Mike Slocombe

  • RealMusic Subscription Service Launched By Real

    Real Launch RealMusic Subscription ServiceReal have announced the launch of its new online music service, imaginatively called, err, RealMusic.

    Claiming to be the first online subscription service to offer radio, music videos, ringtones, downloads and user-generated content, Real are billing the subscription service as a “one-stop browser-based service”, offering music fans a simple way to “search, discover, buy and sell the music they love.”

    Subscribers to RealMusic get access to more than 300 CD-quality, ad-free radio stations, hand-picked by Real’s global team of music editors, as well as artist radio stations.

    Naturally, there’s been a lot of flesh-pressing and business card flipping going on behind the scenes, with “exclusive partner stations” like the Ministry of Sound, Carl Cox and GMG Radio (SmoothFM, Real Radio, JazzFM and Hed Kandi) forming synergistic partnerships.

    Sadly for Apple Mac users, the service “is currently being optimised for Mac users. Please check back later.” How long you’ll have to hold your breath is unclear.

    The service also provides on-demand access to more than 4,000 music videos from major and indie label artists, with related downloads or ringtones available on the site to keep users spending.

    Real Launch RealMusic Subscription ServiceRealMusic will be creating a chart of the top ranking tracks and ringtones created, submitted, and rated by users, with an editorial team producing content and commentary on artists, music releases and videos.

    “Music lovers are looking for new ways to create, discover and share music anywhere, anytime” insisted Gabriel Levy, Head of Music, RealNetworks Europe.

    “RealMusic is the first comprehensive music service to give users access to radio, music videos, downloads and ringtones – plus the ability to play and buy original user-generated music,” he continued.

    The site will incorporate advanced search capabilities, letting users shuffle through thousands of radio stations by language, country or genre, with subscribers able to access all of the available radio stations, downloads, videos and ringtones featuring their fave artist.

    Approximately 20% of the digital radio audience listens online,” intoned Marco Menato, Vice President EMEA & Latin America, RealNetworks.

    Real Launch RealMusic Subscription Service“This demonstrates that there is a strong demand for services that mix the way in which consumers access music, from downloading the latest chart hits and ringtones to sharing tracks from unsigned bands. RealMusic gives music enthusiasts all these options as well as the opportunity to effortlessly discover music to suit their mood,” he continued.

    A subscription to RealMusic costs £8.50 ($15, €12.6) per month, with downloads expected to be priced at £0.99 ($1.76, €1.48) per track or £7.99 per album.

    The RealNetworks’ TonePass ringtone subscription service is available through RealMusic at an additional cost of £4.99 ($8.85, €7.41) per month.

    RealMusic

  • Sprint, MSpot Stream Full-Length Movies To Mobile Phones

    Sprint, MSpot Stream Full-Length Movies To Mobile PhonesSprint and MSpot, have announced the launch of MSpot Movies, a new service which streams mobile-optimised feature films to mobile phones.

    Perhaps puffing a little too deeply on their hyperbolic inhaler, MSpot Movies are claiming to “bring the magic of the silver screen to mobile phones” with their new service, which offers Nationwide Sprint PCS Network subscribers on-demand access to seven movie genres.

    The streaming movies will be categorised into Comedy, Drama, Horror, Adventure, Westerns, Animated Features, and Movie Shorts genres, with recycled TV shows including “Hearts Afire,” “Conan the Adventurer,” and “Starhunter 2300” (what a mouth-watering selection!)

    Sprint, MSpot Stream Full-Length Movies To Mobile PhonesThe streaming content will be cut up into ‘chapters’ (short segments optimised for a mobile audience) and will also include music concerts and stand-up comedy specials.

    MSpot will be adding new titles weekly, enabling subscribers to watch all of the individual “chapters” of an entire movie at any time.

    It’s the company’s third service offering, joining MSpot Radio and MSpot Music on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network, with more multimedia entertainment services planned for next year.

