UK – Page 68 – Digital-Lifestyles

UK Analog Switch-Off For Digital TV By 2012: Confirmed

In her speech to the Royal Television Society in Cambridge this evening, Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell confirmed digital switchover and outlined the timetable for switching by region.

Digital switchover will happen between 2008 and 2012 by ITV region in the following order:

2008 – Border
2009 – West Country, HTV Wales, Granada
2010 – HTV West, Grampian, Scottish Television
2011 – Yorkshire, Anglia, Central
2012 – Meridian, Carlton/LWT (London), Tyne Tees, Ulster

UK Digital TV By 2012 Confirmed This regional order has been determined by a technical criteria determined by the broadcasters and Ofcom. The regional order will follow ITV regions. This ensures that the impact on ITV regional advertising markets is minimised.

Jowell also reiterated the Government’s pledge that digital switchover will be platform neutral. As reported earlier on OW, SwitchCo, which will be renamed ‘DigitalUK’ will launch tomorrow, and will oversee the switchover process, marketing and neutrality.

Jowell also outlined a programme to help vulnerable consumers. Households with one person over 75 and those with one person receiving disability allowances will be eligible for help and subsidy. The assistance scheme will be funded by the BBC through the licence fee (which is therefore obviously secure despite not Bill yet being in place).

It remains to be seen whether the BBC will be limited in how it promotes technologies in which it has a vested interest like DTT (Freeview) to these households.

UK Digital TV By 2012 Confirmed Comment – It is interesting that London will be switched in 2012. Same year as we host the Olympics.

It is also worth noting the name change of SwitchCo to DigitalUK. This suggests a role beyond digital television, with the organisation being ambitious in its aims and looking to embed the most sophisicated digital technologies at the core of the home. Only by taking this approach will switchover be genuinely enabling for citizens, narrowing rather than extending the digital divide.

Tessa Jowell

SwitchCo: UK Unveiling This Week?

There’s been quite a lot of talk in the UK media about SwitchCo, the organisation tasked with switching from Analogue to Digital TV in the UK. Luke Gibbs of OfcomWatch wonders if it will come to life this week?

It seems as though digital switchover has been going on for ages. And yet it hasn’t even begun – it’s just been a load of people talking about it!

Despite the Government announcing the creation of SwitchCo earlier in the year no-one has heard anything since. The only things we know for sure are that Barry Cox is the Chairman and some bloke called Ford Ennals is the Chief Executive. No website, no contact details, nothing – the proverbial blank screen. Perhaps it’s a precursor for what’s to come in 2012!

[ed. – an extremely limited site does seem to have emerged today!]

We also know that the Government remains committed to switchover. How? Because, the Labour Party election manifesto outlined the switchover process and thereby made both the process and timeframe an election pledge. So if you voted for Labour you voted for switchover. And if you didn’t vote for them or didn’t vote – well – tough luck they won the election.

Now, it’s possible that Labour will renege on its pledge. It’s certainly been known before for political parties to come into Government and do a spot of backtracking. Could this happen with switchover?

Well, later this week we may get some answers. On Thursday evening Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Rt Hon Tessa Jowell, MP, will make the keynote to the Royal Television Society’s bi-annual conference in Cambridge. As if Jowell hasn’t got enough high profile issues on her plate – licensing, Olympics, gambling – she also has digital switchover.

It is likely that in her keynote will offer a clearer vision of how switchover will take place and what SwitchCo’s role will be in making it happen.

After outlining the process it makes sense for SwitchCo to launch in earnest, publishing the technical and marketing plans for switchover. Will they be what the world has been waiting for?

From a technical perspective switchover it is not going to be a walk in the park. A phased switchover to digital by geographical area between 2008 and 2012. And we’ll only know how many people might be unable to get digital television once the analogue signal has been turned off and the digital signal boosted.

The technicalities of switchover will be critical to acheiving it. However, the marketing plan will also be essential to its success. Bringing the two strands together will be no easy task.

A successful switch to digital will release swathes of spectrum for re-allocation. But switchover also provides an opportunity to embed digital technology in the core of people’s homes – digital television is fundamental to acheiving the long envisaged, much touted Digital Britain.

So SwitchCo needs to be more ambitious in its aims than just pushing people to takeup digtial television. Digital television is just the beginning of digital enablement not the end of it.

There may be temptation to promote Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services such as Freeview over other digital services such as cable (D-Cab) or satellite (D-Sat) because it provides a low cost, convenient method of switching to digital television. However, it is also limiting as a digital technology, providing a few extra television channels and a low level of interactivity. Freeview might allow us to meet the proposed 2012 target but by then it will be out-moded.

