Digital-Lifestyles – Page 338 – 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

Nokia 5140i: Mobile For Fitness Enthusiasts
Sweatband-toting sporty types will be pleased to learn that Nokia has introduced a new handset for active-minded consumers, the Nokia 5140i camera phone.
The beefy looking triband phone is housed in a dust and splash resistant casing and is described as “an ideal outdoor training partner” (personally I’d rather have Kate Moss jogging alongside me, but each to their own).
Tomi Paatsila, Vice President, Mobile Phones, Nokia, wound up his PR machine and let rip: “The Nokia 5140i offers active consumers a mobile phone that complements their on-the-go lifestyle. With its strong feature set and messaging capabilities, the Nokia 5140i enables outdoors and fitness enthusiasts to stay connected whatever their interests are – during hard-core training or just a leisurely hike.”
Water-bottle clutching joggers will appreciate the ‘Fitness Coach’ application, offering an ‘always-on’ personal trainer that (apparently) “encourages users to go the extra mile or finish the last set.”
The phone also offers easy connectivity to Polar Electro’s top of the line wrist computers, designed for fitness, running, cycling and outdoor enthusiasts, letting sweaty users view a graphical display of their performance on handset’s display
The Nokia 5140i interfaces with a variety of other Polar Outdoor Computers, such as the Running Computer S625X, Cycling Computer S725, Polar AXN 500, the Polar AXN 700 and the upcoming Fitness F55 heart rate monitor.
Naturally, the phone comes stuffed with all the usual widgets to keep ‘resting’ athletes entertained, with support for MP3 ring tones, a built-in FM radio and Push to talk (PTT) functionality.
The phone also includes the Nokia Xpress audio messaging functionality, which enables users to record and send a voice message to others over the GPRS network
Currently warming up on the touchlines, the Nokia 5140i is expected to take off its tracksuit and take to the field some time in the second quarter of 2005 with an estimated retail price of €200 (£136/US$260).
Nokia
26 April, 2005
Your Stories: BBC Broadcasts Viewer-Produced Videos
BBCi has launched a programming service for digital satellite viewers showcasing short films made by ordinary folk across the UK.
Commissioned by BBC New Media and developed by BBC Nations and Regions, the service – dubbed “Your Stories” – is accessible at any time by pressing the red button on the remote control.
The program features content generated under the auspices of two BBC projects designed to give people the skills to make short films about their own lives: Video Nation and Digital Stories.
Video Nation broke new ground when it first hit UK TV screens – running in short slots dropped in to the programming schedule.
It was created in 1993 after the BBC scattered a team of over 30 producers around the UK with the aim of encouraging local people to make short films. Seeing “Real people” on TV, explaining various details of their lives was a refreshing revelation.
The producers trained them in the art of storytelling and the use of camcorders, with the films featuring individuals sharing moments of their lives with the camera.
Digital Stories built on the heritage of the Video Nation taking it to a new audience by delivering the content online.
The team behind it provides digital workshops where people from different backgrounds can hook up and tell their stories with the help of electronic wizardry such as laptops, scanners, digital cameras and editing software.
Content on the ‘Your Stories’ service is divided into daily themes, each with its own title. “My Music”, for example, featured an eight-year-old trumpet player and a blind pianist.
New Media Knowledge (NMK) ran an excellent event last year exploring this subject, bringing together members of the Video Nation and Digital Nation, the roots of both were explored.
The showing of the content revealed the power of this content – emotion. ‘Normal’ people in control of making media about their lives, without it passing through all of the editorial filters that are, as a matter of course, applied to broadcast TV – removing the soul from the piece. It was, quite simply, some of the most powerful content I have ever seen.
As a regular reader of Digital-Lifestyles, you will know that we are hugely enthused about the future of the user-generated content as an alternative to media made by the current media companies. If you’re not convinced, watching the online examples of this (linked at the bottom of this piece) will help you understand.
Next month, the BBC intends to feature a week of films created by school students deep in stress and revision as they prepare for their GCSE exams.
Other forthcoming programs will be thematically linked with various linear programming offerings, including the BBC2’s, ‘Coast’, BBC One’s upcoming season of African-themed programs, and programming commemorating VE Day.
