In Tim O’Reily’s words “Citizen engineers are throwing their warranties to the wind, hacking their TiVos, Xboxes, and home networks. Wily geeks are jacking Jetsons-like technology into their cars for music, movies, geolocation, and internet connectivity on the road. E-commerce and network service giants like Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and Google are decoupling, opening, and syndicating their services, then realizing and sharing the network effects. Professional musicians and weekend DJs are serving up custom mixes on the dance floor. Operating system and software application makers are tearing down the arbitrary walls they’ve built, turning the monolithic PC into a box of loosely coupled component parts and services. The massive IT infrastructure of the ’90s is giving way to what analyst Doc Searls calls “do-it-yourself IT.”The Westin Horton Plaza, San Diego, Californiahttp://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/
Simon Perry
SXSW 2005
Established in 1994, the SXSW Interactive Festival consists of four days of panel programming, a Trade Show & Exhibition, plus a full schedule of exciting evening activities. This is a unique event where top-notch developers, cutting-edge designers and out-of-the-box thinkers share their inspirations about the future of the web. While we cover the how of new technology, SXSW Interactive pays particular attention to discussing the larger questions such as why did this happen and what are the long-term implications of this innovation. Austin, Texashttp://2005.sxsw.com/interactive/
Samsung 82FS: Largest LCD TV Launched, 82inch – CeBIT 05
After getting the world very excited about their yet (if ever) to be produced 102″ plasma (PDP) screen, Samsung has today just announced the availability of a 82″ LCD TV. It’s for people who don’t live in houses with lounges (or media-consumption-arenas as they may become to be known) that are the size of the Albert Hall.It’s not possible to commercially produce a single 82inch panel, so they seamlessly combine four 40″ LCD panels. For all of you firsts followers, Samsung are also claiming it to be the worlds first screen to offer 180 degree of viewing angle, something that other companies are going to struggle to better – and even if they do, why would they?. If you’re interested, these are produced using Samsung’s seventh-generation LCD process.
Not surprisingly, it can display full HD (High Definition) 16:9, 1920 x 1080 resolution, with a contrast ratio of 10,000:1 and a response time of 8ms. With this, we’re day dreaming thoughts of video gaming on this beauty – live the action.
If you’re looking for a slightly more pedestrian use for it, it’s fitted with an HDMI interface, so all of that HDCP-protected content can be displayed on it.As a side note, it was interesting to see how many people were at the press conference. Seating capacity was 400 and there was about a hundred extra standing. Samsung has become a company that now demands press interest.
Apple To Join Blu-ray – CeBIT 05
In a board meeting yesterday, Apple computers committed to join the Blu-ray Association and will occupy a seat on the main board.In the battle of Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD disc formats, this is pretty big news. Although in the current percentage of computers sold, this isn’t a massive surprise, with Apple keen on pushing themselves (successfully) as a media company, this will have a significant impact on the success of the Blu-ray disc format.
Importantly Apple joinging will generate lots of news discussion about Blu-ray. On that note … did you know that pre-recorded Blu-ray discs were see through? Me neither, until I got my hands on one at the Sony press launch (see image at top of story).
Currently Dell and HP are the other two computer companies that sit on the board. Apple will be the 16th company to join the board, joining the 110 companies that have committed to Blu-ray.
Steve Jobs said “Apple is pleased to join Blue-ray Association board as part of our effort to drive consumer adoption of HD.” In return Apple will include the same HD video CoDec that Blu-ray uses in QuickTime 7.
There’s big money and effort being put behind the success of Blu-ray, and with a lot of content companies, CE companies and, computer companies getting behind it, it appears to be pulling ahead.
Blu-ray has been shipping in Japan now for quite some time. Sony’s BDZ-S77 (catchy name) was the first product to ship, and has been followed by other companies, some of which support the dual-layer 50Gb version.During CeBIT, Philips and Sony have announced computer drives capable of burning Blu-ray disks, or “BD” as those in the know call it. The first Blu-ray consumer device to hit the market in US and European market will be the Sony Playstation 3.
Why does anyone need it? The quick and simple answer is HD TV. Because of the resolution of an HD picture, considerable amounts of storage are required. By 2008 12% of European homes will have HD-capable TV, and more importantly, at the same time, 3m homes to have HDTV service. Clearly HD is already big in Japan and in growing the US.
Blu-ray disc carry 25Gb per layer. There are two layers currently in market, single and dual layer. Others multi-layers discs are being brought to market and we understand that Sony has an eight layer, 200Gb disc running in the Lab.
