USA

US Gamers Watch Less TV non-Shock
We’ve all known for a long time that TV as we knew-and-loathed-it was under pressure, as people discovered there were things more rewarding in their lives than passively sitting in a darkened room, being bathed in light from a box in the corner of the room, watching whatever the channel controller decided to ‘entertain’ them with.
In a rather self-serving survey, “Digital Gaming in America”, Ziff Davis Media attempts to further fan the flames of this long lasting discussion, as they reveal that video gamers are watching less TV than they did previously, and will continue to reduce the amount they are consume.
Before you run to your boss, waving a printout of this story in your hand, proclaiming the near-death of TV. The results of the survey do reflect the general trend of what is happening, but do bear in mind the size of survey – 1,500 households (ie people who happened to be in, answered the phone, and had nothing better to do than answer a series of questions), compared with 295m people that live in America isn’t what you’d call statistically robust.
What did they find? About a quarter reduced their TV watching over the last year, with about a further fifth planning to do the same in the coming year. To put some hours against that, they estimate that there’s been a two hours per week drop over the last year to 16 hours a week this year, around a 10% drop.
The wolf isn’t quite at the door of TV. Looking at the hours/week, the reduced figure is still over 2.25 hours of TV a day, quite considerable when you consider what other task people do for that period of time, beyond working and sleeping.
In 2003 the BBC did some far more interesting research in this area. Of course they found that numbers of hours watched dropped, but what we found significant was that those hours that were being spent in front of the TV, weren’t dedicated to watching it.
This was particularly true of the younger viewers (34 and under) who were doing other things – texting their friends, Web browsing, talking on the phone, playing games on portable games systems – while in front of the box. They would dip in and out of the TV programme as it was on, occasionally letting it grab their attention – treating it far more like radio. It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to figure that their attention would be elsewhere during the advert breaks.
Where the Ziff Davis survey does become more interesting is looking at gaming on mobile phones, particularly as this report is US-centric and the market isn’t very mature. A surprising 42% of surveyed gamers had bought games for their phones, and that they’d spent an average of US$13 (~€10, ~£7) each over the last three months.
An additional surprise for us was the length of time the games had been played on the mobile phones – 19 minutes per gaming session. Given the size of the display and general difficulty of playing games on such restricted controls, this is a revelation.
The split of games played was Arcade (57%), Card (44%) and Puzzle (37%) – another suprise for us given the device’s restrictions mentioned in the paragraph above. We suspect that the dominance of arcade games will reduce as players realise thinking games will be more rewarding than twitching with little buttons.
Oh … by the way Ziff Davis just happen to publish the games magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine and 1UP.com – and their ad sales people are just sitting there waiting to hear from you if you want to shift your advertising budget from TV to their mags.
Ziff Davis Video Game Survey: Gamers Continue to Cut TV Viewing
BBC – TV’s Tipping Point: Why the digital revolution is only just beginning
10 August, 2005
Identity Theft Hits One In Five Americans
Almost a fifth of US consumers have admitted falling victim to identity theft, with younger adults at greatest risk, according to new figures.
The Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index revealed that the young ‘uns were the most gullible, with twenty-five per cent of American consumers under the age of 30 admitting to having their financial information stolen.
This compared to about 18 per cent in the middle-aged group and just 11 per cent amongst the wise old silver surfers aged 65 and older.
Of course, this imbalance could just be reflecting younger consumers’ greater interaction with sites that require financial information to be input (e.g. e-bay, PayPal, iTunes, online merchandise etc).
“The public’s perception about how many consumers have suffered identity theft appears fairly accurate, according to the poll, with the median projected percentage at 15 per cent, not very far off from the 18 per cent measured in the poll,” observed Ed Ojdana, group president at Experian Interactive.
“This makes it all the more concerning that so few consumers are being proactive in protecting their information,” he finger-wagged.
Experian-Gallup found that around two-thirds of consumers who have yet to experience identity theft felt that it was unlikely to happen to them, with only six per cent taking the precaution of purchasing some form of identity theft protection.
An even smaller percentage – four per cent – had purchased identity theft insurance but then not bothered to check their bank to see whether anyone had been dipping into their hard earned savings.
Despite so few punters taking preventive action to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, 62 per cent expressed concern that their financial information could be stolen online.
It wasn’t just online banking that got the punters fretting, with more than half worrying that their personal information could be stolen in the post (55 per cent) or at a shop (53 per cent) or while they’re filling their faces at a restaurant (47 per cent).
However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the company who commissioned the survey, Experian, are in the business of – would you believe it?! – selling protection against identity fraud.