BBCi controller, Rahul Chakkara, explained the reasoning behind Your Stories service: “The BBCi audience is maturing, and is looking for content that is social and highly involving, available to them whenever they want.”
“Your Stories is the beginning of our efforts to meet this need. We go beyond involvement through interaction and we involve our audiences by encouraging them to produce their own content.”
BBC Your Stories
BBC Video Nation
Digital Stories
New Media Knowledge
26 April, 2005
PSP UK/ European Release Date, 1 September: Sony Official
Big sighs of disappointment are heard all around Europe, as Sony officially announce the released date of the handheld gaming/media dream machine, the Sony PSP. It’s going to be 1 September 2005.
The only cheers will be from the companies that are supplying imported PSPs from the US and Japan, where is has been available since the start of the year.
The PSP, or PlayStation Portable to give it its full title, not only plays games, but can show films (playing from its UMD disk) and play music using MP3 or Sony’s proprietary ATRAC-3 format.
Many current users have been finding that by applying a little ingenuity and using the built-in WiFi support, they are able to use the machine as a Web browser and more.
I had my hands on one a little over a week ago and can attest that it is indeed a product of desire. Not only is the design of the device great, but it’s solid feel only accentuates the flimsyness of the Nintendo DS. The screen performance is highly impressive, making the graphics look stunning. We think it will sweep all in front of it.
The DS has its own market of enthusiasts; the Nokia N-Gage QD has the benefit of being a mobile phone and Nokia behind it. Sadly the Gizmondo has none of these advantages and despite our best wishes, we can’t see anything but hard times ahead for them.
Sony have announced the PlayStation Portable Value Pack at €249 (£179/US$323), which includes headphones, a 32Mb Memory Stick Duo, power supply, protective pouch, etc. The hit film Spider-Man 2 will be available on a UMD disc, free to early purchasers of PSP when they register on YourPSP.com.
Sony have created a new disk format with the 60mm wide UMD discs which holds 1.8Gb of data. Initially, Sony were very secretive with it, not even disclosing the capacity of the disc. Following a major change of heart when they opened their music players up to MP3 format, Sony has now opened the format of the disc, letting anyone put their content on it, providing they aren’t a rival games company. Many feel by not letting the public write their own data to these discs is a mistake – but perhaps following this line will boost the sales of the Memory Stick Duo.
There are many tales of PSP-owners modifying their pride and joy to browser the Internet via Wi-Fi, or indeed run Instant Messaging client software.
It’s unclear if this opening up to the PSP as a homebrew platform was intended by Sony. What is sure, is they’re not doing anything to try to stop it. We’re waiting for the release of the Skype client for the PSP – that would really put the cat among the pigeons.
With the almost unbearable delay for the PSP in Europe, London chuck-away free “newspaper”, Metro, has been running a competition to win the PSP – Looks like those lucky winners have turned out to be more lucky than was originally thought.
Your PSP
26 April, 2005
3G boosts Ericsson’s profits
Ericsson has reported a thumping great rise in quarterly profits, helped by the deployment of 3G networks.
The Swedish telecommunications equipment giant reported better than expected first quarter profits of 6.7 billion kronor (£499 million), compared with 3.7 billion kronor last year.
Ericsson, the world’s largest supplier of mobile phone networks, said that net income for the first quarter increased 73 percent to 4.64 billion kronor (US$661 million) from a year earlier.
Sales were up 12 percent at 31.5 billion kronor, buoyed by the roll out of 3G services in Western Europe and increased demand for WCDMA, a high-speed transmission technology, in Eastern Europe and Turkey.
The company also saw solid demand in emerging markets with a substantial rise in sales expected in China in the second quarter.
These figures fly in the face of predictions from investors and analysts that sales would drop steadily for the big telecoms firms as Chinese manufacturers took over the industry.
Robert Sellar, head of technology on the equities desk of Aberdeen Asset Management, commented that these predictions failed to take into account the amount of spending that these companies’ customers needed to do to improve their existing networks to support 3G and other new technologies.
