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

  • Google Revamps Blogger Service

    Google has completed a revamp of its Blogger site, adding a number of new features and another 27 design templates to the service.

    Possibly the most exciting feature is the addition of email posting, so now bloggers can update their site from anywhere where they have email – handy for updating blogs whilst on the move if you have a PDA.

    Google are keen to build a community between bloggers with new facilities for adding comments to blogs and setting up blogger profiles. Profiles can automatically link to other bloggers with similar interests.

    Evan Williams, Blogger program manager at Google said: “We are focusing on helping users connect to one another, and that has always been a core part of blogging, with the combination of profiles and comments, we make it more built in than it’s ever been before.”

    Blogger

  • Are There Really 1.67 million Illegal Movie Downloaders in the UK?

    The British Video Association (BVA) has surveyed 16,000 people between 12 and 74 and extrapolated that there are 1.67 million illegal film downloaders in the UK, as they believe that 4% of the population are indulging in the practice.

    We think this gives an inaccurate picture. The entire population doesn’t have internet access, and downloading all of Kill Bill Volume 1 on a dialup is frankly insane, limiting this kind of piracy to broadband subscribers. Ofcom estimates that there are around 4 million broadband homes out there – so perhaps 4% of them are downloading, making it roughly 160,000 pirates (which we feel is more accurate), or perhaps 25% of broadband subscribers are pirates (which we doubt).

    The BVA goes on to estimate that this downloaders cost the video industry £45 million (€) in lost revenue. A quick calculation on the back of an HP48 shows that this is roughly two full price DVDs per downloader – yet the BVA goes on to say that the average downloader grabs some 30 films and TV episodes a year. Since many downloaders like to collect and share files for kudos, we suspect the picture in the UK is of around 160,000 pirates downloading 30 films.

    Interestingly, according to the survey, the average downloader is under 35, male, and lives in the south of England – presumably because broadband is more prevalent there and not because they’re more prone to thieving.

    The BVA’s report

  • Blockbuster’s Online DVD Rentals

    Blockbuster Video have launched an online DVD rental business, much like that offered by Netflix. With a £13.99 (€20.78) subscription, customers can order up to three DVDs at a time from the online service. Blockbuster are are offering a library of 15,000 titles initially, with many more planned.

    The service works in a similar fashion to those already in the market – you select titles from the website and up to three are sent to you from your list of desired films. When you’ve finished with a film, you return it in the reply paid envelope and the next film in your list is sent out to you. Subscribers never pay for postage no matter how many rentals they make in a month.

    “Many of our customers rent on impulse and our stores are the perfect solution for this. However, the online service will suit those with very busy lifestyles who want a more up-to-date choice of movie than is available on the premium channels. It will be like having a multiplex in your front room.” said Steve Foulser, commercial vice-president of Blockbuster.

    This is not Blockbuster’s first venture away from traditional forms for entertainment rental – the company is currently working with Kingston Communications to offer a video on demand rental service in Hull. Movies cost between £2 and £3.50 (€2.98 and €5.20) for a 24 hour rental, with television programmes costing £0.50 (€0.74) each.

    Blockbuster

  • Boys Shunning Toys to Play Video Games

    The NPD Group has published a report that confirms and adds detail to a view that many have held for some time: non-video game toys are losing the battle for our children’s time and attention.

    This is particularly evident with older boys from ages 9 to 12 – they show a marked tendency to move away from traditional toys to playing video games. Girls seem to spend about the same time on toys and video games – but as they get older, they tend to find interests away from video games.

    According to the report, the average time children among the ages of 5 to 12 spend playing video games is 4.2 hours per week, with one-third (32 percent) of boys and only 10 percent of girls playing more than six hours per week. Nearly half of the children in the study began playing video games between the ages of 4 and 5, with 20 percent beginning at age 3 or younger.

    “Video games demand the attention of toy manufacturers who want to understand their implications to play time with traditional toys,” said Michael Redmond, senior industry analyst, The NPD Group. “For toy manufacturers, determining how to leverage the ‘power’ of video games in order to take advantage of their popularity through different marketing tactics is essential. By researching which types of video games are most popular among children, toy manufacturers can discover new licensing opportunities.”

