Simon Perry

T-Mobile HotSpot Phone Merges WiFi/Cellular Services
Cellular phone provider T-Mobile US is offering a service, HotSpot @Home, giving unlimited calls to US phones via WiFi. This in itself isn’t big news, but what is significant is that callers leaving the range of the WiFi will automatically switch to their cellular service. Initial roll-out is limited to Seattle.
This type of service has been long-discussed, but several technical barriers stood in its way, primarily handing the call from the WiFi-connected call over to the cellular network, without losing the conversation, or a break in the speaking. It’s pretty complex.
Beyond the mechanics of the call hand-over, the riddle of when and how the subscriber would be billed when transferring to the cellular network – and stopping that billing when they reconnect to WiFi has also caused great confusion for a long time.
Cellular reception within peoples home is often pretty ropey, so using their WiFi service will give considerably better reception – making them happy bunnies.
To use the service, three items are required – two pieces of hardware and a service plan. Once the special cellular/WiFi handset has been selected (which look surprisingly decent) and the Wireless hotspot router is installed on the home network, all that is required is the add-on ($19.95/month) on top of the normal $39.95.
The two handsets currently available are the Samsung T709 slider or the Nokia 6136 flip.
BT has been offering a similar service in the UK for a while under the product name BT Fusion. The difference with BT Fusion is it uses Bluetooth to handle the wireless calls at home rather than WiFi.
T-Mobile is the mobile communications subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, the German telco incumbent.
They have spent considerable effort over the recent years not only building and owning their cellular service, but doing the same with their WiFi network, clearly understanding early on that WiFi would be a significant threat to cellular services.
T-Mobile HotSpot Phone
25 October, 2006
Apple: All MacBook Pro’s Now Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple has updated its whole MacBook Pro range of laptops to run Intel’s Core 2 Duo range of processors. They claim a 39% speed improvement.
There may be a few who will be a little peeved with this. Many people jumped on to the new Apple range of laptops when it was launched back at the start of this year. At that time they were using the plain-old Core Duo chips but even those gave a considerable speed improvement – two to three times the previous G5 equivalent. They were universally celebrated.
Those keen little things, who shelled out for them, might be a little down in the mouth to find a new, even whizzier version coming out.
The rest of the specs of the machines have remained the same, including the outside casing. We covered the specs in detail at the original launch, or if you want to delve into the depths of the specs, take a look at the Apple site.
Pricing
2.16 GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro – £1,349 (inc. VAT)
2.33 GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro – £1,699 (inc. VAT)
2.33 GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro – £1,899 (inc. VAT )
25 October, 2006
US Scouts Offered Respect Copyright Merit Patch
Coming straight from the you-must-be-having-a-laugh folder, news reaches us that the Los Angeles Scout group is introducing a new merit award — the Respecting Copyright Patch. We kid you not.
The MPAA, the film industry trade body, has been instrumental in the development of the structure of the programme. To be awarded the badge, the young scouts will need to learn the basics of copyright law, five ways of identify copyright material and three ways that copyright material can be ‘stolen’.
I know, I know, it just sounds like one big fun-fest doesn”t it, but the fun doesn’t end there for those lucky kids. There is also a compulsory activity with a choice between either visiting a film studio to witness the number of people that are involved with the production of films (therefore helping them understand how many people would be affected if the whole thing closed down), or to create a public service announcement warning of the risks of ‘copyright theft.’
“We have a real opportunity to educate a new generation about how movies are made, why they are valuable, and hopefully change attitudes about intellectual property theft,” Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America told the press.
As veteran copyleft campaigner Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing asked, how balanced will the tutoring of this patch be? Will the young and clearly impressionable scouts also be told about subjects such as Creative Commons?
There are 52,000 scouts in the LA area, many who have family members involved in some way with the creation of films, which is bound to help in its uptake of the patch. It is understood that the MPAA hope to take this ‘opportunity’ to a wider audience. Their plan? Expansion to the rest of California early next year, then to America as a whole.
The patch that they would earn, which is rather tacky to say the least, shows a (c) copyright symbol in the centre, with the left side displaying a CD and to the right, a film reel.
Just how many other industries are given the opportunity to spread their message through the American Scouts is unclear. To us it sound like a worrying trend.
