Business

Changes to business digitisation brings

SwitchCo: UK Unveiling This Week?
There’s been quite a lot of talk in the UK media about SwitchCo, the organisation tasked with switching from Analogue to Digital TV in the UK. Luke Gibbs of OfcomWatch wonders if it will come to life this week?
It seems as though digital switchover has been going on for ages. And yet it hasn’t even begun – it’s just been a load of people talking about it!
Despite the Government announcing the creation of SwitchCo earlier in the year no-one has heard anything since. The only things we know for sure are that Barry Cox is the Chairman and some bloke called Ford Ennals is the Chief Executive. No website, no contact details, nothing – the proverbial blank screen. Perhaps it’s a precursor for what’s to come in 2012!
[ed. – an extremely limited site does seem to have emerged today!]
We also know that the Government remains committed to switchover. How? Because, the Labour Party election manifesto outlined the switchover process and thereby made both the process and timeframe an election pledge. So if you voted for Labour you voted for switchover. And if you didn’t vote for them or didn’t vote – well – tough luck they won the election.
Now, it’s possible that Labour will renege on its pledge. It’s certainly been known before for political parties to come into Government and do a spot of backtracking. Could this happen with switchover?
Well, later this week we may get some answers. On Thursday evening Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Rt Hon Tessa Jowell, MP, will make the keynote to the Royal Television Society’s bi-annual conference in Cambridge. As if Jowell hasn’t got enough high profile issues on her plate – licensing, Olympics, gambling – she also has digital switchover.
It is likely that in her keynote will offer a clearer vision of how switchover will take place and what SwitchCo’s role will be in making it happen.
After outlining the process it makes sense for SwitchCo to launch in earnest, publishing the technical and marketing plans for switchover. Will they be what the world has been waiting for?
From a technical perspective switchover it is not going to be a walk in the park. A phased switchover to digital by geographical area between 2008 and 2012. And we’ll only know how many people might be unable to get digital television once the analogue signal has been turned off and the digital signal boosted.
The technicalities of switchover will be critical to acheiving it. However, the marketing plan will also be essential to its success. Bringing the two strands together will be no easy task.
A successful switch to digital will release swathes of spectrum for re-allocation. But switchover also provides an opportunity to embed digital technology in the core of people’s homes – digital television is fundamental to acheiving the long envisaged, much touted Digital Britain.
So SwitchCo needs to be more ambitious in its aims than just pushing people to takeup digtial television. Digital television is just the beginning of digital enablement not the end of it.
There may be temptation to promote Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services such as Freeview over other digital services such as cable (D-Cab) or satellite (D-Sat) because it provides a low cost, convenient method of switching to digital television. However, it is also limiting as a digital technology, providing a few extra television channels and a low level of interactivity. Freeview might allow us to meet the proposed 2012 target but by then it will be out-moded.
It has already been stated that when SwitchCo does launch that it will take a platform neutral approach. So maybe we shouldn’t worry. However, switchover has the potential to become a political nightmare – and if it does there maybe a temptation to take the easiest possible route.
I am certainly not the first person to have pointed these things out. But I thought it was worth re-iterating ahead of various announcements this week, when potentially we will see an important new organisation emerge.
SwitchCo
13 September, 2005
eBay Buys Skype
In a feast of conglomeration and convergence, Internet auctioneer giants eBay are swallowing up Luxembourg-based Skype, the world’s leader in Internet phone services.
The deal involves eBay slapping $2.6 billion (£1.42bn, €2.8bn) in cash on the table, with potential future payments of up to $1.5 billion (~£823m, €1.2bn~) in cash or stock if Skype hits certain targets.
Although only three years old, Skype has rapidly grown to become one of the fastest growing companies of any kind in the world, already boasting 54 million users.
The press statement revealed that Skype generated $7 million (~£4m, €6m~) in revenue in 2004 and was expected to rake in $60 million (~33m, €49~) this year, rising to $200 million (~£200m, €163m) in 2006.
Skype’s hefty price tag reflects the intense competition in the burgeoning VoIP market, and today’s deal sees eBay barging their way to the Numero Uno slot ahead of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google who are all frantically adding similar services.
Although large cable and telephone companies are already moving into voice over Internet services, these typically charge a monthly fee for unlimited local/national calls.
Skype’s service and technology, on the other hand, offers completely free calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world.
The company generates revenue by charging small fees for calls to non-Skype users and for Skype users to receive calls from callers not using the software. Skype also charge a fee to provide a voice mail service.
“Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community,” snapped eBay chief executive Meg Whitman.
“By combining the two leading e-commerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net,” she added.
