Simon Perry

Channel 4 First Podcast Fronted By Jon Snow
UK TV broadcaster Channel 4 is joining the podcast steam train by launching their first podcast presented by the very excellent, Jon Snow, the front-man for the highly-regarded Channel 4 News.
The strangely named “From Mellow to Mental” is aimed at the yout(h) market, as will be “looking at issues affecting young people today.”
The first half-hour report will explore the current controversy surrounding the link between cannabis and mental health problems. Just what the kids of the new generation want to hear.
Channel 4 are cleverly using this podcast give-away to highlight their DAB radio ambitions, as the show will also be broadcast on their 51%-owned DAB station, OneWorld, on Friday 20th January at 8am and 4pm.
Big Chief, Channel 4’s Chief Executive, Andy Duncan, speaking at the Oxford Media Convention today (19th January), said: “We’re delighted Jon has agreed to present Channel 4’s first podcast. It’s great to be creating a genuine public service offering for new users on different platforms. And, as part of a possible bid for the new DAB national multiplex, it’s important that we start to explore the considerable potential to create cross-over content from the best of Channel 4’s output.”
So there’s not too many lines to read between there. Channel 4 has big DAB ambitions, and Andy D has got a strong digital background, coming from his previous position as marketing Freeview to the British public for the BBC. Something he was clearly pretty good at, given the considerable take up figures, which started at zero.
Channel 4 podcast
19 January, 2006
Intel Apple G5 Bootups Fast – UPDATED
As we know, Apple has been claiming that the new Intel-based processor is 2-3 times faster than their current machines, due in no small part to Intel’s Core Duo processor.
An enterprising clan has shot what they claim is a video of a boot-up shootout between an iMac G5 vs an Intel-based version.
Taken at face value, the new machines do look considerably faster, but many are claiming that the video is a fix. Reading the comments, a number of people felt that the slow booting machine was faulty or had been violently shutdown, leading to the machine having to rebuild itself on startup.
One thing is for sure. The Intel-based version boots faster than any Windows machine I’ve seen.
Join the other nearly 50,000 people who’ve watched the film and judge for yourselves …
For all Mac traditionalists, you’ll be pleased to hear that the new machines use the same boot up sound.
Update: The new Intel-based Macs use Intel’s new boot technology – Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). This has been designed to make machines startup as quickly as possible – a benefit that the Mac is showing, and so too will Windows Vista. Thanks to Seamus for pointing this out.
iMac G5 vs iMac Intel Boot
18 January, 2006
Sky Guide To Offer Personalised TV Listings (News release)
Sky is giving millions of customers the chance to create their own personalised on-screen TV listings with the launch today of important improvements to its electronic programme guide, Sky Guide. The upgrade programme, the most significant since the launch of Sky digital in 1998, is intended to make it even easier for viewers to navigate the 500 plus channels now available on digital satellite.
Sky Guide provides TV listings information for all of the TV channels available on digital satellite for the full week ahead. Following the enhancements, Sky digital customers will be able to create their own personalised grid of their favourite 50 channels for the first time. When a viewer presses the blue key on the Sky remote from within the “TV Guide” section of Sky Guide they will be able to see full seven-day TV listings for all of their chosen channels at a glance.
The Sky Guide upgrade will be rolled out automatically to more than eight million Sky customers from today and will take up to the end of February to complete. Additional features include:
- MORE GENRES: The 500 plus channels available on digital satellite will be categorised into 15 programming genres, instead of the existing seven*, making it even easier for viewers to find their way around Sky Guide. For example, radio channels, documentary channels and shopping channels will each have their own dedicated categories for the first time.
- CHANNEL NUMBERS: Most channel numbers will change on February 28 to reflect the introduction of the new genre categories. All Radio channel numbers will also consist of a four-digit number beginning with ‘0’ to accommodate the increased demand for digital radio services on the satellite platform. So, for example, BBC Radio 1 will be found at 0101 and Virgin Radio at 0107 (full channel line up available upon request).
A marketing campaign will inform customers about the changes and help them to get the best out of the new features.
Brian Sullivan, Sky’s Director of Customer Products and Services, said:
“Sky has a huge choice of programmes that match the individual interests of millions of viewers. With this upgrade, we’re taking personalised choice even further by giving customers the chance to tailor the Sky Guide to suit their own preferences.”
