice can paradoxically confuse consumers.

Consequently, they’re planning a campaign to bring its forthcoming music store, Windows Media and the wide selection of compatible music players out there together. The “Plays For Sure” campaign is intended to inform consumers about Windows Media compatibility, so they know what tunes will play where and on what.

The campaign will also include a certification programme for hardware manufacturers and, once passed, their devices will be able to carry a “Plays For Sure” logo. Music stores selling tracks in Windows Media format will also be eligible to carry the logo.

Microsoft will be sure to play up the contrast between the amount of software and hardware support for its own technologies, contrasted with limited support for Apple’s iPod and Sony’s own Network Walkman offerings. Indeed, the move will contrast sharply with Apple’s own attempts to limit the iPod’s compatibility with other platforms.

A Plays For Sure website is coming soon, and the timing for the campaign is set to coincide with the range of new players will be appearing later this year that have enhanced Windows Media 10 compatibility through Microsoft’s Janus technology.

Microsoft’s Windows Media

Gizmondo News

Tiger Telematics, the manufacturers of the Gizmondo, a handheld games console not unlike a super-powerful N-Gage with GPS, has announced that the unit will feature a new type of Flash chip.

The new chip, the snappy mDiskOnChip G3 from M-Systems is the smallest Flash memory chip on the market – it must be very small indeed as neither M-Systems or Tiger Telematics seem to have published the physical dimensions of it anywhere.

The Gizmondo is shaping up to be a potentially exciting console – it will feature a 400MHz ARM9 processor, 2.8 inch colour screen and a 64 bit graphics accelerator, a camera, MP3 player and GPRS phone. Location-based gaming will be enabled through the device’s GPS unit, and Bluetooth will let you fight with your friends. Oh, and in there somewhere is the new 64mb Flash memory chip.

“I am sure that customers will appreciate the overall user experience achieved through the impressive combination of the latest technologies that is found within Gizmondo,” said Francois Kaplan, general manager of M-Systems Europe. “I am pleased to see our new mDiskOnChip G3 product contribute to the high-performance, small size and long battery life of this exciting multi-entertainer.”

The Gizmondo will be based on Windows CE.NET and cost between US$300 and US$400 (UK£166 to UK£222) when it launches later this year – and it will appear in the UK first, no less.

Can the PSP, Nintendo DS, Gizmondo, Series 60 games phones and the N-Gage QD all survive in this market? We’ll have to wait until Christmas 2005 to find out.

Gizmondo

BBC Weather Revamps with Weatherscape XT

BBC Weather are revamping their reports with a new application from Metra that will allow them to make accurate 3D depictions of current weather conditions.

Weatherscape XT is also capable of automatically repurposing 3D weather information to other platforms – like 3G phones for example.This would make weather information in interactive services far more localised and perhaps even customised to each user – and 3D weather reports on mobile phones could be a potential revenue stream.

The BBC is hoping that 3D flythroughs and zooming into topographical areas will improve understanding and retention of what the weather is actually doing. “We hope that by showing the weather that will actually go over your head, you will know whether it is going to be sunny or cloudy where you are” said Colin Tregear, project director at the BBC’s Weather Centre. Well, if someone still can’t work it out from that, perhaps it’s in everyone’s interest just to stay at home.

Weatherscape takes data from the Met Office and can generate the required graphical tour in real time, whereas the current graphics take around four hours per broadcast on the existing six year old system.

The system is PC based and requires a couple of dual Xeon servers for the database. Broadcasters’ terminals are simply PCs with high-end, though off the shelf, graphics cards in them. The BBC has described the shift to the new system as rather like the leap from Super Nintendo to the XBox. I’m sure that’ll make a lot of sense to my mother.

Metra, a New Zealand company, have already licensed the system to CNBC, TVNZ and Australia’s Nine Network.

I, predictably, miss the days of magnetic clouds stuck onto metal boards, kipper ties and outrageous facial hair.

Weatherscape XT

US Top of the Spam League, Canada’s Unwanted Email Output Apparently Falls

A new survey from Sophos reveals that the US is the top spam sending nation in the world, followed in distant second place by South Korea. The US sends 42.53% of all spam, South Korea 15.42%.

The UK, France, Spain and Germany all send under 1.5% of the world’s total of spam each.

South Korea’s spam output has tripled in the last year, but Canada has managed to half the amount of spam originating from its borders – though this could simply be a fact that everyone else’s has risen. Spam now accounts for more than 65% of all emails sent. Somebody, somewhere, must be buying things from these people to make this a viable business.

The US’s spam output has risen despite the Can-spam Act coming into force this year in January, allowing ISPs and government agencies to prosecute spammers – even jailing them. The Can-spam Act also requires that unsolicited emails must have an way of opting out of future emails, but everyone knows that spammers just use this to verify if your email address is active and send even more unwanted emails.

Interestingly, 40% of the world spam total is sent through zombie PCs – computers that have had their security compromised and are being used as spam relays without the owner’s knowledge or consent.

Sophos’ Dirty Dozen

Dualdisc – Yet Another Disc Format

The big four record labels have decided that the way to sell more is to launch a new format – and here it comes, DualDisc. EMI, Song BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music have been quietly scheming away to produce the new format, which, as its name suggests, is a CD – DVD hybrid.

Playable on just about any drive that can play either CDs or DVDs, the DVD partition of the disk can contain extras like videos, interviews and photo galleries. How does it work? It’s really not that sophisticated – it’s just a double-sided disc with a CD substrate on one side and a DVD substrate on the other. As the format has been approved by the DVD forum, it will be allowed to carry the DVD logo.

DVD-Audio and SACD have not been very successful, and this is an attempt to recapture a lost market.

CDs are about 1.2mm thick – the new format can be about 1.5mm thick, which may cause it to jam in some players, though it is still within the upper limit for the CD standard.

The key advantage for audiophiles is that music quality is preserved. Extras on CDs tend to eat into the amount of space available for storing music, so bit rates can suffer on longer discs. Better still, listeners can enjoy DVD-A quality encoding on the DVD side at home whilst using the CD side in their cars and personal stereos. Perhaps it’s not so evil after all.

The first titles will include albums from Five for Fighting, Audioslave and Dave Brubeck. Sorry, who are these things aimed at again?

“We are delighted to be offering the first in a series of DualDisc titles,” stated Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group. “By combining music, video, interactivity and portability in a single disc, DualDisc will add an exciting new dimension to the consumer’s musical experience.”

“Dual Disc opens a new, exciting creative dimension for artists to express themselves and connect with fans. It’s an entertainment-packed product and is a big step in our effort to give fans music whenever, however and wherever they want it,” said David Munns, Chairman and CEO EMI Music North America.

DVD Plus International, a German company, is claiming ownership of a patent relating to a dual-format DVD, called, predictably, DVD Plus. Since Dualdisc is set for an October launch, they had better sort that one out pretty sharpish.

DualDisc – coming soon