23 October, 2006
Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7): Microsoft Releases
Microsoft have made their latest version of their Web browser, Internet Explorer 7, available for download.
The build-up to the release has been considerable, as the product has been available as a beta download for the last 14 months.
To many, Microsoft’s browser has become less relevant as alternative browsers have become more stable and accepted – primarily the open source Firefox and to a lesser extent Opera.
Feature Catchup
The other browsers have been innovating features that their users couldn’t imaging living without, such as Tabbed browsing, where new browsing sessions are opened in a tab across the top of the screen rather than littering the desktop with new windows. With ie7, Microsoft has finally caught up and has built it in.
Other features included to match the same level of functionality, are reading RSS feeds and building in a search box to the browser that they call Live Search. There has been some controversy over the search, as it defaults to searching on Microsoft’s own service. It is understood that this was the only option right up to just before the final release, when other search options were added.
Phishing warning
Built into ie7 is the knowledge of sites that are known for phishing – sites that lure the innocent user into providing personal information, often banking details, that are then used for criminal purposes. When an ie7 user goes to one of these sites by mistake, the Web address bar is turned red and a message is displayed.
Beware! spoof versions
Some naughty Trojan writers have used the release of ie7 to attempt to spread their evil seed to the world. They sent out a spam email using the [email protected] email address, pointing people to a link that launched a Web site made to look like Microsoft’s own download site.
Microsoft ie7
20 October, 2006
Mobile J/Speedy: NFC Payments Hits Amsterdam
An NFC payment system is on trial in Amsterdam allowing people taking part to make purchases using their mobile phone.
We’re massive fans of NFC (Near Field Communications) and have been for close to two years. We see it as a significant way to enhance the function of your mobile phone (primarily), as well as a new way of getting content to your phone.
Eight companies are getting together for the latest trial, this time lead by Japanese credit card giant JCB and marks Europe’s first contactless international credit payment scheme using a Nokia 3220 with an NFC chip.
Selected JCB cardholders are provided with a mobile phone by Nokia, which are equipped with an NFC chip, developed by NXP and loaded with the JCB payment application developed by Gemalto.
The first transaction of the pilot was conducted at Sushi Time, the Japanese sushi restaurant in the World Trade Center in Amsterdam.
At selected PaySquare merchants, cardholders can securely purchase items by just holding their mobile phone close to ViVOtech’s contactless NFC reader/writer, which is attached to the payment terminal of CCV.
Approximately 100 selected JCB cardholders are now enjoying fast, easy, and convenient payments with Mobile J/Speedy at selected merchants, where they used to pay by cash.
Although it has only been one month since the trial was launched, the increasing number of repeat usage indicates a strong acceptance of the technology and a very successful pilot.
“Feedback from the first users of Mobile J/Speedy has been very encouraging and we are pleased to now be able to involve a wider group of customers,” said Hajime Matsuura, branch manager of JCB International’s Amsterdam branch.
The first European NFC-based public transport ticketing trials took place within the local bus network in the city of Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany in 2005.
Expect plenty more news on NFC trials.
20 October, 2006
Motorola Pass 50 million Digital Set Top Boxes
Over the last ten years, Motorola has moved from the first commercial digital STB to shipping fifty million digital STBs.
Back in 1996 General Instrument Corporation, later acquired by Motorola, shipped the first Digital Consumer Terminal (DCT) Model 1000 set-top to customers. It handled both analogue and digital signals travelling over the cable.
Of the 50m units they’ve shipped, 8m of them are high-definition (HD) capable receivers and over 5 million digital video recorders.
As a way of getting to grips with the scale of 50m Motorola set-tops stacked one on top of the other, we’re told that
- they would reach a height of over 11 million feet, almost 400 times that of Mount Everest
- placed end-to-end in a straight line would cover the distance from London to Sydney, Australia.
19 October, 2006
Apple Grows iPod Sales
Apple has continued to increase the number of iPods they’re selling. Their latest quarterly results show that they grown the 8.11m iPods they sold in the previous quarter to 8.73m this quarter, beyond market expectations. The quarter that is reporting didn’t change or introduce any new iPods.
