Companies – Page 123 – Digital-Lifestyles

BT Offer Public WiFi for £1/month

It’s just bargain after bargain, as companies keep pushing out the barriers to attract new customers or hang on to existing ones, using every technological and communications innovation available. Now BT is offering its new and existing, business and consumer broadband customers, public wireless broadband for just £1 a month. Remember that BT already have a Bluephone in the offing – a mobile phone that will provide cheap Web-based phone calls from Wi-Fi hot spots anywhere in the world.

The service is called BT Openzone and there are two introductory discount deals of £1 per month for up to 500 minutes available to BT Business Broadband customers and BT Broadband and BT Yahoo! 500 minutes is only eight hours a month though, and this may not be enough for some people. It is offered to BT customers, who sign up before December 31, 2004. After the first three months, customers can continue using the exact same service for a further 12 months for £5 a month.

Aimed at people on the move who need to keep in touch, customers can log on to BT Openzone with their Wi-Fi enabled laptop or PDA when within range of over 7,000 hotspot locations across the UK, including hotels, airports, railway stations and coffee shops. With cable companies, mobile operators and VoIP providers always offering trendy alternatives, Telcos have to keep going back to the drawing board.

But (she asked, scratching her head), why would you bother paying £5 or even £1 per month if all you have to do is hawk your laptop down to the nearest café, and get the whole lot for free, plus a really well-made cup of coffee?

Thousands of BT Openzone hotspots can be found in the UK and Republic of Ireland, in motorway service stations, airports, conference centres, hotels and cafés. Also, a Wi-Fi roaming agreement with BT Openzone, has increased the number of T-Mobile UK hotspots to 1,900, and customers of BT Openzone will now also have access to T-Mobile’s 600 UK Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as thousands more across Europe and the US. Now all we have to worry about is wireless security!

BT Group plc

Sony Eyes P2P Venture

A new partnership of opposites may be in the offing, one that will allow you to download pay-for and free songs from the Internet. The partnership called Mashboxxx, first reported in Friday’s Los Angeles Times, will happen between Sony BMG Music Entertainment and online peer-to-peer software distributor Grokster. This is quite an historical venture really, being the first earnest public partnership between a major recording company and an established file-sharing outfit. There have been many rumours (whispered behind the hand) of these schemes already being run.

Yes, Sony BMG has broken ranks with the rest of the entertainment industry by embarking on this venture with Grokster, that combines free music sampling with paid downloads. The free downloads will be promotional versions of songs by Sony BMG acts, and / or you can buy licensed, higher quality versions. Punters already use Grokster to search, download and distribute a wide variety of music files, but most of these are only copies of CD-quality recordings.

To many, this looks like a case of joining the enemy when you can’t beat them – a tactic that has worked well in many instances throughout history. As it happens, Grokster only recently settled a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against them by recording companies, over a Spanish Web site that was selling music downloads without permission.

But why go down the expensive and lengthy road of litigation when, like Sony BMG and Grokster, you can settle on a legitimate business model that allows you to work together, using each other’s expertise in a mutually beneficial way?

Well finally the music industry is starting to acknowledge that Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are very efficient at distributing files. Not only that, but they get to save money by not paying all of the bandwidth charges for distributing the files, as the consumer bandwidth is used to share the files around.

Mashboxxx is expected to employ some kind of digital fingerprinting technology that will be able to filter out unauthorized song copies from file-sharing networks, and a version of this type of filtering technology has been developed by San Francisco-based Snocap Inc.

RIAA Files 750 New File-trading Lawsuits in the US & CD sales up 10%

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, has just issued a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against 750 illegal file sharers using peer-to-peer (P2P) software. Including 25 users on 13 different university campuses, who used their university servers to perform the dreaded deed. This brings the total number of lawsuits filed by the RIAA against alleged file sharers since September 2003 to over 6,200.

The file sharers that were sued were using (P2P) services such as eDonkey, Kazaa, LimeWire and Grokster, although maybe Grokster miscreants will receive universal absolution if the deal between Grokster and Sony BMG to make file sharing respectable goes ahead. In keeping with practice used in previous cases, the RIAA suits have been filed against ‘John Doe’ defendants – a method used to sue defendants whose names are not known. They will instead be identified by their numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address. Names can only be obtained by music company lawyers’ issuing subpoenas to Internet access providers.

In addition to the 750 ‘John Doe’ litigations, 213 separate lawsuits were filed against named defendants who were already identified through the litigation process but then declined or ignored an RIAA offer to settle the case before it proceeded any further.

