UK

‘Red Ring of Death’: BBC Watchdog Highlight XBox 360 Issue
Last night the BBC Consumer TV programme, Watchdog, had a pop at Microsoft and the XBox 360 over its reliability.
Many of the people who had purchased X360’s were finding that their machines were failing a short time after one-year warranty period had expired. The BBC say that 250 of them had contacted Watchdog to complain.
The most common cause of failure? The “Red ring of death” that indicates that their Xboxes have become Ex-boxes. The name comes from the front panel of the X360 which shows three flashing red lights, where normally there are green. If all of the lights but the first section are flashing, this indicates a general hardware failure has occurred.
When Xbox fan-boys contact Microsoft, they’ve been told that they have to shell out £80-85 to get their little dream machines fixed, as they out of warranty – even if it is just a little.
Many are attributing this failure to the machines running too hot. Anyone who has played the X360 will know that those babies run _loud_, due to the significant amount of fan-age they require to keep them running cool enough.
Microsoft have issued a statement, the first paragraph of which is
“The vast majority of Xbox 360 owners are having an outstanding experience with their systems. That being said, we have received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected. It’s important to note that there is no systemic issue with Xbox 360 – each incident is unique and these customer inquiries are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
The BBC are a little slow on the uptake with this as the problem has been debated on bulletin boards for a mighty long time. Having said that, getting it on broadcast TV is about the best thing that can happen in resolving these problem.
As is usually the case with this type of thing, people who have had their plight discussed, (not so) mysteriously get their machines replaced, after fighting with the companies for ages. A case in point is Alex Ainsow, who has now not only been offered a replacement console, but has had the deal sweetened with some new games.
Rumours of Xbox 360 ver 2.0 have been circulating, with one of the items being that the fan has been made much quieter. This would point to the chips having been reworked to get their operating temperature down.
Previously, Watchdog was fronted by Anne Robinson who later went on to present The Weakest Link. At that time, it struck us that Watchdog was the most aptly name programme on TV.
BBC Watchdog on Ring of Death
Microsoft: Xbox 360: Three red lights flash on the Ring of Light
14 February, 2007
Virgin ‘iTunes for Games’ Announced
Virgin have announced their intention to create an iTunes for Games. The service, to be called, A World Of My Own, will offer video games for download.
As with the majority of The Bearded One’s businesses, this is a partnership with another company, in this case, Game Domain International, who will be providing the technical know-how. The marketing and sizzle will come from Virgin.
They’ve decided to abbreviate A World Of My Own, AWOMO.
Knowledge of their intentions dates back to June last year.
Downloading games isn’t new. Services like Steam have been working since 2004, but while these services have appealed to the hard-core of gaming, they’ve never really broken out to the general public.
Virgin chucking their marketing muscle behind is likely to change that. Beyond that there’s the great cross promotional opportunities, between Virgin Media (NTL/Telewest cable as was) and even their airlines.
AWOMO are taking a different approach to the plain-looking Steam, as the environment will be 3D, with different areas – think Second Life meets games distribution.
We hear that the Koch Media Group, Europe’s largest PC games distributor who work with major brands such as EA, Ubisoft and Deep Silver are in discussions with Virgin about the service.
Virgin used to be pretty big in games during the BBC Micro days, but fell out of love with it and sold it all off before the ’90’s got going.
It’s planned that the service will start in March this year. Let’s just hope they come up with a better moniker than AWOMO.
A World Of My Own
14 February, 2007
Motorola’s 3G MOTORIZR Z8 Announced
We reckon there could be moist spots breaking out in the gussets of mobile phone freaks everywhere with a veritable onslaught of new phones being announced today.
First to catch our eye was Motorola’s bendy-shaped 3G MOTORIZR Z8 phone sporting a novel ‘kick-slider’ (a what?!) and purring along on a Symbian OS handling up to 3.6Mbps HSDPA.
The curved profile is supposed to make the phone sit more snugly against your noggin, with the 15.3-mm thin form factor ensuring you can grab a place on the Cool Dudes Table.
Decked out in a natty black body with green trim, the MOTORIZR Z8 features a 1.4 x 2-inch, QVGA 16 million colour display and a twin camera set up, with a 2 megapixel camera on the back (with 8x zoom and lumi LED light) and a lower spec’d VGA jobbie up front for video calls.
The handset can record in either MPEG-4 or 3gp (for MMS) and includes 90MB of internal memory and a MicroSD expansion slot to keep you stocked up with up to 4GB’s worth of photos, video, and tunes on the move.
There’s also A2DP stereo Bluetooth audio onboard, support for SMS, EMS, MMS 1.22 messaging and SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, SSL/TLS2 email.
The Moto boys claim a battery life of up to 5-hours 3G talk time or up to 16 days standby, but the cheeky monkeys haven’t come clean about what network frequencies are supported yet.
