Digital-Lifestyles

Content

Content in its shift to become digital

  • Pocket Streets 2005 Now for Smartphones and Pocket PC’s

    Microsoft Pocket Streets 2005Microsoft recently announced Pocket Streets 2005 as a stand-alone product, although it still remains a component of their Streets and Trips 2005 package. There are two separate stand-alone versions ¯ Pocket Streets 2005 for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs, and Pocket Streets 2005 for Windows Mobile-based Smartphones.

    If you own a Smartphone, you can toss away the compass since the Smartphone version now has GPS support. Previous versions of Pocket Streets only had GPS functionality in the Pocket PC version. If you are looking for routing and driving directions though you will still need to consult Microsoft Streets & Trips or Microsoft MapPoint.

    You can generate directions and maps for Pocket Streets using the 2004 or later versions of MapPoint, Microsoft Streets & Trips, and AutoRoute, or you can download Microsoft’s maps of major cities. Pocket Streets 2005 includes more than 300 maps of North America and more than 275 maps of Western Europe, as well as Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7. New maps are available for Australia, Brazil, and Greece, but these will only be compatible with Pocket Streets 2005.

    This is an ideal companion for any tourist visiting a city for the first time.  You can locate the nearest ATM or service garage, in fact Pocket Streets has an extensive in-built list of bank ATMs and public transportation sites. You can customize maps with personal points of interest, and a new measurement scale feature is expected to determine the distance between locations more accurately.

    Two useful features will help the more absent-minded traveller. Pocket Streets 2005 opens with the most recently used map already loaded, and you can search for destinations and addresses by using only partial names.

    Pocket Streets is currently only available in English, but you can download maps that are in any language. It will sell for an estimated retail price of $24.95 (~€19.63). 

    Pocket Streets 2005

  • Targeted adverts for P2P

    AlmondNet, Inc. and Intent MediaWorks will separate the appropriate from the irrelevant to exclusively bring you only the good ads.

    Should your browsing habits make you fair game for any advertiser or should you only be subjected to ‘relevant, targeted interactive ads’?  The latter option is obviously a lot more preferable, and if done in the right way, it shouldn’t be too much of a nuisance.

    Two technology companies in New York and Atlanta are trying to achieve the latter option and have consequently signed a deal whereby advertisers can target specific ads to P2P users.

    During the download process users are served ads via the INTENT MediaWorks client, using AlmondNet’s technology, which is cookie based and they say doesn’t collect personally identifiable information, adverts should be targeted.

    The two companies involved are AlmondNet, Inc., a New York-based advertising technology company that offers web publishers targeted ads based on audience attributes, and Intent MediaWorks, an Atlanta-based company that provides a technology platform for secure distribution of content via legal peer-to-peer networks. They have signed a co-operation agreement whereby Intent MediaWorks will use AlmondNet’s patent-pending behavioural targeting technology to target ads to P2P users who use their secure distribution platform.

    Intent MediaWorks already has technology that allows recording artists and music companies to distribute their digital content securely via major P2P systems like Kazaa, Gnutella, and Bit Torrent. INTENT say they already has 600 artists on its books for music distribution.

    Ads come in good, bad and ugly flavours, not to mention irrelevant and downright inappropriate. As usual it is the 18-34 year old that is being targeted in this space, and while one has to be slightly suspicious about users being targeted based on their online behavior and interests, since no ad campaign is altruistic, at least they are being spared the irrelevant and inappropriate.

    We’re not certain that anyone who is downloading via a P2P network will be looking at their screens while the files are coming down, it’s normally a fire-and-fire operation. If this is widely-so, we’re not sure who is going to pay to advertise?

