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?

Audiolunchbox – DRM-free music

Audiolunchbox.com specialises in indie music and amongst many bands we’ve never heard of (All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors, anyone?), the site provides non-DRM restricted legal downloads of tracks and albums from Moby, Sasha and even The Pretenders.

Some 160 labels have licensed content to Audiolunchbox, and they use a familiar distribution model — US99c allows you to download a track to your PC, and then you are free to store it, or use it on any capable device. Albums are available from US$8.99. Users buy a “Lunch card” in a variety of values, which helps to bring access to kids without credit cards.

There’s an interesting twist – the site also offers Ogg Vorbis encoded downloads, so at last it will be easier for Linux users to play legally purchased music on their distributions. As MP3 is a proprietary format, there are no open source codecs for the OS.

“When you purchase audio from us, do with it as you please, as long as it’s for personal use.” — from the website.

Audiolunchbox

Give Ogg Vorbis a try

Ofcom Propose 056 Numbers for Voice Over IP Numbering Services

Users wishing to place and receive Voice over IP calls through their broadband service will be able to have their own number in the future, as outlined in Ofcom’s proposal just issued. The proposal is intended to simplify access to VoB services, and distinguish them from other more traditional services.

05 is currently reserved for corporate PABX systems, and it’s Ofcom’s proposal that 055 is used for corporate VoB services, whilst 056 will tend to be more for residential customers.

Ofcom are against geographically dependent numbers – and we heartily agree that a numbering scheme that varies from town to town makes no sense for a system that is not so dependent on the location of a physical exchange, especially since users may want to pick up calls whilst travelling.

Ofcom’s proposal

Microsoft’s Tokyo Offices Raided

Microsoft (MS) received a visit from fifteen members of Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) at 9am Tokyo time. The FTC are looking for evidence of unfair and monopolistic practices in the company’s dealings with PC suppliers in Japan. It’s actually their second visit – the FTC last knocked on MS’s doors in 1998, when they confiscated documents relating to their OS range, browser and office suite.

This second raid isn’t too surprising – over the months Microsoft has had the same thing happen in the US and Europe, and its operating system and software bundling deals with PC hardware manufacturers have long been regarded as anti-competitive in Japan. After a slow start, the country is now the third largest market for PCs in the world, with annual sales of about 13m units.

In Europe, Microsoft could face millions of Euros in fines in March when it reaches an agreement with officials over the way that Windows Media Player is tied to its range of operating systems. Microsoft claims its legal bills for such cases came to US$1.55bn in 2003, though the recent US Department if Justice settlement is regarded as ineffective by many in the industry.

The BBC on the Raid

Digital Home Working Group: “Share Content Anywhere, On Any Device”

Craig Barrett, CEO if Intel, is as annoyed as you are at the often badly implemented restrictions preventing people from using and sharing media on different devices. As part of the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), due to publish their standards specification in Q2, Intel have come out against inflexible, confusing and unfair DRM programmes in the market, or in development.

Of course, much of the timing and pitch of the Intel/DHWG rumblings will be because they have a set of standards to plug, but they do have a point given the draconian DRM restrictions placed on users.

Ironically, DRM restrictions often make it harder to move or use the media that customers have actually paid for – an inconvenience that provokes some users into acquiring cracked or unsecured versions of media and files.

“The basic concept of the DHWG is the ability to use that content anytime, anywhere within your home once you’ve purchased it.” said Barrett.

Formed in 2003, the DHWG features more than a hundred other members, including Microsoft, Nokia and Sony. If they all agree on their set of standards, then adoption should not be an issue.

Hopefully the new standards will protect the content producers and artists whilst giving consumers the ability to use licensed content fairly.

Digital Home Working Group

DHWG’s chairman Scott Smyers: “The DHWG is open to all players.” (Downloadable WMV, interestingly enough)

3G: “The Networks are Ready, but the Phones Aren’t”

One of the many things coming out of the 3GSM Summit is the conflict between mobile network operators like Vodafone and T-Mobile and handset manufacturers: the network operators have made the networks, but the phones aren’t good enough to entice users to subscribe.

Mobile phone operators spent billions of euros on licenses to run 3G networks and are understandably concerned that they have not been able to make full use of new revenue opportunities.

At the 3GSM summit in Cannes, Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone criticised existing phones for being bulky, possessing poor battery life and featuring unsatisfactory heat dissipation. He added “The experience today is unacceptable to our customers.”

