Content

Content in its shift to become digital

PayPal Mobile: Buy Stuff From Your Phone
PayPal has announced that it’s wading into the world of mobile payments with the announcement of a new texting service, PayPal Mobile.
PayPal Mobile will let users send money, purchase items or donate to charities from their mobile devices and the Text to Buy service wil let impatient shippers grab goods by sending product codes via text message – so long as both buyer and seller are in the same country.
The eBay owned outfit will be launching the new service in the UK, Canada and the US over the course of the month, and any PayPal user who’s registered their mobile through their online account will be able to use the service.
The system uses ‘short codes’ – these are the five digit numbers you see on TV when you’re being invited to enter a competition or vote some ghastly E-list celeb off some equally ghastly reality show.
“With the overwhelming popularity of mobile phones, the time has never been better for the merging of ecommerce and wireless devices,” trumpeted PayPal President Jeff Jordan.
“PayPal already has more than 100 million accounts worldwide, and our customers have already entrusted their personal and financial information to PayPal. Now, making payments is as easy as sending a text message anytime, from anywhere for the millions of customers that prefer to use PayPal,” he continued, with a worrying amount of enthusiasm.
Business
A company signed up to PayPal Mobile can place product codes on items for sales along with PayPal’s short code phone number. These can appear on their websites, on ebay or in magazines and TV ads.
Punters suitably salivated by the product and ready to get buying can then text the product code to PayPal to pay for their item.
Person to person
For cash transactions between people, users have to input the amount of money (don’t do this when drunk, folks!) and then add the recipient’s mobile number to the PayPal short code.
An automated system reads the received text and then calls the PayPal user back and prompts them to enter their PIN.
PayPal Mobile payments are backed by PayPal’s fraud prevention system and the system ensures that financial information is never shared with the recipient.
With financial information being stored on PayPal’s secure servers, and not on the phones themselves, the user’s PayPal account should remain secure even if the phone is ‘alf-inched.
Paypal Mobile
26 April, 2006
UK SMS Record In March 2006
It’s with absolutely no surprise that news reaches us that the number of text (SMS) messages has reached a record high.
Initially you wouldn’t think that March would have any particular special reasons to get punters putting fingers to (small) keyboard and waxing lyrical, but frankly the number of mobile phone users compared with number of those that can have the ability to use SMS are no equal yet. As little Johnny persuade his grandma/mother/any elder relative that the only way they’re only way that they’re going to be able to communicate is via the keyboard she can hardly see, never mind type on to, the number of messages will go up.
The previously largest number of texts that were sent was 3.11Bn (yes, billion) which was in the far more likely month of December, as people cut corners and got lazy by sending xmas texts instead of bothering to make a card and send it to their ‘friends’.
March 2006 hit a profit-enhancing 3.19Bn messages, up a digit-bleeding 24% on the same period last year. The Mobile Data Association (MDA), who publish the figures, put it down to Mother’s Day, which, if true, is frankly a sad reflection on Uk society.
26 April, 2006
Kodak Announces World’s Smallest 10X Optical Zoom Digital Camera
With a triumphant beat of its kodachrome chest, Kodak has announced the world’s smallest 10x optical zoom camera, the 6-megapixel KODAK EASYSHARE V610 dual lens digital camera
The camera uses the innovative Kodak Retina Dual Lens technology to deliver a thumping 38 – 380 mm (35mm equiv.) zoom range in a trouser, nay underpants untroubling package, measuring just 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.9 inches.
Using the same twin lens technology seen in its earlier V570 model, the V610 comes with a large 2.8-inch, high-resolution (230,000 pixels) LCD screen and 28 megabytes (MB) of internal memory.
There’s also Bluetooth support onboard, making it easier for snappers to dish out their photos to nearby chums with PDAs, mobile phones and computers or to beam ’em off to Picture Kiosks.
Naturally, this little fella shoots video – managing TV-quality (VGA) footage at 30 frames per second (fps) – saved out as MPEG-4 files with Kodak’s “video-specific image stabilisation technology” claiming to reduce that wobbly jelly camera effect.
Bathing in the warm glow of technological progress, Carolyn Walsh, Product Sales Director Digital at Kodak, hit PR overload: “Kodak innovation continues to make it easier for people to take and share better, sharper pictures. We’re creating cameras for the digital age, breaking traditional constraints by using multiple light paths, lenses and sensors; by incorporating wireless technologies; and by taking advantage of advanced digital processing algorithms.”
Also on board is Kodak’s ‘Perfect Touch Technology’ for boosting up duff, dull pics, a ‘Favourites’ mode for storing a hundred fave pics on a built-in album and a panorama stitching feature.
