Content

Content in its shift to become digital

Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Ships
We first reported the news of the existence of the Nokia 770 back in May 2005, when Janne Jormalainen, Vice President of Convergence Products, Multimedia at Nokia showed it to a slightly stunned crowd at LinuxWorld Summit in New York. Now it’s shipping.
At the time, we enthused – naturally. How else could we react to a WiFi-powered Web browsing tablet with a 65k colour screen, that gives 3 days of browsing or 7 days of standby? We saw it as the TV watching buddy that we’ve always wanted. We could finally dump the laptop, removing its leg-heating characteristics at the same time.
Well today, Nokia are announcing its actual availability and they’ve expanded its capabilities to enable Web browsing using Bluetooth via your mobile.
We were naturally straight on the phone to Nokia, lining up our review copy. We’d been aware of a version floating around for a while, but knew the release of software it had on it really didn’t cut the mustard. Soon, dear reader our impression of it will be revealed.
For Linux hackers everywhere, there’s the great excitement that the 770 will be running Debian Linux, with the new platform – derived from the Linux GNOME UI – going under the name “maemo”. Development on maemo has continued since May and the end of October saw the release of maemo 1.1 Release Candidate 5. They’ve even given it the fancy new name of Nokia Internet Tablet 2005, if you please.
Nokia are actively encouraging ‘Hackers’ to produce software for it. They’ve even got a maemo WiKi (shock, horror).
VoIP was hinted at back in May. It’s now been confirmed by our old mate Janne Jormalainen, “During the first half of year 2006 we will launch the next operating system upgrade to support more presence based functionalities such as VoIP and Instant Messaging.”
For once with a technology product, Europe will be seeing this little beauty first, with the US having to wait a whole week longer. Prices appear to have shifted a little, upwards sadly, to €350 ($412, £240).
Nokia 770
7 November, 2005
TiVo, Yahoo Deal Connects
TiVo and Yahoo are linking up to provide a reasonably extensive collaboration.
TiVo Series 2 users will be able to program their TiVo over the Web, from anywhere with an Internet connection. Simply by browsing Yahoo’s TV episode page, TiVo users will be able to click on ‘Record to my TiVo box’ to setup a record. Next time the TiVo connects to receive updates, the Yahoo service will instruct the TiVo to record the program.
Programming your Tivo over the Internet has been possible since the first generation TiVo’s, but it required the hardware upgrade of adding a network card inside your TiVo and a small amount of fiddling with software. This deal makes it a simple point and click operation.
We understand that both companies see this as a cross-promotion service, so moines haven’t been exchanged. Proof of the promotion for TiVo are see at the bottom of the Yahoo page explaining the service, where non-TiVo owners are given the chance to buy a machine for $49 after rebates.
We’d imagine that the possibilities of a deal between these two companies could be quite substantial, giving Yahoo a direct connection to the living room, something they’ve had strong desires on for quite a while.
For a long time there have been a number of rumors about TiVo being bought/swollowed up by another, more in fashion (therefore more monied) company.
The programming your Tivo remotely part of the deal mirrors the deal they did with AOL a number of years ago, but as we mentioned, gives Yahoo an output in peoples TV rooms.
After pioneering PVR’s along with the now non-existant ReplayTV, TiVo has been slowly slipping from dominance as other players realised that they could achieve pretty much say as they had done. This has been mainly true, excepting the excellent User Interface that TiVo has triumphed with.
Yahoo/TiVo service
TiVo
7 November, 2005
BBC Radio 1 Does Video, With Gorillaz – News release
Exclusive animated footage from Gorillaz Demon Days Live in Manchester will be available ‘on demand’ via the red button on digital television for seven days, courtesy of BBC Radio 1.
This is the first time Radio 1 has delivered visual content on demand for TV and takes the BBC’s plans to visualise radio up a gear.
The ground-breaking initiative means viewers with digital satellite, cable and Freeview can enjoy audio and animated visuals from the gig at the push of the red button for a week after transmission.
