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’s Crack at Federated Identity

    Microsoft will be showing off their new federated identity software shortly – a service that will allow users to log in and then carry their identity from site to site, securely allowing businesses to extend applications and intranets to external clients. The technology won’t be available until Q3 2005 with the release of Windows Server 2003 R2.

    Michael Stephenson, lead program manager for Windows Server 2003 said “Federated identity lets companies securely extend their applications to suppliers and external users… We are showing how a user at one site might log on to a portal and then they can enter a purchase order at another location without having to sign on again. Today it is very expensive to provide this type of functionality.”

    MS’s previous attempt at federated identity, Passport, never quite realised its potential, and so it’s back to the drawing board.

    There’s already a W3C standard for federated identity, but Microsoft, along with IBM, want to push the WS-Security specifications put forward by OASIS (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).

    Microsoft’s system will also be up against the Liberty Alliance set of open standards, led by their best pals Sun.

    Federated identity is of importance to everyone – not only do you need to know what information is being held about you in your “ID passport” and what site and application owners do with that information, but that your personal details are secure and cannot be compromised.

    Liberty Alliance

    Microsoft and IBM’s original white paper

  • RIAA Sues Yet More People

    As part of its programme to deter the public from sharing music, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has just launched legal action against another 493 people.

    The RIAA has already settled 486 cases, for and average US$3000 (€2486) each. That represents an income of about US$1,458,000 (€1.2 million) – not a bad return, really.

    These new actions are “John Doe” cases as the RIAA doesn’t know who they are prosecuting – their identities will be revealed when the courts issue subpoenas.

    However, it doesn’t seem that the RIAA’s action against users of P2P applications like Kazaa and Overnet is having much success. Although the RIAA has now sued 2,947 people peer-to-peer client usage is increasing. Research firm BigChampagne claim that 9.5 million people were logged in to P2P networks in April this year, up from 7.4 million concurrent users six months previously.

    What’s wrong with the music industry in one long sentence – Thanks to Simon for sending me this link

  • Google Names 31 Underwriters For IPO

    Google has named another 29 underwriters for its forthcoming IPO – these are in addition to the two lead underwriters Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston. Amongst the new crop are JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank.

    The sale is expected to raise US$2.7 billion (€2.26 billion) later this year, the biggest new technology stock sale since the wheels fell off the new economy in 2000.

    Google’s sale will be unusual in that they are going to use a open auction process – investors will be able to bid for shares at a price they are willing to pay, a method that Google believes will be fairer to small investors. Since whoever pays the most still wins, that remains to be seen.

    The Unofficial Google IPO Site

  • IDC: Mobile Applications for Consumers is Where the Money Is

    IDC’s new study “Western European Consumer Mobile Data Applications” analyses opportunities for consumer mobile data applications in the market – and I can’t say that we were very surprised by any of the findings. IDC believe that the current state of the market is a good reflection of what to expect in the future: mobile operators will be making cash out of selling small applications, ringtones and other widgets to phone owners, in a market worth an estimated €6.67 billion (US$8 billion).

    “This underlines that the wireless industry will not see the one killer application that many are still seeking and talking about,” said Paolo Pescatore, senior analyst for IDC’s European Wireless and Mobile Communications Service. “It is very much a cocktail and these applications will drive usage over GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. All these applications – ring tones, gaming, video, and music – will eventually find their place on a mobile.”

    IDC rightly report that demand for video is not very high, currently – and is certainly dwarfed by consumer interest in games, ringtones and SMS “texting”. As video is not very satisfying on phones at the moment, the industry must be careful not to over-hype the service or mislead consumers into thinking that they will be watching TV quality visuals on their mobile any time soon.

    Operators will need to offer engaging content, the report says, and that means that they’re going to have to spend considerable amounts of money and resources securing the rights for that material, whilst partnering up with content houses.

    IDC express surprise at the lack of music services for mobile users, and believe that people’s interest in music, coupled with mobility, presents a compelling reason to offer music services. IDC believe it will just take a bit longer, with operators rolling out services towards the end of the year.

    The IDC study

  • Gates Says Blogs Are Good For Business

    Blogging is entering the mainstream – Bill Gates thinks they’re a useful business tool, so expect one of your directors to pop up with the idea of corporate blogs at your next board meeting.

    Blogs are online diaries, usually collections of links, thoughts and illustrations kept by one person who wants to share information about themselves or their enthusiasms. They can be purely personal, or a day-to-day update on a business project.

    Gates says that blogs are a good way to share information, both inside and outside of organisations and have considerable advantages over older forms of communication such as email (email is old now?). Emails can miss out the right people or be too imposing, and websites are too passive. People forget to visit websites, and get frustrated when they make the effort to go there and the site hasn’t been updated.

    The solution? A blog with an RSS feed. Real Simple Syndication is a feed that allows stories to be pushed to other sources like news readers and even other websites. This way, changes and new information come to the reader, not the other way round.

    Over 700 MS employees keep project blogs, to share information and keep others up to date on projects they are working on.

    Microsoft doesn’t have a blogging tool yet – but it can’t be long before one appears, tied in with MSN, Messenger and quite possibly FrontPage and MS Project.

