Content – Page 105 – Digital-Lifestyles

SureWest And HDNet, 1st To Launch US HD Over IPTV Service

SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP Service California based telecoms company, SureWest Communications, is set to become the first company in the USA to offer HDTV commercially over its Internet Protocol (IP)-based fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network.

The company have announced that it will be including high-definition networks HDNet and HDNet Movies in their high-definition television (HDTV) service set to launch this year.

“We are pleased to offer viewers in the Sacramento region the great variety of live and original news, entertainment and sports programming that can only be seen on HDNet and HDNet Movies,” said Peter Drozdoff, SureWest’s vice president of marketing.

SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP Service “Through our HDTV channel lineup and launch of HDTV over IP, we are showcasing our dedication to providing customers with the highest-quality programming, sharpest picture available and a variety of emerging video products,” he added.

Quick to join the self-promoting, backslapping party, Mark Cuban, co-founder and president of HDNet, was quick to pipe in, “We are happy to be partnering with SureWest to deliver the HDNet networks to their customers in the Sacramento region and to be providing them with great original high-definition programming and exclusive day-and-date premieres of theatrically released movies.”

HDNet and HDNet Movies currently broadcast news, sports, music and entertainment programming in 1080i high-definition format, with a widescreen 16×9 aspect ratio.

SureWest And HDNet Launch First HDTV Over IP Service On HDNet, SureWest viewers can, err, thrill to original series like “HDNet World Report,” “Face 2 Face with Roy Firestone” and “HDNet Concert Series,” and if that lot doesn’t set you packing your bags for Sacramento, there’ll also be showing Warner’s “Smallville” series and a load of live sports productions include Major League Soccer games.

HDNet Movies is the “exclusive home of day and date movie releases” presenting a wide selection of major studio’s theatrical releases which are broadcast uncut, unedited and in their original aspect ratio.

To view HDNet and HDNet Movies, SureWest customers will need an HDTV set, a SureWest HDTV cable box and a subscription to the SureWest HD service tier.

And quite probably a SureWest HDTV t-shirt too.

SureWest
HD

iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal Struck

iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal Struck NBC Universal and Apple have struck a deal to make NBC-owned television shows, such as “The Office” and “Law & Order,” available on the iTunes music store.

The shows, trawled from NBC, the USA Network and the SciFi Channel, will include new and old programming, including “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “Surface.”

There’ll also be some cable shows such as “Monk” and “Battlestar Galactica” on offer, along with golden oldies like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Dragnet” and “Knight Rider” dredged up for sale.

The announcement of this deal brings into focus the story we covered over a week ago, NBC Take First Pop At TivoToGo Enhancement, where NBC clearly saw TiVo plans to make these programmes available for zero cost not in their commercial interest.

iTunes Video: NBC Universal Deal Struck The shows will be available from next week, downloadable from the iTunes Music Store the day after they air for $1.99 (£1.15, €1.70) per episode

The deal reflects the growing interest from TV networks in opening up lucrative additional revenue streams outside the traditional TV market.

Spurred on by the release of Apple’s first video-capable iPod in October last year, industry bods are predicting fat profits from video downloads.

The success of the iTunes store – shifting more than 3 million videos since launching two months ago – has got media moguls clamouring to catch a slice of the downloading action.

Disney-owned ESPN announced that they are looking into distributing some of its TV programming on the iTunes service, as have News Corp’s Fox Filmed Entertainment network.

iTunes

Creative Zen Vision Goes On Sale In Japan

Creative Zen Vision Goes On Sale In Japan Creative are set to take on Apple’s video-enabled fifth-generation iPod with their new Zen Vision:M player, due to be announced tomorrow.

Christened the Zen Vision:M, the new player packs a 30GB hard drive and a large 2.5in, 262k-colour, 320 x 240 LCD into its diminutive 10.4 x 6.2 x 1.9cm proportions.

The Vision:M can play back MPEG 1, 2 and 4, WMV 9, Motion JPEG, DivX 4 and 5 and XviD video files, and display photos saved in the JPEG format only (so tough luck to RAW photographers looking for a handy all-in-one storage device.)

Creative Zen Vision Goes On Sale In Japan Creative claim that the rechargeable battery can keep punters entertained for four hours in video-playback mode – twice as long as the iPod’s two hours.

Music formats supported include MP3, WMA with DRM and WAV and there’s a handy built in recordable. Creative claim music can be played back for fourteen hours on a single charge.

The attractive looking unit weighs in at 166g, 30g more than the 30GB iPod’s 136g and share similar proportions (and design) – although the Zen is substantially deeper than the iPod.