Motorola
12 February, 2007
Vodafone Mobile Services Expansion: The Why
Vodafone has made three days of surprising announcements. Three of them for Web services soon to be accessible over their mobile network (MySpace, eBay and YouTube) and the other relating to the building out of their 3G networks in the future (analysis).
We thought it would be worthwhile taking a look as to why this might be happening and why it’s come at this time.
Why the push?
Well, lots of other companies are moving in to tread on Vodafone’s toes – example – Virgin Mobile now with NTL/Telewest TV/broadband/telephone service – as all forms of communication converge.
Vodafone is pretty much a mobile only company. They’re trying to change this, through deals with BT to offer fixed-line broadband and similar offerings in Italy and Germany. In the converged game, they’re pretty weak.
This weakness is leaving their previous highly-profitable dominance of the mobile space threatened.
They’ve been aware of the benefit of differentiating their service through providing access to content for a while, but these recent moves mark a serious step forward.
Previously it’s been about them providing the means of accessing content from third parties, games, music, etc. These most recent deals are about access to services.
I know content is being accessed, a la YouTube, but they’re actually providing access to the service … one that happens to be providing content.
What’s the benefit?
There’s many advantages to Vodafone on this.
Short term it’s about making people associate Vodafone with being on the leading-edge – “Wow, they’ve got MySpace and YouTube!”
It’s unclear how far this benefit will extend into the future, as more phones become easier to browse the Web, where these services live.
eBay, MySpace and YouTube all have fanatical following. When people become embroiled in them, they _must_ find out what has _just_ happened. They’re a modern day replacement for TV soap-operas.
Obsessions like these drive people to choose mobile phones that enable them to get access – and Vodafone will be shouting this from the roof tops to encourage people to switch to them.
Interestingly, those three services are also used by a great deal of people who don’t have a strong technical understanding. People who don’t know that the whole Internet is available through the Web Browser on their mobile phone. This changing is just a matter of time.
Another short-term benefit for them is the amount of revenue they’ll end up generating. We imagine that it’s cost Vodafone a pretty penny to get exclusives from all three services, but this will be made up by the seriously boosted data charges that they’ll be clawing in.
MySpace is pretty rich with bandwidth hungry media – lots of photos, and many many pages to check. Same for eBay.
The real earner for them will be YouTube. You’ll struggle to find an application that uses as much data as video and with the ability to pass links to favourite videos, subscribers will be helping their friends run up big data charges too.
9 February, 2007
Vodafone Now Have YouTube
Is this now getting boring? Vodafone have announced another content access deal, this time with YouTube.
Well they certainly have the set in their hands now don’t they? – First MySpace on Tuesday, then eBay yesterday, and today YouTube.
What can you do with the service? Well, watch YouTube videos really. But it won’t be all of the videos, just “a daily selection of new videos,” chosen by YouTube and accessed through Vodafone Live! True, these can be very entertaining, but one of the delights of YouTube is the wide access to all of the content. The process of near-unlimited discovery, down some very strange rabbit-holes, will be lost through editorialised content.
To encourage the viral effect, subscribers will be able to forward links of their favourite videos to friends. No shock there.
One big benefit for YouTube will be Vodafone making it easy for mobile phone users to upload films that they’ve shot on their mobiles, up to YouTube.
The most interesting part of this lies in the following statement, “Vodafone and YouTube will continue to explore ways to enhance this offering and cooperate closely in the coming months.” The potential in this is considerable.
Vodafone will be rubbing their hands thinking about all of the extra potential income from the data charges of delivering videos to mobile handsets.
9 February, 2007
Vodafone And Orange 3G RAN Share: Examined
As has been mentioned on Digital-Lifestyles, Orange and Vodafone have entered into an agreement to share their 3G Radio Access Network (or RAN). We thought you’d appreciate some more depth … and who better to give it than Steve Kennedy, our telco guru.
Currently Vodafone have a bigger network than Orange, so Orange would gain more than Vodafone from the deal, but in future it means that new cell sites will be used by both operators.
The agreement could have covered 2G (GSM) too, but as Vodafone use 900MHz systems and Orange use different systems operating in the 1800MHz band, it just not possible. That said, it’s likely future technology would allow both sets of frequencies to operate within the same radio equipment.
There will still be interesting problems to sort out for 3G sharing, as Vodafone exclusively use equipment from Ericsson, while Orange use equipment from Nortel, Siemens, Nokia and Alcatel.
Once the network is in place, each network will be responsible for enabling their own network services and ensuring quality of service, etc. As competition for customers increases this is a sensible way for operators to reduce cost, share the infrastructure and compete on service. It’s a shame the fixed networks don’t take this view, as has been pointed out before, the LLU operators could join forces and build a joint LLU network and then compete on service. This might give them a larger network, which would be of a size and scale to compete with BT’s upcoming 21CN.
