Mike Slocombe

Microsoft Offers Xbox360 Video Downloads
Microsoft appear to be trying the doors of the lucrative movie download business for the Xbox360 with the announcement of a video content deal with music label Epic Records.
The partnership will see Microsoft offering exclusive artist content and high-definition music video downloads free to Xbox360 gamers for a year, via the Xbox Live Marketplace service.
Free downloads from twelve up-and-coming artists will be offered through the Artist of the Month (AOM) program, with grandma-untroubling, British singer Natasha Bedingfield kicking off the service.
Videos and “exclusive artist content” will also be made available for download from the Xbox site.
“Our goal has always been to make Xbox Live a cutting-edge entertainment experience”, insisted Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
“This agreement with Epic Records offers our members exclusive artistic content directly from the source. With Artist of the Month we will be providing exactly what music-loving gamers want: brand-new, exclusive music videos that can be downloaded quickly, easily and free of charge,” he added.
Epic has already dished out music videos for the Xbox 360 from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Audioslave, and their catalogue also includes acts like Shakira, Matisyahu, Jennifer Lopez and Antipodean dandruff shakers, AC/DC.
Each month Microsoft and Epic will announce the new Artist of the Month, along with exclusive benefits for Xbox360 users.
Xbox360
20 March, 2006
WorldMate 2006 Travel App For Pocket PC Users
WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition v4.1
It’s painfully expensive at $75 (~£42, ~e61) per annum, but WorldMate could prove a wise investment for high fallutin’, globe-trotting business professionals who regularly zip around the planet.
Housed in an attractive interface, WorldMate 2006 provides a valuable suite of tools for hardcore travellers including weather, exchange rate and flight information.
The program offers comprehensive flight schedules for over 800 airlines, with daily and weekly schedules provided for any selected route, supported by a “dynamic connection engine” which provides the 50 fastest connections to inputted destinations.
Travellers can get real-time information about their flights – including the inevitable delays, gate and terminal information – with global forecasts letting them know whether to pack the Goretex or the suntan lotion.
American users can view animated Weather Satellite radar and precipitation maps, with detailed 5-day forecasts provided for over 38,000 locations worldwide.
Also bundled in the program are world clocks, currency, size and measurement converters and utilities to calculate local tax and tipping customs as well as a handy list of global dialling codes.
WorldMate Standard Edition v.5.1
For mere mortals who don’t spend their entire lives swanning around the globe, the WorldMate Standard Edition v.5.1 offers a cut-down feature set at a suitably modest $35 (~£19, ~e29).
Essentially the same program minus the live flight and subscription services, this is an essential Pocket PC installation even for occasional travellers, with the updating weather and currency converters almost worth the price alone.
If we had some criticisms (and this applies to both versions), it would be that the map’s large scale makes it really difficult to accurately locate a city by clicking onscreen.
Some city information might have been a nice touch too, as would a means of calculating the distance between waypoints and destinations.
These minor quibbles aside, both programs offer a compelling suite of utilities for travel and come highly recommended for perambulating Pocket PC users.
Versions of the program are also available (at differing prices) for a host of platforms including Palm, Blackberry, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Series 80 and Series 60.
We hope to have a full review of the Palm version shortly.
Mobimate
20 March, 2006
VoIP Vivifies The US Home Phone Market
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is slowly but steadily creeping into American homes, with adoption up 20% since June 2005, and growing user satisfaction.
The figures, released by consulting firm Telephia, show that nearly 3.9 million US households are now VoIP’ing away, with Vonage securing the highest market share at 47.5 percent. This translates into 1.9 million households – up from 40 percent from the last year.
The grandly named Telephia Emerging Personal Communications Options (EPCO) survey saw Skype lag miles behind Vonage with just 11.8 percent market share (463,000 household subscribers), followed by AT&T Call Vantage at 5.6 percent, (218,000 subscribers),Verizon Voice Wing 5 percent (196,000 subscribers) and new boy Google with just 2.5 percent (97,000 subscribers).
Only way is up
As that dreadful song by Yaz insists, the only way for VoIP is most definitely up, with more wireless subscribers already using the service as their primary phone line.
