Digital-Lifestyles – Page 184 – 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

AutoRama Makes Panoramic Phone Photos Easy
Some clever-types at a Swedish company called Scalado have launched add-on software for mobile camera-phones that they say makes taking panoramic photos on a mobile a doddle.
The fantastically-named AutoRama takes up to 10 high-resolution images in succession and features eight different stitching mode. The photo stitching process is automatic.
The way it works does sound remarkably cool – “It’s made so simple, you don’t need to be an expert as you just point and shoot as the phone automatically does the rest for you, vibrating to tell you when to take the next shot to create the perfect high-resolution multi mega pixel panorama,” explained Mats Jacobson, CEO of Scalado.
Scalado don’t claim to be the first to do this, but they say theirs is the first to do it simply and at high resolution – but they would, wouldn’t they.
The self-declared secret of AutoRama is its patented RAJPEG technology that they say reduces memory requirements by up to 25 times. It’s also claimed that it increases performance and the speed for image manipulation by a factor of up to 10x.
We’re looking forward to getting our hands on it and testing it out.
Andrew Ball, PR for Scalado tells us “The images shown were taken by AutoRama installed on a Nokia N70 (1.3 mpix) phone. The images were created by pressing a button and the camera shoots 3 frames and stitches them together. The examples here also shows a Clearshot filter applied for improving backlight, which is another of Scalado’s new CAPS features.”
Scalado
30 November, 2006
UK Meets Brazil (Mobile)
Date: Thursday 30th November 2006
Lunch: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Presentations: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Think London , Level 35, 25 Canada Square Canary Wharf , London E14 5LB
Think London , the foreign direct investment agency for London , in association with UK Trade & Investment and the DTI’s Global Watch Service invite you to attend an informal networking lunch and an afternoon of presentations with some of the most exciting companies in Brazil ‘s mobile industry. The event will be chaired by Mike Nutley, Editor of New Media Age and will feature speakers from significant mobile players such as Informa Telecoms & Media. You will have the opportunity to hear about the latest developments in Brazil and the UK from senior representatives from both countries. The Brazilian delegates will include specialists in R&D, content development and distribution. They will be in the UK to explore opportunities for bilateral trade, investment and technology-based collaboration. The companies attending will include, C.E.S.A.R, SupportComm, Tec Toy Mobile, Meantime, LocZ and Mowa. Location: Think London , Level 35, 25 Canada Square Canary Wharf , London E14 5LB http://www.thinklondon.com/brazil
30 November, 2006
MediaTech 2.006
30.nov.06Library House’s MediaTech 2.006 event puts the convergence of media, technology and communications in one room: gathering the innovators, the disruptors, the investors and the corporate players face-to-face. Sponsored by Microsoft and Intel Capital, this one-day event is about making connections: between industries, between technology and opportunity, but most of all between innovators, corporates and investors. Bringing together some of the hottest upstart companies and mixing them up with the incumbent giants and the key investors, the panel sessions, the presentations and networking opportunities at MediaTech 2.006 are a must for anyone interested in doing smart business in the future of content-driven, technology-enabled businesses. With contributions from top entrepreneurs such as Bob Young (CEO, lulu.com and co-founder of Red Hat), from giants such as Google, SKY and Yahoo, from Sequoia’s latest investee company, and from top investors such as Index Ventures, now is the time to register your place. Places are limited. Imax Theatre, London
Charlie Chaplin Walk
London, London SE1
http://www.libraryhouse.net/www/mediatech/index.php?view=all
30 November, 2006
BT Vision To Launch (Finally)
As we’ve covered extensively, BT has been working on BT Vision for yonks now, perhaps struggling with some of the technical issues with the Microsoft system that they’re running.
Launching on Monday, BT Vision, BT’s new combined television and Internet service, will let customers view Freeview channels and catch up with TV shows over the past week with no monthly subscription fees.
We’ll be at the launch cover it live, so tune in on Monday.
BT will also offer “on-demand” content (films, music, TV programmes etc) for viewing on home TVs, downloadable over a broadband connection.
With BT and BSkyB enjoying joint rights to show Premiership matches, BT will provide paid access on a per-game and “season ticket” subscription basis.
Other one-off and subscription Pay TV content will be available via “add-ons,” with the service using BT Vision’s set-top, a programmable Sky+ style PVR unit capable of storing up to 80 hours of TV and set to retail for less than £100.
Viewers will be able to pause and rewind live TV and enjoy access to around 30 Freeview channels.
BT’s new TV service echoes moves made by France Telecom and Telecom Italia in Europe, and should help the UK broadband giants fend off competition from rivals such as TalkTalk who are reeling in punters with their ‘free’ broadband service.
It’s also a smart piece of a manoeuvring to counter Sky, who recently launched their own residential broadband service, as well as cable network NTL who are mustard keen to start delivering content over phone lines.
BT is set to start rolling out the service early next year, although it’s going to be a bit of a half-cocked launch with only Channel Four currently signed up for the seven-day “catch-up” service (behind the scenes, BT’s legal team are busy battling with BBC and ITV producers to negotiate a path through the minefield of rights.)