    Sprint, MSpot Stream Full-Length Movies To Mobile PhonesAlthough there’s no denying that mobile video is set to grow – Strategy Analytics reckon they’ll be 150 million viewers by 2008 – we really can’t raise much enthusiasm at the prospect of burning up our bandwidth by watching a selection of crap movies on a tiny screen in 5 minute chunks.

    MSpot

  • StealthText: Self Destructing Text Message Service

    UK Company Launches Self Destructing Text Message ServiceA UK company is introducing a “StealthText” service which sends self-destructing mobile phone text messages.

    Messages sent via StealthText will vanish after 40 seconds onscreen with the company, Staellium UK, hoping that the service will prove popular with business executives dealing in sensitive information. We can think of a host of rather more dodgy applications for the service too – how about the thousands of people having affairs via SMS?

    The company is claiming that their ‘Mission Impossible’ style auto-destructing texts have already picked up interest from financial services companies, the Ministry of Defence, celebrity agents.

    The Stealth Text service requires both sender and receiver to sign-up by texting STEALTH to 80880. This provides a link to download the StealthText applet via a WAP connection. Ten self-destructing messages will cost £5.

    Users signed up to the service will receive a text notification showing the senders name and providing a link to the message.

    The recipient must open the link and read the message within 40 seconds (tough luck, slow readers!) before it vanishes into the ether forever, leaving no trace in the phone’s memory.

    UK Company Launches Self Destructing Text Message Service“The ability to send a self-destruct message has massive benefits for people from all walks of life, from everyday mobile users, through to celebrities and business people, but this is just the start,” said Staellium CEO Carole Barnum, adding that the company intends to extend the service to include self-destructing email, voice and picture messages in spring 2006.

    Currently only available around the world for users of UK SIM cards only, the company plans to make the service available across Europe, in the US and Asia next year.

    Seeing as they intend to be dealing in highly confidential information, we have to say that their truly awful Website hardly inspires confidence – it looks like something knocked up by a spammer in a hurry.

    Ever heard of using style sheets to provide a full Web experience for people on PCs as well as a bare-bones WAP version, guys?

    Staellium

  • Pocket PCs Are For Blokes Survey Finds

    Pocket PCs Are For Blokes:SurveyPocket PC software company SPB ran a survey of its users during November 2005, and discovered that a staggering 96% of those taking part were blokes.

    Proof indeed that women have got far better things to do with their time than fill in long, geek-tastic surveys, the research also revealed that the majority of those responding were (surprise, surprise!) in a computer related occupation (18%), followed by students and engineers at 9% and sales/marketing/advertising coming in fourth with 5%.

    The Dell Axim x50v came out as the most popular handheld (12%), followed by the iPaq 4700 (8%) and the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX 718/720 (5%).

    The majority of users (22%) said that they had been using Pocket PCs for between 1-2 years, with 20% owning the devices for between 6 to 12 months.Just 11% claimed to be Pocket PC old-timers, with 4-5 years of use on the clock.

    Pocket PCs Are For Blokes:SurveyAs for accessories, memory cards, unsurprisingly, were the essential purchase for 85% of respondents, with 69% forking out for screen protectors.

    Cases were the next most popular purchase (63%) followed by styluses (40%), GPS (36%), extra batteries (30%), keyboards (23%) and wi-fi cards (18%).

    SD (SecureDigital Card) memory cards were the most popular format at 88%, followed by CF (CompactFlash Card) 40%, MMC (MultiMedia Card) 11% and Mini SD with 10%.

    With Pocket PCs increasingly becoming multimedia devices, storage requirements are going up, with over half of respondents owning 1 gig memory cards, followed by 512, 256 and 128 meg cards respectively.

    Pocket PCs Are For Blokes:SurveyThe vast majority of Pocket PC users (85%) connect to the internet with their machines, with 72% browsing the web, 65% checking email and 35% using instant messaging.