It has already been stated that when SwitchCo does launch that it will take a platform neutral approach. So maybe we shouldn’t worry. However, switchover has the potential to become a political nightmare – and if it does there maybe a temptation to take the easiest possible route.

I am certainly not the first person to have pointed these things out. But I thought it was worth re-iterating ahead of various announcements this week, when potentially we will see an important new organisation emerge.

SwitchCo

Airline Wi-Fi Struggling For Business Customers

Airline Wi-Fi Struggling For Business Customers Only 25% of US business travellers are using Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and on planes, despite the growing availability of high-speed, wireless connections.

A report by Gartner reveals that only a quarter of US business travellers want to log on when they’re flying off, and in the UK the percentage is even smaller, with only 17 percent of travelling Brit execs willing to whip out their Wi-Fi wotsits.

The low level of adoption is rather surprising considering the growing number of hotspots and Wi-Fi enabled devices springing up over last two years.

The study suggests that users have been shunning Wi-Fi in airports and in-flight because some are baffled by the process of using the technology.

“While Wi-Fi has come a long way, our survey shows that many business travellers remain uncertain as to why they should use Wi-Fi, what equipment they need, how they can connect and what they will be charged,” said Gartner analyst Delia MacMillan.

“If Wi-Fi providers really want to attract new customers they must convince both end users and organizations of its benefits.”

Although some airlines like Lufthansa and SAS in Europe are installing wireless Internet access in their planes, the majority of travellers (78 percent in the US, 75 in the U.K.) said they would rather stay out of contact while in the air.

Airline Wi-Fi Struggling For Business Customers Those surveyed also said that they were more interested in increased onboard personal space, bigger baggage allowances and better entertainment than blasting out emails mid-flight.

It wasn’t all bad news though, with the respondents who actually used Wi-Fi expressing satisfaction with the speed of connection, ease of use and overall value.

The report revealed that wandering Wi-Fi folks were less chuffed with the price of the services and the limited availability of hot spots in useful locations.

“Many organisations will not reimburse their personnel for Wi-Fi access charges, as these fees are often not covered by their telecom contracts,” commented MacMillan.

“If airlines can commit to lower prices then the provision of Wi-Fi access could prove a key attraction to business travellers.”

Gartner’s report predicts that broadband-speed 3G cellphone networks could put pressure on Wi-Fi providers to cut prices.

Gartner

Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology

Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology In a damning blow to the UK government’s love affair with identity cards, a British criminologist has warned that the new technology could actually increase, rather than solve, the problem of identity theft and fraud.

Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia in England said that identity cards and chip and pin technology for credit cards were unlikely to alleviate the problem, as fraudsters react with more creative responses.

Finch said that a growing dependence on technology was leading to a breakdown in individual vigilance, which remains the best protection against fraud and identity theft.

“There is a worrying assumption that advances in technology will provide the solution to identity theft whereas it is possible that they may actually aggravate the problem,” she told the British Association science conference.

As part of her research, Finch interviewed thieves, vagabonds, fraudsters and ne’er do wells and asked about the impact new technology may have on their nefarious activities.

Not surprisingly, she learned that fraudsters were tenacious blighters, who were ready and willing to change their methods to elude new security measures.

Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology “Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent misuse of personal information after it has been obtained,” she added.

As we reported last month, a survey by Gallup revealed that almost a fifth of US consumers admitted falling victim to identity theft, although Finch said that there were sometimes less dodgy reasons for fraud and identify theft – sometimes people just wanted to start again with a new identity.

Focusing on the UK government’s proposed ID card scheme for its citizens, Finch said that the cards could potentially increase fraudulent behaviour,

“What fraudsters know about is human nature,” said Finch. “And they adapt to things like the Internet which provides an absolutely fantastic base to access personal information.”

Despite ministers insisting that national identity cards would counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, critics like the civil rights group liberty say that the scheme won’t tackle identity fraud, crime or any of the high-profile problems the Government has claimed they will address.

Finch also expressed doubts about chip and pin technology (which enables consumers to purchase goods by punching in a personal number rather than using a signature), saying that criminals may switch from watching an individual punch in the code and stealing the card, and just nabbing credit card application forms and getting new cards and numbers instead.

PSP Launches In UK To Big Queues

After having made the UK wait nearly 9 months since the launch of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in Japan, the BBC are reporting that enthusiastic potential owners of PSP’s have been queuing for 12 hours or more to get their hands on them.

The original UK release date was knocked back after Sony said it needed to provide the product to the US.

Those UK’ers who couldn’t wait for the much-desired, multi-media device to arrive had an avenue closed to them after Sony successfully took legal action against grey-importers of Japanese and US equipment.

The Japanese giant cited infringement of their trademark, claiming that the provision through these paths could not guarantee the quality of the product.

