Digital-Lifestyles – Page 152 – Digital-Lifestyles pre-empted and reported thousands of articles on the then-coming impact that technology was to have on all forms of Media. Launched in 2001 as a research blog to aid its founder, Simon Perry, present at IBC 2002, it grew into a wide ranging, multi-author publication that was quoted in many publications globally including the BBC, was described by the Guardian as 'Informative' and also cited in a myriad of tech publications before closing in 2009

Digital-Lifestyles pre-empted and reported thousands of articles on the then-coming impact that technology was to have on all forms of Media. Launched in 2001 as a research blog to aid its founder, Simon Perry, present at IBC 2002, it grew into a wide ranging, multi-author publication that was quoted in many publications globally including the BBC, was described by the Guardian as 'Informative' and also cited in a myriad of tech publications before closing in 2009

iRiver’s B20 PMP Set To Ship
It’s been a long time coming after being announced way back at CES in January 2007, but word is that iRiver’s B20 is finally about to start shipping.
It’s a lovely looking thing too, packing a ton of functionality into its diminutive dimensions, with the business end dominated by a 2.4inch 260,000 colour TFT-LCD display.
Inside there’s a feast of techno-gubbins taking care of your every multimedia need, with the device ready and willing to play about with movies, music, pictures, videos, text and digital broadcasting.
There’s support for MP3, WMA, OGG, AVI (MPEG4), WMV9, JPG playback, as well as an onboard FM radio with programmable FM recording, T-DMB recording, a voice recorder and alarm.
Battery life is claimed at up to 17 hours for MP3 playback, 4 hours for video, 7 hours for DAB, dropping down to just 4 hours for DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting).
The player comes in 2GB and 4GB flash memory flavours and there’s a Mini SD card slot for expansion.
Pricing should be around €164 for the 2GB version and €206 for the 4Gb jobbie.
Specs:
Display: 2.4inch 260,000 colour TFT-LCD display
Triple-band support (Band 3 + Band L + Analogue FM)
Frequency: 174MHz~240MHz(Band 3), 1.452GHz~1.492GHz(Band L)
1GB/2GB/4GB flash memory capacity, with Mini SD card expansion slot
Built in T-DMB recording
Integrated FM Tuner, voice recorder and alarm
Supported file types: MP3, WMA, OGG, AVI (MPEG4), WMV9, JPG
Battery life up to 17 hours (MP3), 4 hours (Video), 7 hours (DAB), 4 hours (DMB)
iRiver D-Click System navigation
Built in speaker
Source
24 April, 2007
£25,000 Winnings For Getting To 100
In this decimal-obsessed society that we live in, there is a general amazement when someone reaches 100 years old.
Mr Alec Holden from Epsom, Surrey clearly understood this when he placed a £10 bet ten years ago with UK bookie William Hill that he would survive a century.
Today he’s celebrating his 100th birthday, a letter from the Queen and his £25,000 winnings.
His view on the recipe for success? Porridge for breakfast, don’t worry about anything, do as little work as possible and keep breathing!
Alec keeps his mind active by playing chess against his computer everyday and also runs a chess club.
Listening to him on Today on Radio 4 this morning he sounded bright and sprightly taking a very positive view of his age saying that he’s looking forward to “starting off again at 100.”
Although William Hill is down £25,000, they’ll be making saving all of the advertising that they’ll be getting from this story.
Interesting to hear from them that they are no longer take bets of getting to 100, but are pushing out the year out to 110.
24 April, 2007
Facebook Searches For Its Identity
The Internet has undergone a revolution in the past few years, and one of the major trends we’ve seen is that of social networking. I suspect that a substantial proportion of those reading this are a member of one or more social networks, and those who are not are surely aware of the phenomenon which MySpace and others represent.
Whilst I have used MySpace, Bebo and other social networks in the past, the one which I have found consistently useful (if that is the right choice of word) is Facebook. This site began in the US as a way for students at the same college to communicate with each other and organise their social lives together online, and has since come to universities everywhere and most recently, with the advent of region-based ‘networks’, to everyone. Certainly in my social circle, Facebook is gaining real traction, probably surpassing market leader MySpace as the place to join.
How do FaceBook and MySpace Differ?
In many ways the two services could not be more different. A subtle difference is the emphasis which Facebook places on keeping in touch with those who one already knows. MySpace, on the other hand, is quite keen to help you meet new people. The Facebook approach sits more nicely with the way most people like to interact with others; MySpace demands what you could call a social paradigm shift, if you are to take it seriously. Whilst that is not a criticism of MySpace (I know someone who is ostensibly head over heels at the moment with a person he met entirely over MySpace), it does mean that the barrier to Facebook adoption is considerably lower than that of its larger rival – an important fact given the relatively low overall percentage of the population using social networking sites currently. Future growth in the space will predominantly come from those outside the current 16-25 year olds that make up the majority of their users, who are more happy to be flexible with how their social lives operate. Facebook is more equipped to meet the needs of those who are not so flexible.
Customisation
Another key difference is way in which MySpace users are able to customise their profile pages, whereas Facebook users are allowed no such features. Whilst the claimed potential to achieve self expression by creating an appalling design for one’s profile page is a mystery to me, I do see the appeal of the widgets platform MySpace offers.