With pockets bulging from today’s monster cash bonanza, Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom said that his vision was always “to build the world’s largest communications business and revolutionize the ease with which people can communicate through the Internet. We can’t think of a better platform . . . than with eBay and Paypal.”
Skype was founded by Zennstrom of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark who started the popular online free file-sharing service Kazaa.
After selling off Kazaa in 2002, the two hotshots built Skype, and according to today’s announcement, they will continue heading up the VoIP service, which will be run as a separate business under the eBay umbrella.
Skype
12 September, 2005
iPod Nano; Rollable Screen; Koran Virus: Teenage Tech News
Cool, I want one!
Apple has unveiled a new iPod. Why is this news? Because the new device is miniscule and uses flash memory as opposed to a hard drive. This confirms the rumours that Apple were buying 40% of Samsung’s flash memory.
I think that Apple has unveiled a real killer here: It has a decent capacity, is small, cute and features a colour screen. And of course, Christmas is coming up (Shouts “Dad!”).
Ooh, Shiny, new and it rolls up!
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are still in 2005 and not 2020. Even so, Phillips has managed to come up with a prototype roll-up screen. What’s special about this screen is, surprise surprise, that it is possible to roll it up as you would a sheet of paper.
At the moment, the model they have is only a prototype, and can only display four shades of grey, but when it gets better to support more colours, I’m sure it will be an instant hit with makers of Mobile Phones and other applications where a large display and a small size is an advantage.
I personally thought the fact someone had finally developed something like this was pretty neat, very futuristic, and a useful invention. I, for instance, would love to have a small phone simply because it’s, well, small. I can’t currently get one however, because the ones that are the size I would like have tiny displays and no features. Hopefully this will now change.
Allah says no
Meanwhile, there’s a new virus out (Windows only, sorry Mac and Linux users) that attempts to block people from surfing pornography Websites. If the virus finds specific sexually-orientated words in a URL, it will minimize the browser window and display a passage from the Koran.
Don’t people realise that you can’t force religion on people? When will people realise that religion is something that comes naturally? People who don’t grasp this concept make me angry, although I can see there is a vaguely humorous element to this virus too.
At least the virus doesn’t damage any of your files!
“Drop the ink cartridge and put your hands on your head!”
We’re told that Lexmark are attempting to outlaw refilling their cartridges. Apparently, as the ink cartridges are patented as one use only, Lexmark think they can enforce this on anyone running a business refilling ink tanks. Luckily, patents don’t apply to non-for profit activities yet, so it’s still safe to refill a cartridge yourself.
I think there should be bans about companies applying terms of use on something that a consumer has actually bought. If it belongs to you, you should be able to do as you wish with it!
9 September, 2005
eBay To Buy Skype? $5Bn Alleged
Rumours hotter than a double strength vindaloo are circulating major news organisations like the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Web that online auctioneers eBay are in talks to acquire the Internet-telephony company Skype.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the world’s largest online auction site could be heading for a major shift in strategy in a deal involving truly stratospheric figures of $2 billion to $3 billion. If you think that’s high, the New York Post are quoting $5 Bn as the price.
The paper reports that the talks are in a “sensitive stage” and – mindful of Skype’s earlier failures to close deals with other technology companies – could “fall apart” at any given moment.
(Simon Perry – The very fact that eBay could be getting around the table with Skype either reflects the company’s quest for new product categories and international markets, or they could integrate Skype into the service, offering purchaser and seller to talk to each other. Another option could be to use Skype’s ability to host group discussions as a way of strengthening communities with the same interests.
Although they still rule the roost for online auctions, their core business is maturing, leading the company to diversify into new markets such as rental-property listings, online classified-ad listings and comparison shopping.
Despite other online leaders such as Yahoo and Google ramping up the feature set and expanding into new territories, eBay has remained focussed on the task of acting as middleman between individual buyers and sellers.
Their acquisition of the electronic-payment processing service PayPal in 2002 echoed their aim to simplify the business of buying and selling goods online, and an integrated VoIP service could provide a key element of that strategy.
Such a deal would also massively increase Skype’s presence, with eBay’s huge user base of 157 million technology-literate subscribers likely to be keen to adopt.)
Although market leader Skype currently enjoys huge popularity, their Big Cheese position is coming under considerable pressure as Google (Google Talk) and Microsoft (after recent Teleo VoIP purchase) tool up with their own VoIP offerings.
Optimistically, we gave Skype a call for their opinion (on Skype naturally) and got the expected, “Skype doesn’t comment on rumours” answer.
The ‘Skype for sale’ rumours are unlikely to go away after it was recently reported that they had hired investment banking firm Morgan Stanley & Co. to examine their options – including floating an IPO.
