Distribution

Despite a setback last week when eBay pulled his auction, George Hotelling has sucessfully sold an iTune song he no longer had any use for.

The track, an AAC-encoded file of a remake of Frankie Smith’s “Double Dutch Bus” (we’ve never heard of it either), was finally sold to his friend, Keith Elder in Michigan for 50 cents.

However, this transaction isn’t as exciting as it could have been – there won’t suddenly be a huge volume of used iTunes being traded legally on the internet: Hotelling had to transfer his entire iTunes account containing the lone tune to Elder.

Hotelling is still not sure if he has violated his iTunes terms of service and, for some inexplicable reason, Apple refuse to answer any of his questions on the issue.

All we’ve heard is: “Apple’s position is that it is impractical, though perhaps within someone’s rights, to sell music purchased online,” from Peter Lowe, Apple’s director of marketing for applications and services.

The original eBay auction was pulled last week after it reached silly amounts of money with eBay stating that it violated its listing policies. We think that might translate as “raised issues far too difficult to even think about”. Hotelling was obviously determined to make his point, and came up with a slightly elaborate way of continuing the sale: he bought a $29.95 prepaid card and then transferred the card to his friend when there was only 50c left on it. Not quite the easy, legal exchange we were hoping for.

In the end “It was a success,” said George Hotelling. “I was able to transfer the song, I documented it, and Apple even said it was probably legal. I think the biggest success was raising the issue in a lot of people’s minds.”

George Hotelling writes about the event

Aside from Samsung’s decision to ban camera phones, of which it makes a few, from its laboratories, and apart from a few massive marketing campaigns, mobile phones with built in cameras have hardly set the world alight.  However, that might be changing as a couple of recent incidents show.

Göteborgs-Posten, the Swedish newspaper, published a news item on its homepage illustrated by a photograph taken on a mobile phone.  A truck had hit a tram, a nearby reporter managed to snap the scene on his mobile, and he emailed the pictures into the office. A more traditional photographer was despatched, but by the time the pictures were ready two hours later, they were deemed less newsworthy and the lower-resolution pictures were retained.

In Texas, a student was given three days detention after pictures of gang-related activities were found on his mobile phone. We’re reminded of a related story in this week’s Economist regarding a potential backlash against mobile phones in Italy.  Despite the incredible rate at which Italians adopted mobile phones (90% penetration after a fairly slow start), a major drawback has come to light: according to a detective agency in Rome, 87% of cases of martial infidelity investigated by its agents have been discovered because of evidence on mobile phones.  Presumably with the growth of phone cameras, this is all about to get much more interesting … an racier.

The Göteborgs-Posten storyPicturePhoningThe Economist on the Italian affair with mobile phones

Police are reporting that the number of accidents caused by listening to, watching or just plain fiddling with, entertainment devices when driving cars is on the rise.  Drivers get distracted when looking for the right track on that slippery iPod and end up going into the back of other cars.  Of particular concern is the use of headphones when driving — and they are especially needless given the range of devices available to wirelessly link your MP3 player to your car stereo.

MindFactory FM TransmittersThe Belkin TuneCast

The US International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) have partnered with Anonymizer to provide an email and newsletter service that uses changing URLs to allow Iranian citizens to access sites that have been blocked by the government. The URLs are also promoted on Voice of America and Radio Farda. Once a URL is blocked, a new one is provided – the voanews.com and radiofarda.com servers act as a trusted intermediary, and the service even includes a SafeCookie feature for sites that use mandatory user cookies.

Ken Berman, program manager for Internet Anti-censorship activities at the IBB : "The links to the service provided within the emails point to either the VOA or Radio Farda sites, but they can go anywhere on the Internet. Dissident sites, religious sites, the L.L. Bean catalogue — they are free to explore the Internet as they wish, in an unfettered fashion."

Importantly, Anonymizer’s technologies also mean that it’s impossible for the authorities to find out which sites an individual has visited.

