Companies – Page 68 – Digital-Lifestyles

New Apple iPods Launched: Nano and Shuffle

It's Apple Showtime In the UK, the iTunes music store was closed all day yesterday for refurbishment, with a black screen just saying ‘Showtime.’ At about 6pm (UK time) Steve Jobs announced why. There’s a slew of new/updated iPods and more content on the store as well as version 7 of iTunes for Mac and Windows (more on this later).

iPods get another makeover
All the iPods are being updated, from the video iPod down to the shuffle.

The video iPod now comes in two versions, 30GB and 80GB (£189 inc VAT and £259 respectively). They have a new screen that’s 60% brighter and more vibrant. As well as playing videos and music, viewing photos and the normal iPod features, games can be downloaded from the iTunes store (£3.99) and played on all 5th generation+ iPods. The battery life has been increased and with the 30GB iPod lasting 14 hours and the 80GB 20 hours (for music, that drops to 6.5 hours for video, but long enough for a couple of films).

It's Apple Showtime Movies (and video from the iTunes store) are now stored in 640 x 480 format.

The new Nanos come in 2, 4 and 8GB (£99, £129 and £169). Apple has gone all retro and reverted back to the mini design in that they now have an aluminum case in a variety of colours (sliver, pink, blue, green and black). It’s thinner than the 1st generation Nano. They now have 24 hours battery life.

It's Apple Showtime Both the Nano and iPod video now have search features so that albums can be searched for etc., using the click wheel (with on-screen letters and search criteria). Gapless playback is a new feature, so songs can be played continuously without the normal two second wait between songs. There’s no beat matching yet, but maybe that’s Apple’s next enhancement so DJ’s will be out of a job.

The new shuffle (1GB, £55) is tiny and again in retro silver aluminum. It’s about 1 inch long (and almost square) and has a built-in clip (well the back is a clip).

Apple iTunes 7 Revamped With Films For US

Apple iTunes 7 Revamped With Films For US iTunes 7 is now available for download. The indexing has been improved, as has navigation by re-organising the Library and other indexes that normally appear on the left hand side. If iTunes is linked to an account on the iTunes store, it can now download artwork for any music on your system. Searching is also easier, as both music and video can be searched by viewing the artwork and then seeing what’s available in say that album.

Gapless play is supported, but iTunes may take a while to index your music library.

Music can now easily be transferred between authorised computers (work and home PC) by plugging in an iPod, sync the iPod at home and when plugged in at work, the content is synced to the work PC FROM the iPod.

The music store now holds movies, these cost $9.99 for library content (i.e. older releases) and $14.99 for new movies (now released on the same day as the DVD release). If pre-ordered or in the 1st week of release, they’re discounted to $12.99. Content is available from Disney, Touchstone, Pixar and Miramax.

Apple iTunes 7 Revamped With Films For US All movie and video content is now stored in 640 x 480 format.

The games available are Tetris, Mahjong and Mini Golf from Electronic Arts, Pac-Man from Namco, Cubis-2 from FlashGames, Bejewelled and Zuma from PopCap and Texas Hold’em and Vortex from Apple, each costs £3.99.

Unfortunately movies and TV shows are still only available in the US, but Apple hope to have them available in the UK in early 2007.

Microsoft Live Search Shuffles Out Of Beta

Microsoft is officially launching its updated next-gen, ‘Live Search’, search engine today as the company tries hard to catch up with market leaders Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft is currently languishing a distant third behind search engine kings Google, currently hogging a hefty 45 percent of all search engine queries in the US, with Yahoo notching up 29 percent of the market compared to Microsoft’s mere 13 per cent.

From today, Microsoft will start replacing the current MSN Search engine on MSN.com with its new Live Search branded label, which features a souped-up image search service, better local search, a redesigned user interface and new tools for refining query results.

We can’t say we particularly liked the new AJAX-tastic interactive interface – it may well be technically cleverer than Google’s, but we’re fans of keeping it simple, thanks.

In line with its rivals, Live Search will also feature a new social search service called QnA, where surfers can pose questions and get answers from other users.

There will also be new options to view full-size photos in image search results and more “bird’s eye” aerial images in its local search service (another Microsoft project now shedding its beta label in the US and UK).