Radio 1 will broadcast audio from Friday’s on Lamacq Live from 9pm on Monday, November 7. From 11.30pm the same night, the station will make visuals and audio of the event available from all BBC TV channels (via digital TV) and online at bbc.co.uk/radio1. Freeview viewers will be able to press red from Radio 1.
Gorillaz Demon Days Live is a trailblazing event for the Manchester International Festival, the world’s first commissioning arts festival which kicks off in 2007. Jamie Hewlett – co-creator of Gorillaz visual identity – is producing exclusive visuals for the evening.
Daniel Heaf, Radio 1’s Interactive Editor said; “Radio 1 knows how important visualisation is for its young listeners. This collaboration with Gorillaz Demon Days Live demonstrates how the station can provide world class music content across multiple platforms.”
Dan Duncombe, Digital Media Manager at Parlophone, comments, “Giving fans the ability to access content across a number of digital platforms is a key part of the Manchester events. These shows are groundbreaking and working with Radio 1 has allowed us to take this further in terms of reach as well as interactivity. Gorillaz fans throughout the world can access and interact with this exclusive audio and visual content, making it a truly global and multi platform event.”
Gorillaz Demon Days Live sees the musical collaborators behind smash hit album Demon Days brought together for the first time ever, to recreate the album over five remarkable and unrepeatable evenings; it’s also the first time Radio 1 audiences can receive on demand visual content on digital television (DTV).
People can listen to Radio 1 – and any other BBC radio station – via DTV. Recent research shows nearly 10 million people in the U.K. listen to radio via DTV every week (RAJAR Q3 2005).
This initiative uses the thinking behind the BBC Radio Player – which allows people to listen to BBC Radio programmes via the Internet for a week after transmission – to give DTV listeners more control.
BBC Radio 1 can be found on Freeview, Sky Digital, NTL and Telewest.
Gorillaz
bbc.co.uk/radio1
4 November, 2005
BBC iMP Review – A Naughty Little iMP
Despite so much current talk from the UK Telco’s and Sky on the magic that will provide an on demand broadcast TV proposition in the UK, tangible evidence of a working model beyond KiT in Hull and Homechoice is pretty sparse.
The one organisation that is taking it seriously and putting some of their money behind it (sorry, UK TV license payers money) is the dear old BBC.
Digital-Lifestytles has been keeping a close watch on iMP through each stage of its development from its initial announcement by Ashley Highfield at the Digital-Lifestyles theme day at IBC in 2003, through our uncovering that all of its content would be DRM protected back in Feb 2004, to the announcement of the trial, back in May this year.
I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the trialists for the iMP (that’s integrated media player not interactive as so many insist on calling it) and I can tell you it’s not at all bad. Viewing TV on a PC screen is not ideal and that has probably influenced the programmes I’ve chosen – largely factual and quiz. The BBC counters that, a ‘box’, is under development to port the output to your domestic telly and reminds us that it’s already possible to view the content on a selection of mobile devices.
Despite the somewhat limited selection of programmes, which I’m told is largely down to copyright issues, it seems a positive move for a public sector broadcaster actually providing a service and solving the ‘problem’ of letting you see a programme you forgot to record or you later discover is worth viewing.
The operation, as you’d expect from a Microsoft product is ‘workperson-like’ ,if rather un-exciting, but to all intents and purposes, to those with an always-on connection, downloading the content is free. The technology that allows programmes to be downloaded in faster than real time on a 2mb connection is a completely legal (I’m told) peer to peer application – everyone who is running the trial software, shares their content with other on the trial, without their having to do anything.
The built-in DRM expires the programmes after seven days which, when compared to the analogue world, I haven’t noticed happening on my VHS tapes. It’s been necessary to quell the agonies protested by the copyright owners.
The BBC is thinking beyond the present Windows-only solution. Speaking recently in London the BBC’s Project Director for iMP Ben Lavender reinforced the BBC philosophy of platform agnosticism and spoke of the desire to work on Apple and Linux solutions when DRM issues can be satisfactorily dealt with.
