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XBox 360 IPTV Coming To London
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 running as an IPTV box will be demonstrated in London for the first time in Europe on 5 March.
It’s had an outing at CES in January this year and was well received.
There’s little doubt that the X360 has the grunt to be able to act as an IPTV STB – if anything it’s total over kill, given the considerable graphics ability it has.
Here’s what Robbie Bach, Sr. VP and Chief Xbox Officer, said about IPTV Edition, the middleware that the network operator will run to power the IPTV-ness of the Xbox 360, “IPTV Edition enables you to do, regardless of whether you’re a cable provider or a telco or any net operator, you can take live media, on-demand media, across an IP network and put it into the home on a high-definition television, and you can do multiple streams of that content without having to have multiple tuners in the set-top box. You really can produce an amazing TV experience.”
He went on to explain it’s not just about selling the IPTV software to the head-end, “this product sells SQL Server, it sells Commerce Server, it sells the rest of our backbone into these operators, and really helps broaden our business.” Hmmm, Nice.
It’s also been on what they call “scale commercial deployments” with the BT Group in the UK, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, T-Online in France and Swisscom in Switzerland. AT&T is working with Microsoft in the US.
There’s a history here
When the original Xbox was launched, Microsoft spent an awful amount of effort in denying that it was a going to be used to bring them closer to the TV in the lounge.
Despite this, they did quietly release some add-on software package that allowed you to pull picture and music from a PC. We bought it to give it a go, and found it to be disastrous. Hugely bloated software that needed to loaded on the PC that was to share and disastrous software that loaded on the Xbox. It was rare that it worked at all.
We assume that the X360 is considerably better than this.
The US version of XBox Live already gives subscribers the ability to download films and TV programmes to their X360s.
22 February, 2007
Viacom Joost Deal Struck
US media giant, Viacom, have struck a deal with Joost, the VOD TV to computer previously known as The Venice Project.
Joost is currently in beta, and it’s understood that the Viacom material will be available for the yet-undefined launch date of Joost. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Joost users will have financially-free access to the content. Joost users will ‘pay’ by being shown brief adverts, that we call blip-verts. They only last a couple of seconds and aren’t _that_ offensive, if the video pieces that are being watched aren’t too short.
The Viacom channels covered by the deal are MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike TV, Logo and BET.
Clearly Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer, is showing his excitement at being involved, “We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology.” He’s not looking at the Joost deal as an exclusive though, “we’re determined to keep pushing and growing our digital presence and bring our programming to audiences on every platform and device that they want. In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers.”
All of this comes only a couple of week after Viacom threw their legal department at YouTube, insisting that they remove their content from the video sharing site and accused Google-owned YouTube of knowingly profiting from material stolen from them.
Joost recently introduced a version of Joost to run on Apple’s Mac. Version 0.8.0.1 for Mac came out on Monday, following a brief period in Alpha test. They describe it as looking “very much like Joost for Windows, while behaving very much like a Mac application.” A growing number of Mac Beta testers are complaining that the software only works on Intel-based Macs.
Joost
21 February, 2007
Mac Users Need To De-Smugify About Security: Researcher
We’ve been bombarded by the smug, highly slapable face of the Mac bloke in Apple’s omnipresent advertising campaign telling us how incredibly secure Macs are, but an independent researcher begs to differ.
Researcher Kevin Finisterre feels that far from walking around with an air of superiority over their Windows counterparts, Mac users should also start taking security threats seriously.
After highlighting security holes in Mac applications on his Month of Apple Bugs (MOAB) website, Finisterre said he was initially shunned by some of the Mac community, but his concerns were vindicated when Apple recently issued a patch to plug holes outlined on his website.
The update fixed holes in iChat and Finder as well as a flaw in the user notification process that could potentially let malicious users gain system privileges.
Finisterre says he started the project in response to Apple owners’ blasé attitude to security, commenting, “Try calling any Apple store and ask any sales rep what you would do with regard to security, ask if there is anything you should have to worry about?
“They will happily reinforce the feeling of ‘Security on a Mac? What? Me worry?’.”
Finisterre said he hoped that his campaign has made people realise that there are, “most definitely some things under the OSX hood that need a closer look,” although Mac experts are quick to point out that none of the exploits on his site have been used to successfully hijack an Apple computer.
Things can only get better
Claiming that Apple hadn’t been too interested in opening a dialogue about security matters, Finisterre said that things were now changing for the better.
“They have certainly given some extra efforts on the backend to open up lines of communication, at least with me.”
“That sort of progress is what I am after rather than a particular set of bugs,” he commented.
Via
20 February, 2007
Skype Pro: Europe Details Emerge
As you know, Skype Pro was announced in the middle of January. Today the pricing was confirmed.
