Mike Slocombe

Lumix DMC-TZ1, DMC-FX01 Panasonic Cameras Claim ‘World’s Smallest’ Honours
Panasonic have released two additions to their popular Lumix digital camera range which the company are claiming are the world’s smallest in their categories.
The Lumix DMC-TZ1 is being touted as the world’s smallest 10x optical zoom digital compact, while the equally diminutive Lumix DMC-FX01 claims the honours as the smallest digital compact with a 28mm wide-angle lens.
Lumix DMC-TZ1
Billed as “the ultimate travelling companion”, the DMC-TZ1 uses a cunning optical system using folded optics, a retractable lens system and a prism to offer the immense 10x zoom range (35-350mm equiv, F2.8-5.0).
The 5 megapixel camera comes with Panasonic’s well regarded optical image stabilisation system (you’ll definitely need that at the far end of its monster zoom) and sports the newly developed Venus Engine III, offering quick response times and an improved battery life (250 shots).
The Lumix looks to be faster than grit off a shovel with its new Linear AF system claiming an industry-leading high speed AF performance, with the makers boasting a super-nippy shutter release time of 0.006sec minimum, a shutter interval of approximately 0.5 seconds and up to three frames per second in full resolution.
After the dire high ISO performance of the Lumix flagship model, the LX1, we were happy to see the new Venus Engine III claiming to “dramatically reduce noise levels at increased ISO settings”, with ISO selectable from ISO80 to ISO800 (with a High Sensitivity Mode from ISO 800-1600).
Like the LX1, the TZ1 can record widescreen movies at 848 x 480 (and 640 x 480) at 30 fps with sound and comes with zillions of scene modes but no manual mode.
There’s also 13.4 MB of internal memory onboard, a SD/MMC card slot and a 2.5-inch, 207k pixel TFT LCD.
The camera is expected to be in the shops in March for $349.95 (~£207, ~€294).
Lumix DMC-FX01
The successor to the DMC-FX9, the new 6-megapixel Lumix DMC-FX01 is another petite chappie, boasting an impressively wide 28mm Leica DC zoom lens.
The FX01 incorporates the Venus Engine Plus LSI, offering 320 pictures on a single charge, a 1.6 second start up time (20% less than the DMC-FX9) and a 0.005 second shutter lag.
The new High Sensitivity mode allows low light shooting up to ISO 1600, with the built in Optical Image Stabiliser keeping the shakes at bay.
The f/2.8, Leica zoom lens gives users a handy wideangle range of 28-102mm equiv., and the camera come with the usual smorgasbord of scene modes for every conceivable occasion.
The camera is also expected to be out in March for $349.95.
Fujifilm
15 February, 2006
Sony Cybershot DSC-W50, DSC-W30 To Battle Ixus
Ahead of the big PMA (Photo Marketing Association International) show at the end of the month in Florida, Sony has announced two new 6-megapixel cameras in their ‘W’ range.
The ultra-compact Cyber-shot DSC-W30 and DSC-W50 models feature optical viewfinders, Sony’s Clear RAW imaging technology (claimed to produce low noise images up to ISO 1000), a 3x zoom and 2.0-inch and 2.5-inch screens, respectively.
Looking somewhat reminiscent of the Canon Ixus / Elph range, the miniaturised, re-engineered W-series offers a compact, highly pocketable design (89x59x23mm) with a price that’s easy on the pocket too, with the DSC-W30 retailing for $230 (~£132, ~e193) and the DSC-W50 for $250 (~£143, ~e209).
Both cameras follow the trend of offering high light-sensitivity settings (in this case, up to ISO 1000), letting snappers capture fast-moving subjects and take more natural-looking low light shots without flash.
At higher ISO ratings noise can become a real issue, but Sony are claiming that their Clear RAW imaging technology keeps the multi-colour snow-storm effect to a minimum.
Boasting 400 shots on a single charge, the DSC-W30’s batteries should provide enough juice to keep compulsive photographers going all day, while Sony’s Real Imaging Processor circuit claims to deliver quick start-up and fast shot-to-shot times.
Both cameras come with 32MB of internal memory, with Sony sticking with their propriety Memory Stick Duo storage, offering capacities up to 2GB.
To help fumbling newbies and the easily baffled, Sony has added a new function guide which displays a short onscreen text explanation whenever a shooting mode is selected. This can be turned off once the user becomes familiar with the icons on the mode dial.
