Platforms

Sky Gnome Wireless Listening Gadget Unveiled
BSkyB has announced The Gnome, a wireless digital receiver gadget that lets Sky subscribers listen to radio (or TV) anywhere around the house.
Sadly, it doesn’t come in the shape of a brightly coloured plaster figurine with an oversized head, but the curvy triangular form looks a jaunty enough number.
Using the Gnome, punters can listen to Sky TV and radio channels anywhere in the house, garage or garden, just so long as the receiver is within 30 metres of the Sky box.
The natty wireless receiver works with all Sky boxes and lets subscribers get an earful of over 80 digital radio channels – as well as the television channels in their Sky package – at no extra charge.
Sky+ customers can also use the cheeky little Gnome to listen to pre-recorded programmes in their Sky+ planner.
The toblerone-esque gadget offers stereo sound, a backlit LCD display providing full channel and programme information, volume and channel controls and the option to pre-set 10 fave channels.
Introducing the device, BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch built himself into an enthusiastic froth of product love and exclaimed, “This is fantastic. We think it’s just dynamite!”
A somewhat mellower Brian Sullivan, BSkyB’s director of customer products and services, observed that the Gnome was a “fun product that adds value and flexibility for Sky’s growing customer base.”
“It forms part of BSkyB’s strategy to deliver great entertainment and choice through constant innovation,” he added.
The diminutive receiver comes in a choice of Cool Blue or Funky Orange but only offers a rather disappointing battery life of up to 8 hours before the batteries need recharging
The Gnome will be available from October. Prices are still to be confirmed
Sky
4 August, 2005
Zen Vision From Creative Squares Up To Apple’s iPod
With the slap of a leather gauntlet against iPod’s shiny white face, Creative has unveiled its new Zen Vision a portable media player.
Yep, it’s yet another contender for the title of ‘iPod Killer’, but this one’s got a killer punch: video playback, a feature that isn’t expected to be seen on iPods until 2006.
As well as supporting music playback, users can view movies and digital pictures on the unit’s impressively girthed 3.7″ (diagonal) 262k colour TFT LCD screen at a resolution of 640×480.
The Zen Vision supports a slew of video codecs, including AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP and Microsoft’s WMV9.
Audio support is similarly comprehensive, with the unit playing MP3 (Up to 320 kbps), WMA (Up to 320 kbps), WMA with Digital Rights Management (DRM) 9 or later and Linear PCM WAV.
Although the Zen Vision can’t play tunes downloaded from Apple’s iPod music store, it does support other popular music stores including Napster, MSN Music and Yahoo! Music Unlimited, so there’ll be shortage of tunes available for the device.
There’s also an integrated FM radio on board, offering 32 station presets with the ability to record shows or your own voice.
Resplendent in its white or black finishes, the Zen is quite a looker, and is only slightly larger than the rival iPod.
There’s 30GB of storage on board, which Creative claims will support up to 120 hours of movies (based on 500Kbps MPEG4-SP), or 15,000 songs encoded at 64k WMA – this is something of a meaningless figure because it’s doubtful people will want to listen to their tunes at such a low quality setting..
We very much like the provision of a CompactFlash card slot, with a range of adaptors for popular memory card formats (SD, MMC, Memory Stick etc making it easy for photographers to transfer photos to the device for storage and viewing.
There’s also a personal organiser provided, capable of syncing daily tasks, contact lists and calendar data.
The pocket sized powerhouse comes with a rechargeable Li-ion battery offering up to 4.5 hours of video playback and 13 hours of audio, depending on the file’s format and energy settings.
Consumers in the US can pre-order the Zen Vision on Creative’s website for US$399 (~€323, £225~). Europeans will have to twiddle their thumbs and wait for now.
Creative Zen Vision
4 August, 2005
Apple Mighty Mouse Announced
Apple has announced its latest product, the button-bedecked Mighty Mouse, revealing their first departure from the company’s traditional preference for single button input devices.
The new mouse carries four independently programmable buttons and a Scroll Ball that lets users scroll all over the place – up, down across and even diagonally.