The number of computers they sold has also increased 30 percent from the same quarter in the previous year to 1.61m. We’re slightly surprised that this figure wasn’t higher, given that the latest quarter included the switch to the Intel processor, which has given a considerable increase in the speed.
Jobs enthused, “Selling more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs while performing an incredibly complex architecture transition is something we are all very proud of.”
Overall, the company posted revenues of $4.84Bn, and a net quarterly profit of $546m.
19 October, 2006
Logitech Buys Slim Devices
Logitech has announced that it is buying Slim Devices for $10m cash plus a possible performance-based payment tied to certain revenue targets. The news came on the same day as their best-ever Q2 sales, which reached $502m.
Slim Devices has been selling their Squeezebox WiFi music player since 2004, continuing to improve the product through subsequent releases. The device pulls music from PCs, distributing it via Ethernet, or Wirelessly about the home.
Latterly they’ve moved into the higher ground of products, by bringing out the Transporter. Featuring high quality components, it also differs from the Squeezebox by actually have some controls on it, as well as a remote control.
Logitech currently sell some devices for playing digital music from your PC, as SlimDevices does, but they haven’t exactly set the market on fire.
Junien Labrousse, Logitech SVP of the Entertainment and Communication Business Unit explained their reasoning for the purchase, “One of the main reasons for this acquisition is the development capabilities of the Slim Devices team. The technical level of this group is a key asset that we fully intend to leverage.” He also confirmed the concerns of some of Slim Devices current customers “[they] will function independently, keeping the spirit of advance audio technology and strong product innovation.”
We think it’s a good move by Logitech, as Slim makes good-looking devices and Logitech generally don’t. As well as the technology they’ll be gaining, we hope that they’ll also focus the product design within the Slim Devices team.
Logitech has the ability to take Slim Devices music players through their considerable retail connections, moving slim from the Geeks favorite, to a mainstream products.
Slim Devices
Logitech
19 October, 2006
Orange Messenger by Windows Live Brings Mobile And PC IM Together
Orange and Microsoft have joined together to offer Instant Messaging (IM) connectivity between computers and mobile phones, claiming it’s a first.
The service will bring together Orange’s 135m customers with the 240m Microsoft IM users letting them seamlessly IM each other while on different platforms.
It’s not public ready yet, so the service will be starting in France in December this year (and why not … Orange is after all France Telecom in disguise). The UK and Spain will follow “in 2007.”
Hell bent on convergification Didier Lombard, Chairman and CEO, France Telecom gushed, “The launch of this new offering reflects once again the success of Orange’s convergence strategy. Our ambition is to offer simple convergent services, bringing our customers into the world of always-on connectivity.”
We’re a little puzzled by their uniqueness claim, “Orange and Microsoft today announced their first convergent Instant Messaging offering for PCs and mobile.” Given IM clients have been running on mobile phones for a while, how is this the first time?
18 October, 2006
Sony Paint Ad: First HD Advert In UK
Sony and Sky are tying up to show the UK’s first HD advert tonight.
You may well have seen a lot of the build-up for Sony’s latest advert – the one with the paint. It’s the follow-up to their coloured balls advert shot in San Francisco.
Appropriately the advert is for Sony’s Bravia range of HD TVs. Shot in the somewhat less-glamorous location of a disused tower block in Glasgow, Scotland, it shows 70, 000 litres of coloured paint exploding up the side of the block of flats.
Shot over 10 days and with a crew of 250 people, the paint was mixed on site by 20 people. The clear up took 5 days and 60 people.
Behind the scenes footage of the shoot has been circulating on the online video services for about two months now. The wobbly camcorder shot material lends itself to looking like it’s been shot by your ‘man in the street,’ but given the size of the campaign, it’s more likely to be seeded by Sony or their advertising agency, to try and create a build up of interest.
Here’s the finished results.
It makes total sense for Sony to shoot this ad in HD given they’ve been pushing HD for nearly 3 years in Europe – initially through their professional arm that sells the cameras. Given their zeal in this area it makes you wonder why it took so long for an HD advert to come out from them.
The launch of this first HD ad follows a major marketing agreement between Sky and Sony to promote HD.
The HD advert will shown on Sky Sports HD 2 tonight during the Chelsea vs Barcelona football coverage.
18 October, 2006