BT Vision’s Download Store will also include music content, with deals already struck with Sony BMG, MTV, Video Performance Ltd and BTPodshow.
BT Vision
29 November, 2006
Digital Hollywood Europe In London
29.nov.06 – 1.dec.06 Digital Hollywood Europe in London: The Global Conference for the Entertainment, Media and Technology Economies “The premier event for transforming entertainment, technology & the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, mobile, broadband, consumer electronics, search & email, VoIP, RSS, blogs and websites Three days of presentations, panels and workshops. ExCel
Royal Victoria Dock
London, London
http://www.digitalhollywood.com/DHEurope.html
29 November, 2006
Play PS3 and Wii Now At The Science Museum (Podcast)
The organisers of Game On, clearly have amazing contacts with the games industry having been running the exhibition for the last four years around 11 venues around the world. It’s contacts like this that has led to them getting hold of Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo before it’s launched in the UK – four months in the case of the PS3.
The Science Museum is currently the only place in the UK where Joe Public can play the PS3. There’s a couple of places around where the PS3 can be seen, but like the venue off Brick Lane, they’re invite only.
Even if you could get to see the PS3, not other venue has the PS3 right next to the Wii, so you can compare them.
So what are they like?
The PS3 is playing Motor Storm and it looks stunning, with amazing photo realism. The action is intense and it’s very clear that this is a major leap forward in gaming. The controller can be set in a mode where its physical movements control the action of the onscreen action. Being used to playing the PS controller without this, it take a little while to get used to the sensitivity on the movements needed to control it.
The Wii clearly has the movement sensors built-in (it’s the big selling point of the whole console). Playing with them is near-instantly understandable – feeling natural to wave your arms around to control a tennis racket or box the hell out of your opponent. The graphics are far simpler, delivered in the normal Nintendo cartoon style.
It is of note that the PS3 has a significant number of venting holes in its casing and a large fan under nearth to cool it – it draws 350w. The Wii doesn’t have any venting.
Who’s going to win?
If sales are going to reflect the public interest here at the Science Museum today, Sony need to look out, because the Interest in the Wii far outweighed that in the PS3. This could be down to the affordable price of the Wii, or indeed that the public actually have a chance of own it this side of xmas.
Speaking to the punters here, the feeling was that the Wii would give far more of a gaming experience, not just the gloss that the PS3 gives.
It’s no exaggeration to say that some people were literally running into the exhibition hall, shouting, “is it here, is it here?” as the made their way to the Wii. I had thought it would have been the other way around, with the PS3 being the big draw.
The rest of the exhibition is well worth the visit alone – charting the history of video games from the start, and put together with a lot of intelligence. With the Wii and PS3 added to it, you can expect large queues at the weekend.
We had a chat to the event organiser, Gaetan Lee to get an overview of how he got the hold of the Wii and PS3 before their UK release and the background to the Game On exhibition.
Click below to play the interview …
[audio:https://digital-lifestyles.info/media/audio/Wii-PS3-game-on.mp3]
Game On – Science Museum
29 November, 2006
Mobile Adult Content Market To Hit $3.3bn In Five Years
The days of blokes nervously tip toeing up to the top shelf of newsagents for a slice of saucy sleaze look to be growing to a close, as a new report shows the explosive growth of the mobile adult content market.
A new study by Juniper Research predicts that the mobile adult content market is going to soar from $1.4 billion in 2006 to over $3.3 billion by 2011, creating $14.5 billion in revenues over the five year period.
Europe is expected to be the most lucrative market with a 39% share followed by Asia Pacific at 33%.
Back in the day, thrill seeking punters had to settle for text-based titillation, but the roll out of 3G services and more advanced phones has seen a shift to photo and video content, with Juniper expecting video to make up over 70% of mobile adult content market revenues by 2011.
Softcore in the boozer
Bruce Gibson, Research Director at Juniper Research said: “Adult content business models have succeeded in other major delivery media: print, cinema, DVD, PPV TV etc. There is no reason why the mobile channel should not be equally profitable for adult content industry players. The mobile channel will provide a different way of presenting adult content to traditional delivery channels and will reach new audiences.”
“Mobile is about fun and instant gratification,” he continued.
“I think the biggest opportunity is at the casual and “softer” end of the adult market – lads in pubs sharing a video clip after a few pints and people looking for a bit of fun when they have spare time to kill etc – not the hard core stuff.”
Much as we’d love to agree with him, we’d suggest that anyone looking at how the web grew will realise that where there’s money to be had, there’ll be no shortage of hard core pr0n.
Juniper Research
28 November, 2006
Get Ready To Play PS3 And Wii At The Science Museum
The Nintendo Wii and Sony’s Playstation3 (PS3) will be available for play at the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum from Wednesday. Expect queues.