    We must point out that the results of this self-selecting survey, although interesting, should be taken with a Matterhorn-sized slab of Saxa as the SPB website comes loaded with a crateload of caveats.But it’s worth a look: SPB Software

  • Huge US Music Downloading Fine Upheld

    Huge Music Downloading Fine UpheldA US federal appeals court has upheld the mammoth $22,500 (£12,760, €18,930) fine slapped on a 29 year old Chicago mother caught illegally distributing songs over the Internet.

    Cecilia Gonzalez’s unsuccessful appeal against a music industry copyright lawsuit will no doubt delight music industry lawyers, who have already filed against thousands of computer users.

    The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago weren’t interested in Ms Gonzalez’ arguments that her Internet activities were permitted under US copyright laws.

    Huge Music Downloading Fine UpheldAfter Ms Gonzalez rejected an earlier proposed settlement from music companies of about $3,500 (£1,950 €2,950), a federal judge later filed a summary judgement ordering her to shell out $750 (£425) for each of 30 songs she was accused of illegally distributing over the Internet.

    The mother of five contended she had downloaded songs to determine what she liked enough to buy at retail, adding that she and her husband regularly buy music CDs, with over 250 albums in their collection.

    The appeal panel weren’t impressed, pointing out that because Ms Gonzalez didn’t delete the songs she hadn’t decided to buy, she could have been liable for the 1000+ songs found on her computer.

    “A copy downloaded, played, and retained on one’s hard drive for future use is a direct substitute for a purchased copy,” the judges wrote, adding that her defence that she downloaded fewer songs than many other computer users “is no more relevant than a thief’s contention that he shoplifted only 30 compact discs, planning to listen to them at home and pay later.”

    Huge Music Downloading Fine UpheldMs Gonzalez’s case was part of first wave of civil lawsuits filed by record companies and their trade organisation, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), back in September 2003.

    “The law here is quite clear,” table-thumped Jonathan Lamy, a senior vice-president for the Washington-based RIAA. “Our goal with all these anti-piracy efforts is to protect the ability of the music industry to invest in the bands of tomorrow and give legal online services a chance to flourish.”

    And make lots of money for themselves, of course.

    RIAA

  • 65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TV

    65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TVOfcom has published its Digital Television Update for the third quarter of 2005, revealing that two thirds of UK households now watch digital television.

    The figures show that digital television was viewed in 65.9% of UK households (up from 63.0% in the previous quarter), with 2.6% of households receiving television services via analogue cable, bringing the total receiving some form of multi-channel television to around 68.5%.

    By the end of September 2005, the total number of households viewing digital television swelled by more than 760,000 to around 16.5 million, with more than 6.3 million free-to-view digital households (Freeview/free-to-view satellite).

    65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TVThe number of households with Freeview as their only source of digital television viewing was estimated at 5,775,000 – up by 600,000 homes during the quarter.

    Sales of Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television or DTT) set-top boxes and televisions with integrated DTT tuners are booming, with more than one million sales registered during the quarter – a whopping 55% increase against the same quarter last year.

    During the same period, BSkyB notched up another 48,000 subscribers, bringing its total number of UK subscribers to 7,472,000, with Ofcom estimating that there are also around 545,000 free-to-view digital satellite homes (this includes viewers who no longer fork out for a BSkyB subscription but still use the box for the freebie channels).

    65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TVDigital cable subscribers now account for more than 2.6 million of the total cable television homes, increasing by more than 43,300 in the quarter, while subscriptions to analogue and digital cable television decreased slightly to just below 3.3 million in the quarter (due to a fall in analogue cable subscribers outweighing the increase in digital cable subscriptions).

    This healthy take-up of digital television will be encouraging news for the government who are committed to a digital switchover between 2008 and 2012.

    Ofcom Digital Television Update – 2005 Q3 [pdf]

  • MSI StarCam 370i Review: OK Webcam (72%)

    MSI StarCam 370i Webcam ReviewWhen we saw MSI’s feature packed StarCam 370i knocking out for a mere £15 online ($26, €22), we thought it would make an ideal replacement for our elderly (and somewhat battle-weary) Sony cam, currently gazing out over the delights of Brixton.

