Software – Page 20 – Digital-Lifestyles

Joost Invitations Up For Grabs

We’re fans of Joost, the full-screen, P2P TV service still in beta.

Joost Invitations Up For Grabs You’ll know from our Joost coverage that we think it’s definitely one to watch and to that end we want to share the love a little.

We’ve got three invitation available to you, our valued readers and we’re only asking for two things in return.

1 – When you’re posting your interest in the comments below, please complete the following – I’d love the Joost Invite, because …

2 – After you’ve been using Joost for two weeks, write a review for us, giving us your impressions of the service and what you think the impact of it will be.

Simple eh?

Full Version of Wii Internet Channel Now Available

To celebrate the release of the Wii Internet Channel
Digital-Lifestyles now is formatted specifically for
the Nintendo Wii. To see it, just look us up on your Wii.

Since the launch of the Wii there’s been a beta version of the Opera Web browser available for the surprise success active console.

That all changes today when the full version becomes available for download through the Wii Shop Channel – the area on the console where additional applications and services are accessed.

Nintendo are really pushing the Family Web browsing feature of the new setup – wisely in our view. Multiple controllers can be used during a Browsing session, letting many members of the family point out areas of interest

The release version adds features such being able to set the resolution of the browsing to the size of your monitor; having no margins when browsing; two types of zooming when browsing (continual zooming is now included); fonts now remain anti-aliased no matter how deep the zoom; searching Google and Yahoo is offered by default; scrolling using the up-down-left-right control pad. The comprehensive list of these and their description are available at the bottom of this article.

Full Version of Wii Internet Channel Now Available

What’s it like to use?
Travelling to and through the Internet Channel is remarkably easy on the Wii. Given its built in Wi-Fi connectivity and simple menuing, getting it running is simple.

This is added to by navigating the Web pages being a doddle using the position-sensing pointer device known as the Wii-mote. In fact, we found it makes you wish you always had something that simple available when you have to navigate your computer from a sofa.

If you’ve not used the Wii (we recommend that you do, if you haven’t), take a look at the video that Opera has created to show the experience

[QUICKTIME http://www.opera.com/products/devices/nintendo/wii/video/wii-demo.mov 320 240]

Strangely the download is only free until 30 June this year, but once downloaded will remain free for “the lifetime of the system.”

Checkout the feature at the Opera site

New Internet Channel features

Zoom – The Internet Channel features two types of zoom: manual and automatic. The automatic zoom was first introduced in the trial version and allows users to select a point with the remote and zoom into that point at an auto-detected level. Manual zoom now gives the user the option to zoom the entire page at self-determined intervals. Nintendo also introduces the “outline font” feature which prevents fonts from appearing blurred no matter the zoom level in use.
Search – A search button has been added to the start page and to the browser toolbar. Choose between Yahoo! Search and Google as preselected search engines. Your selection can be changed at any time, or a different search engine can be used by typing the address of the search engine you wish to use.

Scroll – To help users understand their scrolling motions, a new scrolling display guide has been added to the Internet Channel that indicates the direction and speed of the scroll. In addition to scrolling by pressing the B Button, users can also scroll by pressing the +Control Pad, for four-directional scrolling. This allows you to scroll the screen without having to point the remote at the TV.
Ease of use – The Internet Channel now offers more user feedback when surfing. Users will encounter new sounds, animations and loading cursor graphics, creating a more complete browsing experience.
Multiple cursors – The Internet Channel now displays the cursors of multiple Wii remotes. The primary Wii Remote can control actions on the screen, while the other Wii Remotes can point out interesting content.
Hide the toolbar – Users are now given the option to display or hide the toolbar in the settings menu. Also, there are new advanced key presses for each toolbar function allowing users to surf with the toolbar off.
.B Button + Left Arrow = Search
.B Button + Right Arrow = Enter web address
.B Button + Up Arrow = Reload
.B Button + Down Arrow = Favorites
.B Button + (+) key = Page forward
.B Button + (-) key = Page backward
Response time – The Internet Channel now sports improved performance and response times upon start up, when loading the favourites menu and in the toolbar.
Parental Controls
Parents who want to control access to the Internet Channel should refer to the Parental Controls options available in the Wii System Settings. To access these settings, return to the Wii Menu and select the Wii icon.

Skype Call Transfer Feature Shows On Macs First!

Skype for Mac 2.6 beta version has hit the downloads.

Skype Call Transfer Feature Shows On Macs First! While they’ve been tightening out various bits and pieces, they’ve launched an important new feature, Call Transfer on the Mac first, going against the other Skype releases that have dragged behind the PC.

In their words, “You can now transfer ongoing calls effortlessly to other friends and family on your Skype contact list.”

This is a strategic advance for Skype, opening the door for businesses to start using Skype as a central point of contact, then letting the receptionist pass the call over to the intended call destination. Perhaps they thought that business users were far less likely to be using Macintosh, hence launching it on there first.

