Mike Slocombe

Yahoo To Support Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
Yahoo’s search engine division has announced that it will be dishing out hardware galore, resources and “critical material aid” to support the non-profit Wikipedia online encyclopedia.
Yahoo Search’s contribution is the most significant received by Wikimedia from a corporate sponsor to date, costed at “several hundred thousand dollars,” by David Mandelbrot, Yahoo’s vice president of search content.
Wikipedia is a global charitable effort, to create and give away a freely licensed encyclopedia in every language of the world.
In just four years, the non profit Wikimedia Foundation has created the largest English language encyclopedia in history, supported by substantial encyclopedias in French, German, and Japanese with “strong efforts underway” in over 100 other languages.
Much like Google’s new Q&A service, Yahoo Search will also feature abstracts of Wikipedia content at the top of relevant search results in the form of “shortcuts,” containing factual information or links to factual information.
Yahoo’s shortcuts are intended to give users the answer they’re looking for on the search results page, saving them the bother of clicking onto other Web sites for the desired information.
Yahoo’s support comes completely free of charge and they will in no way benefit from the positive world-wide publicity or continuing access to Wikipedia content. No sir.
To the strains of “We Are The World” serenading in the background, Mandelbrot explained Yahoo’s generosity, “To operate a site that reaches as many people as Wikipedia can be costly for a non profit, and we’re contributing with resources to help with that effort.”
“Their popularity is growing very fast and, accordingly, their bandwidth and hardware needs have increased substantially.”
Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia’s president, was naturally well chuffed with the announcement; “Our growth in Web traffic continues to be staggering, doubling every few months. Yahoo’s generous donation to our cause in the form of servers, hosting and bandwidth will have a huge impact on our ability to get our message of sharing knowledge out to the world.”
In a separate statement from Wikimedia, the charity revealed that Yahoo will also be dedicating “a significant number of servers” in a Yahoo facility in Asia.
Yahoo’s profits tripled from $65.3 million (£34.9m/€50.9m) to $253.3 million (£135.4m/€198m) last year.
Wikipedia
Yahoo
8 April, 2005
Cyberphone K USB Skype Handset Review
Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) service that allows you to make phone calls via a broadband connection to other users for free. And we like it.
Being able to ring chums up all over the world for jack diddly squat, frees up more money for beer, and its productivity-boosting features (like instant messaging and conference calling) rewards us with more pub time. Great!
But not everyone likes having to bellow into a computer microphone to make phone calls, or – even worse – sharing their intimate conversations with chuckling workmates eavesdropping on the conversation blasting out of PC speakers.
The only way you can hope to get a bit of privacy with VoIP calls is to don a headset that makes you look like a cross between a call centre dork and a fitness instructor. Not cool.
Despite all the benefits of VoIP telephony, the perceived ‘fiddlyness’ of the technology makes it look like an uber-geeky toy for weird, gadget-loving, parameter tweaking folks (cough!).
And here’s where the VoIP Cyberphone Skype phone comes in.
Although it looks like the kind of phone you could pick up at Brick Lane market for the price of a cup of tea, it’s actually a smarty-pants USB-powered device that makes using VoIP a breeze.
Installing the device is simple: slap in the CD, install the software and then go to Skype.com and set up an account. Job done!
Once installed, picking up the Cyberphone causes the Skype interface to immediately pop up on your PC’s desktop (sadly, this amused us for some time) and you can then scroll through your contacts via the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons on the phone’s keypad.
Once you’ve selected the Skype user you want to talk to, simply hit the ‘call’ icon on the handset and you’ll hear a familiar ring tone, until the end user picks up. And then you can chat for as long as you like. For free.
Phone clarity was as good as any landline (although we did have to delve into the computer’s control panel to ‘up’ the volume) and the whole experience was as easy as, well, using a phone.
Naturally, fellow Skype users can ring you for free too, and you can elect to use your PC’s ring tones or use the one built into the phone.
You can also use the phone to ring up lesser mortals not connected to the web courtesy of Skypeout. Shell out for a €10 (US$13/£7) voucher and you can then enjoy greatly reduced calls to regular phones all over the world, saving up to 85% off standard BT rates.
