Digital-Lifestyles – Page 201 – 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

D-Link Announces Unlocked V-CLICK Dual-Mode GSM/Wi-Fi Mobile
Router heavyweights D-Link have announced a new line of “V-CLICK” dual-mode phones that allow users to easily switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
Due to start shipping early next year, the new D-Link V-CLICK phones rack up the connectivity options with tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz) and switchable 802.11 Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz) capabilities.
Once the user’s SIM Smartcard is slapped into the V-CLICK phone, GSM access is provided with stored phone numbers and address books automatically imported into the phone.
The phone’s quite an attractive looking affair, resplendent in an all-black, compact-but-chunky shape (h 4.17″, w 1.73″, d .75″), with D-Link offering additional colours planned to fit any lifestyle (we’re not sure how a phone’s colour fits in with someone’s lifestyle, by the way, but there you go.)
Wi-Fi access is turned on and off with a bash on the phone’s V-CLICK button, with Opera Mobile browser support for surfing Websites and checking mail on the phone’s two-inch (176×220 pixels) screen.
D-Link doesn’t say if the phone will work with existing VoIP providers like Skype – their press statement simply says that users will be able to configure a specific SIP profile, with multiple profiles being available “to make usage between home and office automatic.”
“D-Link’s involvement in dual-mode technology is the next step to evolving wireless phone communication,” purred Steven Joe, president and CEO of D-Link Systems, Inc. “Similar to our popular flip-style Wi-Fi phone, the V-CLICK phones are open and unlocked.
“The market for dual-mode phones looks very promising, and the more than 10 years we’ve had in researching and developing 802.11 wireless and VoIP technologies make this a natural extension of our product offerings,” he added.
D-Link quote a phone battery life of around 5 hours of talk time with GSM, slipping down to just 2 hours over Wi-Fi. Users can turn off the Wi-Fi to save juice
The phone should be knocking out around a very pricey $599.99 (£318,€472) and will be available from the D-Link shop some time in the first quarter of 2007.
4 October, 2006
Jamie’s ‘Cooking’ On The Web
In a sure sign that TV content on the Web is going to be as important as TV content on the TV, AOL has signed up everyone’s (in certain parts of the UK at least) favourite ‘geezer’ cook Jamie Oliver.
The deal, which will see Oliver going a step further than David Cameron’s kitchen sink webcameron, by hosting a live Webcast family cooking session from his home on Friday 12th October at 7:00 pm UK time . AOL reckon that it’s a first for delivering a celebrity cooking strand to the PC and we confidently expect pizza munching geeks to be severely unimpressed by the whole idea.
But it’s a ‘win win’ scenario for Oliver and AOL, Oliver will be able to plug his latest book and AOL are expecting non-subscribers to sign up for their free Webmail accounts.
The clever sparks at AOL have also got a competition going, with the winning entrant’s family joining Jamie’s live Friday evening cooking japes. In what we suspect is a sneaky bid for hilarious UGC (user generated content), the AOL blurb tells us,
“All you have to do is send us a video (up to 5 minutes long) of you and your family, showing just what you get up to in the kitchen. Whoever appears the most in need of Jamie’s help will win”.
AOL’s UK operation currently has a ‘for sale’ sign up and it’s not clear what this initiative will do to the price.
3 October, 2006
Dyson Airblade: Feels Like The Future
Dyson have this morning launched a new product, the Dyson Airblade, a replacement for tired old hand dryers.
You know the problem. You go to the toilet, wash your hand then you met with the air blowing hand dryer. You stand there for what seems like ages, rubbing your hands together in the vain hope that they are drying. Getting frustrated with it, you walk away and run your hands on your trousers in frustration, reminiscing about the days when towels used to inhabit bathrooms.
The clever sticks at Dyson were working on an unnamed product using what they term ‘Air blades’ – air shot out at 400MPH through a 0.3mm gap, when one of the engineers noticed that they were pretty effective at drying the water from his hands. The genesis of the product had occurred.
To use the Airblade dryer you place your hands in at waist height, the airblades switch on, and you slowly draw your hands out, up towards you. Do it slowly enough – Dyson claim 10 seconds for the process.
What’s it like to use?
Having used it, I was pretty impressed. It actually felt like ‘the future’. We’ve all seen the films where people walk in to the air shower and are clean and dry within 30 seconds – well think of that on a small scale.
There’s no discomfort, and because the air passes through filters before it gets to your hands and no germs. This anti-germ theme is extended to all of the external surfaces which have an anti-microbial coating.
The water removed is drained to the bottom, through an iodine chamber to purify it, finally dropping on to a piezo element which vibrates like billy-o and turns the water into vapor.
Dyson are betting large on this one having committed £10m to the 2.5 years of development.
A success for Dyson?
This is a smart move by Dyson and their first step into ‘trade’ appliances. Every public toilet in the world has a hand-dryer of some sort. Products like this provide a great, steady source of income – possibly for a very long time.
Beyond public toilets, there’s a huge potential for sales to hospital, where UK residents will know, there’s considerable concern about the spread of germs.