    INTENT MediaWorks,LLC
    AlmondNet, Inc

  • BBC Spooks Dares to Combine Drama and Interactivity

    As more people take up digital television, whether through Freeview, Sky or other means, the enhanced viewing experience becomes the norm rather than the exception.  For instance enhanced sport broadcasts, such as BBC coverage of both Wimbledon and the Olympics, offer viewers the opportunity to tailor the broadcast programming to their interests by enabling them to watch events that would not otherwise be available.  Likewise Sky’s fenhanced football allows viewers to choose the commentators and camera angles.  News multi-screen offers similar flexibility in navigating news content. Yet interactive drama programmes are often regarded as the holy grail of enhanced television.  The scripted linear narrative is seen as a barrier to interactivity.  So when producers of the Five soap Family Affairs announced that they planned to broadcast an interactive episode in May 2004, pundits were intrigued.  Theirs was the Big Brother version of interactivity – viewers were asked to vote, by phone,  on the outcome of a love triangle.  The phone vote generated extra income for the broadcaster and new viewers for the programme.  On the record, the producers were delighted to offer a television first.  However, when asked about the interactive episode off the record, a very senior executive involved at all stages of development and production said at the time,  “Never again”.  It turns out that accommodating even such a limited element of uncertainty in the narrative posed great difficulty for future storylining and production schedules.

    BBC Spooks InteractiveMore recently the BBC has claimed to offer yet another enhanced drama first with interactive Spooks.  The third series of this successful spy drama began transmission on BBC1 Monday 11 October.   Unlike Family Affairs’ tentative foray into interactivity, viewers will not be voting on Spooks storylines.  (If they could, they’d most certainly vote to keep Tom Quinn, the main character played by Matthew Macfadyen who exits the show in Episode 3.)  Instead immediately after the programme, digital viewers are invited to find out if they have what it takes to make it as a spy.  Led by Harry Pearce (a crossover character from the television series portrayed by Peter Firth), participants take a series of scored tests that examine essential espionage skills such as memory, reaction and observation.  From Episode 6 viewers will be able to participate in a mission that was written by Steve Bailie, an experienced writer of television drama.  “The aim,” Sophie Walpole BBC’s Head of Interactive Drama & Entertainment told us, “is to offer fans a deeper relationship with both the programme and its characters.”  In addition, Walpole pointed out,  “fans will get something back – they’ll get to know a little about themselves.” 

    According to the BBC, the number of unique users for the Spooks Website during the second series “ran into the hundreds of thousands.”  The decision to develop and produce the interactive platform was taken because the producers had such a strong proposal.  According to Walpole, “ The BBC is always looking at ways to develop its content.  But Spooks was not singled out for development in this way.  The producers had a really good proposition.”  She continued, “ The inspiration and vision of Andrew Whitehouse (the producer of Spooks’ interactive content) was incredible.  We had a great producer with a great idea.”  The enhanced TV elements are intended to complement the revamped Website so that, although the site also offers a spy training academy, the experiences are completely different. “The Spooks superfan who goes to both the Website and the interactive elements will not feel like they’ve had a similar experience,” said Walpole.  Figures for new users of the Website or users of the enhanced television platform after transmission of the first episode are not yet available.

    When asked how technology affected the development of enhanced television in general, Walpole stated that while it is technically possible, the BBC opted not to transmit enhanced Spooks via broadband because they wanted it to be seen by as many viewers as possible.  “Although they continue to grow, broadband audiences are still small.”  Looking to the future Walpole said she was certain that the BBC would make this type of rich content available to broadband users, possibly as soon as next year.

    From what I’ve seen so far, the BBC has reason to be proud of interactive Spooks.  By recognising that interactive drama doesn’t necessarily infer gimmicky phone votes (aka viewer extortion) or ceding control of the narrative to the audience, they deftly avoided the traps that frustrated at least one Family Affairs executive.  The production values on Spooks are really very high indeed.  And the spy training modules transmitted after Episode 1 were good fun.  Most importantly, they lend themselves quite nicely to a shared experience – an element of the interactive experience that  is essential for television audiences.  The aim of providing a way for fans to develop a closer relationship with the programme is definitely achieved.  If the enhanced Spooks disappoints at all, it is that the enhancements are extremely limited.  The spy training takes approximately 30 minutes to complete – that’s a bit too long.  Unfortunately, there’s no way to navigate through the game; participants must start at the beginning and move through to the end to get scores.  Also, the training modules will be repeated after Episodes 2 through 5 and the narrative mission transmitted after Episode 6 will be repeated after Episodes 7 through 10.  While this offers viewers the opportunity to practice their skills it means that, in effect, there are only 2 unique enhancements throughout the 10-week run.  That’s a great shame because they’ve done such a good job of creating enhanced Spooks that I really would have liked more!


