Digital-Lifestyles – Page 207 – 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

Replacement Apple Batteries Arriving Early
The exchange of Apple’s might-catch-fire batteries is happening faster than originally anticipated.
When the news broke that Apple were recalling their Sony-produced batteries, they were talking about it taking four weeks to get the batteries out.
We duly went on to the Apple site and filled out the simple form, receiving a conformation mail telling us we should expect delivery in four to six weeks.
You can imagine our surprise this morning when what should arrive via the UPS courier, but the new battery, under two weeks from the original order.
It makes sense for Apple/Sony to swap these batteries as soon as possible, as many customers may be getting The Fear about their machines bursting into flames, I know that I’ve thought twice about leaving mine charging overnight.
If you’re interested, the batteries look identical form the outside, but we’ve found that the replacements have a higher battery capacity 4607 mAh vs 4400 mAh of the original. The new one certainly has loads more than 2846 mAh that our 14 month battery has ended up with. Translated – what you end up with is better than the original.
There’s a form and box to return the original battery, again via UPS. No wonder Sony estimated the recall could cost them as much as $257m (30 million yen).
7 September, 2006
Media In Transition Conference
7-8 September 2006 The Media in Transition 2006 Conference, hosted in Munich, Germany, will be discussing the structural transition in the media industry – how the Internet is modifying the way media is produced, distributed and consumed. We have invited innovative Internet media companies, researchers and strategists from U.K., Canada, U.S.A. und central Europe to Munich for two intensive days. Goethe Institute Munich, Germany http://www.mediaintransition.com/indexe.html
7 September, 2006
Ricoh Caplio R5 Digital Camera Review (70%)
Fresh out of Japan is the new Caplio R5 digital camera, featuring anti-shake, a new 7.24 megapixel CCD and the same mighty 7.1x optical wide zoom lens (28-200mm, 35mm equiv) as seen on its predecessor, the Caplio R4 ( reviewed here in April 2006).
Ricoh are making big claims for the low light capabilities of their new image processing engine, which works with the built in CCD-shift vibration correction method to produce what they describe as, “high quality images at even higher ISO settings with low noise.”
The new model looks very similar to the R4, but there’s been a few changes in the physical layout: the anti-shake on/off button from the top plate has now disappeared into a sub-menu accessible from the LCD interface, with a circular on/off button taking its place.
We can’t say we liked this move, as the smaller, recessed power button is much harder to operate (we also had issues with powering up the camera, but we’ll move on to that later).
Sneaking around the back
The buttons on the rear of the camera have been shunted around a bit too, with the zoom rocker also getting that shrinking feeling while being moved closer to the LCD screen.
We really can’t work out the thinking behind this move. The new, smaller zoom control is much harder to operate and if you were wearing gloves, zooming would be nigh-on impossible.
The small three-way camera/screen/movie switch also remains as fiddly as with the R4, although Ricoh’s designers have seen fit to move it to the right hand side of the camera.
LCD screen
There’s still a healthily large 2.5-inch LCD dominating the back of the camera.
This has been ramped up from 150k to 230k pixels although the difference didn’t seem as stunning as we might have hoped.
A quick caveat here: we ended up going into a camera store and asking them to get out a R4 for comparison.
While holding out both cameras pointing at the same scene we have to say there didn’t seem a huge amount of difference – sure, the R5 seemed a bit smoother, but none of the waiting customers managed to guess which screen was the newer one.
Seeing as the assistant was most unimpressed with our antics we had to cut short our testing, so we can only assume that the differences would manifest themselves under more demanding light conditions or under closer scrutiny.
With all those extra pixels, the screen has to be better so maybe we were all on drugs or something.
Daytime shooting
Like Dracula in reverse, this camera works best when the sun is in the sky.
Taking the R5 out for a stroll around London, we were pleased by its fast power-up times and were constantly reminded of the benefits of having a compact with a proper wide-angle zoom range.
The LCD screen was easy to read (although, being London in September, the sun wasn’t exactly blinding), but we would have liked to have seen an optical viewfinder in there too.
Although suffering from a rather noisy zooming mechanism, the R5 took crisp and pleasing daytime shots, with exposure generally spot on and images exposed at 64 and 100 ISO showing very little noise.
The banding issues that plagued the R4 were also noticeable by their absence too.
The new 640 x 480/30fps movie mode was fun, and produced some smooth clips, although the juddery digital zoom is best left alone (like most digicams, the optical zoom is deactivated when shooting in movie mode).
Night time woes
We were disappointed with the camera’s night time performance.
