Digital-Lifestyles

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

  • Microsoft and Cisco Announce Security Partnership

    Microsoft and Cisco will announce a partnership today to make the security features of their respective range of products compatible. By tying up security at both the server operating system and hardware layer, the two companies hope that they will beat hackers and virus writers, whilst at the same time regaining the faith of corporate customers.

    Microsoft and Cisco products hold a particular fascination for hackers, who enjoy exploiting various vulnerabilities in their platforms. Some corporate customers have switched to Linux and Unix as server operating systems on the grounds of security, as there are simply less viruses and malware on those systems.

    By ensuring interoperability, customers should have an easier time deploying security policies and integrating products from both companies on their networks.

    The next big step for the MS/Cisco partnership will be the release of Longhorn Server in 2007, when Microsoft’s own Network Access Protection scheme will be compatible with Cisco’s own Network Access Control features.

    Microsoft will announce the news here later on Monday

  • Dell’s Anti-Spyware Initiative

    Dell and the Internet Education Foundation have launched an new initiative to reach at least 63 million internet users over the next three years – and inform them of the dangers of spyware. 63 million, of course, being the number of broadband internet users in the US.

    The Consumer Spyware Initiative (CSI) includes links to spyware removal software and the IEF’s Get Netwise website, and is also planning to recruit other technology companies in the fight against malware. The Get Netwise site also provides information about keeping children safe online and stopping spam.

    Dell have a sound financial reason for promoting user awareness of malware and security: they have revealed that most of the support calls they receive regarding PCs are from users afflicted with spyware. A survey by Dell and IEF conducted last month of 742 internet users from a sample of 1000 US citizens indicated that 39% fell less secure than they did a year ago.

    “Since January 2004, more customers have called Dell seeking relief from spyware than for any other technical support issue,” said Mike George, vice president and general manager of Dell’s U.S. Consumer business. “We’ve been focused on arming our customers with the information and tools they need to combat this problem. Through this process, we’ve seen that education is our best counter intelligence against the threat of spyware.”

    Tim Lordan, staff director of IEF said in a statement:”The Internet is an integral part of our economy and lifestyle, and it is vital to ensure that Internet users are not deterred from going online due to hazards like spyware. CSI will provide Internet users with the knowledge they need to feel secure online, and IEF is proud to sponsor such an important program with Dell.”

    Get Netwise

  • Fifth IEE International Conference On 3G Mobile Communication Technologies (3G 2004)

    3G2004 is the premier technical forum for 3G mobile and related technologies, now into its fifth successful year. 3G 2004 will be held at the prestigious headquarters of the IEE on the banks of the River Thames. It will bring together researchers and technologists from manufacturers, service providers, operators, application developers, regulators and standards bodies to share the latest information and promote the development of 3G services, systems and networks. The conference will be a three-day event with a balanced structure consisting of parallel technical sessions and panel discussions by leading experts on 3G technologies. Several hundred delegates from around the world are expected to attend. http://conferences.iee.org/3G2004/

  • Eidos Delay Championship Manager 5

    Computer games developer and publisher Eidos have announced another high-profile slippage to their schedule – Championship Manager 5 now looks like it may not appear before Christmas.

    The game was due for release in October and industry analysts, shareholders and fans of the series expected great things from it in run up to Christmas. The long running delays behind Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, developed by Core Design and eventually released last year after months of rewrites, damaged the company considerably with many reviewers complaining that the game still has an unfinished feel to it.

    The company have released a statement on their corporate site: “Eidos is continuing to work towards release of the PC version of the game shortly before Christmas, although this may extend into the New Year. As previously stated, the much anticipated XBox and PS2 versions of Championship Manager 5 remain firmly on track for release in Spring 2005 and the online version will be available through subscription shortly after the PC game’s release.”

    Eidos are also looking for a buyer for the company, with EA, Microsoft and Sony amongst those who have expressed an interest. The company made a UK£2 million (€2.89 million) loss in the year to June 2004, compared to a UK£17 million (€24.56 million) profit during the previous year.

    Eidos

  • HomePlug AV – A 200 Mps Network From Your Power Sockets

    NEWS UPDATE: HomePlug AV Now Official

    The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has entered the final stages of the development of their specification for the HomePlug AV standard, and is now inviting companies from home networking, consumer electronics, computing and other related fields to contribute to the final version of the spec.

    HomePlug AV is designed to accommodate the home networking needs of future homes – and as such, can move data around the house at up to 200 Mbps. Rather than using WiFi or cat 5 cables, the system goes back to the tried and tested technique of using power sockets – after all, every home has them, usually right by where their TV and computers are installed. HomePlug are aiming for a global standard that can be deployed in markets across the world – regardless of domestic voltage and frequency.