The Vision:M sports a slim connector which suggests that there’s a raft of compatible accessories on the horizon, both from Creative and third parties.

Creative Zen Vision Goes On Sale In Japan It’s a shame seeing a company as, err, creative as Creative coming up with a design so obviously ‘inspired’ by the iPod, but perhaps it’s a sign that they’re signing up to a philosophy of, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”

The Vision:M goes on sale in Japan in mid-December for about a trillion Yen (well, OK, 39,800) which converts into a reasonable £190 ($329, €280) and it’ll be available in not-at-all-copying-iPod pure white, definitely-not-Nano-esque black and a rather jaunty green which we like best. It launches in London tomorrow.

Creative

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why?

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why? The Digital-Lifestyles office is in a state of total confusion over major UK broadcaster, ITV, buying the Web Site, Friends Reunited (FR).

Our reaction when we initially heard of the deal was – What? Why? How much!?

It’s been widely reported that ITV is paying £120m + £55m in bonuses for FR. The site that has been running for four years, currently has 12m members and is expected to make revenues of £12.4m this year.

It’s not that we don’t think that businesses should appear to diversify. We’ve been clear that we think eBay’s purchase of Skype was genius. The major difference, beyond the value to the transaction, is that Skype is still growing.

What?
We think that FR has done an amazing sales job on ITV. It’s a site that would appear to be in decline rather than its ascendancy. Their expansion into Genes Reunited, Dating and Jobs Reunited would appear to point to them thinking the same.

If you look at why FR worked, we think it’s because there were generations of school leavers going their separate ways prior to the Internet, leading them a very limited means of contacting their previous peers.

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why? The school leavers departing since the wide use of the Internet, will not have to resort to third-party services – the majority of them will have an online presence, allowing direct contact, if desired.

Why?
ITV are suffering. The business that, when it was launched fifty years ago, was described as a ‘license to print money’ has gradually slipped to a low grade, trashy set of channels. It’s widely thought of as a bit of a joke with appalling programming.

70% of ITV’s revenues come from Ad sales on its flagship channel, ITV1. The word in media circles is that ITV1 is now struggling to sell ads, as the audience generally drops off (the exception to this being their recent reality show, ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’), and goes down market.

ITV do have a huge advertising sales department that has been merged across all of its regions. Bringing FR into this sales force will give better economies for ITV, letting them squeeze additional profits from FR. It will also give ITV the chance of selling adverts across TV and the Web – extracting additional cash from the advertiser.

Another benefit will be letting ITV have access to the 12m members of FR, allowing them to expose the online FR audience to promotion of ITV’s programming, if they’re UK based. Later this can be expanded to on-demand sales.

When we sat around at Digital-Lifestyles to come up with other reasons, one that came up was the possible creation of a programming strand or, heaven forbid, whole channel covering the now-various services of FR. eg reality programming following a group of FR subscribers going through the steps to ‘reunited’, with the trial, tribulations and toe-curingly moments that it would entail.

The question we keep on coming back to is, Is this this really worth £10-£14.50 per FR member?

Even after ITV boss Charles Allen has tried to explain the deals advantages, we’re still not convinced.

This deal brings to mind ITV’s disastrous, misguided huge, £788m investment into ITV Digital – their attempt to take on BSkyB in the UK. The service collapsed in 2002, later to reborn as Freeview.

Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital Camera Arrives

The long, long, long awaited Mamiya ZD medium format digital SLR is now available on pre-order in Japan, with UK delivery promised in January.

With the kind of specifications that would turn your average digital snapper into a gibbering wreck of envy and lust, the Mamiya ZD notches up a whopping 22 megapixels (21.50 effective), with images registering a screen-stretching 4008 x 5344 pixels.

Thanks to its Dalsa 36 x 48mm image sensor, the camera still manages to resemble a beefed-up standard 35mm D-SLR, making it a tempting prospect for both studio and travelling professional photographers.

Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital Camera Arrives Inside the pixel-guzzling beast lies Mamiya’s exclusive 14bit A/D (analogue to digital) converter, enabling photographers to rattle off 12bit images at a nippy 1.5fps (up to 11 images).

That may not sound fast compared to sporty Nikons and Canons, but in the world of medium format cameras, we’re talking Speedy Gonzales – and you won’t find anything faster in its class.

The Mamiya sports an eye-level Prism Viewfinder (fixed) with a field of view of 98%, with auto-focus using TTL Phase Difference Detection, with photographers able to choose between Average, Centre-weighted, Variable Shot and Spot.

Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital Camera Arrives On the back of the camera, a 1.8in LCD offers image previews with a LCD window below displaying ISO and exposure information.

File storage comes in the shape of CF and SD storage cards.

Images can be whizzed across to your PC/Mac by FireWire with the bundled Mamiya Digital Photo Studio software offering what the company describes as a “complete image capture, processing and editing solution in both MAC and PC based computers.”

Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital Camera Arrives The price is going to hover around an eye-watering €9200 – enormous wonga for some, but it’s the kind of figure that may finally tempt die-hard professional film photographers into the digital fold.

Specifications:

Sensor: Full Frame RGB square-structured 48 x 36 mm CCD, 22 million pixels total
Exposure controls: A (Aperture), S (Shutter) priority, Programmed AE, Manual and B, shutter speed: B+30sec – 1/4000 second, x-sync at 1/125 sec.
Capture: RAW and JPEG format, Large, Medium and Small files
White balance settings: Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Preset 1, Preset 2, Fine Adjustment, Color temperature setting
ISO 50 – 400 (1/3 steps)
Other: Video out (NTSC/PAL), IEEE1394 interface

Nokia Targets Bloggers For N90 Handset Launch

Nokia Targets Bloggers For N90 Handset Launch In an attempt to get right on down with the online world, Nokia has unveiled a blog relations campaign for its new N90 phone, offering information and podcasts about the handset to bloggers.

The campaign – dreamt up by the Californian-based marketing firm Comunicano – aims to get bloggers spreading the word about the phone by offering a separate press room ( the ‘Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog site’, in fact).

The site will offer blog authors, “blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilise in your blog postings about the N90.”

CEO Andy Abramson explained that the campaign was all about treating bloggers like any member of the press – and Nokia were happy to go along with that by dishing out N90 phones to 50 bloggers for review.

“Bloggers are often treated like publicists treat the paparazzi in Hollywood; they’re used when they’re wanted, or looked at like something at the bottom of the shoe when they’re not,” insisted Abramson.

Employing more cunning than a crafty fox in a shifty suit, Abramson reckons that bloggers could be the perfect vehicle for drumming up free publicity for a product.

Nokia Targets Bloggers For N90 Handset Launch “Since bloggers are articulate, passionate, and prolific – and have more space to write in than a newspaper columnist – they can yield incredible dividends,” enthused Abramson.

“If one blogger has a question, there might be 10 others who have the same question,” he added.

Although Nokia’s press room provides much the same stuff that you can find on their regular website, the company are hoping that bloggers will be find it easier to grab promotional material off the blog site for slapping up on their own sites.

The site itself runs a blog maintained by Abramson and it’s every bit as enthusiastic about the product as you might imagine, serving up glowing snippets from bloggers who have reviewed the N90.

Ever keen to tempt users with new content, the new Podcast service invites bloggers to record a Podcast with a ‘Nokia Representative’ to stick on their own site.

There’s already a few examples up there, but we really couldn’t bring ourselves to click on the one about a reggae band with the toe-curlingly bad title, “JA..The N90 Is So Cool Mon!”

Nokia Targets Bloggers For N90 Handset Launch Try as we might, us cynical folks at Digital Lifestyles couldn’t shake off a nagging suspicion that the marketing world’s new-found enthusiasm for blogs is more about trying to control and coerce what’s been written about their products in the blogosphere.

With the explosive growth in blogging – and the increased prominence of blog entries in search engine results – companies are keen to try and manage what’s been said about their products, and we see that Blogger Relations Blog could be the start of a slippery slope, with influential blogs being targeted by marketing campaigns.

Companies who follow this type of idea had better take care as they’re walking on a tightrope. Bloggers are a canny bunch, and if they feel like they’re getting played – they’re going to make a whole lot of noise, jumping up and down, screaming about it. Not a pretty sight and definitely not what your brand needs.

Nokia clearly feel there’s considerable mileage to be gained from this blogging lark and have already announced plans for similar campaigns for its N71 and N91 series.

Nokia n90 Blog

Fujifilm F10 Review: An Astonishing Achievement (90%)

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review Summary
Despite a few minor complaints, the F10 represents an astonishing achievement. Highly recommended.

UK Street Price	£225.00
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Full Review
It may have won the accolade of European Camera of the Year, but it has to be said that the first impressions of Fujifilm’s compact F10 camera are distinctly underwhelming.