Trials have been running in motorway service stations, hospitals and other locations for a number of months, but not under the Dyson name – they invented Kai-Don Airstrip to throw off the competition.
The competing products are considerably cheaper, but Dyson claim that due to low energy usage their Airblade will pay for itself in a year.
If you are fed up with washing the towels at home, you’ll be able to buy on from mid-November for £549 and sample the feel of the future.
Dyson
3 October, 2006
Sony NWS706 Walkman 4GB MP3 Player
Just spotted on the play.com site is Sony’s new NWS706 Walkman MP3 Player, kitted out with a healthy 4GB of flash memory.
Specifications are a bit vague at the moment, but the site gives out a few tantalising details of the mini-player.
Described by some wags as ‘tampon-shaped,’ the chunky-looking, cylindrical Sony offers the same rotary playback control as seen on the earlier NW-A600 series.
Notably, it’s also got a colour screen, albeit a teensy weensy, itty-bitty one which has to be one of the smallest we’ve ever seen that’s capable of showing album artwork (but we like seeing album art, even when it’s this small!).
The Sony comes in a range of three colours – pink, purple and black – and also sports a built in FM Tuner and a line-in recorder.
We’re not sure right now if the NWS706 can also record off the radio, but surely Sony wouldn’t be so daft as to leave off that useful feature. Would they?.
The Walkman is billed as shipping with “noise cancelling technology,” courtesy of “high value EX headphones” with the player promising a healthy 50 Hours battery life backed up by a quick charge function.
The player also touts a USB 2.0 interface for the nippy transfer of tunes from the user’s PC.
Play.com is currently advertising the NWS706 Walkman MP3 for £180, with delivery promised on the 9th October
3 October, 2006
CEATEC 2006, Tokyo
3 – 7 October, 2006 We covered CEATEC last year, and apart from being stunned by Tokyo, we found it an exciting exhibition with loads of innovative products on show. Alongside the show, is a series of keynotes from the great and the good of consumer electronic, with the top bods from the Japanese companies showing up. The theme this year is Digital Convergence, so expect interesting things. We’re planning on giving it strong coverage. ** Recommended ** http://www.ceatec.com/2006/en/visitor/
3 October, 2006
Catch-A-Perv: IM Paedos Beware
Two UK lads, Gary and Ash, have taken upon themselves to go into Internet chats, posing as a 13 year old girl and converse with various men who happened across them.
Sadly many of the men who chat to them aren’t asking them about their interest in sewing patterns, but do in fact try to engage with them in sexual discussions.
Gary and Ash keep up the 13 year old act, while recording the conversations, they then encourage the (normally) older men to turn on their Web cams, which they also record.
The old boy at the other end of the connection then begs for them to switch on the “13 year old’s” Webcam. Much to their surprise, they see two lads who then inform them that they’ll be featuring on the Catch-A-Perv Website.
While it looks clear that they are exposing people who shouldn’t be discussing such things with those so young, Gary and Ash have given themselves a route out of possible legal problems by stating that “The website does not claim any persons shown on the site are paedophiles – there is no reference that suggests this – it is clear however, that the behaviour demonstrated is unacceptable.”
It’s a pretty distasteful read, so it’s lightened by reading the front page, where perhaps by mistake, or in joking way, they say they’re “raising awareness of the issue in hand.”
via BBC Radio 4: You and Yours
Catch-A-Perv
3 October, 2006
PICNIC06 Review: A Very Biased Report
So, there I was at the first ever PICNIC – a cross media conference taking place in Amsterdam last week…
Highlights included John Underkoffler, Minority Report advisor, demonstrating his gestural interface technology. You had to be there to appreciate it…
Craig(slist) Newmark came across as really caring about his users and not wanting to sell out. He answers customer service emails and takes down unwanted content. He’s more interested in making his website run faster than Web 2 point doh!…
Marc Canter told us about OpenID – an open standard that will enable Net users to have one login account for all the websites that use OpenID. Cool! He also vigorously pushed his new, open source, Digital Lifestyle Aggregator software. He’s a performer.
In a break, Marc and I talked around my (Kendra like) pet subjects of ‘service clouds’ and ‘user-centric computing’. If you can have an open API for IDs then why not have one for dating or addresses or photos or anything? Hence we see more ‘mashups’ using these open APIs. Doesn’t it seem that many websites will end up being portals to these ‘service clouds’?
The ‘Web 2.0’ travel session promised much but was really a ‘let’s save the posterior of KLM’, the sponsor (ahem). If we add a blog, wiki, forum or whatever Web 2.0 thingy to our site, will you buy more tickets from us? I proposed that people just wanted the best deal and are using price comparison websites to find them and, oh, that brands were dead. I think that last part was the hardest bit for the panel to swallow – the Dutch are very loyal to their national airline.
Tune in for PICNIC06 Review: concluding part on Friday.
Picnic06
Kendra
2 October, 2006
Stolen Mobiles Get The Screaming Abdabs
Pesky phone thieves may get more than they bargained for if a new anti-theft system proves a hit with punters.