Ericsson’s orgy of champagne popping was, however, slightly marred by the news of unexpectedly strong reports from arch rivals Nokia and Motorola.
Ericsson
Ericsson First Quarter report
Nokia’s Quarterly Profit Increases By 18 Percent
Motorola Announces Record First-Quarter Sales and Earnings
25 April, 2005
Google AdWords Move Up A Gear
In a quest to blast their already soaring profits further up into the stratosphere, Google will test a cost-per-impression bidding model for AdWords ads, letting advertisers specify groups of sites or specific sites in Google’s ad network.
Instead of the current cost-per-clickthrough method used for text listings on its search and content networks, advertisers would set a maximum cost-per-thousand impressions price.
Google said it would operate a single auction to determine which ad to show based on the effective cost per thousand (CPM).
Advertisers would have to bid a minimum of US$2 (£1.04/€1.54) to reach a thousand people, while competing against other promoters for the same inventory, potentially leading to lucrative price wars for popular keywords, Web sites or categories.
The site-targeted ads will include static banner ads as well as animated formats – a move sure to annoy hapless surfers already weary of wriggling, spinning and rotating gizmos.
Google has, however, promised limitations on the animated advertising fluff that can appear on their adverts, with blinking ads that continuously loop already declared verboten.
Advertisers will be able to manage ads from their Google AdWords account and create their own “ad networks” by entering the URLs or themes and topics of sites where they’d like to slap up their adverts.
Google will then produce a list of suggested sites (along with a maximum number of impressions for each site), letting advertisers select the sites to run their ads.
The advertising space will come in four formats – banners, skyscrapers, wide skyscrapers and leaderboards – with Google checking submitted ads for “appropriateness”.
The search engine heavyweights are hoping that the approach will appeal to advertisers who are fussy about where their brand appears or are aiming for a certain niche demographic.
“This is the first step toward meeting as many of our advertisers’ needs as possible,” said Tim Armstrong, Google’s vice president of advertising sales.
Google’s move comes as arch-rivals Yahoo prepare a significant expansion of its own service to place ads on other websites, also expected to include graphical ads.
Google
25 April, 2005
Everquest II Virtual Goods Trading Endorsed By Sony’s Station Exchange
In an astonishing volte-face, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has announced that it now endorses the auctioning of virtual items from its massively popular online game, Everquest II – with the electronics giant pocketing a cut of the cash, naturally.
From late June 2005, Sony’s Station Exchange will provide an “Online Entertainment auction service” enabling players to buy and sell virtual items for real money.
Sony is introducing the service in an attempt to put a halt to ‘plat farmers’. These are dastardly rotters who use macros and bots to harvest rare items in games, level up characters, gain virtual money – and then flog them off on eBay.
Personally, we’d rather buy a round of lovely real ale than shell out for the Dark Lord of Deltronia’s Mystical Turbo Sword of Mwegneli, but as we’ve reported before (Sales in Virtual Goods Surpasses $100m, Nov 2004), considerable sums of money are changing hands for virtual items.
SOE director John Smedley has estimated that the market for virtual items is upwards of US$200m (€153m/£104) worldwide and the Station Exchange looks to be an attempt to grab a fat slice of this juicy pie.
So far, Sony have said that the Station Exchange system will only be available on dedicated new servers and that players will be able to transfer to an exchange server but not from one.
Naturally, gaming bulletin boards have been buzzing with debate about this development, with some expressing concerns that the ability for a rich user to “buy” success in a game effectively creates a ‘class’ divide.
‘Miss Minnie’ voiced her doubts on the urban75 gaming forum:
“There already is a ‘virtual class system’ within the game itself – you earn status and faction standing, money, prestige, titles, fancy clothes and transport, you start living in a hovel but can move on up to luxury apartments etc – But at least till now you could assume that most people had ‘earned’ those things by playing the game.
Now you won’t be sure if someone is a player or a buyer, so I suppose it could be said that touches of real-life’s ‘class system’ will be impinging.
In my opinion, that is the biggest shame – these games are supposed to be fantasy worlds and now real-life threatens to intrude.”