    200 Mps is intended to accommodate music, multiple HDTV streams, broadband internet and other data around the house.

    The standard is not just aimed solely at domestic users, however: “This is a truly great technology that has broad applications both inside and outside of the home,” commented Oleg Logvinov, president of the alliance and president and CEO of Arkados, Inc. “With HomePlug AV, people will be able to transfer high-definition video and digital audio by simply connecting the device to an electrical outlet. The technology inside is complex, but it is designed to be incredibly easy-to-use.”

    The HomePlug Powerline Alliance arrived at the technology by assembling elements from the best technologies submitted to the group, building what they claim is the best platform yet.

    The network can operate at near capacity even on noisy power lines – I certainly don’t want to see static on my 2001 DVD whenever the central heating clicks on at 5am.

    As households acquire and use more digital technology, efficient networking is more critical than ever – yet current solutions are tricky for non-technical users to install and maintain. A simple, yet powerful solution that is literally plug and play will take the headaches out of home networking for millions of consumers.

    HomePlug

    UPDATE: HomePlug AV Now Official

  • OQO’s Ultrapersonal Computer Hits the Shops

    OQO have launched their ultrapersonal computer, the OQO Model 01. At 4.9” x 3.4” x 0.9”, it’s the size of a largish PDA, and has a 5” touch-sensitive 800 x 480 screen. Inside, though, it’s definitely not a PDA – it’s built around a 1ghz Transmeta Crusoe chip with 256mb of RAM and a cushioned 20gb hard drive. The sort of specification seen in laptops three or so years ago, though Bluetooth and WiFi (b only) are built in. OQO claim around three hours of usage on a single charge.

    The screen slides back over the unit in a sort of rack and pinion arrangement, revealing a 52 button keyboard. Graphics are handled by a 8mb 3D accelerator. A docking unit is available so that your OQO can be connected to a DVD drive, external monitor and a keyboard you don’t have to be an Ewok to use.

    All this miniaturisation comes at a cost – the Model 01 will set you back US$1900 (€1533!), so you’d better have a really good reason to justify buying this over, say, one of the smaller notebooks.

    The Model 01 will run Window XP, though reports on performance are not good – the 1ghz processor struggles with Microsoft’s behemoth of an operating system. Since the 01 will run some Linux distributions, users following the path of the penguin might get better results. It could be handy for those who regularly give presentations – it can be attached to PC projectors, and Mandrake with OpenOffice might be a good solution for this sort of work.

    OQO Model 01

  • Google Your Computer

    OK, it’s Friday so it must be time for another Google announcement – and here it is: rather than integrate the web into the desktop like Microsoft, Google have instead chosen to integrate the desktop with the web.

    Google Desktop is the company’s latest product aimed at revolutionising the way we search for information. Simply, it’s an applet that indexes files on your PC and allows you to search for them in a web browser using the same clean Google interface used to great success in their web product.

    The applet is available as a 400k download from the company’s main site and works with Windows XP and 2000 (SP3 and above). The applet initially builds an index of the files on your PC, the index is subsequently updated when you’re not using you computer to ensure that its performance isn’t affected, though Google recommend at least 128mb of RAM and 500mb of free disk space.

    Desktop Search is even available as an option from your standard Google Search page, meaning that you can find things on the internet and your PC at the same time. Results are returned seemingly instantly – a speed advantage gained through not having to download them from a website.

    Google Desktop will happily search through and return Outlook emails, text files, HTML, PowerPoint Presentations and documents in a range of other formats. I was delighted when my first search brought me an email, nicely presented in the browser, that had only just arrived and I hadn’t even opened in Outlook yet. Better still, you can hit Reply on the result page and an email window will launch, so you don’t even have to go back into your email client. Items can be removed from results so that repeat searches don’t bring them back.

    Currently in beta, Google intend to add more features to Desktop Search with better algorithms and file filters – now, where’s that browser, guys?

    All about Google Desktop
    Download Google Desktop

  • Halo 2 Hit by Pirates

    A version of Bungie’s new Halo 2 game has been leaked onto the internet, a month before the game is due for release. The game is set for launch on November 9th – and is one of the most eagerly awaited video games of all time.

    The version in question is a PAL XBox edition, in French. In order to make use of the pirated copy, a downloader would have to make a DVD from an ISO file, and this would only work on a modified console. Also, I don’t fancy your chances at getting it to work with XBox Live. Given the size of the file and the sheer awkwardness involved in getting it to run, it’s dubious that the leak will affect sales of the game even minutely. However, theft and piracy are still offences and Bungie is not the first high-profile company to be the victim of this sort of crime: a section of Valve’s Half-Life 2 source code relating to Steam was stolen some months ago. It seems that the more demand there is for a title, the greater the impulse to rip it off – will this disruptive, and quite frankly boring, hacker hobby be inevitable for all future big-budget games? I sincerely hope not.