    Blogging Platforms

    Blogger

    Movabletype

    Blogs

    GoogleBlog

    Simon Perry

  • BT and Microsoft Team Up to Offer Broadband in Scotland

    BT and Microsoft are trialling a new service in Scotland that offering software and broadband to small and medium-sized businesses. Connected And Complete is a package consisting of broadband installation, Microsoft Office Small Business Edition, twice yearly health checks, a help desk and tools for making a website.

    Jerry Thompson, BT’s head of business broadband, said: “There are well developed IT and financial services sectors in Scotland and we think they will be early adopters.”

    If successful, the service will be offered to businesses throughout the UK.

    BT are doing quite well out of broadband at the moment – year end results show a 30% jump in turnover for their new services, bringing in UK£3.4 billion (€5 billion) in revenue.

    Nice to see something nice being tried out in Scotland for a change, since other trial runs in the past have included nuclear waste, intercontinental ballistic missiles, the poll tax and Malcolm Rifkin.

    Microsoft on Connected And Complete

  • Sony’s LocationFree Wireless Broadband TVs

    We got very excited about this when we first wrote about it in January. Sony have introduced two new LCD TVs that allow you to enjoy media wherever you like at home without running wires. You don’t even need mains as they can run for a couple of hours on their internal batteries.

    The LF-X1 display has a 12.1” screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, whilst its smaller sibling, the LF-X5 has a 7” display with a 800 x 480 resolution. Prices are US$1500 (€1247) and US$1000 (€831) respectively.

    The two screens come with a base station which you connect to your video source, and then the station transmits to the screen using any one of the three main WiFi protocols. The TV itself can chose which WiFi variant is most appropriate for the quality of video you wish to watch or amount of interference in your immediate environment.

    You don’t even need to be at home – if your content is on a network you can stream it over the internet to the TV using 802.11b, as long as your upstream transfer rate is greater than 300kbits/s.

    The TVs are very well catered for with other connections – each features a built-in tuners, ethernet port, two video inputs, USB port and IR port for remote control. For viewing photographs, the LF-X1 has a Compact Flash socket, the LF-X5 has a Memory Stick port.

    AkibaLive

  • Pirated CDs Earning Tourists a Jail Sentence

    First it was plane spotting, then it was playing with a GameBoy on the beach – now there’s something else unwary tourists can get thrown into jail for in Greece: buying pirated CDs.

    A tourist was arrested last week as he bought two counterfeit CDs from a vendor in Athens, and to give everyone a reminder that such activities are illegal, he earned himself a three month sentence. It’s not recorded what happened to the guy who sold him the CDs, though Greek courts have prosecuted about 1000 illegal sellers in the past.

    IFPI spokesman Ion Stamboulis said in a statement: “This is not a symbolic measure. We are determined to prosecute the buyers and we have the support of the authorities.”

    Clamping down on the vendors has proven problematic in the past as they have fairly hefty underworld connections, so perhaps the authorities are looking for an easier way to tackle the issue.

    The surge in prosecutions is no doubt aimed that trying to fix Greece’s terrible piracy record (the worst in Western Europe) before the start of the 2004 Olympics.

    The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries

  • Napster Launches in the UK

    Napster 2.0 UK is live at last, just beating Apple to first over the line, though Apple might well have the last laugh. Napster finally has deals in place with all five major record labels, plus the Association of Independent Music and high street retailer Dixons.

    Dixons will be selling Napster-branded CD-Rs in their stores. Could someone please send a pack of those back through time to the RIAA and take a photograph of their faces? Thank you.

    Napster is currently offering 500,000 tracks to customers, but promises this will rise to 700,000 next month.

    The big surprise with Napster is the price: a track from Napster UK costs twice the price of the equivalent from the US iTunes Music Store. At a time when most music services are charging US$0.99 (€0.82, UK£0.55) for a track, Napster are charging non-subscribers a staggering UK£1.09 (€1.62) per track – the equivalent of charging US$1.94.

    Buying a subscription for UK£9.95 (€14.80) a month allows users to download tracks for UK£0.88, but this is still 62% more than the iTunes cost – without taking the subscription price into account. It looks like OD2’s sale was a good idea after all.

    A 7-day free trial of the Napster service is available from the link below.

    Napster UK

  • World’s First Combined Digital TV and Radio Chip

    Frontier Silicon, fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for digital TV/radio consumer products have started shipping its Logie integrated circuit. The Logie chip is the world’s first single chip DVB-T/DAB integrated circuit, and will be first used in an as yet unnamed Goodmans set-top box.

    Other than the Goodmans product, there aren’t any combined digital TV/radio units out there, and a chip like this will allow manufacturers to produce them easily and cheaply. If power consumption issues can be worked out, portable DVB-H/DAB devices in the near future could be a real possibility.

    Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, commented in a statement, “Our Logie device enables set top box manufacturers to produce low cost boxes with considerable consumer appeal, including the reception of 24 digital TV channels and 50 or more digital radio (DAB) channels that are all free. There is no other combination DVB-T/DAB chip currently available in the market that can do this.”

    Frontier recently won the PricewaterhouseCoopers Hottest Technology Company of 2004 Award, and produce chips used in products from, amongst others, Grundig, Philips, Roberts and Sharp.

    Frontier Silicon

    Goodmans Digital