Mike Slocombe

TiVo Announces Advertising Search For Television
TiVo has announced that it plans to offer the first TV-based advertising “search solution” early next year.
Starting in Spring 2006, TiVo’s new television search capabilities will, apparently, “enhance the TV viewing experience” by delivering targeted advertising to subscribers interested in viewing particular advertising categories.
Hotshot media and advertising agencies like Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, The Richards Group and Comcast Spotlight have teamed up with TiVo to develop the product and help determine relevant categories of interest (cars, travel, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods etc) as well as work out pricing models.
TiVo claim their new technology will allow companies to shunt on-demand, consumer targeted TV advertising to viewers without the limitations of traditional television media placement.
With punters able to search for products by category or associated keywords, TiVo sees big benefits for advertisers (obviously) and punters looking for information on products or services.
The (ahem) “heightened viewer experience” offered by the new service is claimed to deliver “non-intrusive, relevant, interactive advertising, on an opt-in basis.”
TiVo subscribers electing to use the search service will be able to retain control over their “viewing experience” by creating a “viewer contributed profile” via the set-top box that will enable them to receive advertisements based on their interests (we wonder if there’s a “begone hideous advertisers forever” profile available?)
“TiVo is once again introducing to the TV landscape a new and innovative advertising solution that is intended to deliver an even better viewing experience for subscribers,” purred Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo.
Supping deeply on a morning brew of Buzzword Coffee, Tracey Scheppach, VP, Video Innovations Director at Starcom, enthused “The new TiVo application will provide both a needed platform for consumers to seek out relevant, searchable commercial content and an environment for advertisers to engage highly desirable and motivated consumers…it’s the first of its kind in the industry, and a platform that is clearly needed in this challenging advertising marketplace.”
The new service follows a successful interactive direct response advertising program on TiVo in August, where subscribers were able to respond to customised “calls to action” in select commercial spots.
Funnily enough, when we’re bombarded with advertising, the only “call to action” we get is to turn the ruddy thing off.
30 November, 2005
Legal Digital Music Downloaders Not Kids Shocker!
US analyst firm JupiterResearch has surveyed the American digital music market, and discovered that the bulk of paying downloaders come from the 25-44 age group.
The survey found that sixty-two percent of digital service users and 60 percent of subscribers are between the ages of 25 and 44.
More than half of the subscribers are women, but it’s the blokes who are predictably hitting the download button most, fuelled by a crazed desire to compulsively fill up their MP3 players.
JupiterResearch describes both types of buyers as coming from “music aficionados” segment – they’re the 13 percent of online adults who are “digitally active” and already spend a lot on music.
Online music buyers were found to still discover new music through traditional means, like radio shows and music videos shown on TV, with recommendations (both in stores and online) having an impact.
Online radio was seen to be a growing influence as were new tools like playlists and music blogs, but the report found that stronger integration with online radio and more promotion was necessary to make punters aware of these potentially powerful discovery tools.
Although still a minor earner in overall US entertainment expenditure, growth in the digital music market is explosive.
Spending on downloads and subscription services is expected to double in 2005, surpassing $750 million, with 20 million US music fans on course to buy digital downloads this year—mostly from Apple’s iTunes store.
But it’s not all smiles in the industry, with JupiterResearch’s European Music Consumer Survey warning that the music industry may be facing an unsure future with three times as many consumers using illegal file-sharing networks in preference to legitimate services.
The report blames non credit card-holding kids, claiming that 34 per cent of 15-24-year olds use file-sharing services, and this is “impacting the way they value music with many having little concept of music as a paid commodity.”
JupiterResearch claims that Da Kidz see CDs as irrelevant, crap value for money and so prefer to copy rather than buy CDs.
With a wagging finger, Jupiter Research warned the industry, “Unless these consumers are encouraged to develop music purchasing behaviour soon they may never develop meaningful music buying habits,”
JupiterResearch
30 November, 2005
SPH-V6800 Wi-Fi Multimedia Handset Announced By Samsung
With a passion for creating new phones that is beginning to border on pathological, Samsung’s overworked designers have just revealed yet another new hi-tech handset, the SPH-V6800.