With a clunky, chunky form factor suggesting that the product designer was off sick for the day coupled with a limited set of exposure controls, the F10 looks unlikely to impress holidaying snappers or the tripod-touting cognoscenti.

But lurking inside its bland, all-metal exterior is an astonishing point’n’shoot camera with unique features capable of producing incredible results.

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review The camera is the first of a new generation of Fuji cameras sporting the new Super CCD HR sensor which – unlike previous models – doesn’t rely on interpolation jiggerypokery to deliver its 6.3 megapixel output.

A newly developed ‘Real Photo Processor’ serves up an impressively wide ISO sensitivity range, starting from 80 ISO all the way up to 1600 ISO, allowing flash-free, low light shots and less chance of camera blur.

It’s a snappy performer too, with an ultra nippy start-up time backed up by a claimed 0.01 second shutter lag.

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review We can’t count as fast as that, but it certainly proved to be one of the fastest compacts we’ve tested to date, with no perceivable delay after pressing the shutter button.

The camera comes with a 3x optical zoom lens (f2.8 – f5.0 36mm – 108mm, 35mm equiv.) and a large and bright 2.5-inch 115k LCD.

In tests, we found the LCD easy to read in all but the brightest of sunlight although an optical viewfinder would have been a useful addition.

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review A handy LCD brightness boost switch helped compose shots in dim light, although we found it prudent to turn off the dazzling, kryptonite-like green focus beam which was so bright that you’d end up with pictures of people covering their eyes and screaming.

The battery life was hugely impressive. Fuji claim a class-leading 500 shot-per-charge and we certainly had lots of juice left after taking – and enthusiastically previewing – 200+ shots taken around New York.

Essentially a ‘point-and-shoot’ camera, the F10 offers little in the way of real manual control, with just four main modes on offer: scene mode, full auto, manual (auto with limited exposure overrides) and movie mode (VGA, 30 fps, .avi format).

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review Out on the streets, the camera proved fast to start up, responsive, quick to focus and produced some excellent quality images, capturing impressively high levels of detail.

Where the camera really excelled was in low light, with the extended ISO sensitivity allowing natural images to be taken without the use of flash.

Compact cameras generally produce horrendously noisy images when the ISO racks up beyond 200, but Fuji’s Super CCD HR sensor is capable of producing very smooth, detailed images with little noise all the way up to 800.

At 1600 ISO there’s notable evidence of noise and some ‘smoothing’ by the built in noise reduction, but the images are still eminently usable for smaller prints and are leagues above anything the competition can muster – this really is an incredible low-light performer!

Fujifilm F10 Digital Camera Review We remained impressed with the camera throughout the testing period, although some gripes surfaced: we found the lack of any real manual control frustrating at times and the less-than-intuitive menu system made some tasks unnecessarily fiddly.

We would have killed for a manual focus mode because without the green beam’o’death, focussing could struggle a bit in low light.

There was also a little more “purple fringing” than we would have liked (thin purple lines around objects in high contrast scenes) and the camera sometimes seemed far too keen to needlessly jump to high ISO sensitivities (but this could be easily fixed by manually setting the ISO rating).

But what we really, really, didn’t like was the plug-in ‘terminal adaptor’ that had to be lugged about to charge the battery or transfer images. Sure, it’s not particularly large, but it’s just another annoyance that could end up being lost or forgotten on a trip.

CONCLUSION
Despite minor complaints, the F10 represents an astonishing achievement; it may not have the slick looks of its rivals or a shed load of fancy-pants, advanced features, but when it comes down to sheer image quality, low light performance, battery life and speed of operation it leaves most – if not all – of the competition standing.

Currently available for around £225 ($385, €330), the Fuji F10 represents excellent value for money. We highly recommend it.

Photographers put off by the lack of manual controls should note that the a new version featuring aperture and shutter-priority modes, the F11, is about to hit the streets.

Features: 65%
Ease of Use: 83%
Image Quality: 87%
Overall: 90%

Fujifilm F10

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TiVo Announces Advertising Search For Television

TiVo has announced that it plans to offer the first TV-based advertising “search solution” early next year.

Starting in Spring 2006, TiVo’s new television search capabilities will, apparently, “enhance the TV viewing experience” by delivering targeted advertising to subscribers interested in viewing particular advertising categories.

Hotshot media and advertising agencies like Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, The Richards Group and Comcast Spotlight have teamed up with TiVo to develop the product and help determine relevant categories of interest (cars, travel, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods etc) as well as work out pricing models.

TiVo claim their new technology will allow companies to shunt on-demand, consumer targeted TV advertising to viewers without the limitations of traditional television media placement.