‘Private Storm’, on the same board, was more pragmatic:
“Trading of in-game items etc goes on and it is extremely difficult to stop it.”
“I’m not sure of the mechanics in EQII, but in WoW (World of Warcraft) they have mitigated the potential for selling items somewhat by introducing the concept of having things bind to that character when it is picked up, meaning you can’t transfer items to other players, hence no selling though eBay and the like.”
“I think Sony has said in their press release that they can’t ignore the fact that the selling of stuff goes on and that a lot of the support they have to give players is to do with this, so they’re creating controlled systems for it to happen. Virtual ‘harm reduction’ as it were.”
“People approach these types of game with different playing styles and with different things they want to get out of it. Such games often require a large amount of time and dedication to actually see any significant progression and not everyone has the time to realise this progress. If you are a cash rich, but time poor player, but still want to play the game, buying items etc to help you get the most out of your time online doesn’t seem so bad.”
“On the other hand, there are players that are time rich, but cash poor who can achieve a large amount of success within the game simply ‘cos they have the time to do so. They’ve invested a large amount of time and money in playing the game and obviously feel that they should be able to benefit in the real world from this. Selling the stuff they acquire seems reasonable in this context.”
For some gamers, an officially sanctioned auction site is an inevitable consequence of the growing popularity of virtual gaming, with Sony’s cut, a reasonable price to pay for eliminating a lot of scams.
If Station Exchange is successful, it may only be a matter of time before other auctions are permitted for SOE’s other games like Everquest I and Star Wars Galaxies.
Perhaps an official virtual auction site might prevent further tragedies like this story we covered last month: Legend of Mir 3 Gamer Killed After Selling Virtual Sword
Sony Station Exchange
urban75 bulletin boards
25 April, 2005
“3G TV” Airs In Singapore
Over here in Digital-Lifestyles land, we’re always getting our ears bent by some PR-type banging on about how mobile TV is going to be “the next big app” to hit handsets.
Luxembourg (amongst others) have already broadcast trials and commercial pilots, and now Singapore mobile operator M1 is getting in on the act, airing previews of its made-for-mobile TV drama.
The service, snappily dubbed “3G TV”, is the result of a partnership between MediaCorp Studios, the Media Development Authority of Singapore and M1. The trio are hoping to flog off the series to other operators in the region.
With mobile TV slowly coming up on the consumers’ radar, high quality content will be a critical factor on whether the service takes off, so mobile companies and TV content owners are keen to do lunch, chew the fat and go for a synergetic workout afterwards.
Mr P Subramaniam, director of M1’s sales and marketing department served up this pearl of wisdom to Channel News: “What’s more important here is the whole revolutionary concept behind this, how consumers look at it and take it up. And that’s where it’s going to get really exciting.”
M1 and its partners plan to knock out dramas with a specific mobile version, which will be different to the regular TV episodes, allowing viewers the choice of watching a broadcast TV version or an extension of the same show on mobile.
The first drama to emerge from this collaboration, titled “PS I Love You”, is due to appear on mobile phones in Singapore by June of this year.
Not everyone is convinced that creating custom drama content for mobiles is going to be a monster hit, but with mobile companies, TV content owners and producers are keen to test the demand for this potentially lucrative new outlet.
More collaborations are expected to emerge in the forthcoming months.
25 April, 2005
YP-T7: Samsung Yepp Music Player – Compact Review
Samsung have made their intentions clear. They want to be the number one in portable music players.
The YP-T7 is a new generation player, designed as an attention grabber, to play to Samsung’s strengths – they are one of the three companies that actually manufacture LCR screens and they produce Flash memory.
It’s very small, light and packed with wowee features. Music formats support is broad (MP3, Ogg Vobis, Windows media) and the quality of playback is strong, as are the included headphones.
The potential of the 65k colour screen is well demonstrated by the graphically-rich menuing, but when you try to display photos and text files on it, its limitations are highlighted – it’s just too small, and when loading images, slow.
The on-board microphone and adjustable recording quality really impressed us, making it ideal for interviews and podcasts. The FM radio is among some of the best we’ve used on a portable player. The USB-rechargeable battery appears reasonable, with the official running time being listed as 10 hours, as would be expected from a Flash-based player over an HD-based one.