Revealed to the world by an obligingly smiling model, the SPH-V6800 looks to be a very tasty number indeed, offering a ton of multimedia functionality, a pocketable form factor and built in Wi-Fi.
Sporting a familiar sliding keyboard design, the black and silver handset is dominated by a bright 320×240 pixel QVGA TFT display, packed into a two inch display.
There’s also a 1.3MP digital camera onboard with MPEG-4 video recording and MP3/AAC audio playback.
There’s also voice recognition built in, video-on-demand, TV-output, EV-DO, and the bit we really like, the built-in Wi-Fi wireless (802.11b, 11Mbps) LAN.
We used a Wi-Fi card with our chunky i-Mate JAM phone extensively on our travels to New York, and loved being able to send off email and surf the web on the move.
With the Samsung packing in wireless connectivity into its tiny 96.8 x 47 x 24.5mm dimensions, we could well be seduced by SPH-V6800 (if it ever makes it to these shores, of course).
The SPH-V6800 will be made available to Korean subscribers for around $477 (~£275 ~€402) and ambitious readers can try and make sense of the press release page in Korean here (we gamely ran it through babelfish, but the results sounded like an acid casualty reading a tech manual).
Samsung
29 November, 2005
Free Phone-Back Services Tested By Google
Google is testing a potentially lucrative sales tool that allows users to ring up advertisers located through a Google search – for free.
The system adds a new phone icon next to the Google search results of participating advertisers.
Users wishing to have a chinwag with the advertiser can click the phone graphic, enter their phone number and then click the ‘Connect For Free’ button.
Google then calls the number provided and when a user picks up their phone they’ll hear it ringing the advertiser’s office.
Once the advertiser picks up, both parties can chat for free with Google footing the bill for all calls – local and long-distance (their generosity may, however, stop at paying for some mobile calls).
Naturally, there are all sorts of potential privacy concerns brewing up here, but Google insist that they won’t share telephone numbers with anyone – including the advertiser.
Moreover, they claim that the number will be blocked from the advertiser during the call, with Google promising to delete the number from their servers after a short period of time.
This looks to be an attractive option, making it easier for both businesses to be contacted and for customers to get in touch.
It also means that Google could entice cash from companies with little or no Web presence, with the prospect of free calls from potential customers proving irresistible.
We also wonder if an extended scheme could put a spoke in the wheels of the recently announced eBay buys Skype deal.
As ever, Google are keeping Mum about the details, only offering a curt, “we don’t have any additional information to share at this time” in a statement.
Google Click To Call FAQ
29 November, 2005
UK Broadband To Peak At 60% Adoption: Datamonitor
Broadband adoption in the UK may soon be reaching its peak, according to a new report from Datamonitor.
The analyst firm says that although consumer adoption of broadband is at its fastest rate yet in Europe, it expects national broadband adoption to peak at around 60 per cent.
Broadband is currently used by at least half of all internet users in the UK, but looks set to follow the US market where broadband take-up has slowed sharply.
By the end of 2005, nearly eight million UK households should be hooked up to a broadband connection with report author Tim Gower predicting “a good eighteen months to two years of strong penetration increases across Western Europe before markets begin to mature.”
Although we’re nearly broadbanded out in Europe, the report sees excellent opportunities for growth in less mature markets.
“The current situation in many markets is best described as one of rapidly increasing penetration, where broadband has effectively entered its growth sweet spot,” observed Gower.
“With some markets potentially experiencing changes in the household penetration of broadband of up to 10 per cent in a calendar year, service providers must be well positioned to take advantage of the forthcoming penetration acceleration, prior to the inevitable slowdown,” he added.
The report found that DSL and ADSL were the most popular broadband technologies, with adoption being driven by cheaper access rates, marketing campaigns and the growing popularity of broadband-reliant applications like iTunes.