Part of the problem is related to poor coverage in Europe. Not only does this mean that services are simply unavailable in areas, but it also requires that the phones run in dual 2G/3G mode, thus consuming far more power – hence the heat and battery problems not generally witnessed in Japan which has far better coverage. Since it is projected that, even by 2008, only 75% of all phones will be 3G, dual mode issues are expected to be around for a while.

Some see Sarin’s comments as a little dig at Nokia, with whom Vodafone have had a stormy relationship over the years, but with Nokia expected to have a strong 3G handset offering by the end of 2004, things seemed to have thawed between Sarin and Nokia’s CEO Jorma Ollila.

The Nokia/Vodafone Lovefest

Sarin: GSM stands for “God Send Mobiles”

Eminem Sues Apple Over Unauthorised Use of Song

Because of what seems to be a rather surprising error by Apple, rap star Eminem is suing the computer company for featuring lyrics from the song “Lose Yourself”, sung in the advert by a ten year old boy, in their 2003 campaign for the iTunes music service.

Eminem’s company Eight Mile Style said “Eminem has never nationally endorsed any commercial products and … even if he were interested in endorsing a product, any endorsement deal would require a significant amount of money, possibly in excess of $10 million”.

The ad was shown multiple times on MTV, and it seems odd that Apple would feature the song without first seeking permission. Apple Computer has yet to comment.

Slashdot on Grey Tuesday, Slim and Apple

Alcatel Offers New Mobile Game and Music Video Services

Alcatel have announced two partnerships in a programme to provide mobile media and entertaiment to its customers.

First off: stealing a march on Nokia’s ailing N-Gage multiplayer efforts, “Xploded” is a game developed by wireless games firm BeTomorrow, and supports up to forty players in the same game.

Alcatel have also partnered with Universal Mobile to offer a new range of multimedia services using Universal content. Proposed offerings include video mailboxes and other video delivery services.

We’re certainly looking forward to forty-way Jerry Springer death-matches.

BeTomorrow

Two New 3G Handsets from Motorola

The A1000 and E1000 from Motorola are two new, feature-rich phones aimed at covering two separate, but often intersecting, markets: business users and gamers.

The A1000 is intended to meet mobile business needs, is based on the Symbian 7.0 OS. Along with the usual camera/gprs/streaming/email/browser package we’ve come to expect, it allows users to view files of a number of formats whilst on the move, including Microsoft Office and PDFs.

The standard PIM applications are all here: calendar, contacts and notes, and the phone will synchronise with your desktop/laptop though USB and Bluetooth.

As the phone supports the J2ME platform, further applications and treats can be downloaded and installed.

The other phone, the E1000 is an attempt to get into the rapidly growing mobile gaming and entertainment market. The phone features a camera and MP3 player and promises a very striking 260,000 colour display, with 240×320 resolution.

The E1000 will offer location-based services through A-GPS, which could provide interesting and innovative entertainment applications in the very near future.

Infosync World

Vodafone’s Connect Card Wins at Cannes

Vodafone’s Mobile Connect Card, launched in April 2003 has won the Best Mobile Application or Service: Corporate Market at the 2004 GSM Association Awards in Cannes.

The card is essentially a rebadged Option Globetrotter with a Vodafone data service and software suite. The package is designed to provide simple and secure access to company networks and the internet, and is plug and play thanks to the Vodafone dashboard and software.

Vodafone’s new version of the card, the Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS datacard will be available in many areas of Europe in the next month.

ZDNet’s review of the card

Legal Music Downloads Reach New Highs

There were more than 150,000 legal music downloads in the UK in January 2004, putting downloading in second place behind buying singles for the first time. Although there were still about 341,500 singles sold in in that month, these figures show that legal music downloads are increasing in popularity all the time.

We feel that if there were more options for people to easily download music, then the CD single would die even quicker – it will be interesting to see what happens when iTunes eventually opens up shop in the UK later this year.

Of course, now that record labels are producing “copy protected” CDs with deliberate errors that do not play in many CD players (owners of car CD players be especially wary), and are difficult to rip, this may have the effect of driving more users to download sites.

MyCokeMusic has been an enormous success prompting many more people to download music, the January 19th launch was followed by 50,000 downloads in one week – we’ll be watching to see what the figures will be for February.

The Official Chart Company is now compiling figures on music downloads, and intends to issue a download chart in the future. Hopefully when this appears users will be able to buy music directly from the chart listing itself and will increase sales even further.

The Offical Chart Company

The Register on this week’s launch of “copy crippled” CDs