Sky
17 January, 2006
Web 2.0 Gains Its First Corporate Defector
The buzz about the rebirth of the Internet has been getting louder for at least the last nine months as the label Web 2.0 was attached to the new generation of applications.
As we’ve said previously, our view is that Web 2.0 (for want of a better moniker) and in particular AJAX is the point where Microsoft started to lose their control of applications. With Web applications able to update information without needing to reload the page, using them becomes a consistent, uninterrupted experience – one of the few advantages desktop applications had left.
Now it appears that the pull of this new generation of change is so strong that it’s starting to dislodge people from what must be very comfortable, well paid positions in large corporate companies – a trend we’re all familiar with from the Web 1.0 days.
Om Malik has the scoop on Toni Schneider, senior exec at Yahoo’s Developer Network, leaving the Internet giant to move to start-up Automatitic (read Toni’s thoughts on this).
This isn’t as foolhardy as it might first appear. Toni’s also joining a VC firm, True Venture Partners and has a few quid in the bank following the purchase of his last company, OddPost, buy Yahoo for close to $29m.
More importantly Automattic is headed by Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame and we think, is a company destined for big things.
WordPress, if you haven’t heard of it before (and you should have done), is a fully-featured blogging application that is being taken up in large numbers. It provides the same functionality of most pay-for blogging tools, but for zero cost. This has lead to it being used by both large-scale companies and community sites like the wonderful VentnorBlog (Disclosure: My wife Sal does most of the writing on this – but it is truly wonderful).
It’s based on the Open-source software principles that are integral to true Web 2.0 apps – by giving away the application and providing tools for interested developers, a large community has grown up providing plug-ins that extend WordPress in many different directions. This benefits the users as well as the people behind WordPress – see how giving things away is a good thing?
Automattic now has five people onboard and we suspect will become one of the significant companies of Web 2.0.
It’s interesting to note that Ping-O-matic, the now-defacto ping distribution service used by nearly all blogs, is not part of Automattic. We think that Matt knows quite how valuable this little baby is, especially after seeing how much previously popular ping service Weblogs.com was bought for by Verisign.
Expect nervousness in the upper echelons of established Internet companies as the more adventurous execs re-consider the excitement of being in startups.
Om Malik scoops Toni Schneider’s move from Yahoo
Automattic
WordPress
13 January, 2006
Toledo Temp Typed Tirelessly, Tracking 19,200 Times
Some people get rather too carried away with online communities, and we’re safe in saying that Scott Leo of the City of Toledo in Ohio, USA.
Not unusually in the online world, Mr Leo took a female form online, under the pseudonym of “Sassy Sarah”. He extended this to include a photo of an alluring blond, and posted as if he were a female.
He was no slouch, ending up with 6,622 postings since August, averaging at 45/day.
His down fall came when a ‘concerned citizen’, Mike Brubaker, a resident of Tennessee raised the issue on 27 December, after getting concern that they Cities money wasn’t being spent wisely.
“My son comes to me and says, ‘This person works for the city of Toledo,’” said Mr. Brubaker. “He said, ‘Are you allowed to look at sports Web sites while you’re at work?’ “
After investigations, it was found that slightly rabid poster has accessed the site 19,200 times between Aug. 18 and Nov. 2 by computers near Mr. Leo’s, all using his password.
Robert Williams, director of the Department of Public Utilities, has responded by saying that he planned to introduce controls of Internet access when sites “receive an inordinate number of hits.”
This kind of behavior isn’t unique online. To get the lowdown, we spoke to Digital-Lifestyles’ Mike Slocombe, who has a parallel life as head honcho and founder of UK discussion board Urban75. It’s a seriously busy board with nearly 2.5 million postings and over 26,000 members.
Mike said it’s not unusual for some of his more keen members to post over 45 messages a day, with the highest being 80/day. Not surprisingly a number of the members have received warnings from their work places, some receiving official warnings.
Torledoblade – ‘Sassy Sarah’ posted on Web 6,622 times
Urban75
13 January, 2006
Apple.com Homepages Collected On Flickr
Friday afternoon distractions.
Kernel Panic has created a photoset on flickr collecting together many of the Apple.com home pages over the years. There’s quite a collection, running at 155 so far.
Clearly with that number it’s not fully comprehensive, so they’re calling for other contribution. If you’ve got any knocking around in your digital attics, best add them in and spread the love.