For €2 + VAT per month, subscribers will be getting
- Zero cents per minute calling to domestic landlines in the UK previously 1.7c per minute
- Free Skype Voicemail (normally €15 per year)
- €30 discount on SkypeIn numbers
- €5 Skype Credit included as part of the introductory offer (see below)
- A €30 discount on a Philips VoIP 841 cordless phone
- A €10 discount on an SMC WiFi phone
- Additional discounts on a series of Skype Extras are also available including desktop sharing, avatars, emoticons and ring tones
It’s not all free on the calls to landlines, as each call made will have a 3.9c connection charge made against it.
The lucky dwellers of Europe (specifically Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK) will benefit from this first.
Other countries worldwide will follow in 2007.
Skype Pro
20 February, 2007
Beardy Big Cheese At Google Predicts Internet Growth Driven By Mobiles
One of the big cheeses at Google, vice president and chief ‘Internet evangelist’ (say wah’?!) Vinton G. Cerf has been shining up his crystal ball and coming up with his predictions for the future.
Looking deeper, deeper, deeper into his shiny orb (oo-er), the beardy Cerf revealed that it won’t be personal computers fuelling the growth of the internet. Instead he reckons that the expansion of the worldwide web will be powered by mobile phones, with countries like India snapping up zillions of the fellas and getting online en masse.
Talking to Yahoo, Cerf whipped out his Big Book of Internet Facts (BBOIF) and observed that the amount of people accessing the web has expanded quicker than Fatty Arbuckle’s waistband at a pie eating contest, with the numbers soaring from just 50 million in 1997 to nearly 1.1 billion today.
Despite this, the web still only reaches a miserly sixth of the world’s population, prompting Cerf to comment, “You will get those other 5.5 billion people only when affordability increases and the cost of communication goes down.”
“The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution,” he added.
Flicking further through his BBOIF, Cerf said that there are 2.5 billion mobile-phone users worldwide with numbers rocketing in developing countries led by China and India.
India is already adding seven million mobile-phone users a month – enough to tempt British telecom giant Vodafone to shell out over $11 billion dollars for a controlling stake in local mobile outfit Hutch-Essar – with new Internet-enabled features and services likely to reel in more online users.
Naturally, Google wants a slab o’the action, and has been expanding its research and service offices in India, hoping to increase the current meagre total of just 40 million people online – just 3.5 percent of India’s enormous population.
Via
20 February, 2007
UK Punters Are Feeling The MP3 Music Love
A new survey by Q Research discovered that a third of UK consumers aged 11 to 25 were slapping down up to £5 a month on digital tunes, with three per cent shelling out £25 or more a month.
Not all the kids are feeling the digital love though, with 45 per cent of respondents spending but ne’er a bean on music.
A hefty 85 per cent of respondents were found to be owners of MP3 players with the ubiquitous Apple iPod being the most popular device by a long chalk.
The survey found that the young ‘uns were the biggest users of free download services – almost half – but 43 per cent of under 16s were still paying up to £10 a month, with a hardcore nine per cent splashing out as much as £10 to £25 a month.
When it comes to the real big spenders, the lucrative 20-24 year olds sector were flashing the most cash, with two thirds spending up to £10 a month on downloads, and 16 per cent spend from £10 to £20 a month.
Downloading tunes direct to mobile phones is still a niche interest though, with punters put off by the high cost.
Liz Nelson, chairman of Q Research, commented that the survey showed that, “while there is already a very buoyant market for paying for MP3 files from the internet among young people, they are very aware of the cost of downloading files to their phones.”
“This finding is underlined by other projects we have done, where we have discovered opposition among young people to watching video or receiving video ads to their mobiles because of the cost,” she added
Source
20 February, 2007
Vista Launch: Boxed Copy Sales Down, PC Sales Up
Although punters waited an eternity for the chuffing thing to be released, first-week retail sales figures for boxed copies of Windows Vista were almost 60 per cent down on sales registered for the first week for its predecessor, Windows XP.
The figures, from the market research group NPD Group, calculated that the dollar value of Vista retail box copies shifted during the week of 28 January crashed 32 per cent compared to the value of XP box copies sold during its debut in October 2001.
It’s not all bad news for Billy and the gang though, as the sales of new PCs running Vista went through the roof after Vista’s launch, up a massive 67 per cent over the same period last year.
Conceding that direct comparisons are difficult as many stores were clearing out their XP inventory prior to Vista’s launch, Chris Swenson, a software analyst with NPD commented that the figures, “still reflects a fair bit of growth.”
Swenson added that the seemingly contradictory figures are down to consumers twigging that they need a beefier system to be able to run the bells and whistles of Vista, so some are going out and buying a new PC rather than upgrading.
There’s no such confusion with Office 2007 sales however, which recorded very strong retail sales, more than doubling the first week sales for Office 2003.
There’ll also be much hand rubbing at Microsoft with the news that consumers are upgrading to the higher end versions of Vista, with the average selling price recorded at around US$207 – up two thirds on the average selling price of XP.