The Cyber-shot DSC-W30 should be available later this month, with the DSC-W50 following in March.
SC-W30/DSC-W50 specs:
Sensor 1/2.5 ” Type CCD, 6.0 million effective pixels
Image sizes 2816 x 2112, 2816 x 2112 (3:2), 2048 x 1536, 1920 x 1080 (HDTV), 1632 x 1224, 640 x 480
Movie clips 640 x 480 @ 30 / 16fps, 320 x 240 @ 16 / 8fps, 160 x 112 @ 8fps
File formats Still: JPEG
Movie: MPEG VX
Lens 38-114mm, F2.8-5.2, 3x optical zoom, Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar
Focus 5 area Multi-point AF, Single, Monitoring
Metering Multi-pattern, Center-weighted, Spot
ISO sensitivity Auto, ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000
Shuttter speed 1/2000 – 1sec
Aperture F2.8-7.1 (wide) F5.2-13 (tele)
Modes Auto, Shutter priority, Aperture priority
Scene modes Twilight, Twilight Portrait,Landscape,Beach,Snow,Soft Snap
Connectivity USB
Weight (no batt) DSC-W30: 123 g (4.5 oz)
DSC-W50: 127 g (4.7 oz)
Dimensions DSC-W30: 89 x 59 x 23 mm
DSC-W50: 89 x 57 x 23 mm
Sony
14 February, 2006
Mayday! Mayday! UK Digital TV Boxes In Trouble Again
For the second time in a fortnight, coastguards have been scrambled after a digital TV box sent out a signal on a wavelength used by ships in distress.
Mrs Donaldson, a 67 year old pensioner in Plymouth, Devon, came back from an evening at the cinema to find investigators waiting outside her door, “holding a massive antenna.”
After picking up the ‘distress’ signal from Mrs Donaldson’s Freeview box, two lifeboats and a police launch spent a fruitless three hours searching 20 miles of coastline looking for what they believed to be a mystery vessel in trouble.
Two weeks previously, a faulty TV digital box in Portsmouth resulted in a coastguard helicopter from RAF Kinloss being scrambled for a two hour search of the harbour area before the signal was traced to a household inland.
RAF spokesman Michael Mulford confirmed that the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Kinloss had detected the beacon – transmitting on the major emergency frequency – from one of five orbiting satellites.
Once the RAF had established that the source wasn’t coming from a nearby vessel or missing plane, they contacted Ofcom who were able to track the signal down to a household.
At the time, an Ofcom spokesman was reported as saying that the signal was a “real one-off”, adding that “digital boxes only receive signals.” When we spoke to Ofcom today, they claimed to have said it was ‘probably’ a one-off.
Beacons not boxes
The frequency used by the digital Freeview set-top box (officially called the Civil Distress Frequency) exactly matched the one reserved for emergency distress beacons.
These beacons are carried by ships, yachts and aircraft, and when they come into contact with water, automatically broadcast a signal that identifies the vessel and its location.
Will the digi-TV rollout be scuppered?
With Digital TV boxes being responsible for two major incidents in just two weeks, some serious issues are being raised for the proposed roll out of digital TV in the UK.
Ofcom officials told us that they think that only two boxes failing out of the ten million Freeview boxes already sold isn’t much of a problem.
But with the cost of the two wasted rescue operations exceeding what has been reported as £20,000, lifeboat crews have warned that such rogue signals could cost lives in the future.
An Ofcom spokesman explained that the faulty boxes are now being examined for malfunctioning components, adding: “Apparently any device capable of receiving a signal can also send a signal if it malfunctions. To the best of our knowledge these are the only two out of millions of Freeview users in the UK to have experienced this problem.”
Confusingly they said that they hoped to have the results of the tests in a ‘couple of weeks,’ but might not make the findings public. They refused to be drawn on who made the Distressing digi-box, or indeed if both boxes were made by the same company. They also wouldn’t reveal the price range of the offending box.
Meanwhile, it looks like they’ll be no shiny digital future for Mrs Donaldson who has said that she won’t be getting a replacement box as she would “hate to cause more bother”. Bless.
14 February, 2006
BT Movio Partners With Virgin Mobile TV, Endemol: 3GSM
They’ve been busy boys at BT this week, with the UK telecoms giant making two major announcements.
On Monday, BT announced a content partnership with Big Brother producer Endemol to provide original shows and interactive content for BT’s new broadband television service.