    Categories that are suffering are ones that previously had a very strong grip on the boys’ market – action figures, building toys, puzzles and vehicles. This has been demonstrated by poor sales by companies specialising in toys these areas, with the Lego Company being a high profile victim.

    Indeed, my own Lego collection has been sadly neglected since I picked up Eve, though I might dust some off later. To make a Minmatar Tempest, obviously.

    More on the NPD report

    LUGNET – the Lego Users group

  • Microsoft Drop WiFi Hardware Range

    Microsoft are dropping another hardware line – this time it’s WiFi network cards, laptop adapters and broadband networking routers. If you didn’t know that MS sold this sort of hardware, it was in the North American market only. They started selling the equipment in 2002, to favourable reviews and customer comments.

    Microsoft have yet to comment on why they are dropping their WiFi line, but it’s though that this move will allow them to focus on their key software businesses.

    They’ll allow current stocks to sell out and support the hardware through its warranty period, but then that’s it. The wireless XBox adapter will stay on the market however, underlining MS’s commitment to their innovative games platform.

    MSNBC on the news

  • Infinium Labs Sets Launch for Phantom Console

    We have covered the on/off, is it real, is it vapour history of the Phantom Console a number of times.

    We now learn that Infinium Labs are at E3 showing the Phantom Console on an 8,000 sqft stand and signing up game developer for the platform. They have also released their pricing plans.

    The Phantom is essentially a sealed box containing a high spec PC that has been designed for gaming, so comes complete with a high end graphics card. What makes it different is that the games are loaded on to it via broadband, so not only are there no physical distribution cost for it, but the payment models for the games can vary from single play rental to ownership.

    Following its planned 18 November launch, it will sell for $199 or for free, if two years of membership to the $29.95 per month broadband gaming service, Phantom Gaming Service, are signed up for. At the start of the service a large number of free games will be available.

    The sleek-looking device will be manufactured by Biostar in Taiwan, and will feature a 40GB hard drive, AMD Athlon XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU), the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU) and the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 platform processor. It will also ship with gamepad, mouse and keyboard that they are labelling the Phantom Lapboard, which they claim gives easy control over the keyboard and mouse even when sitting on a couch.

    There is plenty of innovative ideas in the Phantom such as the way the capacity of the hard disk is managed. The unit will notice when the drive is becoming full and will invisibly remove the least played games, automatically uploading them from the central server if the gamer request a play.

    Kevin Bachus, president of Infinium Labs previously worked in a senior position at Microsoft in the Xbox division.

    It is a brave company that takes of the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, and all gaming consoles live or die on the support of the games developers – if there is no strong flow of quality titles, people will not buy. Mr Bachus is not alone in thinking it is a good idea; Infinium has just $46m in first round funding.

    Infinium Labs

  • E3 Games Show

    E3 Then
    The Start of Something Big
    In 1995, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was held for the first time. Video games were based on 16-bit technology and 3D graphics were the exception, not the norm. Few beyond those immediately involved in the medium of PC and video games took notice. That first year, E3 exhibitors numbered far fewer than today’s. E3‘s inaugural event set a new standard for tradeshow launches. It was clearly the beginning of something big.

    E3 Now
    Clearly the Best
    Today, the interactive entertainment industry is in growth mode. It has mindshare comparable to any major sports league-and it partners with them all. Hollywood talent vies to be included in game productions, and established writers whose books sell millions and musicians whose albums have gone platinum two and three times over also contribute to the medium. Technology now brings interactive entertainment to mobile phones, the Web, and networked consoles. As the industry has grown, so has E3. Each year, E3 attracts more media, more international attention, is more productive, and is more fun.

