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

  • John Bunt, And Flame Groups: Legal Pitfalls With Postings

    John Bunt, And Fame Groups - Legal Pitfalls With PostingsWhen you actually talk to John Bunt, it’s me-groups-legal-pitfalls-with-postingshard to imagine him getting so angry about a Usenet group flame session, as to take the other parties to court. But he did. He also took their ISPs to court for carrying their libels.

    The case isn’t settled, yet, but the case against the ISPs was thrown out, on the grounds that ISPs are not “publishers” – a complicated shift in the way the digital age views these things. Time was, when WH Smith refused to carry copies of Private Eye because to carry a publication containing a libel is to be guilty of that libel.

    John Bunt, And Fame Groups - Legal Pitfalls With PostingsThat dates back to a Noble Lord of the 19th century, who won a libel action against a book, causing the publisher to be convicted. Some years later, he found a second hand copy of that book in a second hand book shop, and sued them – and won. This meant that people sued WH Smiths – not because they disliked the bookseller, but because Private Eye was poor, and WH Smith had plenty of money.

    Bunt’s case means that we now know the law, in the UK, on ISPs and libel. It doesn’t mean that the law is simple, or easy to understand! The case of Godfrey vs Demon back in 2000 means that if you are an ISP who knows about a libellous posting, and someone can prove you knew about it, then you have a choice: take it down, and escape legal penalty – or leave it there, and become a publisher.

    John Bunt, And Fame Groups - Legal Pitfalls With PostingsI spent some time chatting to Bunt after the case, and he says that he’s not a vindictive man – which isn’t much surprise, perhaps. But what’s interesting, is that he says he doesn’t think the people he’s suing are, either.

    “When this latest thing started, my friends and I assumed that it was a bunch of kids, winding us up, and getting out of hand,” he said. It seems they aren’t; they are adult, savvy people who seem, somehow, to have spurred each other on to greater and greater excesses. It seems that at least one of them actually became so heated, he refused to accept a legal injunction to stop repeating the alleged libels, and began attacking the Judge who granted the injunction.

    John Bunt, And Fame Groups - Legal Pitfalls With PostingsThis sort of case seems to be on the increase. “Anyone with web access and a quick temper can find themselves facing a lawsuit,” commented Shannon Proudfoot of Ottawa newspaper, Star Phoenix. Apparently, people who are new to the art of publishing – bloggers, to some extent, but newsgroup flamers, more often – don’t realise that there are legal limits to what you can say about someone else in public.

    The problem is that on the Internet, you can flame someone anonymously. What Bunt has shown is that it’s pretty hard to do that if a lawsuit is involved; in those circumstances, your ISP will lift the veil.

  • Spam “Will Wither and Die” – Paid-For Email Won’t Be Needed

    Spam “Today’s state of the art in spam control solutions is far ahead of where it was, say, two years ago. Improved spam filters being available to more people — plus laws that allow the citizenry to penalise spammers — will cause the scourge of email spam to wither and die.”

    Yes, it’s the issue of paid-for spam, as many have called it, as proposed by Goodmail. It’s been hailed, controversially, by American IT pundit Esther Dyson, who told New York Times readers that the “barrage of criticism” launched at the idea was wrong.

    “These organisations seem to think that all Internet mail must always be free, just because it was free before. Yet they pay for computers and Internet access and office supplies, just like everyone else,” Dyson wrote.

    Today, email expert Richi Jennings of Ferris Research retorts that the problem isn’t as bad as that. Where Dyson says “Pretty soon, all mail will cost money, but I think that’s only right…” Jennings says: “While we see a role for companies such as Goodmail, we don’t agree that ‘most’ email will cost money in the future, and it’s not ‘only right’ because the fact that email is free is part of its appeal.”

    Dyson’s argument, says Jennings, “stands or falls on the assertion that today’s spam filters aren’t working. Jennings and Ferris Research think the opposite is true.

    Time will tell, of course, but Dyson’s vision of the future is that there will be more and more Goodmail competitors.

    Spam The Goodmail idea is simple enough; you create a world in which only mail from known sources gets through. You and I, as mail users, tell our email system that if we don’t have someone’s name in the address book, then it’s spam. And our email system then says: “I’ve been given money to let this person through” and we say: “Well, I trust my email system.”

    There is one reason to presume that this system is better; and that’s the sheer volume of spam today. In theory, anybody could send a viagra advert through the paid system – but it would involve a complete change in the way spammers finance themselves. They work on the assumption that they can as easily send six million messages as sixty million as six hundred million; and if only 0.001% of mails get a reply, they’re in big business.