Back then Skype flatly denied that the company was for sale. Today, they didn’t confirm or deny this.
As Apple know, this is the best way to get written about, isn’t it?
We’ll see.
Skype
eBay
8 September, 2005
Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology
In a damning blow to the UK government’s love affair with identity cards, a British criminologist has warned that the new technology could actually increase, rather than solve, the problem of identity theft and fraud.
Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia in England said that identity cards and chip and pin technology for credit cards were unlikely to alleviate the problem, as fraudsters react with more creative responses.
Finch said that a growing dependence on technology was leading to a breakdown in individual vigilance, which remains the best protection against fraud and identity theft.
“There is a worrying assumption that advances in technology will provide the solution to identity theft whereas it is possible that they may actually aggravate the problem,” she told the British Association science conference.
As part of her research, Finch interviewed thieves, vagabonds, fraudsters and ne’er do wells and asked about the impact new technology may have on their nefarious activities.
Not surprisingly, she learned that fraudsters were tenacious blighters, who were ready and willing to change their methods to elude new security measures.
“Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent misuse of personal information after it has been obtained,” she added.
As we reported last month, a survey by Gallup revealed that almost a fifth of US consumers admitted falling victim to identity theft, although Finch said that there were sometimes less dodgy reasons for fraud and identify theft – sometimes people just wanted to start again with a new identity.
Focusing on the UK government’s proposed ID card scheme for its citizens, Finch said that the cards could potentially increase fraudulent behaviour,
“What fraudsters know about is human nature,” said Finch. “And they adapt to things like the Internet which provides an absolutely fantastic base to access personal information.”
Despite ministers insisting that national identity cards would counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, critics like the civil rights group liberty say that the scheme won’t tackle identity fraud, crime or any of the high-profile problems the Government has claimed they will address.
Finch also expressed doubts about chip and pin technology (which enables consumers to purchase goods by punching in a personal number rather than using a signature), saying that criminals may switch from watching an individual punch in the code and stealing the card, and just nabbing credit card application forms and getting new cards and numbers instead.
5 September, 2005
Names In Space; IR Transmission; Sporting Computer; Underwater CCTV?
Send Your Name To Pluto
No, that wasn’t a typo just then: It was actually true! This is the latest in space exploration efforts, and it’s destined for Pluto. With it, will be a list of names, and the space probe is destined to return to Earth in 50,000 years. What names, I hear you ask. Well, any that are submitted here. What a great idea! There’s even a searchable list of all the people who’ve already put their names down on the list. Go look for mine, ‘cos I’m going to Pluto!!
It’s fast, but why? Nice solution, but where’s the problem?
I personally had all but forgotten Infra-red as a data transmission means: It’s slow and line-of-sight only. Also, everything now has Bluetooth instead or as well as it. That’s why I was so surprised by the announcement by The Infrared Data Association that they have developed and adopted a new high-speed Infra-Red protocol promising speeds of up to 100Mbit/s. While faster is almost always better, it’s got no real-life use anymore in my opinion. Who still wants to precariously line up two devices on their lap in a bumpy train when they can leave one in their rucksack and instead connect to it over Bluetooth? This whole thing left poor little me very puzzled.
That’s… Fast!
The Register has a nice story this week about a start-up company challenging the heavy weights like Dell. Apparently, Azul Systems have released a computer sporting 1,248 processor cores with 800GB of RAM that, when running, only draws 9.1KW of power. To put that in perspective, a typical hair dryer weighs in at about 1.5KW. This means that this computer with 1,248 processor cores has the same electricity requirements as six hair dryers. A comparable Dell machine with the same amount of cores on the other hand would require 37 times more electricity, which equates to 307KW o electricity or 204 hairdryers. This is a lot by the way. So the Dell one might be cheaper, but with a kWh (kiloWatt hour) of electricity currently costing around 7pence, the Dell would be costing over £20/hour (~$36 ~€29) to run, whereas the Azul Systems machine would only cost around 63pence/hour. Over the period of a year, the decreased electricity consumption of the Azul Systems machine would pay off.
Whether this challenging of the big players in a crowded economy is going to work or not will be decided in the future and is impossible to predict now, but I know one thing: When I have US$800,000 kicking around in my pocket, I would like one of these. Imagine the frame rate on Quake3!! (Sorry…)
Big Brother is Everywhere
Here’s an unusual one: An array of cameras in a swimming pool coupled with a state-of-the-art detection system. CCTV? No, this is a way of monitoring swimmers and alerting lifeguards when they’re drowning.
