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

  • RIAA Drops “Clean Slate”

    The Recording Industry of America has dropped their Clean Slate programme, it emerged after a California man challenged the initiative in court.

    “As public awareness about the illegality of unauthorized copying and distribution of music files over peer-to-peer computing has dramatically increased since the inception of the program, the RIAA has concluded that the programme is no longer necessary or appropriate, and has voluntarily withdrawn it,” stated the RIAA attorney.

    Clean Slate was an initiative which encouraged people who had uploaded and shared music files to sign up and acknowledge in writing that they had broken the law. Individuals then promised that they had removed all illegal music files from their computers, and in exchange the RIAA pledged not to sue them when it started taking legal action against file swappers.

    Only 1,108 people have signed up for the programme since in was launched in September 2003, most of them in the first few weeks.

    Eric Parke challenged the Clean Slate programme in court, and accused the RIAA of fraudulent business practices. Clean Slate was criticised from its début as offering limited protection: it never promised any sort of guarantee if a body other than the RIAA, say for example a record label, decided to prosecute someone on its handy list of offenders.

    When Parke took the RIAA to court over the programme, they requested that the case be dismissed, as Clean Slate had been quietly dropped. Nice of them to tell everyone.

    The terms of Clean Slate

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  • Nintendo: Cartoons for the GBA

    For US$20 (€) you’ll soon be able to buy a GBA cartridge containing up to 45 minutes of high-quality (well, for a 240 x160 pixel screen anyway) video and animation. Nintendo are addressing an issue that they’ve long had with their games consoles: kids keep switching them off and watching television. Admittedly, they tend to watch Nintendo cartoons, but then that might expose them to adverts for other companies’ products.

    So, Nintendo have brought the cartoons to their GameBoy Advance in the form of cartridges containing between two and four episodes of popular cartoons. First up will be a selection of episodes from the Pokémon franchise, followed by other titles from other series: SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Oddparents, Dora the Explorer and Codename: Kids Next Door, and Sonic X.

    “Even by the remarkable standards of product evolution that have characterized the Game Boy franchise, this is a landmark event,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, said in a statement. “Pokémon is part of the first step in revolutionizing the nature of portable video entertainment, with eventual reach targeting all demographics.”

    This is a remarkably similar idea to the ZVue player we talked about a few months ago – though since Nintendo has sold more than 20 million GBA players in the USA alone, the Zvue’s prospects look somewhat diminished.

    Nintendo

  • The Self-Censoring DVD Player

    RCA, a Thomson brand, have launched a DVD player that can be programmed to skip content that viewers find unsuitable. The US$80 (€68) player contains software from ClearPlay that checks the inserted DVD against a database of titles and skips sections that may offend, based on a selection of filters. Because of this the player can only “protect” viewers from films it already knows about.

    The player comes preinstalled with 100 filters for films such as Daredevil and Pirates of the Caribbean. Owners of the player can pay US$5 (€4.22) per month to receive internet updates, which they simply burn to a CD from their computer and then feed to the DVD player. So it looks like protecting the peoples’ moral sensibilities is a revenue stream in itself.

    ClearPlay’s database currently contains filters for 500 popular films. ClearPlay, based in Salt Lake City, allow viewers to filter on four categories: violence, sex and nudity, language and (the intriguingly named) “other”. That’ll be drugs then. When a scene comes up that hits one of the filters, bad language is muted or the scene itself is skipped.

    Studios don’t like the idea of a player that edits their films: “ClearPlay software edits movies to conform to ClearPlay’s vision of a movie instead of letting audiences see, and judge for themselves, what writers wrote, what actors said and what directors envisioned,” The Directors Guild of America said in a statement. “Ultimately, it is a violation of law and just wrong to profit from selling software that changes the intent of movies you didn’t create and don’t own.”

    Apart from impending action because of this latest product, ClearPlay are currently being prosecuted in association with a video rental outfit in Colorado, “Clean Flicks” for editing films and then burning them back to DVD.