    Goodmail (and its rivals) reckon that they can turn that free six hundred million messages into something that costs half a million dollars to send. And they also reckon that we’ll find a way of ignoring the spammers, and that they won’t be able to break through.

    It’s that last question that I’d query. Can we really make the world’s email system insist on authenticating all email? Or are we still stuck with a system which allows “spoofing” of mail, so that spam will simply arrive in our mailboxes looking like it’s from real friends?

    Esther is definitely right about one thing. There’s absolutely no threat to anybody from Goodmail. Yes, it will mean that people will send advertising to you; but the problem with advertising isn’t just “it’s advertising!” – it’s the amount.

    One advert a day, I probably won’t notice. It’s three hundred a day that makes email unmanageable; and no marketing operation can afford to send three hundred emails to every user on the planet every day, if it costs on a per-mail basis.

    If Goodmail changes advertising from 300 a day to one a day, then nobody will mind. If paid-for mail still runs at 300 a day, people will drop AOL and other Goodmail customers, and move to other ISPs who don’t allow it. I’m with Dyson on this: the market will sort that one out.

  • Barablu: Free Mobile To Mobile Calls

    Barablu: Free Mobile To Mobile CallsA new service, Barablu, launches today claiming to offer free voice calls and text messages between mobile phones.

    Now, we’ve all heard of free computer-to-computer services. We’ve even heard of calling from PDA to computers for free, but this is the first time we’ve heard of offering it free from mobile handset to mobile handset.

    How do they do it? Surely there’s data charges involved with this? Short answer, no, as the phone handsets that work with this service must support WiFi – and Barablu have gone to great lengths of draw this to our attention. Simply get a WiFi-enabled mobile phone, put the Barablu software on and you’re able to chat freely to anyone else on their service, no matter what platform they’re on.

    One of the difficulties of the service is that WiFi-mobiles aren’t that widely available currently.

    Barablu: Free Mobile To Mobile CallsIt’s as clear as the screen on your PSP that mobile phone operators aren’t very keen on ideas like this. Many commentators have claimed that the operators have gone a long way to trying to block the development and sale of WiFi-capable mobile phones – as the operators are terrified that it will erode the price of calls from ‘quite a lot’ per minute, to zero.

    Mobile handsets that are currently Wi-Fi-enabled include the Nokia 9500 (Symbian Series 80), the new Nokia N91 and N92, the I-mate SP5, SP5m (Windows Mobile for Smartphone 5.0), and the soon to be available Nokia E60.

    Like other VoIP offerings, Barablu offers the ability to call people on ‘normal’ landlines who aren’t on their network – at a charge.

    Barablu does appear to have something unique here – at least currently. The difficulty they’re going to hit is the same for anyone trying to build a community of users and provide this type of service -it’s all about the number of people you can attract on to it. If people find their friends aren’t on it, or their said friends already have a similar service – the software will get unloaded and they’ll stop using it.

    Best of luck to them, and we look forward to trying it out.

    Barablu

  • Yahoo Messenger With Voice Gets US launch

    Yahoo Messenger With Voice Gets US launchThings are hotting up in the US VoIP market as Yahoo announces their low cost Messenger with Voice service, letting users make phone calls through the company’s instant messaging software.

    The version 7.5 Beta launch comes after successful trials in five other countries since December, with the service letting users make calls from their computers for 2 cents a minute (or less) to the most popular national phone markets, including the United States.

    Just like rival Skype, the new service lets users make freebie computer-to-computer calls, with a “Phone Out” and “Phone In” feature allowing users to dial or receive calls from landlines in 180 countries.

    Yahoo Messenger With Voice Gets US launchThe Phone In service – which lets customers to receive calls on their computers from regular and mobile phones – is priced at $2.99 a month, or $29.90 (~£17, ~€25) a year, compared to Skype’s €30 yearly charge.

    Keen to elbow Skype off the VoIP table by appealing to consumer’s wallets, Yahoo claim that their service is noticeably cheaper.

    They claim Messenger with Voice costs between 20 to 30 percent lower than Skype’s fees to many major markets outside the United States.

    Yahoo Messenger With Voice Gets US launchYahoo are upbeat about prospects for their new service after trials in the initial five countries proved more successful than anticipated, especially in France.

    Mindful that not everyone wants to bark into their computer, Yahoo have also struck deals with various hardware manufactures including headset makers Plantronics, USB handset manufacturers VTech and cordless phone kings Siemens AG.