The company making the system are called Poseidon, and they have their systems installed in various pools world-wide. They have some cool images taken by their camera equipment documenting various rescues here.
2 September, 2005
3D TV Live Demo By Grundig, Eventually: IFA
As with all companies at IFA, Grundig have shown a ton of new products, try to persuade the assembled throngs that they are approaching Digital Lifestyles by understanding the consumer.
It was all very much of a muchness, until they started talking about 3D TV … everyone in the room lent forward a little. Would this be for real or not. We learnt that it wasn’t the 3D that needed red and green glasses that give you a headache, but was to be viewed with the naked eye.
Working with X3D technologies, 3D Image Processing and Cobalt Entertainment (who make the camera), the result are shown on a standard LCD TV Tharus 30 with a special filter, provided by X3D Technologies, fitted to the front. The clever stuff is performed by 3D Image Processing’s (3D-IP) Black Betty box, which generates 8 different views of the 2 pictures recorded by the camera, jiggles them around and displays them in 3D in real time.
Back to the demo … Miss IFA (the shows red-haired icon) is called forward to demonstrate.
The special 3D camera was unveiled, as were the monitors covered with black-out cloths. Argh … the displays showed fractured moving images striped vertically down the screens. Tech wiz Steve was called forward to carry out emergency turning to the display unit, while the demonstrator started to sweat, explaining that it had worked for the 20 times they had tried it this morning. The black cloths were placed back on the screen to hide the embarrassment.
A couple of button presses later and Steve announced it was ready.
The room, slightly less believing waited.
As the monitors were revealed, the 3D TV was seen and the room was impressed. The ideal viewing distance of 4m was soon compromised as people eagerly clambered over each other to get a view.
It’s impressive, with the subject that is nearest to the camera actually appearing forward of the rest of the image in shot.
Grundig plan to release the first content on disc – as soon as the cameras have been used to shoot anything. The rumors are George Lucas is already preparing some of Star Wars for 3D broadcast.
Oh and if you want to impress your geeky mates, you can call the screen a ‘auto-stereoscopic multi user display’, and that’s official.
Grundig
1 September, 2005
John Birt – Current EPGs To Become ‘Antediluvian’
Luke Gibbs of OfcomWatch is nestled in at Edinburgh Television Festival – listening, watching, reporting, and we suspect sipping the odd cocktail at the TV exec love-in.
Most of Lord Birt’s speech in Edinburgh was numbingly dull – a long list of his own achievements, all of which had made UK television the best in the world. Indeed, the industry has seemingly only hit the dumbing down buffers since he went off to tinker with various policy train sets at Number 10.
However, he did manage to mention a couple of issues which aren’t directly about himself. For example, he said the following in regard to EPG’s, searching and the gateways to information – this is already a fundamental issue for regulators and one where we all need to pay close attention as to how they look to regulate…
“…there will be taxing new issues for the regulators. The electronic programme guides that currently help us navigate the multi-channel universe are not even currently fit-for-purpose and will be antediluvian in an on-demand world. Compare the current generation of slow, clunky television EPGs with Google. If I want to know which live football matches are on TV tonight I have to embark on a slow, manual search through multiple channels. With Google I can find a needle in a haystack in less than a second – the fruits of a search of literally billions of items.
So time to think again about not only the nature of the search and navigation gateway into the television digital universe, but who should control it? How can we ensure a level playing field for all programme and service providers? Should regulators encourage competing search and navigation systems in the television domain? How will the viewer find ready access to the public service offerings?”
OfcomWatch
30 August, 2005
Blokes More Stupid Online
Straight out of the text book of Thinly Veiled Product Placement Exercises comes this featherlight-fluff from StreamShield, who commissioned a survey asking the vital question: “Are women more sensible surfers?”
Somehow finding 1,005 adults across Britain prepared to answer the questions, the MORI survey discovered that female PC and Internet users are less likely to succumb to threats such as viruses and receive junk in their inboxes than male users.
The survey revealed that 46% of men reported that their PC had been infected with a virus compared with 38% of women, and 50% of men moaned about receiving excessive spam versus 38% of women.
In a statistic barely worth repeating, StreamShield’s report also tells us that men suffered more unwanted pop up ads than women (74% to 69% of women).
A total of 29% of blokes reported receiving a dodgy email from a bogus financial institution asking for their banking details, compared to 16% of female users.
When it comes to experiencing online fraud, it seems that the geezers were more gullible with 8% reporting that they’d been stung compared to just 4% of the ladies.
But it’s not all bad news for thicko blokes, with the survey claiming that the manly sex have a better overall awareness of Internet threats, with nearly all of them (97%) knowing what a computer virus was versus 92% of female users.