Purely in the interests of ensuring a full test, we took the camera out to a Brixton club and grabbed the kind of pics that your average punter might take on a night out.
These included a few snaps of the band, pictures of friends looking a little worse for wear, the inevitable drunk ‘group shot’ and some grabbed shots from around the club.
Throughout the night, the Ricoh would sometimes struggle to get a fix in low light conditions, and on a few occasions the entire thing froze up or wouldn’t turn on. Taking the battery out and putting it back in seemed to fix the problem, at the expense of a few missed shots.
Even when the camera was working perfectly, some shots were ruined because of Ricoh’s crazy placement of the flash gun -for many right-handers, their middle finger will naturally fall right in front of the flash. End result: under-exposed shots.
Noisy nights
Noise at 400ISO actually seemed worse than with the R4 and when we remembered to move our fingers out of the way of the flash, the results weren’t too flattering.
The none-too-impressive f3.3 maximum aperture meant that the camera was always reaching up to the higher ISO settings, and the higher the sensitivity, the grainier things got.
Although it was handy to have full resolution ISO 1600 sensitivity, the results fell woefully short of the quality of similarly-priced rivals like the Fujifilm FinePix F30 (although that camera has a greatly reduced zoom range).
Running the photos through noise reduction software like Noise Ninja vastly improved things – perhaps enough to just get away with a 10″ x 8″ print – but we really can’t recommend the R5 for night hawks.
Street photographers looking to grab late night sneaky shots with the camera on 10 second self timer will have to think again too as the flash – yes the FLASH! – blinks brightly on and off during the countdown!
It’s like saying, “Yoo-hoo! Muggers! Over here! Look at me!” and despite scouring the manual we couldn’t find a way of turning it off.
It’s one of the daftest things we’ve seen on a modern camera.
Manual focus
One thing we really like about the Ricoh R5 (and the Ricoh GR) is its manual focus abilities -a rare treat on a mid price camera.
The ‘snap’ mode – in particular – is fabulous for grabbing quick shots but annoyingly Ricoh still haven’t fixed the problem that results in the flash completely overexposing subjects close to the camera.
Sort it out Ricoh – it does the same thing on our upmarket Ricoh GR and we expect better for the money.
Download example files (Three images, ZIP format, 7.5MB)
Interface
We’ve always liked Ricoh’s clear, no-nonsense interface and had no complaints with what we found on the R5, although saving files to the camera’s internal memory was very slow.
Switching to a Fujifilm 2GB SD card sped things up considerably.
We had some problems with that the SD slot, with a worrying ‘card format’ error popping up unexpectedly halfway through a shoot.
We would have been most unchuffed to have lost all the photos we’d taken, but turning the camera off a few times seemed to solve the problem. Had we bought the camera, this would have been enough to have sent us hot footing it back to the camera store demanding a refund.
As with the R4, the camera is firmly pointed at the point and shoot camera brigade with very little in the way of advanced options for photographers who like to fiddle about with exposure settings.
Despite its mass market aspirations, the camera still doesn’t have too many consumer-friendly scene modes compared to their rivals – a serious omission in our book.
Conclusion
On the face of it, the Caplio R5 offers a lot for the casual snapper, serving up a generous 7 megapixel sensor, built-in anti shake and an impressively wide angle zoom in a suitably bijou package.
The price is right too, set at a highly affordable £250 ($443, €361), placing it smack bang in the middle of a highly competitive price sector.
With its impressive 28mm-200mm lens, there’s a lot to like about the R5, and anyone prepared to work with the camera could eek out some high quality shots, although consumers looking for an easy-peasy, point’n’shooter might be frustrated with the camera’s poor low light performance.
After encountering so many problems during the review, we’re finding it hard to recommend the R5 outright, although our previous positive experiences with Ricoh products make us inclined to put the glitches down to early production teething problems. Let’s hope we’re right.
We still can’t see enough here to encourage R4 owners that it’s worth the upgrade, but the combination of the mighty lens, great daytime pictures and the small form factor may prove an irresistible attraction to some consumers.
We just hope they buy their new R5 from a company with a good returns policy, just in case.
