Gmail Mobile Improved By Google

Browsing Gmail, Google’s email service, wasn’t particularly great when you did it from a mobile … until now. With the new release of gmail mobile that was launched today.

Gmail for Mobile Devices (GMD?), to give it its full official name, is a Java app that can be downloaded and run on any Java-enabled handset. The previous version was browser-based and pretty basic.

It’s an interesting change of approach for Google, who has near-exclusively focused on browser-based applications to access their services (except for Google Local).

GMD isn’t the only Java-driven email client. Flurry was pointed out to us by Cristian Streng. It’s had close to 1 million downloads from getjar.com alone and is used in over 200 countries.

Clearly not wanting it to get used too heavily, Google has officially only made the application downloadable in the US, where until recently people didn’t really use their phones for anything except making calls. While they’ve been doing that, the rest of the world have used their mobiles for everything from gaming to text messages.

Gmail Mobile app Mobile access Only
Flurry

May You Live In Interesting Times, Festival Preview (2/2)

The first part of this preview was published last week.

May You Live In Interesting Times, Festival Preview (2/2)The festival has been developed by Bloc (Creative Technology Wales) and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. They have managed to accommodate a large number of complex yet accessible projects. This collaboration is all the more impressive in its scale when you realise that both organisations have their own projects running concurrently (Bloc are developing Northern and Southern pilot projects in Wales with accompanying seminars; Chapter are hosting the first UK showing o the artists Olaf Breuning).

The festival will be based at Chapter but will spill out into the streets of Cardiff and various venues and unique spaces. Contemporary artists are increasingly engaged with, or inspired by, digital technology and such public spaces.

The public and communication technologies are attractive to artists because of their user friendliness and their massive global reach.

Artists tend to situate such work somewhere between public art and street culture. Digital technology is often claimed to go beyond physical limitations such as cyberspace, but it is always embedded in real spaces and places such as the home, the workplace and the street whether this is an individual user, or as part of a larger ever extending network.

These spaces in Cardiff include the Millennium Stadium, where Tim Davies’ Drumming will be shown on the giant digital billboards above the pitch. This shows the frenetic beating of a snare drum as a call to arms. The drumming echoes out throughout the stadium and beyond, echoing the roar of 70,000 Welsh fans.

If you see a number of futuristic-looking people being pursued down Cardiff’s Queen Street, don’t worry, that will be Blast Theory.

Renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, Blast Theory come to Cardiff to present the award-winning chase game Can You See Me Now?

Online players are dropped into a virtual Cardiff while Blast Theory runners, tracked by satellites in the real city, pursue you.

May You Live In Interesting Times, Festival Preview (2/2)To join in you can access a number of computer terminals at the National Museum and Gallery or at one of the festival hubs at Chapter or g39 (cor). If you are unable to visit you can play from your own computer.

A number of residencies have already taken place across Wales, such as Jen Southern and Jen Hamilton who have been working at Creative Mwldan in Cardigan.

They have been setting tasks for locals and tourists while tracking their movements through GPS systems.

The evidence they collect will then be relocated to Cardiff, where they will be taking visitors on a boat trip in Cardiff Bay.

Grennan and Sperandio will be based in Cardiff, where they are keen to meet anyone interested in any aspect of gaming, from bridge clubs to computer game enthusiasts. They will be creating an online and actual card game based on interactions with historians, language experts, game enthusiasts as well as people from all walks of life in Cardiff.

Artists from Wales were encouraged to develop new work. Stefhan Caddick will be placing a portable digital road sign near Cardiff’s Old Library.

Usually used to display traffic information, viewers are asked to text their own messages which will be then displayed on screen.

Andy Fung’s work will be displayed on an advertising billboard on Leckwith Road near Cardiff’s Football ground.

May You Live In Interesting Times, Festival Preview (2/2)The artist group Second Site will be displaying new video works in the windows of a empty bank on Bute Street, while Chris Evans will project his interactive game onto St John’s Church in the centre of Cardiff.

Canton Labour Club becomes the ideal venue to host a series of discussions based around ideas of community and broadcasting.