Pinch of salt, anyone?
Experian
Preventing Identity Theft – a guide
5 August, 2005
Three Quarters of US Homes Have A Computer
New US research claims that Americans are becoming increasingly “digital,” with over three quarters owning computers and many households verily humming with multiple digital electronics products, including cell phones to entertainment devices to cameras.
A recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation’s CARAVAN poll involving 2,000 respondents discovered that three-in-four American adults (76%) own a computer, two-thirds (67%) own a mobile phone and nearly half (47%) are snapping away on digital cameras.
Other digital lifestyle products contributing to the Greenhouse Effect in US homes included digital cameras (47 per cent); video game consoles like XBox, PSP etc (38 per cent); TiVo/digital video recorders (27 per cent); home security systems (19 per cent), and iPods or other MP3 digital players (17 per cent).
The research was commissioned by hard drive manufacturer, Seagate, who were keen to remind users of their role in the digital revolution:
“Technology advances that enable smaller, higher capacity, more stable storage solutions are allowing consumer electronics manufacturers to develop products with greater functionality,” said Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology.
“The convenience, reliability and huge capacity of hard drive storage is enhancing applications as diverse as digital audio players, gaming devices, DVRs, HDTVs, automobiles, cell phones, PDAs, and a host of other products. Ground-breaking storage solutions are helping to drive the adoption of a digital lifestyle.”
3 August, 2005
Team iFiber Redwire Sets New WiFi Distance Record
Those of you struggling to maintain a Wi-Fi connection from next door’s access point may be exclaiming a Victor Meldrew-style, “I don’t belieeeeve it!” at the news of a mighty new world record being set for an unamplified Wi-Fi link.
The new world record in the “unamplified” category was set last week by Team iFiber Redwire, with the Wi-Fi signal reaching an astonishing 125 miles, stretching from Las Vegas, Nevada, all the way to a spot adjacent to St. George, Utah.
The team of college students managed to crush the previous world record for the longest distance for an unamplified Wi-Fi link (55.1 miles @ 30mW) at the 3rd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest.
The shootout challenges teams to wirelessly connect two computers at extreme distances, with the winners’ collection of Z-Com 325hp+ PCMCIA cards, homemade antennas, 12 foot satellite dishes, home-welded support structures, scaffolds, ropes and computers earning them the prized record.
The team managed a full 11 Mbps data transfer rate over a distance of 125 miles, a new world record that may end up being recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
There is now talk of attempts to smash the current Bluetooth record of 1.08 miles.
I think we may have to borrow one of their 12 foot satellite dishes because we can barely maintain our office connection through one set of walls…
Defcon Wifi Shootout
Credit for first picture : thanks to wifi-shootout.com
1 August, 2005
Microsoft Maps WiFi For Alternative GPS System
Trying to work out the law surrounding this Wi-Fi malarkey seems to be a tricky business.
As we reported earlier, it seems that walking around residential streets looking for a Wi-Fi connection is definitely A Very Bad Thing and liable to land you with a trouble.
But if you’re Microsoft, then you’re apparently free to dispatch cars all over US towns and suburbs to trawl for the signals sent out by the millions of short-range home and office WiFi networks.
Microsoft’s somewhat unexpected move – soon to be repeated in the UK and elsewhere – is part of a plan to create a ground-based location system as an alternative to the GPS satellite system.
According to an article in the Financial Times, Microsoft says it has now built a database containing the whereabouts of “millions” of WiFi networks.
Naturally, privacy groups are more than a little concerned about Microsoft sniffing about the hedgerows and alcoves of private networks, but the company claims that it has collected only the unique identifier (MAC address) of each Wi-Fi network and that this cannot be traced to an address or an individual user.
Microsoft says that by recording the position of every MAC address on a giant map, it had created a positioning system that would make it possible for anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop to flip out their machine and identify their location to within 30.5 metres.
We think location-based information and services are going to be huge and an alternative way of locating yourself without the need for GPS is welcome.
Where this WiFi-based locating will work particularly well is in cities where GPS doesn’t work too well, due to its signal being blocked by the tall buildings, and there a strong concentration of WiFi connections.
Microsoft tracks WiFi for new mapping system [FT]
26 July, 2005
PC Sales Soars, Apple Hits 4.7% US Market Share
The doomsayers were predicting a slow year for PC shipments, but a continuing shift to notebooks and falling PC prices have made it a bumper second quarter for the worldwide PC market, according to research companies IDC and Gartner.