    The censoring DVD player is an interesting and scary idea – and since it’s optional, then it only allows viewer’s to do what they’ve always done when watching films, skip the bits they find uncomforatble or inappropriate. In fact, I covered my eyes and stuck my fingers in my ears several times during Moulin Rouge, as it was so offensive.

    The ClearPlay user-managed filter is a far better option than allowing regulators and broadcasters to censor films for viewers without consultation.

    …though Channel 4’s “melon farmer” edit of Robocop should go down as a modern classic.

    ClearPlay

    “Fun you – melonfarmer!”

  • Print Your Own Games

    Nintendo’s eReader, an optical card reader developed by Olympus using their “Dot Code” technology, is a small add-on for GBA users. Players can scan (hideously overpriced) trading cards into their GBA to play games and unlock extras. Each card has a dot code printed on it that stores a couple of kilobytes of code – that code can be an emulation of an early Game and Watch title, or it can even be a smart new umbrella for your Animal Crossing character.

    Cards are the same shape and size as standard playing cards (though without the naked ladies on the back) and are available in packs of five or so based on popular Nintendo franchises: Animal Crossing and Pokémon unlock or upload new aspects to the games, or you can even upload the classic Donkey Kong 3 to your GameBoy Advance.

    The dot codes use Reed Solomon error correction and now that the scheme has been worked out, homebrew coders can finally write their own games for easy distribution to GBA owners. Tim Schuerewegen cracked the code and is hosting an original game – BombSweeper. Coders interested in writing for the GBA can even use GNU GCC to compile code – plus the API for the GameBoy Advance is very well documented.

    The eReader has been modestly successful, but never set the world alight. In fact, support for it seems to have been quietly dropped. Try plugging one into your GBA SP and you’ll see what I mean – it no longer fits. The link port on a SP is now on the opposite side of the console, so the eReader can’t slide fully into the cartridge slot.

    Tim Schuerewegen’s page on the GBA

    The eReader file format

    Official eReader home page

  • NAB: Want to interact? Dial #YES

    YES Communications have a new interactive mobile phone service for radio listeners in the US. Dialling #YES (#937) on a mobile phone connects listeners to a sophisticated voice service that allows them to identify, rate, share and (importantly, no doubt) buy any song that’s been played on participating stations in the last 24 hours. Listeners can also participate in live polls and promotions.

    The service goes live in the autumn – and will provide access to play lists from MTV, MTV2, VH1 and 2,500 radio stations. The service will therefore need to keep track of 600,000 songs in a 24 hour period.

    The YES service is free to radio stations and costs the user US$0.79 (€0.66) per call, plus US$0.20 (€0.17) per minute. Radio stations then get a cut of the revenue for promoting the service.
    “YES turns more than 600,000 songs per day into advertisements for themselves. The 2,500 stations we offer have about 75 million listeners at any given moment, so we provide a response platform for 45 trillion impressions every day,” said Daniel Goldscheider, CEO of YES Networks, Inc. “It will be a great tool for radio to turn listeners into active participants, to get deeper insight and to open a new and recurring revenue stream.”

    The service reminded us vaguely of Visual Radio, but seems somewhat backward by comparison with Nokia’s project.

    As previously reported, Nokia are rolling out Visual Radio to stations in Helsinki, allowing users to view video, take part in polls, quizzes and games, and download songs, ringtones and graphics. Whilst the number of tracks that YES deals with is certainly impressive, the service itself trails way behind Visual Radio in terms of scope and interactivity – we believe it’s another strong indicator that the mobile phone market is far less well-developed in the USA.

    We don’t think the Finns will be losing any sleep over this one.

    Yes Communications

    A demo of Visual Radio

  • Pay More For Music, or Pay More For the Player?

    There is some disagreement in Europe at the moment on how artists will be paid for all that music you’ve downloaded to your iPod. There are two competing models: DRM-based and taxation.

    Levies in EU countries bring in a lot of money – and only Britain, Ireland and Luxembourg don’t have the system. The International Herald Tribune estimates that Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands alone will see revenues from their private copying taxation rise from €309.39 million (US$) to an impressive €1.465 billion (US$) by 2006. You can understand why they’re so keen on it now.