Datamonitor
28 November, 2005
LG PM 80: PDA With Built-In T-DMB Receiver
LG Electronics’ PR department clearly don’t believe in a day of rest because Sunday saw them busily announcing the impending release of their LG PM 80, a PDA capable of receiving T-DMB (terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting).
The pocket-swelling, man-sized device sports a large 3.5inch QVGA LCD screen, with a claimed battery life of up to 2.5 hours of continuous viewing (fine for watching the match, but you might get unstuck if the final goes to extra time followed by penalties).
T-DMB has been described as a “promising cross between telecom and broadcasting, enabling people to enjoy crystal-clear video, CD-quality audio and data on the move via mobile handsets”, and LG is claiming that it’ll work just dandy on the move, saying that the PM 80 could provide stable reception at speeds over 100km/h.
The actual device, presented here in the traditional manner by near-ecstatic Korean ladies (if only we got so much unbridled joy from our gadgets) follows the traditional PDA form factor, with the addition of an old-school pull out aerial for TV reception.
Users can control the channels and volume via a “5 way key” and tune into DMB with a click of DMB/PDA key.
There’s 64mb RAM and 64mb ROM internal memory onboard with a SD slot for expansion.
Powered by an Intel Bulverde 312MHz processor running MS Pocket PC 2003 OS, the PM 80 can connect to a PC, allowing users to manage their e-mail lists, schedules or phone book.
As ever, the Koreans will get to play with this device for ages before we even get a peek at it – if they don’t decide to keep it to themselves for ever, of course.
And then there’s the usual compatibility problems, the lack of available spectrum in the UK, our ‘Luddite‘ approach to the technology…[moan]….[grumble]…
28 November, 2005
A Wi-Fi’d Welshman In New York
For techie-obsessives like the Digital Lifestyles crew, keeping connected when we’re away from home is right up there with finding a roof over our heads, so when we went off to New York, we made sure we packed our Sony laptop and Wi-Fi enabled smartphone – even on holiday.
We weren’t to be disappointed.
Unlike the UK, where the provision of Wi-Fi is often only seen as a revenue earner for landlords, café owners and telecoms companies, we had no problem hooking up for free all over New York.
Maybe it’s the fact that the apartments are so small in New York – or that the coffee keeps on getting refilled for free – but we were surprised by the popularity of cafes and bars serving up free Wi-Fi to their customers.
Wherever we went, a quick boot up of our laptop (or i-Mate JAMM smartphone/SanDisk wi-fi card) would inevitably produce a mile long list of networks available.
We successfully logged in for free all over New York – in the East Village, Williamsburg, Lower East Side, Central Park, SoHo, you name it! – and were able to fire off emails and download tunes for nowt while enjoying coffee and bagels in several fine hostelries.
One rather unfortunate side-effect of all this free connectivity was that once-bustling cafes turned into conversation-free libraries, with rows of transfixed surfers staring intently into their screens, with the silence only broken by intermittent bursts of keyboard activity.
The only prospect of striking up a conversation seemed to be when you’re ordering your cream cheese on everything bagel or if someone asked for help logging on.
Clearly, Apple’s promotional machine is doing its stuff in NYC – wherever we went we’d see a cluster of glowing Apple logos emanating from every dark corner, with only a few lonely Dells, Sony’s and IBM’s for company.
In the café demographic, there’s no denying that Apple rule!
In our Williamsburg ~~squat~~ apartment, we managed to find several open networks, and usually had no problem getting connected – even if it did mean sometimes holding the laptop at eye level in the far corner of the room.
One thing to remember when logging in to free Wi-Fi networks is to always have a good firewall and up-to-date virus protection installed – and do it discretely because in the US (like the UK), connecting to open networks can can get you into trouble.
On the street, one handset seemed to be stuck in almost every New Yorker’s hand: the Palm Treo 750. They love the phone!
We found ourselves looking enviously at Noo Yoikers barking into the Treo’s speakerphone or knocking out emails on its natty keyboard – if only Palm had delivered on their promise of a Wi-Fi card (or if we enjoyed the same kind of cheapo cellular data rates as the US) we’d have gladly joined the Treo Club.