IDC’s figures reveal that PC vendors have shifted 46.6 million units in the second quarter, up from 39.9 million units last year, while Gartner claims that 48.9 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, up from 42.6 million units last year.
The disparity in the figures is due to the different ways in which the companies record “white-box” shipments (lesser brand PCs sold by local distributors or resellers).
Both analysts have confirmed Apple’s zippy growth in the US market, where it has risen to become the fourth biggest PC manufacturer in the land of Budweiser.
Dell still sits proud as King Of The PC Hill in the US, with shipments growing 23.7 per cent from last year, while the company now holds 19.3 per cent of the worldwide market according to IDC.
Gartner’s figures differ again, showing Dell with 17.9 per cent of the global market.
HP remained in second place with 15.6 per cent of the market (IDC) – 14.6 per cent according to Gartner.
The company enjoyed big sales outside the US and remains the market share leader in many countries throughout Europe.
The new Lenovo-owned IBM business ranked third in worldwide shipments with 7.6 per cent of the market, while Acer impressed with a shipment growth of 62 per cent compared to last year.
Gateway and Apple grew much faster than Dell or HP in the States, coming in at third and fourth place respectively in the US market.
Boosted by their success with iPod and iTunes, Apple’s US market share reached 4.5 per cent, up from 3.7 per cent at the same time last year.
Overall, Apple’s shipments grew 37 per cent year-on-year quarter, against a worldwide industry growth of 16.6 per cent, according to IDC (14.8 per cent by Gartner’s figures).
Laptops Out Sell Desktops In US
MacWorld
19 July, 2005
SMS Usage Rises In The US
Us in UK-land have long been fans of SMS messaging, with button-pushing Brits banging out 3 million text messages every hour, with 2.5 billions text being sent in January 2005 alone.
In the States, it’s a different story, where network inoperability has held back the medium, but new figures show that SMS is finally make an impact in the USA, as messaging soared 59% last year.
The figures emerged in the June 2005 edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s World Cellular Data Metrics, which pointed out that the value of the US mobile data market has increased by around 80 percent.
Total revenues from non-voice services for the four biggest US mobile operators roared up to more than USD 1.2 billion in Q1 2005, compared to a comparatively miserly USD 689 million in the same period of 2004.
Kester Mann, Senior Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media has the answers: “Interoperability is fundamental to the success of messaging and has been the key limiting factor to SMS usage in the States in the past.”
“The near 60% increase in traffic last year would not have been possible if subscribers could have sent SMS only within their own networks”, he added, sagely.
GSM operator T-Mobile was particularly chuffed with its performance as its customers belted out a total of 3.6 billion messages during Q1 2005 – that works out at around 67 texts per subscription per month.
This total is more than double last year’s volume, and SMS traffic looks set to rise as operators like T-Mobile roll out attractively priced “unlimited texting” tariffs.
Just like in Europe, texting in the US has also been boosted by cheesy TV shows offering interaction via SMS.
“Thanks largely to SMS, data now typically contributes 6-10% of mobile operators’ total revenues in the States,” mulled Mr Mann, manfully.
“While this still remains some way below the industry average, it marks a significant increase from the 4% recorded this time last year and less than 2% at the beginning of 2003,” he added.
US text traffic still has a long way to go until it matches Western European levels – where non-voice services form an average of 15-16% of mobile operators’ revenues – and is unlikely to top the 48% of revenue generated by SMS-smitten Filipinos.
And while we’re in the mood to throw around some SMS-related facts, get a load of this UK selection, courtesy of text.it:
On New Year’s Day 2003, the number of text messages sent in one day topped one hundred million for the first time, and on New Year ‘s Day 2004, the daily total reached 111 million messages
On New Year’s Day 2005, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association was reached, when 133 million messages were sent
UK text message figures for January 2005 topped 2.5 billion, with 2.4 billion sent in December 2004 and 2.2 billion for November 2004
92 million text messages were sent by Britons on Valentine’s Day 2005, compared to the estimated 12 million cards sent.
15 July, 2005
Palm Gets New Name, Ticker, Logo and HQ
palmOne transmogrifies into Palm, Inc today, following an announcement on May 24 that the company had acquired unencumbered rights to the Palm brand after buying out the share of the brand formerly controlled by PalmSource, Inc.
“I’m confident we’ll build our momentum even faster now that we can use the same term consumers and business people have always used for our products – PALM,” frothed Ed Colligan, Palm president and CEO.
“And while a lot has changed – our name, ticker, logo and headquarters – our vision remains the same. We believe the future of personal computing is ‘mobile computing,’ and we aim to deliver superior hardware and software solutions so that we can continue to set the bar in the industry.”