    Microsoft issued a statement regarding the leak, asking for anyone with information to come forward.

    “Microsoft has learned that a version of Halo 2 has been posted to various newsgroups and web sites. We consider downloading this code or making it available for others to download as theft. We are currently investigating the source of this leak with the appropriate authorities. Pending the result of our investigation, we do not have further comment. Microsoft takes the integrity of its intellectual property extremely seriously, and we are aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act. The launch of Halo 2 worldwide remains unaffected. We’re asking anyone with information on the source of this leak to contact Microsoft at 1-800-RULEGIT or send email to [email protected].”

    Bungie

  • OS X on XP

    Ah, the legally troubling world of emulation. MSX, a company based in Hawaii, have announced the release of their CherryOS – an application that allows the owner of any reasonably well-specified PC to turn it into a Macintosh G4, if they so choose.

    The G4 is based on on IBM’s PowerPC architecture and as such is radically different from Intel’s x86 platform – so the host processor’s instruction set has to be translated from one platform to the other. Emulation effectively creates a virtual machine, in this case a G4, within the other computer’s operating system, in this case a PC. CherryOS emulates a G4 so well that all of the system’s hardware resources, an area where most emulators usually fall down, are accessible. Getting Firewire, USB, PCMCIA and Ethernet all to work well can’t have been easy.

    Processor overheads and memory use are another traditional sticking point for emulators since the emulator has to be stored somewhere and instructions have to be translated, but MSX claim that CherryOS uses up only 20% of a host PC’s resources.

    Users won’t be able to do much with their virtual G4 unless they install an operating system on it. MSX assure that OS X, available from Apple for about US$149 (€120), works fine.

    Apple won’t be pleased: even if the product is 100% legal, didn’t reverse engineer any of their hardware or use any Apple code, it means users can now run Macintosh applications on hardware that is considerably cheaper (and less stylish) than their own kit.

    Arben Kryeziu, CherryOS inventor says he created the application because he grew tired carrying a PC and mac around with him. “Think about it,” he said, “Now about 600 million PC users can have the Mac advantage. One computer to use all software and if PC users would use Mac software to get email, perhaps they would avoid viruses, Trojans and spy-ware.” True, but one could argue that about Linux, which is more popular than OS X. What else have you got?

    He also went on to describe some of the advantages CherryOS brings: “You can build and test applications for a Mac on your development PC, test web site design for Mac web browsers without having to buy the hardware, run OS X, the world’s best operating system, on a less expensive hardware platform and use your favourite Mac apps on a PC.”

    CherryOS

  • Napster Pre-Paid Cards and Media Room Edition

    Napster pre-paid cardNapster, the online music store, has made a couple of key announcements regarding its future business plans. The UK arm of the store has just launched a pre-paid music card scheme, aimed at under 18s and other music buyers who don’t have credit cards.

    The scheme is a first for the UK, and will be sold through the Dixons Group of stores. The cards will initially be available in two values – UK£14.95 (€21.65) and UK£56.95 (€83), which works out at UK£0.99 (€1.44) and UK£0.95 (€1.38) per track respectively.

    Aside from being good for business, Napster sees a key advantage in making it easier for teenagers to buy music: they’ll be less likely to download it illegally. More music, more stores and more ways to pay mean that people will be less attracted to P2P networks when trying to acquire music that they enjoy.

    Napster vice-president and UK general manager Leanne Sharman said in a statement: “The launch of pre-paid cards in the UK is a major development in the evolution of the online music market. Our partnership with Dixons Group broke the mould and gave online music a high street presence for the first time; now the introduction of pre-paid cards takes this one step further and increases accessibility to Napster.”

    Napster have also announced a new Media Room Edition of their client software, featured in Windows XP Media Centre 2005. The new version of their software has been designed for easy viewing on a television, allowing users to access their music collection from their sofa, or even buy music that way. Dangerous, given some of the urges to buy music that I get and can’t be bothered getting off the sofa and onto my PC to action them.

    Additionally, Napster MRE features an expanded music video collection and enhanced artist photos and album art. The forthcoming Napster to Go portable subscription service will also be included when it débuts this year.

    “The Napster Media Room Edition is for the growing number of music fans that want to take digital music beyond the PC and integrate it into their home entertainment experience,” said Chris Gorog, Napster’s chairman and CEO. “Napster’s expansion from a PC-based experience into the living room and into the home began over a year ago as a feature of Microsoft’s ground-breaking Media Centre PC so we are pleased to continue our legacy of innovation with the most comprehensive and easy to use music experience available.”

    Napster