This is despite the fact, that legitimate downloading services seem to be doing rather nicely, with the RIAA’s recently released mid-year figures showing that 58 million single tracks were downloaded or burned from a licensed service for the first half of 2004.

Furthermore, the figures also show that full-length CD shipments to retail outlets increased by 10.2 percent this year, compared to the amount of shipments over the same time period in 2003 – the first time in five years that the first half of the year has experienced such an increase.

People are still flocking to the record store to buy their music, as overall, CDs and all other audio and video music products shipped to retailers increased by 8.5 percent in the first six months of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003.

It’s a funny thing that while all this litigation is going on, that the RIAA has just given out the first-ever Gold and Platinum awards for digital downloads, albeit for legally sold ones.

RIAA
Subpoena Defense site

Broadband BBC – Ashley Highfield

Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of New Media and Technology, outlined the BBC’s plans to harness broadband technology to reduce the digital divide in Britain in a speech to the Broadband Britain Summit in London.

Alluding to Harold Wilson’s prophetic comments over forty years ago where he described a ‘new’ Britain forged from ‘the white heat of technology’, Highfield asks, “Can we move this ‘linear’ digital content leadership into the broadband ‘on demand’ world? Or will the white-heat prove to be nothing but hot air?”

Highfield describes “a new world of media consumption only made possible by a faster always-on connection.” He outlined the corporation’s vision for a broadband Britain, and urged the cooperation of Government and industry to avoid a digital underclass.

It is obviously hoped that the BBC’s interactive media player, iMP, which has just undergone a technical trial, will be a leading protagonist in the unfolding broadband drama. “iMP enables people to download television and radio programmes, choose to record whole series such as EastEnders, catch up on programmes they have missed and watch or listen to them on any device they want – all through peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing on a broadband connection”, explained Highfield.

“iMP is just one of a suite of products in development that makes up our BBC On Demand strategy”, says Highfield, “including the Creative Archive, the Radio Player, and the Broadband Console, with the express aim of finding the right content and services to put the British media industry at the forefront of this technology tidal wave and narrow the digital divide.”

The creation of “Underclasses” are not a healthy development in any environment, including the digital one, and Highfield outlined some proposals that should help to avoid this – the BBC’s planned scheme ‘Music for All’ and a ‘Get Britain Connected’ week.

The ‘Music for All’, will be firmly rooted in broadband. It aims to “transform music education giving children the opportunity to hear live performances, experience master classes in all music genres, create and perform their own pieces and work alongside leading musicians who can help them to develop their musical passions.”

Highfield also floated the idea of FreeBand (in the mode of the BBC’s FreeView and FreeSat). The BBC would supply broadband ready material, “compelling content” in his words, that would be delivered via services providers to UK citizens. Sadly he didn’t go in to any more detail, so it’s not clear how this would differ from services they currently freely deliver, or have spoken about publicly previously. It is perhaps just a new catchy way to label it.

In his speech, Highfield also proposed a ‘Get Britain Connected’ week to happen later next year. He envisaged this as being “a joint initiative with Government, players in the broadband supply chain (both commercial and public sector) and the BBC with its airwaves and cross-promotional opportunities to target those members of society who might find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Harold Wilson was the first British Prime Minister to successfully use television as a political tool. Hopefully the ‘white heat’ Wilson referred to forty years ago will indeed prove to be more than hot air.

Text of Ashley Highfields speech

BT helps small businesses join the VoIP revolution

BT has seen its fixed-line base erode steadily over the past few years, while tariffs have fallen, making it hard for it to increase revenue. But it looks like BT is grabbing the nettle rather than shying away from it.

That means sniffing around for new market opportunities in a rapidly changing technological landscape. And in the case of BT, instigating the first Internet phone service specifically for UK SMEs, and launching next year the Bluephone, which will allow you to make VoIP, mobile or landline calls from the same handset.

Small businesses across the UK now have access to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), with the launch of BT Business Broadband Voice. Subscribers simply plug BT’s Broadband Voice box into their high-speed Internet connection and then use a standard telephone handset to make calls, rather than having to connect via a computer. This means that Internet calls can be made from anywhere that has a broadband connection, enabling employees to keep the same number, whether they’re working from the office or remotely.