Endemol now join a growing list of broadband content providers signed up by BT whose roster now includes recently bagged deals with BBC Worldwide, Paramount, Warner Music, National Geographic, HIT Entertainment and Nelvana.
BT/Virgin mobile TV deal
With the ink still drying on the Endemol deal, BT have also announced a new agreement with Virgin Mobile to offer TV services through its broadcast digital TV and radio service, BT Movio.
Virgin Mobile – Britain’s fourth-largest mobile operator – will use BT’s Movio mobile TV product to give their customers access to a wide range of digital TV content and more than 350 DAB digital radio stations.
Using the UK’s existing digital audio broadcasting (DAB) network, the broadcast service will be offered on a limited exclusive basis to virgin Mobile customers later this year. BT Movio will be available in the future to all mobile operators in the UK.
The announcement of the deal coincided with the unveiling of HTC’s new handset at the 3GSM World Congress 2006.
HTC Trilogy handset
The Trilogy TV handset, the world’s first DAB-IP enabled Smartphone, was developed jointly by BT, TTP and HTC and sports a 2.2″ screen for viewing video content and multimedia-focused features including a removable storage and an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera.
Emma Lloyd, managing director, BT Movio said: “Bringing the world’s first DAB-IP enabled Smartphone to market is another huge achievement for BT and the beginning of a step change towards open standards in the area of TV broadcasting over DAB.”
“By working with Microsoft and HTC we have been able to develop a handset that provides an easy to view, high quality experience, wrapped into a hi-spec media driven mobile phone. This will be vital in attracting mobile operators to the BT Movio service,” she added.
Microsoft partnership
BT has developed a strategic relationship with Microsoft for delivering broadcast services on a mobile handset, with their Windows Media technologies enabling BT Movio to deliver high-quality audio and video content over a DAB network using minimal bandwidth.
The BT Movio service also comes with Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology for the secure delivery of premium video and music content.
These are certainly interesting times for BT, with their recent activity seeing the company pushing ahead to create an alternative distribution network and channel for existing content to both broadband and mobile devices.
Although Orange, 3, and the Vodafone Group already offer streamed TV channels over their 3G mobile networks, this solution gobbles up precious bandwidth.
Phones on the BT Movio service, on the other hand, simply pick up broadcasted signals. As Virgin’s sales and marketing director Graeme Hutchinson explains: “It’s not downloaded; it’s not looped; it’s real TV just like you get at home.”
BT Movio
14 February, 2006
Nokia 6136 Serves Up Wi-Fi Mobile: 3GSM
Launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia’s new 6136 phone is being touted as the handset that brings GSM and wireless LANs together.
Claiming to be “unifying GSM and Wi-Fi connectivity”, the 6136 is a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone giving users the ability to roam seamlessly between GSM mobile and Wi-Fi networks.
Thanks to the wonders of UMA technology, network charges can be slashed as the phone automatically switches to a VoIP connection when one becomes available – so if you’re on the phone as you come home, your mobile will instantly transfer the call to your Wi-Fi network.
The quad-band Nokia 6136 will be able to connect to GSM networks at 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz (so no problems using it in the States as well as Europe) and comes with a built in 1.3 megapixel camera and FM radio.
There’s also a microSD memory card slot for expansion.
So far, there’s only UMA service in operation, the BT Fusion product, which we reported on in June last year.
The technology holds much promise for operators, offering the ability to deliver new voice and data services to subscribers over WLAN access networks.
Because of its limited bandwidth, GSM only supports basic data services, whereas super-fast Wi-Fi can deliver far richer content though support connections of speeds (theoretically) in excess of 50Mbps.
At a press conference on Monday, Jorma Ollila, Nokia’s chief executive said, “We want to help our customers complement their existing mobile services with mobile IP. UMA gives users an alternative to PC-based VoIP,”
He added that UMA devices would appeal to companies who wanted to reduce call costs by moving their voice and data to common IP networks.
The Nokia 6136 UMA phone is expected to be available in Q2 2006, priced around €275 (~$327, ~£188). The company will also release network operating equipment to support the new converged handset.
Orange customers are expected to be the first to get UMA’d up, and there should be plenty of Wi-Fi hotspots about after the company recently took over broadband outfit Wanadoo.
We’ve no idea how much the network charges are going to be, but they should certainly be cheaper than making calls via Orange’s normal network.
