Digital-Lifestyles

Simon Perry

  • Tesco open Smartphone beta shopping program

    Having already built the most commercially successful online grocery shopping service in the world, UK supermarket chain Tesco is taking its online ordering service to the Smartphone. They are now accepting applications for beta testers, who will start the three month trial in October. If it proves successful, it is hoped that the launch of the full service will start in Spring 2004.

    An on-air connection is not required when creating the shopping order, or when browsing details of items that have previously been ordered. A connection is required when actually placing the order or browsing the other 20,000+ items that are available.

    A few T&C’s apply such as needing to own a phone handset running Microsoft Smartphone 2002 or the new Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone; be a UK resident and be prepared to carry out a shop through your phone.

    Beta test link

  • JOYTECH release first handheld Tablet-style DVD player

    Claiming to be first of its kind, the PlayScreen from JOYTECH, includes a 7inch 16:9 WideScreen TFT monitor and a DVD player, all in a ‘Tablet Style’. There’s been lots of portable DVD players around before, but they all have a clamshell form with the screen in the upper lid.

    It’s looks pretty versatile – it is able to play back CD Audio, DVD Movies, CR-R, JPEG Files, and MP3 Files. Audio playback though the integrated stereo speakers and utilise full Dolby Digital™ and DTS™ compatibility.
     
    Portability comes via a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and in-car adaptor or for static use the unit can be desk mounted, wall or car mounted.

    It will be available exclusively for £299.99 through play.com from October until January 2004 after which it will be freely available.

    Looks fun and we look forward to get our hand on one.

    JOYTECH

  • Fox Sports and RealNetworks get closer together

    In a deal between Fox Sports and RealNetworks to stream video content over the Internet, US college football games will be viewable either via on a pay-per-view (PPV) basis or RealOne SuperPass priced at $9.95 per month.

    Due to what looks like licensing restriction subscribers must reside outside of the Fox Sports Net territorial broadcast area for the competing schools. There are no such restrictions on the PPV versions. It appears that games will only be viewable within the USA

    Link RealOne or FoxSport

  • Kodak give online photo print service, Ofoto, a UK launch

    We’re believers that the physical printing of digital photo will continue to be big business, at least until the home printing of photos progresses beyond the unsatisfactory ink jet printing currently available. Home produced prints are slow; expensive; require a number of prints to get the colour reproduction correct and, then after all that, the inks fade in sunlight.

    Not surprisingly Kodak are keen not to loose the profits they collect from analogue film cameras and are launching their online print service, Ofoto, in the UK on 22 September. Working in the same way as rival services, the photos are simply uploaded to the site and the option is given to crop the photo or apply finishing touches such as removal of red eye. The images are then passed for printing and return in the post, printed on Kodak paper, as per a normal film camera, bringing the same longevity to the print. The photos are also available on the Web – cleveryly making it convenient for friends and relatives to buy further prints.

    The service has been available around the world since 1999, has won a couple of US accolades – “Best Photo Service” by Time magazine, and winner of a CNET Editors’ Choice Award – and to date eight million people have used it. They have also coined a new term, infoimaging, which apparently is the convergence of imaging and information technology – a new one to us.

    The one-off print prices are reasonably competitive, but strangely discounts for multiple prints are not offered, as most of their competitors do, however this is slightly balanced by competitive delivery prices.

    Link Ofoto UK, Ofoto US

  • D-Link announce 1st UPnP standalone home network storage unit

    D-Link have released a device, the DSM-602H, that they are call a Storage Media Central Home Drive. We think there are a couple of things about this product that are of note and are a signpost to the future.

    Utilising an idea from business computing, where networked hard drive storage is separated from the server – a Storage Area Network (SAN) – this device is just for file storage. It doesn’t perform any other function. It just receives files, holds them and dispatches them on request of the processing machine, be that a Digital Media Adaptor, computer or another device.

    While it’s not the first device to do this, the Martian NetDrive has been gathering fans for a while, it’s the first from a major manufacturer. We feel this will be a continuing trend – as consumers digitise and hold greater amounts of media, they will just add storage units to cope. There are two models for this, single standalone units like this the DSM-602H, and units that have a empty drive bays for a number of hard drives to be held.

    The other significant development is that this is the first storage device that utilises Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP). UPnP allows the user to just plug the device into any UPnP-friendly network, and without any manual configuration, it will sort out it’s own IP address, network name, announce its capabilities and make itself available to any other device on the network. UPnP or Apple’s similar Rendezvous are great advances for the home user, removing the unnecessary complexity of setup.

    We imagine the only extension that this type of device will require in the future would be an interface to handle the drives contents Digital Rights Management (DRM). Rights holders of content won’t be distributing their products onto home networks that store their content without this.

    It is disappointing to see that this first release is only 20Gb, which when put in the perspective of the Apple’s 40Gb iPod, sound pretty feeble. It’s no surprise that D-Link don’t mention storing video.

    Available from mid-October at a surprisingly high $249.99, it’s interesting to see it comes with free 24/7 technical support – one of the essential features for Digital Lifestyle products.