Kanishka Agarwal, vice president of new products at Telephia, commented: “About 30 percent of 18 to 24 year olds only have a wireless phone…VoIP has an appeal, because it’s less expensive, about $5 monthly…we will see higher adoption in this age group,” he added.
Early adopters to VoIP may recall the experience being akin to talking to a stuttering Dalek in an echo chamber, but the research revealed that 67 percent of VoIP users believe voice quality is now equal to traditional landline services, with 19 percent reckoning that internet calls sound better than those on wired phones lines.
Realibility is on the rise too, with 71 percent of VoIP households finding Internet telephony to be just as reliable as land lines, with sixteen percent considering VoIP to have better reliability.
Naturally, mobile manufacturers like Nokia have been taking note of the growing demand for VoIP handsets, and we can expect to see a flurry of dual-mode Wi-Fi/mobile handsets in the coming months,
16 March, 2006
Wales Aims For 100% Broadband Coverage
The Welsh Assembly has announced today that they’ve selected the BT Group to provide the broadband infrastructure for the remaining exchange areas in Wales.
Nothing particularly exciting about that of course, except that the agreement is a major step on the way to Wales becoming one of the few countries in the world to offer 100% broadband coverage.
With much of lovely, lovely Wales being rural, the Assembly’s Regional Innovative Broadband Support Scheme (RIBS) was set up to connect up parts of Wales described as ‘broadband blackspots’.
The new scheme with see around 10,000 households and businesses receiving access to at least first-generation (512kbps to 2mbps) broadband services at prices comparable with urban areas of Wales.
Once completed, virtually every single household in Wales will be able to join in with the broadband revolution and get stuck into video conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and other business and entertainment uses.
Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport and eMinister for the Welsh Assembly Government swivelled into spin mode: “Currently, around 99% of the Welsh population can access broadband technology – a remarkable achievement in its own right. However, the Assembly Government is committed to ensuring that virtually every single individual and business in Wales has the opportunity to benefit from the advantages offered by this technology.”
Broadband uptake in Wales has almost doubled over the past 12 months, underlining the country’s economic transformation from industrial to a dynamic, knowledge-driven economy.
Compared to some other European countries, Wales’ achievement is significant; in Ireland, for example, only about 18.0% of the population have broadband connections.
The Welsh Assembly has been proactive in ensuring that the country achieves its 100% coverage target, as Ann Beynon, Director BT Wales, explains, ” BT, like the Welsh Assembly Government, is contributing to the cost of enabling these final exchanges and without the Assembly’s assistance, the upgrading would not have been commercially viable.!
Work to equip the remaining BT exchange areas with broadband is scheduled to start immediately.
BT Wales
Broadband Wales Observatory
16 March, 2006
Oregon Scientific Wireless Easy Weather System Pro Review (85%)
It may not look as pretty as an old fashioned barometer, but Oregon Scientific’s Easy Weather System Pro can provide a wealth of information about the weather – with no need to tap its face to get the dials moving.
The £49 ($86, €72) wireless weather station will provide users with ample material for Britain’s favourite topic of conversation, with a large LCD screen dishing out a veritable storm of weather-related data.
The weather station comes in two parts with a large main unit (142 x 63 x 158mm) powered by three AA batteries and a smaller remote sensor which beams outdoor temperature and humidity data back to the main unit every 40 seconds.
Getting the sensor to talk to the weather station was simple enough – set the channel number on the sensor (the system can support up to 3 sensors), press ‘memory’ and ‘channel’ on the main unit for a few seconds and that’s it.
The sensor has a small, built-in LCD read-out, with the main unit sporting a signal reception icon and low battery warning.
Time accuracy is ensured with a radio controlled alarm clock and calendar that synchronises to the radio signal from Rugby, with a handy onscreen indicator shows the signal strength.
Once set up, the large LCD screen provides indoor and outdoor stats for humidity/humidity trend and temperature/temperature trend as well as barometric pressure/trend (the trend readout displays an arrow to show whether the data is rising, steady or falling.)
A large animated icon forecasts the next 12-24 hours of weather within a 30-50km radius with what Oregon claims to be “75% accuracy” – we found it to be pretty accurate throughout.
Finishing off the feature set, a large clock display gives the time, date and seconds/day with a Moon phase readout.