    E3 Next
    It’s Up to You
    Today, the industry is poised for continued growth. Games and game culture continue to convert more and more consumers. Game brands and franchises are increasing their reach, and an industry that once thought in terms of local markets now thinks globally. As E3 approaches its tenth anniversary and peers into the next decade, be assured it will continue to provide a marketplace for ideas and commerce to an industry that continues to grow and evolve. What happens next is up to the exhibitors and attendees of E3 2004 and beyond. What happens next is up to you.
    http://www.e3expo.com/e3expo/

  • CNET launches a new MP3.com

    After a lot of uncertainty about the future of MP3.com following its demise, and rumours that all of the content had been deleted, CNet has re-launched MP3.com, but as something completely different to its original guise.

    The new version of the service combines extensive information about the musical groups such as the history of each member of the band and details of all of the tracks they have released. The reviews and background information about each of the major albums is also extensive. At a quick glance, the depth of detail is very impressive.

    Once an individual track or album has been selected, a page is displayed showing a number of ways to get to the track. Online music download services, on-demand streaming and even where the physical CD are listed. Currently there are fourteen service listed, which we assume will increased as Cnet signs more deals. Each of the download services show the music file format, computer platform for each, as well as highlighting if the service protect their tracks with DRM.

    As would be expected MP3.com provides many routes to content that you might not have thought of listening to or buying. One of the novel ones is Musicvine. A graphical representation of artists is shown, with groups of a similar musical type clustered around them, joined by lines. When a band is selected, further information about them is shown on the left-hand panel. It’s a neat idea, but we are at this stage unsure how useful it will be long term.

    MP3.com is a clear attempt by Cnet to try and become the Meta music service – THE destination when individuals want to buy music. On first impressions it looks like a pretty good stab at it, but we are unsure if there is sufficient here to keep the idea unique to them.

    MP3.com

    Musicvine on MP3.com

  • Softbank losses grow

    Japan-based Softbank Corp today announced widening losses for the 2003 year ending March. Declared a net loss of 107.09 billion yen ($94.2m, 79.8m), up from a 99.99 billion yen loss in the previous year, they blame what they called “substantial expenses” to lure customers to its broadband Internet service. Sales rose 27.2% over the period.

    Unusually Softbank decided not to announce their financial predictions for the current year. Their stock fell around 10% against the Nikkei Average fall of 4.8%.

    The broadband services, Yahoo BB, is a joint venture with Yahoo and has been held up as an example of what broadband could be given their provision of 45mbps coverage to some of their consumers. By March they had over 4 million customers and they are targetting 6m by September 2005.

    Softbank (eng)

  • Wi-Fi Alliance to jump early on IEEE WLAN standard

    Claiming that they want to get the market moving, the Wi-Fi Alliance is starting its certification programme for wireless Quality of Service (QoS) in September before the official declaration of the standard by the IEEE. The IEEE is expected to declare the standard by the end of 2004 at the earliest.

    WiFi standards really are a confusing alphabet soup. 802.11b is the original 11Mbps wireless running at 2.4GHz frequency, confusingly 802.11a runs faster at 54Mpbs but at the higher frequency of 5GHz, 802.11g is 54Mbps at 2.4GHz, 802.11i has enhanced security, 802.11h is concerned with spectrum and power control management, 802.11e will provide QoS. Even the trade finds it confusing, never mind the consumer, hence the creations of terms like WiFi.

    WME (Wi-Fi Multimedia Extensions), part of 802.11e, will provide QoS which is important for a number of applications. Currently all packets of data on a WiFi network are treated equally, but for some sensitive types of traffic such as video, audio and voice it is more important that those data packets arrive before thing such as web pages. If the sensitive packets do not arrive on time or in order, the playback of them can become choppy – not what the consumer is expecting.

    Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance explained the importance of this for home media networks, “You need to be able to manage bandwidth and prioritise the packets if you’re sending a video image from your PC to your television.”

    Pre-empting the release of standard is a worrying trend that is becoming more common. A commercial entity or industry body gambles that they can possibly influence the market by releasing equipment with their pre-emptive ‘standard’. They hope that if the purchasing public has gone their route and bought substantial amount of equipment using it, it itself becomes the standard.

    Wi-Fi Alliance

    IEEE