Assorted gems include just before the bringing together of Next and Apple (1996); just after bringing together of Next and Apple (1996); French launch of Power Mac G3 (1999) ;launch of Airport (2000);death of George Harrison (2001);Mac OSX (2001) and iMac (2004) … you get the idea. Go on, head off there and have a dig around.
Apple.com home pages over the years
13 January, 2006
Hubble Image ‘Largest Ever’
A huge photograph of the Orion Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has been released on the Internet. It is thought to be one of the largest images every produced.
How big’s that then? 18,000 x 18,000 pixels!
Download are available in a number of sizes and resolutions. The smallest is a 6,000 x 6,000 px JPEG weighty in at a mere 2.6Mb, which is also available as a TIFF, taking it to 49.12Mb.
The 18k x 18k monsters is 23.67Mb as a JPEG and a ISP-crashing 385.09Mb TIFF. We’ve yet to get the whole image down, but we’ve been told that the image is 927Mb when decompressed – not too bad when you think you’re getting 256 million pixels.
The guidance on the download page, wisely suggest download the file rather than trying to view it in your Browser.
For those who don’t fancy downloading that, or for those on dial-up, NASA also provide a Flash-fronted version you can look at using your browser.
Around two years ago the previous version of this image was also distributed online, but that was a ‘mere’ 6,200 x 6,200, at that time, also claimed at the ‘largest image ever’.
Many have commented that trying to download the image has been a direct route to frustration, as space fans pile into grabbing it.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency, not just NASA as many publication are reporting. Looks like NASA’s may be getting stuck with the bandwidth bill though.
Flash version
Image download page
12 January, 2006
Nikon Stops Analog Camera Production
Yesterday afternoon, without much fuss, and with zero trumpets playing, Nikon UK announced that they are to stop production of nearly all of their analog cameras. Err … what did you say?
Nikon, the company that was founded in 1917, started making camera in 1948, whose name is synonymous with analog photography, is halting production of analog cameras and all of their lenses for large format cameras, bar two camera bodies.
They’re reporting that over 95% of their business in the UK is digital, so we assume it’s not economic for them to continue to produce the analog versions as well as digital.
Once the current stock runs out, that will be it. Nikon are thinking they should start to run out in Summer 2006.
In their words …
… Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006
There are two analog models that that they will continue with, the F6, “in recognition of Nikon’s commitment to professional photographers,” and the manual FM10, outside Europe.
As yet, we don’t know the extent of Nikons intentions with this, is it just the UK; Europe; or the whole world. We pursued the UK press office today to get clarification and further details on what we view a pretty major news. To our genuine surprise we heard that they “all out at a meeting” and are unreachable. Pretty amazing on the day after they announce one of their biggest ever news stories, don’t you think.
Ask most people and they’d have predicted this news, but knowing it was going to happen and it actually happening are two different things. We see this as one of the markers in the timeline of analog->digital history.
Nikon UK press release – Nikon prepares to strengthen digital line-up for 2006
12 January, 2006
TecHOMExpo At International Builder Show 2006
11.Jan.06 – 14.Jan.06 Home technology evolves too fast and furiously to miss this year’s version of tecHOMExpo. Now in its sixth year, tecHOMExpo lets you download ideas, new products, hands-on demos and more. High-speed access to the suppliers you need—and the custom upgrades consumers demand—will keep your business up to standard. tecHOMExpo keeps you on top of the technology you need to build new homes and earn more profit. Orange County Convention Center, Florida, USAhttp://www.buildersshow.com/tecHOMExpo/
11 January, 2006
Podcasting Studio Built Into New GarageBand
As expected, there’s lots of interesting things being revealed at Steve Jobs keynote at MacExpo, and in parallel at the BBC, where Steve Kennedy is embedded for us.
Among the things that grabbed us is big news for Podcasters. Apple are expanding GarageBand to include a podcast authoring studio.
Included are 200 royalty-free sound effects and 100 jingles. While other audio such as music is playing, the volume will automatically reduce once the host speaks.
Apple are also including a speech enhancer, which, without extra detail, I’d imagine is an audio compressor.
This kind of move by Apple will have a serious impact on companies offering podcasting software like Odeo.
Another great addition, which may hit Skype slightly, is the ability to carry out remote interviews using iChat.
More details soon. We’d imagine, once Steve gets off the stage on the Apple aite.
Apple GarageBand
10 January, 2006