Vodafone At Home Talk and Web Announced – CeBIT 05
(Hannover, Germany) Since November, Vodafone has been offering Vodafone At Home Talk in Germany. When using the service, calls that are made from the subscriber’s home cell are charged at a low cost, with one of the bundles available being 1,000 mins for €20 month.Today at CeBIT Vodafone announced adding to this to include Vodafone At Home Web. By plugging in a Vodafone Connect Card into their computer, subscribers can connect over 3G (UMTS) at 384kbs for a fixed €34 month (£23/US$45>. In return you get up to 60 hours/ 5Gb of access.
In Q2 2005 they will be expanding this to Vodafone At Home Talk and Web. The subscriber will plug all of their current equipment (landline handset, DECT phone, computer, fax, etc) into the box (price being floated, €500/£348/US$671). This box will connect via GSM and UMTS (3G) to the Vodafone network to enable voice and data comms.
In the UK BT Bluephone is designed to provide a similar service for phone calls.We’re seeing this for the personal and professional nomad. The tech savy who land in an area for a period of time, then move on – eg consultants, or criminals on the run (please don’t confuse the two). It will also be of use in areas where broadband service don’t extend out (eg rural areas), but 3G networks coverage is possible – how ever limited this may be.
This could also be seen as a defensive move. Voice over WiFi is coming to the masses, from big, well known companies (witness AOL and Wannado) and deals like Skype did with Broadreach for free WiFi hotspot usage are going to start to hit the mobile companies hard.
During the press conference I asked what they were doing to counter the threat of Voice over WiFi, in particular free service like Skype. Friedrich P Joussen (COO) said they were very aware of the threat and felt it was down to the speed that services could be rolled out to the public.He referred to a lot of VoIP services (Vonage, etc) charging fixed-rate/catch-all monthly prices, to account for when call traffic leaves the IP network to interconnect with PSTN and charges are levied against them by the PSTN operators. Vodafone’s first move against this is by offering a 1,000 minute service for €20/month detailed above.
This doesn’t, of course, begin to address the competition that a zero-cost/month service like Skype offers.
DSC-T7: Sony Announces sexy 5.1mpx Camera – CeBIT 05
(CeBIT, Hannover) Wandering around the Sony products at the pre-CeBIT press conference, I came across the DSC-T7, the smallest, sexiest model whos roots lay with the DSC-T1.Available in the to-be-expected silver and a sultry black, the DSC-T7 re-introduces
a sliding cover that both covers and protects the lens and switches the camera on. Measuring only 14.8 mm / 0.6 in at the lens cover, and 9.8 mm / 0.4in for the main body, it packs 5.1m pixel. The back is taken up with a 2.5″ TFT Hybrid LCD, displaying 230,000 pixels.As you can see from the shots, this baby is really slim and an instant object of desire. Sony think it will sell well to the female side of society and I wouldn’t be so exclusive – men will want this baby too, but we’d advise against popping it in your back pocket and sitting down.
Nothing definite on release dates or price but the talk in the corridors is it should be around in May for around 375Euro, $500, 260 UKP.CeBIT 2005
CeBIT 2005 offers an exhibition and conference featuring a worldwide unique compilation of over 800 lectures regarding corporate lectures, platforms and expert conventions, that take care of your status of information regarding new products, procedures, market developments and solutions.Hannover, Germanwww.cebit.de
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the official trade event “by game developers for developers” of computer, console, mobile, arcade, online games, and location based entertainment. The GDC attracts over 10,000 attendees and provides educational, networking, and business opportunities for game development professionals driving the $9 billion video game industry. It is the main global forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas, network, and shape the future of the industry. This market defining conference features over 300 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts. In addition, the GDC expo showcases all of the game development tools, platforms and services. The conference also includes the seventh annual Independent Games Festival, where new, unpublished games compete for the attention of the publishing community.San Francisco, USA http://www.gdconf.com/conference/
Sky Drops Microsoft Windows Media For MPEG-4 On HDTV
Sky has for quite a long time been evaluating the best CoDEC for their High-Definition TV (HDTV) service. They currently deliver their content using an MPEG-2, which given the extra bandwidth that HD requires would make the demand on satellite bandwidth too high.To address this, they have been evaluating new forms of video compression. The two final runners have been Microsoft’s Windows Media format, and MPEG-4.
We learnt today that they have made their decision – they’re dropped Microsoft’s Windows Media format and running with MPEG4.
