Companies

Container for all companies

Microsoft Vista Announced
After a morning of fishwife-hot rumours, it’s been officially announced that the next version of Microsoft Windows – previously code-named Longhorn – will be known as Microsoft Vista.
Although wags are already suggesting that the word might apply to the distant view of the product consumers will get for many months/years, Microsoft remains confident of an ontime release in the second half of next year.
Naturally, a big new product needs a suitably uplifting tag line, so the cappuccino-supping, flipchart-flapping, brainstormin’ visioneers at Redwood have come up with:
“MicrosoftVista. Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world.”
The story was first broken by anonymous sources close to the company (that generally covers anyone from the cleaner to the guy who delivers the water cooler) who revealed that Microsoft had unveiled their new name in Atlanta during the company’s internal sales event, known as the Microsoft Global Sales Briefing (that’s ‘MGB’ to those in the know).
Possibly because of a fear of failing to release the product in the year bearing its name, Microsoft has once again shied away from its earlier practice of releasing dated operating systems (Windows95, Windows98 etc).
The current major version of Windows originally regaled under the name of ‘Whistler’ during development before being christened WindowsXP prior to its public release.
Brad Goldberg, a Microsoft product manager, said that the first beta of Vista is slated for release on Aug. 3 and will be targeted at developers and IT professionals.
Goldberg stated that Vista’s three design goals include better security, new ways to organize information, and seamless connectivity to external devices.
A second test release is anticipated to be debuted before Vista’s full release next year.
More details about the new operating system’s features will be announced on August 3.
Video of whooping Microsoft Execs
22 July, 2005
vPod: Apple Closer To iPod Video Player?
The rurmour mill continues to hum with speculation that Apple are set to introduce a video playing iPod-like device in the near future.
Apple are already said to be talking to major music labels like Warner, EMI, Vivendi, Universal Music and Sony BMG about acquiring licenses to sell music videos through their hugely popular iTubes online store.
The videos are expected to start appearing on Apple’s online store in September at US$1.99 per download (~£1.15~€1.54)
The Business 2.0 blog reports that Apple is trying to strike similar deals with Disney, ABC News and ESPN.
As ever, Apple are keeping Mum on any proposed new hardware, although Steve Jobs has already commented about how the current iPod screen isn’t ideal for watching videos.
This has led to speculation that the company will be revising the iPod to create something like the ‘vPod’, a concept device created by design firm Pentagram which was published in Business 2.0 Magazine in March.
The magazine’s mocked-up machine looked like a version of the classic white iPod, stretched out to accommodate a wide-format screen.
An oversized iPod form would be unlikely to find favour with Jobs as he has already dismissed larger devices such as the Creative Portable Media Center for being too bulky and cumbersome to be a truly convenient portable player.
In fact Jobs has adamantly said ‘no” to video on several occasions, commenting in October that video on the iPod is “the wrong direction to go … there’s no content” and competitors providing video are “digging in the wrong place.”
Trouble is, Jobs is well known for trying to confuse competitors with double speak and bluff – he made much the same negative claims about Flash-based music players before releasing the Shuffle.
For many, the smart money is on Apple leaving the iPod as it is and introducing a completely different video player that will aim to grab the public’s imagination in the same manner as the iPod captured the music download market by the MP3s.
The big problem with trying to create a multimedia device is that people demand quite different things for mobile audio and video.
Music listeners want a small device that can fit into their sweaty jogging pants, while video buffs want a big wide screen for their moves that won’t be obscured by a few flakes of popcorn.
How Apple can resolve this quandary and come up with a competition-crushing compromise is anyone’s guess, but B2.0 editor Paul Sloan feels confident that they’ll manage it:
“If the past is any measure of what’s to come, Jobs will enter the arena late (as he did with the iPod) only to leapfrog over the competition with some entirely different device. And that could leave everyone from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Sony’s Howard Stringer once again racing to copy their far smaller rival.”
Business 2.0
20 July, 2005
Champions League Broadcasters To Simulcast Matches On T’Web
Armchair football fans around Europe will soon be able to enjoy live Champion’s League matches over the Internet and mobile phones.
The European Commission has declared its intent to promote the beautiful game over a range of platforms in an attempt to mollify European commission competition authorities who want to see rights owners promoting mobile phone and Internet usage.
A spokesman at football bosses UEFA confirmed that all broadcasters showing games live would be “obliged” to screen them online simultaneously.
By linking live television rights to the Internet package, UEFA hopes to calms the fears of broadcasters who suspect that a separate online deal would cut deeply into their audience figures.
Champions League coverage in the UK is provided by BSkyB and ITV (both of whom look likely to retain their current rights), and the Internet simulcasts could provide a honey pot for new revenue streams with advertising and betting partners.