    In the UK, Episodes 3 – 10 of Spooks will be broadcast Mondays at 21.00 on BBC1.  Episodes are repeated on Saturdays at 21.10 on BBC3 followed by an advance transmission of the next episode at 22.10.  The interactive elements are broadcast immediately after transmission on both channels.

    BBC Sppoks site

  • Epson’s P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer announced

    Epson P2000Designed as a replacement for Epson’s P-1000, the imaginatively named P-2000 has higher capacity storage, a faster interface, two memory card slots and the ability to view, store and playback photos, videos and music.  If you are still nostalgic about the black and white photos taken in the back garden with the Brownie camera, just think of the multi-sensorial memories your kids will have.

    Powered by a lithium ion battery, the P-2000 features a 40GB hard drive that can store thousands of photos, sparing the next generation the task of transferring all those unlabelled photos from plastic bags and cardboard boxes into albums. The built-in memory card slot supports Compact Flash Type I and Type II and Secure Digital memory cards, allowing you to transfer files quickly without having to connect to a computer.

    Budding amateur film-makers can zoom and rotate images, create a slideshow with music and share images on an NTSC or PAL television screen, monitor or projector using an optional third-party cable. And surprise, surprise, you can also print directly to supported Epson printers.

    Epson have a long tradition in LCD technology having introduced the first LCD digital quartz watch over 30 years ago, in the early 1970’s.  The 3.8″ Epson Photo Fine LCD screen displays images up to 8.9 megapixels and supports JPEG and RAW image file formats, MPEG-4 and Motion-JPEG video files, plus MP3 and AAC audio files. The P-2000 connects to Macs or PCs using a USB 2.0 interface for transferring photos, videos and audio files.

    The Epson P-2000 display offers three colours per image pixel and a higher density of 212 pixels per inch, compared with one colour per pixel and 80-100 pixels per inch on a typical digital camera display. This gives it the ability to display up to 262,144 colours and an impressive, high-resolution image.

    The Epson P-2000 will be available in early November for a price of $499 (~€395).

    Epson

  • First 100Gb Portable Music Player

    Xclef 500Just when you were find it tough to find enough music to fill your 40Gb iPod, Digital Mind comes along with the DMC Xclef 500 portable MP3 music players. Christened “big brother” it has the largest available storage space of any portable music player on the market. With a price tag of $449.00 (~€355), this bouncing 100Gb baby is capable of holding more than 25,000 music files, so now all you need is the time to listen to them – close to two months of 24 hours a day listen.

    The Mac- and PC-compatible digital music player sports a traditional build because it uses a standard 2.5-inch laptop hard disk drive mechanism, and has already eclipsed its older sibling 80Gb released earlier this year with an incredible 80 gigabytes. With this kind of capacity, it’s more likely that it will be used to either carry data files or backup the entire hard drive of your computer.

    Xclef 500 connects using a USB 2.0 interface and also accepts input from a built-in mic, line-in audio connector and S/PDIF optical mini plug.  The 20 hour plus battery life uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and supports built-in MP3 encoding, voice recording, and FM radio.

    Xclef 500 supports MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and ASF audio file formats. AAC format, including those Digital Rights Management protected files purchased through iTunes, is not supported.

    Since it is recognized as a USB mass storage device, files can be moved easily between PCs and Macs. Its intuitive user interface allows the user to start navigating through files and playlists almost immediately.

    Of course the cynical might say that the huge capacity of this device, which is larger than most laptop drives and many desktop machines, is unnecessary, but as we know, available space is always filled, even if what fills it becomes worthless.

