Some clever characters have written a media player for the Xbox. Currently running videos on DivX 3 & 4, it will soon have MP3 and Windows Media capabilities as well. This kind of thing has been on the Dreamcast for a while by bedroom developers, and given the supposed ease of development of the Xbox, I would have thought it’s something Microsoft would want to encourage. Apparently they’re trying to take legal action to stop it.
Boeing Connexion announce in-flight broadband access
Boeing Connexion announced a three month trial starting in February 2003 with British Airways to provide the non-coach class passengers with Internet access directly from their own laptops and the ability to what streamed video and live TV in their seats. The service to the plane can receive at up to 20Mb/s and transmit at 1Mb/s but this is clearly shared with everyone on-board. It is thought that the charge for the service will be around £20 per flight.
Boeing are throwing a lot behind this service, having recently gained the first FAA certificate for such a service, this long-vaunted idea makes a lot of sense to Boeing as they build/own satellites as well as aircraft. They also made a feature of the service on May 23rd when the visitors to Boeings’ annual investors conference witnessed a live video-conference between Boeing President Scott Carson and System Development Director Ed Laase, while Lasse was speeding through the sky separated horizontally by 1,000 miles, vertically by seven miles.
Liberty make further moves on Telewest
A further move by Liberty sees them gaining additional control over Telewest, this time indirectly. Liberty already owns 25% of Telewest stock and by allegedly buying Telewest’s bonds (debts) not only will they be able to strongly oppose decision they don’t like but they’re buying it at a 40% discount. Another smart move by John Malone’s company.
AOL announced UK broadband pricing
AOL today announced their UK broadband service at 1p short of £35/month. Not only does it cost the consumer £5 more than most of the other offerings, but as they are based outside the EU, they won’t be liable for VAT, so they will pocket the 17.5% extra. AOL defend the higher price by saying there’s going to be some content exclusive for their users. Clearly the whole package will make them considerably more margin per user.
Interestingly, AOL will be offering subscribers a dial-up connection with the broadband subscription. They say it’s to allow their customers to access the Internet when not at home, some of the more-blooded current ADSL users might say it’s to substitute for when the ADSL connection goes down.
Movie88.com re-appear as Film88.com
You may remember Movie88.com from last year, you could log on to the Taiwan-based site and play complete Hollywood movies for around US$1. The Hollywood studios got upset about this and leaned heavily on the Taiwanese Government to get them shut down, which the were successful in doing in February this year.
They’ve now open up again under the name Film88.com and the clever-cookies have based their servers in Iran – which hasn’t had a diplomatic relationship with the US for a few years. This article suggests that the only approach to get the site shutdown is to ask the naming authority, Verisign, to rescind the domain – which I personally can’t see a legitimate justification for.
The unauthorised placing for copyrighted material on the Internet has always been a threat to copyright holders and a concern, but the idea of it actually happening from a country that they have absolutely no influence over must have movie world crying in their cocktails – and other copyright holders.
XtremeSpectrum announce Ultra-Wide Band compatibility
Only a day after the FCC published its First Report & Order about the public use of UWB (Ultra-Wide Band), XtremeSpectrum announce that they will comply with all items. Very fast work?, or more the fact that they’ve been working with/lobbying the authorities in this area for the last 2-3 years and therefore had a very strong idea what was going to be coming. They feel the manufacturers that will be using their UWB chipset could have their products in the stores this xmas – giving everyone up to 100Mb of very-local wireless access – Bluetooth on speed if you like.
Broadcast Protection Discussion Group draft proposal
The US general public probably don’t currently know who the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) , or in fact they may never know, but one thing is for sure – if the BPDG’s recently drafted proposal is taken up, the public’s understanding of TV shows and their ability of record them will change for ever.
The core of the idea is to ‘ensure no analogue leaks’ (their words) from the broadcast of shows to the point they hit your eyeballs – by forcing all electronics manufacturers to build-in decryption just before it’s displayed on the screen. There are many things wrong with this approach, some of them highlighted in an EFF blog.
We await to see if the decades of media group lobbying has been good value – as it is thought that BPDG will next approach Congress and the FCC to support the proposal.
Apple QuickTime 6
The new QuickTime 6.0 is launched by Apple.
New UK e-commerce minister
The UK now has a new e-commerce minister, Stephen Timms and we’re told he’s a strong believer in broadband.
Joltage first UK access point
Joltage, one of the new WiFi access companies, now have their first UK access point in Purton, a small Wiltshire village a mile west of Swindon.
The Joltage service works by owners of broadband connections attaching WiFi kit to it and allowing roaming WiFi users in the local area to use their connection. The roaming WiFi users pays $25/month Joltage for the privilege and the base station owner gets paid for usage of each packet.
A seemingly neat arrangement, but currently there are two problems for Joltage. Firstly it is illegal in the UK to commercially exploit the 2.4GHz band that WiFi runs on. Secondarily, reselling ADSL is against the terms and conditions of service.
The idea behind Joltage has been running since October 2000 in the UK by a collective, consume.net, who freely share their bandwidth, making it completely legal, as neither of the problems above are triggered. Being a collective they don’t have a marketing budget but do have huge amounts of enthusiasm to see the service succeed. I’ve been watching the progress of consume.net since early 2001 and have been impressed at the way they’ve continued to improve and expand the service.