Rating
Ease of use: 80%
Picture quality: 65%
Features: 80%
Value for money: 75%
Overall: 70%
Ricoh Caplio R5 specifications
Sensor 1/2.5″ Type CCD
7.24 million effective pixels
Image sizes
3072 x 2304
3072 x 2048
2592 x 1944
2048 x 1536
1280 x 960
640 x 480
Movie clips
640 x 480 @ 15/30fps
320 x 240 @ 15/30fps
160 x 120 @ 15/30fps
WAV sound
File formats
JPEG Exif v2.2
DPOF
DCF compliant
AVI (Open DML Motion JPEG)
Lens
28-200mm (35mm equiv)
F3.3-4.8
7.1x zoom
Image stabilization
CCD-shift Vibration correction
Conversion lenses: No
Digital zoom up to 3.6x
Focus
Auto Focus
Manual Focus
Snap
Infinity
Focus distance
Normal: 0.3 m – infinity (Wide) 1.0 m – infinity (Tele)
Macro: 0.01 m – infinity (Wide), 0.14 m – infinity (Tele)
Metering
TTL-CCD Metering Method: Multi (256 segments)
Center weighted
Spot
ISO sensitivity
AUTO
ISO 64
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
Exposure compensation
+/-2EV in 1/3EV steps
Exposure bracketing
-0.5EV, +/-0, +0.5EV
Shutter speed
8, 4, 2, 1 – 1/2000 sec
Aperture
F3.3-4.8
Modes
Still
Continuous
S-Continuous
M-Continuous
Scene modes
Portrait
Sports
Landscape
Nightscape
Skew correction
Text
Zoom Macro
High Sensitivity
My Setting 1 and 2
White balance
Auto
Fixed (Outdoors, Cloudy, Incandescent Lamp, Incandescent Lamp2, Fluorescent Lamp, Manual settings)
White balance fine tune
White Balance Bracket
Self timer
2 or 10 sec
Continuous shooting
2.8fps
Flash
Flash Off , Auto, Red-Eye Flash, Flash on, Flash Synch
Range: approx. 0.2 m-2.4 m (Wide) approx. 0.14 m-1.8 m (Tele)
LCD monitor
2.5-inch Transparent Amorphous Silicon TFT LCD
230,000 pixels
Connectivity
USB 2.0 High Speed
AV out
NTSC/PAL switchable
Storage 26MB internal memory
SD/MMC card compatible
Power
Rechargeable battery DB-60
AC adapter
Weight (no batt)
140 g
Dimensions 96 x 55 x 26 mm )
6 September, 2006
TreoCiel Weather Forecast For Palm Treo Review (90%)
Like most Brits we’re more than a bit obsessed with all things weather-related, so as soon as we bought a Palm Treo we were busily installing a host of weather-related applications, including Treo Alarm.
We thought that combo had left us most with isobaric bases covered until we came across the uncrowned Big Daddy of weather apps, the superb Tréociel.
This puppy positively assails you with weather info, serving up max and min temperatures, precipitation probabilities, weather forecast icons and wind speed and direction.
Of course, all that data’s a fat load of good if you can’t make head or tail of it, but here’s where the Tréociel really excels, presenting weather forecasts in a series of clear, easy-to-read scrollable charts.
Setting it all up
Before you start, you need to input which cities you want to monitor, and this can be done by typing in the city name, weather station ID or search.
Once located, the program prompts you to decide whether you want to track hourly or daily weather data, with a click on the ‘update’ button downloading the latest information off the internet (unfortunately, there’s no auto-update facility yet).
Reading the charts
Downloaded ten-day weather information is shown on a horizontally scrolling graph which can be set up with customised views.
By default, Tréociel will show min/max temperature, weather icons, wind speed and precipitation information, with the option to define three custom views.
Wind speeds can be shown in km/h, mph, m/s, knots or in the trusty old Beaufort Scale, with the choice to select temperature readouts in Celsius or old school Fahrenheit.
Graphs can display hourly or daily forecasts, with the scrollable graph making it easy to track weather trends.
Conclusion
We loved Tréociel, with the program’s novel and easy to read interface tempting us into wasting endless time checking out the weather in different cities around the world, as well as looking up the local forecast.
The internet updates meant we knew when to pack an umbrella before leavng the office and if anyone made the mistake of striking up a conversation about the weather, we had Tréociel on hand to bore them utterly senseless.
At just €9.95 the program represents great value to our eyes and looks to be an essential purchase for travellers and meteorological mullers.
Currently optimised for the Palm Treo only, owners of non Palm smartphones should be able to join in the fun soon with the authors promising versions for “Windows Mobile and other platforms” in the future.
Features: 80%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 90%
Overall: 90%
TréoCiel
6 September, 2006
TrekStor MP3-RadioStation f.ox: IFA 2006
There are a couple of dilemmas for anyone who takes their MP3 player to play in the car. How do you get the sound to the car stereo and how do you stop the thing sliding about all over the place? The TrekStor MP3-RadioStation f.ox tackles these.