For commercial broadcasters there’s an over-riding issue to deal with, should they choose to get involved. How would they deal with the ease which you can move through spot advertising, remains to be seen but that’s an issue they’re’ going to have to face soon one way or another.
My verdict – I give it a thumbs up as long as a large enough library of content can be made available. For drama and the like, I’d want an easy method of outputting to the living room TV.
4 November, 2005
PSP Media Manager Launched By Sony
Sony have launched the PSP Media Manager for the PlayStation Portable, an iTunes-like application designed to make it easy to shunt music, movies, photos and other content off a PC and onto PSPs and synchronise PC content with the PSP.
Although the PlayStation Portable was promoted as an all-in-one lifestyle gadget as well as a gaming system, getting content onto the thing wasn’t an easy task, with no USB cable or conversion software being supplied – although these were easily added by those inclined.
The PSP Media Manager aims to fix that, coming with the necessary USB to PSP cable and software supporting a load of multimedia formats including .mp4, .avi, .mpg, .mov, and .wmv for video files, and .mp3, .wav, and .wma for audio.
Supported image formats include .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .tif, with a bundled utility to backing up game saves to the PC.
Like iTunes, PSP Media Manager can copy over music tracks via drag and drop from a PC or download from Sony’s Connect online music store.
Other Apple-like functionality includes the ability to search and subscribe to RSS feeds formatted for viewing on the PSP, including podcasts, video blogs, and magazines.
The boxed version containing the USB lead and five free song downloads will be available form Sony’s Connect music from November 22 for $29.95 (~£17, ~e24), with the downloadable version already available (clearly without the USB lead – matter transfer via the Internet is being worked on) from the official Sony Media Software site for $19.95 (~£11, ~e16.5).
With the new software adding full iTunes-like music/video integration to the already-formidable feature list of the PlayStation Portable, we can hear the sound of Sony’s gauntlet slapping down outside Apple’s HQ.
Of course it may not be a long considered move, more a panic move from Sony, after having seen iTunes 6 and the ‘iPod with video’.
There’s two things that will decide – you the consumer and time.
PSP Media Manager
3 November, 2005
Guba; Guidepoint; Mobile Vending: Teenage Tech Roundup
I like this … Guba
In these times, there are many options available to us when we choose how we want to consume media. Sometimes, however, it’s the oldest choices that are the best: A company called Guba has developed a superb Usenet interface, with which it is possible to download music videos, MP3s as well as TV shows. The ease of use of this terrific application blew me straight out of the water, and I immediately signed up to it. Great service, just what I had been looking for and well worth my $15 (£8.50 or there abouts).
Now where did I park…
Guidepoint, a company that make navigation and location soft- and hardware, have released a new product, that allows car owners to track their four-wheeled pride and joy using their mobile phone. Although this technology is cool, you might be wondering what appeal it may have to someone of my age, who, at least in the UK, isn’t legally allowed to drive yet.
Well I’ll tell you why this got me a teensy bit excited: I’m a teenager. Teenagers are forgetful, and as such I am forever losing things. Imagine if I could attach small locator tags to items I lose often, and then find these tags using my mobile phone. This sort of technology would stop me losing anything, ever, and would save me countless hours of looking for my keys when they fall down the back of my desk again.
Here’s another examples. Can’t find my graphics folder for school? No problem, just whip out my mobile phone, and I would get a map with a little cross-hair on, telling me exactly where it’s located. If it was closer than, say, 10 metres, I would instead get a small arrow with a distance reading next to it, which would guide me towards the item that I had lost.
I’m not sure how such a technology would work, but a mixture of a flavour of 802.x and bluetooth would be cool, with maybe some GPS thrown in for the maps. Now if only Father Christmas read Digital-Lifestyles, he might bring me one… Sigh…
By the way, Guidepoint has now expanded their mobile service to include remote car starting and door-unlocking. Could come in handy next time I’m planning a bank robbery ;-)
Hope it gives change!