They also claim to have improved the call quality as well as the other bits added to the latest beta below

Join public chats
Chat typing indicator – see when others are writing a message
Call any Skype Prime premium services provider and pay with Skype credit
Automatic Updates – get new features and updates without having to go to Skype’s website to download
DTMF tones for automatic answering services available also during Skype-to-Skype calls

While they’re working on the bigger things, they’ve also been working on the small things like handling birthday reminders or other notifications that are important for Mac users too.

Download Skype for Mac

Joost: SSL Certificate Runs Out – v0.9.2 Released

Joost went ‘off air’ yesterday – ie. no one could use it to access TV programmes.

Joost: Another Update. Now 0.9.2 All was revealed today as to why. The SSL certificates that are used to encrypt all communication between the clients and the Joost servers ran out, as certificates do each year.

Much to their embarrassment, Joost had hard-coded the details of the certificate into their client software. Now they’ve extracted it, they need to release a new build, hence the 0.9.2 release.

Knowing they’d be offline while the software was being rebuilt, they’ve upgraded their Long Term Storage machines replacing them with ones that are four times more efficient. They’re hoping this will straighten out any problems that might have been present with stuttering video delivery.

As Dirk-Willem from Joost says, “this is all part of being a beta.”

Joost Download

Google Developer Day Announced

All of you budding code-aholics take note, Google is hosting ten Google Developer Days in their various offices around the world on 31 May.

They’re going to have workshops, keynotes and breakout discussions on Google’s APIs and developer tools.

Google have been running a few of these already with much smaller capacity. A few have happened in Silicon Valley and a couple in London that we’re aware of, but this is on a much bigger scale.

Google Developer Day Announced The program is being headed up by code-fan pin-up girl Marissa Mayer, who’s Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. She was one of the first 20 people to join Google (just imagine her stock options!) and the first female engineer hired by them.

They’re rolling out some of their top talent to get the code-kids hot under the collar. Get ready for this …

Guido Van Rossum, Google software engineer and creator of the Python programming language (Beijing); Chris DiBona, Google open source programs manager (London); Mark Stahl, Google data APIs tech lead (Madrid); Bruce Johnson and Joel Webber, co-creators of the Google Web Toolkit (Mountain View); Bret Taylor, group product manager for Google developer products (Mountain View); Lars Rasmussen, Google Maps senior engineer (Sydney); and Greg Stein, Google engineering manager and chairman of the Apache Software Foundation (Tokyo).

The subjects they’ll be covering also sound pretty enticing. Here’s a cross section, “Developing with Geo: Google Maps, Google Earth and SketchUp,” “Tools for Better Web Development: The Google Web Toolkit, Open Source and Other Developer Initiatives” and “Mashups and More: AJAX, Google Gadgets and the Google Data APIs.”

What does Google get out of this?
Google’s going to be lashing all of their cash, time and resources on this, so what’s driving them?

Google Developer Day Announced Well, people become more familiar with how to write programs to use their applications via the published API’s, which means the potential for extra advertising income for Google.

That’s all well a good but more importantly, Google get to spot the hottest programming talent around the world and can in turn try to persuade that talent to join the Google gang. Meaning Google ends up with the best programmers, not their competition.

Smart, eh?

Locations

Mountain View, California
São Paulo, Brasil
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France
Madrid, España
Hamburg, Deutschland
Москва, Россия (That’s Russia to you)
Tokyo – Japan
Sydney, Australia
Beijing,China

Those who can’t make it don’t need to be left out, Google will offer live streaming webcasts from its Mountain View office and provide a YouTube™ channel with videos of Google Developer Day sessions around the world.

Google Developer Day

UK PS3 Sales Down 82% In Second Week

The news for Sony and their PlayStation 3 just keeps getting worse.

UK PS3 Sales Down 82% In Second Week Early pre-UK-release signs weren’t promising, nor were they looking any better when the UK PS3 was selling for £100 under their release price, a couple of days beforehand.

On the positive side, Sony did claim to sell 165,000 consoles in the UK in the first week – making it the UK’s fastest selling home console to date.

Now the official Chart Track figures, that follow sales in the UK are reporting to gamesindustry.biz that sales of the PS3 in the UK have dropped by 82% during its second week of release.

Software sales are also suffering with “sales of the top two PlayStation 3 titles, Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm, had dropped by over 60 per cent.”

It’s not looking much better for the PS3 in Japan, where Bloomberg is claiming that Sony has sold 812,000 PS3s since November 11, against a mighty 1.95 million Wii consoles by Nintendo.

Joost v0.9 Out: Grab Your Name Quick

There’s a new version of Joost just out today – v0.9 – and amongst the changes, is the switch from using an email address to login to using a username.

Any of those who were slow getting on the Skype-train and ended up with a crummy username take note, you need to act fast to get your name of choice.

To add to the pressure of this, Joost are also giving an extra five invites away to each Joost Member, so the names are disappearing fast.

What else is different with the new version?
The first thing you’ll notice when it starts up is that it now opens in full screen.

The ident has been moved from its previous dominant central position to the bottom right hand corner. The upcoming programme name has now taken its place now middle centre.