Formed in 1996, Anonymizer, Inc has over 100,000 paying subscribers worldwide. The new Iranian service to similar to the one they have provided in China and other countries censoring net access.

Anonymizer

Radio Farda

With several leading European content and distribution companies announcing new tools and services based around the Microsoft’s Windows Media 9 platform, support for the technology is growing fast.

BBC Technology, Capital Radio, NTL Broadcast, Quantel and many other companies announced that they were either moving to adopt WM9, or were embracing it further in new services.

Because of the breadth of support for the format in the industry, Microsoft has decided to open its specification for the codec by submitting it to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) C24 Technical Committee for consideration as an international standard.

Said Peter Symes, vice president of engineering at SMPTE. "The creation of an international standard based on this compression technology means there will be new choices for organizations that are strongly committed to the use of open standards and to those looking for the maximum level of interoperability in their products."

It will be interesting to see how the providers of the two other main media formats, Real and Apple, a going to react to this news.

Quantel will be using WM9 in its product lines to streamline production processes and improve quality. BBC Technology will be demonstrating its Colledia Control – a system designed to simplify the operation of broadcast equipment and provide workflow throughout the process.

Microsoft have made an improved range of tools available for WM9, such as the File Editor and Batch Encoder – these, coupled with the efficiency of the compression will no doubt have contributed to the uptake of the format.

With Windows Media 9, Microsoft are also finally providing the DRM capabilities they have been aiming towards for the last few years.

BBC Technology on Colledia

The Windows Media Encoder tools

With more than 30,000 visitors, far exceeding all predictions, Sony have announced that their Dream World exhibition was a great success for them. As predicted, Sony’s entertainment robots AIBO and QRIO were big hits.

Sony launched their MySony service at the event – and more than 4,000 visitors signed up for it there and then. The programme offers subscribers a range of benefits based on their preferences, and is based around an internet portal. Users also earn points for using the portal which can then be put towards purchasing CDs, electronics from the Sony range. We’d best get clicking for that Dawson’s Creek boxset.

MySony

Obviously to have a fully integrated home you need a fair smattering of equipment, but knowing which bits to buy and what will work with what, can be a nightmare. CRN, the technology site, has produced a shopping list of recommended components and what they will do for you.

Encompassing the usual favourites – projectors, plasma displays, wireless cameras, wireless routers – the list helps clear up some of the confusion in the bewildering array of compatible (and incompatible) equipment out there today.

CRN

Linksys intend to simplify the process of getting a games console online with their new wireless adaptors.  The new WGA11B (11Mbps) and WGA54G (54Mbps) adaptors are easy to set up, driver-less, should be popular: in some homes the console is shared between a couple of locations in the house, and anything that can reduce the tangle of wired down behind the television is welcome.

Using the 802.11b standard, the adaptors work with all three major consoles: GameCube, Playstation 2 and the Xbox, and are available now, priced around $65 and $105 respectively.

Link

nCUBE and Telefonica de Espania have signed a deal to bring video on demand to a number of trial areas in Spain.

nCUBE are not just known for their VOD systems – they are also a leader in advert insertion systems where digital adverts are inserted into cable content.  The deal with Telefonica de Espana will provide viewers in the Madrid/Barcelona/Alicante regions with films and other content though their ADSL connection to a set-top box, and so straight to their TV – users won’t need a PC.  The service will be called “imagenio”.

Users will be able to control the content through their remotes.  nCUBE hope to be able to offer “everything on demand” (which their website helpfully terms as “EOD”) in the future.

Michael Pohl, president and CEO of nCUBE Corporation said “This strategic relationship with Telefonica is further validation of nCUBE’s flexibility and ability to cost-effectively deliver compelling on-demand services across multiple platforms, and we look forward to working with them as they continue to expand their VOD offering.”

n4x servers can cast to communities of between 5,000 and 500,000 users – ideal for scattered populations and dense cities.  The nCUBE platform can provide 140,000 hours of content – which is a lot of dodgy soap operas in anyone’s book.

The nCUBE platform: http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/downloads/n41.pdf