“So, although total dollars were down compared to XP, I think the preliminary data shows that Microsoft’s gamble on a new high-end Vista SKU will help keep dollar volumes from declining as rapidly as unit volumes in the near term,” observed Swenson.
Via
19 February, 2007
GRAW 2 Interview with Christian Allen, Creative Director, Red Storm: Podcast
Christian Allen, Creative Director at Red Storm, responsible for the online multi-player portion of GRAW 2 (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2) and I sat down for 15 minutes at the exclusive First Look in London.
I’ve already reviewed the game, which is highly impressive and took the chance to touch on quite a few different areas with Christian in this chat. These include the new Spawning system that avoids Spawn Camping; the advances in graphics for the new game; what the next stage of video games might be; how their early prototyping works during their current develop process; the new storm shooter weapons in the game (CX4 storm & RX4 storm); how they research the future weapons they’re including in GRAW2, like the Natick Solider Center (catch phrase “We’re the science behind the Soldier”) and their Future Force Warrior (FFW) Program; find out his favourite GRAW 2 weapons; discuss the stuff they’ve had to pull from the game because it’s too futuristic, like solider health monitoring; and how the new health patching media function will really encourage team play.
It’s quite a ride. Click below to listen …
[audio:https://digital-lifestyles.info/media/audio/christian-allen-GRAW-2-interview.mp3]
Buy GRAW 2 on Amazon UK or Amazon US
16 February, 2007
MySpace Ruled Not Liable In Texan Sex Case
The family of a 13-year old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by someone she met via Myspace have had their lawsuit against MySpace thrown out by a Texan judge.
As we’ve covered previously, this family was one of four who are pursuing MySpace for not taking sufficient effort to protect their children.
As the LA Times reports, “the ruling appears to be the first time a federal court has extended to social-networking sites the same broad free-speech protections granted to Internet service providers,” which if correct will have far reaching consequences. We imagine that all at MySpace will also be breathing a huge sigh of relief.
To protect the anonymity of the young girl, she was referred to as Julie Doe, through the case. The court papers revealed that when she joined MySpace, she had listed her age as 18, despite only being 13 years old at the time.
The Judge, Sam Sparks, was very direct in his ruling dismissing the case, “If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.”
Not deterred by the ruling, Adam J Loewy, the Austin lawyer who represented the girl, said they planned an appeal, adding “We were prepared for a very long battle in this.”
16 February, 2007
GRAW 2 First Look Review: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2: Wow (Pt 2/2)
Following on from yesterday’s introduction to the multi-player version of GRAW 2, today, we’ll dig a bit further into the detail.
Spawn Camping tackled
Players of multi-player will be very glad to hear that it has an updated version of spawning. In previous games, after death, players were brought back at set spawning points, which lead some naughty-types to sit at these points, just shooting people before they had a chance to escape. These rotters will be frustrated to hear that they’ll no longer be able to do this.
Spawning is now to a region rather than a set point. The spawn algorithm looks at the number of people who have previously been killed there, numbers of enemy soldiers present, etc. On spawning, the player is invulnerable, but able to fire. As soon as they fire a shot, they lose their invulnerability.
Customisation and clans
Building and managing a clan – of up to 100 people – is now built in thanks to Ubisoft’s tool that has been incorporated.
There’s lots of customisation of your player possible with a tremendous selection of clothing and headgear. Ubisoft tells us that lots of clans that have been on the beta have created a ‘uniform’ that all members must wear. Some may be sad to hear that there’s no face-mapping, but it had to go because of the customisation.
One new feature that should provide an extra dimension to multi-player games is the addition of the medic function, giving you the ability to get players back to full health when they’ve been hit with a round that has incapacitated them.
Maps
The developers have spent a lot of time on the multi-player maps, improving not only the quality, but also the details. In their words, they’ve “tried to create spaces that aren’t just normal.”
Examples of this are jungles that aren’t just jungles, but ones that have had a C130 aircraft recently crashed within it, still smoking and a village that has just been ravaged by a Tsunami.
The largest map is now a significant 500 x 500m.
Shhhh, listen to the audio
If you want to get that edge on your opponents, you’re going to have to listen hard, as sound has been brought further in to successful playing of the game. By turning your HiFi and ears up, you’ll be able to track other players simply by listening to their where their foot steps or gun shots are coming from.
To build your adrenaline, the music in the multi-player game changes as things get more difficult.
__Conclusion
The hour or so I had with it, doesn’t give you the opportunity to really get your teeth into a game like this. The real delight of it will be exposed after many hours of button and trigger jiggling, playing via xBox Live.
What I can tell you, is it looks very special with the realistic lighting heightening an already impressive experience.
They’re going to have to do something pretty disastrous between now and the launch to muck this up. To me, this has all of the makings of a hit game.
Buy it on Amazon UK or Amazon US
Have a listen to our exclusive audio interview with Christian Allen, Creative Director of Red Storm.
GRAW 2. Demo of the single player available.
15 February, 2007