Still, our i-Mate JAMM worked well enough, although the limitations of its ‘soft’ keyboard soon started to cut short planned long email messages home, although we managed to keep our New York blog updated using the freeware Blogs In Hand software.
We had no problem finding a mobile signal (via T-Mobile) throughout the city, although we’re fearing the arrival of our next bill.
Finally SMS is starting to make an impact in the US, long-standing network interoperability problems has resulted in texting being nowhere near as popular as in the UK – our messages to New York chums were the first texts they’d ever received!
After gorging ourselves on free Wi-Fi for two weeks (and bagels too, come to think about it), it has to be said New York kicks London’s ass when it comes to Wi-Fi connectivity, but it’s not all good news: have you seen the price of the beer out there? And the diddy mini-‘pint’ glasses they serve them in? Outrageous!
24 November, 2005
Are Media Owners Trying To Hijack Terror Legislation?
The digital rights campaigning group, Open Rights Group, reports that the music industry is lobbying MEPs to co-opt the EU Data Retention legislation currently being debated by the European Parliament.
Music industry body, the Creative and Media Business Alliance (CMBA), wants data-snooping legislation aimed at the prevention of terrorism to be made available for the prosecution of any crime, such as copyright infringement.
The move has been condemned by the Open Rights Group and other civil liberties groups across Europe, with campaigners calling on the Alliance’s members – which include industry bigwigs like Sony BMG, Warner Music, Disney, and EMI – to retract their demands.
The Data Retention draft framework was originally cooked up by Sweden, Ireland, France and the UK, aiming at “the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of serious criminal offences such as terrorism and organised crime” by forcing telecommunications and Internet service providers to retain ‘traffic data’ (i.e. information about your phone calls and Internet activities.)
Keen to exploit the legislation for their own commercial gain, the CMBA has demanded that this data should be made available for the prosecution of any crime – e.g. illegal music file sharing – and not just serious organised crime and terrorism.
Coupled with the upcoming IPRED2 legislation (which creates new, Europe-wide criminal offences for intellectual property infringement), campaigners fear that we could end up with a situation where the music industry would be able to pursue criminal court copyright prosecutions entirely at the cost of the taxpayer.
Worryingly, the Open Rights Group reports that the both the Data Retention and IPRED2 directives are being “fast-tracked” through the EU by short-circuiting normal legislative processes.
This means that there will only be one reading in the European Parliament, instead of the normal two, with sources from within the Parliamentary system indicating that some MEPs aren’t aware that the usual democratic process is being bypassed.
A tight timetable means that MEPs are only going to have a couple of days to assess the Data Retention proposal with the final vote occurring on the 13 December.
“The passing of the Data Retention directive would be a disaster not just for civil liberties and human rights in Europe”, said Open Rights Group director Suw Charman, “it would also put a substantial financial burden on telcos and ISPs which would be passed on to the consumer either in the form of raised bills or through government subsidies funded by the taxpayer.”
Ian Brown, of the Open Rights Group (not the Stone Roses), said: “The British government claimed that Data Retention was essential in the fight against terrorism and serious crime, but it has now become clear that groups with commercial interests have their eye on the same data. Charles Clarke cannot continue to pretend that this legislation has been drafted purely for reasons of national security.”
Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow at Privacy International, was equally unimpressed: “The EU has been claiming that data retention was some urgent policy response to terrorist attacks. But they are carefully drafting this legislation to ensure that it can be used for all purposes under the sun.”
“Ironically, the EU seems to be going at it alone: even the U.S. Bush Administration is not proposing such a ludicrous policy, despite the strong lobbying by Hollywood.” he added.
There are fears that if the CMBA is successful, the increased number of demands for access could affect the usefulness of the legislation as an anti- terrorism tool.
The Open Rights Group argue that if British record labels set up prosecution ‘production lines’ like their American counterparts, the system could collapse under the strain, clogging up reasonable and legitimate enquiries into genuine terrorist or serious crime activity.