It can’t be easy for a lumbering giant having nimble little gnat-like competitors such as Carphone Warehouse and Centrica’s OneTel snapping at it haunches, especially if you lost about half a million fixed-line customers during the July-to-September quarter to some of those competitors. Only last week, Ofcom said that Carphone Warehouse and Centrica’s OneTel, had expanded their customer base to 4.2 million at the end of September from 3.7 million at the end of June.

BT’s proposed Bluephone acts like a mobile, but it has better reception, better voice quality and is cheaper to use than a mobile, because it operates over BTs fixed line network. When you use it near your home or office, the call is routed using your landline connection, if you are out and about it will use the mobile network, and if you are within a Wi-Fi hotspot it will automatically use VoIP to route the call.

Ofcom reported the number of UK broadband connections passed the 5 million point during September, with around 50,000 new subscriptions added every week. So, while fixed voice telecoms use continues to decline slowly, broadband uptake continues apace, which might start to mean more of a shift rather than a loss in business for telcos who grasp the nettle.

BT Broadbandvoice.

BBC Creative Archive: Pilot to Start in 2005

More details of the BBC’s Creative Archive were revealed at an Royal Television Society, London Centre meeting last night when Paula Le Dieu gave a presentation on the project’s background and recent developments. Following this, an hour-long discussion, chaired by Digital Lifestyles’s own Simon Perry, explored further details [MP3 recording ~14Mb].

Paula is co-director of the Creative Archive (CA), a project to make BBC archived audio and video media available to the UK public so that they can download it and make creative works based upon it.

The BBC is taking this extraordinary step as they believe it will help them give more value to the licence fee payers – one of their core values.

Paula told us that one of the inspirations for the move was the BBC Micro. Released in 1982, the BBC Micro was an open hardware and software platform that ignited public interest and in no small way contributed to the UK’s hugely popular computing and games scenes. Indeed, by encouraging owners to use the BBC Micro platform in whatever way they wished, it helped many people take their first steps into the digital age and helped shape the industry as it stands today. A game of Elite, anyone?

Since then, we’ve seen the rapid growth of the Internet, and this has encouraged users to share content around the world – and the more material that people share, the more there is for them to draw inspiration from.

The BBC, slow on the uptake, came to the realisation that opening up their archive would allow them to present significant value to their public – enabling them to listen, watch, download, share and use materials in any way they wish, under an non-restrictive licence.

The remit of the Creative Archive has changed since the BBC’s previous Director General, Greg Dyke, left – Mark Thompson, the new DG, is completely behind the project and wants to include full programmes from the BBC’s huge media library. Give that some of the material that may be released has not seen the light of day since broadcast, it’s an exciting opportunity to give new life to content that has been sitting on shelves gathering dust for years. The BBC’s archive contains some 1.5 million items of television, equating to 600,000 hours of television – or put another way, 68 years of consecutive viewing. In addition to this is 500,000 audio recordings.

Obviously, that’s a lot of bandwidth – and the more popular the Creative Archive becomes, the more expensive it will be to distribute it. Consequently, the BBC is looking at peer-to-peer (P2P) methods of distribution, so that the public become not just their creative partners, but distribution partners also. The Corporation is also looking to the public for help in metatagging the content, after all people need to find what they need and know what they are looking for. Users of the content will be invited to tag content, and communities of interest will be sought out for their expertise on particular subjects. Paula gave an example of the Archaeological Society, who have already, of their own volition, tagged and catalogued all of the BBC’s archaeological output before the Creative Archive was even announced. Layers of metadata will be encouraged, so that content will be searchable in many different ways – for example, actors present, type of canned laughter – even types of shoes worn in a scene, and each layer will be open to peer review.

We feel this layering of metadata is of huge importance, an idea we have been putting to media owners for a long time. We feel the addition of descriptive metadata will be added to time-coded media with or without the owner blessing – it enables the viewing public to add their knowledge and experience, without limit of depth. It’s very encouraging to find that the BBC is to include this in CA.

New ways of using and accessing material require new licences. The Creative Archive team have looked at a number of alternative licences, and intent to distribute the content under terms based on the well-established Creative Commons (CC) Licence. Key requirements of content users will be that they properly credit the source and creators of the original materials, and that the new work they have produced inherits the same CC licence. All derivative works have to be non-commercial in nature – but of course a new licence can be sought for commercial use if required.

One aspect of the licence that needs work is a requirement that content is not distributed out of the UK. It is far from clear as to how this would be enforceable – web sites can be accessed from around the world, and one file downloaded from a P2P network may be assembled in blocks from a dozen countries. Any clip of interest to anyone will certainly be distributed worldwide within seconds of it becoming available. The provision has been built in because the UK licence fee is paying for the project, but it shows that the BBC is trying to tackle the new distribution problems that the digital age brings.