The UK PSP sells for £179 (249 euros), but it is understood that many shops have pre-sold most, if not all of their allocation of initial stock.

The BBC quoted one 36-year old gamer who had queued for a massive 11 hours to pick up his PSP.

Whilst we respect his dedication to the cause of all things Playstation, we hope we never reach that level of obsession with gaming.

Sony UK

UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services

UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services UK Online have officially joined the 24Mbps broadband party by announcing the October launch of their own broadband ADSL2+ based product.

The Easynet-owned company joins fellow 24Mbit Broadband providers Be Unlimited in ramping up the pressure on BT with their soon-come cutting-edge ADSL2+ services to be offered in urban areas

UK Online

The ADSL2+ UK Online service will enable lucky surfers to hurtle around the Internet at nigh-on reckless speeds of 24Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream – compare that to BT’s current broadband offering which chugs along at a snail-like maximum plod of 2Mbps.

BT has announced that it is trialing speeds of up to 8Mbps, which is rather like someone offering you a thimbleful of Kalibur when there’s a yard of Old Ferret Stripper Ale in the offing elsewhere.

UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services UK Online has been conducting technical trials of its ADSL2+ service since March of this year and their 24Mb broadband service should be available in October for under £30 (~$55 ~€43) a month.

Chris Stening, General Manager at UK Online, purred, “We’ve been pushing the current ADSL technology to its limits with 8Mb broadband since late last year. This is yet another innovation for UK Online.”

Consumers will be able to register their interest in UK Online’s service via www.ukonline.net

UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services Be Unlimited

Be Unlimited have already started public tests for their ADSL2+ service with the company expected to offer its super fast service from exchanges in the London area, with out-of-towners following in the next couple of months.

Businesses signing up for the service will be able to enjoy the service for nowt until the end of September this year, after which they’ll pay £70 (~$128 ~€102) per month.

Individual punters can also cash in on the freebie until the end of September, after which they will be charged £20 (~$36 ~€29) per month.

UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services Temptingly, there’s no connection fee for new users with a free Wi-Fi-enabled modem lobbed in for no charge (the company will be using DSLAMs from Alcatel, and a Thompson 716g V5 wireless modem, optimised for VoIP and video-streaming applications.)

“This pilot would be fantastic for small businesses, but we’re not setting up for time-critical businesses such as city traders,” warned a Be spokesperson (in other words, “it’s a pilot scheme – so expect some glitches!”).

Be Unlimited

News Roundup: Hamster Powered Mobile; US Kids SMS

Elvis Charges Mobile Phones
A 16-year-old lad in the West Country is breaking open the alcopops as he celebrates passing his GSCE electronics course – all thanks to his cunning hamster powered phone charger invention.

Peter Ash, from Lawford in Somerset, rustled up the wheeze after listening to his sister Sarah moaning that his pet hamster Elvis was keeping her awake at night by whizzing around on his exercise wheel for hours on end.

A light bulb illuminated above young Peter’s head as he realised that his hamster’s nocturnal marathons could be used to generate electricity.

For the next 13 months, the teenager worked on perfecting the hamster-powered device for his GSCE electronics coursework project.

After strenuous trials, Peter managed to get the insomniac hamster to generate enough power to charge his mobile phone overnight.

Rumours that he is now working on a dog powered version for powering small sound systems have proved to be unfounded.

Nearly 40% of Mobiles Bought By US Teens For Texting
A recent survey in the States by IDC and SMS.ac revealed that talking is, like, so uncool amongst teenagers, with Da KidZ preferring to text than talk.

The study revealed that 35.9% of teens acquired their cellphones for the sole or main purpose of texting, with just 13.3% of them getting all traditional and actually talking into the things.

Naturally, we advise that a large mountain side of salt be consumed with these ‘facts’ seeing as the survey was commissioned by online text service SMS.ac who have something of a vested interest.

Curiously, the survey doesn’t explain what the remaining 50.8% of kids are doing with their phones.

SMS.ac

A Feast Of Firefox Facts
Anyone using the excellent Mozilla Firefox browser may find this site invaluable: http://www.extensionsmirror.nl

The site serves up a ton of useful links to turn browser dabblers into Firefox pros, with information about rendering issues, downloading, interface enhancements, installable mini-applications, configuration and preference customisation, browser tabs, extensions and more.

Mobile Email Desire Revealed By Pointless Survey

Pointless Survey Reveals That Consumers Want Mobile Email It seems that there’s a never ending supply of companies ready to shell out for surveys asking the most inane questions.

So, why do they do it? Simple marketing usually.

The surveys are invariably designed to highlight some supposed shortcoming or growing need for some service or product that the company commissioning the survey just happens to offer!