Ringing up non-Skype users is simple enough, although you’ll have to include full international codes every time, which is a bit of pain if you’re only calling someone in the same area.
Mac users will be more irritated to learn that the phone won’t work fully with their OS, even though the Skype software does.
VERDICT
These minor quibbles aside, Cyberphone is a trailblazing product that will soon repay the modest investment.
The handset may not be challenging Apple for design awards, but it’s a solid, basic, no fuss device that opens up the world of free VoIP telephony to everyone.
It’s simple, straightforward and saves you a bomb.
Highly recommended
FIVE STARS. Cost: €54.99 (US$71/£37), Skype Cyberphone
Available from Firebox (UK) for £29.95 (US$56/€43).
7 April, 2005
TiVo And Comcast Plan System To Place Fresh Ads Into Recorded Programs
Comcast Corp. is working with TiVo on an advertising system that will slap new, updated commercials into already-recorded programs.
Philadelphia-based Comcast, the US’s numero uno cable company, announced last month it would start offering TiVo’s DVRs by 2006.
Viewers looking to sit back and watch their favourite shows recorded months ago would have their old commercials replaced with brand spanking new ones.
Like a Big Brother stalker in your very own home, the system could rummage through your viewing patterns to serve up specific adverts targeted at lucky old you.
The new technology could help make DVRs more palatable to advertisers and the television networks because it should increase the chances of someone watching an ad rather than fast-forwarding through it.
Comcast Chief Executive, Brian Roberts, was clearly stoked by the idea; “In the long term, advertising is going to be a big winner. They’re going to get more bang for the buck.”
We think it makes sense to offer advertising that is directly targeted to the viewer; it could even be of use if the selection is comprehensive enough.
As to if TiVo owners would find this acceptable is quite a different issue. Many of the early purchasers of TiVo’s bought them because they wanted to avoid adverts and the only way DVR manufacturers will stop those people fast forwarding through ads, is to physically remove the button off the remote.
Separately, TiVo and satellite broadcaster, The DirecTV Group, announced a deal to let both companies sell advertising for TiVo recorders. The DVRs recently began showing static images, such as company logos, when fast-forwarding some shows.
Under the pact, both companies are free to sell ads on the service, and each retains its respective revenue from any sales.
TiVo
Comcast
Renting TiVo
Threat from ad-skip tech hyped: Nielsen
7 April, 2005
NW-HD5: Sony Launches 20GB Network WALKMAN Against iPod
iPod killers, eh? You can barely get out of bed without some hyperbolic company boldly giving their new MP3 player the big one, only to discover that it’s proved as popular as a lager lout on a teatotallers daytrip.
This time, however, it looks like the boffins at Sony could have pulled something special out of the bag.
The highly pocketable Sony NW-HD5 is a 20 Gigabyte hard disk player that is both smaller and lighter than its equivalent iPod, weighing in at a lithe 125g.
The machine supports Sony’s ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus compression formats, Windows Media Audio, WAV files and the vital MP3 format.
When it comes to battery life, the Sony has taken the iPod around the back of the bike sheds and given it a good thumping.
The Sony’s far superior battery life serves up a mighty thirty hours of MP3 playback, (40 hours using Sony’s proprietary ATRAC3Plus format at 48kbps), kicking sand dunes in the face of the equivalent iPod’s weedy 12 hours.
Even better, Sony’s battery is replaceable too, with Sony promising that spares will be available from High street stores – a far cry from iPod owners having to shell out big bucks to get Apple to exchange their worn out power packs.
“We’re raising the stakes again in the digital music player market,” purred a delighted Gregory Kukolj, General Manager for Personal Audio Europe. “The stunning new ‘follow turn’ feature, 40 hours battery life, incredibly compact design, and to top it off, very affordable pricing, make the new Network WALKMAN an irresistible proposition for users who seek a quality digital music player.”
We’re yet to rub up and get intimate with the Sony NW-HD5 but it appears to be an attractive looking affair, available in silver, red and (none more) black.
Unlike previous Sony models, the NW-HD5 is based around a portrait design where the seven line, 1.5-inch backlit LCD sits above the controls. In a neat twist, the new ‘Follow Turn Display’ feature automatically orients the interface screen horizontally or vertically depending on which way the player is held.
