Mike Slocombe

Sony Ericsson K610im Adds i-mode
With a full blown parp on their PR trumpets, Sony Ericsson has announced its new Sony Ericsson K610im, their first GSM/UMTS handset to offer full support for i-mode.
What’s i-mode we hear you ask?
Well, it’s a wireless Internet service developed by Japanese provider NTT DoCoMo, which currently operates at 9.6 kbps and offers iMail, iMMS and Web browsing via C-HTML, a subset of HTML.
With Web pages and content specially formulated for i-mode, users can expect nippier viewing of multimedia content using the included NetFront browser.
Although the download speed isn’t exactly impressive right now, the next-gen i-mode looks to be a much sleeker beast, supporting white-knuckle speeds up to 384 kbps.
Back to the phone, the Sony Ericsson K610im features a 1.9″ (176×220) 260k display, a 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom and a second VGA camera for video calls.
There’s 16 MB of onboard user memory, with a 64 MB Memory Stick Micro bundled in the box (the phone can support cards up to 1 GB).
Other features include a speakerphone, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, USB charging and a flight mode.
Available in ‘carbon black’ only, the K610im is expected to start shipping in the third quarter of 2006, with pricing to be announced.
K610im specifications
Imaging and messaging
1.9″ QCIF+ (176×220) TFT 260k
2 megapixel camera and VGA Video call
iMail
Push e-mail
2.5 x digital zoom
16 MB user memory (actual depending on operator customization)
Video recording/playback
SMS and iMMS
DoJa stand-by application
Music
Speakerphone
64 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2 (support for up to 1GB)
Media player [MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ support ]
Support MFi & Mobile MP4
Full streaming Audio & Video
DoJa 2.5 OE
i-mode DRM
Polyphonic 72 voices
3D games
OMA DRM v. 1.0
Music DJ, PhotoDJ, VideoDJ
Connectivity
Memory card slot
UMTS 2100 + GPRS 900/1800/1900
Bluetooth™ technology
PC Tools & Software
USB 2.0 Mass storage
USB charging
Fast port system connector
External antenna connector
Flight mode
Access NetFront Web Browser
Kit Content
-64 MB M2
-USB Cable
-PC software
Sony Ericsson
20 June, 2006
Kodak Easyshare P712 Superzoom Digital Camera
With a flurry of clicking and whirring, Kodak have announced their new Easyshare P712 superzoom digital camera, offering a 12x image-stabilised Lens, a 7.1 MP sensor and enough manual modes to please compulsively tinkersome photographers.
The camera sports a veritable animal of a zoom, with the f2.8 – f/3.7, Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens covering a whopping 36 – 432 mm range (35mm equivalent).
With such a long lens, things are likely to get wobbly at the telephone end, so there’s built in optical image stabilisation to help ward off blurificartion.
Faster than the blink of an eye
The boys and girls at Kodak are making bold claims for their new camera, saying that P712’s auto-focus system boasts a ‘best-in-class’ click-to-capture rate – literally faster than the blink of an eye, they say.
We’ve never bothered to work out how fast we blink, but Kodak tell us that their 0.07 seconds capture rate is faster, and who are we to argue?
Made for sharing
The Easyshare comes with a large 2.5-inch, high-resolution, LCD and electronic viewfinder for framing and reviewing pictures, with the Share button making it easy to, err, share pics using Kodak’s, err, Easyshare software which, like Quality Street, was apparently made for sharing.
As is de rigueur with consumer digicams, the camera can record video at a TV-quality, 30 frames-per-second VGA video with sound (MPEG4), with onboard facilities to split, cut, merge and trim footage or create single-frame or multi-frame “storyboard” still pictures.
Flashing it about
As well as the built in flash (guide no. 11, ISO 100 ), there’s a also a hot shoe connector for attaching the optional Kodak P20 zoom flash (which knocks out for around a ton).
Rounding off the feature set is the usual legion of scene, program, aperture/shutter priority and manual shooting modes, a hefty wad of preset scene modes and multiple burst modes for action shooting.
There’s also a live histogram display; 25 selectable AF points; custom white balance with selectable compensation; highlight/shadow clipping displays; and, in line with its semi-pro aspirations, RAW file support.
The P712 camera should be shuffling onto UK shelves around about now, with a suggested retail price of £350 – which, puts it in direct competition with the highly rated and far more versatile Nikon D50 dSLR, which starred in our ‘Best of 2005’ list.