Derrick Connell, general manager of the Microsoft search business unit, explained that the new Live Search feature will be implemented progressively across different MSN host servers.

Microsoft’s new search engine – with its Google-a-like super-simple homepage – has been in public beta testing since March at Live.com, which is also shaking off its beta status this week.

These updates reflect Microsoft’s mustard keenness to grab a juicy slice of the search engine market, with search engine-based advertising proving to be a fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar earner.

Live Search

News Corp Buy 51% Of Jamba For $187m!

News Corp Buy 51% Of Jamba For $187m! News Corp has reportedly shelled out $187.5m to buy 51% in Jamba (Jamster in the US), the mobile phone ringtone company who came to prominence with the Crazy Frog ringtone.

What!, was the cry around the Digital-Lifestyles offfices. How much …. and for what?

Many had the same reaction when Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m a year ago. These same people had to quickly readjust their view as member accounts rose to 100m and they signed a deal with Google that brought in $900m.

Here’s a few of our theories as to why they might have splashed so much cash on this.

News Corp are very gun-ho about content to mobile … well actually all platforms now. It may be that they hoping to buy large amounts of Jamba’s already-paying customers. We saw Jamba at IFA in Berlin (where they’re based) and the stand was indeed filled with eager young-things, trying to look cool, in their self concious way – ideal clients for content.

News Corp Buy 51% Of Jamba For $187m! The WSJ is reporting initial offerings are expected to be ringtones, wallpaper and short clips from the popular Fox animated series The Simpsons.

With this purchase, you could assume that News Corp want to move into this space very quickly, as building an infrastructure to deliver content to mobiles isn’t exactly beyond the realms of achievability. Jamba obviously have a lot of expertise in delivering content, primarily ringtones, to mobile phones.

Verisign bought Jamba for $266m in 2004 at the height of the Crazy Frog promotion. We thought at the time it was a very strange fit for a company that provides services.

Jamba

Sky Broadband DRM Woes Halt Films

Sky Broadband DRM Woes Halt Films Sky has hit the pause button on delivering films (known by some as movies) and sport via their Sky By Broadband service, due to cracks in Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM software.

Sky has put an announcement on their site,

In order to make an essential update to the Sky by broadband security system, we are sorry that access to all movies and some sports content has been temporarily suspended. This does not affect your computer and content can still be bookmarked for future use. We will keep you posted on progress and apologise for any inconvenience.

Clearly being a big bash for the service, it must be of great embarrassment for all concerned. Content owners from around the world – especially those within the News International family, Fox, etc – will be throwing a dizzy fit, having bought the technologies companies long-lasting pitch that DRM is essential for the survival of the content biz. You see, most of them feel their clients are not to be trusted with the content,that they’re so used to having.

Sky Broadband DRM Woes Halt Films Background
A couple of weeks ago, a little software app called FreeUse4WM appeared, that stripped the Digital Rights Management (DRM) from any content, be that audio or video, held in the Windows Media format.

Following this, Microsoft threw people at fixing the problems – they had to, as it laid bare all of the content that it was supposed to protect. Sitting back with a smug look on their faces (we imagine), they must have choked on their latte’s when version 1.2 of FreeUse4WM came out, cracking the DRM and exposing the content again. It’s understood that Microsoft are working on the fix for v1.2.

Security of all sorts is just a game of cat and mouse, with no absolute guarantees – security company created protection

Sony DSC-T5, DSC-N2 Cameras Announced

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5, DSC-N2 Cameras Announced Sony has announced two new cameras shunting off their ever-busy production line, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T50 and DSC-N2, both offering large LCD screens.

Sony DSC-T50
The DSC-T50 is the new, top-of-the-range addition to Sony’s popular ultra-compact ‘T series’ range and comes with a Carl Zeiss 3x folded optics lens, Super SteadyShot optical image stabilisation, 3.0″ LCD touch screen and a seven megapixel sensor, with high light sensitivity up to IS0 1000.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5, DSC-N2 Cameras Announced Shipping in (ahem) ‘bold’ red, black and silver, the DSC-T50 offers 56 MB of internal memory (with Memory Stick Duo/ PRO Duo memory cards allowing storage expansion up to 4GB) and sizes up at just 95×56.5×23.4 and 170g.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5, DSC-N2 Cameras Announced Sony DSC-N2
The DSC-N2 follows on from the DSC-N1 and comes with the same 3.0″ touch-screen LCD and Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar 3x optical zoom lens, finished off in a natty ‘champagne gold’ finish.