    The camera comes on a long bendy stalk with a metal foot which makes it easy to get the perfect camera angle, although it’s clearly not much use if you’re looking to hook it on to your laptop screen.

    Unusually, the camera comes with two sets of LEDs – the first (activated by a switch on the side of the webcam) turns on three white lights which are strong enough to illuminate the user, and the second produces an infra red beam to allow video chats in low light.

    Getting the USB camera up and running was easy enough – just install the software, plug in and go.

    MSI StarCam 370i Webcam ReviewA rudimentary software control panel lets users fiddle about with image/video parameters (gamma, brightness, contrast etc), and budding Jean-Luc Godard’s can select the black and white option for arty scenes.

    Video rates can be set from a default 15 fps right up to 640×480 at 30fps. Image quality was fairly smooth, apart from small wobbling horizontal lines which constantly flickered all over the display.

    The stills camera lets users capture images from VGA (640 x 480), interpolating up to SXGA (1280 x 1024) with the quality best being described as adequate.

    Sadly, the horizontal interference remained our constant companion throughout the review and we soon discovered that placing the capture switch on the actual cam itself, also increased the chance of camera shake.

    MSI StarCam 370i Webcam ReviewThe cam also features a built in microphone which was, as you might expect, fairly basic and lo-fi, but good enough for Internet calls.

    We initially tested the camera on our Webcam but quickly realised its limitations, with the software proving incapable of handling major changes in lighting.

    Setting the camera to ‘auto’ meant that images would start off perfectly exposed at the start of the day but as conditions changed, we’d often be left with wildly under/over exposed images.

    It was all the more frustrating because the actual image quality (horizontal lines notwithstanding) was significantly better than our Sony device, but as such we can’t recommend the StarCam as an unattended Webcam.

    MSI StarCam 370i Webcam ReviewWe can, however, recommend it for anyone looking for a basic, cheap as chips Webcam for video chats with friends and relatives.

    The built-in lights and infrared features aren’t particularly compelling, but they contribute to a fun Webcam package that helps the camera stand out from the pack.

    Features:7/10
    Ease of use: 7/10
    Stills quality: 3/10
    Video quality: 5/10
    Value for money: 8/10
    Overall: 72% 7 out of 10

    Specifications
    Camera Lens 1/4″ CMOS sensor 5G Glass Lens
    Pixel VGA Format 640×480
    Resolution 640×480, 352×288, 320×240, 176×144, 160×120
    Frame per sec Up to 30fbs@(640×480)
    Capture Resolution Up to 640×480 (interpolated 1280×1024)
    Focus Distance 3cm~infinity
    Operation System Windows98/2000/Me/XP

    MSI StarCam 370i Webcam

  • SureWest And HDNet, 1st To Launch US HD Over IPTV Service

    SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP ServiceCalifornia based telecoms company, SureWest Communications, is set to become the first company in the USA to offer HDTV commercially over its Internet Protocol (IP)-based fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network.

    The company have announced that it will be including high-definition networks HDNet and HDNet Movies in their high-definition television (HDTV) service set to launch this year.

    “We are pleased to offer viewers in the Sacramento region the great variety of live and original news, entertainment and sports programming that can only be seen on HDNet and HDNet Movies,” said Peter Drozdoff, SureWest’s vice president of marketing.

    SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP Service“Through our HDTV channel lineup and launch of HDTV over IP, we are showcasing our dedication to providing customers with the highest-quality programming, sharpest picture available and a variety of emerging video products,” he added.

    Quick to join the self-promoting, backslapping party, Mark Cuban, co-founder and president of HDNet, was quick to pipe in, “We are happy to be partnering with SureWest to deliver the HDNet networks to their customers in the Sacramento region and to be providing them with great original high-definition programming and exclusive day-and-date premieres of theatrically released movies.”