    DigiMind

  • Mobile vs Web gaming

    Games on mobiles are not new, neither are multiplayer games, but Macrospace have teamed up with Certus to go a step further, by allowing players to compete in real-time using their mobile phones with not only other mobile users, but also PC users via their web browser.

    Global mobile to mobile, Web to mobile gaming creates a whole new multiplayer dynamic. Designed for the more casual gamers, Macrospace hopes to attract a broad range of people who are already familiar with web-based games, but who may not yet appreciate the gaming potential of their mobile phone. The new games, developed in partnership with Denmark’s Certus, use powerful server-side technologies to create a robust multiplayer platform that is simple for even novice users, and three have been launched for openers.
     
    Multiplayer Four-in-a-row challenges you to get four counters in a row before your opponent, while the multiplayer version of the timeless game of strategy, Multiplayer Reversi, allows you to challenge your friends anytime, anywhere in real-time.  Finally, Multiplayer Battle Ocean encourages you to sink your opponents’ fleet of ships before he sinks yours. Players can also chat to each other seamlessly between mobile and Web.

    The games can be played across any Java-enabled mobile or Web platform, and they have been specifically designed to work across 2G, 2.5G and 3G technology, using turn-based gameplay that suits the technical limitations of existing handsets and networks.

    Most importantly, for player kudos, Macrospace multiplayer games utilise global ranking and high scores, allowing users to view other players’ scores and select opponents of a similar skill level. They can also create a permanent username, circumventing the need to create a new one for every game they purchase. It’s a real virtual community affair as Certus’ technology allows operators and portals to run tournaments and create competition leagues.

    People used to miss bus and train stops because they fell asleep or were engrossed in a good book, now it will be because they are preoccupied with multiplayer global intrigue on the tiny screen.

    Macrospace
    Certus

  • SCH-250 5Mpx Phone from Samsung Released

    Samsung, the world’s third-largest handset maker has today released the world’s first camera phone with 5-megapixel resolution in Korea. In conjunction with Japan-based camera specialist Asahi Pentax, Samsung have devised a camera module specifically for the mobile phone.  Poor quality mobile pictures will soon be a thing of the past  – a mere grainy memory.  Besides the incredible resolution, the SCH-S250 also includes the first QVGA display (240×320)) in a mobile phone that supports 16.7 million colours.

    Your average mobile-wielding sulky teenager considers built-in cameras with picture resolutions of less than one megapixel passé, but the SCH-S250 will raise their little technical antennae.  The 5-megapixel camera features a high-quality CCD sensor, 1/1000-second shutter speed, and QVGA  (Quarter VGA)video recording. The unique “stretch” design protects the display and camera lens when not in use. 92 MB of built-in memory can store up to 100 minutes of high-quality video, but less than 18 still photos at full resolution. Additional storage can be added and a  32MB auxiliary memory is included as standard. And the people at Samsung and Asahi Pentax didn’t stop here – an MP3 player and TV output round out the features.

    This little phone could be used as your portable office as it also includes a text-to-speech function allowing the phone to “speak” to-do lists and incoming text messages.

    Furthermore, South Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom, has said it will introduce 10-megapixel camera phones produced by Samsung by the end of this year. The SCH-S250 price will be announced next week, so it is hard to predict yet how soon the kids will be fighting over it in the schoolyard.

    Mobile operators love high resolution photos, as transferring them takes lots of bandwidth and there for cost the user considerably more than low res pictures.

    Samsung

  • Irish File Sharers Risk Legal Action – IRMA

    Following the pattern of the music associations in the USA and UK, the IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association) is starting to put pressure on music file sharers. They told Digital Lifestyles that the popularity of P2P is strong in Ireland – “Anything that happens there happens here too.”

    Dick Doyle, Director General of IRMA explained that they will soon run a campaign sending out messages to P2P users warning them to avoid using file sharing programmes and advising them to disable the share feature. While it is true that a large part of their business involves the movement of copyrighted material, BitTorrent and its pals Kazaa and eDonkey are also being used for legitimate content.

