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?

RealOne Rhapsody Streaming 500,000 tracks per day

Coming just a day after Apple’s landmark of 10 million iTunes sold, RealNetworks have announced that they are serving up to 500,000 songs per day on their Rhapsody service.

Relaunched in May 2003, Rhapsody has a different business model to iTunes – for $9.95 per month, a subscriber can choose as much as they want from the 25,000 albums available on the service. 265,000 of the tracks are available for burning onto CD, at an additional cost of 79c each – the lowest in the market. Only subscribers to the service are able to burn tracks.

The Rhapsody service has music from all five major companies, and more than 175 labels – and features exclusives such as the Rolling Stones.

In a new move, customers will be able to sign up for a free 14 day trial in Best Buy stores across the US – this should increase the Rhapsody profile as well as increasing “footfall” in the stores, where users may come in to sign up for the service, but buy something else during their visit.

Linksys Launch Wireless Network Adaptor Aimed at Gamers

Linksys intend to simplify the process of getting a games console online with their new wireless adaptors. The new WGA11B (11Mbps) and WGA54G (54Mbps) adaptors are easy to set up, driver-less, should be popular: in some homes the console is shared between a couple of locations in the house, and anything that can reduce the tangle of wired down behind the television is welcome.

Using the 802.11b standard, the adaptors work with all three major consoles: GameCube, Playstation 2 and the Xbox, and are available now, priced around $65 and $105 respectively.

Link

Apple Launches More New iPods, Sells Ten Millionth Song

Apple have proven their mastery of the portable MP3 player market with the announcement of two new iPods – even before the buzz has died down from the launch, less than six months ago, of their hugely popular 3rd generation players.

And there’s more: the iTunes site, now selling 500,000 songs per week has just sold it ten millionth song. Thanks to the wonder of modern transaction processing we even know what and when it was: Complicated, by Avril Lavigne at 11.34pm (PST) on the 3rd of September. We wonder how much that commemorative file would fetch on eBay.

iTunes is immensely popular, despite being a US and Macintosh only platform – it demonstrates that there is a real market out there for properly licensed music downloads and the 99c price point seems ideal. Windows users and non-US customers look forward to enjoying the service later this year – we can’t wait to see how many units it’s going to shift then.

Steve Jobs said: “Legally selling ten million songs online in just four months is a historic milestone for the music industry, musicians and music lovers everywhere.”

Despite our shiny 30gb iPod being only four months old, it’s no longer the top of the range: the new 40gb iPod will hold 10,000 tracks (or as many songs as the iTunes store sells in three hours) for $499. Together with the 20gb ($399) model, they provide a more comprehensive range for people who like to carry a lot of music with them.

The iTunes Store: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The iPod Lounge: http://www.ipodlounge.com

New PVR Sets Storage Benchmark

Sony are releasing a new personal video recorder in Japan with enough disk space to store more than two weeks of video at its lowest quality setting.

Going on sale in Japan only, the $1400 personal video recorder doesn’t feature a DVD drive, but can be connected via Ethernet to the Vaio PC range, using “Sony’s Click To DVD” software.

Users can edit the footage stored on the PVR and then make their own DVDs, or store programmes off line permanently.

The EX11 has three quality setting which equate to High Quality (114 hours, 9Mbps), Standard (171 hours, 6Mbps) and Extended Play (3Mbps). The recorder makes use of an EPG for automatic recording and is equipped with two tuners and two MPEG2 encoders, allowing users to record two programmes simultaneously. Also useful is the inclusion of a memory stick slot for displaying photographs.

The PVR features two analogue and one D1 digital video output. Interestingly, Sony have chose Linux as the PVR’s OS. This seems to be increasingly common on this type of platform – TiVo recorders use an older Linux kernel.

PC World link

Slashdot link

New Epson Widescreen Projector for Home Use

The Epson PowerLite Home 10 projector, priced at $1300 (£820), is designed to appeal to home users by getting the best out of widescreen DVDs and HDTVs. It has a native resolution of 854 x 480, and can switch aspect ratios as necessary.

Previous “budget” projectors have suffered from washed out colours (think how your PowerPoint slides can appear in presentations sometimes) but the newly designed 3-LCD elements that make up the projection technology have a reported contrast ratio of 700:1. These 0.5 inch LCDs were seen earlier in the year in Epson’s EMP-S1 business projector.

Epson are really going after the home market with the new PowerLite – the casing is styled to look good in a domestic setting, and it’s designed to sit easily on your coffee table without all that fiddling with getting the feet at the right angle by propping your annual report under them.

If you’re lucky enough to have a 25 foot living room, you can enjoy a 300 inch picture whilst watching Legally Blonde.

MacWorld review link

IEEE Approves 802.15.4 (ZigBee)

The IEEE has approved the 802.15.4 wireless standard for simple devices. More widely known as ZigBee, designed for low power, low complexity units, applications for 802.15.4 include interactive toys, inventory tracking and smart badges. WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) devices are intended to operate in the user’s Personal Operating Space (POS), an area of effect of about ten metres.