Glossary: UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access)
This specification enables the seamless hand-over of voice and data connections between GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks and WLANs.
Nokia
BT Fusion
14 February, 2006
3GSM Preview: World GSM Congress 2006 in Barcelona
Anyone who’s anyone in the 3GSM world will be hot footing it to the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, which starts tomorrow.
Waving big shiny banners and shouting ‘look at me’ will be a slew of mobile and interactive entertainment companies who are keen to team up with telecom companies and grab a juicy slice of the growing mobile entertainment revenue stream.
In a reflection of where the market is headed, the summit will be stuffed full of speakers from big name entertainment companies like Disney, Electronic Arts, Nokia, Vodafone, Motorola, MTV, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI Music.
The mobile phone industry is desperate to come up with mass market services to entice consumers to use 3G networks, but they’ve got their work cut out, with a recent survey finding that almost 80 per cent of UK users said that mobile services are getting too complicated.
There are high hopes that Mobile TV will prove 3G’s salvation and lure in customers by the bucketful.
Keen to show off the technology’s potential, MTV Networks will be showcasing three mobile TV channels at the event, broadcasting MTV music and shows, Paramount Comedy, Nickelodeon and IFILM, a new MTV brand.
It’s all well and good having the ability to watch TV on the move, but consumers aren’t likely to enjoy trying to watch the big game on a squinty tiddler of a screen, so we can expect to see screen sizes on multimedia mobiles to grow rapidly over the coming year.
BT are also going to be at the show and are expected to launch their new broadcast digital TV to mobile service, BT Movio (formerly known as BT Livetime).
There’s certainly a lot of interest in the show, with record breaking pre-registrations and 962 companies signing up as exhibitors – a hefty 40% increase from last year.
The predicted 50,000 visitors can also be, err, thrilled by a performance from Craig David’s. Lucky them!
We’ll end with Bill Gajda, chief marketing officer for the GSM Association, in full PR mode: “As the world’s leading entertainment companies accelerate their plans to channel their content onto mobile devices, there is no better place to meet and forge partnerships with the world’s buyers of that content – the global operator community – than at the 3GSM World Congress.”
3GSM World Congress
13 February, 2006
NTL And BitTorrent Announce P2P File-Sharing Trial
Major UK consumer broadband providers NTL are teaming up with BitTorrent, the developers of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) application.
The download service will offer a large variety of licensed video content for purchase in the UK, including popular films, music videos and TV programmes.
BitTorrent’s enormous bandwidth-hogging qualities has proved expensive for some Internet providers, but NTL are looking to speed delivery and reduce network costs by using CacheLogic’s caching technology which stores frequently downloaded files within the NTL network.
NTL believes that this combination will provide ultra-fast download speeds of broadcast quality content – or, as Kevin Baughan, their director of network strategy liked to call it, a “transformational video downloading experience.”
BitTorrent is already firmly established as the de facto tool of choice for connoisseurs of pirated TV and movie files, with BitTorrent traffic estimated to hog around a third of all internet bandwidth, and an even higher ratio on NTL’s network.
Naturally, rights holders and movie heavyweights weren’t too chuffed to see their content whizzing around the Internet for gratis, and quickly hired in squadrons of lawyers to apply pressure on BitTorrent.
Late last year, a deal was struck with the Motion Picture Association of America to remove copyrighted material from the BitTorrent.com search engine, and the company has since been in talks with movie moguls and Internet service providers to find ways to use the software for the distribution of legal, paid-for downloads.
“NTL has seen a huge percentage of their traffic in the BitTorrent protocol,” said BitTorrent President Ashwin Navin. “But in the past, neither rights holders, ISPs nor BitTorrent derived any economic benefit from it.”
NTL’s trial is expected to start next month and run through the summer, with a small initial sample group of around 100 homes.
BitTorrent
ntl
13 February, 2006
Two Thirds Of Japanese 5-9 Year Olds To Have Mobiles
According to a new report, future growth in the Japanese mobile market is to be focused on the only market segment yet to reach 100% saturation: the under 14s and over 55s.
Research from the “Japan Mobile Market” report predicts that mobile phone ownership will soar amongst the (ridiculously young, in our opinion) 5 – 9 year-old age group.
The study estimates that mobile ownership amongst the young ‘uns is set to more than double from 29% in 2004 to nearly two thirds (64%) by 2007 – at this rate kids will soon be getting a mobile shoved in their hands as soon as they learn to talk!