Apple’s stubborn refusal to include more than one button on its standard mouse has long brought scorn from the Windows community who were at a loss to understand why Mac users were being deprived of the clear productivity benefits of multi-buttoned mouses (Mice? Micii?)
Up to now, professional Macheads have long complained at being forced to shell out for third party products to enjoy the same button-tastic functionality as their Windows counterparts.
Extra buttons are particularly useful in video and graphic design applications, so Apple is hoping that their four-buttoned and programmable Mighty Mouse will prove a hit.
Naturally, Apple have added a little bit of pizzazz to the design, hiding the touch-sensitive technology under a plain shell. This detects which part of the mouse is being clicked, letting users left- and right-click.
Notably, the mouse is a cross platform product, and PC users will be able to tweak and customise the mouse settings using the Mouse control panel on Windows systems.
Sadly, the mouse is a corded device, so we’ll be sticking with our dockable, rechargeable wireless Logitech device for now. And that’s got seven buttons and doesn’t come with a silly name – take that Jobsy!
Apple’s new feast of buttons will work on Mac OS X (programmability requires Mac OS X v10.4.2 Tiger or later) and Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Pricing is £35 (~€50, US$62~) in the UK or a considerably cheaper US$49 (~€40, £28~) in the US.
Kodak
3 August, 2005
PDA Sales Set For Record Year
In spite of pundits’ predictions of a swift demise, the PDA refuses to die with 2005 looking set to be a record year for handheld sales.
A combination of falling prices and extra features like wireless connectivity have invigorated the PDA market, with Gartner reporting 3.6 million units shipped worldwide in the last three months, a 32 percent leap from the same period last year.
This puts the market on track to hit 15 million units shipped by the end of year – a figure that would surpass the previous record of 13.2 million PDAs shipped in 2001.
The study ignored smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but included wireless PDAs like the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300.
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was, not surprisingly, the most popular device, with shipments reaching 840,000 in the second quarter – a hefty growth of 64.7 percent, achieving a sector-leading market share of 23.2 percent.
Palm came in at second place with 17.8 percent, while Dell slipped out of the top five ranking, elbowed out by T-Mobile’s Sidekick II and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.
HP also suffered falling sales, although both Dell and HP are scheduled to upgrade their product lines in the second half of this year.
The study by analysts Gartner revealed that Windows CE is the favoured operating system for business-minded PDA users, with the underlying software making up 46 percent of worldwide shipments in the second quarter of 2005.
In second place was RIM with 23.2 percent of PDA software shipped, followed by PalmSource’s at 18.8 percent.
“Wireless PDAs are increasingly seen as an adjunct or alternative to notebook computers, while favourable exchange rates have enabled more Europeans to purchase PDAs at an attractive price,” said Gartner analyst Todd Kort.
Like Billy Bunter at a speed eating competition, the Western European PDA market inflated by a massive 94 percent to reach 1.3 million units in the second quarter of 2005.
PDAs are proving a big hit with Europeans, with regional sales accounting for 37 percent of worldwide shipments, up from 25 percent a year ago.
In the States, growth is slower, with shipments totalling 1.4 million units, a mere 1.3 percent increase.
Garner reports that the disappointing US figures are a result of a stagnant market and the continuing decline in Palm PDA sales and aging product lines among Microsoft licensees.
Elsewhere, PDA shipments in Asia/Pacific looked sprightly with a growth of 24.7 percent, totalling around 402,000 units.
These figures chime with a similar handheld report from research firm IDC, although their findings painted a little less rosy future.
Gartner
IDC report
3 August, 2005
EasyShare P880, P850: Kodak Announcement
Kodak has announced a new class of ‘advanced digital cameras’ aimed at grabbing a slice of the burgeoning dSLR market.
They won’t be winning any hearts on looks though, with their flagship EasyShare P880 model looking like this “a cross between Bender from Futurama and an ugly tank”.