    With Yahoo Instant Messenger already enjoying a huge market presence, the new voice service could hurt Skype’s prospects – after all, why should a user go through all the hassle of signing up with a third party when they’re already with Yahoo?

    Yahoo Messenger with Voice

  • Max-Joy MP3 Player For Kids

    Max-Joy MP3 Player For KidsBack in our day, the only round thing that kids had in their pockets were marbles, conkers and gobstoppers, but German MP3 player maker Maxfield wants kids to shell out for their Max-Joy digital music player.

    Targeted at pocket-money-rich young ‘uns between six and twelve years old, the Max-Joy offers comes in a playground tough, water-resistant shell.

    Resplendent in two-tone red and yellow, the 50g, 8 x 5.6 x 2.6cm device sports chunky operation buttons and an “extra-luminous” two-colour OLED screen.

    To protect the delicate ears of schoolkids from repeated plays of Sludgefeast, the Max-Joy limits the audio output to 60dB through the supplied Koss-designed earphones.

    Max-Joy MP3 Player For KidsThere’s 256MB of on-board storage, with the option to add more song space via a SD memory card slot.

    In line with its kid-friendly aspirations, Maxfield is lobbing in a free 128MB MMC along with some music and audio books (which will no doubt be promptly deleted and replaced by death metal favourites like Decapitated, Devourment, Vomit Remnants, Cannibal Corpse and Gorguts).

    The player supports MP3, WMA and WMA DRM with six EQ pre-sets allowing for some sonic adjustments.

    Max-Joy MP3 Player For KidsThe Max-Joy runs off a single AAA battery, which the makers claim will give up to 19 hours’ playback time, offering plenty of potential for parents to get a bit of peace.

    The only thing that worries us is that the unit’s pebble shape just asks, nay begs, for it to be launched skywards. Or maybe that’s just us.

    The Max-Joy is expected to appear on Amazon.co.uk soon for around sixty quid (~$105, ~€87).

  • Onkyo X-N7UWX Wi-Fi Mini HiFi

    Onkyo X-N7UWX Wi-Fi Mini HiFiIt has to be said that our last experience with an Onkyo hi-fi product wasn’t exactly favourable (see our Onkyo CR-505DAB review), but their huge popularity – particularly in Japan – means they must be doing something right.

    Despite our reservations, the enticing, high-tech feature set of their new X-N7UWX(D) Mini HiFi (snappy name guys!), has almost made us forget our previous problems, with the compact unit offering up a veritable banquet of listening options, as well as Wi-Fi and PC compatibility.

    Providing a small room-filling 10W×2ch (8O), the Onkyo comes stuffed with some clever convergence technology, including an iPOD Dock compatibility feature letting you control your iPOD from the unit.

    Onkyo X-N7UWX Wi-Fi Mini HiFiAttractively clad in a silver finish with a large LCD panel, the X-N7UWX also comes with a USB dongle and separate Wi-Fi unit, letting you wirelessly connect the stereo up to your PC and listen to MP3s on your hard drive – or stream content from your desktop.

    Despite falling fortunes in the UK, Onkyo has steadfastly stuck with the trusty MiniDisc format, including a MD player/recorder as well as a CD player.

    Onkyo X-N7UWX Wi-Fi Mini HiFiThere’s also an AM/FM receiver in there too, and possibly a DAB radio.

    A fevered rummage around their Japanese site revealed a X-N9UWX version, although after an eternity battling with a not-playing-ball Babelfish we couldn’t be sure what the difference is.

    Onkyo X-N7UWX Wi-Fi Mini HiFiNo pricing or availability yet for either of the units, but even if this unit doesn’t make it to our shores, you can guarantee that we’ll be seeing a lot more Wi-Fi hi-fi units on the horizon.

    And we’d like one please.

    Onkyo Japan

  • Google Finance Beta Launches

    Google Finance Beta LaunchesLike Dr Strangelove with a modem, Google has made another stride in its plans to take over the virtual world, with a new Google Finance service announced today.

    Pitched directly against well-established financial information and news sites like Yahoo Finance and Microsoft’s MSN Money, the free service was dreamt up by Google engineers in India looking for ways to improve financial information searching.

    Katie Jacobs Stanton, a senior Google product manager, said that Google Finance was created in response to user surveys which found that their customers craved a financial information service.

    Google hopes that their service will steal a march on rivals by providing an easier way to search for stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies.