The player comes bundled with SonicStage 3.1 music management software for converting and managing music from CDs in both ATRAC3plus and MP3 formats. The software also offers access to Sony’s iTunes-challenging “CONNECT” online catalogue of more than 600,000 tracks and albums.
The player goes on sale in May for £200 (US$375/€292) (£10 [US$19/€14] less than its equivalent iPod), with a 30 Gigabyte version in silver following the month after.
Sony UK
7 April, 2005
3 UK Launch Two Tempting 3G Pricing Plans
We’ve never quite been persuaded to move to 3, but these two price plans they’ve just announced sure look tempting.
The first of its tariffs, Off-peak 3000, is 3’s first off-peak price plan and is aimed at hardcore evening and weekend chatters.
For £25 (US$46/€36)a month, Off-peak 3000 gives fat-chewing customers an enormous 3,000 off-peak, any network, voice minutes (that works out at 50 hours – over two days!). This looks like the perfect plan for mumbling teenagers keen to talk about ghastly boy bands and repeat “whatever” constantly to their friends.
These 3,000 minutes can be used between 7pm and 7am weekdays and anytime on a Saturday and Sunday.
The second plan, “Talk, Text & Video 600”, is an enhancement to 3’s best selling plan, “Talk & Text 600”.As you’ve probably worked out, clever reader, this new plan bundles in 3’s video mobile services to the £35 (US$65/€50) a month package.
And you’re sure get a lot for your money. The monthly fee gives you 500 any network, anytime voice minutes, 100 any network, anytime text messages, 20 video calling minutes from one 3 video mobile to another, 20 video messages to other 3 mobiles and a range of 3’s video mobile services, including highlights of the Barclays Premiership, full-length music videos, comedy and games.
While potentially good for the consumer, this type of deal won’t do anything to dampen the voice of unrest from some quarters. Their beef? 3 isn’t doing anyone in the 3G/UMTS field any favors by selling services at reduced prices. They think 3G should be all about premium prices for a premium offering.
Bob Fuller, 3 UK CEO swivelled on his heels and span out the corporate spin: “3 is the fastest growing network in the UK, we now have over 3 million 3G customers and we continue to lead the market for both value and video mobile services. With these new price plans 3 continues to set the pace for value in the UK mobile market. 3 was the first network to launch live, over-the-air, multi-player gaming, the first to stream concerts live over video mobile and first to launch quickplay video streaming of 3’s content.”
3 has also announced that all its pay monthly price plans are available on 18 month contracts from the start of April. These will offer the same price plans as 12 month plans, but will be include different customer-tempting promotions, like April’s 6 month half-price line rental offer.
7 April, 2005
Google Video To Expand Search To “Video Blogging”
Google plans to invite users to submit personal video clips for archiving as part of its recently launched video search service.
In a speech at the annual cable industry convention in San Francisco, company co-founder Larry Page announced that the company will start taking home video submissions from people, adding that, “we’re not quite sure what we’re going to get, but we decided we’d try this experiment.”
Not surprisingly, Page admitted to having concerns about the nature of content that people may want to upload (but we think that that may only add to the appeal of the service!)
Google first rolled out the test version of its video search service in January, allowing users to find content in television programs from such providers as PBS, Fox News, CSPAN and local ABC and NBC affiliates in San Francisco.
The service, called Google Video, offers up still images from the video clips and associated closed-captioning, but users cannot view video or read a transcript of the program due to unsettled licensing terms.
In the meantime, an “About this show” option provides information on the program’s next air time.
Google has already established search relationships with numerous content and broadband providers, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin commenting, “We’re always looking for ways to expand partnerships.”
The company also announced that it would provide data about popular Web searches to Current, a new television network for the 18- to 34-year-old audience, backed by former US Vice President Al Gore and other investors.
Arch-rivals Yahoo have already begun promoting their own TV and video search site, launched as a beta in December of 2004.
Yahoo has also partnered up with TVEyes to index closed captioning content from BBC, Bloomberg and Sky programming, while Blinxx launched their own movie and TV service, blinkx.tv, at the end of last year.