    HDNet and HDNet Movies currently broadcast news, sports, music and entertainment programming in 1080i high-definition format, with a widescreen 16×9 aspect ratio.

    SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP ServiceOn HDNet, SureWest viewers can, err, thrill to original series like “HDNet World Report,” “Face 2 Face with Roy Firestone” and “HDNet Concert Series,” and if that lot doesn’t set you packing your bags for Sacramento, there’ll also be showing Warner’s “Smallville” series and a load of live sports productions include Major League Soccer games.

    HDNet Movies is the “exclusive home of day and date movie releases” presenting a wide selection of major studio’s theatrical releases which are broadcast uncut, unedited and in their original aspect ratio.

    To view HDNet and HDNet Movies, SureWest customers will need an HDTV set, a SureWest HDTV cable box and a subscription to the SureWest HD service tier.

    And quite probably a SureWest HDTV t-shirt too.

    SureWest
    HD

  • iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal Struck

    iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal StruckNBC Universal and Apple have struck a deal to make NBC-owned television shows, such as “The Office” and “Law & Order,” available on the iTunes music store.

    The shows, trawled from NBC, the USA Network and the SciFi Channel, will include new and old programming, including “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “Surface.”

    There’ll also be some cable shows such as “Monk” and “Battlestar Galactica” on offer, along with golden oldies like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Dragnet” and “Knight Rider” dredged up for sale.

    The announcement of this deal brings into focus the story we covered over a week ago, NBC Take First Pop At TivoToGo Enhancement, where NBC clearly saw TiVo plans to make these programmes available for zero cost not in their commercial interest.

    iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal StruckThe shows will be available from next week, downloadable from the iTunes Music Store the day after they air for $1.99 (£1.15, €1.70) per episode

    The deal reflects the growing interest from TV networks in opening up lucrative additional revenue streams outside the traditional TV market.

    Spurred on by the release of Apple’s first video-capable iPod in October last year, industry bods are predicting fat profits from video downloads.

    The success of the iTunes store – shifting more than 3 million videos since launching two months ago – has got media moguls clamouring to catch a slice of the downloading action.

    Disney-owned ESPN announced that they are looking into distributing some of its TV programming on the iTunes service, as have News Corp’s Fox Filmed Entertainment network.

    iTunes

  • LG-SB130: Pause Live TV On Your Mobile Phone

    LG-SB130 Satellite TV Mobile PhoneSay hello to the LG SB130-KB1300 handset, a clever-clogs, do-it-all device that can do play and pause live TV as well as deal with every multimedia-type task you can lob at it.

    The LG LG-SB130 claims to be the first in the world to be able to pause a live television broadcast playing on its screen so that users could, for example, take an incoming call, and then pick up where they left off once the call is finished.

    This piece of technical jiggery-pokery is achieved courtesy of LG’s ‘Time Machine’ feature, which can record live TV transmissions to the phone’s 80Mb internal flash memory.

    LG-SB130 Satellite TV Mobile PhoneThis memory can apparently fit up to an hour’s worth of broadcasting before it starts writing over the oldest bits with new content.

    The all-in-one device (also known as the KB1300 ) can also can play back video (DMB), play back music (MP3) and snap two megapixel pictures courtesy of its built in AutoFocus camera.

    But no amount of technical prowess and enthusiastic grinning from obliging Korean models can detract from the fact that’s the phone’s a bit of an ugly fella.

    Looking like a mutant Transformer, you half expect the thing to cunningly fold up into a robot shape, but there is a method to its madness, with the oddball swivelling screen making it ideal for holding the phone and watching TV.

    LG-SB130 Satellite TV Mobile PhoneThe aerial’s a bit of a beefy affair too, but we doubt if the geeky market the phone’s aimed at are going to mind.

    Naturally, we’ve haven’t the faintest idea when – or even if – this weird looking gizmo is ever going to be released in Europe, but we definitely like the idea of watching – and pausing – live TV on the go.

    Babelfish afficiandos can find out more about the phone at LG’s Korean site.