The TrekStor MP3-RadioStation plugs in to the cigarette lighter slot (or cigar if you’re posh), which means it’s easy to find and there’s no need for a separate power source.
Where do the tunes come from? There’s no storage on board, as the music is supplied via a USB memory stick that plugs in the bottom. This arrangement brings the advantage of low cost expansion and that the music storage is only limited by the size and number of memory sticks you’ve got.
Navigating tracks up, down and pausing is done by the button on the top.
To get over the challenge of getting the audio between the player and legacy car head-units, TrekStor have used low-powered FM transmission with a selectable frequency, available to some other players as an after-market add on.
To set it up, simply press the Channel button on the top of the MP3-RadioStation until an FM frequency that isn’t used by a radio station is displayed on the top, then tune your car stereo into that frequency. Bingo.
Sadly for UK users, devices like this can’t be used legally, as Ofcom don’t differentiate between low-power gadgets such as this that transmit over a short distance and a full blown radio station.
Expected release date is November 2006, priced at around €15.
TrekStor MP3-RadioStation f.ox
View larger images.
6 September, 2006
$15 itunes Movie Price Judged Too High By Majority Polled
According to new research from The Diffusion Group, only 14% of broadband households would be interested in an iTunes online movie download service for use on PCs or portable devices if titles were priced at $15 each. This compares to total interest of 23% at $10 per download – a 64% decline in interest when increasing the cost per title by only $5.
On the Viability of an iTunes Movie Download Service, a two-part report series produced by TDG, states that movie studios originally demanded that Apple accept a pricing scheme of around $20 per download, similar to the prices charged by current online movie services such as CinemaNow and Movielink. But according to Michael Greeson, founder and principal analyst with TDG, Apple demanded download prices of around $10 for even new titles, half that of existing services. “It would seem, then, that the two parties simply split the difference. All things equal, this appears to make sense.”
However, TDG’s research found that the net loss of demand from increasing the price from $10 to $15 is almost four times the gain in demand from lowering the price from $20 to $15. In other words, at $10 per title, demand would have been optimized yet profits would have suffered, while at $20 per title both revenue and profits would have been optimized with little loss in demand.
Speculation regarding Apple’s entry into the online movie space heated up in advance of the early August Worldwide Developers Conference, but nothing materialized. As Apple’s September 12 public launch event nears, the rumor mill is again churning and has this time attracted pundits from the mainstream business press. Of course, Apple continues to decline comment.
Regardless of whether the iTunes movie download service is announced this month or later this year, Greeson believes that the time is right for Apple to enter this market space. “Although current services such as CinemaNow and Movielink continue to languish, Apple is aware that the conditions are now suitable for extending iTunes to include full-length movie downloads. Consumer awareness has improved; video-over-broadband is now viable; studios are now making movies available for online download to DVDs; portable video platforms are improving qualitatively with each new generation; and Apple’s brand awareness and credibility are at all time highs. As well, CinemaNow and Movielink’s experience, while insightful, is of limited value to Apple, who continues to enjoy the fruits of being a market-maker in portable digital electronics and online media services.”
One challenge faced by today’s online movie download services that will still haunt Apple is the fact that movie downloads are still being viewing on the PC or portable devices – scenarios that do not reflect the video consumption behavior of the majority of US consumers. Connecting these services to the living room TV (either directly via a broadband-enabled set-top box or indirectly via a digital media adapter) is imperative to expanding the online movie market beyond the earliest of early adopters and to helping move Apple into the living room (the primary battleground for future-thinking PC and CE vendors).
For these reasons, TDG commissioned a June 2006 consumer study to evaluate consumer interest in and price sensitivity toward two types of Apple iTunes-branded online movie services – the first involving movie downloads to the PC and portable devices and the second involving movie downloads to a iTunes-branded set-top box or digital media adapter connected to the primary home TV. Researchers examined consumer receptivity to both of these scenarios across a variety of prices points, identified the core group of consumers most likely to adopt these services, and profiled this segment across a number of characteristics.
Both of these reports are now available for purchase on TDG’s Website..
6 September, 2006
Austin Game Conference
6 – 8 September 2006 The Austin Game Conference (AGC) – now in its 4th year – is the definitive conference for online and networked game development, including massively multiplayer online games, casual games, online PC and console games. The event is marketed internationally and provides a venue where developers, technologists and business professionals can network with colleagues, learn from industry leaders, stay informed about the latest tools, technologies and techniques and get business done in a relaxed atmosphere. http://www.gameconference.com/
6 September, 2006
Smell The Radio With USB Aroma Geur
We can’t say we like the thought of being bombarded by different whiffs while we’re listening to the radio, but it seems someone in Japan liked the idea so much that they’re about to launch a fragrance-pumpin’ product in October.