    He went on to tell us that they are in the process of litigating, but that it would take a further 2-3 months.  “We are following what the US did a few years ago – suing the end users.  We ask the ISPs to disclose the identification of P2P users, and if they don’t, we take them to court.  We do want to retain a good relationship with the ISPs though.”

    So, how much of the money goes to the artists in Ireland then? “If huge payments are made we will of course share these with the artists”, says Doyle.

    IRMA

  • London Schoolchildren to get Broadband Learning at Home

    Soon, too soon for some, there will be no excuse for not having your homework done as London education authorities are planning to install broadband in the homes of London schoolchildren. , This initiative by the London Education authorities is timely in the light of a recent OECD report that identified “Disappointing” the use of ICT (computer & technology) in upper secondary schools, even in the most advanced countries, despite major investment outlays over the past 20 years.

    With broadband already in more than 80 per cent of London classrooms, the plan now is to extend the initiative and allow pupils at primary and secondary schools, access to high-speed Internet services at home. That means a portal that supports a million people, who will have a personal log-on, 25MB of space, their own email and of course, access to a cornucopia of online learning materials.

    As we’ve previously reported extending learning to the home has been very successful in trials in Kingston Upon Hull in the UK where, using the KIT TVIP service, pupils are able to work on the school’s servers using a keyboard, a Set Top Box and their television.

    It looks like there will be very few excuses left for not attending class either, unless you are at death’s door, since the London Grid for Learning (LGfL) has created an education network that shares IT resources through classes held via video-conferencing, virtual field trips and personalised pupil programmes. Virtual field tripe, eh?  Looks like you won’t even be able to say the damp brings on an asthma attack when the tree identification trip can be done from the comfort of that lovely classroom. The personalised learning feature will facilitate a managed learning environment, through online facilities.

    When you put the words children and Internet together the result sparks fear in the hearts of many parents, so readers will be relieved to learn that the content filtering and managed access in place on the machines in schools is being extended to the children’s homes.  In fact a service called ‘LGfL at Home’ will filter the home broadband service.  Parents can have a password to circumvent the filtering while children can access the online learning resources.


    Last April Digital Lifestyles looked at Kingston Communication’s collaboration with an East Yorkshire school that has led to an exciting project to engage pupils in interactive learning, both at home and in the classroom. (story link)

    London Grid for Learning

  • Halo 2 – Breaking Records Even Before Release

    Halo 2 day is approaching and the worst thing that can happen to a gamer on that auspicious day is to encounter a technical fault with his xBox.  Not even the genetically enhanced super-soldier, Master Chief could help him out on this one.  He’d be too busy acting as a buffer between the relentless Covenant and the destruction of all humankind.

    Halo 2 has broken video game records, with pre-orders of more than 1.5 million in the US alone and is even projected to bring in more revenue than any day one box office blockbuster movie including Spider-man 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Matrix: Reloaded. No other game has ever surpassed one million.

    Some 6,500 US stores plan to open just after midnight on Tuesday 9 November for the game’s release, and the Toys R Us in Times Square, New York, will sell the very first copy.  Halo 2 will be released in the UK and Ireland on November 11th. Many are already dubbing this Halo Flu day, predicting the number of people taking the day off sick.

    Five million copies of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, were sold on Xbox, PC and Mac platforms, so one can only imagine that it successor will at the very least equal this figure.

    Halo 2’s burnished armour may have been slightly dulled by the release of a reportedly French language pirate version onto the Internet last week with illicit code turning up on a several piracy websites and newsgroups – a development which apparently angered many fans.  Not surprisingly, Microsoft intends to pursue the culprits using the full rigour of the law.   

    The people at Bungie Studios, Halo 2’s developers are understandably aghast at the thought of years of hard work being stolen, and the ‘Underground Army’ has been called into action to short circuit the spoilers.  Perhaps Master Chief will also lend a hand.

    Bungie
    Microsoft games
    Xbox
    Buy Halo 2 on eBay US/UK