Despite looking like it’s fallen off the Ugly Tree, the EasyShare P880 serves up an attractive feature set, offering an 8 megapixel sensor, a slew of enthusiast features and an unusually wide angle 24-140mm (35mm equiv) wide-angle f/2.8 – f/4.1 zoom lens made by Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon (try saying that after a few beers).
Multiple shooting modes are provided, including auto, program, aperture and shutter priorities with fully manual and custom modes available and a handy feature letting users dial-in multiple pre-set scene modes.
Reflecting its enthusiast ambitions, the camera offers RAW file support, 16 – 1/4000 second shutter speeds, a live histogram, a 237,000 pixel electronic viewfinder, custom white balance and digital red-eye reduction.
“While serious photographers demand advanced photographic controls, they’re also craving easier-to-use cameras and systems – an area in which Kodak excels,” enthused Greg Westbrook, general manager of digital capture products at Kodak.
“The P-Series breaks new ground by deftly combining high performance and simplicity. Its flagship, the EASYSHARE P880 camera, introduces a new, highly compelling alternative to pricier, bulkier dSLRs.”
The one big advantage that compact digital cameras have over their dSLR counterparts is the ability to capture video footage, and Kodak have been keen to trumpet the camera’s movie making functions.
The P880 can capture VGA video at 30 frames per second (Motion JPEG compression) with zooming and lets users trim, cut, splice and merge clips on the camera and extract individual video frames as 640 x 480 JPEGs at 640 x 480 resolution.
Powered by a high-capacity lithium ion battery, the camera weighs in at 19.6 oz. (556 g) and comes in a reasonably compact package (4.6W x 3.8H x 3.6D in.)
The EasyShare P880 will be available beginning this September priced US$599 (~€486, ~£336).
Looking down the range, Kodak have also announced their 5.3 megapixel EasyShare P850 camera, featuring a 12X, 36 – 432mm (35mm equiv.), f2.8 – f/3.7, Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens with optical image stabilisation.
Sharing the same video capabilities as its upmarket brother, the 850 offers an advanced, hybrid AF system with 25 selectable points and shutter speeds from 1/2 – 1/1000.
There’s also a hotshoe for extended lighting control, the usual selection of preset scene modes with a live histogram, RAW/TIFF/JPEG support and a lithium ion battery.
The EasyShare P850 will knock out for around US$499 (~€405, ~£280).
Kodak
3 August, 2005
DSC-T5: Sony Cyber-Shot Ultra-Slim Camera Announced
Sony has today announced the latest update to its range of ultra-slim DSC-T digital cameras, the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T5.
Thinner than Kate Moss on a diet, the DSC-T5 features an internal folded-optics 3x optical zoom lens, a five megapixel CCD sensor, a 2.5″ anti-reflective Hybrid LCD monitor and 32 MB of internal memory, with extra storage provided by a Memory Stick Duo slot.
Available from September, the DSC-T5 sports the familiar sliding cover/power switch inherited from the DSC-T1 and comes in a black and silver finish with red, black and champagne gold options becoming available in October.
Sony claims that the camera’s new InfoLithium T series battery will offer an increased battery life of up to 240 shots per charge, with the camera being ready to shoot images in less than a second.
“This is the perfect ‘next’ camera for anyone who doesn’t want to miss a moment, whether out on the town or at family gatherings,” enthused James Neal, director of digital imaging products at Sony Electronics “It’s the most affordable model in our T series and a great value given its enhanced performance.”
There are a slew of pre-set picture-taking modes onboard to help point’n’shooters get the best from the camera, with a “Magnifying Glass” feature allowing macro shooting up to 1cm from an object and a “High Speed Shutter” to catch fast-moving action.
Using an optional Memory Stick PRO Duo card, users can shoot MPEG-VX video with 640×480 pixel resolution at 30 frames per second, with a 1-gigabyte Sony Memory Stick card capable of holding up to 12 minutes of VGA-quality 640 x 480 MPEG video and over 380, 5-megapixel JPEG Fine images.
The Cyber-shot T5 will be available in September for about $350 (~£198~€286).