    Expect plenty more devices like this in the future.

    Links: D-Link, Martian NetDrive, Apple Rendezvous & UPnP

  • 85 classic video games for under $40

    We love classic arcade games, so when we heard that the PowerJoy III was being released with 85 of them onboard, we thought we mention it. The joystick has the games loaded into it, so doesn’t need an additional console – it just plugs into the TV set.

    This version will also be able to take additional games via the plug in cartridges. We’ve not specifically played the PowerJoy but have played others, but it sounds like good value for under $40.

    PowerJoy site

  • Sony US announce details of PS2 hard drive

    Following the long running rumours Sony has just confirmed that in March 2004 they will be releasing an 40Gb hard drive for their PlayStation 2 games console priced at $99. This gives them not just the ability to enhance game play, but to treat the PS2 as a media adaptor.

    The hard drive will ship with a customised media player which includes the ability to play MP3’s, copy audio CD’s on to the PS2 and manage digital photos. As yet there is no detail about the handling or the playing of video files.

    Since Microsoft announced the Xbox would have a hard disk, Sony has been concerned that the Xbox would be able to access digital media and display it on the connected TV. This, combined with the already available network adaptor, is the start of their response. In their words

    “The Hard Disk Drive is a further step toward a new era of digital in-home entertainment, creating a total living room experience that includes games, movies and music.”

    On the gaming side, users will be able to save their game progress as well as download new content – levels, missions and characters for their bought games. It will be sold pre-installed with Square Enix’s highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Final Fantasy XI and pre-released demonstration of other upcoming games. One of the first games to utilise the Hard Drive will be the soon-to-be-released SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, which probably needs the hard drive just to store its extraordinarily long title.

    If you’re really desperate to get your hands of a hard drive for the PS2, one has been available since May 2002 as part of the Linux development bundle. Even though the drive in this kit is also 40Gb, it’s not expected that it will with the games.

    PS2 Linux developer kit

  • Microsoft OneNote to be installed on Toshiba tablet PC’s & laptops

    A while back Microsoft started talking publicly about a new piece of software that they called OneNote. It is an interesting application that lets the user to take any of their text document, graphics, audio recordings, or in the case of tablet PC owner’s drawings/scribbles that they make during the day, and connect they together in a logical structure.

    They are attempting to provide the user the flexibility of a paper notebook, the power of digital note taking and a powerful way of retrieving that information. It sound like it is an extension of the priciples of a brilliant piece of software that died with DOS, called Lotus Agenda. Agenda’s developer, Mitch Kapor is also working on an updated version of his masterpiece code named “Chandler”.

    OneNote is going to be officially released at the same time as the new Microsoft Office suite, due on 21 October, 2003 and Microsoft have added meat to this deal by doing a deal with Toshiba to have it installed on every tablet PC or laptop that is shipped after the released date.

    Link: Early review of OneNote beta

    Microsoft Official OneNote site

    Chandler

  • Kingston bring out USB 2.0 data drives

    USB drives have become widely popular, within business as well as for personal use. As presenters at business conferences know, if you turn up with your presentation not on one you’re seriously unfashionable. Individuals are using them to share their photo’s, music and video with friends.

    The need to pull potentially large files from them in realtime (without copying the data to the local hard drive first) has lead Kingston Technology to bring out the DataTraveler 2.0 line of products. Utilising fast memory and the fast communications of USB 2.0, they have 1/8Gb, 1/4Gb, 1/2Gb and 1Gb models all of which can have their content protected using Kingston’s TravelerSafe software. They range in retail price from $74 – $349 and come with a five year warranty and should hold the data for ten years.

    Link

  • IBC: US Digital Cinema BigWig details the US vision

    The keenly anticipated Keynote at this morning’s d-cinema day at IBC was from Chuck Goldwater of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) outlined the areas that were of importance to them.

    The US and Europe have a significantly different view on what digital cinema is all about. The US want to take it to the high end and make it an ‘experience’ that can’t be sampled in anywhere but a new form of 1,000 plus seater venues. The European’s see it as a way to make cinema more democratic, enabling people to see a wide variety at even the smallest venue, eg a small village hall. The difference between these visions lead them at different ends of the projection quality, which could mean that Hollywood studios would not allow their films to be distributed to lower resolution projectors.

    Chuck Goldwater told the audience that Hollywood are committed to making d-cinema a “better experience than a 35mm print” currently gives, which translates to content being projected at a 4k resolution. They are also mindful that the currently availability of 4k projectors is restricted so are considering _allowing_ scalable resolution solutions for 2K projection but only until 4k is economically viable. To ensure their aim of 4k is attained they are actively working with the projector industry.

    The DCI also see their role as encompassing considering and evaluating the packaging of the content use MXF, content security including key management systems and the exploration of compression schemes.

    The DCI are keen that their views of standards are applied across the World. These standard including a common format, compatibility & interoperability and reliable & secure distribution.

    It’s not clear yet how this high-end approach will work with the more inclusive European approach.