Kodak EasyShare P712 specifications
Sensor 1/2.5 ” Type CCD, 7.1 million effective pixels
Image sizes 3072 x 2304, 3072 x 2048 (3:2), 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1280 x 960
Movie clips 640 x 480 @ 30fps, 320 x 240 @ 30fps, QuickTime video, motion JPEG
File formats JPEG (Exif v 2.21), RAW, TIFF
Lens 36 – 432mm equiv, Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens, 12x optical zoom
Image stabilization Yes
Conversion lenses Optional
Digital zoom 5x advanced
Focus Hybrid AF system using TTL contrast detection method and external passive sensor
Focus modes Normal AF, Macro AF, Infinity AF, Manual focus, Multi-zone, Center zone, Selectable zone (25 zones selectable)
AF assist lamp Yes
Focus distance Normal: 50cm – infinity (wide) 1.9m – infinity (tele)
Macro: 10-60cm (wide) 90cm – 2m (tele)
Metering Multi-pattern, Center-weighted, Center spot, Selectable zone (25 zones)
ISO sensitivity Auto, ISO 64/80/100/125/160/200/250/320/400/800
Exposure compensation +/- 2.0 EV, 1/3 EV steps
Exposure bracketing +/- 2.0 EV, 1/3, 2/3, 1.0 EV steps, 3 or 5 images
Shuttter speed 16 – 1/1000 sec in 1/3 step increments
Aperture F2.8 – 3.7
Modes Auto, SCN (scene mode), P (program mode), A (aperture priority mode), S (shutter priority mode), M (manual mode), C (custom mode), video
Scene modes Pportrait, self-portrait, sport, party, landscape, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text/document, flower, sunset, candlelight, backlight, manner/museum, fireworks, panorama White balance Auto, daylight, cloudy, open shade, sunset, tungsten, fluorescent, click WB, custom
White balance fine tune Blue/red bias and magenta/green bias, ±7 stops
Self timer 2 / 10 secs, 2 shot option
Continuous shooting First burst (approx. 1.6 fps up to 14 frames at standard JPEG), Last burst (approx. 1.6 fps last 5 frames at standard JPEG)
Image parameters High colour, natural colour, low colour, sepia, black and white, Contrast (3 levels), Sharpness (3 levels)
Flash Guide no. 11 (ISO 100)
Range: wide – 0.9-4.7 m (2.9′-15.4′), tele – 2.0-3.6 m (6.6′-11.8′)
Modes: auto, fill, red-eye, slow sync (front, front-red-eye, rear), off
Compensation: ±1.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps
Viewfinder Electronic, 237 K pixels with diopter adjustment
LCD monitor 6.35 cm (2.5″) indoor/outdoor colour TFT display with adjustable brightness setting
Connectivity A/V output (NTSC or PAL, user-selectable)
Storage SD/MMC card (none supplied), 32MB internal memory
Weight (no batt) 403g
Dimensions 108 x 84.2 x 72 mm (4.3″ x 3.3″ x 2.8″)
Kodak
20 June, 2006
Nokia 6080 Mobile Phone Announced
Slipping and slithering down the well oiled product slipway at Nokia is their latest swishy tri-band phone, the Nokia 6080 (no relation to their 1997 phone of the same name!).
Primarily targeted at Asian consumers, Nokia 6080 is a fairly bland, all-black looking affair with garish silver/gold highlights and a user interface akin to the popular Nokia Series 40 series.
There’s the usual raft of well-tuned Nokia features onboard, including a camera, Bluetooth, MP3 player, video recorder, FM Radio and MP3 ring tones.
Sporting a backlit keypad and bright colour display, the handset comes bundled with a stereo headset and offers all the usual customisation options (with wallpapers, themes, annoying ring tones etc) to keep da kidz happy.
There’s also an exclusive Sodoku game designed specially for the 6080 included if that’s how you like to waste away the hours.
Apart from the trusty phone functions, the Nokia 6080 also comes with Nokia’s Xpress audio messaging, email capabilities and a push to talk feature, with EDGE connectivity and an onboard XHTML browser for nippy browsing on the move.
Talk time is a distinctively average 3.5 hours with a standby time of up to 12 days.
The phone is expected to emerge around the fourth quarter of 2006 for about 180 Euros.
Nokia
20 June, 2006
Onkyo CR-D1 Receiver With iPod Dock
New from Onkyo is the CR-D1, a natty mini Hi-Fi CD/FM receiver with options to control docked iPods (volume/stop/start etc) and wirelessly stream music from PCs.