Richard Freudenstein, COO of BSkyB used his speech at DVB World to talk about Sky’s HDTV service. The general points have been covered in other publications, like Digital Spy.
We were a little surprised that Sky announced that HD content would be deliverable to ‘normal’, ie Standard Definition (SD) TVs. Up to this point we’d always thought that Sky’s HD content would only stay in HDMI/HDCP world (ie the content would be encrypted until it hit your eyeballs).
We dug a little deeper with Sky to find out more.
Content that’s watched/recorded on the Sky HD service _will_ be recordable, but in Standard Definition. This will be delivered over RGB or RF (standard aerial cable), so recordable on current DVD/VHS recorders.
There will be an HD output, via component. This will not be the full HD resolution, but down sampled (our words, definitely not Sky’s. They refused to use those words).
This doesn’t necessarily apply to Pay Per View (PPV) content.
When we asked about the recording of full resolution of HDTV, Sky tried to initially bounce the question with “HD-DVD recorders are not available so the question does not arise”. Well I’m sure you know they’re currently sold in Japan and they are within reach in the UK, especially by the time the Sky HD service is launched.
When we dug further, we were told that as specs of the HD DVD recorders that would be available in the UK were unknown, no definitive answer could be given. If you know differently, please get in touch.
Skype Handset, Siemens M34/S440 Competition Winner
At last, (if not a little behind schedule) …
Congratulations to Bernard Herbert of Belgium, as he has won the Skype-friendly Siemens USB adaptor and Handset combo in our recent readers competition. When we spoke to Bernard, via Skype of course, he was delighted, “It’s going to be of help every day,” he enthused. It’s currently not available in Belgium, so Bernard will have a one-off.You may remember that we also got quite excited about it in our exclusive review. We’re going to miss this baby at the Digital-Lifestyles offices. It’s become part of our daily tech toolkit.
Many thanks to everyone who filled out the survey. We really appreciate the feedback.
We’ve had a lot of people contact us asking when the Siemens kit will be available in their country. The official word from them is they’re “in discussions”>If you’re interested in the combo, drop us a quick note to Siemens.Skype(at)Digital-Lifestyles.info. We’d be happy to pass them on to Siemens, with the vague possibility that it might hasten their introduction in your country.
Simon Perry
After getting the world very excited about their yet (if ever) to be produced 102″ plasma (PDP) screen, Samsung has today just announced the availability of a 82″ LCD TV. It’s for people who don’t live in houses with lounges (or media-consumption-arenas as they may become to be known) that are the size of the Albert Hall.
If you’re looking for a slightly more pedestrian use for it, it’s fitted with an HDMI interface, so all of that HDCP-protected content can be displayed on it.
In a board meeting yesterday, Apple computers committed to join the Blu-ray Association and will occupy a seat on the main board.
Blu-ray has been shipping in Japan now for quite some time. Sony’s BDZ-S77 (catchy name) was the first product to ship, and has been followed by other companies, some of which support the dual-layer 50Gb version.
(Hannover, Germany) Since November, Vodafone has been offering Vodafone At Home Talk in Germany. When using the service, calls that are made from the subscriber’s home cell are charged at a low cost, with one of the bundles available being 1,000 mins for €20 month.
In the UK 
During the press conference I asked what they were doing to counter the threat of Voice over WiFi, in particular free service like Skype. Friedrich P Joussen (COO) said they were very aware of the threat and felt it was down to the speed that services could be rolled out to the public.
(CeBIT, Hannover) Wandering around the Sony products at the pre-CeBIT press conference, I came across the DSC-T7, the smallest, sexiest model whos roots lay with the DSC-T1.
a sliding cover that both covers and protects the lens and switches the camera on. Measuring only 14.8 mm / 0.6 in at the lens cover, and 9.8 mm / 0.4in for the main body, it packs 5.1m pixel. The back is taken up with a 2.5″ TFT Hybrid LCD, displaying 230,000 pixels.
Nothing definite on release dates or price but the talk in the corridors is it should be around in May for around 375Euro, $500, 260 UKP.
Sky has for quite a long time been evaluating the best CoDEC for their High-Definition TV (HDTV) service. They currently deliver their content using an MPEG-2, which given the extra bandwidth that HD requires would make the demand on satellite bandwidth too high.
Congratulations to Bernard Herbert of Belgium, as he has won the Skype-friendly Siemens USB adaptor and Handset combo in our recent readers competition. When we spoke to Bernard, via Skype of course, he was delighted, “It’s going to be of help every day,” he enthused. It’s currently not available in Belgium, so Bernard will have a one-off.