With punters able to search for products by category or associated keywords, TiVo sees big benefits for advertisers (obviously) and punters looking for information on products or services.

The (ahem) “heightened viewer experience” offered by the new service is claimed to deliver “non-intrusive, relevant, interactive advertising, on an opt-in basis.”

TiVo subscribers electing to use the search service will be able to retain control over their “viewing experience” by creating a “viewer contributed profile” via the set-top box that will enable them to receive advertisements based on their interests (we wonder if there’s a “begone hideous advertisers forever” profile available?)

“TiVo is once again introducing to the TV landscape a new and innovative advertising solution that is intended to deliver an even better viewing experience for subscribers,” purred Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo.

Supping deeply on a morning brew of Buzzword Coffee, Tracey Scheppach, VP, Video Innovations Director at Starcom, enthused “The new TiVo application will provide both a needed platform for consumers to seek out relevant, searchable commercial content and an environment for advertisers to engage highly desirable and motivated consumers…it’s the first of its kind in the industry, and a platform that is clearly needed in this challenging advertising marketplace.”

The new service follows a successful interactive direct response advertising program on TiVo in August, where subscribers were able to respond to customised “calls to action” in select commercial spots.

Funnily enough, when we’re bombarded with advertising, the only “call to action” we get is to turn the ruddy thing off.

Legal Digital Music Downloaders Not Kids Shocker!

US analyst firm JupiterResearch has surveyed the American digital music market, and discovered that the bulk of paying downloaders come from the 25-44 age group.

The survey found that sixty-two percent of digital service users and 60 percent of subscribers are between the ages of 25 and 44.

More than half of the subscribers are women, but it’s the blokes who are predictably hitting the download button most, fuelled by a crazed desire to compulsively fill up their MP3 players.

JupiterResearch describes both types of buyers as coming from “music aficionados” segment – they’re the 13 percent of online adults who are “digitally active” and already spend a lot on music.

Online music buyers were found to still discover new music through traditional means, like radio shows and music videos shown on TV, with recommendations (both in stores and online) having an impact.

Online radio was seen to be a growing influence as were new tools like playlists and music blogs, but the report found that stronger integration with online radio and more promotion was necessary to make punters aware of these potentially powerful discovery tools.

Although still a minor earner in overall US entertainment expenditure, growth in the digital music market is explosive.

Spending on downloads and subscription services is expected to double in 2005, surpassing $750 million, with 20 million US music fans on course to buy digital downloads this year—mostly from Apple’s iTunes store.

But it’s not all smiles in the industry, with JupiterResearch’s European Music Consumer Survey warning that the music industry may be facing an unsure future with three times as many consumers using illegal file-sharing networks in preference to legitimate services.

The report blames non credit card-holding kids, claiming that 34 per cent of 15-24-year olds use file-sharing services, and this is “impacting the way they value music with many having little concept of music as a paid commodity.”

JupiterResearch claims that Da Kidz see CDs as irrelevant, crap value for money and so prefer to copy rather than buy CDs.

With a wagging finger, Jupiter Research warned the industry, “Unless these consumers are encouraged to develop music purchasing behaviour soon they may never develop meaningful music buying habits,”

JupiterResearch

Free Phone-Back Services Tested By Google

Google is testing a potentially lucrative sales tool that allows users to ring up advertisers located through a Google search – for free.

The system adds a new phone icon next to the Google search results of participating advertisers.

Users wishing to have a chinwag with the advertiser can click the phone graphic, enter their phone number and then click the ‘Connect For Free’ button.

Google then calls the number provided and when a user picks up their phone they’ll hear it ringing the advertiser’s office.

Once the advertiser picks up, both parties can chat for free with Google footing the bill for all calls – local and long-distance (their generosity may, however, stop at paying for some mobile calls).

Naturally, there are all sorts of potential privacy concerns brewing up here, but Google insist that they won’t share telephone numbers with anyone – including the advertiser.

Moreover, they claim that the number will be blocked from the advertiser during the call, with Google promising to delete the number from their servers after a short period of time.

This looks to be an attractive option, making it easier for both businesses to be contacted and for customers to get in touch.

It also means that Google could entice cash from companies with little or no Web presence, with the prospect of free calls from potential customers proving irresistible.

We also wonder if an extended scheme could put a spoke in the wheels of the recently announced eBay buys Skype deal.

As ever, Google are keeping Mum about the details, only offering a curt, “we don’t have any additional information to share at this time” in a statement.

Google Click To Call FAQ