The sensor has been ramped up to a beefy ten megapixel /1.8″ CCD with high ISO pushed up to ISO 1600 (compared to 800 on the N1).

The DSC-N2 comes with a built-in slide show feature, allowing you to wow your chums with your holiday snaps forever.

With every picture taken, the camera creates a secondary, VGA resolution image which is stored in a dedicated section of the camera’s internal memory.

These images can then be played back as “in-camera slide shows,” complete with (guffaw) ‘creative’ transition effects like pans, wipes and fades, accompanied by the user’s own soundtrack of “Uno paloma blanca,” if they so desire (Please….no…spare us!)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5, DSC-N2 Cameras Announced “With digital photography, the social interaction that happens when people share their pictures has become as important as making great photographs,” insisted Phil Lubell, director of marketing for digital still cameras and photo printers at Sony Electronics.

Both new cameras should be in the shops from next month, with the retailing for around DSC-T50 for $500 (£268, Ä394) and the DSC-N2 for $450 (£241, Ä354).

Sony

Replacement Apple Batteries Arriving Early

Replacement Apple Batteries Arriving Early The exchange of Apple’s might-catch-fire batteries is happening faster than originally anticipated.

When the news broke that Apple were recalling their Sony-produced batteries, they were talking about it taking four weeks to get the batteries out.

We duly went on to the Apple site and filled out the simple form, receiving a conformation mail telling us we should expect delivery in four to six weeks.

You can imagine our surprise this morning when what should arrive via the UPS courier, but the new battery, under two weeks from the original order.

It makes sense for Apple/Sony to swap these batteries as soon as possible, as many customers may be getting The Fear about their machines bursting into flames, I know that I’ve thought twice about leaving mine charging overnight.

If you’re interested, the batteries look identical form the outside, but we’ve found that the replacements have a higher battery capacity 4607 mAh vs 4400 mAh of the original. The new one certainly has loads more than 2846 mAh that our 14 month battery has ended up with. Translated – what you end up with is better than the original.

There’s a form and box to return the original battery, again via UPS. No wonder Sony estimated the recall could cost them as much as $257m (30 million yen).

$15 itunes Movie Price Judged Too High By Majority Polled

$15 itunes Movie Price Judged Too High By Majority Polled According to new research from The Diffusion Group, only 14% of broadband households would be interested in an iTunes online movie download service for use on PCs or portable devices if titles were priced at $15 each. This compares to total interest of 23% at $10 per download – a 64% decline in interest when increasing the cost per title by only $5.

On the Viability of an iTunes Movie Download Service, a two-part report series produced by TDG, states that movie studios originally demanded that Apple accept a pricing scheme of around $20 per download, similar to the prices charged by current online movie services such as CinemaNow and Movielink. But according to Michael Greeson, founder and principal analyst with TDG, Apple demanded download prices of around $10 for even new titles, half that of existing services. “It would seem, then, that the two parties simply split the difference. All things equal, this appears to make sense.”

However, TDG’s research found that the net loss of demand from increasing the price from $10 to $15 is almost four times the gain in demand from lowering the price from $20 to $15. In other words, at $10 per title, demand would have been optimized yet profits would have suffered, while at $20 per title both revenue and profits would have been optimized with little loss in demand.

Speculation regarding Apple’s entry into the online movie space heated up in advance of the early August Worldwide Developers Conference, but nothing materialized. As Apple’s September 12 public launch event nears, the rumor mill is again churning and has this time attracted pundits from the mainstream business press. Of course, Apple continues to decline comment.

$15 itunes Movie Price Judged Too High By Majority Polled Regardless of whether the iTunes movie download service is announced this month or later this year, Greeson believes that the time is right for Apple to enter this market space. “Although current services such as CinemaNow and Movielink continue to languish, Apple is aware that the conditions are now suitable for extending iTunes to include full-length movie downloads. Consumer awareness has improved; video-over-broadband is now viable; studios are now making movies available for online download to DVDs; portable video platforms are improving qualitatively with each new generation; and Apple’s brand awareness and credibility are at all time highs. As well, CinemaNow and Movielink’s experience, while insightful, is of limited value to Apple, who continues to enjoy the fruits of being a market-maker in portable digital electronics and online media services.”

