UK uber-regulator, Ofcom has finally got itself sorted out and is to allow the use of low-powered FM transmitters in the UK from 8 December.
These are commonly used by owners of portable music players to transmit their chosen musical ditties from the player to better amplification and speakers via a radio/tuner. You know those ‘young people’ often use them in their cars to wake up the neighbourhoods, with their ‘repetitive beats.’
It’s been a bit of a mystery as to why Ofcom hasn’t acted on this sooner given the number of people that use these devices and Ofcom’s desire to stay on top of technologies under their remit. Ofcom has allowed devices up to 59 nanoWatts, which doesn’t sound like a lot does it? In practical terms it means they’ll be able transmit over around 5 metres in clear space.
Devices that will benefit from this change will be iTrip by Griffin (probably the best known device) and devices like the RocketFM.
Ofcom’s research estimates that there are currently 875,000 of these in the UK – even with them being illegal (based on 10% of mp3 player owners having bought them).
We think this is a great thing, whose uses will only grow as people try to move music around their houses.
Expect these devices to be hitting the top of peoples xmas lists when the news hits the public. It’s going to be a good xmas for those involved in making or selling them.
Talk about the opposite ends of technology – Ofcom also tell us that these changes will free the-now 20,000 users of CB-radio from needing to apply for licenses to operate them. 10-4 big buddy.
Details at Ofcom.
Full Statement on the Wireless Telegraphy (Exemption) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 [pdf]
Following the trial in London, HD TV over Freeview has been judged as a success after the six months that it’s been running.
Simon Fell, Director of Technology, ITV Consumer was upbeat, “We have conclusively demonstrated that HD services can run effectively alongside standard Freeview broadcasts. All major technical hurdles are behind us, and collectively we can focus on potentially providing services for the forecasted sales of 10 million flat screen TVs by 2010.”
To me, there is something about the pleasure of listening to radio that is intrinsically linked to a discrete box that is a radio, and the PC experience does not quite match up, but the chance to tune into thousands of radio stations from the four corners of the world is something that excited me.
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For us, the biggest surprise is the sheer smallness of it – when you see it sitting on top another ‘normal’ laptop it will be clear.
We’ve been avid followers of the OLPC or $100 laptop as it used to be called since the 
Industry analysts Nielsen Media Research have discovered that Apple iPod-toting consumers aren’t going ga-ga for video, with the vast majority preferring to listen to music and audio podcasts rather than watch TV or movies.
Not surprisingly this figure rises for Video iPod users, who were found to spend 11 per cent of their time watching videos.
We know that we barely ever watch video content on our mobile players, but then we’d imagine the video-playing target demographic is considerably younger than us comparative crumblies (i.e we’re over 20).
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Slapping in a 1 GB card would deliver a mighty 4 hours of recording, although we’re not sure how long the battery would fare when playing back videos.
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The specs look like they’ll handle all your office jobs too, with the Endeavor being powered by a fairly beefy 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo T6700 mobile CPU.
There’s also a healthy 2GB of RAM onboard, with a generous 160GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk and a DL DVD burner for storing all your stuff.
Smartphone unit sales are soaring, with sales almost tripling between 2004 and 2005, and increasing a further 50% in the first half of 2006 compared to the previous year.
Despite the spectacular sales, Hughes advised caution, pointing out that many smartphone users continue to lug around the very devices that smartphones are supposed to replace.
Nintendo’s eagerly awaited 
The first punter to get his hands on the shiny new console was the time-rich Isaiah Triforce Johnson, who had sat outside a New York store for more than a week.
Sony had shipped 400,000 PlayStation 3s in North American stores at the end of last week, but Nintendo boasted that it would have “five to ten” times as many Wiis available at launch, with an end-of-year shipping figure of 4 million units expected.