    There seems to be a clear ideological split in effect here – if you’re a software provider or a store owner, you prefer Digital Rights Management. If you’re a European collection agency, then taxation is the only way to go.

    National royalties collection agencies in 12 European states are proposing a tax on digital music players – the Society of Music Creators in France has levied €20 (US$24) on every iPod sold in the country, as it is classed as a “copying device”… and Apple has refused to play it, preferring to go to court.

    Apple prefer the other model of artist renumeration – DRM.

    Enter the European Commission – who will be adopting a policy paper next week with the intention of bringing EU collection agencies into the 21st century. A mere 3.5 years late.

    The policy paper suggests a pan-European licensing system for protected content and examines ways in which DRM may finally replace blanket taxes in the EU states. Apple and lobby groups representing some 10,000 companies across Europe are keen on the policy recommendations as it will allow them to get on with their business models whilst paying artists, yet avoid negotiating with 15 different collection agencies.

    We much prefer a sensible implementation of DRM – artists are renumerated directly, it’s fairer on the consumer and promotes more innovation. Taxing “copying devices” demonstrates a lack of understanding of the entire field, is inaccurate and does not reward artists fairly. Also, making all consumers pay a piracy tax is in entirely unfair.

    Whatever happens, it’s up to us to make sure we don’t end up paying the labels TWICE.

    The International Herald Tribune

  • NAB: HP Partnering to Develop Digital Media Platform

    Hewlett-Packard has teamed up with leading content creators, distributors and technology companies to develop a standards-based technology platform indented to simplify the production of digital media. The Digital Media Platform (DMP) is an integrated, open system linking production and post-production processes, and is based on a strategic alliance with Warner Bros. Studios and Dreamworks.

    “The business model that has guided this industry for nearly a century is changing radically,” said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive officer. “Content is still and will always be king, however thousands of new storytelling experiences, applications and services are just around the corner. There is money to be made just as there is money to be saved — if this industry embraces the change and the opportunity the digital revolution presents.”

    DMP combines HP software with expertise the company has gained from working with companies like Dreamworks, Avid and Starbucks. The foundation of DMP is a work flow system where creatives working on a project share a common set of assets for rendering, post production and editing.

    HP and Warner are also pooling their expertise to restore classic films – combining WB’s proprietary software with HP’s image processing expertise, data management and servers.

    “The impact of music, film and television moving toward all-digital platforms is profound,” said Shane Robison, HP’s chief strategy and technology officer, in a press release. “Warner Bros. Studios is at the cutting edge of embracing the digital transformation. By partnering, HP and Warner Bros. Studios will leverage technology and expertise to create compelling, personalized experiences for consumers that will set the bar at a whole new level.”

    HP’s release on the news

  • Vocera’s Wireless Voice Communicator

    Vocera have developed a wireless voice communicator, worn around your neck, that provides push-to-talk calls and voice recognition via wi-fi.

    The communicator itself is tiny – 4.2” x 1.4”, because there’s just not much to the the device itself. To achieve the functionality, system is in two parts: the communicator badge, and the server side software that does all the hard work like recognising speech. Text messages and alerts can also be sent to the device – and read from the LCD on the back.

    Vocera are concentrating on health care applications – the ease of use for the Voice Communicator and cost savings make it idea for deployment in hospitals, and it offers far more features than a pager.

    Vocera’s voice communication system

  • Search iTunes Without iTunes

    Downhill Battle, the site behind Grey Tuesday, are hosting a rather handy script that allows you to query the iTunes store, and even listen to the previews, from a web browser. The perl script was written by Jason Rohrer (“painter — scholar — poet — lover — scientist — composer – disciplinarian”), as part of his minorGems Sourceforge project.

    As Slashdot points out, now that the iTunes protocol has been reverse engineered, it’s now possible to write whatever front end to the shop you want. Well, theoretically. And until you get a cease and desist order.

    Try it for yourself

    Get the perl script

    Jason Rohrer

    Slashdot on the story