When it comes to auto modes, Kodak haven’t held back with no less than twenty-two scene modes, three colour modes and a custom mode, along with selectable exposure metering, exposure compensation, focus zones, ISO, and single/continuous auto-focus for precise control.
And if you can’t manage to take a decent picture with that lot on board, perhaps you’d be better off with some crayons and paper.
The Kodak Easyshare V610 zoom digital camera will be available in the UK in May 2006 for around £350.
EasyShare V610 specifications
Sensor 6.1 million pixels total
2832 x 2128, 2832 x 1888 (3:2), 2304 x 1728, 2048 x 1536, 1200 x 900 (email)
Movie clips 640 x 480 @ 30fps, 320 x 240 @ 30fps up to 80mins depending on memory capacity
File formats JPEG (Exif 2.21), MPEG 4 with audio
Lens Schneider-Kreuznach C-Variogon Dual lens, 10x optical zoom, 38-114mm F3.9 – 4.4, 130-380mm F4.8
Digital zoom 4x
Focus TTL-AF, Multi-zone AF, Center spot AF, AF area modes, Single AF, Continuous AF
Focus distance Wide: 0.6m – infinity
Wide Macro: 0.05m – 0.7m
Tele: 1.6m – infinity
Tele Macro: 0.7m – 1.7m
Metering TTL-AE, Multi-pattern, Center weighted, Center spot
ISO sensitivity Auto (ISO 64-400), ISO 64, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800
Exposure compensation +/- 2.0EV in 0.3EV steps
Exposure bracketing 0.5-8 sec
Shuttter speed 8-1/1200 sec
Aperture F3.9 – 4.4, F4.8
Scene modes Auto, Portrait, Panorama left-right, Panorama right-left, Sport, Landscape, Snow, Beach, Text, Fireworks, Flower, Manner/Museum, Self portrait, Party, Children, Backlight, Panning shot, Candlelight, Sunset, Custom
White balance Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Open shade
Self timer 10 sec, 2 sec, 2 picture
Continuous shooting 1.6 fps, max 8 images
Image parameters High Color, Natural Color, Low Color, Sepia, B&W
Flash Built-in, Auto, Off, Fill, Digital red-eye reduction
Range: Wide: ISO 280: 0.6m – 3.4m
Tele: ISO 400: 0.6m – 3.3m
Viewfinder No
LCD monitor 2.8-inch, 230,000 pixels
Connectivity Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, AV out, USB 2.0
Weight (no batt) 160 g (5.6 oz)
Dimensions 111 x 55.5 x 23.2 mm (4.4 x 2.2 x 0.9 in)
Kodak
26 April, 2006
Bejeweled/2 Review: For Palm, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile (93%)
So you’ve shelled out for your new smartphone/PDA and you’re ready to watch your productivity soar as you strut around with an office in your pocket.
With all that wireless connectivity, built-in Word compatibility and email/texting onboard, your new purchase is going to turn you into a lean, mean mobile-working machine.
And then some b*stard beams you Bejeweled.
Bejeweled is a ridiculously addictive game by PopCap Games, with two versions offering endless time-wasting potential for the easily distracted.
Like most annoyingly compelling games, Bejeweled is dead simple to play and takes seconds to learn.
The gameplay is disarmingly straightforward: just tap adjacent pairs of coloured gems to swap them to make matching horizontal and vertical lines of three or more. And that’s just about it.
In the original Bejeweled (available on Palm, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile) there’s an additional timed mode to add a frantic air to the gameplay, while its sequel, Bejeweled2 (available on Palm and Pocket PC), ramps up the bells and whistles offering four play modes, bonus play modes, explosive Power Gems, Hyper Cubes and Time Bombs and arcade-style noisy effects (which can be turned off).
On both versions, the graphics are smartly done, the interface is simple and the game ran as smoothly as a freshly-talcumed baby’s bottom on our Sony Clie TH55, Palm Treo and i-mate JAM test units.
Perhaps it’s because we’re a bit old school innit, but we preferred the no-nonsense simplicity of the original Bejeweled over the whizz bangery of the later version, but both games remain cunningly addictive. Install at your peril!
You can download trial versions of both games from astraware, with prices ranging from $19.95 (£11.20, €16.2) to $14.95 (£8.40, €12.15) , depending on the platform.
There’s also a free basic web version of the game here, and a downloadable Deluxe version for the PC for $19.95.
Scores on the doors:
Bejeweled: 94%
Bejeweled2: 93%
Astraware
25 April, 2006
UKTV Sports Live Broadband Euroleague Basketball First
UKTV Sports have announced that they will be premiering Euroleague Basketball live on Broadband, rather than their more normal means, on the goggle box (TV).