Based on the broader Bluetooth specification, the standard covers three data rates: 20kbps, 40kbps and 250kbps, but is differentiated from HomeRF and Bluetooth by its greater emphasis on device simplicity and low power consumption.

Of course, there will be more privacy worries raised as inventory tags employing RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tags become more sophisticated, smaller and indeed washable. Clothing stores will not only be able to track their products in the warehouse and on the shelves but will know when you come back wearing something you bought there. Gillette recently abandoned (for the time being) plans to use RFID technology in their Mach 3 line of razor blades in Europe.

Digital Sun already have an interesting 802.15.14 product in the market: the S.Sense. There are two main components: a receiver that fits the control box of your garden sprinkler and an number spikes that you insert into your lawn. When the spikes detect that the ground is dry, they notify the sprinkler to do its stuff. Because of the low power consumption of the standard, each spike will fun for about a year on a AA battery.

IEEE on 802.15.4 Link

ZigBee Alliance Press Release (PDF)
Gillette on RFID Link

nCube’s Technology Enables Telefonica VOD Service

nCUBE and Telefonica de Espania have signed a deal to bring video on demand to a number of trial areas in Spain.

nCUBE are not just known for their VOD systems – they are also a leader in advert insertion systems where digital adverts are inserted into cable content. The deal with Telefonica de Espana will provide viewers in the Madrid/Barcelona/Alicante regions with films and other content though their ADSL connection to a set-top box, and so straight to their TV – users won’t need a PC. The service will be called “imagenio”.

Users will be able to control the content through their remotes. nCUBE hope to be able to offer “everything on demand” (which their website helpfully terms as “EOD”) in the future.

Michael Pohl, president and CEO of nCUBE Corporation said “This strategic relationship with Telefonica is further validation of nCUBE’s flexibility and ability to cost-effectively deliver compelling on-demand services across multiple platforms, and we look forward to working with them as they continue to expand their VOD offering.”

n4x servers can cast to communities of between 5,000 and 500,000 users – ideal for scattered populations and dense cities. The nCUBE platform can provide 140,000 hours of content – which is a lot of dodgy soap operas in anyone’s book.

The nCUBE platform: http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/downloads/n41.pdf

Sony’s Dream World Comes to Europe

Having tested the waters with smaller, more focussed events such as The PlayStation Experience in London, the Sony group of companies will be showcasing their entire entertainment offering at the Sony Dream World exhibition in Paris this weekend.

The two-day event will feature Sony’s main consumer divisions: Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This is the second Dream World event – the first, last September in Yokohama, attracted 50,000 visitors.

Expected highlights of the show will be the European debut of the SDR-4X bipedal robot, the new Blue-ray disc recorder and the latest addition to the popular Clié PDA range, the PEG-UX50 with integrated wi-fi and Bluetooth to add to the ranges already solid multimedia capabilities.

The PSX, the PlayStation “2.5” will be seen for the first time outside Japan – a true convergent appliance, the PSX features a TIVO-like hard disk recorder for storing off-the-air and home video, as well as the established DVD-playing and games console functions.

Of special interest to the digital-lifestyle.info is the Network Media Receiver, a device for streaming video content around the home, and the PC-TV – a combined device that lets viewers browse the web and use a PC, but which is still a fully functional TV.

Sony hopes that the 7000m2 exhibition at the Palais des Congrès will capture the lifestyle of their customers and demonstrate how their products integrate into digital life.

Sony Music artists will be performing at the event – Galleon, Cedric Atlan, Julie Zenatti, Anne Warin and Dadoo. They must be popular in France, because we’ve never heard of them. Well, that’s the excuse we’re using.

Details of the programme of events and ticket information are available from http://www.sdw.sony-europe.com/sonydreamworld/jsp/home.jsp

Press release: http://www.sony.com/SCA/press/030605.shtml
Images from Sony Dream World 2002: http://rapislazuli.dyndns.org/~nimori/imgs/20020914/noflash.html

AIBO Gets an Upgrade

The new revision of AIBO, the ERS-7 will soon be available in Europe. Sony’s recreational robot has been extremely popular, despite its high cost, since the introduction of the ERS-110 in 1999 – the series has sold a reported 45,000 units. As the various models have retail prices between £800 and £1200, this has obviously been a success for Sony, and indeed become a cultural icon.

The new features on this unit include a more expressive face display (the “Illume-Face”), and a restyled casing. More dramatically, the ERS-7 features an improved memory that enables the robot to retain and develop its personality over its lifecycle. We’re wondering if there will be a tearful moment in the house when AIBO has to go and “live on a farm” when he gets a bit older.

Sony claim the personality development routines are a significant step in artificial intelligence.

The new AIBO is also the best connected ever – using a built-in wireless LAN, he can connect to PCs and other mobile devices. His nose camera allows him to perceive his environment three times better than before, distinguishing shapes, patterns and even faces. He can send photographs of his surroundings and your au pair to your mobile phone.

We would have liked to have brought you some links on AIBO hacking, but Sony used the DCMA to bring all the sites down.

You’ll be able to see the new AIBO in the “flesh” if you’re in Paris at the weekend at the Sony Dream World exhibition.

AIBO’s home page: http://www.aibo-europe.com/