The two-day conference will explore the themes of the festival, including the use of locative media, such as GPS systems and mobile phones. There will also be a look at the use and influence of video gaming.

With so many creative technologies on offer, it seems that we do indeed live in interesting times.

Karen Price is Arts Correspondent for the Western Mail.

The first part of this preview was published last week.

Chapter
Bloc
Cardiff Contemporary

May You Live In Interesting Times, Festival Preview (1/2)

We find it hard to explain how excited Digital-Lifestyles is about ‘May you live in interesting times’, the pseudonym given to the Cardiff Festival of Creative Technology starting in Cardiff on 28.Oct. Karen Price does a great job of capturing the range of events that make it up.
Watch out on Digital-Lifestyles after the event for a series of podcasts from there.
Part two of this preview is also available.

Close Encounters Of The Creative Kind – Part OneIt’s a fact of life – almost everywhere we turn we are surrounded by technology. From mobile phones and digital cameras to TVs and video games. But as well as making our lives easier and providing us with entertainment, more and more artists are now turning to everyday technologies when they create their work.

This will be highlighted during a new three-day festival which is taking place in Cardiff 28th-30th October 2005.

May You Live In Interesting Times – a title taken from a phrase used in a famous speech once made by Robert F Kennedy – is being staged across the Welsh capital as part of the Cardiff 2005 celebrations, and is a major highlight of Cardiff Contemporary, which is promoting the visual arts throughout this month.

Despite being the first event of its kind in Wales, it includes a line-up of international artists, speakers, sponsors and partners who will take part in a series of residencies, commissions, and a two-day conference.

This is all supported by a programme of artists’ projects, outdoor events, screenings, music, performances and projections.

Close Encounters Of The Creative Kind – Part One“The event will be held at various sites across the capital and will illuminate the city with dynamic and individual work using a range of new and existing technologies,” said festival co-director Emma Posey.

“The festival will provide a platform for national and international audiences to access the very best works that utilise digital technologies.”

It is already being recognised as a major international event, attracting attention as far and wide as Brazil, Holland, Japan and the USA.

The festival’s Website offers browsers from all over the world the chance to take part online via its live streaming and pod casting.

“We have received lots of positive responses so far both from inside and outside Wales,” said Posey.

Close Encounters Of The Creative Kind – Part One“We want to create a vibrant creative technology sector in Wales, with the festival celebrating this every two years.”

The festival’s other co-director Hannah Firth is keen to stress the accessibility of new technology and its use by artists and the public in their everyday lives.

“New forms of technology are commonplace, from mobile phones, computers, digital cameras, videogames and the way we watch television,” she said. “These technologies influence every aspect of our lives, if we like it or not. The festival looks at how artists are using this everyday available technology, not for its own sake, but as an additional tool in expanding their ideas.”

Richard Higlett, Visual Arts Coordinator for Cardiff 2005 added “May You live in Interesting Times is an important addition to the Capital’s cultural calendar and an opportunity to see art made using digital technologies by Welsh and Internationally respected artists. The festival is a reflection not just of the way art is made today but is about art which is resonant, depicting the current condition of society at the start of the 21st century.”

Karen Price is Arts Correspondent for the Western Mail.

Part two of this preview is also available.

May You Live In Interesting Times
Chapter
Bloc
Cardiff Contemporary

Coast: Barcodes On The Beach With BBC’s New Mobile Content Service

Barcodes On The Beach With BBC's New Mobile ServiceThe BBC has teamed up with Hewlett-Packard Labs and Gavitec to provide a digital collaboration based around the BBC TWO series, Coast.

The trial will allow roving ramblers to reach for their phone and call up site-specific extra audio and WAP content from the programme using “visual triggers” and their mobiles phones.

The system employs data codes – which look much the same as your average barcode on a tin of beans – and hikers with Series 60 camera phones will be able to read these codes and connect directly to BBC content.

Although rarely seen on UK streets, data code technology is big in Japan, where it’s used for linking to personal information from business cards and providing extra info from posters and magazine advertisements.