    Google Finance Beta LaunchesThere’ll also be a broad range of company news and information, an interactive chart correlating news and other events with stock price spikes and falls, delivered in a “clean, uncluttered user interface.”

    For those who like this kind of thing, Google Finance will incorporate interactive charts correlating market data with corresponding dated news stories, letting you track how a company’s stock reacted to related news.

    These charts can also be clicked, dragged and zoomed to reveal different time periods and more detailed information.

    Google Finance Beta LaunchesGoogle Finance also provides a personalised area for keeping track of stock quotes for selected companies along with any related news.

    For a bigger financial picture, blog postings and (moderated) content from related discussion forums will also be incorporated in the service.

    Although financial sites like Yahoo Finance, Marketwatch.com and TheStreet.com currently enjoy loyal followings, pundits are predicting that Google’s advanced features and simplified interface could have a serious impact on the market.

    Google currently has no plans to display ads on Google Finance, with a spokeswoman saying that all information on the site will be free of charge.

    finance.google.com

  • Rugged PDA Pocket Loox Announced

    Rugged PDA Pocket Loox AnnouncedAll-weather, lantern-jaw outdoor types and motorbike fiends should warm to the “ruggedized” version of the Pocket Loox N520 which has just been announced by the German based Andres-Industries.

    Touted as the “world’s smallest and cheapest rugged PDA” or even the, “world’s first waterproof PDA with an integrated GPS receiver,” the all-weather Rugged PDA is designed for outdoor types, motorcyclists and users working in ‘hostile’ environments.

    Based on the Pocket LOOX N520, the PDA offers the same functionality with optional extras including a motorcycle mounting pack, car kit, a barcode scanning version and an ‘industrial version’ which sounds well ‘ard.

    Despite its beefed up case, the ruggedized (we’re growing to like that word) handheld measures a reasonably compact 121 x 76 x 17.5 mm, and weighs 200g.

    Rugged PDA Pocket Loox AnnouncedMotored by an Intel XScale PXA270 312 MHz CPU, the LOOX offers integrated wireless LAN 802.11g Wi-Fi, SD/MMC slot (with support for SDIO) and a large, 240×320 pixels 3.5″ screen supported by 64Mb RAM and 128Mb flash memory

    The waterproof and impact resistant unit can also be wired up to a motorcycle’s battery to reduce the chance of the GPS running out of juice on a hillside desolate.

    Available in Europe by the end of this month, the unit comes in various configurations including the basic Rugged PDA at €550 (~£380, ~$670) and a GPS bundle with Navigon mobile navigator MN5, map and motorcycle mount retailing at €699 (~£485, ~$850).

    Andres-Industries

  • Now it’s a Mac. Now it’s a PC

    Mac isn't a PC“Now that Macs have PC chips in them, they can run PC software.” Obvious, isn’t it. Except that someone recently managed to make the new Intel-based Mac run PC software, and it’s a big, big surprise, and it’s something many said would never happen.

    The difference between a PC and a Mac used to be the processor. PCs had Intel chips, Macs had Power PC chips; nothing like each other. The new Macs have Intel chips in them, which is why most people assumed that they are, really, “just PCs.”

    They aren’t. What they are, are Extensible Firmware Interface Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) machines. PCs, by contrast, are BIOS machines. They have a completely different way of starting up, and as recently as January, many well informed experts were quite sure the two systems couldn’t both exist on the same machine.

    Others thought it must be possible.

    Mac isn't a PCSo Colin Nederkoorn announced a competition, back in January, to see if you could run both forms of software on the same machine. Techweb, quoting Nederkoorn: “When the Intel Macs were announced, I expected Apple would have the foresight to make it easy to dual boot,” said Nederkoorn. “But then I found out that Apple was using EFI rather than a BIOS. One group said it should still be possible, while a whole other camp said it was impossible.”

    To make it interesting, he put up cash; he put $100 into the kitty,and called for volunteers to put up more. With over $5,000 as a prize, the trick was tackled, and it’s been done.

    According to Associated Press reporter May Wong, the prize was given to two San Francisco Bay Area software developers last week. Jesus Lopez, 33, of Alameda, was one; and Eric Wasserman, 41, of Berkeley was the other; apparently Lopez “did most of the technical work — spending late nights and weekends on the challenge — while Wasserman, a devoted Mac user, introduced him to the contest in February and supported him in the process.”

    The software to do it is downloadable from the Windows XP on an Intel Mac Project. Don’t rush over there to download it, even if you actually have an Intel Mac, because (as you can see from the How To) it’s not for beginners.