Because of content licensing within the BBC and the source of much of the materials in the archive, the Creative Archive’s material will be started off with natural history content – music clearance and artist’s rights will have to be tackled later before the rest of the archive is put online.

Andrew Chowns of the Producers Rights Agency raised the question of derogatory treatment of works from the CA. Depending on the content within the CA this could become a problem. Nothing spreads faster than a Friday afternoon joke video clip, and the Creative Archive will no doubt contain many items that regulars to b3ta and similar sites might find too tempting not to load into Premier and misuse. Again, this is an aspect that they will need to work on.

To enable the public to use the content, it will not be distributed with a digital rights management scheme and will be available in a number of formats, probably two proprietary and one open. Le Dieu described DRM as an envelope with a transparent window that only allowed you to see part of the content, without getting access to it.

She also stressed that the Creative Archive is not just about the BBC – they want other content providers and broadcasters to get involved, and want to share what they have learned, and have still to learn, with them. The whole project is very much a learning exercise for the Corporation – scary and exciting in equal measures.

The Creative Archive know that they have a lot of areas that need to be explored and developed and are looking for ways to involve the public in the project. Although there is no fixed start date, a 18-month to two year pilot will begin in 2005. It will not be restricted in the number of people who can access it, only in the amount of material that will be available.

The CA will not be producing a software platform or editing tools as they feel there are already plenty of free and cheap solutions out there. They may however produce an environment for the public to showcase works they have produced using CA content, much like those around Video Nation and One Minute Movies.

The Creative Archive is certainly an exciting project – an experiment in alternative licensing, another legal application for P2P networks and a chance for the UK public to get their hands on some fascinating and important archive materials. As a vehicle for learning about content distribution and consumption in the digital age, we can’t think of a better example.

MP3 recording of the Creative Archive Q&A ~14Mb
BBC Creative Archive
Royal Television Society – London Centre
Producers Rights Agency UPDATE: James Governor’s write up

Sony PSP Arrives on 12.Dec in Japan

After months of speculation that the Sony PlayStation Portable would not appear until 2005, Sony have just announced its release in Japan on 12 December, just ten days after Nintendo DS, and at a price that is much lower than expected.

The PSP, Sony’s entry into handheld games machine market will be available in two flavours. The normal edition PSP at $186, (~ £101, €145) will include the handheld itself, an AC adapter, and a battery pack. A value pack $232, (~£126, €181) will be the normal pack plus a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, a set of headphones with a remote control, and a carrying case.

The PSP is more than a mere games machine, it can also be used for watching movies and listening to music files – but not just yet. The standard for films is still under discussion with several movie studios, and a movie line-up and download service won’t be announced for several months. It’s a pity this last task was not completed before announcing the launch, as doubtless much of PSP’s success will depend on it, but we suspect it will be down to rights and DRM protection.

Sony denies that competition from Nintendo DS influenced the PSP price, offering several other plausible reasons. One being that the price was possible because about half of PSP’s parts, including the main computer chip, are produced internally by Sony. Another being that it was apparently set, based on an informal survey of Sony officials who were asked what they would pay for the PSP if they were going to buy it. Whatever the reason, Sony doesn’t expect to make a profit on PSP until well into next year, obviously being prepared to sacrifice it for strong PSP branding.

There will be 21 games available for the PSP launch, including high-profile third-party titles such as Electronic Arts’ “Need for Speed Underground” racing gaming and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Konami’s “Metal Gear Acid”, and Sega Corporation’s Puyo Pop Fever – Puzzle

In Japan, Sony plans to sell 500,000 PSP machines by the end of this year, and 1 million by 31st March. Dates and prices for the United States and Europe have not yet been set, although overseas sales are being planned for the first quarter of 2005.

Sony

Nintendo DS – Big US Ad Campaign Due

Its efforts to spread the word about the innovative, touch- and dual-screened Nintendo DS may reach Biblical proportions, and will certainly be the largest launch program ever for a Nintendo product, as well as the first outside of Japan.

Pre-launch television ads for the Nintendo DS started on Oct. 25. And in fairness, a new level of sophistication incorporating voice recognition, wireless features allowing multi-user play using one DS game card, and the PictoChat chat function catering for up to 16 simultaneous users, has been brought to the handheld game console market.