Apparently called the ‘Aroma Geur,’ the device takes the shape of a USB connected sphere which is capable of generating different pongs depending on what content is playing on the radio (perhaps the smell of dirty leather for Motorhead, and Guinness for the Pogues?).
Soon to be introduced by NTT Communications – the corporate business arm of Tokyo-based Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Tokyo FM Broadcasting – the curiously named Aroma Geur comes loaded with six oil-based perfume compounds, which can be instructed to mix up the right whiff on demand.
The gadget connects to your desktop via USB, with the PC downloading the aroma instructions from the radio station via the Internet, with odorous wafts synchronised to match whatever song is currently being played.
Lurking inside the gadget is a set of solenoid valves which open and close magnetically to ensure that just the right amount of perfume fills the air.
To further enhance the ‘experience’, the whiffo-sphere (as we like to call it) accompanies blasts of perfume with a show of random, shifting coloured lights, apparently to help you have a “more soothing experience.”
The USB Aroma Geur is available for 49,900 Yen ($430), with the service scheduled to start up in Japan from 2nd October 2006.
We can’t wait to get a whiff of some Bob Marley tunes on the thing.
Tokyo FM
5 September, 2006
Skype Hits The Pleasure And Pain Of The Mainstream
The news that OFCOM is to review its position on Voice Over IP services (VOIP) – the way we can make low cost or free phone and video calls currently from our PC’s generally using call centre-type headsets – is part of the evolution of these types of service from guerrilla geek to middle class mainstream. Now that Tesco’s are marketing VOIP services it’s fair to say that it’s a ‘regular’ service/product.
VOIP service providers are predictably angry over OFCOM’s meddlesome intervention and have asked why such a code of practice is needed. OFCOM will try and tread a fine line between existing heavily regulated voice service providers and the new upstarts who hitch a cheap ride on the existing infrastructure.
Along with the news that VOIP is likely to face some of the requirements that traditional telcos have to deliver on, comes the announcement that Philips Electronics are bringing to market, for year end, a cordless DECT phone. If anyone asks you, DECT is the rather nifty acronym around Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications.
News of the new DECT handset, the Philips Voip841 broke at a recent consumer electronics show in Berlin. The phone will allow callers to use Skype’s service without being connected to a PC and is likely to hit both landline and mobile companies. The Phone will access your regular home line and broadband and allow you to call other Skype account holders for the grand sum of nothing.
Prices for the new device are not yet released, but industry observers are talking of a figure around a £100 to make this potentially cost saving purchase.
5 September, 2006
thelondonpaper: Murdoch Shows His Internet Vision
News International, MySpace-Murdoch’s newspaper enterprise yesterday launched a new, free newspaper and Web site for London.
We’re not going to bore you with the version that’s stampted on to dead trees, we’ll take a quick look at the site and see where Murdoch may be taking his empire with his re-found enthusiasm for the Internet.
The design of the site, is clear – blog-like, and in his opening comment page, the editor, Stefano Hatfield, writes on the launch of the site (my bold)
thelondonpaper.com also launches (as a beta site) today. In addition to breaking news, competitions and opportunities to contribute and vote, our website takes a broadband look at life in London with daily video coverage of news and entertainment across the city.
As we’ve seen already, Murdoch is applying cross media promotion to MySpace, the selling episodes on the TV program 24 by his Fox television.
This continues on at thelondonpaper.com.
No real surprise that Sky (his satellite TV biz in the UK) features large. Well … he’s just trying to help his son make his projected subscription figures isn’t he? Any media company-owning dad would do they same wouldn’t they?
Besides the centrally placed Sky adverts, there’s a competition to win Sky Broadband (his UK broadband service).
The release date of thelondonpaper was brought forward, and in the lower sections of the site, it starts to show. Going to the competition submission pages, we’re told (my bold)
Please email your answer to [email protected] along with your full name, address, daytime telephone, date of birth and your email address. Please do not use the submit button below.
Of course we did, expecting the whole of News International to come crashing down … it didn’t.
The other point of interest? Google text ads on the site. Them chucking $900m on the table to advertise on MySpace, clearly extended beyond that single property.
As to the video taking a ‘broadband look at London,’ well it’s pretty thin on the ground currently, but we found a couple of pieces including an interview with Fear of flying, which by remarkable coincidence, also has a link to …. their MySpace. What a lovely self-referential world it looks like we’re moving to.
thelondonpaper.com
5 September, 2006