    Why do it? Mainly, because it’s a more elegant way of running both families of software – Windows and Mac – without having to buy two machines, and without having to load a huge “virtualisation” engine plus emulators, to manage it.

    No doubt, Linux users will write in to explain politely that if we all used Linux we’d be able to use EFI anyway…

  • Archos AV 700 TV Mobile DVR

    Archaos AV 700 TV Mobile DVRFrench outfit Archos has launched what they claim is the first portable digital TV receiver/ recorder combining portable video recorder (PVR) functionality and two DTT (Digtial Terrestrail Television) tuners.

    Sporting two antennas working in parallel and two DTT tuners, the AV 700 TV uses a ‘mobile diversity processing reception system’ which improves reception inside buildings and on the move.

    The makers claim that that digital TV can be viewed in cars hurtling along at speeds up to 130 km/h [80mph] – something that isn’t possible with standard single-antenna DTT receivers.

    Archaos AV 700 TV Mobile DVRThe built-in DVR records digital TV directly to the hard disk in MPEG2 TS format, and there’s an onboard Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for scheduled recordings (so long as you can get reception, natch).

    With its 7″ (480×234 pixels, 262k colour) wide screen display, it’s a chunky gizmo which would have trouble fitting into even Fatty Arbuckle’s capacious pockets.

    With its 40GB storage capacity, the AV 700 TV can squeeze in up to 35 hours of recorded digital TV programs, 130 hours of encoded videos, 400,000 photos or 20,000 songs, which should be enough to keep even the most hyperactive teenager entertained between Coke cans.

    Archaos AV 700 TV Mobile DVRAn optional 100GB version offers even more storage, which equates to, err, lots more videos, songs and stuff.

    Handily, users can preset up to five different locations (e.g. home, work, pub) to avoid wearing out the retune control as they amble between transmitters.

    Henri Crohas, ARCHOS CEO was well chuffed, declaring his company to be, “elated to be part of the exciting new wave of digital TV technology” and “proud to introduce a portable device for viewing and recording free digital TV in all sorts of places outside the living room.”

    He then rather blotted his copy book be referring to the beautiful game as ‘soccer’, while declaring the AV 700 TV to be the “perfect gadget to watch and record the World Cup soccer championship this summer wherever you are.”

    “Imagine recording a match while at work and then watching it during the nightly commute back home,” he added.

    Archaos AV 700 TV Mobile DVRWe reckon that someone whipping out a large, expensive multimedia device on a London train would soon have no trouble imagining filling in an insurance claim, but with no UK launch announced, perhaps the muggers will have to wait for now.

    However, the AV700 is expected to available in Europe around May with pricing hovering around the €700 (£485) mark.

    Specifications
    Capacity: 40 GB Hard drive 100 GB Hard drive
    Display: 7″ LCD 480×234 pixels, 262 000 colours and TV output.
    Video recording: MPEG-47 SP and stereo sound, optimised resolution for TV up to 640×480 @ 30 f/s, in AVI format
    Video playback: MPEG-47 SP with B-Frames with stereo sound. Near DVD quality up to 720×480 @ 30 f/s (NTSC), 720×576 @ 25 f/s (PAL), AVI file format. WMV9 (including protected files) up to 352×288 @ 30 f/s, and 800 KBit/s4.
    Music recording: From an analog source in stereo sound for WAV (PCM & ADPCM) format.
    Music playback: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kb/s CBR & VBR, WMA (including protected WMA files), WAV (PCM & ADPCM).
    Photo viewer: JPEG (except progressives) or BMP.
    AV connections: Earphones / Audio & Video line out. TV pod with video pass through, AV in & out cables (SCART In & Out for European version) and IR emitter cable for tuner control of VCR, cable box or satellite receiver.
    Speaker: Built-in speakers.
    Interfaces: USB 2.0 high-speed device, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac.
    USB Host port compatible Mass Storage Device.
    Battery life: Up to 30 hours, 6 for music. Up to 4 hours6 for video on built-in LCD. Removable battery (additional battery optional)
    Dimensions: Approx. 10.7 x 20.9 x 1.9 cm – 4.2″ x 8.2″ x 0.8″
    Weight: Approx. 590 g – 20.8 oz
    Package includes: AV 700, USB 2.0 cable, USB host adapter, AC adapter & charger, stereo headphones, protective case, user guide, TV Pod, remote control (with batteries), audio/video cables (SCART in and SCART out for European version). Archaos