Why the rush to build?
With a 3G license comes obligations and one of these was to reach 80% of the population by the 1st Dec, 2007. Though the GSM network coverage hit that a while ago, 3G expansion has been slower with few customers really wanting 3G services so the operators have built 3G networks in densely populated areas where they can make revenue from those customers. That means big cities have been covered, but elsewhere 3G coverage is patchy to say the least.
Hutchinson 3G (or 3 the new entrant into the mobile world) has been rapidly building its customer base and building a network to match. In June 2004, Ofcom tried rules that 3 had SMP (significant market power) in the 3G world, which meant it would be regulated by Ofcom much in the same way BT is for fixed networks. The other 3G operators happily supported Ofcom in this view. 3 didn’t want the increased regulatory burden and disagreed with Ofcom’s ruling, so appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. They won their appeal in November 2005. This was the first time any network has successfully appealed against a SMP designation.
3 wasn’t happy about having SMP forced upon it and therefore made noises to Ofcom about coverage obligations, which the other networks weren’t meeting. They’ve got 10 months to hit that 80% figure.
Though city centres might have a demand for 3G (for data services, no one cares about 3G voice – a voice call sounds the same whether it’s 3G or GSM), as you leave dense urban areas the appeal of 3G is less. Well maybe not less, but there are less people to use it and less of a reason for the networks to install 3G infrastructure and sites.
The cost of a 3G cell is probably not much different in terms of equipment from that of a 2G cell, one major difference is the amount of bandwidth needed for the cell, as data volumes are significantly higher (maybe 40Kb/s using GPRS data compared to maybe 2Mb/s for 3G, multiply that by 10 users and it’s 400Kb/s compared to 200Mb/s).
UK backhaul (i.e. the pipes used to connect cells) are expensive. The more rural the cell site is. the less chance there is that anyone (except maybe BT) has got any kind of high bandwidth connectivity. Therefore, the costs of the backhaul may well exceed that of the cell site itself.
Sharing makes economic sense
Orange and Vodafone have to hit that 80% figure or Ofcom can impose fines which could be significant. Therefore the build out of a shared new network makes economic sense. It’s half of what they’d each have to pay.
In this climate of everyone’s customers wanting everything for nothing, being able to reduce your build costs may well be the straw that doesn’t break the camel’s back.
9 February, 2007
Orange And Vodafone Propose Sharing 3G Aerials In UK
There’s a lot of radical thinking going on in the mobile business these days and here’s the latest. Vodafone and Orange have signed a non-binding agreement to let each other to use the others 3G infrastructure.
It’s all about their RANs – Radio Access Networks, which connect customers mobiles to the operators networks.
Until now they’ve gone around installing their own, but are now realising that this is a mighty expensive business, seeing as the cost is several £100k per base station. In rural areas these may only service a handful of people, thus rending their investment uneconomic.
The core of the proposal is to
- Continue managing their own traffic independently
- Retain full responsibility for the quality of service they offer their respective customers
- Remain competitors in the UK mobile wholesale and retail markets
The summary – share infrastructure, but compete on service.
What’s forcing this?
When the mobile companies bid for the 3G licenses, not only did they pay over a huge amount of money, but they also took on obligations to provider 3G services to a certain percentage of the UK population.
As not many people have signed up for 3G, the mobile companies haven’t wanted to spend the money on servicing a population that isn’t giving them money with subscriptions and they’ve let their obligations slip. Until now Ofcom hasn’t been pursing them on this.
Three, the largest 3G provider in the UK, has recently been saddled with three little letters by Ofcom – SMP – Significant Market Power. They’re not too happy with the restrictions that this imposes on them, so have been pointing out to Ofcom that the other 3G license holders aren’t fulfilling their coverage obligations.
To ensure that they don’t get saddled with substantial fines by Ofcom, the other 3G holders will need to expand their infrastructure. By sharing costs on this, they save money.
More details of this will be provided by Steve Kennedy, an expert in this area, in an article ~~later today~~ tomorrow.
8 February, 2007
LG Shine (KE970) Is Released In UK
The long-awaited and drooled-over LG Shine is being added to their Black Label range today.
As I’m sure you’re aware it’s a looker … and you’ll not be surprised to hear that it’s shiny – mirrored in fact.
Swimming in Ooo-Errr-ness, the screen is mounted under the 2.2″ mirrored surface, beaming its full colour screen though the mirror when a call is received or the front is slid up. Blue light is emitted from the keys to make them usable in dark corners.
There’s already been over 200,000 of them sold on LG’s home turf, Korea, since November 2006 and LG is no doubt hoping for a similar, if not greater success in Europe.
The success of Ooo-Err phones is now much less assured, since the release of the LG Chocolate (the first in the Black Label range), as other manufacturers are trying to impress just as hard.
