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?

ICANN Adds IPv6 to Root Servers

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has added IPv6 to its root servers – meaning that every object on the planet can now have its own IP address. Vinton Cerf from ICANN confirmed the news at their annual conference in Malaysia.

Every device needs a unique internet protocol address to be able to connect to the internet – this applies to computers, phones, printers, web cameras, your robot dog, everything. IPv4 is limited to only 4.3 billion addresses, and already two thirds of them have been assigned.

“This is a big, big step,” Cerf said. He’s not joking: IPv6 can potentially accommodate 2^128 (2 to the power of 128) unique addresses. To give it some scale, that would allow 100 million IP addresses per square meter of the Earth’s surface. I guess engineers really do think ahead. Though my nanobot army might use them all up fairly quickly.

IPv4 will continue to run alongside v6 for about 20 years to ensure ease of migration and stability, so don’t throw that old Ethernet card away yet.

ICANN

Duke University Gives Away iPods

There was a time the idea of handing out a device capable of holding 5,000 MP3s free to students would have caused sweating, outcry and at least a couple of writs from the music industry, but Duke University have made this into a unique opportunity.

New freshmen at Duke will receive a 20 gig iPod loaded with course information, calendars, and maps – and students will be able to download language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books from the university’s website. They’ll even be able to buy music from their own music store. Students get to keep the iPod, but will have to pay for its replacement if they lose it.

Duke will be handing out 1,650 iPods on August 19th during the freshmen orientation sessions.

Apple have long had a relationship with academia, from donating Macintoshes and equipment to schools to offering iTunes on Campus. This new version of iTunes dissuades students from downloading music illegally by giving them branded alternative whilst at the same time giving academic institutions another communications channel with their students.

iTunes on Campus

Samsung’s Vixlim – World’s Thinnest CRT

The cathode ray tube will be with us for a while longer – Samsung have developed a new display that’s less than half the thickness of a traditional CRT, and is as thin as some LCD panels on the market.

The 81cm Vixlim is only 35cm thick, and Samsung claim it has a far higher picture quality than a comparable LCD. A standard 81cm CRT-based display is generally about 50 to 60cm deep, often more.

The company are promoting their technology for use in digital televisions, stating that their new tube could reduce the price of a digital television by about a third. They will begin mass production early next year, with a view to replacing all of their large CRT products with this tube by the end of 2005.

The Vixlim may not be as light as a TFT display, but it is considerably cheaper – and may well prolong the use of cathode ray tubes as a display technology for some time.

Samsung

European Commission Gives the Nod to Sony BMG

The European Commission has granted regulatory approval to the creation of Sony BMG, a joint venture bringing together the music divisions of the two companies.

The Commission did warn, however, that it would be keeping a close eye on the industry as it becomes more concentrated within a small number of companies, and would “very carefully scrutinise any further major concentration in the industry.”

The venture is a 50/50 project and covers the discovery and development of artists, plus the recording and marketing of music. It doesn’t cover music publishing, manufacturing or distribution.

The Commission was initially concerned about the venture as it reduced the number of music majors to four – but was satisfied that Sony BMG would not be larger than some one of the companies in the market at the moment. The top spot is still held by Universal.

Sony Music UK

BBC May Launch Broadband Service

The BBC had planning meetings to explore the possibility of providing a cheap broadband service to UK homes. Ashley Highfield told the Guardian newspaper: “A few people have come together to see if we could put a low-end connected PC into the market. Could we do it? I don’t know, but we would have to be clear about why.”

This is something that’s obviously been on Ashley Highfield’s mind as he hinted at a service in response to a question from our own Simon Perry at the FT New Media and Broadcasting conference back in March.

Mr Highfield is determined to overcome the UK’s perceived “digital divide” by perhaps offering a low-cost terminal and connection, in a similar fashion to the successful Freeview service.

Highfield also has plans for a new BBC search engine, to help break up the American dominance of the search engine field. With all major search engines owned by American organisations, a British internet search funded by the license fee was welcomed by the Graf report.

BBC

The Guardian

Wanadoo Broadband Home Gateway

Wanadoo, owned by France Télécom, will launch a broadband gateway for home subscribers in August, featuring a unit called Livebox.

Livebox is essentially a router, and its initial selling point will be to allow home users to set up a wireless network easily – but the box has other uses lurking inside. For example, the UK£80 (€120) box is Bluetooth enabled and will soon offer a phone service that will compete with BT’s own Bluephone.