A series of three provocative ads presents a static-filled screen with a female voice-over inviting viewers to interact with two blue boxes on the screen, while MTV have produced a custom ad featuring the stars of Wildboyz using the Nintendo DS wireless features. In December, Nintendo will run ads on more than 5,000 movie screens, and to add the icing to the cake, Nintendo DS is being featured on the multi-city Nintendo Fusion Tour.

While Nintendo DS goes on sale in the US on 21 November and in Japan on December 2nd, Europe must wait until early 2005. It will sell at $149.99 (~£84, ~€122) and comes bundled with a playable demo of Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt.

Before the end of the year, Nintendo DS users will be able to enjoy the following eclectic mix. Super Mario 64 DS, Madden NFL 2005, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Spider-Man 2, Ping Pals, Feel the Magic XY/XX, Rayman DS, Asphalt Urban GT, Ridge Racer DS, and Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits. In addition to this more than 120 games remain in development for Nintendo DS around the world. New games will come from 100 different companies, while Nintendo itself is developing 20 titles.

Ben Hur won the chariot race and Spartacus ended up being crucified – how will Nintendo DS and Sony PSP fare in battle?

Nintendo

BT Bars Scam Diallers… For Now

BT has responded to the growing problem of rogue telephone diallers by blocking 1,000 premium rate numbers used by the downloaded applets.

Diallers are generally installed without a computer users knowledge, often through a website or as part of an application or virus. The dialler then replaces the users’ ISP details and instead access the internet using an expensive premium rate number. BT admit that they have dealt with 45,000 complaints from subscribers who have fallen victim to this scam, with another 9,000 cases pending.

With the offending numbers blocked, diallers will not be able to get through – for the time being. This is only a temporary fix – new diallers are released almost daily and I’m sure it might take somewhere in the region of about a week for someone to come up with a dialler that can check a regularly updated table of numbers that haven’t been blocked yet. Putting BT and its subscribers back where they started.

Realistically, the only way round this is for concerned subscribers to block access to all premium-rate numbers – which can be inconvenient. BT report that some 1.5 million customers currently use this approach, and the company provides premium-rate number blocking as a free service.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s group managing director for consumer and venture business said in a statement: “We have taken the decision to block numbers suspected of being associated with diallers as soon as we are alerted to a problem. We have offered free premium rate barring to all customers, and a removable bar for premium rate and international calls for UK£1.75 (€2.54)a month. We have made it clear that we are not the ones profiteering from people’s misfortune. In fact, we will continue to forego our share of the call revenue generated by these disputed calls.

“We will be emailing all of our dial-up customers again to give them advice on how to avoid falling victim to a dialler, because customers need to take action as well to protect themselves, as we believe many cases aren’t fraud but are due to a lack of awareness from customers. In fact, we are seeing that many cases are cleared up when we explain where these charges have come from, which underlines our view that there needs to be greater awareness of how these services operate.”

BT comment on diallers

BT Doubles Bandwidth for Business Customers; Blair Promises Broadband UK 2008

BT has announced today that it will be doubling the speed of its customers’ Business Broadband Network connections, at no extra cost. Customers on the 512k and 1 meg pipes will be upgraded to Network 1000 and 2000 automatically.

Customers on the 2 meg service won’t be getting ablistering 4 meg however – instead they’ll see a UK£30 (€44) reduction in their monthly line rental.

Duncan Ingram, BT Retail’s managing director of Broadband and Internet Services commented: “High bandwidth is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for businesses. Companies now need to have more than one computer attached to a network connection and that’s exactly what our Network products are designed for. Doubling bandwidth, whilst not increasing price, is part of our continuing drive to give our business customers the tools they need to really harness broadband, giving them a clear advantage over competitors and enabling them to punch well above their weight. Not only does it make communication easier, but also enables small businesses to have access to the same applications and services that have traditionally only been open to much larger enterprises.”

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, the UK PM Tony Blair promised a broadband Britain by 2008, if the country voted Labour: “Our country and its people prospering in the knowledge economy. Increasing by £1bn the investment in science, boosting support to small businesses and ending the digital divide by bringing broadband technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008.”

Broadband is part of a package of ten items that Blair promises as part of a Labour third term. Included amongst them are ID cards and the electronic registration of everyone who passes the UK’s borders.

Given that it’s not actually the UK government who will be doing the connecting, it’s a bit of a cheeky promise.

Since BT have already estimated that 99.6% of households will be broadband accessible by July 2005, is Tony saying that voting Labour will delay the whole process by three years?

BT double bandwidth