This latest piece of survey fluff comes from Critical Path who wanted to “research consumer attitudes about the use of email and, in particular, to gauge interest in the use of mobile email services.”

What they really wanted to do, of course, was to show investors and consumers that their product is going to be a soaraway success, and by releasing a populist survey hopefully pick up a bit of free publicity along the way (and we’ve fallen for it. Damn!)

So naturally, the survey – as hard hitting as a soft marshmallow on a bed of feathers – concludes that there’s a massive potential market for mobile email and – would you believe it – Critical Path have got just the product the market needs!

Shamelessly trying to garner a mention in the lifestyle press, their survey trots out some truly vacuous dross claiming that people would rather get emails from an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend than their boss during their personal time.

Pointless Survey Reveals That Consumers Want Mobile Email Plundering the depths of inanity further, the survey revealed that 34 per cent of females ranked spouse emails as the most important, and 10 per cent more blokes reckoned mobile email would make their lives easier. Fascinating.

The survey thoughtfully reminds us “how essential email communication has become in everyday life”, dazzling readers with the revelation that 88 per cent of their respondents check their email for messages from family and friends while on holiday.

Continuing their amble down State-The-Obvious Boulevard, the authors reveal that 56 per cent of UK consumers would feel “out of touch” with friends and family without email access for just a single week, while 84 per cent of UK consumers wanted the ability to select which messages they receive on their mobile phone.

Gesturing wildly at his own product box, Mike Serbinis, chief technology officer at Critical Path, claimed that consumers want “an affordable service that is easy to use, works on their current phone, and can deliver messages from their current email account.”

With a large “BUY NOW” sign flashing above his head, Serbinis continued, “Operators who offer a simple, affordable mobile email service that allows consumers to use their current phone and choose the messages that matter will reap the biggest rewards.”

Critical Path

iPaq 6710 and 6715 Handhelds ‘Leaked’ On HP UK Website

iPaq 6710 and 6715 Handhelds 'Leaked' On HP UK Website There were red faces at HP (or perhaps a wild cackle from a Machiavellian PR guru) after a video presentation on their website leaked details of their next smart-phone release, the iPaq hw6700 series.

The bean-spilling slideshow featuring the new handhelds was hastily withdrawn, but not before the eagle-eyed owner of Dave’s iPaq website downloaded the details for all to see.

The leaked pages offer details of the two new models in the hw6700 series, the 6710 and 6715.

Both run on Windows Mobile 2005 software and offer a full suite of connectivity options: 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and quad-band GSM/GPRS.

GPS Navigation is built in (courtesy of TomTom) with one free city map thrown in, and the units are powered by 312MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processors.

iPaq 6710 and 6715 Handhelds 'Leaked' On HP UK Website Both iPaqs come with a 3 inch, QVGA 240 x 320 pixel screen, with the handhelds measuring 7.1 x 2.1 x 11.8cm and weighing 165g. Power comes in the shape of a removable 1200mAh Lithium Ion battery

There’s 192MB of memory onboard – 64MB of RAM and 128MB of ROM – which is a fair bit more than the 128MB of HP’s previous 6500 series, and MiniSD slots provided for expansion (leaving previous iPaq owners with a pile of redundant SD cards.

The only thing that appears to distinguish the 6710 from the 6715 is the 1.3 megapixel camera fitted on the latter.

iPaq 6710 and 6715 Handhelds 'Leaked' On HP UK Website Of course, it’s always wise to be wary when information is leaked in this manner, and there is something that doesn’t quite sit right in the presentation.

The document makes reference to “Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005 Second Edition Software, Phone Edition” – and we definitely recall reading that the new OS was supposed to be a unified version marking the end of the Phone Edition/Smartphone Edition/PocketPC Edition editions.

On Dave’s iPaq website, there’s a full range of consumer emotions being expressed – from wild enthusiasm for the new products to deep annoyance from those who’ve only shelled out for the recently released 6515 (don’t you just hate it when that happens?!).

Dave’s iPaq

UK Gov Looking To Subsidise Digital TV Transition via BBC?

UK Gov Looking To Subsidise Digital TV Transition via BBC? A couple of stories have been circulating about the BBC of late, both concerning their adoption of digital TV.

It’s well known that the BBC have been at the forefront of encouraging the UK public to start to make the shift from analog to full digital TV. They started by offering the Freeview service, a DTT (Digital Terrestrial TV) service that cover a reasonable portion of the UK. To fill in the reception gaps in the DTT coverage, there have been reports of a free satellite service, cunningly known as FreeSat. There’s even been a mention of BBC agrees licence fee deal on digital TV for pensioners – The Business