Interestingly, after Sky made a decision to use a non-Microsoft solution for its HD TV service in the UK, Bill Gates has revealed a deal has been done between BSkyB and Microsoft that will enable Sky’s UK subscribers to access a “Video on Demand” service using Microsoft Media Centre”.
The agreement, which will allow Sky content to be made available to subscribers over a broadband connection, is likely to worry the major UK telco, BT, who is also planning a UK video on demand service for 2006.
Mr Gates, speaking in the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, evangelised the “arrival of the much-trailed ‘digital lifestyle'” (which of course, we here at Digital Lifestyles just loved when Bill started using it at last years CES).
The deal dovetails nicely into Sky’s acquisition of the Easynet ISP and creates a powerful alliance between a content focused Sky and the technology titan Microsoft.
Sky’s asked us to drop by next Tuesday to run through a demonstration of the product and give an outline of where they’re going with it. Expect more details.
Palm have finally announced the launch of their much anticipated Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w smartphone.
The transition to Windows has, however, seen the TFT screen resolution shrink from Palm’s 320 x 320 pixels to a more miserly 240 x 240 pixels (the same as the Treo-alike HP iPAQ hw6500 series). Early reports suggest that the screen is somewhat washed out compared to the current Palm Treo 650.
The removable battery gives up to 4.7 hours of talk time or up to 15 days of standby.
If Palm have successfully managed the transition to the Windows platform, we can expect this new smartphone to be a winner, although we do wonder what long-term impact it may have on their Palm OS range.
Happy New Year!!Since the New Year has just begun, a piece focusing on last year, the one that has just begun and the developments suspected to emerge during it seemed justified. 
You might wonder why I am so confident in this prediction: Afterall, Microsoft has been pushing out 
There were of course 
However, this has always been on quite specific Mac-related Websites, and not in main stream media. 
With a fearful eye on Skype’s runaway success, Microsoft has joined the stampede to offer Internet-based telephony services by announcing a cut price, pre-paid PC-to-phone service, the result of a deal with the US telecommunications group, MCI.
In recent months, Google, Yahoo! and eBay’s Skype unit have all chipped in with their own cheapo PC-to-phone VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services.
Similarly, Skype, the current big boys of the PC-to-PC VoIP market, are offering calls for about 2 cents a minute from a PC to a phone in the US other countries.
The Next Revolution Is Here… Or Is It?
Yesterday, Sky’s takeover of Easynet was finalised and it looks to many that, despite paying a premium on the share price, they’ve have quite a bargain on their hands.
Although reports that broadband is the latest media battleground have highlighted the moves by the UK telcos, the ultimate prize is the fabled home digital information gateway. The opportunities that this acquisition enables go beyond a mere triple play option (Inernet, TV & Telephone), allowing Sky to, begin by become the overriding aggregator of TV content and, in time, become the preferred digital gatekeeper for many UK homes. 
Oooh, Conspiracies Abound
From December 1, all iTunes downloads will carry a new kind of Fair Play DRM, a direct negative feedback ‘watermark’ recognized by Fair Play earbuds and, ultimately, by other audio devices from manufacturers who sign up for the code, which was created under a joint SunnComm and Macrovision venture.
Nestled down low in the small print of an advert for some HP servers which run unix/Windows and Linux, the following text can be found
Quite who originally spotted this blunder in the small print, isn’t known, but we suspect that it’s someone with a very keen eye for detail – verging on the fanatical.
Sony are keen for us to ‘redefine’ our living rooms with the release of their new VAIO XL1 Digital Living System, a twin box offering combining a high-end multimedia PC with a 200-disc media changer/recorder.
A similar process takes place for movies, where an in-depth synopsis and star, cast, director and producer details etc are automatically downloaded and made accessible onscreen through the included wireless keyboard or remote control.
There’s no denying that the recording functionality seems mighty impressive to us, with the XL1 able to automatically and sequentially record up to 200 audio CDs from the media changer to the hard drive.
To ensure that your late night listening pleasure isn’t spoilt by the sound of a mass of Boeing 747-like fans starting up, the XL1 system uses liquid-cooled components for quiet operation.
Leo Kuvayev, the leader of the largest Spam gang, and six of his business partners have been handed a $37m (~E30m, ~£21m) fine by the courts in Massachusetts.
This was no small operation. Microsoft collected more than 45,000 spam messages believed to be from the Internet Spam Gang in just 22 days between 12 June and 4 July 2004. Not bad, with an average of 2,000 emails per day.
He appears very enterprising, does’t he? He’s also listed as the 2nd worst spammer on the