Sharing similar design lines to their CR-505DAB CD Receiver (which impressed us for a bit before going AWOL), the CR-D1 features a beefy 60W x 2 VL Digital amplifier with Wolfson DAC, a FM tuner (but, sadly, no AM or DAB) and a CD player.
iPod dockery
iPod owners can hook up their machines through the optional DS-A1 iPod dock, and then control playback via the CR-D1’s remote control. Conveniently, the docking station will also charge up the iPod during playback.
When it comes to expansion options, this fella’s well stacked, offering 1 x optical, 3 x RCA, and stereo mini-jack inputs and 1 x optical, 2 x RCA, subwoofer, and headphone outputs.
Conveniently, Onkyo have slapped a pair of input/output sockets on the front of the unit, so punters don’t have to do battle with spaghetti cabling at the back whenever they want to hook up another player or record from the line out socket.
Wireless widget
The optional UWL-1 module and USB dongle lets users turn their desktop or laptop PCs into music servers, with sound being delivered via high quality 2.4GHz digital transmission.
If you like the sound of all that wireless action going on, the system will be hitting the shelves of Japan in July 15th for an upmarket price of around $910 (£490).
Specifications
Rated output: 60W + 60W (4 O, JEITA) – amplifier section
Harmonic wave distortion factor: 0.08%
Frequency response: 10Hz – 60kHz/ + 1dB – 3dB (LINE1)
Signal-noise ratio: 100dB (LINE1 and IHF-A)
Tone: ±6dB/80Hz (BASS) and ±8dB/10kHz (TREBLE), + 7dB/80Hz (S.BASS)
CD frequency response: 4Hz- 20kHz
FM reception range: FM76.0 -90.0MHz and VHF 1 and 2, 3ch
Power consumption 80W/ 0.15W standby
Size: Width 205× height 116× depth 335mm
Weight: 4.5kg
Onkyo [Japanese]
19 June, 2006
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6 Review (85%)
After happily using Zonelabs’ freebie Zonealarm firewall product for years on end, we were keen to try out their commercial Zonealarm Internet Security Suite 6, which bolts on a ton of extras to tempt skinflints.
The £50 suite certainly looks to be great value, serving up an overflowing platter of features including Zone Alarm’s famous firewall, backed by anti-spyware and anti-virus tools, ID and privacy protection, cookie management, email protection, phishing and spam blocking, parental controls for instant messaging and wireless network protection.
The Computer Associates’ anti-virus module has been souped up somewhat, now offering spyware integration, a new pause/continue function for the scanner, and a quarantine management area for any infected files you don’t want blasted off your system.
The suite offers what Zonelabs grandly describes as their Triple Defence Firewall – this claims to protect your machine from outside attack; monitor programs trying to access the Web; and protect your OS with a firewall that keeps a beady eye on the operating system, Registry and file system.
Zone Alarm’s anti-phishing widget has also been enhanced, and the privacy protection feature lets users specify what personal information they want protected, e.g. phone numbers, addresses, bank accounts etc.
Easy as pie
We found the suite dead easy to set up, and there’s a handy animated tutorial to guide you through the settings.
The program sports a simple, unified interface with straightforward ‘high, medium or low’ slider controls for security settings.
Fine tuning and advanced options were also available, but for many users the default settings should be enough to get them up and running within minutes.
Home networking
If you’re running a home network, Zonealarm will automatically detect the connection and prompt you to add it to the trusted or Internet zones, so that you can make sure your files are only shared on your own network and not by lurking hackers.
We found the network wizard pretty straightforward, although perhaps not as idiot-proof as the interface on the rival Norton Personal Firewall software.
SmartDefence
The SmartDefence service provides real-time updates and new attack-protection capabilities, with the price including a year’s worth of automatic updates – as soon as the year’s up, you’ll have to shell out for an upgrade or risk running outdated software.
Although there’s not a great deal new on offer here – save the anti-spyware feature – the Internet Security Suite is a solid product that gives you all the protection you need for a reasonable fifty quid.
Although it’s possible to gather together the same sort of functionality by using freebie products like AVG anti-virus and Ad-aware, if you’re looking for an all-in, tightly integrated fit’n’forget solution, you won’t find much better than Zonealarm’s Internet Security Suite 6.
As we went to press, Zone Alarms announced an update to their Security Suite, adding a new Game Mode which stops pesky security alerts getting in the way of the fragging action and some enhanced anti-spyware tools. More details on version 6.5 can be found here
Features: 85%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 70%
Overall: 85%
ZoneLabs
19 June, 2006
Nokia Trials Mobile TV With TeliaSonera Sweden
Nokia has announced a partnership with TeliaSonera Sweden to trial a complete DVB-H system, using Nokia’s Nordic know-how, their Mobile Broadcast System 3.0 and Nokia N92 mobile TV devices.