This may cause some friction with the big clubs like Man Utd and Arsenal who may be planning their own lucrative online propositions.
With media regulator Ofcom reporting that more than 8.1 million UK households now boast broadband connectivity, Internet television on demand is set to become, well, a household name.
BSkyB has already announced its commitment to IPTV – programming delivered over broadband PCs or TV sets – and from later this year, premium package subscribers will be able to access content via a Sky Sports and Sky Movies broadband service.
The service will offer 200 on-demand movies with sports junkies being able to access news, interviews and highlights (like wonderful Cardiff City goals) through the online sports channel
From 2006 the service could be offering Champions League games live, ensuring that only Sky Sports subscribers are able to log on, with non-subscribers having to fork out a pay-per-view premium.
Sky Sports
20 July, 2005
Google Moon ‘launches’
In honour of the first manned Moon Landing back in July 20, 1969, Google have launched an out of this world version of their Google Maps service – Google Moon.
The clever boffins at Google have created a scrollable, zoomable map of the Moon’s surface, adding NASA imagery to the interface.
Google explains that they put together the map because they figured the best way to commemorate the first Lunar landing would be to let their users “surf around the Lunar surface themselves”.
Although you can use a sliding scale to zoom into the surface – just like the terrestrial version – and view landing sites, there are limitations to how close to the surface you can zoom because of insufficient NASA imagery.
However, viewers zooming all the way in are in for a treat! We won’t spoil it for you, but do take a look.
The cheeky chappies at Google have also added a fun FAQ:
“4. Is Google Moon a result of your Copernicus initiative?
Glad you asked, and yes, the development of our Lunar hosting and research centre continues apace.
We usually don’t announce future products in advance, but in this case, yes, we can confirm that on July 20th, 2069, in honour of the 100th anniversary of mankind’s first manned Lunar landing, Google will fully integrate Google Local search capabilities into Google Moon, which will allow our users to quickly find lunar business addresses, numbers and hours of operation, among other valuable forms of Moon-oriented local information.”
Google are also advertising jobs at their Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.), offering “high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo) and de-oxygenated cubicle dwelling.”
Someone at Google must have had a lot of time on their hands, because there’s pages and pages of space-related nonsense available, including references to the “hyperbolic trajectory of Britney Spears” and “projections correctly predicted random spikes in search traffic due to wardrobe malfunctions”.
We like it!
Google Moon
Get an out of this world job – G.C.H.E.E.S.E.
20 July, 2005
BT Doubles Broadband Entry Speeds
BT has announced that it will be doubling the speed of its entry-level broadband service.
The move was announced just hours after Wanadoo UK revealed its intention to tempt new punters with a two meg connection for just £17.99 (~€26 ~US$32) a month.
From tomorrow, all new and existing BT subscribers should be able to get 2 meg as standard, with no upgrade charges.
BT group managing director Gavin Patterson said: “Today’s announcement creates a standard of a minimum broadband speed of 2Mb for all our retail broadband services – these higher speeds open up a wealth of new possibilities for the use of broadband.”
BT’s generosity knows some bounds though, with its no frills package retaining its monthly usage limit at 1 gig.
As competition in the broadband sector heats up, customers should be able to take advantage of lower prices and faster connectivity.
This is the second free upgrade that BT has introduced, with the telecoms giant upping the speed for all of its retail broadband customers back in February.
Broadband users can calculate their current connection speeds with the handy app at ADSLguide.org.uk and check to see if their broadband speed matches their provider’s claims.
A recent informal survey on urban75.com asked over 60 subscribers to compare their broadband connection speeds using the ADSLguide Website.
I quickly learnt that not only was I paying more than most, but my BT connection was as swift as a sleepy sloth on a hot day compared to the rocket-like speeds quoted by others.
Seeing as BT has declared that the “battleground in broadband will be in differentiating services rather than price and speed as it is today”, I’ll be monitoring this upgrade very, very carefully indeed.
BT Broadband
20 July, 2005
BT Resort To Soft Porn To Sell BT Communicator?
We had a report from a reader today that he’d been … ehm, carrying out tests on his content filtering service. This entailed going to sites with photos of naked bodies – purely to test that the content filter blocked his access to them you understand. One of first sites he went to was the well known UK tabloid, The Sun.
Clicking through a few pages he was somewhat taken aback to find a scantily clothed woman leaning over a computer, promoting BT Communicator, which is BT’s software-based VoIP (Voice over IP) offering. When it launched, one of our writers, Fraser Lovatt, looked at BT communicator and wondered quite why the product existed at all,
“It certainly won’t make it cheaper as BT will bill you at exactly the same rate they bill for calls from your home phone, despite giving a clear warning on their site that PC calls aren’t as good. So, I have to ask – what’s the point?”