One challenge faced by today’s online movie download services that will still haunt Apple is the fact that movie downloads are still being viewing on the PC or portable devices – scenarios that do not reflect the video consumption behavior of the majority of US consumers. Connecting these services to the living room TV (either directly via a broadband-enabled set-top box or indirectly via a digital media adapter) is imperative to expanding the online movie market beyond the earliest of early adopters and to helping move Apple into the living room (the primary battleground for future-thinking PC and CE vendors).

For these reasons, TDG commissioned a June 2006 consumer study to evaluate consumer interest in and price sensitivity toward two types of Apple iTunes-branded online movie services – the first involving movie downloads to the PC and portable devices and the second involving movie downloads to a iTunes-branded set-top box or digital media adapter connected to the primary home TV. Researchers examined consumer receptivity to both of these scenarios across a variety of prices points, identified the core group of consumers most likely to adopt these services, and profiled this segment across a number of characteristics.

Both of these reports are now available for purchase on TDG’s Website..

thelondonpaper: Murdoch Shows His Internet Vision

thelondonpaper: Murdoch Shows His Internet Vision News International, MySpace-Murdoch’s newspaper enterprise yesterday launched a new, free newspaper and Web site for London.

We’re not going to bore you with the version that’s stampted on to dead trees, we’ll take a quick look at the site and see where Murdoch may be taking his empire with his re-found enthusiasm for the Internet.

The design of the site, is clear – blog-like, and in his opening comment page, the editor, Stefano Hatfield, writes on the launch of the site (my bold)

thelondonpaper.com also launches (as a beta site) today. In addition to breaking news, competitions and opportunities to contribute and vote, our website takes a broadband look at life in London with daily video coverage of news and entertainment across the city.

As we’ve seen already, Murdoch is applying cross media promotion to MySpace, the selling episodes on the TV program 24 by his Fox television.

This continues on at thelondonpaper.com.

No real surprise that Sky (his satellite TV biz in the UK) features large. Well … he’s just trying to help his son make his projected subscription figures isn’t he? Any media company-owning dad would do they same wouldn’t they?

thelondonpaper: Murdoch Shows His Internet Vision Besides the centrally placed Sky adverts, there’s a competition to win Sky Broadband (his UK broadband service).

The release date of thelondonpaper was brought forward, and in the lower sections of the site, it starts to show. Going to the competition submission pages, we’re told (my bold)

Please email your answer to [email protected] along with your full name, address, daytime telephone, date of birth and your email address. Please do not use the submit button below.

Of course we did, expecting the whole of News International to come crashing down … it didn’t.

The other point of interest? Google text ads on the site. Them chucking $900m on the table to advertise on MySpace, clearly extended beyond that single property.

As to the video taking a ‘broadband look at London,’ well it’s pretty thin on the ground currently, but we found a couple of pieces including an interview with Fear of flying, which by remarkable coincidence, also has a link to …. their MySpace. What a lovely self-referential world it looks like we’re moving to.

thelondonpaper.com

Google CEO Joins Apple’s Board Of Directors

Google CEO Joins Apple's Board Of Directors In a Star Trek-like melding of minds, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is joining Apple Computer’s board of directors, setting tongues wagging that some kind of alliance between the technology giants could be looming.

The subsequent statements by both companies suggest that a veritable flurry of back-slapping and advanced mutual fawning took place, with Eric Schmidt effusing, “Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire.”

“I’m really looking forward to working with Steve (Jobs) and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing,” he gushed.

Not to be outdone, Apple co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs was ready to share the love, “Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apples board of directors.”

“Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead,” he continued, as the room filled with dust from several hours of hearty back patting.

Google CEO Joins Apple's Board Of Directors The addition of Schmidt to Apple now brings the total number of board members to eight, and these include Steve Jobs, Al Gore, former vice president of the United States and the head honchos of Intuit, J. Crew and Genentech.

Google book search expands
Elsewhere, Google have expanded their controversial book search service to allow users to download full PDF copies of public domain books, which can now be printed out.

Previously, surfers could only read books on the Google Book Search site, but not download or print them.

Google Books