Clearly dizzy after overdoing the double Caramel Macchiatos, Palm talks lovingly about its new logo, claiming that it “builds upon the strong brand equity already established in the former blue Palm circular medallion, but the updated typeface suggests the trend toward digital content and an orange gradated background evokes energy.”
Page Murray, Palm vice president of marketing, was also in a state of ecstasy over the new design: “Our new logo takes advantage of the high brand awareness we’ve built over time through award-winning and commercially successful handheld computers and smartphones,”
Getting carried away on a wave of hyperbole, Murray waxed lyrical about the new logo: “It balances the past with the future, and signals to customers that they can expect to see a lot more of the name ‘Palm’ going forward in exciting mobile-computing products.”
Palm have a bit of a history with faffing about with their name. palmOne was created in October 2003 when the earlier Palm, Inc. spun off PalmSource and acquired Handspring, Inc.
The Palm brand was then shared between palmOne and PalmSource, but Palm claim that customers have come to identify the name Palm more with physical products than with the operating system that powers it.
We wish that they’d spend less time messing about with pretty logo redesigns, and got around to doing something useful – like creating the Wi-Fi drivers for the Treo phone promised months ago.
We wrote to them two months ago asking for a Palm Treo 650 to review and for information about the Wi-Fi drivers.
We’re still waiting for a reply.
Palm
14 July, 2005
US Wi-Fi ‘Thief’ Man Charged
US police have arrested a Florida man for gaining illegal access on a domestic wireless Internet network.
In one of the first criminal cases involving this practice, Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pre-trial hearing this month after an April arrest on charges of “unauthorised access to a computer network” – a third-degree felony in the States.
Police say Smith ‘fessed up to sneakily logging on to the Wi-Fi signal after he was spotted using a laptop in his SUV outside the house of Richard Dinon.
Although it’s quite a widespread practice, the newness of the crime means that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement doesn’t even keep statistics, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times.
With the rise of domestic Wi-Fi networks and Wi-Fi enabled PDAs, laptops and smartphones, more and more people are sniffing out unsecured networks and enjoying a free ride on other people’s connections.
There’s not much harm in that, but the newspaper report points out the darker side of Wi-Fi pilfering, with criminals using the unsecured networks to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and even send death threats.
The problem is that few people bother utilising the security protection that comes with their Wi-Fi routers, even though turning on encryption or requiring passwords would make things considerably more difficult for network freeloaders.
If Smith is found guilty of the charges, the outcome could set a dangerous precedent for wireless networking and potentially criminalise tens of thousands of mobile users who regularly log on to any signal they can find.
St. Petersburg Times
7 July, 2005
DoJ Operation Site Down: Raids In 11 Nations
In a pretty gung-ho move that shows a lot of seriousness, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) have announced the results of Operation Site Down. More than 20 raids occurred in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, as well as 70 in the USA.
Four arrests: David Fish; Nate Lovell; Chirayu Patel; and William Veyna were made in the US with them being charged with violating federal copyright protection laws.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was nothing if not stern, “By dismantling these networks, the Department is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain—a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of the illegal digital content now available online, and by penetrating this illegal world of high-technology and intellectual property theft, we have shown that law enforcement can and will find — and we will prosecute — those who try to use the Internet to create piracy networks beyond the reach of law enforcement.”
We’d imagine there’s been a fair degree of celebration at this news in the entertainment world – dinner tables will be booked.
The DoJ reported that hundreds of computers had been seized, leading to at least eight major online distribution networks being shut down.
With the size of the seizures we’d imagine there’ll a big gap left in the world downloading. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to repair itself.
One thing the Attorney General said particularly struck us, “this illegal world of high-technology and intellectual property theft.” Let’s hope the two of these are bound together, and he’s not talking about a separate illegal world of high-technology. Now that would be worrying.
While closing down some file sharing networks for a period of time will temporarily throttle the flow of material over the Internet, we see far more direct financial loss through gangs selling DVD’s around pubs, clubs and streets of the UK, where this has reached such a level that we have seen a pub with “No DVDs” signs on the door.
File trading on the Internet is done by spending the time doing it, but it has no financial gain. The DVDs being sold in public are making someone very rich.
It does make you think that if downloading high-quality movies without seeing the head of someone getting up in the middle of the film to go to the toilet were easy, most of that fiver that people pay on the street would end up in the film company’s pocket. Sadly they’re waiting for DRM to be in place first.
US Department of Justice
4 July, 2005