The BBC trial will involve placing the data codes on plaques at 100 locations around the UK. Users will need to download the free HP and Gavitec-developed software from bbc.co.uk to access the service.

Less well-equipped trampling travellers can access a rich WAP site by texting COAST to 81010, while harassed parents may be able to earn some peace by letting their kids take part in the SMS text quiz provided.

Barcodes On The Beach With BBC's New Mobile ServiceFor phone-allergic types, the BBC will also make MP3 audio from the project available as a free download from bbc.co.uk.

The content aims to add local information and colour, with simple narrated pieces about the area, short dramatisations and contributions from local people (“Gerrrrofff my land, townie!”).

The audio pieces are short’n’ sweet (less than two minutes long) so users won’t be hit with a tractor-sized phone bill and are designed to stimulate an interest in finding out more about each location.

Mark Jacobs, Executive Producer of Coast Mobile scrubbed down his wellies and enthused: “We’re very excited about this latest trial from the BBC. Not only do we get a chance to use cutting edge mobile technology, but we also get to give our audience an enriched location based multi-media experience exactly where it makes most sense – where they are standing.”

Those taking part in the trial will be invited to participate in a series of questionnaires and interviews on their mobile experience to see if it’s a hiking hit or a meandering miss.

BBC

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV. UK Tonight

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV, UK TonightXbox 360, Microsoft’s successor to their popular Xbox gaming console, will be “unleashed” tonight at a celebrity-packed launch broadcast on MTV, which shows at 8pm in the UK. It was launched on US MTV last night.

With a press release positively hyperventilating with hyperbole, Microsoft breathlessly extols the virtues of their new games machine, dramatically waffling on about “a dawn of a new era in entertainment.”

Unlike the manly, chunky lines of the first-generation Xbox, the 360 has been given the ladyboy treatment, with smooth, concave lines covering the rippling muscle lurking below.

And there certainly is a beast in the box, with the unit powered by a custom-made IBM PowerPC-based three-core chip running at 3.2GHz, supported by 512MB of GDDR3 RAM – enough beefy brawn to keep up with even the nippiest modern PCs.

Graphics performance should be speedier than a rocket-assisted rabbit too, with an ATI GPU running at 500MHz, backed up by 10MB of embedded DRAM.

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV, UK TonightThe Xbox will ship with a 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM drive – supporting progressive-scan DVD movies and a host of DVD and CD formats – three USB 2.0 ports, two memory unit slots and support for four wireless game controllers.

Users will also be able to stream media from portable devices or Windows XP PCs, as well as rip music to the Xbox’s detachable (and upgradeable) 20GB hard drive.

Networking needs are catered for with a built-in Ethernet port and support for 802.11a, b, and g Wi-Fi protocols.

“With the first generation of Xbox, our ambition was to change the way people think about video games,” said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. “Starting today with Xbox 360, our ambition is to transform the way people play games and have fun.”

Microsoft – never one to understate their case – are claiming that they will “unleash the greatest game lineup in the history of video games” when the Xbox launches in North America, Europe and Japan over Christmas.

They’ve certainly persuaded a gaggle of major league gaming companies to come onboard, with initial releases including NBA 2K6, Call of Duty 2, QUAKE 4, Madden NFL 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06.

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV, UK Tonight“Xbox 360 marks the beginning of a renaissance in video games,” whooped Don Mattrick, president of Worldwide Studios for Electronic Arts. “The unbelievable Xbox 360 games in development at Electronic Arts will accelerate the industry’s mission to make video games the pre-eminent form of all entertainment.”

All the games are designed for high-definition, wide-screen televisions, although they’ll work on regular TVs.

Players will be able to access Microsoft’s free Xbox Live online service, which allows them to connect with friends through Xbox Live voice chat, send and receive text and voice messages and stuff their detachable Xbox 360 hard drive full of downloadable demos, trailers, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and community-created content

Gamers who shell out for the premium service, Xbox Live Gold, can join multiplayer online games and enjoy enhanced options for online game matchmaking and a greater ability to provide feedback on opponents.