The announcement comes after Sony has been forced to slash its earnings forecast following a disastrous first quarter, with The Times reporting first quarter net losses of around ¥7.3 billion (~$69.4m ~£39.3m ~€56.8m).
This has resulted in the company dramatically cutting its forecast earnings from ¥80 billion (~$712m ~£403m ~€582m) to ¥10 billion (~$89m ~£50.3m ~€72.8m).
It’s widely reported that the problems were down to a poor performance in Sony’s TV division and falling retail prices of digital cameras.
Sony T5
1 August, 2005
Flash 8 Video Set to Take On Microsoft
Back in June, Macromedia started talking publicly about their ambitious plans for Flash. It’s clear that they’re planning to take it up a few gears on all fronts; the creation; the server; and the player side.
For us, the big news is the updating of the video CoDec, taking it from the old H.283 CoDec of the previous release to On2 Technologies, VP6. Both are claiming better performance than Windows Media, with a 10-20% size reduction over it too.
High-quality video running in Flash could be a serious contender to Apple, Real and Microsoft. The Flash player is thought to be installed on 98% of all computers, totalling about 600 million machines.
While some of those involved in producing video for the Web might see this and groan – encoding video in each of the three dominant formats was often seen as a major headache – it could be that Flash could cut across that problem.
For a long time many have thought that Flash could become a dominant development platform, delivering what Java promised and failed to achieve – write once, play anywhere.
As Flash is vector-based, not bit-mapped – its graphics are described in terms of shapes, not absolute positions on a screen – it has the strength that the displays scale. This is of particular benefit when writing applications for mobile phones which have hundreds of variation of screen size and resolution across the market.
Developers of mobile phone content find themselves having to write hundreds of different versions of a programme, if they want to support the whole market.
The rumours a flying as to when Flash 8 might be released. The official word is ‘Summer’, but some are speculating that it might be 8/8, 8th August.
Making the most of the interest that is bound to be heading in their direction, this week On2 have released a new version of their encoding tool, VP7.
On2 Technologies
MacroMedia
Flashmagazine – Interview with Doug McIntyre from On2 Technologies
29 July, 2005
FinePix S9000; S5200; E900 – Three 9mpx Cameras From Fujifilm
FinePix S9000 Zoom
Fujifilm has rolled out three shiny new cameras, all offering an impressive 9 million megapixel resolution.
Sitting at the top of the pile is the FinePix S9000 Zoom, a fully featured enthusiast camera offering a 10.7x optical zoom (28-300mm equivalent), 80 to 1600 ISO, twist-barrel zoom control, a tilting 1.8-inch LCD but no image stabilisation.
Fujifilm are hoping that the camera’s blend of SLR-like features coupled with the compact-style ease of use may grab the company a slice of the fast-growing entry level DSLR market.
The compact-based design means that – unlike dSLRs – the camera can offer 30-frames-per-second movie mode (with a manual zoom capability) – something that may prove tempting to punters after a high quality ‘do it all’ camera.
The camera boasts some pretty impressive specs, with an 0.8 second start-up time, and just 0.01 second shutter lag.
Storage is taken care of with xD-Picture Card, CompactFlash and Microdrive support with the facility to save images in the higher quality RAW format.
With dSLR prices plummeting, keen pricing will play a crucial part in the success of this camera, but as yet no prices have been announced.
The camera will be available in the UK from August.
Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom
Second up is the Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom, the third incarnation of Fujifilm’s S series cameras.
The mini-SLR style camera offers 5.1 megapixel resolution, a 10x optical zoom (38 – 380 mm) and an Anti Blur mode which Fujifilm reckons is better than image stabilization.
There’s the usual slew of point and shoot/preset/enthusiast modes available, an ISO range going up to 1600, VGA movie mode and RAW image capture.
The FinePix S5200 will be available in the UK in September.
Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom
Finally, we come to the Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom, a new E series “pocket friendly” compact managing to pack 9 million effective pixels into its lithe proportions.
The camera offers a 4x optical zoom (32 – 128mm), ISO 80 – 800, auto/manual control, RAW capture and a 2-inch LCD.
