Simon Perry

• Ed Richards Gets Ofcom CEO Job

  Ofcom has announced that Ed Richards is taking over the uber-communications agency CEO reigns, effective today.

  As we back in January), the then current CEO Stephen Carter was leaving.

  Richards name has been in the frame for a long time. He’s politically very well connected, given that he was previously the UK Prime Minister’s Senior Policy Advisor on media matters.

  Watchers of all things Ofcom, our good buddies OfcomWatch see the challenges for Richards to be

  * Steering Ofcom through its day-to-day implementation of the various strategic reviews. This means real bread-and-butter regulatory work like conducting radio spectrum auctions and supervising BT-Openreach as it starts to deliver on its Sept 2005 undertakings. Gone – for the most part – are the days of strategic thinking combined with predictive statements about the future.

  * Ensuring that Ofcom’s voice is heard on key issues. Ofcom to its credit, tend to think and act in an evidence-based manner, but are surrounded by a regulatory environment which is highly politicised. This has been particularly true in both the media and new media, an area where Stephen Carter’s Ofcom often produced good thinking, but was unable to translate that into actual policy (eg, BBC charter review). Richards comes from the political world, and this might benefit Ofcom in that respect.

  * Being a champion of ‘better regulation’ in dealing with the European Commission, health advocates, and other populist causes.

  Given they spend all of their time studying Ofcom, who are we to argue of them.

  5 October, 2006

• Unlimited Learning Report: Video Games In Learning Released

  A new report examining the role computer and video games can play in education was released today by ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), in association with the UK Department for Education and Skills’.

  Entitled ‘Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in the learning landscape’ it uses a number of exclusive case studies on the benefits of games when used in learning. An example is a college in Nottinghamshire who results appear to be near unbelievable. They’ve seen key skills increase to a 94% success rate, compared to the national benchmark of 22%. They attribute much of this to incorporating the commercial game ‘Neverwinter Nights’ into its teaching plan.

  Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE summarised, all be it at length, the major points, highlighting the strengths of the method, “Increasingly video games are being recognised as a powerful tool for learning. Yes of course they are entertaining and a lot of fun, but they’ve also the ability to inspire and motivate. They hold out the tantalising prospect of personalised, responsive and thoroughly enjoyable learning experiences, irrespective of age, or ability. They can promote ideas, they can stimulate conversation, challenge thinking and, critically for the future of our highly skills-dependent economy, they can encourage problem solving.”

  Some will find it surprising that it’s not just young joystick twitchers that are benefiting from learning through games. E-learning expert, Professor Stephen Heppell, who has been studying this area for years explained, “The curious thing is that we’re seeing people playing games and challenging themselves with their computers right across the age range, literally womb to tomb. (We take our hat off to him for being the first person to use the ‘Womb to Tomb’ phrase, which, from this point forward, we will never tire of using.)

  Of course there will be many cries of education being dumbed down, but I clearly remember chatting to friends at school about how much easier it would be if what we needed to learn could be set to music – given that we knew the lyric of every song that we liked.

  Report: ‘Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in the learning landscape’(PDF)

  4 October, 2006

• Dyson Airblade: Feels Like The Future

  Dyson have this morning launched a new product, the Dyson Airblade, a replacement for tired old hand dryers.

  You know the problem. You go to the toilet, wash your hand then you met with the air blowing hand dryer. You stand there for what seems like ages, rubbing your hands together in the vain hope that they are drying. Getting frustrated with it, you walk away and run your hands on your trousers in frustration, reminiscing about the days when towels used to inhabit bathrooms.

  The clever sticks at Dyson were working on an unnamed product using what they term ‘Air blades’ – air shot out at 400MPH through a 0.3mm gap, when one of the engineers noticed that they were pretty effective at drying the water from his hands. The genesis of the product had occurred.

  

  To use the Airblade dryer you place your hands in at waist height, the airblades switch on, and you slowly draw your hands out, up towards you. Do it slowly enough – Dyson claim 10 seconds for the process.

  What’s it like to use?
  Having used it, I was pretty impressed. It actually felt like ‘the future’. We’ve all seen the films where people walk in to the air shower and are clean and dry within 30 seconds – well think of that on a small scale.

  There’s no discomfort, and because the air passes through filters before it gets to your hands and no germs. This anti-germ theme is extended to all of the external surfaces which have an anti-microbial coating.

  The water removed is drained to the bottom, through an iodine chamber to purify it, finally dropping on to a piezo element which vibrates like billy-o and turns the water into vapor.

  

  Dyson are betting large on this one having committed £10m to the 2.5 years of development.

  A success for Dyson?
  This is a smart move by Dyson and their first step into ‘trade’ appliances. Every public toilet in the world has a hand-dryer of some sort. Products like this provide a great, steady source of income – possibly for a very long time.

  Beyond public toilets, there’s a huge potential for sales to hospital, where UK residents will know, there’s considerable concern about the spread of germs.

  

  Trials have been running in motorway service stations, hospitals and other locations for a number of months, but not under the Dyson name – they invented Kai-Don Airstrip to throw off the competition.