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV, UK TonightNaturally, gamers love to customise their experience, so there’s a camera option to let vain players add their mugshots into games or even see their friends onscreen as they frag them to an inch of their worthless lives.

As is the current vogue, the appearance of the actual Xbox can be customised too, with a range of interchangeable Xbox Faces on offer.

Although the system is aimed at mad-for-it gamers, the Xbox is also a full entertainment system offering DVD movie, CD music and photo playback support.

So long as they’re equipped with a USB 2.0 port, MP3 players, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PC port can all plug into an Xbox 360 system to stream music and photos.

XBox 360 Launched on US MTV, UK TonightXbox 360 players can also access recorded TV and digital movies, music, video and photos stored on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 system in the house.

We’ve yet to get our greasy paws on a machine, but Microsoft have certainly raised the stakes with their new Xbox, although arch rivals Sony have yet to, err, unleash their PlayStation 3, a potentially more powerful box offering support for new high-capacity Blu-ray discs.

With both units enjoying enthusiastic support from game makers and gamers, some of the real bloody battles could soon be taking place off-screen.

Promo video for Xbox 360 (Windows Media)
If you thought Xbox 360 was just about gaming, skip to 3 minutes into the video to see how they’re transforming it into a media centre.
XBox

Mobile Web Initiative Launched By The W3C

Mobile Web Initiative Launched By The W3CIf you’ve ever accessed the Web through a mobile phone or PDA, you may be familiar with the annoyance of finding some sites inaccessible, hard to read or just a right royal pain in the Bluetooth.

Hopefully, such experiences will soon become a distant nightmare thanks to the good folks at W3C, who have just launched their Mobile Web Initiative (MWI), designed to make browsing the Web from mobile devices a much happier experience.

The problem has traditionally been that content providers have difficulties building Web sites that work well on all types and configurations of mobile phones, so two working groups have been formed by the W3C to push the adoption of its standards for browsing on mobile devices

Mobile Web Initiative Launched By The W3C“Mobile access to the Web has been a second-class experience for far too long,” Web founding father and W3C director Tim Berners-Lee said in a statement. “MWI recognizes the mobile device as a first-class participant, and will produce materials to help developers make the mobile Web experience worthwhile.”

The MWI, first proposed late last year, is composed of two working groups: The Best Practices Working Group – who will publish guidelines and best practices for Web content authors – and The Device Description Working Group, tasked with publishing a database with descriptions that content authors can use for tailoring their pages to various devices.

It’s not the first time that the W3C has focused on the actual application of its recommendations rather than their design, with their 1997 Web Accessibility Initiative focusing on education, advocacy and technical development to make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities.

Mobile Web Initiative Launched By The W3C“Web access today is so fundamental, that it shouldn’t be hampered by wires,” table-thumped Philipp Hoschka, W3C’s deputy director for Europe.

“Through this initiative, we’re committed to improving the state of the art in mobile Web content production and mobile access,” he added.

W3c

Ourmedia Launches Free Community Site For Podcasters And Vloggers

Ourmedia Launches Community Site For Podcasters And VloggersSee our interview with co-founder of OurMedia, JD Lasica

OurMedia is a new community site providing online media creators a place where they can publish their content and share it with others, for free.

That last bit is important. Free. Nowt. Zip. Nada.

Anyone who creates digital media – whether it be podcasts, video blogs, photos, whatever – will soon learn that there’s no such thing as ‘free’ web space when you’re looking for a place to host those large media files.

Either you have to put up with a web page plastered with adverts or you’ll be lumbered with punitive restrictions on your bandwidth allowance.

Once you’ve got your latest artistic meisterwork online, the next problem is letting people know about it – unless you’ve got a degree in marketing or a hefty advertising budget, your video may get less hits than the Wurzels.

But – oh the cruel irony! – if by chance your work does become the hit’o’the web, you’ll be busting through your bandwidth allowance like an over-excited steam train and face having your page pulled by your web host – or be lumbered with wallet-draining excess fees.

And here’s where the self-styled “grassroots media organisation” OurMedia come in.