This one just about qualifies as part of the weekly round up. Engadget covered the news that mobile phone giant Vodafone are to start selling mobile phones in vending machines. Interesting idea, but I can’t really imagine it taking off to be honest: When I go phone shopping, I value the expertise of specially trained staff and the advice they have to give.
On the other hand though, a lot of staff in shops seem to lack any knowledge of mobile phones… Maybe it’s just a cost-saving measure, but sometimes I think when I walk into certain phone shops that they might as well be employing monkeys half the time!
Still though, although I personally wouldn’t buy a phone from a vending machine I can see a lot of kids who don’t care what they get as long as it’s a phone buying these.
3 November, 2005
Homehoice Appoint CSFB To Fund National UK Expansion
This morning, Homechoice, the currently London-focused DSL-based VOD announced that they had appointed CSFB (Credit Suisse First Boston, as was) to raise new capital for their expansion around the UK.
Starting 2006, Homechoice plan to expand the number of homes they cover from the current 2.4m homes to over 10m. Homechoice state that this footprint is approaching the same size as that of the combined UK cable companies, which they’re close with, as ntl + Telewest actually have just over 12.6m.
New subscriber figures have also been announced by Homechoice, revealing 34,000, more than double the 15,000 previously disclosed and widely quoted this week when rurmours of Sky being interested buying them were circulating.
Roger Lynch pointed out, “We’re now the fastest growing pay TV service relative to our footprint ,” which, while it’s encouraging, would be expected given they started at such a small number of subscribers.
Their newly-announced ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) figures are impressive at £430, being considerably higher than Sky’s £384 (announced in 3 August 2005), but lower than Telewest’s £538 and ntl’s £477 (reported to ofcom, Q2 2005).
Comment
We find it slightly confusing that Homechoice is headlining this news release with their national expansion, which has been a long-stated aim for them and is therefore not news, and not CSFB’s appointment. They’re also putting out a whole lot of figures saying how well they’re doing. We’re not clear if this down to them wanting to make the most of the resent press interested the Sky rurmours have brought or a way of trying to cover that they’re need more money, or just genuine excitement of working the CSFB.
On the financing of the next stage of the roll-out, Lynch explained, “We’ve also reached the stage in our corporate development when we believe it’s right to raise capital from new investors. Hence our decision to appoint CSFB.
This could be read as saying that the current majority backer, Digital Explosion, which is owned by Chris Larsons, a Microsoft co-founder, doesn’t look like it’s prepared to fund the next stage. When we asked Homechoice, their spokesperson said Digital Explosion “Remained committed,” one further probing they wouldn’t be drawn on how much more money, if any they were prepared to invest.
We really hope that Homechoice is successful, we’ve always have been, and continue to be supporters of theirs – for their vision, their progress and their sheer bloody-minded determination to keep going.
Homechoice
3 November, 2005
BBC Launches Online Film Network Showcase
Not satisfied with its already-almighty online presence, the BBC has launched the Film Network – a growing interactive showcase for new British filmmakers, broadcasting three new short films in broadband quality every week.
Around a third of the content on Film Network has been submitted directly and selected by the in-house team, with the remainder coming via partnerships with film organisations or curated programmes of shorts from distributors, festivals and competitions.
Film makers can get feedback from viewers via site tools which allow wannabe critics to comment on and rate films, with filmmakers able to create online profiles and exchange tips, advice and ideas.
The Website aims to expose new talent and create a platform for some great films that are rarely seen elsewhere.
The Film Network was first trialled by the BBC in early 2005, and quickly found favour with the public, notching up an impressive 1,200 viewings per week for its most popular films.
Suitably buoyed up by the positive response, the full service has launched today, with 50 high-quality shorts being made available, including the eagerly anticipated online premier of Joe Penhall’s The Undertaker, starring lovely Welsh boy Rhys Ifans, who also featured in the schmaltzy, hankerchiefs-at-the-ready box office monster, Notting Hill.
It seems that maybe the launch is going a little too well, with the server reporting “too busy” errors this afternoon.
Viewers keen to grab a slice of the free film action will first have to register on the site.