  The competing products are considerably cheaper, but Dyson claim that due to low energy usage their Airblade will pay for itself in a year.

  If you are fed up with washing the towels at home, you’ll be able to buy on from mid-November for £549 and sample the feel of the future.

  Dyson

  3 October, 2006

• CEATEC 2006, Tokyo

  3 – 7 October, 2006 We covered CEATEC last year, and apart from being stunned by Tokyo, we found it an exciting exhibition with loads of innovative products on show. Alongside the show, is a series of keynotes from the great and the good of consumer electronic, with the top bods from the Japanese companies showing up. The theme this year is Digital Convergence, so expect interesting things. We’re planning on giving it strong coverage. ** Recommended ** http://www.ceatec.com/2006/en/visitor/

  3 October, 2006

• Catch-A-Perv: IM Paedos Beware

  Two UK lads, Gary and Ash, have taken upon themselves to go into Internet chats, posing as a 13 year old girl and converse with various men who happened across them.

  Sadly many of the men who chat to them aren’t asking them about their interest in sewing patterns, but do in fact try to engage with them in sexual discussions.

  Gary and Ash keep up the 13 year old act, while recording the conversations, they then encourage the (normally) older men to turn on their Web cams, which they also record.

  

  The old boy at the other end of the connection then begs for them to switch on the “13 year old’s” Webcam. Much to their surprise, they see two lads who then inform them that they’ll be featuring on the Catch-A-Perv Website.

  While it looks clear that they are exposing people who shouldn’t be discussing such things with those so young, Gary and Ash have given themselves a route out of possible legal problems by stating that “The website does not claim any persons shown on the site are paedophiles – there is no reference that suggests this – it is clear however, that the behaviour demonstrated is unacceptable.”

  It’s a pretty distasteful read, so it’s lightened by reading the front page, where perhaps by mistake, or in joking way, they say they’re “raising awareness of the issue in hand.”

  via BBC Radio 4: You and Yours
  Catch-A-Perv

  3 October, 2006

• Coms F1000/F3000: WiFi VoIP Handsets

  UK VoIP company, Coms, has just launched two WiFi VoIP handsets in advance of their service which is going live on 9 October.

  Coms claim their service will be the first in the UK that let people choose their own phone number from 178 UK geographic area codes.

  Don’t forget, all you need to use these handsets is a WiFi connection, either yours, or any open connection. We think these services will be big and eventually seriously dent the income of mobile phone companies, especially roaming minutes when people are abroad.

  We’ve had our hands on a few VoIP WiFi phones of late or VoWiFi as we’re referring to them, and have generally found them pretty easy to use – despite them clearly being at the early stage of their development.

  While we’ve not had our hands on these particular handsets (yet – watch this space), we seen shots of them and had sight of the specs. Both work on 802.11b & g and use SIP which will allow them to work with most IP-PBX kit.

  The F1000 is much like other VoWiFi handsets that we’ve seen and a little reminiscent of early-ish mobile phone handsets. Couple of stats on it. Talk time, up to 4 hours, with a 2-3 hours charge time and a standby of 80-100 hours. It’s 11 x 4.5 x 2.2 cm and weighs in at 111g. The cost? RRP £128 ($239, €189).

  The upscale F3000 is a first to us, a VoWiFi handset that is a flip phone. Stats: Talk time, up to 3 hours, with a 2.5 hours charge time and a standby of up to 75 hours. Size: 85 x 43 x 22 mm and weight of 90g. RRP £175 ($326, €258).

  Differences between the F1000 and F3000 include the F3000 have a 65k colour 1.8″ screen, polyphonic ringtones.

  Shared features are

  • Roaming between Wi-Fi access points
  • Up to four stored SSIDs with individual security settings
  • Up to four hours talk time, up to 100-hours standby time
  • Call hold, call waiting, call transfer, call conferencing
  • Call logs – made, answered, missed calls
  • Caller ID
  • Personal address book with auto dial
  • Built in Web server for administration
  • Automated provisioning – up to 256 byte encryption
  • TFTP
  • HTTP

  Tune in later for reviews of the handsets and the service.

  Coms

  29 September, 2006

• Microsoft Zune: $249: 14 Nov

  The buzz has been around for months and finally we get to hear the pricing. Retail pricing will be $249 and it will hit the shops in 14th November in the US.

  What will people get for the money?
  A 30Gb digital media player, with a three-inch LCD video screen; WiFi for passing music around and … wait for it …. an FM tuner. There’ll be three colours – black, brown and white.

  Each device will come with songs (9), music videos (12), film shorts (3) and images loaded onto it.

  Microsoft have learnt from Apple and will be releasing some new software to select content and load it on to your Zune.

  Along side this will be the Zune Pass subscription service, which for $14.99/month will give access to “millions of songs.” The downside on this one is that once you stop paying, your stop getting access to the music.

  If this doesn’t appeal, you can buy tracks individually at 79 Microsoft Points per track (Yes, less than iTunes). If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Points, they’re like pre-paid phone cards.

  There’s going to be a ton of accessories available at launch, which are listed at the bottom of the press release and are prices between $20 and $100.