PremierTV, a sports rights agency, are working with UKTV to provide clearance of the content and are providing the technical aspects of the delivery. They have built a broadband subscription site, UKTVSlam.tv, and plan to deliver live streaming of two key Euroleague Basketball games each week.
We spoke to Martin Henlan, Sports development manager at UKTV Sports to dig a bit deeper into the story.
Henlan raised a very valid point. Currently there’s no research available for how, or even if, people will consume niche sports over broadband in the UK. If UKTV were to commission a study it would cost them considerably more money than them just getting down and carrying out the trial themselves. We love this let’s-just-do-it approach, but suspect media consultancies all over the world will be meeting is little huddles trying to figure out how they can counter this plain common-sense.
Interestingly, and quite against normal conventions, UKTV will be using the TV shows to promote the broadband, pay-for content. Henlan said they were “looking to build a community and a service, where we can learn valuable lessons, with the potential to take this knowledge to coverage of other sports.”
We find the pricing slightly confusing – either a one-off annual payment, £39.99 (E57, $70) ; annual direct debit payment, £34.99; or a monthly direct debit payment, £3.99.
In our book, at those prices you’ve got to be a pretty devoted basketball fan (and it’s claimed that there are over a million in the UK), to be happy to pay £35 and up to. For the cash they will see only two basketball games a week, delivered as it will be for most of the viewers, to a PC. Clearly the whole offering becomes more attractive if you have your home media centre attached in your cinema room – but the number who currently have this is an insignificant number.
PremierTV will also provide the video-on-demand technology for basketball fans to access video highlights of every other Euroleague Basketball match played each week, as well as Euroleague Basketball news and features.
Due to content licensing deals, the content will be geo-blocked – in an effort to try and ensure the content is not seen outside the UK and Eire.
This coming Friday there will be free access to the the live game, so what are you waiting for? Give it a go.
UKTVSlam.tv
UKTV Sports
25 April, 2006
Pioneer SE-22 Waterproof Headphones
If, like the Temptations, you find yourself wishing it would rain or you just like to belt out tunes in the shower, Pioneer’s new waterproof headphones might be just the things for you.
The phones individually clip over each lug’ole and have what looks like a rubberised band to ensure that they stay firmly clamped on your nut as you rock out to the Waterboys in your shower.
We couldn’t find any information about how waterproof these things are, so we’re not sure if scuba divers will be able to hum along to Wet Wet Wet while swimming around in an octopus’s garden or if they’re only good for singing in the rain.
Of course, beach boys on a surfin’ safari might appreciate the waterproofing as could sunbathers on a rockaway beach.
Coming in a choice of white or silver finishes, the units seem to be solidly constructed and reasonably spec’d, providing 100dB/1mW sound pressure and a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz.
Of course, there’s no point having waterproof headphones if your player gets slippery when wet, so anyone looking to go surfin’ USA might be interested in checking out the range of waterproof iPod/iriver cases from h2o Audio.
Their gear isn’t cheap, but if you like to hear music while you’re out in rain (purple, or otherwise), jumping in the sea or blowing bubbles in the bath, it may be worth splashing out (ouch!) for the solid protection.
As for availability, we’re sorry to say we’ve no idea when or if the Pioneer headphones will be released over here in little ol’ Brit-land.
http://h2oaudio.com/

24 April, 2006
Skype Scoops Up EMI Music Deal
Uber music giants EMI Music Publishing have announced a deal with hotshot VoIP upstarts Skype to sell music on Skype’s new retail website.
Skype’s new international digital music service will make tunes from EMI’s hefty catalogue legally available on a worldwide basis.
When it comes to songs, EMI – the world’s largest music publisher – has tons of the puppies (we’re talking over a million copyrights), including drunken karaoke favourites like ‘New York, New York’, ‘Singing in the Rain’ and ‘Over the Rainbow.’
The deal includes downloads, ringtones and subscriptions, with EMI Music Publishing being employed as a music consultant for the new service.
The deal is significant as it’s the first major online music deal to be agreed on a global basis – previously, music retailers had to laboriously license songs individually on a country-by-country basis.
Roger Faxon co-CEO of EMI Music Publishing was ready and willing for some Monday morning gushing, dishing out the kudos to Skype, EMI and composer royalty collectors the MCPS-PRS Alliance for their help.
“We could not have better partners than Skype and MCPS-PRS in our ongoing effort to break down the barriers of online licensing of music. EMI is committed to bringing the best music in the world to all the consumers of the world and this deal is a major step in fulfilling that goal,” he gushed.
Skype is yet to set a launch date for its new online store.