Wanadoo will offer VoIP calls using Livebox from next year and once the local loop is unbundled then they’ll be able to offer fatter broadband pipes – and then video on demand. Subscribers will then be able to watch TV on demand on PCs around their home, wirelessly. Livebox is not a set top box, so will not be muscling in too far on Sky+ territory.

BT are still doing their “yes we are, no we’re not” dance with regards to being a broadband content provider, and have talked down their broadcasting ambitions in the last couple of weeks.

Wanadoo

Microsoft’s Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group

No-one could have predicted that Microsoft would evolve from selling DOS to being a company whose technologies shape many of the industries around us. Microsoft’s media products such as its Windows Media 9 platform are used throughout the media and entertainment industries from authoring, distribution and viewing. As the company’s relationship with the media and entertainment industries has grown very complex indeed, Microsoft have created a group to manage and develop these alliances: the Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group.

The group aims to drive the company’s strategies for the digital convergence of home entertainment technologies, personal computing and media with a focus on market development, policy and standards.

The former chairman of the Universal Television & Networks Group, Blair Westlake, will join Microsoft and be the group’s new vice president.

“The creation of the Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group and Blair Westlake’s appointment underscore Microsoft’s strong commitment to delivering cutting-edge products for the digital networked home and continuing to build mutually productive and profitable relationships with the media and entertainment industries,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Microsoft on the new group

Virgin’s Portable Music Plans

But where do you keep your headphones?Virgin Electronics, a new division of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have opened new offices and launched a new product: the Virgin Electronics Wearable 128mb MP3 Player.

The US$99 (€80) player isn’t competing with the iPod as it only holds about 40 songs. Instead, it’s going for convenience, size and simplicity.

“When we called it the Wearable 128MB MP3 player, we meant wearable. The product is so small and light it can be worn comfortably around the neck, arm—anywhere. No pockets required.” said Joe Sipher, senior vice president of marketing for Virgin Electronics.

The device doesn’t require a power adaptor – it charges from the USB connection to Mac or PC. The user interface is extremely simple too – two buttons control everything. Virgin’s digital music store is expected to launch later on in the summer, and no doubt there will be interesting tie-ins between the new player and the store.

Virgin Electronics’ second release is a pair of noise-cancelling headphone – you can see where they’re going with this can’t you? The US$40 headphones are amongst the cheapest available, but Virgin are keen to stress that they are high quality devices. No doubt both pieces of equipment will be coming to an in-flight magazine near you soon.

Virgin Electronics have also just moved into new offices in Silicon Valley, upping sticks from New York. Virgin’s new appointments will be filling those nice premises – Greg Woock as CEO (formerly Handspring and Creative Labs) and Joe Sipher was once an exec at Handspring and Palm.

Virgin Electronics

Fourth Generation iPod Will Have Better Battery, Cheaper

Details are surfacing of the next generation of iPods from Apple featuring a number of improvements to the wildly popular music player.

There will be two new models: a 20gb for US$299 (€240) and a 40gb for US$399 (€320) – a US$100 (€80) reduction in price from the comparable existing models.

Battery life, previously a source of some controversy, has been given a significant hike – from eight hours to twelve. The battery is not thought to be user replaceable still, and no details of its longevity are available – indeed, it may well be exactly the same battery with the increase in play time coming from more efficient power conservation.

The new models will also incoroporate the click-wheel interface from iPod Mini, launched last week.

No release date has been given, Apple have a policy of not pre-announcing products, but they are said to be imminent – perhaps even this week.Apple iPod

U2 Album Goes Missing … Turns Up on P2P Networks

U2 have called in the police after a CD featuring unfinished tracks from their forthcoming album was stolen at a photo shoot in France. The new album, their first since 2000, is likely to be called Vertigo, and the tracks on the CD have already started appearing on P2P networks such as Overnet.

Edge said on the U2.com website: “A large slice of two years’ work lifted via a piece of round plastic. It doesn’t seem credible but that’s what’s just happened to us… and it was my CD.” Should have kept an eye on it then.

“This matter is of great concern to us.” said Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group UK. “As the missing CD is our property, we’re very keen find it as soon as possible and the French Police are being extremely helpful in this regard.”

Having tracks available, even in unfinished form, so far in advance of the album’s release is likely to tempt many fans who would not normally lift music from P2P networks. However, even though many people will undoubtedly download the tracks using file sharing programs, it is unlikely that this alone will result in lost sales.
If the disk finds its way to a CD pressing plant, then they’ll have a problem.U2.com