Start up is a little less impressive at 1.3 seconds although Fujifilm claims a “near instantaneous shutter response”.
Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.
FujiFilm
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix S9000 Zoom
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Zoom
DPreview Fujifilm FinePix E900 Zoom
28 July, 2005
iBook And Mac Mini Range Beefed Up By Apple
Apple Computer has unveiled updates to its iBook laptop and Mac Mini lines, lobbing in new features, more memory and built in wireless technology – although the anticipated widescreen models failed to run up at the launch party.
Mac iBook
Apple’s new iBook line now comes with a scrolling trackpad and a clever sudden motion sensor which helps protect a spinning hard drive if some clumsy klutz drops the notebook.
The new iBook G4s now come with a faster Power PC G4 processor running up to 1.42 GHz, with 512MB memory as standard, higher performance graphics and built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
The enhanced range features the ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 with 32MB of dedicated video, with machines either offering a slot-load SuperDrive (for burning DVDs and CDs), or a slot-load Combo drive (for watching DVDs and burning CDs).
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 (Enhanced Data Rate), 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet and integrated AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking is provided as standard, with Apple claiming up to 6 hours battery life.
The 1.33 GHz PowerPC with 12″ screen G4 iBook retails at £699/US$999 and its bigger 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 iBook with 14″ display knocks out for £899/US$1299.
‘The new iBook is the perfect portable for the go anywhere, do anything digital lifestyle of consumers and students,” roared David Moody, Apple’s VP of Mac Product Marketing.
“With improved performance, double the memory, and new mobility features like the scrolling TrackPad, Sudden Motion Sensor and Bluetooth, the new iBooks are an amazing value,” he positively insisted.
Mac Mini
The diminutive Mac Mini range features three new models – the 1.25 GHz Mac Mini, 1.42 GHz Mac mini and the new 1.42 GHz Mac Mini with SuperDrive – with memory upgraded to 512 MB throughout.
Prices start at £349/US$499, with a version featuring built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth selling at £429/US$599.
A further model offering DVD and CD burning capabilities via a SuperDrive will knock out for £499/US$699.
They may be pat-on-the-head teensy, but Mac Minis come stuffed with connectivity options, including one FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports, DVI (supporting VGA), and built-in 10/100 BASE-T NIC.
All of the machines ship with Mac OS X version 10.4 ‘Tiger’ OS and iLife ’05
“Mac Mini has been a popular choice for consumers getting started with Mac OS X and iLife ’05,” beamed Moody.
“With double the memory and new features like built-in wireless networking and DVD burning, the new Mac Mini delivers an even greater value in an innovative compact design,” he purred.
Apple
27 July, 2005
Motorola Adds Yahoo! Web Services To Mobiles
As part of Motorola’s strategy to tempt home and business with new services, the company has announced that it will add Yahoo! Web services to their Linux-based mobile devices.
The company intends to integrate Yahoo Internet services – such as e-mail, search, instant messaging and news – into its handheld and desktop devices throughout the major markets, starting in 2006.
As well as phones, the deal will also see Yahoo’s services pre-installed into home broadband-enabled products and its soon-come digital radio and MP3 device, iRadio.
Motorola plans to make these services available to operators worldwide with the aim of increasing consumer adoption of mobile data services.
Ron Garriques, president of Motorola’s mobile device business, said: “By optimising these products for our leading Linux and Java software platform, we’re making it just that much easier for operators to maximize revenue while delivering the most innovative consumer experiences.”
This announcement follows Motorola’s launch of their new daft Bluetooth sunglasses.
Elsewhere, the company have also announced that Vonage will offer the new Motorola VT2442 voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway to its Internet telephony customers.
It hasn’t exactly got the sexiest of names, but Motorola VT2442 is touted as greatly simplifying the process of adding broadband telephone service into a home network.
The technology also serves up a fully-featured home network router, offering four Ethernet ports for connecting computers or gaming consoles, and an advanced firewall for Internet security.
Yahoo
Motorola
Motorola, Vonage Team
27 July, 2005