Using their service, video bloggers can log into the site, use the ‘upload’ tool to transfer their 50 meg video onto their server and waheey! – the file is now hosted online, complete with its own Creative Commons license – and with no bandwidth or file size restrictions.

Ourmedia Launches Community Site For Podcasters And VloggersBecause it’s a community site, multimedia files can now potentially be seen and shared by thousands of people, with film makers and video buffs able to link to each other’s work, pool resources and share tips.

So what’s the catch? Well, none really, so long as you’re the sharing, caring kind.

Supported by free storage space from the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library backed by the entrepreneur Brewster Kahle, ourmedia’s mission statement explains that they are a “free, not-for-profit effort to create a global home for grassroots media”.

Their mission is to provide a “resource to bring homemade video, audio, music, photos, text and public domain works into an easy-to-access network” with the site acting as a “clearinghouse” to allow others to “search for video or music, download it, and reuse or remix it, with proper attribution. All legally.”

After the huge success of text blogging, pundits are predicting that video blogging (vlogging) could be one of the Next Big Things to hit the web, with a new audience tuning into alternative on-demand services, like a sort of alternative TiVo online.

Ourmedia.org The idea must be good, their servers appear a little slow

Diffusion Group Report: Media Servers, Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms

Stand-Alone Media Servers And Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged PlatformsEvidence is beginning to amass that two of the most hyped products in the early digital home market will be lucky if they manage to reach niche market status in the next few years.

Not so long ago, people were getting very excited by media servers and digital media adapters. They were the future. And then, err, people kinda forgot about them.

So what happened?

According to new research from The Diffusion Group, it seems that despite the products being well-hyped, widely discussed and blessed with encouraging early forecasts from a number of research firms, the devices have suffered from extremely limited demand.

Moreover, the report concludes that demand for both these technologies will remain limited and that what unique functionality these solutions do offer will be quickly integrated into other platforms.

“It is not that this type of functionality is undesirable,” said Michael Greeson, President of The Diffusion Group. “The premise of networking stored digital media content to multiple devices in the home is valid, but consumers aren’t looking for separate devices to enable this experience.

Instead, the applications and benefits enabled by these two platforms will be increasingly integrated into devices with which consumers are more familiar – such as DVD players that are now evolving into DVD-recorders or set-top boxes with built-in hard-drives and integrated networking.”

“While media servers were originally positioned to be the hub of the digital home, demand for these solutions has never gotten off the ground.”

Although Windows Media Center PCs have proved more popular, Greeson asserts that this is simply down to normal PC replacement cycles rather than consumers finding anything particularly compelling about the concept.

Other media server platforms have been much less successful, although the push of high-end digital set-top boxes by cable and satellite video service providers offers a case for optimism.

“However,” says Greeson, “this is a push model, where the equipment is subsidised by the service provider in order to generate digital media service revenue, as opposed to a ‘pull’ model where consumers are so enamoured with the device that they run to the retail store to purchase one.”

When it comes to digital media adapters or DMAs, the Diffusion Group paints a gloomy picture.

Introduced a couple of years ago, the idea was to make it easy to share content from the PC to other media devices in the home, such as a TV or stereo using a DMA. But their techie-tastic appeal failed to win over punters.

“Not long ago, there were ten to fifteen companies offering DMAs,” said Gary Sasaki, a contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group and President of DIGDIA, a media consultancy.

“At this year’s CES, DMAs were hard to find. Part of the reason for the premature demise of DMAs is that their functionality appeals mostly to early-adopter or technology-savvy buyers. Additionally, and somewhat similar to media servers, the functionality of DMAs is slowly getting integrated into other more familiar product categories.”

The report suggests that we’ve got an industry in fast transition, with early, stand-alone technologies being picked clean for their useful ideas and then incorporated into more consumer-friendly converged products.

Diffusion Group

eContentplus €149m Digital Content Fund Get EU OK

EU IST eContentplusThe European Parliament has voted in favour of a new programme to promote the European digital content market, setting it a budget of €149m (~$194m, ~£103m) for the next three years.