Over the test period, we found ourselves being strangely drawn to the Oregon’s display, constantly checking for barometric blips and temperature twitches and rapidly becoming a walking encyclopaedia of weather waffle.
For anyone with an interest in what’s going on weather-wise, the Oregon Wireless Weather Station represents fabulous value and offers a stylish – if sizeable – addition to the work desk – and Lord help anyone who then rings you to innocently ask, “What’s the weather like where you are?”
Our verdict:
Features: 85%
Ease of Use: 85%
Build Quality: 80%
Overall: 85%
Oregon.
15 March, 2006
Google Chalks Up SketchUp
Several forests are having to be torn down to supply Google with enough chequebooks to keep up with their current spending spree.
Barely has the ink dried on the Writely deal earlier this week than the big spenders at Google whipped out their heaving wallet and scooped up @LastSoftware, the company who make the 3D SketchUp software.
The high-end program is used by architects, game players and other 3D bods and has a plug-in designed to allow developers to export 3D models into Google Earth.
Bought for an undisclosed sum, a statement on @LastSoftware’s site details how they fluttered eyes at each other a wireframe table: “We got to know a bunch of Googlers while we were building the Google Earth plug-in for SketchUp, and it quickly became apparent that we could really stir things up together.”
Brad Schell, co-founder of the 7-year-old company, said it would continue to develop and sell SketchUp, which retails for a pricey $495 (~£283, ~e411).
“Google’s resources will allow us to serve our current users better, and Google’s reach will allow us to expose more people to SketchUp in one year than we could have touched in 10 years on our own,” he commented in a budsy message to customers.
Clearly getting excited, Schell whooped, “‘3D for Everyone’ is becoming a reality; we’re bringing the ‘3D’ part; Google’s contributing the ‘Everyone.’”
Google’s move into 3D mapping software looks to be part of a strategy to spruce up their mapping and direction service, as an entry in the @Last blog explains: “We do not have any announced plans regarding the integration of this technology with current Google products and services, but we can say that we’re tired of all those grey boxes in Google Earth.”
The combination of SketchUp’s 3-Dimension models overlaid on Google Earth’s maps could serve up a competition busting offering, with the added detail offering real value to GPS users.
@Last have said that they won’t be shifting from their current headquarters in Boulder, Colorado or moving their Munich and London offices, although the company’s name would change to Google while SketchUp will retain its name.
SketchUp
15 March, 2006
Windows Live Family Safety Settings Announced
Microsoft is to release a suite of free parental controls and other safety measures designed to safeguard children on the Internet.
The software, called Windows Live Family Safety Settings, runs on Windows XP and lets parents block Web content which they feel is inappropriate for their little Timmy or Tabatha.
Parents can choose individual settings to ‘allow,’ ‘block’ or ‘warn’ for a range of content categories for each member of the family, with the filtering settings being activated when a user logs on to a PC running Microsoft’s Family Safety Settings.
The settings can be changed over time (“OK son, you’re old enough to see some breasts now”) with the settings applicable to Web pages, email or messenger communications as well as Windows Live Spaces.
Kids definitely won’t like this, but the software also lets parents access their activity reports to check what they’ve been up to online.
“Contact management,” an update coming later in the year, will let parents approve contacts on Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger (the new brandings for Hotmail and MSN Messenger respectively).
Another feature will give parents control over who can access their kids’ blogs on MSN Spaces.
Family Safety Settings will be available for any PC running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 as well as the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.
Microsoft has said that it expects the service to be available to “Windows Live customers in dozens of countries worldwide” by this summer.
In addition to the Live family filter for Windows XP, Microsoft is building parental controls into their next-gen operating system, Windows Vista.
Windows Live
Windows Live Family Safety
15 March, 2006
Media Center PCs Grow In Popularity
A new report by analyst firm Current Analysis claims that consumers are warming to Media Center PCs, with the entertainment-focused PCs grabbing eight per cent of the US retail market in January 2005, soaring 48 per cent in December.
Current Analysis say that the demand was fuelled by a drop in price brought about when manufacturers left out the expensive tuners which allowed the systems to receive and record television signals.
However, tuner-toting Media PCs are already making a comeback, with the market share for TV tuner-equipped systems climbing from 8.7 per cent in October to 12.8 per cent last month.