It would appear to us that BT’s confidence in their BT Communicator product seems to have hit an all-time low today with its appearance in The Sun.
The piece in the Gizmo section of the site and paper features BT’s new model to promote BT Communicator, Michelle Marsh.
In her excitement to use the product, Michelle has fortunately remembered to don her headset, but sadly has put on her school shirt (it’s a little tight) and then forgotten to wear a skirt.
This is the wording they used in the article ..
“Marvellous Michelle Marsh has been signed up by BT to front (and let’s face it, she’s got plenty of it) a campaign for its Communicator service.
The luscious lovely is plugging the virtues of BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger, technology that allows you to phone, text, email and instant message from your PC.
And the stunner is doing it as only she knows how – dressed up in stockings and suspenders as a saucy secretary.”
Classy isn’t it. Lots of mentions of commercial products in there, not the sort of copy that falls out of the finger tips of a tabloid journalist. Surely BT aren’t using advertorials in The Sun to promote Communicator to the masses?
Looking at Ms Marsh’s previous work, it’s clear that she’s a busy little bunny. Her extensive career features the expected large variety of lads mag, car and bike mag shoots, but also extends to a photo shoot in Blackpool for the Tory party conference. Interestingly earlier this year she did the press launch for Bulldog Broadband – a big competitor to BT.
So is this a desperate ploy to try and promote a product that has no reason to exist? or have we go the wrong end of the stick?
The Sun – BT Communicator
14 July, 2005
London Bomb Survivor Reunited Online
Two users of the same online bulletin board were in the same carriage of a London Tube train that was involved with the blast last week.
Doesn’t sound that remarkable until you discover how they found each other.
Badger Kitten (BK), the pseudonym used by a young female on the urban75 discussion board, posted a long, emotional rendition of the days event. Among the 600 readers that saw the story was Markm, who had also been on an exploding train. Whilst reading the story markm realised that he must have been on the same carriage as BK.
Markm posted a comment on the story.
BK came to realise that the not only had Markm been in the same carriage as her, but that he had passed valuable, possibly life saving, information to her about escaping from the train, relayed from the driver.
Mark and I have talked and worked out that we were in the same front carriage and feet away from each other and he was the man who got the message to me from the driver that we could escape out of the front and walk to Russell Square and to keep off the tracks.
This was the message I passed down and several people behind me were thus able to follow Mark’s instructions from the driver and get out.
So, well done Mark and hooray that you were there and able to stay calm. We all helped each other. We are going to meet up later. The Internet is great, isn’t it? And urban 75 has proved invaluable.
Urban75, founded in 1995, has been providing valuable information on a vast range of subjects since then – all commercial free. We chatted to its editor about this most recent of uses, he told us, “it makes me humbled and honoured to run the site. It’s a good example of how the Internet can reach out and connect people.”
Without the discussion boards on urban75 or the Internet, the likelihood of two people caught up in the explosions meeting again, is highly unlikely.
In a further example of Digital-Lifestyles, BBC News found BK’s original posting and approached her for its inclusion on the BBC News Website – after they cleaned it up a little for public consumption.
Another example of an esteemed news source getting content from online bulletin boards/blogs.
Urban75
London Attacks
BK postings
markm postings
BK diary on BBC News
13 July, 2005
EU Raids Intel Offices
European Commission heavies made an unscheduled visit to Intel offices in Europe today as the chip maker’s offices were raided in connection with suspected anti-trust violations.
The European antitrust regulators started booting in doors two weeks after rival U.S. chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices filed a lawsuit claiming Intel used its market dominance to coerce computer makers away from using their AMD chips.
European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd explained, ‘Directorate General Competition officials, accompanied by officials from national competition authorities, are conducting inspections of several premises of Intel in Europe as well as a number of IT firms manufacturing or selling computers.”
A statement from the European Union head office added, “Investigations are being carried out in the framework of an ongoing competition case.”
Intel spokesman Chuck Malloy confirmed that the raids took place, adding that his company was cooperating fully while insisting that it was “all a stitch up and society’s to blame” (or words to that effect).
The EU has been investigating claims about Intel using unfair business practices to persuade clients to buy its chips to the exclusion of rivals’ chips for some time.
An initial investigation was demanded by Advanced Micro Devices several years ago, but in 2002 EU antitrust regulators reached a preliminary conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges.
AMD kept up the pressure, nagging regulators into looking into Intel’s business practices again, with the commission sending out formal notices to France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Germany last year.
These requested information on government procurement tenders for computers containing requirements that they specify Intel chips or request a chip speed exclusive to Intel.
Late last month, AMD sued Intel for billions of dollars in a Delaware federal court, insisting that Intel bullied 38 computer companies into buying Intel chips.