Today, Sjoera Nas, Board Member of EDRi and Co-Director of Bits of Freedom presented a 58,000 signatures petition to the Chairman of the Committee, Green Party MEPs, Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats.
Nas commented, “Last minute negotiations with representatives of the European Council have lead to what we feared the worst – a draconian directive that flies in the face of our recommendations.”
“We can only hope that the European Parliament will come to its senses and realise that they cannot turn Europe into a surveillance society overnight without throwing away all human rights,” she added.
Open Rights Group
24 November, 2005
BitTorrent Signs Anti-Piracy Agreement With MPAA
P2P network, BitTorrent has signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America to collaborate on stopping Internet piracy.
After a press conference, a joint release was released by BitTorrent founder and CEO Bram Cohen and MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman announcing that BitTorrent have agreed to remove all links directing users to pirated content owned by the seven MPAA member companies.
The agreement will effectively prevent bittorrent.com from locating unlicensed versions of popular movies, making it harder for freeloaders to find online illegal copies of films.
“BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the Internet securely,” Cohen said.
“BitTorrent Inc. discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorised content from BitTorrent.com’s search engine,” he added.
Thousand of BitTorrent fans the world over will be clenching their fists and shouting “Traitor! You’re doing deals with the Devil,” while other more balanced, less angry-types will be saying “Smart move Bram, you’ve built a technology that they cannot stop and the fact they’ve done a deal with you proves that. Hey and you’re not getting your shirt sued off your back.”
In September, Cohen revealed that his company had raked in $8.75 million in venture funding to develop commercial distribution tools for media companies, and the MPAA deal looks to be part of a strategy to make the technology more attractive to Hollywood moguls – no doubt with an eye to future lucrative movie download deals.
With an estimated 45 million users, the BitTorrent technology pioneered by Cohen does its clever stuff by assembling digital files from separate bits of data downloaded from computer users all across the Internet.
The decentralised nature of technology makes it the easiest, most convenient way to fill your hard drive with dodgy movies galore, while making it harder for Hollywood to find and identify the movie swappers.
In an attempt to stop the piracy, the MPAA has been slapping lawsuits around like confetti during the last year, successfully closing down 90% of targeted sites using the BitTorrent protocol for illegal distribution of movies.
The MPAA claims that the film industry lost $3.5 billion to movie piracy last year, with a recent study predicting the figure to jump to $5.4 billion this year. The MPAA claim these losses are excluding revenue lost through online file-swapping, so the true figure could be even higher (although other will say the figures are already gloriously exaggerated).
With tears welling up in their eyes, the MPAA said that film copying hurts hundreds of thousands of employees dependent on the movie industry, including sound and lighting techies, carpenters, cinema staff, video store employees and quite probably the popcorn sales assistant too.
But not, we suspect, the fatcat industry bigwigs.
BitTorrent
23 November, 2005
iTunes Becomes Seventh Largest US Music Retailer
Apple’s iTunes online store has been ranked the seventh-largest music retailer in the US in the third quarter, charging into the top 10 for the first time.
According to research from the NPD Group, iTunes Music Store has climbed from fourteenth place last year to overtake many US High Street music stores.
Based on the number of songs sold, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon.com remained the top four, although iTunes rising star is expected to overtake more stores by the end of the year.
Already eating iTunes’ dust are big names like Tower Records and Borders, reflecting music fans’ growing passion for online music.
“With the growing interest in digital music, forecasts of more iPod demand this holiday, plus the stocking-stuffer appeal of iTunes gift cards, we can expect Apple to increase its share even more by year’s end,” predicted Russ Crupnick, music and movies industry analyst for the NPD Group in the report.
Launched in April 2003 to offer downloadable tracks to users of its best-selling iPod digital music player, Apple has sold more than 600 million songs, with the service boasting more than 10 million iTunes account holders.
Combined revenue from the iPod, Apple’s fastest- selling product, and iTunes music accounted for a massive 40 percent of sales last quarter, up from 27 percent a year earlier.
Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple have already shifted over 30 million iPods since the product launched in 2001.
iTunes
23 November, 2005