Currently being wired up by teams of studious, white-coated boffins at the Nokia facility in Kista, Stockholm, the system will be hosted and managed by the Nokia team and will allow TeliaSonera Sweden to serve up a veritable feast of mobile television.
The test system is set to debut over Gothenburg and Stockholm from early August until the end of the year.
“Nokia is very pleased to be working so closely with TeliaSonera Sweden in this new area of DVB-H based mobile TV. We believe strongly in the capability of this technology as well as in the mobile TV service, and we are looking forward to verify the full potential of mobile TV together with TeliaSonera Sweden,” purred Jan Lindgren, Vice President, Networks, Nokia.
Anders Bruse, Senior VP, Products and Services at TeliaSonera, joined in the PR love-in, adding that the DVB-H technology trial should “give them a better understanding of their customers’ expectations.”
About the technology
DVB-H lets punters on the move download high quality terrestrial digital broadcasts on their mobiles, and also offers tempting business opportunities for mobile service providers, content and broadcast companies, infrastructure and handset manufacturers.
Feedback from several mobile TV pilots has proved promising, with a trial last year in Oxford, England finding that 83% of the pilot participants were chuffed with the service provided.
Nokia
19 June, 2006
LG Aims To Double World’s Top Products by 2010
LG Electronics has rolled up its beefy sleeves, raised its fists and shouted, “Come oooonnn!!!! Let’s be ‘aving you!” to the electronics world, declaring its intent to more than double its share of the world’s top products by 2010.
LG vice president Chun Myung-wo gave his best Clint Eastwood squint and socked it to his competitors, “Currently, we have five of the world’s top products. We plan to increase that number to a double-digit figure by 2010 through continuous efforts and innovation.”
With a direct hit on the spittoon, he continued, “By substantially increasing the number of flagship goods through our technological prowess, we aim to evolve into a bona fide powerhouse.’
The electronics sharp-shooter currently hogs the highest global market share of items such as domestic aircon units, optical storage, home theatres, DVD players and code division multiple access (CDMA) handsets, but it wants more. Much more.
Pointing aggressively, Myung-wo says he wants the global market for plasma display panel (PDP) modules, PDP TVs, liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, side-by-side refrigerators, built-in air conditioners and drum washers to be pwned by LG.
Rags to riches
The Korean company has seen a remarkable turnaround of its fortunes over the last decade.
Ten years ago, LG was nothing more than a big fish in a small domestic market, managing only a limited global presence.
A policy of rapid expansion and smarty-pants innovation resulted in LG grabbing the numero uno slot for optical storage in 1998, a position it continues to hold.
Similarly, when it comes to domestic air conditioners, LG rules the roost, and the company is now wrestling for the crown of King of Flat-Panel Displays, knocking out 730,000 plasma units last year to nudge past market leaders Samsung SDI.
“We think that our technical edge will help us win out in the global competition in flat panel display and in other fields both locally and globally,” Chun said, pointing out that the company manufacture the world’s biggest TV set and the smallest one.
LG homepage
19 June, 2006
eBay Will Add ‘Skype Me’ Button
eBay has announced that it will start integrating Skype’s VoIP service with its U.S. auction site next week (as predicted at the start of the week), letting sellers add a “Skype Me” button to their product listings.
The new Skype feature will appear in the “Ask a seller a question” section, letting buyers click on the button and natter with sellers via Skype’s voice and IM chat services.
The service will be piloted in fourteen product categories on their US site where eBay believes the ability to make a quick call should help sellers close deals quicker.
These categories include high end goods or techie items that might need explaining like real estate, cars, GPS, manufacturing and metalworking, cameras and camera gear.
For eBay users to use the service, they’ll have to sign up with Skype, download the software and sort themselves out with a suitable headset/mic combo.
Bill Cobb, president of eBay’s North American auction business reckons they’re on to a winner with this one: “Skype represents a tremendous opportunity for our sellers to connect even more closely with their buyers,” he insisted.
eBay acquired Skype in October last year for around US$2.6 billion, with the prospect of adding voice-calling and text messaging to the current e-mail messaging between buyers and sellers a major wallet-opener.
Skype currently boasts more than 100 million registered users worldwide, and enjoys huge popularity in Europe and Asia, although the US has been slower to adopt the technology.
Impact analysis
This is a clever move on a number of counts. It is likely not just to increase the closing prices of auctions (people feeling more comfortable with a with a seller will bid more), but will fuel the growth of Skype. The network effect is clear – each seller is likely to draw many Skype sign ups from potential purchasers. The number of Skype users could grow tremendously.