Toni Duboise, senior analyst for desktop computing at Current Analysis, noted that although leaving out the TV tuners allowed Media Center PCs to reach a mainstream audience, the component remains critical if the system wants to grab a place in the digital home.
“The upward TV tuner-clad trend is a small victory for Media Center with regard to the digital home,” she said, adding that the TV arena is a “pivotal turf in the war for the digital home because it offers the most opportunities for lucrative infrastructure and broadcast content.”
With TiVo still doing good business, Duboise commented on the importance of TV tuners to PC makers, “Manufacturers that want the desktop computer to be the centre of the digital home will want consumers to use TV tuner-clad PCs instead of TiVo, dedicated digital video recorders or intelligent set-top boxes.”
Microsoft first rolled out their Media Center Edition back in October 2002, but consumers have been sniffy because users weren’t inclined to buy the more expensive hardware needed to run the software – neither did the idea of watching TV on a clunky computer monitor seem particularly thrilling.
Current Analysis
14 March, 2006
Sony CD-U70/ U50 USB Voice Recorders Announced
As voice recorders go (and, let’s be honest, they’re not the most exciting of gadgets) Sony’s new CD-U70/ U50 devices look to be quite natty numbers.
Sporting Sony’s usual design flair, the voice recorders come in two flavours, the top of the range ICD-U70, touts a hefty 1GB of flash memory, and its smaller brother the ICD-U50, which comes with 512MB of memory.
You’d have no bother losing these fellas down the back of the sofa as the recorders are pipsqueak-sized, measuring just 30x20x99.7mm and weighing in at a trouser-untroubling 64g.
Touted as a ‘three in one’ gizmo, the Sony IC recorders can be used as a mass data storage drive, an MP3 player and a voice recorder, with the thing plugging straight into the USB port of a PC.
For voice recording, there’s three modes on offer – LP/SP/HQ, with the built in monaural microphone offering high and low sensitive settings.
Battery life is listed as an impressive 140 hours for voice recording and 6 hours for MP3 playback, with the unit offering Digital Pitch Control, Digital VOR (Voice Operated Recording) and 5 message folders to keep your perambulating wafflings filed away neatly.
For playing back your words of wisdom, there’s a tiny 10mm speaker onboard with a teensy-weensy 35mW output as well as a headphone socket (and bundled ‘phones).
The ICD-U70 comes in silver only while the ICD-U60 comes in groovier blue and white finishes.
Availability should be from mid March, 2006, with prices around $179.00 for the and $129 for the ICD-U70
Sony
14 March, 2006
National Express Coaches Offers WiFi To Cambridge UK
We’ve already run several stories about WiFi being made available for some passengers, sorry customers, on the UK’s rail network, but until now coach users have been left unconnected.
That’s all set to today, as travellers on the 010 National Express London to Cambridge coach service will be able enjoy free wireless Internet access via their Wi-Fi enabled laptops, PDAs and other handheld devices while on the move.
Coaches on the service will use Telabria’s mSystem MobilAP-3G radio system, which combines an 802.11b/g access point with a 3G receiver, letting bored passengers surf while stuck on the M11.
With real world 3G speeds hovering around 384kbps, connection speeds are unlikely to impress passengers used to nippy home broadband connectivity but hey! What do they expect for free?!
Of course, connection speeds will vary depending on the amount of passengers using the Wi-Fi – and how many tailgating cars may be lurking behind the coach, keen to take advantage of the free Internet access.
With luck, the free trial may give the rail companies currently charging hefty prices to use their Wi-Fi a well-deserved kick up the buffers.
London to Brighton Wi-Fi commuters, for example, may be able to shuffle around the Web at true broadband speeds but it’s at a painful price: £23.50 a month for unlimited access or £5 for just an hour’s use.
Gerry says
National Express chief engineer Gerry Price was ready to puff on the well-chuffed PR pipe: “We are very excited about the potential of this trial and the benefits it will bring to our customers, particularly those on busy commuter routes who increasingly see the value of staying connected before they reach their place of work and after they leave.”
“But it’s not just the business community who will benefit. Mobile communication is increasingly being seen as a pre-requisite by a wide variety of travellers on the move,” he added.
National Express
GNER Promises Wi-Fi On All Trains By 2007
14 March, 2006