For the uninitiated, widgets are small boxes containing content from a third-party provider. That could be an embedded YouTube video, the contents of an RSS feed or even a dynamic app, such as livechat2im, which allows a visitor to a profile page to have an instant messaging chat with the owner directly through the page. None of this is possible with Facebook at the moment, although Mashable reported a rumour this week that Facebook is considering implementing widgets. Pete Cashmore argued that widgets is currently the key functionality MySpace has which Facebook does not, and that it would be the best way to ‘steal the social networking crown from MySpace’.
I’m not sure I entirely agree with Pete. I think it is in a better position to grow in the medium term future than MySpace is, but it is continuously under pressure to get quick growth by trying to steal users from MySpace. Building a ‘better MySpace’ probably isn’t the way forward if it is to ultimately overtake MySpace, and rumoured features such as its classified ads service seem to indicate that Facebook is aware of that. Facebook needs to be clearly different from MySpace, and adding widgets would possibly damage that.
Who will win long term?
I will end with a prediction; in five years, if Facebook doesn’t pander to the temptation to be like MySpace, it will be significantly bigger in terms of users and pageviews than the Murdoch-owned rival.
Huw Leslie is editor of UK-based Web 2.0 and software blog GizBuzz. He is a co-founder of Oratos Media and Klaxis, and his personal blog is For Crying Out Loud.
24 April, 2007
Via Pico-ITX VT6047: The World’s Smallest Motherboard
Taiwanese chipset manufacturer Via Technologies has released a motherboard so teeny-weensy that it could almost fit in a box of playing cards.
Via claims that their VT6047 Pico-ITX form factor motherboard is the smallest fully-featured x86 mainboard in the known universe, and we certainly haven’t seen anything smaller.
Although motherboards may not be the sexiest piece of kit around, creating a board as tiny as this little puppy opens up a world of possibilities for ultra-compact PC systems and appliances.
The Pico-ITX ‘board measures up at just 10cm x 7.2cm, and is around 50 per cent smaller than the previous ‘smallest motherboard’ title holder, the Nano-ITX form factor.
The pint sized motherboard is designed to be powered by one of Via’s energy efficient processor platforms – like the Via C7 or the fan-free Eden processor in the 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package – with the resultant combo delivering a hefty clout into a low heat, low power, ultra-compact package.
“The Pico-ITX represents Via’s commitment to spearhead x86 innovation through our proven technology leadership in driving down the platform size,” purred Richard Brown, vice president of corporate marketing at Via.
“As with the Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX form factors before it, this new platform has raised the excitement level among enthusiasts and customers alike, firing the imagination an almost unlimited range of what were previously impossibly small systems,” he added.
Consumer PCs built around the Pico-ITX form factor motherboard are expected soon.
Via Pico-ITX
23 April, 2007
FunnyOrDie: Proof That Comedy Is Regional
Wired have a slightly gushing piece about a new niche video site in the YouTube mold – FunnyOrDie.
The central premise – take ‘celebrities’, add user generated content and a large dollop of VC funding from Sequoia Capital – mix up and hope to get a huge money-making success on your hands.
So far, the runaway success, in terms of video views, is a piece called The Landlord, (warning – spoiler follows) where the landlord is two years old and the tenant is US comedian, Will Ferrell. The joke is two fold – a child is the landlord and it swears.
Many of the commentors obviously find it funny, but many do not. We’re in the second category.
Once you’ve got the idea, for us it failed to make us laugh. Have a watch and tell us what you think (probably NWS) …
We would have used the video on FunnyOrDie, but they don’t honour the AutoStart=false flag and it would have played as soon as you opened this Web page – which is most tedious.
It obviously works in the US as it is supposed to have had 7 million views in the first 24 hours of release and is now sitting on over 12.5 million views.
Watching some of the other videos on the site proves one thing to us – comedy writing and the results it produces are rarely international.
Plenty of the videos featured just weren’t funny to us as UK viewers – they didn’t even raise a titter. One reaction was even more strident “I never want to see that site again.”
What will this lead to? We think a further fragmentation of comedy video sites along geographic lines? Or, as we suspect, the rise of sites that will gather country-focused comedy and point to videos on the myriad of video hosting sites that are springing up on a near-daily basis.
The sites making the advertising money will be the meta-referring sites, and the people paying the bills will be the hosting sites
FunnyOrDie – the latter.
Source – Wired
23 April, 2007
Yamada HTV-200XU All-In-One Entertainment System
Not to be confused with the deceptively similar sounding (and far more famous) Yamaha brand, German tech company Yamada hope that their HTV-200XU home system will find a place in your bijou living quarters.
The bookshelf system manages to cram in just about everything you’ll need for an all-in-one home entertainment system into a diminutive package, right down to a 7″ colour LCD screen on the front.
The all-black system comes with matching speakers (with removable grills for that macho ‘top off’ look), and comes stuffed to the gills with multimedia playback functionality.
The system sports a DVB-T tuner and analogue FM tuner, a DVD player that can handle just about every recordable format in town ( DVD, DVD R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD and CD-R/RW) and even offers 5.1 Sound System output backed by S-video, video, stereo and digital coaxial line-outs.