The eContentplus programme aims to tackle the fragmentation of the European digital content market by supporting the development of multi-lingual content for innovative, online services.

“The internet offers a unique opportunity for content companies to outgrow their so far mostly national markets”, said Viviane Reding, the Commissioner responsible for Information Society and Media.
“The eContentplus programme will facilitate the production and distribution of online European content, thus stimulating innovation and creativity. At the same time it will help to preserve and share Europe’s cultural and linguistic identities and give them a more prominent place on the Internet,” Reding added.

The European Parliament voted in favour of the programme with only one amendment, which sets the budget of the programme at €149m for the period 2005-2008. Reding said the new budget was a substantial increase in comparison to the previous programme.

The eContentplus programme will concentrate on the parts of the digital content market where there is clear fragmentation in Europe, and where market forces have not been enough to drive growth.

It targets three areas – spatial or geographical data, educational material and cultural content.

In the case of geographical data such as post codes, planning and land registration details, fragmentation occurs because different member states collect and store data in different ways.

If the programme can reduce this fragmentation, it can open the way for new EU-wide information services using this data in areas such as transportation, navigation, emergency response and environmental management.

The eContentplus programme is part of a set of measures to boost innovation and creativity in the converging content market, including the MEDIAplus programme, and the modernisation of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, due later this year.
eContentplus

RAJAR: UK Internet Radio Listening Increases, Again

This morning RAJAR released their Q4 UK Radio listener figures, over radio, via the Internet and on TV.

For those who don’t follow this kind of thing, RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is the organisation that monitors and reports the radio listening habits of the UK population, by taking a listening diary of 32,000 people from a pool of 130,000 people around the UK. The figures sound large, and they are. It’s the largest media survey outside the US.

While the details of who is listening to which UK radio station is of great interest to those in that business, the part that caught our attention was the ‘new’ ways of listening to radio, currently via TV-delivery and over the Internet.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-InternetIt’s worth clarifying that the Internet figures include any listening of the radio on a computer, whether live streaming, using services like the BBC’s RadioPlayer/Listen Again, or Podcasting (download and play).

RAJAR are reporting 16.3% of the UK population, approximately 7.8m people, have used the Internet to listen to radio stations.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-Internet-UK-GrowthThe largest area of growth has been in people listening to UK National radio stations over the Internet. This has increased from 8.3% a year ago to 10.8% of the UK population, equating to just short of 4.8m people. It is thought that this is probably due to an raised awareness that the Internet can be used to listen to the radio, helped in no small part by the BBC pushing the service.

Due to synchronicity or just good planning, it’s of note that a new version of BBC RadioPlayer is released today. Providing very fast access to previously transmitted radio content, it comes with a feature that suggests additional programming that may of interest to the listener, based on the program they have selected to listen to. Once Internet listeners become comfortable with features like this, the number of hours listened to online will be significantly boosted.

Strangely the number of people listening to non-UK stations via the Internet has dropped 1.1% from 4.1% to 3.0%. Quite why this would be the case is a slight mystery.

While listening to the radio through a TV might sound like a very strange idea, it’s becoming increasingly popular and includes delivery over Freeview, Sky and Cable TV. Those with a DVR connected to their Freeview box are also benefiting from being able to record radio programmes and play them back when it suits them.

29.7% of the sample (equating to around 14.25m people) reported that they had, at one time or another listened to the radio through their TV. This is up 8.4% from the same month last year.

RAJAR told us that the people listening via non-traditional means appears to be in addition to their normal radio listening.

As these ‘new’ forms of radio listening are clearly gaining favour with the UK public, we feel there would be significant benefit in gaining a more detailed breakdown in how people are using the Internet to access radio. It would be of benefit to all those involved.

RAJAR are in the process of evaluating new ways to monitor radio usage. They are carrying out trials of electronic ‘listening’ devices that are carried or worn by the user. These would replace the manually completed diary version that’s currently used.

RAJAR
National stations – summary
London stations – summary
Detailed figures
New version of the BBC RadioPlayer