Don’t bother flying to the USA and queueing for three days to be the first to get your PS3, or splashing out £1,000 to buy one from eBay, that may, or may not actually turn up. If you live in the UK, it couldn’t be simpler – just get yourself down there when the doors open at 11am to get your hands on the first publicly available PS3 in the UK and the attention-attracting Wii.
The PS3 is scheduled for launch in March in the UK, while it’s emerging that only around 150,000 were shipped at the recent US launch. The Wii’s UK launch is much closer – 8th December, having had its US launch already.
The two new boys will be alongside the current exhibition, which cover the history of video games, starting back in the early 1960’s.
We went to the first Game On exhibition when it was at the Barbican in 2002 and were highly impressed with it. Not just the number of games and platforms covered, but the sheer depth of the knowledge on show.
We’ve spoken to the organisers and hear that quite a few of the exhibits have changed from the early days, including items that have been picked up over the years as the show has travelled over the world.
When you get bored of all the new stuff, by way of a stark contrast, you’ll be able to play the world’s first computer game, Spacewar!, from 1962 as well.
To book tickets or find out further details contact 0870 906 3890 or take a look at the site. The exhibition ends Feb.07. Ticket prices Adults £8.50; Children and concessions £6.50
Science Museum Game On Exhibition
The Original Game On Exhibition
28 November, 2006
Samsung Anycall SPH-B5800 DMB TV
Fresh out of Samsung’s hyperactive phone production line in Korea is the new Anycall SPH-B5800 DMB phone.
A black, slide-out affair with a rotary controller, a large LCD screen and a phone keypad lurking underneath, the SPH-B5800 packs in a feast of functionality in an attractive package.
As you can see from the aerial sticking out of the side, the phone supports DMB for watching TV on the move, viewable on the large (2″) QVGA (240 x 320), 26k colour, TFT-LCD display.
The display can also rotate through 90 degrees for watching TV broadcasts in landscape mode, with publicity photos suggesting that the phone is able to balance on its side for viewing (so you won’t have to try and prop up against your pint glass in the pub) .
For music fans, there’s a built-in MP3 player with a microSD (TransFlash) port offering expansion options.
There’s also a 2 Megapixel camera onboard using a CMOS image sensor, which comes with white balance settings and can capture images up to a maximum 1,600 x 1,200 resolution.
Rounding up the feature set (or at least what we’ve managed to make sense of out of the dodgy Korean translation we’re working with here) is Bluetooth support, a handy TV out function and video recording.
Sadly, there’s no news of a UK release, with the phone currently only available on the KTF network in Korea.
Anycall (Korean)
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)
[From: Akihabaranews]
28 November, 2006
Optimus Keyboard Loses Colour
Rarely have we lusted for a new gizmo more than when we saw the promotional shots of the luscious Optimus keyboard last year.
Although you could argue that keyboards are really much of a muchness – just multiple rows of input keys – us gadget freaks have never had any qualms about dipping into our pockets for gizmos offering extra geekiness.
So when the Microsoft natural keyboard came out in ’94 (you know, the one that looked like it had been torn apart in the middle), we had to have one, even if our peck’n’hunt keyboard ‘skills’ meant it made no difference to our productivity.
And so it went on through the 90s, with the office filling up with various keyboards all offering a bit extra – more buttons, customisable function keys, volume controls, cordless, Bluetooth, wireless, scrolling wheels – the lot.
But just when we thought there was nothing left to improve on our current wireless Logitech mouse/keyboard combo with Lord-knows-how-many keys, buttons and control wheels (most unused), we clapped our eyes on the Optimus keyboard and thought we’d found keyboard heaven.
First appearing on Slashdot in July, 2005, the ultra-thin, backlit keyboard promised greater user interaction – and turbo-boosted bells’n’whistles appeal – by dynamically displaying the current function of the keys on an app by app basis.
Each key was to be a mini-OLED screen (32×32 pixels) with mini-graphic icons lighting up based on the program being used (so in Photoshop, you’d see the appropriate toolbox icon on each keyboard shortcut).
Saliva-inducing computer generated concept images illustrated how the keyboard would look when the user was playing Quake III Arena or fiddling about in Photoshop.
Months went by with no release date being announced and some began to suspect we’d been bedazzled by a (particularly stylish) example of vapourware.
Hopes rose when Lebedev Studio, the Russian team behind the project, released a three key-version in July 2006 (the Optimus Mini Three), and a December 12th ‘pre-order’ date was announced for the full keyboard
As the day grew closer, excitement rose around the office and then promptly deflated on yestyerday’s news that the 103 key keyboard will now only feature boring old monochrome keys rather than the promised full-colour jobbies promised.
The response from their patient and loyal fans was immediate, with a chorus of posts on the Optimus blog screaming, “count me out!” at the news.
Although Optimus have announced that a colour version will eventually see the light of day “at a greater price,” we suspect that the final price may even surpass our generous pointless gadget budget, so it looks like we’ll be sticking with our battered old Logitech for a while longer.
Optimus keyboard
Art. Lebedev Studio
28 November, 2006