  As to whether Microsoft will pursue current Apple customers to drop their iPods for a Zune, or more significantly, waste the money they may have spent buying music or videos on Apple iTunes, is quite another thing. As we all know iTMS customers would’ve had to burn all of their purchased tracks to disk and re-rip them to play them on a Zune.

  Large screen grab of Zune PC software

  29 September, 2006

• Pace Micro Shipping 1st Motorola-based PVR To Comcast

  Good news for UK Tech firm Pace Micro as it receives confirmation from number one US cable company, Comcast to ship combined Set Top Box (STB) and PVR.

  The dual-tuner SD PVR, known as the Vegas TDC575 in the US market, has been through trials and is now being shipped out to regions (or system as Comcast call them) across the US.

  This is the first time that a non-US company has shipped Motorola-based systems in to the US. Pace have been shipping Scientific-Atlanta-based boxes to the US for a while.

  Comcast is mighty, being the largest provider of cable services in the US, with 23.3 million cable customers, 10 million high-speed Internet customers and 1.6 million voice customers. Their business extends beyond simple cable TV provision, in their own words, they’re “focused on broadband cable, commerce, and content.”

  Pace Micro
  Pace Vegas TDC575
  Comcast

  28 September, 2006

• BBC Signs MoU With Microsoft: Disaster For Open Media?

  The BBC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft. Areas of the potential investigation and collaboration that the non-exclusive agreement includes, covers “search and navigation, distribution, and content enablement” (what ever that means in English).

  It was signed in a meeting that sounds like it was designed to massage the egos of Mark Thompson (BBC Chief) and Ashley Highfield (BBC Head of Tech), held with Bill Gates (queue trumpets) at Microsoft’s office in Seattle.

  Highfield is quoted as saying “Microsoft is not just a key supplier to the BBC, it is also a key gateway to audiences that the BBC needs to reach through Web services it runs like MSN and Windows Live Messenger, and hardware such as Xbox® and the Windows Media Center.” Apparently trying to balance this, he continued “The BBC needs to work with all players in this space to make sure our programmes and content are enjoyed by the widest possible audience, without always having to come to bbc.co.uk to find it.”

  It’s with horror that we read this news. It’s hard to imagine that the BBC will stay format neutral following a deal like this.

  Microsoft has been creeping into the BBC’s online media for a long time now. It first came to light when we broke the story near the start of 2004 that the BBC’s interactive media player trial (as it was then) would be using the Microsoft’s media format and DRM. At that point, the story BBC spun, was that they weren’t committed to using Microsoft’s DRM, but each stage of the trial beyond that, did.

  The news today doesn’t go a long way to changing our view that it won’t be a permanent feature.

  Of course Gates and Highfield shared a stage at Mix06 back in March this year

  Quite why the BBC is tying its colours to the Microsoft mast is beyond us, especially as the announcement focused alot on Web 2.0. It’s widely thought that Microsoft has lost the dominant position it used to hold and is struggling to catchup with the developments that have gone on in the Web 2.0 world – expect bloggers to rip this one apart.

  A move like this could take the BBC from an organisation held in high regard with the high tech grass roots, to one of ridicule.

  BBC Press release

  28 September, 2006

• NTL 4 for £40 quad-play announced

  NTL, UK Cable provider, has announced a quad-play offering for £40.

  The ‘4 for £40’ service (with the inevitable Virgin-inspired foreplay joke to come) is the first product of the tie-up between Virgin Mobile and NTL.

  As we’ve reported extensively, all of the communication world is bringing out packages that bring together various elements of communication as mobile phone companies get together with fixed-line broadband providers. The additional part with the NTL deal is the Digital TV.

  The ‘4 for £40’ package includes:

  Broadband

  • Up to 2Mb with no limits on downloads
  • Firewall and anti-virus software included
  • Installed by an expert and modem included

  Digital TV

  • Over 30 channels, including Sky One, UKTV Gold, E4, Film4, ITV2 and LIVINGtv
  • On demand access to a huge library of programmes and films – watch what you want, when you want
  • Set-top box included and no need for a dish

  Home phone

  • Unlimited weekend calls to any UK landline
  • Highly competitive mobile rates and simple tariffs at other times
  • Standard features including 1471 and 1571 voicemail

  Mobile

• A Virgin Mobile SIM
• 300 texts and 300 minutes a month, plus free voicemail
• Access to Virgin Mobile Bites entertainment service

One interesting feature is that the broadband offered is unlimited, which is bound to appeal to the tech savvy.

Bigging the service up and attempting to create extra excitement for the future, Neil Berkett, chief operating officer of ntl Telewest, enthused: “Quadplay demonstrates the unique power of the cable-Virgin Mobile union and this is just the beginning. Our new package represents unbeatable value while meeting a wide range of consumers’ entertainment and communication needs.

Current subscribers to NTL won’t be left out in the cold, they’ll be able to take advantage of the new service for an additional £10/month on top of their current packages.

NTL. (Strangely for such a big launch, the NTL site hasn’t been updated with details of the 4 for £40, at the time of publishing.)