The shorts are streamed in Windows Media or Real Video formats which means that you won’t be able to keep a copy on your home PC or transfer them to a video iPod or handheld video player (unless, of course, you employ a streaming media recorder!).
The BBC will be offering a wide selection of content – comedies, animations, dramas and experimental videos – with three new films being added every week.
It should be noted that the BBC Film Network is not part of the currently in-trials Interactive Media Player (iMP) service which we reported on in May 2005.
BBC Film Network
2 November, 2005
DSC-T9 Cyber-shot Announced By Sony
Sony continues to build on the success of its ultra-slim DSC-T digital still camera range with the release of the six megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T9 model.
Following in the footsteps of the T3, T5 and T7 models, Sony’s new mini-snapper manages to add optical image stabilisation and high light sensitivity, with the company claiming pictures with “significantly less blur and graininess than typical point-and-shoot cameras.”
The camera shoehorns a smarty-pants lens-shift optical image stabiliser that does it stuff courtesy of two gyro-sensors which detect hand movement and automatically calculate the necessary compensation for a crisp image.
The increased high light sensitivity (64 up to IS0 640) allows punters to grab flash-free, atmospheric shots in low light, although we’ve yet to see how effective Sony have been in keeping the inevitable noise down at high ISO ratings.
“Our T Series set the standard for slim, stylish, point-and-shoot cameras with fine image quality,” said James Neal, director of digital imaging products at Sony Electronics.
“Now the use of this category of cameras is pervasive. With the DSC-T9, we are taking this category a step further by incorporating advanced imaging technologies that ensure that you get the shot, even in unfavourable light conditions, like nightclubs and restaurants,” he added.
As with previous DSC-T models, there’s a whopping great 2.5-inch 230k LCD dominating the rear of the camera, with four playback ‘themes’ letting users display their photos with dynamic transitions shuffling along to user-selected music clips.
The Lilliputian shooter comes with a 3x (38-114mm ) Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar folded-path optical zoom so there’s no whirring lens thrusting out of the camera on start up.
The DSC-T9 offers shutter speeds from 30 to 1/1000 second, Multi-pattern, Centre-weighted, or Spot metering, five white balance presets and 10 scene modes.
There’s also VGA (30 fps) MPEG movie recording onboard, with 58 MB of internal memory and a slot for an optional Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo media card.
Turning the camera on and off is a matter of sliding the camera lens cover, with Sony claiming a battery life of up to 240 shots per charge – an improvement on the fairly dire performance of its predecessor.
The Cyber-shot DSC-T9 camera will be available in January for about $450 (~£254~€374) online at SonyStyle.com
Sony T9
1 November, 2005
iPod Shifts One Million Videos
The video-capable iPod has only been out three weeks, but already Apple are claiming sales of over a million video downloads from their iTunes online service.
Topping the download charts were music videos from the likes of Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West, while episodes of ABC television shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” proved popular with customers.
Other music content available includes music videos from pop dinosaurs like Madonna, U2, Eurythmics, Coldplay and Kanye West (be still our beating heart), with animated shorts provided by the Oscar-winning Pixar, creator of animated hits like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.
The video content, priced at $1.99 (~£1.12~€1.65) each, can also be played on computers running iTunes software.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s head honcho, observed that the healthy sales strongly suggested there was a market for legal video downloads.
“Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods,” he said in a statement.
Not surprisingly, not everyone was keen to shell out for their video fixes, with enthusiasts quick to start sharing and distributing their own music clips and TV programs for the video iPod via peer-to-peer networks.
Robin Simpson, a research director at Gartner, observed that although some illegal copying and downloading would inevitably occur, Apple had provided video customers with a realistically priced model.
“Most people are prepared to be honest if it is not too expensive to do so,” he added.
The cash till-ringing sales underlines dispels concern that people wouldn’t want to watch programs on the iPod’s titchy 2.5-inch colour screen and reflects the growing market acceptance of portable video.
The market was quick to react to Apple’s announcement, with share prices climbing by more than 5% in Monday trading.
iTunes Videos
1 November, 2005