We’re impressed with this beauty. Compact, highly competent player with quality mic-recordings.
Specification
Weight – 36g
Dimensions – 37 x 62.5 x 14mm
Colour screen – 65,000 colours
Music formats – MP3, Ogg Vobis, Windows media
Interface Type – USB 1.1, USB 2.0
Battery Life – 10 Hours (Samsung figures)
Price – US$190 (€147/£102)
Stars – 4 out of 5 Pro
Very compact, Strong, quality mic recordings, Good radio, decent battery.
Con
Photo support not great
Summary
A very competent player who features raise it slightly above the rest of this crowded, fast-moving sector, and will impress your mates … but for how long?

22 April, 2005
Google Profits Up Fivefold
Champagne corks were popping like manic machine gun fire at Google yesterday as the company reported a thumping fivefold increase in profits in the first quarter.
The Californian search giant purred loudly as it revealed that net income for the quarter ended 31 March, based on generally accepted accounting principles, was $369 million (£193/€282m) or $1.29 (£0.67/€0.98) a share, compared with a measly $64 million (£33.5m/€49m) or 24 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
Naked execs excitedly rolled around in beds covered in dollar notes* as revenues for the quarter racked up to $1.26 billion (£0.65bn/€0.96bn), a massive 93 percent increase from the previous year.
“This was a very strong quarter for Google,” revelled Eric Schmidt, chief executive for Google, “We continue to execute well and we have been able to take full advantage of the growth in online advertising.”
Internet advertising revenue as a whole is becoming a large, well-fed cash cow, increasing by 32 percent last year to just under $9.6 billion (£5.02bn/€7.34bn), compared with $7.3 billion (£3.81m/€5.58m) in 2003, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Google’s own sites, which rely heavily on paid search results and on users clicking on ads, brought home $657 million (£343.6m/€501.7m) – 52 percent of the company’s total revenues and a 116 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago.
Revenues generated from Google’s partner sites through its AdSense programs generated $584 million, or 47 percent of revenues, – a hefty 75 percent increase over partner-related revenues a year ago.
They’ve also been bulk-buying new desks and chairs and introducing crowd control around the water cooler at Google, with the company hiring another 461 employees since the end of the fourth quarter last year, bringing the total up to 3,482 full-time employees.
(*we may be exaggerating slightly here)
Google
22 April, 2005
BT Loves Free Wi-Fi Hotspots
Unlike several telecoms companies in the US who are hell bent on blocking free Wi-Fi hotspots, BT has stated that it has “no problems” with the concept.
Although free wireless hotspots are becoming increasingly common worldwide, telcos in Philadelphia and Texas are camping in their lawyer’s offices in an attempt to get hotspots shut down, arguing that it is not in the government’s remit to compete with commercial services.
To a chorus of boos in our office, Andrew “meany” Allison, head of Intel’s mobility group in the UK, spat out; “Governments should do what governments are meant to do: govern. They don’t run, support and maintain networks. That’s for network operators.”
Clearly, Islington Council in London doesn’t agree. They launched a mile-long free Wi-Fi network, dubbed the ‘Technology Mile’, earlier this week.
The network covers the length of Upper Street – one of the busiest streets in Islington – with the Council donating PCs to some local businesses as part of its push to boost economic activity in the area and to encourage local residents onto the Internet.
Chris Clark, BT’s chief executive for wireless broadband approves, telling vnunet.com that he has no problems with free wireless hotspots, and that the more people using the technology the better.
“Free access doesn’t touch us,” he said. “It’s not a market we’re going after. We’re after the business market and in a lot of cases business laptops are locked out of such hotspots for good security reasons.”
Clark does not envisage US-style legal wrangling in the future for the UK and expressed confidence that if more people use Wi-Fi it will drive demand for BT’s services.
Clark also confirmed today that BT will be launching a seamless roaming GSM/Wi-Fi phone by the end of the year, adding that he expects Wi-Fi phones to be “very common”, although not ubiquitous in five years time.
BT
Islington sets up free Wi-Fi zone a mile long
22 April, 2005