There’s been a little fiddling with the icons. Of particular note is the design and function of the one to the right of the channel name. It still brings up the programmes that are available on the channel, but it now has a back button that takes you to a menu of channels – logical really.

Content rating also appears to have been added – or perhaps I haven’t previously looked at any content that needed rating.

Picking The Prodigy, Smack My Bitch Up (Live), I was met with a screen asking me to confirm that I was indeed over 18 (quite why it was needed to see this is anyone’s guess). Interestingly the muted video appeared to run in the background, while I was working out exactly just how old I was.

Those of you who have been watching the development of Joost, will notice that the adverts are getting just a little bit longer and more corporate. The latest addition appears to be an advert for IBM notebooks, while it is visually interesting (for the first viewing), it’s hardly cutting edge funk-ville.

The only downside we’ve found so far is that it crashes – not something that we had a problem with in Joost or The Venice Project before.

Ooo … and we’ve seen there’s a promo video up on the Joost site too (new to us). It’s here below for your delectation.

[QUICKTIME http://static.joost.com/videos/joostvideo.mov 320 240 false true]

Joost

Apple And Record Companies Charged In EU iTunes Row

The European Commission has dished out formal charges to Apple and ‘unnamed major record companies’, accusing them of restricting music sales in Europe.

Apple And Record Companies Charged In iTunes Row The EU alleges that agreements between Apple and the record companies are guilty of breaking European Union rules that prohibit restrictive business practices. It’s far from the first time that the EU and other Northern European Countries has got wound up about Apple and iTunes.

“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music, and consequently what music is available and at what price,” said Jonathan Todd, European Commission spokesman.

Apple And Record Companies Charged In iTunes Row “The statement of objections alleges that distribution agreements between Apple and major record companies contain territorial sales restrictions,” he added.

Promptly shifting the blame on to the record companies, Apple insisted that they’d tried to operate a single pan-European iTunes store accessible to peeps from any member state but were foiled by music labels and publishers imposing legal limits on the download rights.

The Commission first got involved back in 2005 after the UK consumer group Which? pointed out that iTunes purchasers in France and Germany were paying far less than us poor chumps in the UK (67 pence against 79 pence).

Apple And Record Companies Charged In iTunes Row Apple and the record companies now have two months to defend themselves in writing or take part in an oral hearing which usually happens around a month after a written reply has been received.

This latest development is unrelated to yesterday’s deal between Apple and EMI.

Source

Apple And EMI Cut High Quality DRM-Free Music Deal

Apple And EMI Cut High Quality DRM-Free Music Deal It wasn’t the bonanza of Beatles songs that some had hoped for, but Apple has just announced that all of EMI Music’s vast catalogue of digital music will be available for purchase without digital rights management from the iTunes Store from next month.

The DRM-free tracks from EMI will be encoded at a high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding – making them “virtually indistinguishable” in audio quality from the original – but at a higher price of $1.29 per song (compared to 99c for 128bps downloads).

Users wanting to ‘upgrade’ their library of previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions can do so if they’re prepared to fork out 30 cents a song.

Apple And EMI Cut High Quality DRM-Free Music Deal “We are going to give iTunes customers a choice — the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

“We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year,” he added.

Apple And EMI Cut High Quality DRM-Free Music Deal Keen not to miss out on the quote-fest, Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, piped up: “EMI and iTunes are once again teaming up to move the digital music industry forward by giving music fans higher quality audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings, with no usage restrictions on the music they love from their favourite artists.”

Using the new DRM-free EMI downloads, users can enjoy the tracks without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on – something that was celebrated by a guy called Eric Chiu posting on the Engadget site who gleefully commented, “My BitTorrent Engine is ready to fire on full cylinder… Demonoid and Piratebay, be ready for the new era of EMI Music.”

Apple
EMI Music

LG-Google Handsets Coming From Deal

LG have signed a deal with Google to put some of their mobile services pre-loaded onto its handsets.

LG-Google Handsets Coming From Deal LG have committed to release at least ten new mobile phone and will jointly market them as LG-Google handsets.

The apps covered by the deal are Google Maps – which lets people view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, and get driving directions, Gmail – the Java-driven, mobile focused version of their email service and Blogger Mobile – which, err … lets you blog while on the move, using images taken from the mobile phone.

Mr. Paul Bae, Vice President of the Product Planning Team at LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company really wants us all to know that “LG’s mobile devices, combined with Google, will provide consumers with easy access to their favourite Internet services even without a PC and make it easy for them to stay connected while in motion.” Wooo!

As we know LG don’t just do mobile phones, but a whole panoply of electronic bits, with a major focus on the home, so it’s interesting to hear from LG that they’ll be extending their relationship with Google to “develop digitalized home in the future.”

The financial terms of the deal were not revealed, indeed it’s unclear if LG will be sharing the income Google will derive from its advertising.

LG are being a little tarty about this. It’s not too long ago (end of 2006) that they signed a deal with Yahoo to pre-load Yahoo! services, including Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo Messenger on many of its mobile phones. Clearly that wasn’t an exclusive deal and it will have covered different handsets we imagine.