Google barged its way into the world of blogging after buying the popular blogging tool, Blogger.com in 2003.
The growth of affordable digital camcorders (and movie enabled digital cameras) coupled with cheaper (or free) Web space suggests that vblogging could be big news for 2005, creating a need for suitable search tools.
Google
6 April, 2005
Cicero, Talktelecom Launch Business VoWiFi Service In UK
Irish VoIP solutions provider Cicero Networks has announced its first major telecom provider deal with Talktelecom Ltd, an independent, fully licensed General Telco Operator, based in Dublin.
The deal will give Talktelecom’s corporate customers access to Cicero’s mobile VoWiFi service to its corporate customers, following the completion of a two-month trial.
According to Cicero CEO Ross Brennan, the bulk of mobile calls are made from business premises by people plumping for convenience over cost (fixed-line costs are generally much cheaper than mobile rates)
Talktelecom hope that there’ll be healthy profits on the horizon to companies offering a mobile phone service using the global IP network
According to a study cited by Cicero, of the €0.75 (£0.51/US$0.96) cost of a three-minute cellular call, about €0.69 (£0.47/US$0.88) goes to the mobile operator and only about €0.6 (£0.41/US$0.77) to the fixed-line carrier. By contrast, the VoWiFi solution will deliver all of the €0.15 (£0.10/US$0.19) cost of the same three-minute call to the fixed-line provider, leaving room for both higher margins and cost savings for customers.
Talktelecom has deployed Cicero’s full package, consisting of three components; the Cicero Phone – a softphone client running on dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi handsets – a Cicero Controller, handling call management, call routing, QoS, back-end authorization and authentication functions and billing data, and the Cicero Connect, gateway to the PSTN or other external network type.
“Cicero Networks’ integrated end-to-end solution has given us a fast time-to-market in delivering a truly innovative and cost-effective wireless voice service,” buzzworded Talktelecom CEO, Johathan Mills. “Cicero lets us grow our existing business and enter new markets while delivering a substantial return on investment in a short time,” he added.
“Talktelecom is pioneering the advancement of fixed-mobile convergence by offering its customers wireless voice services at fixed-line costs,” added Cicero’s Ross Brennan.
Talktelecom customers will be able to use the Cicero solution wherever a Wi-Fi connection is available, with the company increasing coverage through its recent partnership with The Cloud, managers of the UK’s largest wi-fi hotspot network.
Talktelecom
Cicero Networks Ltd
6 April, 2005
BookSurge, Print-On-Demand Book Company, Signs With Amazon
Online retail giant Amazon.com has scooped up the ‘printing fulfillment’ company BookSurge, which maintains a catalogue of thousands of book titles available for users to print on demand.
“Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced,” Greg Greeley, vice president of media products for Amazon.com, said in a written statement.
The move seems to reflect Amazon’s continued efforts to add new revenue streams and fight off competition from online rivals such as eBay and Overstock.com. Amazon has already been forced to lower prices to keep customers wandering off elsewhere.
Despite generating twice the revenue of its main rival eBay, Amazon is lumbered with the hefty financial drain of maintaining and operating its warehouses throughout the world – because eBay sells a service not a product, it manages to be three times more profitable than Amazon with only half its revenue.
Amazon’s deal with BookSurge gives the company the ability to offer a new product without adding any further burden on distribution network.
The company will now offer (cue: North American accent) “inventory-free book fulfillment” to publishers through BookSurge Publisher Services and to authors through BookSurge Publishing.
Print-on-demand allows booksellers to offer titles with limited appeal, without the hassle of having to keep stock which may not get sold.
Additionally, retailers, wholesalers and distributors will be able to leverage the BookSurge Direct wholesale platform.
“BookSurge makes it possible to print books that appeal to targeted audiences, whether it’s one copy or one thousand,” Greeley said. “Our new relationship with BookSurge will provide Amazon customers an ever-expanding selection of titles that are not available through other channels. Thanks to print-on-demand, ‘out of print’ is out of date.”
This latest move continues Amazon.com’s trend toward the world of e-books and other downloadable products, building on its 2001 eBook deal with Adobe Systems that added nearly 2,000 e-books to its catalogue.