Skype
15 June, 2006
Microsoft Debuts LifeCam Webcams
Microsoft has slipped out a pair of branded Webcams designed to offer tight integration with their hideously popular Messenger service.
Their first foray into the wonderful world of Webcams, Microsoft’s new LifeCam Webcams are designed to be the perfect match for the updated version of MSN Messenger, now called Windows Live Messenger.
Rather like Apple’s iSight and iChat, you might remark – and you’d be right, except that these Webcams have none of the sleek design flair of the Mac offering.
Show me the cameras
The cheaper of the two cameras, the VX-3000 is a fairly bog standard affair, offering bottom-end 640×480 video with a 1.3-megapixel camera for stills.
Its big brother, the VX-6000 promises to deliver hi-def video recordings up to 1280 x 960 pixels and still photos interpolated up to 5MP, but remember, interpolated just means ‘small image blown up large by software’ so don’t go expecting to produce high quality large prints from the Webcam.
Both cams also come with built in mics, a wide angle lens to let social butterflies fit their vast armies of chums in frame and built-in cheesy video effects like falling snowflakes or twinkling stars.
Simplifying your video experience. Or something
Microsoft is claiming that their new cams are going to “dramatically simplify the video communications experience.”
Apparently, this will be achieved by the inclusion of a button on top of the camera that launches buddy lists on-screen and a new dashboard application built into Windows Live Messenger that lets users pan, tilt and zoom the Webcam without having to remove their buttocks from their computer chair.
Here’s Microsoft’s Consumer Productivity Experiences Executive Vice President (who dreams up these job titles?) Tom Gibbons to explain how LifeCams are part of a new initiative by his company to tie in hardware products to Windows Live services.
“Microsoft Hardware and Windows Live are defining that movement with a new approach to integrated products and services that give consumers the power to have a richer digital communications experience and make everyday events extraordinary,” he waxed, lyrically.
The first two LifeCams (more are planned) are expected to appear in Blighty in August, with pricing set at $50 (£27, €40) for the VX-3000 and a decidedly upmarket $99.95 (£54, €80) for the VX-6000.
Microsoft
14 June, 2006
BBC World Cup Website Woos Football Fans
According to Internet research firm Nielsen/NetRatings, the BBC Sport Website is the most popular online source for World Cup news in the UK, with over 1.3 million footie fans visiting the site in the first week of the tournament.
With more than half of all footie fans choosing to visit the BBC Website, there must be glum faces at Sky Sports, whose online World Cup offering attracted four time less traffic than the Beeb.
Not surprisingly, there was a spike in traffic on Sunday, as surfers followed England’s half-arsed win over Paraguay online, with a similar peak the week before as troubled England fans tuned in to find out about Wayne Rooney’s final metatarsal injury scan.
“Traffic during the week peaked the day after the first game with over 1.1 million sports fans going online,” said Alex Burmaster, European Internet analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings.
“The large audience figures for the weekend shows the major advantages the Internet has in on-demand content,” he added.
The BBC Sport Website includes new features to keep punters coming back for more, with player ratings and virtual replays accompanying the live streaming video of every match shown on their TV network.
Ben Gallop, editor of BBC Sport Interactive cranked his chuffed-o-meter up to ’11’ and enthused, “We’re delighted with the audience figures we’ve seen for the first few days of the World Cup.”
Goal! And crash goes the server!
Some office bosses may not share his joy though, as we predicted the BBC’s decision to show England matches online could see WANs and LANs collapsing in a heap under the strain as office staff tune into the footie.
Mike Hemes, country manager for UK and Ireland at Packeteer, reckons that the bandwidth-busting footie action could cause big problems for IT managers, commenting: “It is likely that millions of workers will log on to watch matches due to faster Internet connections at work than at home …this will generate a huge surge in network traffic, eating into the bandwidth available to run business-critical applications effectively.”
Licence fee warning
Elsewhere, the BBC has warned firms who let staff watch the World Cup on their office networks that they could be hit with a hefty £1,000 fine if they do not hold a TV licence.
Legally, a TV licence is required for any device that is “installed or used” for receiving television broadcasts, so that a networked PC used for streaming games needs a licence as well as the gogglebox at home.
“It doesn’t matter how you’re watching, if you are watching a live match you will need a licence,” insisted a finger wagging TV Licensing spokesperson.
Hinting at dark, omnipotent powers, the spokesperson added: “We know exactly which unlicensed business premises to target.”
BBC World Cup
14 June, 2006