There’s bash in London tonight to celebrate the launch with Magician, sorry Illusionist (he’s a bit sensitive about that one), David Blaine, or Git Wizard as Marcus Brigstocke calls him.
LG Shine
7 February, 2007
MySpace Mobile Vodafone Deal: Further Details And Opinion
You may have seen the announcement of the tie up between Vodafone Europe and MySpace Mobile we ran a short while ago.
We think this is a pretty big story, so we’ve been chatting to Vodafone and Myspace to get further details and thought we’d fill you in.
The UK will be the first market in Europe that Vodafone will release it in. The dates of the release are being very closely guarded. We tickled and cajouled in an attempt to get it tied down further, which resulted in us finding out it will be the second half of the year. Perhaps later, rather than sooner.
There will be a subscription fee, as is the case in the MySpace Mobile deal with Cingular in the US. The details of costs are currently unannounced.
MySpace Mobile runs on its own application, not through standard Web access. We’re not aware that this has been seen in the wild, so the completion of it may account for the yet-undisclosed release date for the Vodafone service.
Access to the app will be via the yet unannounced ‘selected handsets’ and it will be available for download from Vodafone Live!
Impact
While it might initially appear to be a great deal for Vodafone to capture the youth as customers, there may be clouds on the horizon. In a recent visit to a youth club, it was surprisng to see all of the collected 13-16 year olds using BeBo, with not one on MySpace. When asked why, they replied that they just found setting up and running BeBo a lot easier than MySpace. We can only assume that Vodafone did some decent research on who actually uses it, rather than what MySpace told them … didn’t they?
It’s not clear how much of a market there will be for this. As mobile phones handle Web browsing increasingly better, the need for a dedicated application drops away, as people simply use their Browser on any network. It’s been seen that a well-written dedicated mobile apps can still maintain an advantage – like Google’s mobile email client – due to the restricted interface intrinsic with mobile keyboards.
What will the features be?
The details of what MySpace-ers will be able to do …
MySpace Mobile Features:
* Upload and View Photos
MySpace Mobile allows Vodafone customers to select photos stored on their mobile device and upload them to their MySpace profile. They can also view photos already uploaded on any MySpace profile.
* Respond to Mail
Vodafone customers don’t have to wait to log on to a computer to read and reply to their MySpace messages. From their mobiles, they have the ability to send messages to their MySpace friends, read and reply to messages sent to them.
* Manage Your Community of Friends
MySpace Mobile allows customers view and manage friend requests. They can also perform basic friend searches giving users the opportunity to “click-to-add “friends into their network. They simply locate a MySpace profile they wish to add as a friend, and then select to add this user as a friend.
* Post Comments or Blog Entries
Update your blog live throughout the day by posting new entries on the move, or make comments to other users’ blogs or MySpace profile pages. To post a blog or comment, people simply view the appropriate section and click “Post” to create the entry. Users can save their work at any time, and any information entered will update both the mobile service and the online MySpace profile page.
* View Friends
Customers have the ability to view the friend list of any MySpace profile. The friend list contains a text listing of the friends, which when selected would show the profile picture along with a link to that user’s MySpace page, and the ability to add the friend to your MySpace contact list for quick bookmarking.
7 February, 2007
Tiscali Tips In With A Triple-Play Deal
Tiscali has unveiled plans to launch a television service for its broadband subscribers, offering more than 30 digital channels and on-demand programming.
The new Tiscali TV service will be available from next month to customers subscribing to the company’s 2Mbps ‘dual play’ broadband package.
Launching on 1 March 2007, the fifteen quid deal dishes out 2Mbit/s broadband access, serving up over 30 digital TV channels, ‘catch-up’ TV for some BBC programmes, plus access to a further 100 hours of on-demand programming.
The £20 triple-play deal bungs in line rental and free weekend telephone calls, with movies on-demand starting from £2 (€3) upwards, as well as upgrade options including Sky Sports via ‘Sky by Wire.’
Commenting on their new offering, Mary Turner, chief executive Tiscali UK said, “The success of Freeview has shown that customers want more than five channels but don’t necessarily want to pay a high monthly subscription.”
“Our TV service gives customers broadband plus the channel choice they want and free on-demand programming, all for the price you would pay for a standard broadband connection,” she added.
Tiscali will also be launching a new HD-enabled set-top box in July, capable of recording high-definition content onto its built in 160Gb hard drive.
With Tiscali delivering all content via the telephone line, we’re not entirely sure how long HD downloads will take, but we suspect that your ice cream will be well and truly melted by the time your 3hr thriller crawls down the line.
Meanwhile, Tiscali continues to increase its coverage in the major metropolitan areas, and expects to have a footprint of around 10 million homes by the end of 2007.
Tiscali
6 February, 2007