Although e-books are still a small part of the current online book market sector, significant growth is expected by publishing companies and online retailers.
Internet portal Yahoo already has an e-book sales deal with four major publishing houses and Amazon are clearly looking to get their size nines wedged into this door of opportunity.
Amazon
BookSurge
6 April, 2005
UK Net Advertising Spending Beats Radio For First Time:
Cappuccino-supping Hoxtonites will be cheered by new figures showing that online advertising spending grew by a thumping 60% in 2004, edging ahead of radio in terms of market share for the first time.
The report, from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, declared 2004 to be “a coming of age year” for online ad expenditure.
The amount spent on the Internet sector in 2004 topped £653.3m (US$224.8m/€953.6m), an increase of 60% on 2003 (£407.8m), with new spending driven by increased broadband availability, consumer confidence and creative marketing campaigns.
The new figures push the sector’s annual market share to 3.9% for the year (up from 2.6% in 2003), overtaking radio’s 3.8% share for 2004.
The Internet sector looks to record further gains, with spending for the second half of last year reaching a record-setting figure of £373.9m (US$701m/€545.8) representing a 4.3% half-year market share.
The press remained the top dog of advertising spending, claiming a 41.5% market share for the year, ahead of TV (23.9%), direct mail (14.6%), directories (6.4%), outdoor (5.0%) and cinema (0.9%).
Online spending went against the overall general advertising trend, with total UK spend rising just 5.8% in 2004 to £16.9bn (US$31.7bn/€24.7bn) in 2004, based on figures from the Advertising Association and WARC.
Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, said: “There’s a massive cultural shift going on, forcing a change in consumer and advertiser behaviour. The triple crown of cheap broadband, cheaper technology and ever more compelling content is driving consumers to the Internet and pulling advertisers online.”
The report went on to assert that the online industry is now ahead of its targets to overtake the market size of Outdoor advertising by November 2007, adding that online ad revenues are now more than four times bigger than they were at the height of the dotcom boom in 2000.
“The audiences are there – more marketers need to wake up to the brand building and direct sale benefits of the Internet as a maturing medium.” enthused Phillipson.
Interactive Advertising Bureau
PricewaterhouseCoopers
5 April, 2005
Moxi II Media Deal Between Digeo And Samsung
Samsung have jumped into bed with Digeo – a leading provider of media center software and services – and announced a deal to produce the next-generation Moxi II Media Center product family.
The companies are claiming that the new family of Samsung Home Media Center products will rival the features of personal computers designed for living room entertainment centres.
The Moxi II Media Center, scheduled for release in the autumn, will combine the functions of an advanced video recorder, jukebox, photo viewer and Internet telephone in a single unit (although cable providers will determine the exact feature set).
The boxes will sport four TV tuners (for recording multiple shows at once and/or feeding multiple live TV streams to satellite Moxi Mini boxes around the house) with enough onboard storage to record up to 40 hours of high definition programming.
There’s also support for Voice over IP for making and receiving calls (Moxi’s current Moxi Telephone app can only manage and receive calls).
US cable companies Charter Communications and Adelphia are set to be the first two cable companies to start dishing out the boxes to customers.
“We are pleased to be bringing powerful media center technologies to market with Digeo,” purred Gee Sung Choi, president of Digital Media Division for Samsung Electronics.
“Our Home Media Center solution launching this fall will be our marquee cable product, setting new standards for operators by delivering unprecedented, highly valued media center services and applications throughout the home.”
The new units will use the sci-fi sounding Digeo X-Stream chip set, a smart little fella that incorporates a chip that integrates several functions previously handled by multiple chips.
The cost-reducing chip will also offer improved graphics performance with Digeo cranking up the speed of the microprocessor from 733 megahertz to 1 gigahertz.
“The first product … is the first in this family,” said Michael Markman, Digeo’s senior director of marketing. “But the architecture, the design will allow for much further growth.”
Cable box makers face mighty mean competition from PC companies knocking out entertainment PCs running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition. The latest PC models also support multiple-room viewing as well as HDTV.
Samsung
Digeo
5 April, 2005