Intel told them to stick their allegations when their chips don’t shine, suggesting that they were just whining away like a big girl because of their secondary market position (we’re paraphrasing slightly here).
Much as we enjoy corporate fisticuffs, we reckon that the issue would be best resolved without assisting zillions of smarmy lawyers to get even richer.
We reckon a playground fight would be far more fun.
Fight Fight!
Intel
AMD
12 July, 2005
Apple To Become Mobile Phone Operator?
The Apple rumour mill has been cranking into overdrive over the weekend after Forbes reported that the company may be considering becoming a mobile phone operator.
With Apple already rumoured to be developing a hybrid iPod/cell phone with Motorola, the article claims that “the pieces are in place for it to happen later this summer”, adding that companies like Virgin and Walt Disney have already proved that a new network model can allow all kinds of businesses to easily enter the mobile market.”
Disney will be launching its family-centric ‘Disney Mobile’ wireless phone network sometime next year, aiming to serve up a family-friendly mobile service with custom handsets and premium phone content (i.e. irritating ringtones and Disney-based games).
Since all the calls will be routed through Sprint’s national cellular network, Disney won’t have any infrastructure investment costs, but will gain access to a dedicated, direct marketing channel to da KidZ, scooping up network revenue and gaining a new content outlet.
Forbes predicts that Apple’s reputation for creating cool, user-friendly handheld gadgets could ease their transition into the mobile business.
In July last year, Apple announced its partnership with handset maker Motorola to create an iTunes-capable phone, but the product failed miserably to materialise at its scheduled CeBIT March 2005 launch.
However, a report in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday claimed that Motorola will finally “unveil the first fruits of its partnership with Apple next month with the launch of its iTunes mobile phone at the V Festival.” The festival runs from 20th to 21st August 2005.
So far Apple is keeping Mum on the rumours about it entering the mobile market, although Steve Jobs has frothed enthusiastically about the cellular marketplace in the past:
“The mobile phone market…is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world.”
Forbes.com concludes that Apple is not the only big company that might roll out a cellular service this year with analysts suggesting that uber-brands like Nike and Wal-Mart could be planning their own networks.
Forbes
11 July, 2005
DSC-H1 Quick Review: Sony Cyber-shot 5 Megapixel Camera First Impressions
Barging its way into the crowded 5 megapixel “super zoom” market is Sony’s new Cyber-shot DSC-H1 camera.
Unlike some of its more esoteric, all-swivelling zoom monsters like the F828 and F717, this one looks like a conventional SLR camera, with a flip-up flash on the top, traditional camera lines and a substantial handgrip.
It’s certainly quite a beefy fella compared to its direct competitors like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5, Konica Minolta Z5 and the Canon PowerShot S2 IS, but is still small and light enough to carry around all day.
The camera is powered by two AA batteries, which should be good for up to 300 shots.
The DSC-H1 sports a fairly small but bright 115,200 pixels electronic viewfinder (EVF) that mirrors the information displayed on the main screen.
The main LCD screen is indeed a whopper, sporting a 2.5″ bright, crisp and lag-free display using Sony’s nifty hybrid technology, which features a reflective screen making it possible to see the screen in bright sunlight
The shutter release is exactly where it should be, with a clickable ‘jog dial’ below allowing mustard-keen photographers to tweak manual exposure, program shift and AE-compensation to their heart’s delight. Very SLR-like.
The main mode dial nearby provides access to a wide selection of preset, auto and manual exposure modes with further adjustments enabled through Sony’s tried and trusted main LCD interface.
Unlike many of Sony’s previous upmarket cameras, there’s no Carl Zeiss branded lens aboard, but the compact zoom covers a very useful 36-432mm range (12x optical) with a reasonably nippy F2.8 to F3.7 maximum aperture.
Shutter speeds range from 30 to 1/1000 second, and the camera comes with optical image stabilisation built in (although Sony likes to call it Super Steady Shot’).
Motion video can be recorded in the MPEG-VX Fine mode, capable of capturing full screen VGA (640 x 480) resolution at 30fps or 16fps with audio.
Sticking firmly to their guns, the camera uses Sony’s Memory Stick as the only expansion option, although there’s 32 meg of internal memory provided.
In our quick hands-on test, the camera seemed responsive and comfortable in the hand, with punchy, crisp images straight out of the camera. Keen photographers may be disappointed by the lack of RAW/TIFF support and the lack of zoom function while in movie mode is irritating.
There’s enough manual controls to ensure that adventurous photographers can stay in control of their exposures, with a wide selection of scene modes covering most eventualities.
With a wealth of features served up in a near idiot-proof package, this is a great camera for both blundering amateurs and keen amateurs looking to capture high quality images with ease. Recommended.
Sony site
DP Review DSC-H1 review
Steve’s Digicams review
8 July, 2005