The biggest growth, however, comes from the 55-65 age group, with 1.62 million new customers expected in 2006.
Despite falling Average Revenue Per Unit (that’s ARPU acronym fans!), Japanese operators DoCoMo and AU saw revenues and market share increase in 2005 due to increases in their subscriber bases.
Things haven’t been so rosy for Vodafone KK who have only secured 5.4% of the 3G market and are finding revenue being impacted by falling numbers of subscribers.
Blended ARPU is expected to continue sliding from $58 pcm in 2005 to $57 pcm by 2007 but this should be compensated by data ARPU which is predicted to rise from $15 pcm to $17 pcm over the same period, thanks to the growth of content market.
The games market is expected to keep growing – mainly fuelled by 20-30 year-olds – with the mobile music market worth $1.35bn by 2007.
Glossary:
Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU): This measures the average monthly revenue generated for each customer unit (e.g. mobile phone) that a carrier has in operation.
Japan Mobile Market 2006 – Your Statistical Guide To Understanding The Mobile Opportunities in Japan 2006-2007
13 February, 2006
Wikinews Identifies US Congress Wikipedia Cheats
Wikinews, the collaborative online journalism project spawned from Wikipedia, has been digging up more dirt on the Wikipedia edits made by Capitol Hill staffers.
Last week, the scandal broke about how staff using computers connected to the US senate’s network had been airbrushing out unflattering facts about their bosses while adding unsavoury titbits about political foes in over 1,000 changes to related Wikipedia articles.
Amongst the spinning and doctoring was the removal of a campaign promise by Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., that he would serve only four terms, as was the detailed description of a bill introduced by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., designed to make it more difficult for gay parents to visit their children in hospitals.
Naturally, dirty tricks, slurs and insults loomed large, with the entry for the Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. saying that he had been voted “the most annoying senator by his peers.”
Hot on their trail, the meticulous volunteers at Wikinews collected every Senate IP which had ever been edited on Wikipedia (up to February 3) and examined where the IPs came, what was edited and what the edits comprised of.
Someone (presumably Wikinews contributors) then sent emails to specific Senators’ offices and noted down the IP addresses that were included in the headers of the autoresponder emails.
Armed with this information, the Wikinews sleuths were then able to look back at Wikipedia edit histories and figure out which office was responsible for each edit.
The full name’n’shame article detailing who edited what can be seen here: Wikinews
(Unfortunately, edits coming from the US House of Representatives were harder to uniquely trace as they came through a proxy server, with one IP address covering all offices.)
Open, collaborative information projects like Wikipedia and Wikinews have been welcomed by Internet activists keen to make unbiased information freely available, but the very nature of the project makes it wide open to abuse (as one pundit commented, “The information on your screen may be only as good as the most recent users’ motives.”)
But in this case, the attempts by Capital Hill staff to fiddle about on the Web and rewrite political history backfired dramatically and only made things worse for them.
And we rather like that.
Wikinews via BoingBoing
9 February, 2006
1Gb Nano iPod Debuts As Apple Cuts Shuffle Price
Keen to further expand their vice-like grip on the portable digital music market, Apple have unveiled a cut-down 1GB version of their turbo box-shifting iPod Nano player.
Apple are hoping that their new 1GB Nano iPod will lure in yet more punters with a wallet-tempting price tag of just $149 (~£86, ~€125), $50 less than the cheapest Nano currently available, a 2-gigabyte model.
The new 1GB Nano can hold up to 240 songs or 15,000 photographs and comes with all the usual Nano features, including the colour display and docking connector.
The company have also announced price cuts for their entry level model, the tiny, screen-less iPod Shuffle which has been reduced to $69 (~£40, ~€58) for the 512MB model, and $99 (~£57, ~€83) for the 1GB model.
Apple are the undisputed lords of the US digital music device market with an estimated 70 percent market share, and these latest price cuts will no doubt have some rival product execs reaching for the bottle in desperation.
As Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, put it: “Apple is selling a $69 MP3 player with the best software. How do you compete with that? It’s tough.”
“In the US market they have already won,” he added, estimating that Apple currently has something like 40 percent share of the worldwide market.
The iPod range continues to be an outrageously successful money spinner for Apple, with around 32 million iPods shifted last year, including 14 million during the holiday season.
iPod Nano
8 February, 2006