Skype
EMI Music Publishing
24 April, 2006
African Movie Channel To HomeChoice – Niche Lives!
Proving Niche is alive and living on UK IPTV pioneer HomeChoice, they’ve today announced an African Movie Channel, self described as “the UK’s first channel dedicated to showing new and recent releases from the major African film production houses.”
The newly formed African Movie Channel tell us that that they are focused on Africans currently residing in the UK, as well as Britons and non-Britons of African and Afro-Caribbean descent, and anyone with historical connections to Africa.
Lola Onigbogi, African Movie Channel, said: “To launch the African Movie Channel on HomeChoice is a very important and exciting step for us. Demand for both classic and new release African movies is very high in the UK, where there is a large African population.”
We’ve got to admit that our knowledge of African cinema is pretty weak, but then again, we’re not the target niche. We hear from HomeChoice that they’ve got an initial stable of 100’s of film available though the on-demand section of the service. These include classic films such as Violated, Osofia in London and Madam Dearest and new and recent releases staring favorite African actors like Richard Mofe-Damijo, Genevieve Nnaji and Olu Jacobs.
On another side, we see that HomeChoicePR department have their own MySpace account, which we think is pretty enterprising, but it does make some of us at Digital-Lifestyles wonder, are we the only people without at least one MySpace? We also note the perversity of Nick S having a “huge DVD collection”, given he works for a VOD company!
HomeChoice
24 April, 2006
Non-Windows Attacks On The Rise
Attacks against non-Windows operating systems – particularly Linux – are growing quickly, according to a Kaspersky Lab report.
Although the figures are infinitesimally small compared to the depressingly regular onslaught of nasty beasties targeting Windows users, Linux malware figures more than doubled in 2005 (up to 863 from the previous year’s 422).
The report, posted by Konstantin Sapronov on the Viruslist.com Website, also noted that other Unix-based systems were experiencing similar rises in attacks.
The increase in malware is seen as a result of the growing popularity of alternative platforms.
“Slowly but surely Linux is being chosen over Windows not only for servers, but also for desktops,” explained Sapronov.
“Mac OS X’s (stock) may also rise. Since Apple has switched to Intel processors, Macintosh is rapidly gaining popularity,” he added.
The report notes that with Apple’s OS X kernel being based on FreeBSD, the experience of creating malware for that platform may also be applied to create OS X malware in the future.
The author points to the two “proof of concept worms for OS X” (below) as evidence for errors in the system architecture, adding that “OS X may be fertile soil for security researchers.”
2005: *nix Malware Evolution
Those Mac bugs
Posted up late last week by independent researcher Tom Ferris, ‘proof of concept’ code has been revealed that could be used to crash applications or even run unauthorised code on Apple machines.
The code takes advantage of bugs in the Safari browser and the Mac OS X operating system, with Ferris highlighting exploiting a total of seven bugs.
Posting on his Security-protocols.com blog, Ferris said that Apple had been made aware of the bugs and plans to fix them in “the next security release.”
Writing in his blog, Ferris commented, “There [seem] to be some problems with the claimed solid-as-a-rock Unix OS Getting Safari to crash in many different spots is trivial, as where Firefox is very tough.”
The SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center rated the severity of Ferris’s bugs as “highly critical,” warning that there are currently no patches or workarounds available for the majority of these vulnerabilities.
Apple had declined to comment as we went to press.
24 April, 2006
Zicplay MiniKey 512Mb Mini-Review (48%)
The Zicplay MiniKey is a tiny audio player. It comes in versions from 256MB to 1GB. There’s also a version with a built in FM tuner. The version we tested was the 512Mb model.
It can cope with MP3 files (8 – 320Kb/s fixed or variable bit rate) and Windows Media Audio (32 – 160Kb/s fixed or variable bit rate).
There’s an LCD display which will show lyrics/track listings/etc. It feels quite plastic – but then it’s also very light, only weighing 25g including the AAA battery which allows 15 hours of listening.
Features of the unit are a voice recorder (using ADPCM) and 7 backlight colours for the LCD display, some are more readable than others. It also supports a basic phone book (with some Windows software) allowing basic access to contact info. The system is also firmware upgradable.
Earphones are the average earbud type, but not really unexpected with this type of device, or at this price.
The major drawback is the MiniKey only supports USB 1.1 so it’s relatively slow compared to other MP3 players to get files into the unit (or using it as a USB data device).
The pricing, £39 (Eu56, $69), is not much different from a straight USB memory device.
The instructions that come with the unit aren’t particularly great.
Summary: It’s pretty cheap, and does what you’d expect.
Rating: 48%
ZicPlay MiniKey 512Mb
21 April, 2006