The same applies to other terms like Spyware (66% of men are aware of the term compared with 47% of women), Adware (51% men, 29% women), Phishing (37% men, 18% women) and Key loggers (27% men, 10% women).
Geoff Bennett, Director of Product Marketing at StreamShield insisted that the research proves that there is a clear difference between the male and female experience when online, suggesting that this may be due to the “two sexes may be using the Internet differently.”
(We think he means that many blokes tend to get their machines stuffed full of online nasties because of their undying attraction to Websites containing “artistic nudes.”)
Bennett wraps up his product-pushing survey by claiming that there’s “an education job that needs to be done across both genders as awareness of these threats overall is far too low and at the moment this is one battle of the sexes which men are evidently losing!”
Oh, and in case you missed it, StreamShield Networks provide Internet-based protection for email and the Web applications.
StreamShield
26 August, 2005
Happy Birthday Win95; PSP Software Upgrade; 12 Hr Batteries; Mobile Flight Mode – Teenage Tech News Review
It’s Tin For Win95
Yes, that’s right, Wednesday marked 10 years of vaguely intelligent computing. 10 years ago, Windows 95 was released. It’s weird, because it’s 10 year old technology, but it really doesn’t seem that old: I still remember using it at school on old computers. Makes you wonder why Microsoft are still using a ten year old interface (OK, it’s shiny and got a plasticky look now, but you know what I mean).
The Washington Post has an interesting read on the subject here, basically an announcement they wrote about it at the time. It’s funny to read how some things about marketing campaigns for high-profile software releases have changed nowadays, and what parts have stayed exactly the same. One thing everyone will likely recognise is the hype!
As granddad would say: “It was better in the old days!”
Browse the Web on PSP
Despite only officially being available in Europe from the 1st of September, the software updates for it have finally reached v.2.0. This latest update includes a host of exciting new features, including a Web browser and the ability to play AAC music tracks. These added features for a handheld gaming system that is already looking very promising, serve to make the gadget a must-have for every technology-conscious teen under the sun. Being able to browse the Web on the device, which incidentally has Wi-Fi technology, might even make it a laptop replacement of sorts. Beware though: The device has no keyboard, so typing long emails on it might become a little tiresome, as it uses a virtual on-screen keyboard for text input.
I have briefly played around with a PSP, as a friend of mine was in Japan and brought one back with him. The graphics look awesome, despite the text being Japanese, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one!
Laptop Battery Low Warning
The Register is running a story on how Panasonic and Intel are working together to make a 12-hour laptop battery. Can’t wait for this technology to filter down to phones and other small consumer electronics, as battery technology is the one thing the vast majority of gadgets still seem way behind on. It’s all fine and dandy having a million and one functions in one device, but if the battery only lasts two hours, then to me, it’s no use.
Apparently, the technology works by adding a small amount of Nickel to the standard ingredients of a battery pack.
Remains to be seen how long this will take to mature, but in the meantime, I can always hope for cold fusion to arrive!
Upgrades To Flight Mode
With all the new gismos appearing on phones nowadays, it seems a shame to be unable to use them on a plane, ofcourse with all the wireless features switched off. This is why phone companies started introducing a concept called flight mode.
The theory behind this simple setting on a handset is to allow users to utilize all the features on their phones, when they’re not allowed to have anything that transmits radio signals. What, then, is the use of this if you’re not allowed to use it? I recently came back from holiday, was sitting there in the plane, minding my own business, trying to reply to some mail on my Blackberry, when a member of the flight-crew and asked me to switch it off. I tried to explain that a) it was in flight mode, and so wasn’t going to harm anyone, and b) that I had some work to do, so could he please leave me alone.
The flight attendant then stated that it was company policy to make people turn their phones totally off at all times, adding that I could use my laptop instead if I so wished. Now bear in mind the stupidity of this statement: My laptop has GPRS, 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, and would likely broadcast the hell out of anywhere, and the flight attendant would rather I use it than my phone which is innocently sitting in there flight mode, not bothering anyone. Trying to explain this resulted in a rapid degrading of his ability to speak English and ended with him just pointing to my laptop and sticking his thumbs in the air. The airline, which shall remain nameless for now as I don’t want to stir up any trouble, will not be receiving my custom again. When will airlines realise that they have to be nice to people and move with the times a bit more to receive their custom? In these days of cut price travel, it’s all about value-added services, and this certainly is one of them.
I was interested then because of this, about what I read regarding the Consumer Electronics association trying to make it possible to easily determine whether a phone is in flight mode or not. Can’t wait to see some results, but I fear it may then still be a case of training flight crew to know what it means.
26 August, 2005