The Remote XT system renders stolen phones useless by emitting a screeching, high pitched electronic scream and disabling the phone.
Launched in Britain today, the system is aimed at smartphone-toting business users who may need to carry around confidential information on their handsets.
The Remote XT software is loaded on to the smartphone, with the system storing personal info like phone numbers, text messages and e-mails on a secure remote server – so even if a phone is nicked, the user can get their data back later.
As soon as the owner realises that some light fingered Fagin has just picked their pocket, they can dial a 24-hour call centre, have it registered as stolen and let the screaming begin.
Panicking thieves can, of course, take out the battery to silence the racket, but as soon as they try to use it again, the noise starts up.
Moreover, the Remote XT software disables the handset itself, so even if a resourceful tea leaf removes the internal SIM card and tries fitting another, the phone’s still a dead duck. And a noisy one at that.
Mark Whiteman, managing director of Remote XT, said: “Theft-proof phones spell disaster for the huge criminal industry that has profited from mobile theft for too long”
“By making mobiles unusable to anyone but the rightful owner, the phones become worthless and we’ll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all,” he added.
We’d love to agree with the fella, but with the service costing upwards of £9.99 a month, we suspect that many will find it too pricey.
The idea of ‘screaming’ phones isn’t new either, with another UK firm, Synchronica, recently announcing their own version supporting Windows Mobile 2003, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Windows Mobile 5.
However, Remoter XT claim that their software will work on most phones and not just Windows based handsets.
Meanwhile, Palm Treo users concerned about keeping their data safe can use software like Butler and Warden to remotely lock and or delete the contents of their phone and memory card (although they’ll have to do the screaming themselves).
2 October, 2006
Tesco Launches Range Of Cheapo Own-Brand Software
The all-conquering uber-supermarket chain Tesco has announced plans to take on Microsoft with the launch of its own-brand software.
The company, started by East End market boy Jack Cohen in 1919, is aiming to offer a range of cut-price software titles which directly competes with Microsoft products.
The titles – all retailing for less than twenty quid – will include an office suite, a personal finance program, two security/anti-virus products, CD/DVD burners and a photo editing product.
The announcement follows Tesco’s decision to sell computer hardware earlier this year, and the company’s own-branded software will start appearing in more than 100 of their stores from this month, with full UK coverage expected over the coming year.
Happy shoppers getting confused between opening a program and opening a can of beans can access a support website, TescoSoftware.com, which will also offer the software for sale.
Tesco buyer Daniel Cook said: “With more people working from home, and schools encouraging greater use of IT, the demand for home computing equipment is bigger than ever.”
“When it comes to software, there is little choice and prices are high. Our new range of software changes this, bringing choice and value to a market that has offered little of either,” he added.
The software comes from a Cambridge company called Formjet, with the range being centred around their well-regarded Ability Office suite.
Of course, many home users will already have equivalent Microsoft products, like Word, installed on their computers, so we suspect that Tesco is looking to score a hit with its Internet security products.
Meanwhile, the company is expected to announce tomorrow that it has raked in half-yearly profits totalling more than £1 billion for the first time.
Fact! Tesco’s name comes from the first two letters of the founder’s surname (CO) and the initials of a business colleague (TES).
TescoSoftware
2 October, 2006
UK Internet Gambling Firms Hit By US Online Betting Ban
Millions of game-toughened poker faces are showing signs of impending blubbering as the US Congress unexpectedly passed anti-online gambling laws last week.
Moreover, the new laws are set to hit Britain’s Internet gambling companies hard, with many of the US big players being based in the UK.
Shares of internet gambling sites like PartyGaming, Sportingbet and 888 plummeted as the new legislation made it unlawful for credit-card companies to collect payments for transactions with online-gaming sites.
The laws – contained in The Safe Port Act – are now just a George W. Bush signature away, with the President expected to put pen to paper within the next two weeks.
The new laws will wipe out US revenue for London-based online-gaming companies, with PartyGaming saying that they’d suspend business with US residents as soon as the law takes effect.
For PartyGaming it’s a calamitous blow. With more than half of the company’s revenue coming from US residents, share prices plummeted by 60 per cent, while 888Holdings – who enjoy a similar percentage of US revenue – saw its share price crash 45 per cent.
In a Stock Market announcement, the company said:
“After taking extensive legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming Plc has concluded that the new legislation, if signed into law, will make it practically impossible to provide US residents with access to its real money poker and other real money gaming sites. As a result of this development, the Board of PartyGaming has determined that if the President signs the Act into law, the Company will suspend all real money gaming business with US residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation.”
888 Holdings has already suspended its US operations, commenting that, “the board will continue to seek clarification of the overall US legal position to determine whether and to what extent if any resumption of participation by US customers is feasible”.
“At present however no assurance can be given that this will be possible,” they added.
Bizarrely, the anti-gambling legislation has been bundled in with The Safe Port Act, which is all about raising $3.4bn to “make ports safe” from evil terrorists by adding security measures like increased goods containers inspections.
PartyGaming Stock Exchange statement
2 October, 2006