The HTV-200XU can also keep you entertained with support for DVDs, JPEG photos and videos in DivX and MPEG-4 formats – and it can rip CDs too.
Boasting a fairly reasonable 30 Watts RMS output, the Yamada HTV-200XU also has a USB port for hooking up to your home PC or MP3 player, with the whole caboodle setting you back 220 Euros.
While there’s no denying that the Yamada comes with enough groovy functionality to get our little nerdy hearts skipping a beat, we’re not entirely sure we’d want one. After all, who’d want to watch a DVD at home on such a squinty screen?
yamada.de
Source
23 April, 2007
Microsoft Plans To Double Global PC Ownership To 2 Billion By 2015
Microsoft is hell bent on doubling the numbers of PCs on the planet by 2015, and is prepared to put its vast pots of money where its mouth is.
The company has announced that it will be charging governments in developing countries a paltry three dollars for copies of Windows and Office – so long as the software is being installed on computers given to schoolchildren.
Naturally, such a move would also have the happy side effect of getting the world’s young hooked into the Wonderful World o’Windows at an early stage and should reduce the amount of dodgy software slopping around undeveloped countries where piracy often runs rife.
Microsoft’s bargain basement software sale opens opportunities for tie-ins with the One Laptop Per Child project and Intel’s World Ahead Program , but Bill Gates maintains the hardware issue isn’t the toughest nut to crack.
“It’s not just the cost of the PC, but rather these issues of connectivity, of the training, the maintenance, the support, all of those have to come together,” said Gates.
More Microsoft moves
In its quest to stamp its size nines all over emerging markets, Microsoft announced that it was teaming up with Lenovo to undergo joint research at Lenovo’s Beijing lab and that they intended to double the number of global training centres to 200 by 2009.
Microsoft also revealed plans to build a Web portal for training prospective Indian IT workers and its intention to form public-private partnerships to help governments in five developing countries improve public services through technology.
Source
23 April, 2007
MySpace News Now Live: Very Quiet
Following the anticipation of the Beta launch of MySpace News, we thought we’d pop over and have a look at what the service is like and how well it’s doing.
It’s obviously early days, but wow is it quiet over there … you can almost hear the tumble-weed running through it.
It may pickup at the weekend when MySpace fans/fanatics spend their whole weekend bashing messages to their ‘friends’, or then again they may be mixing with real people and getting their bodies into the sun.
Maybe we’re on to something that the MySpace crowd just isn’t interested in news.
MySpace News
20 April, 2007
XBox 360 HD DVD Drive Review (80%)
Microsoft have actually made a sensible decision, an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 and it works.
With a recent software update the Xbox 360 was given HD support and suddenly 1080i and 1080p resolutions sprang to life (of course not all games support these new modes). Unfortunately the internal DVD is a bog standard DVD-ROM drive and it doesn’t support the new HD formats at all.
The external drive connects through one of the Xbox 360’s USB ports, it’s a shame there aren’t any rear sockets as the cable dangles out the front of the unit. Just plug it in, connect its power supply unit and install the software that comes with the unit and that’s it. It all just works. MS have been nice and included a DVD remote, though the normal game controllers work too.
Upscaled content
A nice feature is that the Xbox 360 will upscale content to whatever your output is set to (tested using 1080i), so a normal standard def DVD can be output at 1080i or 1080p. It works surprisingly well. There were very occasional artefacts or blocking – but it’s eminently viewable, even on a high action film (shame the film itself wasn’t). There are quite a few DVD players that offer some kind of upscaling feature, but it generally adds to the cost significantly.
Silence is golden
DO NOT EVER watch a film with quiet bits in it. The major downside to this set-up is that the Xbox 360 sounds like a train rumbling through your living room, it’s incredibly loud. As soon the the film quietens, there it is. You cant quite block it out.
Current Xbox 360’s also don’t support HDMI (the newly announced Elite will) so the best resolutions require component video and that means a separate audio output. The cable does have an optical out, but it doesn’t support newer digital modes like Dolby TruSurround.
Verdict
For around 130 quid, a bargain HD-DVD drive that upscales as well, but it’s bulky and noisy.
Features: 88%
Ease of Use: 90%
Value for Money: 97%
Overall Score: 81% (let down by Xbox 360 noise)
20 April, 2007
MySpace News Take On Google News and Digg
It is perfectly logical that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp that owns MySpace would use it to trial new features and services that will be of use across their vast empire of media companies.
To this end, MySpace will be launching MySpace News, expected to launch into Beta later today.
They will be scraping news site across the world and presenting them in the same way that Google News does so successfully.
Once the stories are presented to the MySpace users, they’ll be able vote on the quality and content of the stories, in much the same way as Digg users currently do.
So it looks like they’ve taken Google News and Digg and glued the two together.
We’re not sure if Rupe has this one right, as it’s widely known that the younger end of the population doesn’t really care that much about news.
Time will tell if they choose to spend their leisure time (as that’s what MySpace is) reading news stories and voting on them.
Myspace News (still currently private)
19 April, 2007